Spiritual Disciplines

I am really excited to begin this challenge with you, and I hope that all of you will take it up!

There are two parts to this unit of study. The first part is the weekly readings from the book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Whitney). These readings are required as are the weekly reflections/questions. We will discuss these together, and you will share your reflections via google docs.

The second portion means actually beginning to incorporate the spiritual disciplines into your daily life. This is optional (because I can't really hang over your shoulder every day!), but I believe that in order to be effective, "spilling over" Christians who naturally "declare the excellencies of Christ" we need to be spending time with Jesus - through prayer, the Word, worship, solitude, and so on.

For this week, you'll need to do the following:

1. Finish reading chapters 1-3.
2. Answer the reflection questions that I will send to you. These are due on Tuesday. I will give you Monday's class to work on them.
3. Memorize 1 Peter 2:9. This will be tested on Tuesday.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

4. On Monday, those of us who want to incorporate the spiritual disciplines can chat about the best way to encourage each other in doing that. Come with your ideas, please!