Spiritual Formation

The mission of Park Church is to “make disciples of Jesus for the glory of God and the joy of all people.” This mission has not shifted in vision or content even amidst the coronavirus outbreak. But it has shifted in context. Spending considerably more time at home with disrupted rhythms both forces us to readjust and, for some, allows us the ability to pursue renewed activities and habits. We’re calling our entire church to commit to daily prayer and time with Jesus. Amidst the instability around us, we rest in the unshakable kingdom of Christ the King. We must root and ground ourselves in His love, that we “may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that [we] may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17–19). God is always at work more broadly “behind the scenes” in what can feel like pure devastation and difficulty. In addition to daily prayer, what opportunities are currently waking up in your life? How will you engage the coming days and weeks? We’ve created this page to guide and resource you as you navigate this strange season. Please reach out to any of us if we can be of more personal support for you.

Daily Prayer & Time with Jesus

Our need for Jesus’ presence hasn’t increased, but many of us are experiencing that need more acutely during this rapidly evolving season. No matter what your daily rhythms look like right now, we invite you to prioritize daily time to simply be with Jesus, spending some of that time in prayer. This is often best done in the morning, but it can be anytime–even multiple times–throughout your day. If this is new to you, carve out five minutes or so to be still and silent before God, ask him to make His presence known to you, and spend time talking with him. If you’ve been at this for a while, seek to expand your time with Jesus by another five minutes. To provide some structure and guidance, below are some resources you may find helpful:

Designing a Rule of Life

A rule of life is simply a set of practices that guides our lives. Saved by grace alone and through faith alone in Christ alone, we are called to practice the way of Jesus, pursuing habits and disciplines that shape our affections and activities to image our God. Following Jesus never involves earning, but it does require effort–God’s grace and Spirit at work through us for the sake of His kingdom. (For more on a rule of life, check out our January 2020 sermon series.) If you’d like to steward this season to evaluate your life and establish some new or revised rhythms, we invite you to work through the following steps.
  1. Because our habits shape us, we want to be attentive to what they are. How are we already living? What garners our attention and captures our time? We invite you to take inventory of your current life–no matter how disheveled and disrupted it may feel right now–through completing this Liturgical Audit.
  2. Next, download and print/fill out this Designing a Rule of Life Worksheet (see options below). Begin writing in the squares any practices that help you pursue and image Jesus that you are already doing. It can be encouraging to see what God has already established in our lives.
    Printable PDFPages DocWord Doc
  3. After that, pick two or three things you would like to add or tweak from your current practices. What is God stirring in you right now? Where would He like to push you? There are suggestions on page two of the Worksheet above. And don’t feel like you need to fill all, or even most, of the squares. This is just a guide.

Resources for Diversity & Racial Justice

As God’s people, we want to humbly and boldly usher God’s will on earth by leaning into the work of Biblical racial reconciliation with our families, friends, coworkers, and communities. See our growing list of curated resources at the link below.

Diversity Resources

Resources for Study & Spiritual Growth

With the absence of normal social events and an uptick of time at home, some of us are experiencing greater amounts of downtime. What are we doing with it? How do we spend these moments? We’ve provided below a list of resources and opportunities to study, grow, and be developed. None of these functions as a systematic “to-do list,” but rather avenues that may prove to be life-giving for you. Enjoy!
  1. RightNow Media: Interested in online Bible studies, sermons, access to past conferences, and other teachings? RightNow Media houses a virtually limitless supply of content for individuals, families, and small groups. Click here to log in. Don’t have an account yet? It’s free! Just text RightNow ParkChurchDenver to 41411. (Don’t forget the space between RightNow and ParkChurchDenver.)
  2. Park Renew: Over the years, we’ve hosted a number of seminars, classes, and conferences. We’ve made all of this content available through Park Renew! Feel free to peruse to discover something that may be of use for you.
  3. Read a Book (or several!): Have you watched enough TV yet? Maybe it’s time to exchange some of those hours for some old-fashioned reading. Not sure where to start? Look through your shelves or finish that book you’ve forgotten about. You can also email neil@parkchurchdenver.org (or any of us!) and he’d love to help steer you toward a book or two that aligns with what God is doing in and through your life.
  4. This Cultural Moment: Here lies one of the more thoughtful and provocative podcasts on how to make sense of our “secular age,” and what this means for disciples of Jesus. Many of their conversations are particularly fascinating given the current crisis within which we now sit. You (probably) won’t be sorry you listened.
  5. Practicing the Way: Our leadership team has been greatly helped by the teachings and other resources found through Practicing the Way. It’s built on the Biblical premise that living as followers of Jesus requires thoughtfulness around our habits and everyday rhythms of life. Check it out!

 

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