Diaries

Won Jueng Lee

In this paper the author shows understanding of adolescence as an important period for youth spiritual formation. Christian spirituality is an intimate encounter with God, the source of change and maturity as a gift of God 's grace. Spiritual formation is a lifelong process, and adolescence is a valuable time to prepare for the spiritual formation. In Korean society, however, youths are suffering from spiritual and psychological poverty due to the college entrance exam-centered educational system and losing the opportunity of spiritual formation. Therefore the author presents three spiritual disciplines which are Lectio Divina, Spiritual Journaling, and the Centering Prayer for intimate encounters with God, spiritual satisfaction, and aiming to taking after Jesus Christ.

Paul H Rohde

The author explored the impact of a guide for journal writing on students who travel. Using pilgrimage theology he created a series of prompts and accompanying quotations from the Bible and ancient and contemporary pilgrims to spur attentiveness and feed reflection on sacramental faith in every part of a traveler's story. The guide was tested in both cocurricular and curricular service learning. In subsequent assessment students and faculty affirmed journal writing with the guide for broadening attentiveness, evoking more substantive and personal reflection, and supporting faithful integration of the experience, especially the narration of liminality and sacramental encounters.

Scott D Comernisky

My project aimed at positively impacting the relationships I have with the Lord, myself, and my family members. In my project I shut off the television for two months in order to gain more margin in time to impact these vital relationships. I recorded my findings in three separate journals. While my motives and priorities were the driving force behind my time use and impacted my relationships more than anything else, having the television off created the margin in time to search out the core motives that drive busyness. My practice of Sabbath was also tremendously impacted by this project.

JoAnn A Shade

The project's purpose was to invite women in ministry at midlife to articulate and clarify their vocational identity and direction. A directed journal (workbook) applied a feminist hermeneutic to the Hagar narrative, and was completed by twenty-four midlife women in ministry. Accessing disciplines of the arts, personal narrative development, and spiritual formation practices, participants interacted with themes of identity, paradox. direction, God image, voice, grief, fear, movement, and community. It invited an articulation of questions to the women themselves, the church, and God, resulting in an increased ability to name potential personal birthings and to envision future ministry direction.

Marion Wyvetta Bullock

The author studied preaching, intentionally linked with the sacrament of Holy Communion, to discover a preaching model that would create an experience for the hearers to be transformed and empowered to take the gift of forgiveness and the ministry of reconciliation into the world. She conducted research over a period of three years. Her project consisted of readings, colloquies, course and field work, personal "journaling" and preaching. What she discovered most useful to create a transformative experience was a mystagogical preaching methodology combined with a sermon design for "preaching as celebration."

E Gordon Ross

This project proposes that reading of devotional classics will provide a catalyst for lay members of the Lutheran Church in America to reflect on the influence of the gospel in their lives. In two workshops with a total of 26 persons, the project assigns participants to read Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton, or Surprised by Joy by C S Lewis. Each participant must read all of one of the works and parts of the other two. As they work through these texts participants compose a spiritual autobiography, outlining it at the beginning and completing it for presentation at the end of the workshop. Writing a spiritual autobiography becomes an excellent way for these Christians to understand their pilgrimages. These Christians seldom read devotional literature or the Bible, but they pray, and they find communal reading and discussion of these classics helpful and inspiring.

James R Haun

This project prepares and presents a curriculum resource to introduce the practice of autobiographical, life-reflective journal writing as an avenue of spiritual growth for laypersons. The resource draws on the wilderness navigation sport of orienteering, in which runners discern and traverse a sparsely marked course with only a map and compass to guide them. The resource is a useful guide to composition of spiritual diaries for individuals and groups.

Steven L Flader

This project consists of a Bible study for the adults of the Sargent United Methodist Church. The major method of the Bible study is reflective journaling. The use of journaling allows people involved to experience growth in their personal lives and greater understanding of the Bible. The project includes the development of a pre- and post-evaluative tool to collect feedback from the participants, and the writing of Bible study materials which can be used by individuals or in a class setting. It serves as a model for other congregations to personalize Bible study through the use of journaling.

Bryan C Colwell

In the first part of the project, Lochhead's argument that Christians have traditionally used four non-dialogical approaches to people of other religions is given; then Sikh history and Sikh faith are outlined, with particular note that Sikhs are in a minority everywhere, and that they have a problem of Sikh identity. Then a method of growing in dialogue is presented, consisting of five meetings per group, with group members being committed from the beginning to dialogue, to keeping a journal of efforts, and to taking some beneficial action on behalf of both groups.

Dwight Eugene Ogier

This project studies personal journal writing as a spiritual discipline. The biblical reference for the project came from Jeremiah 36. The participants in the program were lay persons from St Luke's Episcopal Church, Mobile, Alabama. They committed themselves to read selected passages from Holy Scripture, to reflect upon the same through contemplation and to write journal entries related to the experience. Two questionnaires provided empirical data on the project, which lasted 30 days. At the conclusion the participants made personal assessments of their own spiritual growth.