Welcome to 14,000 feet with Nathan Foster, a podcast about the essentials of Christian Spiritual Formation.  Whether you’ve been a Christian all your life or are at the beginning of a spiritual journey, this podcast will challenge you to live out the Christian faith.

This episode features special guest Kai Nilsen, Renovaré board member and pastor of Peace Lutheran church in Gahanna, Ohio. Nathan and Kai discuss Renovaré’s Essential conference and genuine Spiritual Formation in community. Kai relates how he first became involved with Renovaré, and how meeting people like Dallas Willard and Richard Foster made their writings come more alive to him. Dallas Willard impacted Kai’s life with his great example of servant leadership.

Kai also talks about how churches in his area came together, working across denominational lines, to accomplish MISSION in the Kingdom. He addresses: what you need to leave behind to start working together; how working together can meet needs in the community; and the one question you need to ask to start making an impact on today’s culture.

Prayer for the Podcast:

Father, you created us for Kingdom community. So often we let our agendas, our pride, and our ego get in the way. Because of this your church is splintered, and will often stay behind its own walls instead of impacting our culture and changing lives. Help us, Father, to work together. Help us to reach our communities. Help us to effect real change where we live and work. You prayed this very prayer for us while on this earth.

²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17 (NIV) Help us to live in this truth today. Thank you, Father.

Welcome to 14,000 feet with Nathan Foster, a Podcast about the essentials of Christian Spiritual Formation.  Whether you’ve been a Christian all your life or are at the beginning of a spiritual journey, this podcast will challenge you to live out the Christian faith.

In this final episode of a three-part conversation between Nathan and his father Richard J. Foster, the discussion centers around where Richard sees the Spiritual Formation movement headed today. Richard and Nathan explore the danger that comes in having the language of Spiritual Formation without the life. Richard shares more about his friendship with Dallas Willard and also talks about the desert fathers.

Prayer for the Podcast:

Lord, I praise you today for your infinite knowledge and goodwill towards us.  Grant us a deeper grasp of YOUR wisdom, and a stronger commitment to live out your word. May the winds of your Holy Spirit blow through us. Thank you, Lord, for the wisdom shared in your Word. You are our ultimate teacher, guide, and counselor.

Welcome to 14,000 feet with Nathan Foster, a Podcast focusing on the essentials of Christian Spiritual Formation and applying those essentials to real life.  If you’ve been a Christian all your life or are on a spiritual journey, this podcast will challenge your assumptions about living out the Christian faith.

This is part two of a three-part interview between Nathan and his father Richard J. Foster. (Listen to the first podcast here.) These podcasts were recorded during a Renovaré Spiritual Formation Institute retreat in May, 2013, following the recent death of Richard’s friend, Dallas Willard.

In this episode Richard tells of his last visit with Dallas and relates more stories about their friendship. One story is about Dallas and Richard going to a prayer seminar. Can you picture it?  A Baptist invited a Quaker to a Lutheran church to hear an Anglican? Things like that didn’t happen in 1970. And Richard admits he wasn’t excited about going. God’s timing is never wrong. Not only did Richard learn an important lesson about prayer that day, he also made new friends. Agnes Sanford was the Anglican teaching about prayer and Bill Vaswig was the pastor of the Lutheran church. Bill and Agnes both became close friends of Richard and Dallas.

Listen in as Richard shares these stories and recollections with love and humor.

Prayer for the Podcast:

Lord, I praise you for your Kingdom. I pray that we, your church, may live in awareness of it every day. Give me a Kingdom mind and heart. Help me to learn to walk closely with you and not to run ahead. Set my feet on a firm foundation of prayer and scripture. Thank you for those leaders and teachers who have helped me know your truth.