Changing Life Patterns: Adult Development in Spiritual Direction

Designed to help pastors and worship planners integrate four of the most important biblical themes into worship, each volume provides complete services for a number of different scripture passages. These resources can be used in conjunction with the new Bible Quest curriculum or in other worship contexts, including churches that follow the lectionary.The services, written by pastors and lay leaders from several denominations, feature a call to worship, an opening prayer, a prayer of confession, words of assurance, prayers of the people, a children's sermon, two sermon starters, an offering meditation, an offering prayer, a communion meditation, and a benediction.This landmark work, originally published in 1992, traces the various stages of spiritual development and discusses how developmental change can be fostered in individual and congregational settings.Elizabeth Liebert has developed an excellent resource for seminary classrooms and pastors. Her new chapter in this edition offers particularly helpful reflection on religious leadership in contemporary North American life. I'm delighted to continue to use this book in my classes.