Notes from Aprentis 2011, Pt. 2

For more information on this post, check out my post from yesterday. Ladies first...Mindy Caliguire (Founder of SoulCare and author of Spiritual Friendship)

What does it mean to sit with the wounded Jesus, now resurrected, every day?

We typically run from God until we finally realize that nothing else will satisfy us.

We jettison the idea of the God who pursues us once we're saved - we think He stops being God once we're "in."

"Walking away from God is like walking on a treadmill."

"When we walk away from God we feel like we have to work our way back."

We don't know when God will invade our lives, but we order our lives to be open to Him.

We have to develop an intentional way of life that develops openness and availability to God.

James Bryan Smith (Author of The Good And Beautiful... series, Professor at Friends University)

"A sure sign that spiritual formation has gone to seed is when we can't laugh any more."

We can't spend our lives "gritting (our) teeth and waiting for God to make us righteous."

In much of our preaching, God is rarely the subject of action verbs. Instead we say "You should, you ought, you must..."

The toxic narrative is that God is an angry judge poised to punish us. The Jesus narrative is that God is a loving Father waiting to welcome us home.

The toxic narrative is that we are just old sinners saved by grace. The Jesus narrative is that "I am one in whom Christ dwells and delights. I can do all things through Christ...Apart from Jesus I can do nothing. In Christ I am significant, safe, and strong.

We need to develop the habit of letting God smile at us.

The Spirit changes Narratives, works through Exercises, and speaks through Community - as we participate in the "pickling" process.