Richard J. Foster

Arguably the most established contemporary spiritual classic by our most profound living religious writer. This timeless classic has helped well over a million people discover a richer spiritual life infused with joy, peace and a deeper understanding of God. The book explores the 'classic disciplines' of Christian faith: the inward disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study; the outward disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission and service and the corporate disciplines of confession, worship, guidance and celebration.

Best-selling author Richard J. Foster offers a warm, compelling, and sensitive primer on prayer, helping us to understand, experience, and practice it in its many forms-from the simple prayer of beginning again to unceasing prayer. He clarifies the prayer process, answers common misconceptions, and shows the way into prayers of contemplation, healing, blessing, forgiveness, and rest.Coming to prayer is like coming home, Foster says. "Nothing feels more right, more like what we are created to be and to do. Yet at the same time we are confronted with great mysteries. Who hasn't struggled with the puzzle of unanswered prayer? Who hasn't wondered how a finite person can commune with the infinite Creator of the universe? Who hasn't questioned whether prayer isn't merely psychological manipulation after all? We do our best, of course, to answer these knotty questions but when all is said and done, there is a sense in which these mysteries remain unanswered and unanswerable . . . At such times we must learn to become comfortable with the mystery."Foster shows how prayer can move us inward into personal transformation, upward toward intimacy with God, and outward to minister to others. He leads us beyond questions to a deeper understanding and practice of prayer, bringing us closer to God, to ourselves, and to our community.

The author of the bestselling celebration of discipline explores the great traditions of Christian spirituality and their role in spiritual renewal today. In this landmark work, Foster examines the "streams of living water" –– the six dimensions of faith and practice that define Christian tradition. He lifts up the enduring character of each tradition and shows how a variety of practices, from individual study and retreat to disciplines of service and community, are all essential elements of growth and maturity. Foster examines the unique contributions of each of these traditions and offers as examples the inspiring stories of faithful people whose lives defined each of these "streams."

A revised and updated edition of the manifesto that shows how simplicity is not merely having less stress and more leisure but an essential spiritual discipline for the health of our soul.

"At the very heart of God is the passionate disposition to be in loving fellowship with you. . . . From the human side of this equation it is meditative prayer that ushers us into this divine-human fellowship." Richard Foster, bestselling author and founder of Renovaré, writes these words as one who has experienced what they describe. And in this new book he will beautifully guide you in this transformational way, that you might come to know deeper fellowship with God. Weaving together quotes and stories from the lives of mothers and fathers of the faith as well as powerful encounters with God from his own life, Foster describes the riches of quieting your mind and heart in order to listen to and obey God more closely. Along the way, at perhaps his clearest, most practical best, he also provides the biblical teaching and step-by-step help you need to begin this prayer practice for yourself. The journey into meditative prayer is not easy, but it is essential. And, as Foster shows, it's possible, even in the midst of the noisy, often chaotic world we live in. Your soul can become a sanctuary where you fellowship with the very God of the universe, who knows you and loves you deeply. These pages point the way.

Too often, our study of the Bible focuses on searching for specific information or some formula that will solve our pressing needs of the moment. But what if we approached the Bible differently, and instead of transforming the text to meet our needs, allowed it to transform us?That's exactly the idea behind Life with God, Richard J. Foster's much-anticipated book on the Bible. Foster, bestselling author of Celebration of Discipline and general editor of The Renovaré Spiritual Formation Bible, claims that God has superintended the writing of Scripture so that it serves as the most reliable guide for Christian spiritual formation. According to Foster, the Bible is all about human life "with God." As we read Scripture, we should consider how exactly God is with us in each story and allow ourselves to be spiritually transformed. By opening our whole selves—mind, body, spirit, thoughts, behavior, and will—to the page before us, we begin to grasp all the Bible has to teach about prayer, obedience, compassion, virtue, and grace and apply it to our everyday lives to achieve a deeper relationship with God.With a wealth of examples and simple yet crucial insights, Life with God is an indispensable guide to approaching the Bible through the lens of Christian spiritual formation, revealing that reading the Bible for interior transformation is a far different endeavor than reading the Bible for historical knowledge, literary appreciation, or religious instruction.

The Challenge of the Disciplined Life explores the three great ethical themes crucial to people of faith living faithfully. Drawing upon practical examples, Richard J. Foster guides the reader in day-to-day ethical decision making while helping each of us determine "the proper place in Christian life of money, sex, and power."

In a society where raging narcissism dominates the moral landscape, the virtue of humility is often dismissed as irrelevant. Not only is humility vanishing from contemporary culture, but we are also witnessing how destructive a lack of humility has become among our churches and ministry leaders. And yet, Richard Foster, the founder of Renovaré, insists that humility is central to the journey toward character formation and spiritual transformation. For this reason he decided to spend a year studying the virtue of humility.Using the Lakota calendar as a framework, Foster provides us with a look into the insights he gathered from sources ranging from Native American culture to Julian of Norwich to Scripture to personal friends. By engaging with both the spiritual classics and Foster's own experiences, Learning Humility provides profound insight into what humility can look like in our current cultural climate.Join Richard Foster on the journey toward a life of humility, which he says leads us into "freedom, joy, and holy hilarity."

2010 Golden Canon Leadership Book Award winner! Think of the moment you last experienced God. Do you know him that closely in this moment? Truly experiencing the love of God gives us a taste of his goodness and his love for us, but often those moments are fleeting. We get distracted by life. Our awareness and understanding fade while our longing to experience him that way again increases. In these pages you can begin to fill that longing by developing your capacity to receive and respond to God's love. Spiritual formation is the process through which one's inner self is opened to the work of the Holy Spirit, who forms us into the image of the Son. Here Richard Foster and Gayle Beebe, both experienced leaders in spiritual formation, introduce you to people from the past who have known God deeply. Each person helps you to grasp one of the seven primary paths to intimacy with God that have been developed throughout Christian history. Chapters are divided into sections, each segment surrounding a key figure and concluding with a reflection and prayer. This rich resource can guide you into the same deep intimacy with God, opening you to the Spirit's work of transformation.

Delve more deeply into the enduring spiritual guidebook. Richard J. Foster presents a series of brief, incisive essays that expand the discussion begun in Celebration of Discipline, which has sold more than two million copies and has been named one of the top ten books of the twentieth century by Christianity Today . These essays focus and clarify key issues, and encourage a fuller understanding and practice of the spiritual disciplines. Each essay is followed by Scripture passages to enhance our appreciation of the disciplines and study questions to facilitate careful reading of the original text and stimulate thought and discussion. Foster also provides an annotated bibliography of readings that suggest directions for further study.

For those who want to develop a deeper, more joyful inner life through the practice of Christian spiritual disciplines, this one-year journal-workbook helps readers find new ways to reflect on, experience, and integrate the disciplines into their lives.

My whole life, in one sense, he has been an experiment in how to be a portable sanctuary," writes Richard Foster, "learning to practice the presence of God in the midst of the stresses and strains of contemporary life." So begins Foster's most personal work yet, a book of prayers that seek to lead us to experience "the reality of God in the midst of going to work and raising kids and cleaning house and paying the bills." Drawing on the structure of his awardwinning Finding the Heart's True Home, Foster presents this collection of prayers according to the three aspects of the human looking inward to the heart, reaching upward toward God, and moving outward to care for others. These prayers speak to moments in our days and events in our lives. Simply and powerfully expressing such basic human experiences as wonder, stillness, the loneliness of anonymity, and the search for faith, Foster encourages us to explore the transformative power of prayer that draws us into the love of God and gives Christian community its life. Longtime Foster readers and newcomers alike will cherish this rich and thoroughly contemporary book from one of our most respected spirtual leaders.

Millions have embarked on the path to spiritual growth through Richard Foster's acclaimed Celebration of Discipline. For the many who are inspired to pursue the disciplines in daily life, Foster now offers these devotions for the journey of faith. Filled with key passages from many of his bestselling books, along with thoughtful reflection, Seeking the Kingdom presents Foster's wise counsel and direction concerning the challenges and rewards of the Christian life. Covering topics such as "stillness and worship" "corporate guidance," and "what stops us from praying?," Foster explores the three movements of the spiritual life: the movement inward to personal transformation, the movement upward to intimacy with God, and the movement outward to minister to others.

Richard Foster se numără printre cei care au găsit această reuşită îmbinare. Având o viziune adânc înrădăcinată în opera clasicilor devoţionali, autorul ne oferă un studiu atent care poate avea, în sine, o valoare durabilă în timp. Cu toate că volumul de faţă datorează mult clasicilor, nu se vrea a fi o carte despre ei, ci reprezintă o lucrare pe deplin originală. Ceea ce surprinde dintru început este caracterul comprehensiv ce reiese dintr-un mod actual de tratare a problemelor. Multe cărţi contemporane tratează aspecte specifice ale vieţii interioare, însă cea de faţă se evidenţiază prin abordarea unei varietăţi impresionante de teme esenţiale, într-o notă plină de îndrăzneală şi prospeţime. Autorul examinează un spectru larg de experienţe umane, de la mărturisire până la simplitatea bucuriei, dând naştere unei cărţi care e produsul unor lecturi vaste şi a unei gândiri profunde şi care nu poate fi citită decât pe îndelete. Sursele de inspiraţie variază, cea de bază fiind Sfânta Scriptură, urmată de clasicii devoţionali unanim recunoscuţi, însă autorul nu se limitează doar la aceste izvoare. Cititorul atent va recunoaşte de îndată că textul datorează la fel de mult şi gânditorilor laici; iar dacă luăm în considerare faptul că autorul însuşi este un quaker, contribuţia proeminentă a autorilor clasici quakeri nu trebuie să ne surprindă. Putem include aici operele lui George Fox, John Woolman, Hannah Whitall Smith, Thomas Kelly şi mulţi alţii. Scopul nu este sectar, ci, din contră, unul profund ecumenic, de vreme ce studiile pătrunzătoare nu trebuie niciodată limitate la gruparea în care au prins viaţă. Drept urmare, ne aflăm în faţa unui mesaj ce poate fi universal împărtăşit. Problema simplităţii este, în mod special, tratată cu o deosebită profunzime, în parte tocmai pentru că nu e văzută ca simplă. Cu adevărat cele zece principii de exprimare exterixoară a simplităţii, pe care le găsim în capitolul 6, alcătuiesc o motivaţie suficientă pentru apariţia unei noi cărţi referitoare la viaţa spirituală. Deşi îşi au rădăcinile într-o înţelepciune străveche, cele zece principii enunţate sunt adaptate într-un mod remarcabil lumii contemporane. Autorul înţelege că accentuarea exagerată a simplităţii poate deveni ea însăşi o capcană. Din această cauză el ocoleşte hotărât îndemnul la o atitudine de sărăcie afişată, deşi afirmă răspicat: „Nu vă luaţi după mode, cumpăraţi-vă doar lucrurile de care aveţi nevoie.“ Dacă această propunere radicală ar fi adoptată de cât mai mulţi, ea ar elibera nenumăraţi oameni care cad victime reclamelor publicitare, în special a celor televizate. Ar izbucni o adevărată revoluţie culturală dacă un număr considerabil de oameni s-ar supune poruncii: „Renunţaţi la a fi strângători!“ Cele mai mari probleme ale zilelor noastre nu sunt cele tehnologice deoarece pe acestea încă le putem controla. Nu sunt nici măcar cele de natură politică sau economică, deoarece astfel de dificultă ţi, oricât de evidente ar fi, decurg, în mare parte, din complicaţii mai mari. Cele mai dificile probleme sunt, însă, cele de natură morală şi spirituală, şi, dacă nu vom face progrese în aceste domenii, însă şi supravieţuirea noastră ar putea fi periclitată. În acest mod s-au prăbuşit multe dintre culturile avansate ale trecutului. Tocmai de aceea, salut cu căldură apariţia unei lucrări cu adevărat mature despre cultivarea unei vieţi spirituale armonioase.

This helpful guide to Money, Sex & Power, Richard J. Foster's sequel to his bestselling Celebration of Discipline, expands the discussion of key issues and explores ways to move the principles involved into the arena of practical experience.This study guide offers a series of brief, incisive essays, followed by scriptural passages, that focus on what the Bible has to say about the three central themes of supreme importance in modern society. Study questions facilitate careful reading of Money, Sex & Power to reach a deeper understanding of how these subjects relate to the life of the individual, society, and the churchThis compact, helpful handbook -- designed for personal reflection or group study -- offers a systematic program for learning more fully how "we, as followers of Christ, are to deal with the many ethical choices we face almost daily."The author also provides an annotated bibliography of readings that open avenues for further study and reflection.

In 1978, Richard Foster's classic Celebration of Discipline sparked the Christian spiritual formation movement. Forty years later, at a church leadership conference, Foster delivered his final public talk which addressed new challenges Christians face on the road of becoming more like Jesus. That talk is now available in this brief booklet.All proceeds from this booklet support Renovaré, a nonprofit that helps people in becoming more like Jesus.Richard J. Foster is founder, past president, and current team member of Renovaré. He studied at George Fox College and received a Doctor of Pastoral Theology (D.Th.P.) from Fuller Theological Seminary. He has served as a pastor, taught at universities and seminaries, and spoken worldwide on spiritual formation. Author of over 60 articles and six books, including Celebration of Discipline, hailed by many as the best modern book on Christian spirituality, Richard continues to write on the spiritual life.Renovaré is a Christian nonprofit that models, resources, and advocates fullness of life with God experienced, by grace, through the spiritual practices of Jesus and of the historical Church. Christian in commitment, ecumenical in breadth, and international in scope, Renovaré helps people in becoming more like Jesus through print and online resources, gatherings and retreats, and educational initiatives like the Renovaré Institute. Learn more at renovare.org.

INCLUDES FINDING THE HEART'S TRUE HOME AND PRAYERS FROM THE HEART

Richard J. Foster teaches readers how to use the classical Christian techniques of meditation to enhance times of prayer.

Book by Richard Foster

First published in 1992, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home has become a classic on its eponymous subject. Awarded Christianity Today's Book of the Year award and the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association's Gold Medallion award, Prayer continues to receive widespread acclaim as one of the most thorough and insightful treatments of this central spiritual practice.Following the structure of his 1.2 million copy-selling Celebration of Discipline, Prayer explores three spiritual "movements" of prayer: inward, upward, and outward. Within each movement he looks at seven different types of prayer, for a total exploration of twenty-one separate forms of prayer.Coming to prayer is like coming home, Foster says. "Nothing feels more right, more like what we are created to be and to do." This accessible, rich, and reliable guide shows how each of the various forms of prayer can move us inward into personal transformation, upward toward intimacy with God, and outward to minister to others.

A fascinating story of architecture and the story of the English parish church and its people in the wider context of social history. Lavishly illustrated and filled with important facts, this book is a must for seasoned 'church browsers' and beginners alike.