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Crises & Spiritual Struggles Examples of Ongoing Struggles: hiding things in me gossip purity Non-Christian friends; bad peers; hanging out with the wrong people Parents divorce and my dad fights to see me Pornography Addictions, getting attached to sin Not reading the Bible Sin - drinking Watching too much T.V.; non-Christian T.V. shows

Crises & Spiritual Struggles Examples of Crises: Parents about to divorce (mom and step dad), difficulties with brother, struggle with self-mutilation, struggle with anorexia, slipping grades, 3 ended relationships, many intense family conflicts and more. Becoming depressed Divorce of parents Loss of a couple friends

Furnishing the Soul Hard wired to connect report Spiritualization of attachment

Furnishing the Soul: Seminar Agenda Relational Spirituality: 5 Big Ideas Overview of the STI Furnishing the Soul workbook and soul projects

Relational Spirituality: 5 Big Ideas Big Idea #1: Hard Wired to Connect Big Idea #2: Unthought Knowns: We Know More Than We Can Say Big Idea #3: Gut-Level Memories as Relational Filters Big Idea #4: Tipping Points in Spiritual Transformation Big Idea #5: Furnishing the Soul for Spiritual Transformation

Big Idea #1: Hard Wired to Connect Christian framework Created in the image of God (Gen 1:26) God as Trinity is relational in His very essence Goal of spiritual transformation: Love God and love your neighbor (Matt 22:37-39) Love is about the way we relate, which stems from our hearts (Matt 12:34-35) We are designed or hard wired by God to connect relationally through love, and to grow in this capacity throughout our lives

Big Idea #1: Hard Wired to Connect Attachment relationships & the brain x genes =

Big Idea #1: Hard Wired to Connect Foundling homes in 1930s & 1940s and failure to thrive Ten percent mortality rate in best hospitals All experienced loss: protest, despair, detachment Early attachment experiences (or lack thereof) are imprinted into the brain structures maturing during a brain growth spurt in the first 2 years of life

Big Idea #1: Hard Wired to Connect Infant research: infants naturally and automatically seek attunement God hard wired us such that we want to be known by others and God Also hard wired to connect to meaning If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life (Matt 16:25-26)

Big Idea #1: Hard Wired to Connect The deep magic in Narnia Jesus is talking about the deep magic--the underlying structure or order--that determines what makes human life meaningful Meaning is found in giving our life away to God and others in sacrificial love Meaning find its end in relationship, and finds its beginning in attachment relationships

Big Idea #1: Hard Wired to Connect Attachment relationships & the brain ---> Attachment relationships are the transmitters of spiritual meaning, values, and morality Spiritualization of Attachment

Big Idea #1: Hard Wired to Connect Tuesdays with Morrie The fundamental way we grow and change is through relationships Hard wired to connect means that we cannot directly change our own soul by ourselves. We are profoundly dependent on God and others to help us transform into the likeness of Christ

Big Idea #1: Hard Wired to Connect John 15:1-5: Attached to the vine; relationally connected to Christ and the Church I Peter 4:8-10; Eph 4:15-16; 1 Cor 12:27 In sum: our souls naturally desire, or are hard wired for relational connections, and it is through these connections with God and others that we are spiritually transformed to increase our capacity to love

Big Idea #2 Unthought Knowns: We Know More Than We Can Say The statue that didnt look right

Big Idea #2 Unthought Knowns: We Know More Than We Can Say Two distinct systems for processing information/ways of knowing Head Knowledge (Explicit Left Brain ) Gut Level Knowledge (Implicit Right Brain) Linear Logical Language- Based Explicit Memory Nonlinear Holistic Nonverbal Implicit memory Emotion Primary Categorical

Big Idea #2 Unthought Knowns: We Know More Than We Can Say Good Will Hunting

Big Idea #2 Unthought Knowns: We Know More Than We Can Say Emotions--shape both our internal experiences and our experiences with God and other people. They give us a sense of what is meaningful Emotion Defined--Emotion is the process of automatically and non-consciously evaluating the meaning of our experiences, particularly within the context of our relationships Emotions--Starting point for engaging our hearts with God and others b/c they reveal our deepest values; meaning we automatically assign to events

Big Idea #2 Unthought Knowns: We Know More Than We Can Say Gut level processing online at birth, fully developed by 15 months… Infant-mother research: Dr. Seuss study Infant mother mutual gazing Infants have deep gut level knowledge or relationships in a nonverbal system of knowing (implicit relational knowledge )

Big Idea #2 Unthought Knowns: We Know More Than We Can Say Gut level knowing continues throughout life Gut level knowing, not head knowledge, drives how we relate to others because it is processed automatically, and is not under the direct control of knowledge in the explicit system (speed dating) Head knowledge is important but must be integrated with gut level knowledge to affect our ability to love God and others

Big Idea #2 Unthought Knowns: We Know More Than We Can Say Gut level knowledge of relationships operates in same way with God as with human Gut level knowledge of God is influenced by experiences with significant caregivers Open to transformation by continued relational experiences with God and others

Big Idea #2 Unthought Knowns: We Know More Than We Can Say In sum: there are 2 distinct ways of knowing, head knowledge and gut level knowledge, and it is our gut level knowledge that drives the quality of our relationships with God and others. We know much more than we can say when it comes to relationships, and it is these unthought knowns at the core of our soul that must be transformed to grow in our capacity to love

Big Idea #3 Gut-Level Memories as Relational Filters What do you remember about yesterday? Do you always know when you are remembering something?

Big Idea #3 Gut-Level Memories as Attachment Filters Memory Defined: Memory is the way past events affect future functioning. Experiences cause certain patterns of neurons to fire together ---> increases probability of similar pattern firing again in future thereby affecting future functioning. Example: Grass pathways

Two Types of Memory Intellectual Memory Online at 18 mos. Verbal memory of facts (semantic) Memory of yourself in time (autobiographical) Sense of recollection Conscious attn required for encoding

Two Types of Memory Intellectual Memory Online at 18 mos. Verbal memory of facts (semantic) Memory of yourself in time (autobiographical) Sense of recollection Conscious attn required for encoding Gut level Memory Online at birth; continues throughout life Emotions Behavioral responses Perceptions Bodily sensations No sense of recollection Conscious attn not required for encoding Attachment filters

Big Idea #3 Gut-Level Memories as Attachment Filters Gut level memory--We remember how important people in our lives feel about us not in words, but in our bodies, emotions and in images--in gut level knowledge Repeated experiences in important relationships are etched or encoded in gut level memory as nonverbal knowledge of self in relation to others

Big Idea #3 Gut-Level Memories as Attachment Filters Gut level memories of emotionally significant others become attachment filters that shape how we feel about ourselves, God and others, and how we determine the meaning of events.

Big Idea #3 Gut-Level Memories as Attachment Filters Attachment Filters Secure Dismissing Preoccupied Repeated Experiences Emotional states & nonverbal signals accurately read/responded to Emotional states & nonverbal signals ignored Emotional states & nonverbal signals inconsistently responded/to instrusiveness

Attachment Filters Attachment Filters Others Responses Others Responses Relational Strategy Relational Strategy Big Idea #3 Gut-Level Memories as Attachment Filters Gut level meaning (emotion) Gut level meaning (emotion) Relational Strategy Relational Strategy Experiences in the world Gut level meaning (emotion) Gut level meaning (emotion) Reinforcement of Gut level meanings Reinforcement of Gut level meanings (Early) relational experiences Soul Structure

Imagine God thinking about you. What do you assume God feels when you come to mind?

Big Idea #4 Tipping Points in Spiritual Transformation Attachment filters are stubborn Engrained pathways in the brain We bring old adaptations to new situations and relational experiences with God and others because this is the only way we know how, at a gut level, to connect with others Attachment filters are self-reinforcing

Big Idea #4 Tipping Points in Spiritual Transformation Think of a time of significant spiritual growth in your life… Spiritual transformation does not occur in a predictable, orderly, or proportional manner Tipping points--minor shifts in our perspective, gut level beliefs, or experiences in relationships can suddenly lead to exponential changes in our relational filters

Big Idea #4 Tipping Points in Spiritual Transformation Scientific discovery process (Poincare)

Big Idea #5 Furnishing the Soul for Spiritual Transformation Comedy improv All of life is a spiritual improv--structured spontaneity Relational connections shape (structure) attachment filters (spontaneity) in living out our spiritual improv

Big Idea #5 Furnishing the Soul for Spiritual Transformation Scientific discovery process Andrew Wiles journey through a dark unexplored mansion Breakthroughs (tipping points) come to those who have furnished the mind with expertise Spiritual breakthroughs (tipping points) come to those who have furnished the soul with relational connections

Big Idea #5 Furnishing the Soul for Spiritual Transformation Storying Unthought Knowns: Bottom Up Integration –Connecting or translating our experiences into words through narratives and journaling Imaging Head Knowledge: Top down Integration –Connecting, or back-translating head knowledge about God and spiritual transformation to our own experience and to the lives of mentors

Big Idea #5 Furnishing the Soul for Spiritual Transformation Spiritual disciplines (forms of relational connection with God) are the way we furnish our soul to prepare us for spiritual tipping points Spiritual disciplines are designed in many ways to integrate two ways of knowing

Attachment Filters Attachment Filters Images Stories Images Stories Understand meaning Understand meaning Storying Unthought Knowns: Bottom Up Integration Gut level meaning (emotion) Gut level meaning (emotion) Translation Experiences in the world Gut level meaning (emotion) Gut level meaning (emotion) Carried forward Early relational experiences Soul Structure

Images Stories Images Stories Implicit felt meaning Implicit felt meaning Carried forward Translation Understand meaning Understand meaning Relational Filters Relational Filters Experiences in the world Gut level meaning (emotion) Gut level meaning (emotion) Early relational experiences Storying Unthought Knowns: Bottom Up Integration Soul Structure Relationship w/ God & others

Overview of STI Five domains of spiritual transformation based on relational spirituality model (5 big ideas) –Spiritual Meaning & Vitality –Spiritual Commitment & Community –Secure Spiritual Attachment –Preoccupied Spiritual Attachment –Dismissing Spiritual Attachment

Overview of STI 19 sub-domains of spiritual transformation

Spiritual Meaning & Vitality Domain Prayer Type Frequency Prayer Type Impact Spiritual Practices Frequency Spiritual Practices Impact Desolation/Consolation Transformational Suffering Spiritual Perspective Spiritual Meaning Spiritual Openness Awareness of God

Spiritual Commitment & Community Domain Spiritual Service Faith Centrality Spiritual Community Other-Centered Love

Secure Spiritual Attachment Domain Secure God Attachment Forgiveness w/ God and Others Realistic Acceptance

Preoccupied Spiritual Attachment Domain Preoccupied God Attachment Disappointment with God Instability with God

Dismissing Spiritual Attachment Domain Dismissing God Attachment

Demographic/Open-Ended Questions Age/gender Religious affiliation Class rank How long a Christian Primary influence in becoming a Christian Parents marital status Parents spiritual status Dating relationship status Type of school Crisis in past year Describe rel w/ God & changes over past 3 months Impact of youth ministry on spiritual growth

High School STI Results

Dialogue and Feedback

Youth ministry impact questions 1. Outreach events 2. Camps 3. Short-term missions trips 4. Sunday school worship 5. Sunday school teaching 6. Discipleship/small groups 7. Relationship with adult mentor 8. Bible studies 9. Weekly youth ministry program 10. Student leadership opportunities 11. Service projects

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Executive Summary Report Sample exec summary report for CCCU

Coming Soon from FS…… FS Spiritual Transformation Hub Take your spiritual EKG A centralized web-based warehouse for your ST process

Coming Soon from FS…… FS Spiritual Transformation Hub STI/FS feedback FS book Interactive video spiritual guide Soul projects Spiritual communities Lab, classroom, library, audio journal

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