Vision: To foster spiritual formation and renewal in the worship life of our churches and church members, beginning with ourselves.

Rationale: In working with church leaders throughout Asia, many people have expressed the desire for practical instruction and application of spiritual disciplines. While not a negative practice, there is a universal tendency on the part of pastors and Bible teachers to spend significant time studying the Word of God in preparation for ministry. However, the need to let the Word of God “dwell richly” in leaders is often overlooked. With the goal of Spiritual Formation in mind, practicing spiritual disciplines (eg. lectio divina, visio divina, silence and solitude, prayer) with workshop and class participants has become an integral part of my training as spiritual formation is really the foundation of worship renewal in our churches.

From my experience in teaching in various global contexts, I have observed that there is a pervasive lack of understanding of the biblical, theological, historical, and cultural sensibilities of worship. This weakness evidences itself in an inability on the part of pastors, worship leaders, church planters, and other church leaders to plan and lead biblically informed and meaningfully contextualized worship services. To promote the global renewal of worship, individually and corporately, the best antidote while staying rooted in historic Church traditions, is to return to the source of knowledge…the Bible.

The ministry of Global Training in Spiritual Formation and Biblical Worship is strategically designed to develop and disciple those in church leadership. The spiritual formation component meaningfully complements the more didactic, yet practical nature of the workshop or classroom instruction.