Customizable Programs

Many people have lost touch with how God expresses him/herself through creation. For most of us it seems that technology and a hurried pace have dulled our ability to read the spiritual lessons in nature. Opening the Book of Nature (OBN) helps participants recover an ability to discern spiritual lessons, and experience God, in creation. Utilizing practices from the monastic tradition, OBN participants encounter the presence of God and learn spiritual lessons in and through creation while actively engaging the body, mind, and spirit. OBN is appropriate and easily utilized in any number of contexts, from youth groups to backpacking expeditions.

Many people experience God most strongly in nature but do not know how to incorporate this experience into their spiritual life. Others question whether Christianity has room for nature at all and seek alternatives elsewhere, often leaving Christianity entirely. This book addresses this crucial issue by providing a resource for fostering a closer relationship with God and creation. With a step-by-step approach, this program provides a framework integrating asceticism with the contemplation of nature. Each chapter contains a “take it home” section for applying the lessons learned outdoors to everyday life, connecting God and nature as seamless components of spirituality. Topics include gratitude, delight, appreciation, wonder, discernment, reverence, mortality, love, beauty, humility, silence, and hope.

How can we proclaim a gospel of wholeness for all creation through the way we interact with it—through the way we produce food, design our buildings, make the products we consume, or get to work? Why do these things matter from the perspective of our faith? Beauty by Design explores these questions with a half-day to weekend-long retreat for groups interested in exploring the intersection of the theology of beauty and green design.