A INTRODUCTION TO SPIRITUALITY

After a period of neglect there is resurgence in the cultivation of the inner spiritual life. The “how to do it” of the personal devotional life has been called the best-kept secret in the contemporary church. These practices are designed to share some of the riches of this “secret.”

The gifts of spiritual growth or enlarging devotional experience liberate the full potentialities of life, increase joy, peace, power and love. The returns are greater than our involvement in other activities. Our fragmentation can be expanded to wholeness and our immediacies to eternity. “Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut.” (Revelation 3:8).

Devotional practices are a normal, necessary part of a healthy, more fully actualized person, seeking to relate the whole of individual life in its full depth to the totality of reality in its entire range. We will be fully liberated… through a relationship to God so vital as to transform total life. 

We encourage you to develop your spiritual life using the practices in the sections identified below. All of these spiritual practices have been adapted from Harvey Seifert, “Explorations in Meditation and Contemplation,” The Upper Room: Nashville, 1981, except where noted.