Question 2: How will you get there? This question asks further questions. How will you invest yourself in the Formation Program? How can you use the resources available in the community around you to assist in your formation? Will there be retreats, days of prayer, and spiritual direction available to you and will participate in some of them? What tools (such as keeping a log or journal) can you use to grow in a contemplative stance toward your life and work/ministry?

I have reviewed the calendar for the oblate classes, and so far as I can project I can make myself available for all the classes and retreats over the year-long process. Also, through the Benedictine Center I will make use of classes which may relate to my spiritual formation goals, and also personal retreat times. One regular event I may choose to participate in is Taizé Prayer, and I am planning on attending the Unceasing Prayer: An Introduction to Various Forms course. In addition to the resources I may find within St. Paul’s Monastery, I have detailed other resources available to me in the third section of this application.

Other event-type resources that I have scheduled for spiritual formation over the next year include family camp and a mid-year pastor’s retreat. I will be attending as a leader the Follow 2015 Youth Conference, and speaking at the IA-MN District Young Adults Retreat. I also hope to integrate my oblate journey with my journey through the Living Stones discipleship program at Oakdale Wesleyan Church. Weekly, I participate in the Lectio: Guided Bible Reading from The Center for Biblical and Theological Education at Seattle Pacific University. I am also allotted one week of academic time away from my church.

Writing will be my primary tool for growing “in a contemplative stance toward life and work/ministry.” My plan is for the majority of my writing to go on my blog at imitatiodei.org. This will provide another way of bringing others along on my journey as well. However, anything of a more private nature I will reserve for my personal journal. I will also have the availability of those in my coaching network to provide me with feedback. Most importantly I will have personal meditation in conjunction with the work of the Holy Spirit (John 16:13), who is also ultimately the primary one accompanying me on the journey.