Such is the title we gave to a 45-minute webinar last Thursday, November 11.

[Here, by the way,  if you are ready, you can scroll down the page where the recording is all ready to roll.  Read on, though, if you’d like some of the “backstory.”]

The webinar comes on the other side of some work with career coach, Kelsey Kemp (Aggie, Class of ’16…  cf, kelseykemp.com).  In the course of our work together, Kelsey has raised some valuable questions about Kathy and my’s ministry/work in and through Zoe-Life Explorations–questions like…

What is “Spiritual Formation”?

Of course, we know what it is.  And, yes, we’ve worked hard to define it—here via blog posts but in other settings, as well.   Truth is, though, it remains a mystery term/phrase for so many out there.  We’ve got to find a way to bring its meaning to folks out there as opposed to thinking they know… or that they’ll automatically come our way to find out.  Stinkin’ thinking here, to be sure: “people don’t know what they do not know” and most are too busy to go searching.

Who are we especially focused on helping?
What pain or hurt are we especially wanting to address?

Of course, we are here for anybody and everybody who comes our way.

Reality is, though, that not everybody is inclined to come our way in spiritual matters—especially as many, if not most who are interested in such matters, have their Church homes.

There is a group out there, though, who are underserved by most churches.  To be sure, they love Jesus and they affirm the importance of the Church.  But, approaching or having reached a certain point of burnout, these folks are looking for something beyond the limited and limiting boxes they’ve carried up to this point in life–including that box which is Sunday morning, brick-and-mortar “church.”  These “Second-Half-of-Life Dones” (a growing demographic in our society) especially represent who and where I am in life and living… and those I’d especially like to serve and help.

Addressing these two questions was (and is) at the heart of last week’s Webinar:

• Defining the richer and fuller life—the “more” for which we ache, the LIFE God has for us: this is at the heart of what we mean by “spiritual formation.” But, let’s agree: these images and phrases (over and against that phrase, “spiritual formation”) speak in a way that is so much more relevant and applicable to the lives of everyday folks.

• Reframing things beyond the boxes we have carried and maintained–seeing and claiming the bigger picture of the spiritual journey: here’s permission for “Dones” to feel the way they do… and here’s the invitation for them to embrace wider possibilities for discipleship which include the hard side of life, paradoxy, and living more response-ably.

There’s more I could add (and might… in time).

All of this is sufficient to “tee up” the webinar.

I hope you’ll join us in the ongoing dialogue—
letting us know the ways that all of this
(these words here and the webinar) “works” for you…
but also the ways it doesn’t…
and the ways it might “work better.”