Embracing The Call To Spiritual Depth

A well-known spiritual mentor shares some practical and theological insights for the deepening spiritual journey.

Authors from eighteen countries give us their perspectives on biblical principles and cultural expressions of spirituality particularly as the church engages in God’s mission. The anthology of texts enriches our understanding of the depth and the meaning of being spiritual and the diversity of forms to live out the Christian faith. The issue today is how spirituality should direct and guide a daily life as followers of Jesus in the engagement in the mission of God. No doubt that it has to do with our inner life and our relationship to God, but it is in showing our love and concern to others that we prove our love to God, according to the Apostle John (1 John 4). Mission without spirituality will only be a human effort to convince people of religious theories. Spirituality without a missionary involvement of the church will not express God’s desire that the transforming gospel reaches every person. This book will help you rethink your understanding of what is spiritual, revisit your own spiritual journey, and appreciate the different forms of spirituality as they are described and performed around the globe.

In this moving spiritual memoir, Dr. William Thiele shares inspiring stories of the birthing of a monastery without walls among everyday women and men around New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Along the way, core contemplative attitudes, practices, and principles were discovered. He offers these stories of birthing a School for Contemplative Living as a challenging call to a frantic and polarized world. Readers will be drawn toward their own spiritual transformation as they encounter imperfect monks with messy lives who are practicing God's presence and learning to serve the world from that presence. He encourages readers to join these monks in the world by forming contemplative communities who radiate loving-kindness as their first priority.

Experience the Richer Spiritual Life You Long For In this world of frantic activity and constant entertainment, it can be hard to identify and embrace the rhythms that lead to true flourishing. Your spirit longs for a stronger connection to the divine, a clearer sense of personal spiritual growth, a closer relationship with your creator and redeemer. But how do you integrate this kind of inner growth into the realities of your outer life? If you long for a deeper experience of God as you journey through this life, Spiritual Practices for Soul Care offers 40 ways to help you put the spiritual disciplines into action each day. From prayer and meditation to serving and socializing to resting and healing, these simple, restorative practices will help you develop the kind of Christian walk you desire. If you have been frustrated by slow or stalled progress, or if you simply yearn to go deeper, now is the time to pause, take a breath, and awaken to your transformative soul care journey--starting today.

How do you lead an organization stuck between an ending and a new beginning—when the old way of doing things no longer works but a way forward is not yet clear? Beaumont calls such in-between times liminal seasons—threshold times when the continuity of tradition disintegrates and uncertainty about the future fuels doubt and chaos. In a liminal season it simply is not helpful to pretend we understand what needs to happen next. But leaders can still lead. How to Lead When You Don’t Know Where You’re Going is a practical book of hope for tired and weary leaders who risk defining this era of ministry in terms of failure or loss. It helps leaders stand firm in a disoriented state, learning from their mistakes and leading despite the confusion. Packed with rich stories and real-world examples, Beaumont guides the reader through practices that connect the soul of the leader with the soul of the institution.

"Deep Wells, Fiery Souls: Unleashing the Power of Spiritual Revival" is a transformative journey into the heart of passionate, deep-rooted faith. This book serves as a clarion call for believers yearning to go beyond superficial spiritual experiences, urging them to tap into the profound depths of God's presence. Each chapter takes you deeper into the wells of revelation, guiding you to become a wellspring of God's power rather than merely a recipient. The author vividly describes the journey from being a "fountain Christian," who briefly sips at God's power, to becoming a "well Christian," deeply immersed in the Holy Spirit's flow. Through compelling narratives, prophetic insights, and personal revelations, this book lays out a path for digging deep into prayer, intercession, and intimacy with God. It challenges readers to break open the fountains of the deep within themselves, releasing floods of the Spirit that radically transform everything in their path. The book is not just a call to personal revival; it's a blueprint for influencing communities and nations. It encourages believers to become sources of healing, salvation, and prophetic insight, reshaping the spiritual landscape around them. "Deep Wells, Fiery Souls" is perfect for those who are not satisfied with the status quo of their spiritual lives and who hunger for a deeper, more impactful walk with God. It's a guide for reigniting the fires of passion and commitment, compelling readers to become living testimonies of God’s power in a world desperately in need of revival.

In today's polarized publics, we are rarely prepared to encounter one another peaceably and deeply across irreconcilable difference. A Companionable Way invites inquisitive minds, body-souls, and spiritual hearts into the delightful but demanding inner work required for peaceable encounters with integrity across interreligious and intercultural difference. Unmet yearnings and the unconscious refusal of deep feeling in so many of our cultures need redress, not only within scholarly-analytical habits of mind but also in aging communal "containers" not adept at holding deep feeling without harm. Ancient but 'new' containers today--webs of spiritual friendship and circle-way communities of practice--offer hope for new learning and formative encounters with difference toward an expressive delight able to companion the suffering of self and others. Part memoir of a deep-feeling academic, part toolbox for the curiously contemplative, A Companionable Way witnesses to the deeply rooted Sacred available to each of us in a return to the body, devotion in conscious love, and new ways of being human together across irreconcilable difference, held gently in a patient and living wisdom particular to each but needed by all.

From beloved spiritual teacher Carl McColman comes a book about big possibility: the hope of achieving authentic, blissful, experiential union with God. He reveals the various ways Christian mysticism and contemplation have been in dynamic practice through the centuries, proving inspirational for today's seekers, regardless of faith tradition.