Having spent a weekend with the Ministers Support Network team in Salado this past weekend my thoughts have turned to spiritual formation. Exactly how are we formed into the image of Christ?

I come from a spiritual heritage that has majored on a cognitive approach to God almost to the exclusion of everything else. I never saw or experienced approaching God emotionally while growing up. Coming to God through serving others was never modeled to me as a path to spiritual formation. I learned early that emotions are not to be trusted and therefore play not part in spiritual formation. My upbringing showed me clearly that one comes to God through rigorous study, which leads to faultless understanding of the scripture or not at all.

Now approaching the half-century mark in my life I find I’m malformed in my spiritual formation. I need to exercise my emotional experiences when it comes to God. I need other paths to help me develop spiritually. It’s almost as if I’ve done nothing but exercise my brain and now my heart has atrophied.

What does a balanced approach to spiritual formation look like? What are the ways we can develop all of our senses when it comes to this most important part of our lives?