The Sacramental Life

We are now moving into the final section of our "Devotional Classics" study. Here are the dates and author's:
November 17th: G.K. Chesterton: A Magical Universe
November 24th: Athanasius: Jesus Christ, the Image of God
December 1rst: Annie Dillard: To See Clearly
December 8th: Soren Kierkegaard: Praying to Will One Thing
December 15th: Dag Hammarskjold: To Say Yes
December 22nd: Kathleen Norris: Finding Faith in the Mundane
December 28th: WE WILL NOT MEET THIS MORNING
January 5th: Brother Lawrence: An Habitual Sense of God's Presence
I realize that we are in the season of travel, Thanksgiving and Christmas. However, keep the focus and center in God, in Christ, in the true Spirit that enables us to live an "incarnational life." The "sacraments" of the church (Baptist's call them ordinances), point to the spiritual meaning of physical sacraments/ordinances. As Foster and Smith note, "In living incarnationally (embodying our spirituality) we participate in the physical sacraments of the Church and live as God's people on earth, thus eliminating any material/spiritual dichotomy." (pg. 331)
Dr. Fitzgerald

The Word Centered Life

We are now beginning a new section in our study, The Word Centered Life (The Evangelical Tradition). Here are the authors whose works we will study over the coming weeks:
Sept. 29th -- E Stanley Jones: The Habit of Reading the Bible Daily
Oct. 6th -- Sadhu Sundar Singh: Sharing the Joy with Others
Oct. 13th -- Francis of Assisi: A Harvest of Souls
Oct. 20th -- Madame Guyon: Praying the Scripture
Oct. 27th -- John Chrysostom: Sermon on Dying to Sin
Nov. 3rd -- Charles Spurgeon: Sermon on Revival
Nov. 10th -- Watchman Nee: Evangelism
As the author says, "The evangelical tradition has two foci: the centrality of Scripture and the importance of evangelism. In following this tradition, we are taking seriously both the Reformation call of Sola Sciptura (the Scripture alone) and the Pietist experience of "the warm heart," or conversion.

Compassionate Life is our new section

We began a new section of our Devotional Classics this morning, August 4th, entitled: The Compassionate Life. As the author, Richard Foster points out, the compassionate life is a trumpet call to a freely gathered people who seek the total transformation of persons, institutions, and societies. In this section we will focus on the following authors:
William Temple, August 4th
John Woolman, Aug. 11th
Hannah Whitall Smith, Aug. 18th,
Jeremy Taylor, Aug. 25th,
Elizabeth O'Conner, Sept. 1rst,
John Wesley, Sept. 8th,
Catherine of Siena, Sept. 15th,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Sept. 22nd.

We are currently in the Spirit-Empowered Life

section of our study. Here's a list of upcoming dates and focal writers:
June 30th: George Fox -- Walking in the Power of God
July 7: Ignatius of Loyola -- Movements Produced in the Soul
July 14: Jean-Pierre de Causade -- The Present Moment
July 21: Isaac Penington -- Waiting for Breathings from His Spirit
July 28: John Bunyan -- Exercising the Gift

April 14, 21 and 28th

will focus on Frank Laubach (Opening Windows to God) on April 14th; John Baillie (Morning Prayers) on April 21; and Martin Luther (Praying in Faith) on Wednesday morning April 28th.

Moving onto the next section

We have now finished the first section of Devotional Classics, "Preparing for the Spiritual Life," and are moving into the section on "The Prayer-Filled Life (The Contemplative Tradition). We'll study and discuss works by Thomas Merton, Julian of Norwich, Henri J. M. Nouwen, George Buttrick, Evelyn Underhill, Frank Laubach, John Baillie and Martin Luther.

2010 Focus

We began this year by studying and discussing Devotional Classics (revised edition) by Richard Foster. This Wednesday, January 27th, we will be discussing St. John of the Cross (pp. 33-40). Our group contines to grow and please feel invited to join us from 6:30 - 7:30 am in the church parlour. You don't have to make every gathering for this to benefit you greatly as we deepen our relationship with God and each other.