David, Armstrong, John Herron & Scott Witherick discuss the series on solitude and share some of their learning along the way.
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Practicing the Way
Through solitude, we create space for God’s presence, speaking and listening to God and simply loving him and being loved. Solitude allows the Spirit of God to interject his thoughts and desires into our souls.
Solitude can be deeply refreshing, but just as often, it can feel like painful emotional surgery. In this third part Stephanie Wilson teaches that if we notice and name the pain we’ve been avoiding through distraction we allow God to forms us into the people he’s always desired us to become.
In the second teaching John Herron looks at the goal of being alone with God in the silence: ultimately to hear God’s voice over all the other voices in our head.
In this first teaching David Armstrong looks at how Solitude is not a place but a practice, one that follows Jesus’ pattern of retreating from distractions to be fully present with the Father and returning to serve in community.
David, Armstrong, John Herron & Stephanie Wilson discuss the series on fasting and share some of their learning along the way.
In Part 4 Stephanie Wilson shows us the connection between fasting and justice - how this simple practice of giving away the money we would have spent on ourselves has the potential to transform not only the lives of the poor, but also our own lives and communities.
In Part 3 John Herron helps us see the role fasting has in both hearing God and being heard by God. When prayer and fasting link arms, it’s often the tipping point in the struggle to release God’s Kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven.
In Part 2 David Armstrong shares how fasting has many physical benefits for our bodies that mirror how it benefits our souls.
In this first teaching David Armstrong looks at how Fasting is one of the best disciplines we have to reintegrate our mind to our body, and offer our whole selves to God in surrender.
In Part 5 David Armstrong, John Herron & Stephanie Wilson finish the prayer practice series with a Q&A and discussion that includes their experiences of prayer, the purpose of prayer and how we might understand unanswered prayer.
In Prayer part 4 David Armstrong explores the fourth stage of prayer: being with God or what the ancient Christians called “union” with God. To contemplate is to look, to gaze upon the beauty of God, receiving his love pouring out toward you in Christ and by the Spirit, and then giving your love back in return.
In Prayer part 3 John Herron helps us understand that prayer is not just when we talk but when we listen to hear his voice. As Jesus said in John 10v27, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” This is a Spirit-generated desire in the heart of a disciple of Jesus.
In Prayer part 2 Stephanie Wilson helps us begin to learn how to talk with God using our own words to God — to share what’s on our mind, our heart. Our pain, our joy, our hopes and fears. We can’t help but desire to interact with God in a more authentic, personalised way.
In Prayer part 1 David Armstrong explores the first stage of prayer: talking to God. One of the single most important tasks of discipleship to Jesus is starting, habituating, and fine-tuning a daily prayer rhythm. So we start our four-week journey simply, by praying pre-made prayers, or what some call a liturgy, to God.
In Sabbath Part 4 we look at how sabbath isn’t just a day to sleep in, relax, and do whatever brings you joy (it is, but it’s more): it’s a day to worship. As we reorient our entire life back to its centre in God we elevate the Sabbath from a restful, joyful day off to a holy day of worship and delight in God himself.
In Sabbath part 3 John Herron looks at the third movement of Sabbath– delight. Sorrow is inevitable in this life, but joy is not. In the Way of Jesus, joy is a gift, but it’s one that must be chosen and cultivated, day after day, as an act of apprenticeship to our joyful God.
In Sabbath part 2 Stephanie Wilson explores the second movement of Sabbath–to rest. The idea of rest sounds wonderful, but in reality, rest is a radical, countercultural act of resistance to the powers and principalities of a world at war with God and his kingdom of peace.
David Armstrong begins our series Practicing the Way with our first practice, Sabbath — a day of rest by which we cultivate a spirit of restfulness in all of our life. In part 1 we examine how sabbath is, at its most basic, a call to stop, to cease, to be done.