Subject Area
Religion
Abstract
This dissertation was born out of my own personal experience in the local church as a disciple seeking to follow Jesus Christ, and grow in his image. It began many years ago when I started to notice that the God I encountered while practicing centering prayer was, at times, very different from the God I encountered in the study of scripture, and in some of the teachings of the church. By different I mean that the God I encountered in centering prayer was bigger, more merciful, patient, loving, and inclusive than the God I had experienced through all my years intellectually pursuing more and more knowledge of God. The deeper I sank into the heart of God through my practiced of centering prayer, the wider the gap became. I turned to my local church for answers, but no one understood or could explain what I was experiencing. In fact, when I talked about my experiences, I received skeptical looks and warnings about how exploring the world of “spirituality” could be the slippery slope that leads one away from faith in Jesus Christ. This seemed so strange to me given John Wesley’s insistence that our faith must be vivified by personal experience.
I shared my thoughts with a small group of women with whom I studied scripture. The leader of our group agreed that we need the heart knowledge of God that comes from experiencing God to balance the head knowledge of God we gain through the study of scripture. That said, she went on to challenge me with a question – “How do you teach others to experience God?” “We cannot,” I replied. “Any experience of God is a gift of grace. We can, however, teach others how to prepare their hearts to receive the gift when it is given.” This dissertation seeks to support my claim.
Degree Date
11-22-2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Perkins School of Theology
Advisor
Dr. Ruben Habito
Second Advisor
Dr. Karen Baker-Fletcher
Number of Pages
120
Format
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Tipps, Deborah DeFrank, "A Spiritual Formation Ministry for Small Groups" (2023). Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses. 36.
https://scholar.smu.edu/theology_ministry_etds/36
