The Renovaré Spiritual Formation Guides, by Lynda L. Graybeal and Julia L. Roller

The Renovaré Spiritual Formation Guides, created by Richard J. Foster and the team that developed The Life With God Bible and the longstanding A Spiritual Formation Workbook, provide tangible lessons that help us become spiritually formed, conformed, and transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Geared for either individual study or use in small groups, each Renovaré Spiritual Formation Guide explores one facet of our life with God, providing readings from Scripture as well as classic and contemporary works of spirituality. The combination of readings, reflection questions, exercises, and activities makes these books invaluable interactive guides that prompt true spiritual growth.

Following the same themes as The Life With God Bible, the Guides explain, expand, and put into practice The People of God in Individual Communion in Connecting with God, The People of God in Prayer and Worship in Prayer and Worship, The People of God with Immanuel in Learning from Jesus, and The People of God in Mission in Living the Mission. All of the Guides emphasize that as God’s people we have a with-God life, a life with God every day, year in and year out in which we participate in the kingdom and co-labor with God to create “an all-inclusive community of loving persons with God himself at its very center as its prime sustainer and most glorious inhabitant.”

Connecting with God

God has communicated with his people throughout the ages in many ways. Adam and Eve encountered him directly in the Garden of Eden, Teresa of Avila experienced him through visions, and Francis of Assisi heard his voice in nature. This book gives practice advice for connecting on a deeply personal level with God. It uncovers new places to look for God, while providing reflection questions and activities to reinvigorate communication with God in such traditional areas as prayer and Bible study. Divided into twelve chapters conveniently organized for individual or group study, each section explores a different area in which we can deepen our individual communion with God.

Prayer and Worship

Prayer and worship compose the heart of the devotional life and are essential practices for a close relationship with God. But too often our prayer is nothing more than a checklist of requests, and our worship happens only in church. What does it mean to communicate with God? How do we enter his presence in the midst of our daily lives? Utilizing the beloved book of the Psalms, this guide reveals many different ways to come before God in prayer and worship, including wrestling with God, pleading with God, lamenting to God, and longing for God. Conveniently organized for individual or group study, Prayer and Worship offers insights and avenues to help us bring every part of our lives before God and truly enter his presence.

Learning from Jesus

To Christians, Jesus is many things: the Son of God, the pivotal figure in whom we put our trust and who speaks on our behalf, a companion in the life of faith. But Jesus is also an incredible example of how to lead a faithful life. Jesus, as a human, walked on earth and confronted the same struggles that we face. Our primary mission as his followers is to learn from him–to become his apprentices. In this book we seek to further our apprenticeship by studying everything from Jesus’s interactions with those around him to the revolutionary wisdom recorded in the Gospels. Learning from Jesus is conveniently organized for individual or group study, and each section of this guide leads you further down the path to true discipleship.

Living the Mission

Living the Mission explores what it means to be a Christian today. By examining the early church’s struggle in the wake of Jesus’s devastating death and aw-inspiring resurrection in the book of Acts, we learn how we can follow Jesus, how Jesus is still with us in the Holy Spirit, and how we are called to form communities into which we are forever inviting others. Conveniently organized for individual or group study, Living the Mission explores the heart of what it means to follow Jesus and be a part of his church.