Critical Junctures

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Critical Junctures in the Spiritual Formation of Graduate Students and Young Faculty
Academic Event
Issue in Spiritual Formation
Helpful Spiritual Disciplines
Adjusting to graduate-
· Establishing and adjusting
· Sabbath
level workload
rhythms of work, rest, and
· Setting boundaries on work
sabbath
· Periodic retreats
Isolation and loneliness
· Finding and choosing community
· Prayer partnerships
· Small groups
· Discipline groups
· Giving of time and resources
Recognizing cognitive
· Understanding the relationship of · Discipline groups
dissonance between
doubt, faith, and unbelief
· Inductive Bible study
dominant ideas in your
· Choosing among bifurcation,
· Reading of theology and integrative
field and your under-
outright rejection of academic
Christian works
standing of the Christian
discipline or faith, and
· Mentoring and spiritual direction
faith
integration
Awareness of hostility
· Acknowledging and believing in
· Praying the divine office
toward or indifference to
the presence and providence of
· Prayer walking
God in the university
God in one's work
· Journaling
Encountering arrogance,
· By which rules will one "play the
· Intercessory prayer
competition, and politics
game"?
· Acts of service
· Biblical reflection on "servant"
passages
Preparing for major exams · What is the source of my identity · Supplicatory prayer
(general, qualifying, or
and hope?
· Learning to be served by others
comprehensive)
· Anxiety versus trust
"Heavy lifting" phase of
· Loving God with one's mind
· Dissertation support groups
dissertation research and
· Structuring one's time and efforts · Praying the divine office
writing
· Figuring out new patterns of
· Meditative reading of Scripture (not
productive work and renewing
intensive Bible study)
rest
· Sabbath
· Dealing with fears of failure
Dissertation defense,
· Discerning God's leading
· Dissertation support groups
interviews, post-docs, job
· Assessing one's motives
· Counsel of friends
offers
· Mentoring
Publishing and grant-
· Living by faith rather than
· Faculty prayer and support groups
raising necessary for
anxiety
· Faculty mentors
tenure and promotion
· Renewed identity concerns
· Prayer and meditation on biblical
promises
Balancing teaching,
· Establishing and adjusting
· Sabbath
research, and depart-
rhythms of work and rest
· Boundaries on work
mental service within the
· Non-negotiable commitments to
larger context of one's
worship and family life
calling and place in life
· "Tithing" of time
· Faculty support groups and mentors
Figuring out how to be salt · Discerning how God is working
· Faculty prayer and support groups
and light in one's immed-
through one's life, gifts, tempera- · Gift, temperament, and witness-style
iate setting and academic
ment, and personality
tools
discipline
· Journaling
· Writing a "mission statement"
© 2003 by Bob Trube and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA
rev 2003-11-14a
http://www.intervarsity.org/gfm/

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