Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us
352
Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us
352eBookRevised, Revised Edition (Revised, Revised Edition)
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Overview
Maybe you long for a more intimate prayer life or deeper insight from God's Word but just don't know how to get there. Or maybe you want to learn about new spiritual disciplines like visio divina, unplugging or attentiveness. In Spiritual Disciplines Handbook Adele Calhoun gives us directions for our continuing journey toward intimacy with Christ. While the word discipline may make us want to run and hide, the author shows how desires and discipline work together to lead us to the transformation we're longing for—the transformation only Christ can bring. Instead of just giving information about spiritual disciplines, this handbook is full of practical, accessible guidance that helps you actually practice them. With over 80,000 copies in print, this well-loved catalog of seventy-five disciplines has been revised throughout and expanded to include thirteen new disciplines along with a new preface by the author. Mothers, fathers, plumbers, nurses, students—we're all on a journey. And spiritual disciplines are for all of us who desire to know Christ deeply and be like him. Here is direction for our desire, leading us to the ultimate destination: more of Christ himself.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780830899111 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | IVP Formatio |
| Publication date: | 11/19/2015 |
| Series: | Transforming Resources |
| Sold by: | Bookwire |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 352 |
| File size: | 5 MB |
About the Author
Adele Ahlberg Calhoun (MA, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) has worked in Christian ministry for over forty years. She and her husband, Doug, currently work with Highrock Church in Arlington, Massachusetts, and work with retreats, the Enneagram, and leader resourcing nationally and internationally. Adele is the author of Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, Invitations from God and the coauthor of True You and Women Identity. Previously, Adele and her husband copastored Redeemer Community Church in Needham, Massachusetts, and she was formerly pastor of spiritual formation at Christ Church in Oak Brook, Illinois. A retreat speaker and trained spiritual director, she has taught courses at Wheaton College and Northern Seminary. In the early 1970s she helped pioneer student work with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. She has also worked with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in New England and Canada and with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in the West Indies and South Africa.
Adele Ahlberg Calhoun (MA, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) has worked in Christian ministry for over forty years. She and her husband, Doug, currently work with Highrock Church in Arlington, Massachusetts, and work with retreats, the Enneagram, and leader resourcing nationally and internationally. Adele is the author of Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, Invitations from God and the coauthor of True You and Women Identity. Previously, Adele and her husband copastored Redeemer Community Church in Needham, Massachusetts, and she was formerly pastor of spiritual formation at Christ Church in Oak Brook, Illinois. A retreat speaker and trained spiritual director, she has taught courses at Wheaton College and Northern Seminary. In the early 1970s she helped pioneer student work with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. She has also worked with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in New England and Canada and with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in the West Indies and South Africa.
Read an Excerpt
Spiritual Disciplines Handbook
By Adele Ahlberg Calhoun
InterVarsity Press
Copyright © 2005 Adele Ahlberg CalhounAll right reserved.
ISBN: 0-8308-3330-7
Chapter One
Contemplation
We are hasty people bent on experiencing as much of life as we can. The faster we move, the more we can see, do and produce. The more we network, the more options will be ours. The more options, the more living we can do. For many of us the very notion of slowing down or saying no to an option is repugnant. We crowd our schedules and run late, but at least we are getting our money's worth. No wonder contemplation has fallen on hard times. In a world where people anchor their identity on the shifting seas of performance and accomplishments, contemplation seems inefficient and too unproductive for the daily grind.
But it is contemplation, not just having experiences, that truly opens us wide to life. Experiences can be lost to us in the mad rush to simply accumulate more. Contemplation invites us to enter in to the moment with a heart alive to whatever might happen. It is not just thinking about or analyzing an event or person. Contemplation asks us to see with faith, hope and love. It asks us to seek God and the "meanings" threaded through our days and years, so that our experience of being embedded in the triune life of God deepens and grows.
A contemplative personrecognizes that every experience offers more than meets the eye. They know that "bidden or unbidden, God is present." Consequently contemplatives are open to seeing the unseen world. They sift the days for symbols and scan the sunsets for meaning. They enter into the being of life, alert to transcendencies in ordinary things. They believe God may be found and reverenced if one is prepared to notice how marvelously mysterious and personal life in this world is. So contemplatives invite us into the moment and tell us to be.
A. W. Tozer writes in The Roots of Righteousness, "Historically the West has tended to throw its chief emphasis upon doing and the East upon being.... Were human nature perfect there would be no discrepancy between being and doing. The unfallen man would simply live from within, without giving it a thought. His actions would be the true expression of their inner being." But being is not rewarded in our society today. Doing is what counts.
Doing is important. But eventually we come to the end of doing. Tasks get done sooner or later. Experiences end for better or for worse. But we never come to the end of a "being." Being is a mystery that originated in the God who says, "I am who I am." Knowing God or another human being completely will always be beyond what we can know. But through contemplation, intimacy with God and others can grow. Gazing on God, our neighbor or the created order with faith, hope and love can increase our awareness and experience of both. Contemplation can lead us out of ourselves and into realities of which we only skimmed the surface before.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. How do you respond to the word contemplation?
2. What sort of things do you contemplate? What happens to you when you contemplate?
3. How do you contemplate your spiritual journey and relationship with God?
SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
1. Contemplate Jesus. Intentionally place yourself in the presence of God. Become quiet. Express to God your intention to rest in his love. Use your imagination: you may want to picture yourself leaning on Jesus' breast as John did or sitting at Jesus' feet as Mary did or kneeling before Jesus as other desperate people before you have. Be with Jesus. (When thoughts and distractions interrupt, gently return to Jesus. Begin again and again.) What is it like to receive God's gift of new beginnings?
2. Palms down, palms up.
Sit comfortably with both feet on the floor and your hands on your lap. Breathe deeply and relax. Intentionally place yourself in the presence of Jesus.
Turn your palms down and begin to drop your cares, worries, agendas and expectations into Jesus' hands. Let go of all that is heavy or burdensome. Relax. Breathe deeply.
When you have given your cares to Jesus, turn your palms up on your knees. Open your hands to receive God's presence, word and love. Listen.
When you feel prompted to end, tell the Lord what it is like for you to simply be with him.
3. Take a contemplative walk with Jesus. Express your intention to be alone with God. Enjoy moving your body. Smell the air. Take in the sights. Appreciate God's good handiwork within and without. Love God for his gifts and goodness to you.
4. Contemplate people. Set aside time to really look into the eyes of those you love. Listen with your heart. See them through the eyes of God. Be with them over a meal. If you like to journal, write down what you think you know as well as what is mysterious to you about them.
5. Contemplate your experience. Commit yourself to remaining present to an experience. Pay attention to any feelings that rise within you. You may feel heat in your body. You may notice impatience, embarrassment or a need to hide or defend. Attend to others and what is happening for or in them. When you leave the experience, spend some unhurried time reflecting on what you noticed. Where did you respond out of past wounds? What did this experience symbolize for you? What gave it meaning?
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun Copyright © 2005 by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Preface to the Revised Edition
The Spiritual Disciplines and Desires
Introduction: Discovering Your Desire
Part I: Worship
Celebration
Gratitude
Holy Communion
Rule for Life
Sabbath
Visio Divina
Worship
Part II: Open Myself to God
Contemplation
Examen
Iconography
Journaling
Pilgrimage
Practicing the Presence
Rest
Retreat
Self-Care
Simplicity
Slowing
Teachability
Unplugging
Part III: Relinquish the False Self
Confession and Self-Examination
Detachment
Discernment
Mindfulness/Attentiveness
Secrecy
Silence
Sobriety
Solitude
Spiritual Direction
Submission
Waiting
Part IV: Share My Life with Others
Accountability Partner
Chastity
Community
Covenant Group
Discipling
Face-to-Face Connection
Hospitality
Mentoring
Service
Small Group
Spiritual Friendship
Unity
Witness
Part V: Hear God's Word
Bible Study
Lectio Divina/Devotional Reading
Meditation
Memorization
Part VI: Incarnate the Love of Christ
Blessing Others/Encouragement
Care of the Earth
Compassion
Control of the Tongue
Forgiveness
Humility
Justice
Solidarity in Jesus' Sufferings
Stewardship
Truth Telling
Part VII: Pray
Breath Prayer
Centering Prayer
Contemplative Prayer
Conversational Prayer
Fasting
Fixed-Hour Prayer
Inner-Healing Prayer
Intercessory Prayer
Labyrinth Prayer
Listening Prayer
Liturgical Prayer
Prayer of Lament
Prayer Partners
Praying Scripture
Prayer of Recollection
Prayer Walking
Welcoming Prayer
Acknowledgments
Appendix 1: Spiritual Growth Planner
Appendix 2: A Series on Spiritual Disciplines for the Congregation
Appendix 3: Suggestions for Spiritual Mentors
Appendix 4: Using the Spiritual Disciplines Handbook with Small Groups
Appendix 5: Names for Worshiping God
Appendix 6: One Anothers
Appendix 7: Postures for Prayer
Appendix 8: Spending Time with God
Appendix 9: Suggestions for Fasting Prayer for the Church
Appendix 10: Seasons, Stages and Ages of Transformation
Glossary
Bibliography
Index of Spiritual Disciplines
What People are Saying About This
"I love this book! Adele has provided a treasure trove of spiritual disciplines that will nourish your soul, striking a delicate balance between accessibility and depth that comes from her own faithful practice. Read it, engage the disciplines, and allow God to transform you in the deepest levels of your being."
— Ruth Haley Barton, cofounder, The Transforming Center, and author of Sacred Rhythms and Invitation to Solitude and Silence
"We are living at a time when the Prostestant church is rediscovering the truth that transformation in Christ occurs through the disciplines of formation. Finally, Adele Calhoun has pulled all of these together into one volume, complete with clear definitions and practices of a variety of ways that God uses to grow our lives. No longer do you have to root through scattered pieces of paper, nor a chapter here and there to get the big picture of the tried and true disciplines. This is one resource you will want to have at your fingertips."
— Greg Ogden, executive pastor of discipleship, Christ Church of Oak Brook, and author of Discipleship Essentials and Transforming Discipleship
"I have long profited from Adele Ahlberg Calhoun's gifts in the field of spiritual development, and I am delighted that she has compiled her experience with spiritual disciplines into book form. I highly recommend it and I look forward to using it as a resource at our church."
— Dr. Timothy Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, NYC
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