Faith Formation Resources for Adults

The Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida recently hosted the 2013 Missio Conference, exploring Fresh Expressions and the Emergent Church.  You can find Faith Formation Resources on the Emergent Church here!

Open Bible     Bible Study Resources

The Text This Week

Studying scripture by the liturgical calendar? The Text This Week offers a virtual study desk for students, teachers and preachers. Click on a date to find direct links to a wide variety of contemporary and historical resources for study & liturgy for each lectionary week and pericope, or check out the Scripture Index to locate links to study resources relating to specific passages. Artwork indexed by Biblical theme can be found in the Art Concordance. And check out the Movie Concordance for lists of movies indexed by spiritual theme.

The Voice

The Voice is the web presence of the Christian Resource Institute, the internet ministry of CRI/Voice, Institute, an independent 501c3 non-profit corporation based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. While representing a particular theological tradition (Wesleyan), the goal of CRI/Voice is ecumenical and global.  The Voice offers a wealth of resources for Bible study and liturgical planning.  Included is a link to the Voice Bible Study Series, a series of detailed Bible Studies on various books of both Old and New Testaments for small groups, churches, or individual devotional study.

Online Christian Bookshelf

As the name suggests, this site is a (very large!) Christian bookshelf with many sources for personal and group Biblical study.  Includes links to many significant writings from early Church history.

 

Episcopal shield           Episcopal 101

 

The Episcopal Church

 Whether you are a “cradle Episcopalian” or new to the denomination, you need to take a look at the many resources available on the national church website.  The site is organized around the themes: what we believe, what we do, and who we are.  Download the Book of Common Prayer, find out what’s going on in the Episcopal Church at large, and use the website library to locate images, sermons, lesson plans, bulletin inserts, and video archives.

 The Episcopal Cafe

 This is an independent website featuring news, commentary, art, meditations, and video related to the Episcopal Church.  The Lead offers news and commentary, Daily Episcopalian provides blog posts on theology, peace & justice, and popular culture, Speaking to the Soul provides sermons, reflections, and posts on spirituality.

Vital Practices for Leading Congregations

ECF Vital Practices offers vestry members and other people of faith, resources and tools to respond to the changing needs of the Church. Building upon the spiritually grounded, practical Vestry Papers articles that have inspired and informed vestry members since 1995, Vital Practices uses the Internet to both expand its offering and its audience.  Vital Practices explores new ways of supporting congregations by building online communities of Episcopalians who share their stories, experiences, and best practices, who learn from one another, and who discover support to help sustain their leadership and their ministries. It includes articles by experts and peers, blogs for sharing ideas about faith and leadership, stories about real life lessons of change and leadership, tools for stewardship, communications, and opportunities for you to share your stories and examples.

Building the Continuum

This is a website supporting Formation & Vocation in the Episcopal Church, started by a summit meeting in November 2011.  The focus of this summit was “How might Christian lifelong formation over the next ten years affect the renewal and transformation of the Episcopal Church in a 21st century world?”  Check this site to see how the question of faith formation is being answered by today’s Episcopal Church.

 

Praying hands      Daily Devotionals

The Lectionary

No time for daily Bible readings?  No problem!  The Lectionary offers links to daily and Sunday Bible readings, daily devotionals, and various commentary resources.

The Daily Office

The Daily Office is an ancient way to pray. It marks the passage of time by offering Morning and Evening Prayer as written in the Book of Common Prayer of The Episcopal Church.  Each service features psalms, one or two Bible readings, prayers, and occasionally other texts as well.  Take advantage of the email subscription, bringing the Daily Office to your inbox twice daily!

Forward Day by Day

Forward Movement, a ministry of the Episcopal Church, grew out of the determination of the General Convention in 1934 to counter a period of anxiety, distrust, and decline in the Episcopal Church with a "forward movement" charged to "reinvigorate the life of the church and to rehabilitate its general, diocesan, and parochial work."  Best known for the popular daily devotional Forward Day by Day, which provides daily meditations based on scripture readings appointed by the lectionary and Daily Office. Forward Day by Day is now published in English, Spanish, large print, audio cassette, Braille editions, and the daily meditation is available online.

 

Lifelong Learning      Lifelong Learning

Q: Ideas for the Common Good

The creators of this site state: “We believe that inherent in Christian faithfulness is the responsibility to create a better world, one that reflects God’s original design and intention.  Q is a place where leaders can explore what that might look like.”  What can you find here?  Timely articles on contemporary culture, science, and government, as well as thought-provoking writing about the Church and Gospel living.

On Being with Krista Tippett

On Being is a spacious conversation—and an evolving media space—about the big questions at the center of human life.  This public radio broadcast started as an occasional series in 1999, later becoming a weekly program entitled Speaking of Faith.  Download edited interview podcasts or listen to the full, unedited conversation online.

TED: Ideas Worth Spreading

TED is a nonprofit dedicated to ideas worth spreading.  TED brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, challenging them to talk about their lives in 18 minutes or less!  The best of these talks and performances (more that 1400) are then made available for free on their website.