Cultivating Formation-Minded Pastors & Churches

Although spiritual formation and spiritual direction programs have taken hold in many academic and parachurch settings, the expectations, structures, and habits of local churches are often resistant to a deep focus on Christian formation. This course will offer a biblical-theological argument that a Christ-minded pastor and church will be a formation-minded pastor and church. To follow Jesus is to be engaged in a body-of-Christ-based effort to learn from Jesus himself how to live and love like he did. Both individually and corporately, the Christian life must be Christ-shaped and Christ-formed. And yet, historical, cultural, ecclesial, and personal forces continue to press in and distort this fundamental vision.

In this course, we will weave together threads from Richard Lovelace, Dallas Willard, Eugene Peterson, Ruth Burrows, and especially Jesus and his earliest friends, all of which will help us uncover a realistic pathway for cultivating formation-minded pastors and formation-oriented churches.