Sunday, November 30, 2014

Advent Longing and Prayerful Listening


Throughout the stories of spiritual formation ministries in A Quiet Pentecost, there is one common thread – cultivating the art of prayerful listening for divine guidance. As individuals learn to listen to scripture in new ways, messages are received that link direction from God to our human longings for a world of peace, justice, and hope.

Individuals learn to listen as they shift their prayer from a focus on their own human need to making time for God to speak, as well. This practice requires some time to cultivate. As we turn to the season of Advent, our invitation is to listen to our deepest inner longings for a world of love, peace, justice, and kindness; and to listen for how that human longing is met with divine inspiration. 

In A Quiet Pentecost, we discover individuals receiving a summons to new personal mission. Cindy Serio answers the call to be a loving presence for women in prison. Gene Turner found a mission trip to Liberia to be personally life-altering and life giving to two rural parishes in Illinois. Melanie Baffes created a year-long sharing time for high school women, because she noticed that in mixed setting, these young women did not speak up as much as the young men. Suzanne Clement created a mid-week vesper service, which sustained the congregation through a difficult time of transition. Over a few years time, the vision for a house ministry came into being in the heart of Cathy Brewton. With much diligence and community support, LifeHouse Ministries, Inc., has come into being as a place of refuge and hope in Ruston, Louisiana.

We are assured that God's guidance will give each of us the direction we need in our own life and current circumstances to claim our sense of mission and life purpose as we dwell into the Advent hope:

PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD WILL TO ALL

LISTEN in this time of national and international unrest for the fresh summons of God’s gracious call upon your life.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Study Guide to Shape Your Spiritual Formation Ministry


Using A Quiet Pentecost to shape your spiritual formation ministry

Chapter 8 of the book, A Quiet Pentecost, is a study guide to be used by a small group, going chapter by chapter, to assess and develop the spiritual formation focus in your congregation or other ministry setting.

The Holy Spirit is ready to guide your congregation into a quiet Pentecost. The Spirit’s guidance will be quite specific for your congregation and your community. There is no cookie-cutter pattern to enhance your spiritual life or move toward developing a spiritual life center for your congregation and community. Instead, Jesus wants to lead you into unique patterns of prayer, small-group support, local and global mission, and sustaining worship.

Each chapter of the book can be a springboard for conversation among the lay and pastoral leadership of your congregation. Start with the first step in “Getting Started” below—designing a team to work through the book together on behalf of your congregation. Use the questions related to each chapter as a guide for your group’s conversation in a series of meetings.

Invite all participants to read the questions at home before they read the related chapter. Read the book in the spirit of lectio divina, lingering over particular passages, stories, or images that strike you as significant for your congregation. It is helpful for group members to keep a journal of reflections as they read.

Use the additional resources on the blog site
 with your group and your leadership team.


Getting Started

1. Forming a team. If you do not already have a spiritual life or spiritual formation committee in your congregation, work with your pastor and administrative body to develop a task force to work for six months or more in prayerfully considering potential new areas of ministry. You may want to use an existing prayer ministry group such as an intercessory prayer team.

2. Covenanting together. This work will require commitment and prayer. Set a regular time to meet. Commit to regular prayer for the work of this task force or committee. Be committed both to inspiration arising from prayer and to practical tasks of information gathering.

3. At your first meeting explore the two themes below. There are no right answers to these two questions—only what is right for your congregation!

a. What is your definition of spirituality? What is the range of subject matter that will be effective in your congregation? Be realistic! Do not push edges too quickly. Think about what people need within your own setting and what kinds of resources will be well received.

b. Is your work for your congregation only or is it for the broader community as well? What are implications of promoting your classes, groups, retreats, and so on to those beyond your congregation?



BE SURPRISED BY THE INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AMONG YOU!

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

New England 3-day Academy for Spiritual Formation

Join me October 9-12 at Rolling Ridge Retreat and Conference Center to keep exploring A Quiet Pentecost.

Over the past year, I've had the remarkable experience of sharing the stories of spiritual formation applications in A Quiet Pentecost in events in Louisiana, Tennessee and Michigan.

People are inspired that the seeming "nothing" of the quiet we experience in contemplative prayer, becomes the "something" of inspired life together in the church and missional outreach into the world.

In these fierce times where "there is no peace" in so many aspects of the world and the church, we can claim the peace and blessing of the Holy Spirit and find our way with God's guidance and blessing to meaningful new life emerging each day.

To register, contact Rosemary McNulty 978-682-7676 x201

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Call in Conference and eSeminar





Join Dwight Judy on May 13, 2014, for conversation with Johnny Sears, Director of Upper Room Academy for Spiritual Formation. We look forward to an exciting conversation via this live Call in Conference at 11:30 a.m. Central Time on Tuesday, May 13. Cost is $19. For registration information, click here.

Beginning on May 19, 2014, Upper Room hosts a four-week eCourse on A Quiet Pentecost. Bring your own spiritual formation ministry to life with this guided on-line experience. Most of the course is asynchronous. You will be able to participate on your own weekly schedule. There will also be a live call-in conference with Dwight Judy during the course. Interviews with several of the practitioners of spiritual formation ministry are within the course. The course will bring alive the way people are developing their spiritual formation ministries -- and how you can as well. Registration is $50. For information, click here.

Celebrate Eastertide and Pentecost with conversations to bring A Quiet Pentecost to your congregation.

Blessings to all.