Thursday, December 29, 2011

New Year’s Resolution

The English poet John Milton (1608-1674) is most remembered for his poem Paradise Lost. However, in another poem, he made a scathing comment about the church of his day. Remembering Jesus’ reference to Christians as sheep, (Luke 15) he wrote, “the hungry Sheep look up [expectantly], and are not fed.” I was recently told that this remains true 400 years later. A large number of church going Christians are either turned off faith entirely, or at least refuse to attend regularly. They arrive expectantly, but leave disappointed.

Is this you? Would you rather sit at home and watch Sunday morning football because it gives you more to chew on than going to church? Or do you attend hoping that this Sunday might just be different?

If so, Faith Formation might be something you might be interested in. As the American pastor and author A.W. Toser wrote over fifty years ago, Faith Formation is “a modest attempt to aide God’s hungry children to find Him.”

Have you made your New Year's resolutions yet? Mine is always the same… to follow closer after Jesus. If this is your desire this coming year, I encourage you to contact me and come for a free one hour session.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

What is faith formation?

David J. Ducklow said...

When I wrote this post, I was in the middle of my studies to become a Spiritual Director. So, Spiritual Direction and Faith Formation can be used to describe the same thing, an intentional meeting with the Spirit to help people tell their sacred stories.