Renovare course

We haven't started a church yet, but we are doing the Renovare (Latin for renewal) course. It is a course for small groups which goes through six Christian traditions (all rooted in Jesus) and what we should learn from them to be a balanced Christian.

The traditions are:

• Contemplative - the prayer filled life
• Holiness - the pure life
• Charismatic - the Spirit empowered life
• Social Justice - the compassionate life
• Evangelical - the Word centered life
• Incarnational - living Jesus in everyday life

We have done the first three, and each week had a piece of homework (a spiritual exercise) to complete. Knowing I'm going to be accountable to someone to do what I have said I would do has been a great motivation to actually do it.

We've eaten as part of our meeting, and that's been important. It's created deeper fellowship and made us more relaxed with each other.

The book we've been using is called A Spiritual Formation Workbook, by James Bryan Smith. The Renovare website is poorly organised and doesn't state clearly that this is where to start; in fact, I couldn't find this book on their site just now. You might be better getting it from Amazon.

Richard Foster, founder of Renovare, has written an amazing book called Streams of Living Water, which goes through all the traditions. It's an enriching read; it made me excited about church history and about bringing together so many Christian traditions in my life.