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Spiritual Practices: Spiritual Growth/Practices

resources to support contemplative beginners and adepts, including individuals, families, small groups and congregational practices

Adult Books

Abundant Lives | A Progressive Christian Ethic of Flourishing (Udis-Kessler)     Awe by Dacher Keltner               Picture of Catching Fire, Becoming Flame -- 10th Anniversary Edition          Chicken Scratch: Lessons on Living Creatively from a Flock of Hens     Creating a Life with God, Revised Edition     Do I Stay Christian?     Picture of The Dreaming Path     Drinking Pure Light | Daily Poems of Courage, Compassion, and Surrender (Datsko de Sanchez)     Faith Practices     Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith     The Gift of Restlessness: A Spirituality for Unsettled Seasons          Picture of The Half Known Life     The Healing Path:  A Memoir and an Invitation     Hope Leans Forward: Braving Your Way toward Simplicity, Awakening, and Peace     In Good Time: 8 Habits for Reimagining Productivity, Resisting Hurry, and  Practicing Peace: Michel, Jen Pollock: 9781540900548: Amazon.com: Books     Jesus Sophia          BL_TNBBOCM_TheNewBigBookOfChristianMysticism_Cover_9781506486840c          Red Lip Theology by Candice Marie Benbow     Remorse: Finding Joy through Honest Apology     Sacred Belonging: A 40-Day Devotional on the Liberating Heart of Scripture  (Daily Bible Devotions on Belonging to God, the Earth, & One Another): Kat  Armas, Kat: 9781587435096: Amazon.com: Books          The Sacred Life of Bread: Uncovering the Mystery of an Ordinary Loaf          Saints of Feather and Fang: How the Animals We Love and Fear Connect Us to God          Seven Secrets of the Spirit-Filled Life: Daily Renewal, Purpose and Joy  When You Partner with the Holy Spirit: Levison, Jack: 9780800762704:  Amazon.com: Books     Shechinah, Bring Me Home!     Signposts of the Spiritual Journey by John Siddique               Spiritual Consipation     The Spirituality of Dreaming: Unlocking the Wisdom of Our Sleeping Selves     The Spirituality of Transformation, Joy, and Justice: The Ignatian Way for Everyone          The Tyranny of Merit     An Untidy Faith     Wake Up to Wonder: 22 Invitations to Amazement in the Everyday: Karen  Wright Marsh: 9781587435805 - Christianbook.com     What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman

Teens & Tweens - Books

Becoming     Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults     Girl/Friend Theology | God-Talk with Young People (Baker)     Let's Do Everything and Nothing     Upside Down Living     Upside Down Living     We Rise Higher: Poems and Prayers for Graduates     What Makes You Come Alive: A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman

Spiritual Practices

     

    Baptize     Follow Jesus     Forgive     Go Tell     Honor God's Diversity     Honor Sabbath     Hope     Live in Community     Make Peace     Practice Generosity     Practice Joy     Sing a New Song

Follow Me: Biblical Practices for Faithful Living

This thirty-six-unit curriculum is based on practices Jesus did and taught us to do as faithful followers. Written for people of all ages who wish to live out their faith, this new curriculum examines where these practices are found in the Bible and how they have been used in Christian faith then and now.

Watch the Overview Video

Watch the Webinar

Download Sample

Download Media Kit

Download the Preaching Guide

 

Multimedia

The Day by Day DeckThe Day by Day Deck is a special deck of 32 cards, created for children and their families. It offers a unique way to engage in visual prayer through the practice of Visio Divina, or “seeing with God.” Each card features original textile art by the deck's makers and has questions on the back to help in prayerful imagination. The deck comes with a booklet of instructions and suggestions to help you get started.

How We Think About Forgiveness at Different Ages

Children's understanding of forgiving develops as they grow older. 

BY ROBERT ENRIGHT

Decorative ImageHow To Get People of All Ages Talking About Faith Practices

These 4 questions can help you start conversations about faith practices with your people - at home, church, work, school, and more.

Get people talking.

Open to WonderHosted by Faith Formation, Open to Wonder is a podcast that helps us imagine together what faith looks like in our day-to-day lives by exploring all kinds of faith questions: big ones, small ones, weird ones, and hard-to-talk-about-in-church ones.

Here's a wonderful list of Inclusive Versions of the Prayer of Jesus. I don't know who compiled it, but most of the prayers are cited for use!

P.S. I would not use the title, 'The Prayer of Jesus': so far as we know, this was never a prayer Jesus prayed. This is the Prayer Jesus Taught Us, the prayer Jesus instructed his followers to pray.

Decorative ImageThis New Podcast Season Is a Fun (and Faith-Forming) Summer Listen

Season 2 of Open to Wonder! explores faith practices—the repeated ways of connecting with God that help us become more like Jesus.

Check out some of the big, small, weird, and hard-to-talk-about-in-church questions we asked our guests about faith practices.

 

Love. Period. — Podcast Series with Rev. Jacqui Lewis PhD

Do you yearn for a new vision of Christianity—one with love and justice at the core of its practice? Rev. Jacqui Lewis PhD animates a renewed faith for our times in her podcast Love. Period.

Featured News ImageFind Belonging and Belovedess in Life’s “Endings":

Valerie Dodge-Reyna explains how the contemplative mind can help create loving rituals around death and endings.

THIS LIVING THE KIN-DOM STUDY BY RIVA TABELISMA gives fresh eyes to the Lord's Prayer. Often learned by rote, the Lord's Prayer is a rich guide for how we can live out God's kin-dom in our lives. Tabelisma invites participants in this study to step away from our automatic recitation of the prayer and dive deep into the meaning of each line over the course of eight one-hour sessions. Each of the sessions examines a section of the Lord's Prayer from Matthew 6:9–13 as it is recorded in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. 

Journals

     Create Your Own Calm     Picture of Get Outside     Go Your Own Way     Introvert by Design - Lifeway     Journal of Radical Permission     Made Out of Stars     Monk Manual     Sensual Faith     Wonder Seeker

Other Lists

BL_PrideMonth2023_Photo3Spiritual Wholeness

The intersection between queerness and spirituality can often be fraught. These inclusive, accepting, and empowering stories offer a fresh perspective on spirituality that can help us unlock a deeper connection with the divine.

Spiritual Growth - Adults - Individual/Family - In Our Library

     51% Christian: Finding Faith after Certainty     Across the Threshold, Into the Questions by Caren Goldman, Ted Voorhees, Amy-Jill Levine (9780819222558) - PaperBack - Religion & Spirituality Christianity      Ancient Paths: Discover Christian Formation the Benedictine Way  -     By: David Robinson     Big Questions, Worthy Dreams: Mentoring Young Adults in Their Search for  Meaning, Purpose, and Faith - Kindle edition by Parks, Sharon Daloz.  Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.          The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu and Douglas Carlton Abrams          Choosing Our Religion: The Spiritual Lives of America's Nones               Coffee with Jesus                    drops-like-stars     Paperback Every Day Is a Good Day Book          Faith Shift by Kathy Escobar     Finding Jesus, Discovering Self: Passages to Healing and Wholeness  -     By: Caren Goldman, William Dols          Get Off Your Donkey! | Baker Publishing Group     The Gift of Hard Things     The Gift to Listen, the Courage to Hear     Girl Meets God – Covenant Bookstore     A Gospel of Hope               Book - Paperback          The Life of the Body          The Monastery of the Heart: An Invitation to a Meaningful Life     The Mud and the Masterpiece: Seeing Yourself and Others through the Eyes of Jesus Audiobook  [Download] -     Narrated By: John Burke    By: John Burke     Naked Spirituality: A Life with God in 12 Simple Words - eBook  -     By: Brian D. McLaren          main product photo          Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes: Finding Religion in Everyday Life          9780687030798: Soul Tending: Life Forming Practices for Older Youth and Young Adults     SoulTypes: Matching Your Personality and Spiritual Path, Revised Edition     Cover Image                    Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion  -     By: Gregory Boyle     A Testament of Devotion   -     By: Thomas R. Kelly     velvet-elvis                         

Spiritual Growth - Children & Youth - In Our Library

     Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church  -     By: Kenda Creasy Dean     Arm in Arm with Adolescent Girls  -     By: Emily A. Peck-McClain     Big Questions, Worthy Dreams: Mentoring Young Adults in Their Search for  Meaning, Purpose, and Faith - Kindle edition by Parks, Sharon Daloz.  Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.          The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu and Douglas Carlton Abrams          drops-like-stars     The Faith and Friendships of Teenage Boys  -     By: Robert C. Dykstra, Allan Hugh Cole Jr., Donald Capps     Faith Forming Faith     A Faith of Their Own: Stability and Change in the Religiosity of America's Adolescents     Faith Shaping Ministry     Faith Shift by Kathy Escobar     Generations Together: Caring, Praying, Learning, Celebrating, & Serving Faithfully by [Kathie Amidei, Jim Merhaut, John Roberto]     Get Off Your Donkey! | Baker Publishing Group          Go Deep: Spiritual Practices For Youth Ministry  -     By: Doris Kizinna     Growing in Grace: The Practice of Intentional Faith Development - eBook  -     By: Robert Schnase     Growing Together Volume I: Fall & Winter: Six Intergenerational Celebrations (Growing Together: 6 Intergenerational Celebrations) by Kathleen Finley 1889108456 9781889108452     Growing Together Volume II: Spring/Summer: Six Intergenerational Celebrations (Growing Together: 6 Intergenerational Celebrations) by Sara Fontana, Kathleen Finley, Sylvia Devillers 1889108464 9781889108469     Imaginative Prayer for Youth Ministry     Book - Paperback     Book - Paperback               Listening to Children on the Spiritual Journey: Guidance for Those Who Teach and Nurture  -     By: Catherine Stonehouse, Scottie May     Losers, Loners, and Rebels: The Spiritual Struggles of Boys  -     By: Robert C. Dykstra, Allan Hugh          The Mud and the Masterpiece: Seeing Yourself and Others through the Eyes of Jesus Audiobook  [Download] -     Narrated By: John Burke    By: John Burke               Practicing Discernment with Youth | A Transformative Youth Ministry Approach (White)          main product photo                    Shaped by God          SoulTypes: Matching Your Personality and Spiritual Path, Revised Edition     The Spiritual Child               This Child of Faith                  

Spiritual Growth - Congregational - In Our Library

          Connecting to God: Nurturing Spirituality Through Small Groups  -     By: Corinne Ware          Generations Together: Caring, Praying, Learning, Celebrating, & Serving Faithfully by [Kathie Amidei, Jim Merhaut, John Roberto]     Growing in Grace: The Practice of Intentional Faith Development - eBook  -     By: Robert Schnase          Book - Paperback     Listening to God: Spiritual Formation in Congregations  -     By: John Ackerman                         

Spiritual Practices - Adults - In Our Library

40 Days with Wesley: A Daily Devotional Journey  -     By: Rueben P. Job                 Cultivating Fruitfulness: Five Weeks of Prayer and Practice for Congregations  -     By: Robert Schnase               Available from Amazon.com or Material Media     Desperately Seeking Spirituality : A Field Guide to Practice: Meredith  Gould: 9780814648506: Litpress.org : Paperback               Paperback Every Day Is a Good Day Book     Every Earthly Blessing - Waal, Esther de          Fasting: Spiritual Freedom Beyond Our Appetites  -     By: Lynne M. Baab          Fly Fishing -The Sacred Art: Casting a Fly as a Spiritual Practice  -     By: Rabbi Eric Eisenkramer, Rev. Michael Attas     Fully Awake and Truly Alive - SkyLight Paths Publishing     The Gift of Hard Things     Glory Happening     God, Improv, and the Art of Living: Dana, MaryAnn McKibben: 9780802874641:  Amazon.com: Books     The Grace of Giving: The Practice of Extravagant Generosity  -     By: Robert Schnase     Growing in Grace: The Practice of Intentional Faith Development - eBook  -     By: Robert Schnase     Growing in the Life of Faith, Second Edition               Holy Spokes : The Search for Urban Spirituality on Two Wheels          9780787948566: Honoring the Body: Meditations on a Christian Practice          In God's Presence: Theological Reflections on Prayer               2033373               Living in the Presence: Spiritual Exercises to Open Our Lives to the  Awareness of God: Edwards, Tilden H.: 9780060621278: Amazon.com: Books     Picture     9780787982690: Lord, Have Mercy: Praying for Justice With Conviction and Humility     Loving and Serving Others: The Practice of Risk-Taking Mission and Service - eBook  -     By: Robert Schnase     Loving God in Return: The Practice of Passionate Worship - eBook  -     By: Robert Schnase     The Making of an Ordinary Saint | Baker Publishing Group               Mercy in the City: How to Feed the Hungry,... by Weber, Kerry                    The Phoenix Affirmations: A New Vision for the Future of Christianity  -     By: Eric Elnes     A Play-full Life | Slowing Down and Seeking Peace (Hamman)          The Practicing Life: Simple Acts. Sacred Living By Sally Howell     Practicing Our Faith: A Guide for Conversation Learning Growth     Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People, Second Edition  -     Edited By: Dorothy C. Bass    By: Edited by Dorothy C. Bass          Practicing Theology: Beliefs and Practices in Christian Life  -     Edited By: Miroslav Volf, Dorothy C. Bass     Paperback Practicing Witness: A Missional Vision of Christian Practices Book     A Prayer Book for the 21st Century  -     By: John McQuiston II                    

Receiving God's Love: The Practice of Radical Hospitality  -     By: Robert Schnase     Receiving Jesus: The Way of Love  -     By: Mariann Edgar Budde                    Front Cover Preview Image - 1 of 12 - Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace     A Song to Sing, A Life to Live: Reflections on Music as Spiritual Practice (The Practices of Faith ...     Soul Feast, Newly Revised Edition          9780687030798: Soul Tending: Life Forming Practices for Older Youth and Young AdultsSpiritual Disciplines Companion     Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us (Transforming  Resources) - Kindle edition by Calhoun, Adele Ahlberg. Religion &  Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.                    267213     Testimony: Talking Ourselves Into Being Christian  -     By: Thomas G. Long     The Thirst of God     Book Cover for: Unearthing My Religion: Real Talk about Real Faith, Mary Gray-Reeves     The Way of Jesus     Hardcover We Need Each Other: Responding to God's Call to Live Together Book     What Is Your Practice?: Lifelong Growth in the Spirit  -     By: Norvene Vest, Liz Forney     Product Image     Wonder, Fear, and Longing, Paperback          Yearning: Authentic Transformation, Young Adults, and the Church  -     By: Robert Hendrickson     20 Ways to Keep Sabbath - Schaper, Donna

Spiritual Practices - Children & Youth - In Our Library

40 Days with Wesley: A Daily Devotional Journey  -     By: Rueben P. Job          Desperately Seeking Spirituality : A Field Guide to Practice: Meredith  Gould: 9780814648506: Litpress.org : Paperback               Fly Fishing -The Sacred Art: Casting a Fly as a Spiritual Practice  -     By: Rabbi Eric Eisenkramer, Rev. Michael Attas     God, Improv, and the Art of Living: Dana, MaryAnn McKibben: 9780802874641:  Amazon.com: Books     Growing in the Life of Faith, Second Edition     Holy Spokes : The Search for Urban Spirituality on Two Wheels               Picture     9780787982690: Lord, Have Mercy: Praying for Justice With Conviction and Humility     The Making of an Ordinary Saint | Baker Publishing Group     The Phoenix Affirmations: A New Vision for the Future of Christianity  -     By: Eric Elnes     A Play-full Life | Slowing Down and Seeking Peace (Hamman)          9781578950218: Spirit Windows: A Handbook of Spiritual Growth Resources for Leaders               Story & Stretch: A Guide to Teaching Kids Yoga Using Gospel Stories     Book Cover for: Unearthing My Religion: Real Talk about Real Faith, Mary Gray-Reeves     20 Ways to Keep Sabbath - Schaper, Donna

In Our Library - Spiritual Life/Spirituality

An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith: Taylor, Barbara Brown:  9780061370472: Amazon.com: Books     Becoming Wise by Krista Tippett                            Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi .. Rohr O.F.M.,  Richard 9781616367015 | eBay          The Holy Longing by Ronald Rolheiser     Amazon.com: Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Audible Audio  Edition): Richard Rohr, Kevin Pierce, Tantor Audio: Audible Books &  Originals                         Small Things with Great Love                    WheeWeWee.jpg     9780827243057: Who's Got Time?: Spirituality for a Busy Generation (Young Clergy Women Project)