Reimagining Spiritual Formation: A Week in the Life of an Experimental Church [Paperback]

Doug Pagitt (Author)

Book Description

Series: EMERGENTYS | Publication Date: February 1, 2004

Reimagining Spiritual Formation isn’t about quick-fix methods or bulleted, how-to lists. And it’s certainly not a dry lecture about a heady theological topic.

Instead this book is about striving, about trying, about experimenting with the idea that the old ways of approaching spiritual formation may not be the only avenues toward living lives in harmony with God in our day.

Inside these pages you’ll spend a full week with Solomon’s Porch—a holistic, missional, Christian community in Minneapolis, Minnesota—and get a front row seat at the gatherings, meetings, and meals. Along the way, you’ll also discover what spiritual formation looks like in a church community that’s moves beyond education-based practices by including worship, physicality, dialogue, hospitality, belief, creativity, and service as means toward spiritual formation rather than mere appendices to it.

Specifically, you’ll glimpse into the lives of six people from Solomon’s Porch and track their growth through their journals as they wrestle with various approaches to spiritual development.

Reimagining Spiritual Formation is ideal for thinkers, pastors, church leaders, and anyone else seeking fresh ways of experiencing life with God.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Will we do the hard and costly work of hand-crafting faith in our day, or will we be content living off the antiques of previous generations and fill in with cheap imitations of our own to "freshen up" the old stuff? Are we willing to become artisans of new expressions of faith so that our grandchildren will see as their legacy the quality that came before them, so they will be stirred thereby to craft newer, more beautiful, more meaningful expressions in their own day? This book is primarily about one community and the practices of spiritual formation in it. But the creativity required to live an imaginative, experimental faith is not limited to what we do during our worship gatherings or Wednesday night dinners. Central to the types of spiritual formation discussed in this book is the need for us—not only our Solomon’s Porch community but the church as a whole—to become theological communities. The work of theology must happen in full community. Of course it must include the ideas of those who have come before us, but to simply accept the work of our forebears in the faith as the end of the conversation is to outsource the real work of thinking, and that turns theology into a stagnant philosophy rather than an active pursuit of how we are to live God’s story in our time. The communities that are best equipped for the task of spiritual formation in the post-industrial age are those who make the practice of theology an essential element of their lives together. This is in no way a call to be less theological, but a call to our communities to be more involved in the work of theology as a necessary part of the spiritual formation process. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the task of both the new convert to Christianity and the experienced Christian was understood as not only believing the things of Christianity, but also as contextualizing, creating, articulating, and living the expressions of faith in their world? Page 159

From the Back Cover

Reimagining Spiritual Formation isn’t about quick-fix methods or bulleted, how-to lists. And it’s certainly not a dry lecture about a heady theological topic.

Instead this book is about striving, about trying, about experimenting with the idea that the old ways of approaching spiritual formation may not be the only avenues toward living lives in harmony with God in our day.

Inside these pages you’ll spend a full week with Solomon’s Porch—a holistic, missional, Christian community in Minneapolis, Minnesota—and get a front row seat at the gatherings, meetings, and meals. Along the way, you’ll also discover what spiritual formation looks like in a church community that’s moves beyond education-based practices by including worship, physicality, dialogue, hospitality, belief, creativity, and service as means toward spiritual formation rather than mere appendices to it.

Specifically, you’ll glimpse into the lives of six people from Solomon’s Porch and track their growth through their journals as they wrestle with various approaches to spiritual development.

Reimagining Spiritual Formation is ideal for thinkers, pastors, church leaders, and anyone else seeking fresh ways of experiencing life with God.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (February 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310256879
• ISBN-13: 978-0310256878
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,228,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Doug is a speaker and consultant for churches, denominations and businesses throughout the United States and around the world on issues of postmodern culture, social systems and Christianity.

Doug has worked in churches, for a non-profit foundation and owns three businesses in Minneapolis.

Doug's current professional endeavors include pastoring a Holistic Missional Christian Community in Minneapolis - (www.SolomonsPorch.com), speaking and writing (www.DougPagitt.com) and owner of JoPa Productions (JoPaProductions.com)and host of Doug Pagitt Radio (www.DougPagittRadio.com).

He is seeking to find creative, entrepreneurial, generative ways to join in the hopes, dreams and desires God has for the world.

Doug is married to Shelley and the father of 2 young adults and two teenagers.

Doug has a BA in Anthropology and a Masters of Theology from Bethel Seminary.

Doug is the author of A Christianity Worth Believing (Jossey-Bass 2008),
Church Re-Imagined (Zondervan 2004),
Preaching Re-Imagined (Zondervan 2005), and
BodyPrayer (Waterbrook 2005).
He is the co-editor of An Emergent Manifesto of Hope (Baker Books 2007).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Asking the right questions of Spiritual Formation, July 4, 2004

By 

Benjamin J. Snyder "Ben" (Toledo, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Reimagining Spiritual Formation: A Week in the Life of an Experimental Church (Paperback)

Doug Pagitt is a lead pastor at a church in Minnesota called Solomon's porch. His book is about his journey away from the program centered Mega-church into a more organic, decentralized community. He talks about some new ways of viewing spiritual formation that are quite different than the commonly used "talking head," educational approach. His ideas are, self-proclaimed, experimental. He admits to being at the early stages in his church journey, however his ideas are quite compelling.

If you are interested in connecting with the next generation in your church, or are involved in any high school or college ministry - I would order this today and read and discuss with your community.

There is much talk about post-modernism in churches that plain and simple is not healhty. And often times, when it is healthy dialouge, there is no real story of success - instead it is just a bunch of ideas that never become anything. Solomon's Porch and this book are the beginning of healhty dialouge and ideas turning into reality!

It is not Pagitt's desire to create a thousand churches just like his. Rather, he has asked some honest and searching questions about how God and His character are going to be formed in his people and is trying to be and do this in the way that meets the needs of his church.

As a pastor of a mega-church, Pagitt certainly has me asking some honest questions.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a book to buy your whole staff, September 16, 2004

By 

Bob Hyatt (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Reimagining Spiritual Formation: A Week in the Life of an Experimental Church (Paperback)

okay pastors. You are coming to realize that the program-driven, "what can you do for me now" consumer approach to Christianity is quickly becoming unworkable. Sure... it may sputter on for a few years, but where are all your 18-30 year olds? They're all at churches like Solomon's Porch and other emerging communities which are doing their best to walk away from the "provider of religious goods and services" paradigm for church and get back to being covenant communities.
Pagitt, and you gotta love the guy- he'll anger you, inspire you and humble you... all in one sentence- provides a glimpse into how their community does it. It's not a program, not a blue-print, don't think you can xerox it... but it may inspire you to do something beyond the "seeker" paradigm (which doesn't seem to draw many seekers) you've leaned on... but are finding less and less workable all the time.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Humble / Honest, November 10, 2004

By 

Joseph Valentine Dworak (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Reimagining Spiritual Formation: A Week in the Life of an Experimental Church (Paperback)

This is a very interesting and carefully written book about the community / church or Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis, MN. Being from south Minneapolis, and living in this area for the past few years, I have heard endless amounts of chatter about this church. The range of opinions is wide and mixed - some people it really hits home for, and others do not see it as their style. The point Doug makes in this book, at least the way I read it, is that the church is not their to serve the needs of people who attend. I agree with this 1000000%%

The consumer mentality of many churchgoers is hard to get my head around sometimes. I appreciate the humility that came across in this book by the author. Doug just throws his ideas out there, includes many opinions from members of his community and lets you draw your own conclusions.

One thing that was interesting to me about this book was that the title was about 'spiritual formation' but the book is really about the church, (which of course should include spiritual formation) so - the title is not super accurate, but the book is good. It will stretch some readers, and other's will feel right at home. I do think Doug and his community are trying to be Roman's to Romans and Jew's to Jews and so on and so forth..... for the kingdom. Keep up the good work in Minneapolis!

JVD