Becoming Sage
Cultivating Meaning, Purpose, and Spirituality in Midlife
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- $199.00
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- $199.00
Descripción editorial
Why Do We Act Like There Is An Age Restriction on Spiritual Growth?
For the last several decades, Western churches have focused the bulk of their resources on the early stages of discipleship—children’s Sunday school, youth group, college ministry. While these are all important, we have neglected the spiritual growth of those in the second half of life. In fact, an outside observer might think that after the growth of the college years, the goal is simply to coast through the rest of your Christian life.
Michelle Van Loon has a different idea. In Becoming Sage, she challenges those in midlife and beyond to continue pursuing radical spiritual growth, and she’ll help you get started. She explores what the unique challenges of midlife can teach us about Jesus and how to think about everything from church, friends, and family, to money, bodies, and meaning. Don’t settle for a life of coasting. Revitalize your spiritual growth today.
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Van Loon (Born to Wander), a spirituality blogger, explores in this evocative guide the "gifts and challenges" unique to midlife that can be used to deepen one's spirituality. Van Loon provides advice on changing family dynamics, building friendships later in life, and accepting one's body, as well as a six-step plan (including prayers) for reconnecting to one's faith. She explains that older adults are leaving or cutting involvement in the church at high levels, often because churches provide primarily "family-centered programming." To provide what she feels is more relevant information to older readers, she includes chapters on how to manage finances (as a counterpoint to "prosperity preaching"), advice on searching out mental health resources, and encouragement for rethinking one's vocation later in life. A true sage, she says, is always growing in faith, hope, and love. "Maturity is forged from the beautiful and terrible and mundane stuff of our lives as we seek to crawl, stand, walk, and run with Jesus on our way to Real." Questions for individual reflection and group conversation accompany each chapter, and a reading list provides additional resources. This will be a helpful resource for people in midlife and for churches eager to offer help and understanding to this growing demographic.