Growth in Faith Opportunities at LSTC
2009-2010

Spiritual Formation at LSTC

Growth in Faith (GIF) workshops and retreats are open to all LSTC students and the entire community, including staff, spouses and family members.

Master of Divinity students must complete five Growth in Faith credits as a graduation requirement. “Christian Life Community” (CLC) is a required GIF that MDiv students take during their first fall semester in residence. The spring semester CLC is highly recommended but not required. GIF activites are not graded. Louise Williams certifies that students have completed a GIF activity and informs the registrar, who enters the GIF credits on student records. Questions about completed GIF records should be addressed to the registrar’s office.

Please register for Growth in Faith fall workshops by January 15, 2010 : e-mail Kisha Allen (kallen@lstc.edu) OR sign-up on the sheets near the academic dean’s office (third floor). (If you will not be at LSTC J-term, remember to sign-up before you leave in December.)

JANUARY TERM
Biblical Foundations of Spirituality
Week-long retreat using Barbara Bowe’s Biblical Foundations of Spirituality. Biblical Foundations of Spirituality offers seekers guidance on what to read, how to read, and why to read the Bible as a source of spiritual nourishment. Informed by the latest scholarship, this book makes the Bible more intelligible and user friendly for contemporary audiences by stressing the spiritual dimension of the search for God evident in our biblical ancestors and showing how the Bible can be a friend and companion in our search for God today. Buy the book at LSTC BOOKS. We will use this book as a resource and guide for a week spent immersed in the Word with attention to how the biblical witness nourishes faith and replenishes spiritual life.
 Leader: Joy McDonald Coltvet
Schedule: J-term 2-day Retreat; January 29-30, 2010; Friday-Saturday
Cost: Purchase in advance Biblical Foundations of Spirituality by Barbara Bowe
Grants one GIF credit
 
SPRING SEMESTER

Christian Life Community
During the spring semester CLC will focus on questions students in candidacy must address in their endorsement essays. A panel discusses a topic related to the endorsement essay, followed by small group discussion.
Leaders: Craig Mueller and Louise Williams.
Schedule: Tuesdays, 4:30-6:15 p.m. First meeting: Tue, February 2.
Grants one GIF credit for each semester of participation.

Rural Plunge: Spirituality & Ministry in a Rural Context
Spend a weekend in rural Illinois and experience spirituality and ministry in a rural context. You will be hosted by a family on a farm, tour several dairy farms, worship at a rural church, and have the opportunity for conversation with Christians who would love to share their experiences of how God is at work in rural churches.
Leader: Carrie Smith, pastor of Capron Lutheran Church, Capron, IL
Schedule: Friday evening, April 16-Sunday, April 18
Cost: Your travel to and from Capron (1.5 hrs from LSTC). Food and lodging provided.
Recommended reading: The Lord’s Harvest and the Rural Church by Kent Hunter. (Available through LSTC BOOKS.)
Grants one GIF credit

Earthbound: Created and Called to Care for Creation
Gather with others to watch this cutting-edge six-part DVD series hosted by David Rhoads and featuring Walter Brueggemann, Larry Rasmussen, Barbara Rossing, Cynthia Moe-Lobeda and many others. The series takes Martin Luther’s breakthrough understanding of justification and vocation and explodes it across God’s magnificent and complex creation. The themes of the 20 minute episodes are: Created/Called (justified and free to serve the world; Here/There (creation is earthly, material and good); Domination/Dominion (above creation, or part of it?); Atoms/Organisms (identity in social context); Now/Forever (short-term benefit, or eternal creation); Enough/Too Much (scarcity and abundance).
Group Convenor: David Hulse
Schedule: Participants will choose a time, place and format that work well for them, such as meeting in homes and sharing a meal.
Grants one GIF credit

Inner Work for the Challenges and Conflicts in the Outer World
Though we often consider “the problem” outside ourselves, many times the only changes we can make are within us. What invitations to inner work and personal growth come with the many struggles and issues in our outer lives? The first session will take up the challenge of dealing with difficult people and conflict in a congregation. In the second gathering we will discuss the struggles of marriage, committed relationships, dating and being single. Session three will focus on the stress of living in a world where we are always plugged into technology--cell phones, computers, televisions and other gadgets. In the final gathering we will reflect on the pressures and anxieties connected with busy schedules, facing an unknown future, living with illness and other limitations as we seek health, healing and wholeness in our lives.
Leader: Craig M. Mueller, Associate Director for Spiritual Formation
Schedule: Four Thursdays, 1:30 – 4:00 p.m. (February 11 and 25; March 11 and 25)
Grants one GIF credit

Reading Group: Spirituality and Environmental Action (Spring Semester)
In connection with LSTC's "Earth Year: 2009-2010," this group will come together to read some contemporary titles pertaining to environmental activism as well as the spiritual imperative to care for God's earth. In order to facilitate connection with future ministry contexts (congregations, schools, chaplaincy contexts, etc.), many of the books will be popular titles with which non-academics might also be familiar. Discussions will center on how spirituality and ministry concern might inform contemporary debate and activism around environmental issues. Responsibilities for students receiving a full GIF credit include reading each book in its entirety, attending the monthly discussion group, and helping to facilitate a discussion on one of the books at some point during the semester.
Leader: Robert Saler
Books: Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What to Do About It by Robert Glennon; Selections from Evocations of Grace by Joseph Sittler; Earth and Word: Classic Sermons on Saving the Planet (ed. David Rhoads); The Green-Collar Economy by Van Jones
Meeting times: Four Tuesdays from 4:15-5:45 pm. Feb. 16th, March 16th; April 13th; May 4th.
Cost: Students responsible for procuring the books by purchase or through a library/sharing. (Listed at LSTC BOOKS.)
Grants one GIF credit

God Is Present in the Dark: Film as Icon for Spiritual Life
We will watch four international films and contemplate together how those stories challenge faith to stretch and grow. We will pray together about the themes and people the films bring to mind and dialog together in between showings via Facebook. The group will select together four of these films:
Spirited Away; Motorcycle Diaries; Under the Same Moon; Life is Beautiful; Hotel Rwanda;
I’ve Loved You So Long; Romero; The Fast Runner; Living With Slim; Whale Rider
Leaders: Joy McDonald Coltvet and Terry Baeder
Schedule: Spring, Four Thursday evenings, 6:00-9:00 p.m.
Grants one GIF credit

Get Ready for Lent: A Mini-Retreat
Explore the traditional Lenten disciplines—prayer, fasting and alms-giving--and discover ways to adapt these old practices for your own life today.  The retreat will include instruction, times of personal reflection, group conversation and opportunity to develop personal intentions for Lent this year. A simple lunch will be provided.
Leader: Louise Williams, Director of Spiritual Formation
Schedule: Saturday, February 13, 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Grants ½ GIF credit

Body & prayer
“Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you” (1 Cor. 6:19). Through stretching, yoga and Pilates, breathing exercises, prayer and examination of nutrition, participants will move toward greater physical and spiritual balance. Contact Ingrid Roeder for further information.
Leader: Ingrid Roeder (lroeder@lstc.edu)
Schedule: Weekly 60-90 minute gatherings. Day/time to be determined.
Grants one GIF credit

Lectio Divina Small Group
“You chew on scripture day and night.  You are a tree planted in Eden...bearing fresh fruit...always in bloom (Psalm 1).”  To correspond with Sunday’s lessons and the pericope study that happens at LSTC, this small group will meet to allow our hearts to be touched by God’s Word.  Our weekly meeting to pray the scriptures will allow silence and personal reflection to complement the academic study and sermon preparation that is a part of our lives.  The group will provide support, prayer, and their experience of God in the text. 
Facilitator: David Webb
Schedule: TBA by participants
Grants one GIF credit

Centering Prayer and Meditation Small Group
“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from God.” (Psalm 62:5.)  In the midst of our lives of study and witness this small group will take time to nurture ourselves in God’s presence, listen for God’s Word in discernment, and open ourselves to God’s dynamic action within.  Using prayers of simplicity, like the sacred word, we shed the comings and goings of our daily lives and spend time in God’s presence allowing the silence and stillness to serve as the medium through which we experience God.  In half hour sittings we come together in community to pray in silence and lift each other up.  Our schedule will be worked out based on participants’ schedule.  Everyone is welcome to sign-up and a brief introduction to Centering Prayer and Silent Prayer will be given for those who would find it helpful.        
Leader: David Webb and Esme’ Petersen    
Schedule: TBA by participants
Grants One GIF credit

Spirituality Awareness in AA and Other Addictions
Addiction is a disease that is present in the church. How do we recognize the signs and symptoms of an addict? We will consider themes of spiritual presence, transformation, anonymity, humility, simplicity and sacrifice. The sessions will include these topics: 12 steps; spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection; what are the outward signs of an addict? H.A.L.T.; what drives people to become an addict; clergy and issues of self-care; open discussion. Participants will attend one AA or other addiction meeting.
Leader: Pr. Stoney Weiszmann
Schedule: Eight sessions; time to be determined by participants
Grants: One GIF credit

Intro to Benedictine Spirituality w/the Brothers of the Monastery of the Holy Cross
Experience the prayer and work of Christian monastics living out a vocation of prayer and silence within the city.  Each visit to the monastery will consist of praying the Divine Office, individual Lectio Divina, manual labor, and some instruction on Benedictine Spirituality.   The schedule for this GiF will be determined by participants. 
Cost: Free-will offerings to Monastery of the Holy Cross: www.chicagomonk.org
Group Coordinator: David Webb
Grants one GIF credit

Institute of Spiritual Leadership, at-home retreat
This personal retreat focuses upon prayer and meditation with Scripture and includes opportunity to meet three times with one of ISL’s spiritual directors in training. The retreat begins March 6, 9:30 a.m.--12 noon with a group meeting for worship, orientation and an individual conversation with your director. The retreat concludes with a similar gathering at the same times on Saturday, March 27. Participants meditate upon scripture on their own, meeting with an ISL spiritual director once at the beginning of the retreat and at the end, also meeting once during each of the intervening weeks at a mutually agreed time.
Contact Person: Esme’ Peterson, Intern, Institute of Spiritual Leadership
Schedule: March 6-27 (see description above)
Location: Inst. of Spiritual Leadership, 54th and Cornell, third floor of the Old CTU building.
Grants one GIF credit

Off Campus Opportunities
Various retreats and workshops in the area may be attended for GIF credit. Information will periodically be placed on the table outside the chapel office. Please confer with Louise Williams about receiving credit for these options. A full proposal and reflection paper is not necessary.

Anti-Racism Workshop
A Growth in Faith credit may be received for attending a synod-sponsored Anti-Racism workshop. Students are asked to write a brief reflection paper about the experience and its connection to your faith/spiritual life.

Design Your Own Growth in Faith Activities
You may design your own Growth in Faith activity. GIF activities focus on living and serving in relationship with God in Christ. They do not simply involve learning about relationship with God but must assist one to engage in the divine relationship more deeply and fully. Thus, they need to involve opportunities for reflection about how, for example, a given way of prayer, a spiritual practice, a particular author, text, art or music, etc., challenges and invites one into new ways of being and doing, deepening intimacy with God and nurturing commitment to God’s mission.
Proposals: To demonstrate intentionality and planning, proposals are due by the third week of the term. Please include a brief description of the proposed Growth in Faith experience, timetable, and how it will enrich your spiritual life/ministry. Louise Williams and Craig Mueller will review proposals and respond as soon as possible.
Reflection Paper: Please write a short (minimum one-page) summary/personal reflection of the Growth in Faith activity by the end of the term. Rather than simply describing the activity, please reflect on how this experience contributed to your spiritual formation and growth in faith.
Guidelines:
1. A full Growth in Faith should include at least ten hours of an activity;
2. Though all of life can be seen as spiritual, Growth in Faith activities are normally outside the ordinary rhythms of worship, recreation, eating, socializing and life in community;
3. Consider activities that:
   a. renew your spiritual life / personal growth;
b. involve reading, reflection and direct experience with spiritual disciplines/practices such as prayer meditation, hospitality, living a balanced life, sabbath, lectio divina, fasting, discernment, etc.;
c. include communal structured conversation/discussion.

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For more information about Spiritual Formation or Growth in Faith Opportunities, contact:

E. Louise Williams
Interim Director of Spiritual Formation
Chapel Office, Ext. 696 lwilliams@lstc.edu

Craig M. Mueller
Interim Associate Director of Spiritual Formation
Chapel Office, Ext. 696 cmueller@lstc.edu