The Journey -- Lesson 2 Corporate Spirituality

The Journey

Invitation to a Journey ~ A Road Map to Spiritual Formation
M. Robert Mulholland & Ruth Haley Barton
plus
Notes and writings on Spiritual Formation from the
Institute for Spiritual Formation, Biola University

Part Four:  Companions on the Way

Lesson 2—Corporate Spirituality

1.  Opening Prayer

2.  Corporate Spirituality—What is it?
·      Our spiritual pilgrimage together in the Church.
·      I Corinthians 12: 14-26
·      The Body of Christ—an inter-dependent system
·      What happens when one part of a system malfunctions?  Dominoes?
·      If the eye can’t see, what happens?

3.  Gifts and Personality Types—the Hard Wiring
·      Our gifts and callings are from God to accomplish His will in and through us in the context of the Body.
·      “It takes a village”…  didn’t start with Hillary

4.  God created us for relationship--- that’s His Image (Trinity)
·      Where does our relationship start?
·      To paraphrase John Kennedy:  “Ask not that God would be with you.  Ask that you would be with God.”
·      Hebrews 11:6
·      What is the reward?  That we are near to God!
·      Ray Ortland’s 15 min. alarm. Lord, Make My Life a Miracle!

5.  We also must draw near to each other. 
·      Christ is in the other members of the Body as He is in you. 
·      In drawing near to one another we draw even nearer to Him.
·      The Body gives us perspective on our own lives.  It’s easy to lie to ourselves.


6.  Writing exercise: 
·      You are asked to serve dinner for 8 in your home as part of a fellowship program. 
·      Using as much detail as you reasonably can in 10 minutes, write how you would go about it. 
·      We will share when we finish.

7.  Read examples aloud. 
·      Compare. 
·      How are they different? 
·      Are they right? Wrong?

8.  Stretching Exercises in the Body of Christ
·      Doing things with others who look at things differently—what is required to do that?
·      Tolerance.  Loving receptivity. Learning.  Seeing other gifts in action.

9.  Wholeness in Christ
·      Mulholland:  “Our wholeness depends on the creative and nurturing interplay of our individual gifts.”
·      Dwight L. Moody story—p. 169

10.  Closing Prayer


You can share our lessons with others who can’t be here in person by referring them to http://christian-transformationblog.blogspot.com


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