Editor of The Upper Room focuses on authentic spirituality
Bryant tells Martin Methodist audience to take time and listen for God
Dr. Stephen Bryant, world editor of The Upper Room, was the guest speaker for Martin Methodist College’s two-night Festival of Faith in April.
PULASKI, Tenn. — The world editor and publisher of The Upper Room ministries told audience members at Martin Methodist College’s annual Festival of Faith that the search for an authentic Christian spirituality requires a keen awareness of God’s world and each person’s place within it.
Dr. Stephen Bryant, who oversees The Upper Room and also serves as Associate General Secretary of the General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church, offered his insights during one-hour evening programs on April 24-25. His topic was “In Search of an Authentic Christian Spirituality.”
“What is it we’re seeking?” Bryant asked the faculty, staff, students, and visitors from the community gathered in Martin Hall. “I think we’re seeking a deeper, abiding awareness of who we are together in God, from which all the rest flows.”
He said that individuals possessing an authentic Christian spirituality had an obvious impact throughout history.
“The world is a difference place, a better place, a brighter place because these people walked among us,” he said, noting such examples as Mother Teresa, John Wesley, and Thomas Merton.
The search for an authentic Christian spirituality begins, he said, wherever a person finds himself. He pointed to the Old Testament saga of Jacob, who had been cast out by his family and was roaming the wilderness in despair. He then had a dream in which God spoke to him.
“Now Jacob was always looking for a ladder, a way to get a foot up, always looking for a better option,” Bryant said, “but in this case, he is not waking up and saying, ‘I’ve got to climb that ladder and get out of this place.’ Instead, he awoke and saw the desolate place where he was as a gateway to heaven. His search began right where he was in his life.”
Bryant also discussed what he termed “spiritual narcolepsy,” where one’s awareness and sensitivity to God’s presence in all things can drift into dullness.
“Sometimes I’ve had to wonder if I’m awake, if I haven’t drifted off to sleep and lost awareness of who I am with God,” he said in talking about his own spiritual life. “That’s when we’re reminded, no matter how dry our desert might be at the moment, that ‘surely God is in this place.’”
However, the speed and distraction of the world around us, he added, can make it difficult to divine God’s presence with us and can contribute to that “spiritual narcolepsy.”
“Where do we build Sabbath time?” he asked. “It’s when we stop our doing and be aware of God’s doing. The authentic Christian spirituality is two-fold: contemplative and active, and it’s the contemplative aspect for which we often have to make time.”
He told of a woman who spent each visit with her pastoral counselor by endlessly talking about all the problems surrounding her life. Eventually, he told her to stop talking, go to her room, and just listen. When she returned for her next visit, she was a changed person, now talking about the wonders of God’s world all around her that she had never taken time to notice.
“She started by mentioning the potted plant in her room,” Bryant said. “She told her counselor that she had never noticed how breathtakingly beautiful the plant truly was. Then she talked of all the other wondrous aspects of God’s presence that she noticed.
“It’s from our listening that our social justice comes from,” he went on to say. “If we have an inner emptiness, then we have an empty activism. But as I have read the Bible, the heart of listening is to be found in the Hebrew word ‘xxx,’ meaning ‘here am I.’”
Bryant was elected to his post with The Upper Room in 1997. The Upper Room is an international, interdenominational ministry focused on the practices needed to strengthen personal and congregational spirituality. While its devotional guides are printed at The United Methodist General Board of Discipleship, the resources are used to encourage the life of Christian disciples in various denominations through 82 editions and 44 languages. The Upper Room is also known for its prayer ministries, the Walk to Emmaus movement, and in its response to recent natural disasters, such as the tsunami and hurricanes.
Dr. Stephen Bryant, world editor of The Upper Room, was the guest speaker for Martin Methodist College’s two-night Festival of Faith in April.PULASKI, Tenn. — The world editor and publisher of The Upper Room ministries told audience members at Martin Methodist College’s annual Festival of Faith that the search for an authentic Christian spirituality requires a keen awareness of God’s world and each person’s place within it.
Dr. Stephen Bryant, who oversees The Upper Room and also serves as Associate General Secretary of the General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church, offered his insights during one-hour evening programs on April 24-25. His topic was “In Search of an Authentic Christian Spirituality.”
“What is it we’re seeking?” Bryant asked the faculty, staff, students, and visitors from the community gathered in Martin Hall. “I think we’re seeking a deeper, abiding awareness of who we are together in God, from which all the rest flows.”
He said that individuals possessing an authentic Christian spirituality had an obvious impact throughout history.
“The world is a difference place, a better place, a brighter place because these people walked among us,” he said, noting such examples as Mother Teresa, John Wesley, and Thomas Merton.
The search for an authentic Christian spirituality begins, he said, wherever a person finds himself. He pointed to the Old Testament saga of Jacob, who had been cast out by his family and was roaming the wilderness in despair. He then had a dream in which God spoke to him.
“Now Jacob was always looking for a ladder, a way to get a foot up, always looking for a better option,” Bryant said, “but in this case, he is not waking up and saying, ‘I’ve got to climb that ladder and get out of this place.’ Instead, he awoke and saw the desolate place where he was as a gateway to heaven. His search began right where he was in his life.”
Bryant also discussed what he termed “spiritual narcolepsy,” where one’s awareness and sensitivity to God’s presence in all things can drift into dullness.
“Sometimes I’ve had to wonder if I’m awake, if I haven’t drifted off to sleep and lost awareness of who I am with God,” he said in talking about his own spiritual life. “That’s when we’re reminded, no matter how dry our desert might be at the moment, that ‘surely God is in this place.’”
However, the speed and distraction of the world around us, he added, can make it difficult to divine God’s presence with us and can contribute to that “spiritual narcolepsy.”
“Where do we build Sabbath time?” he asked. “It’s when we stop our doing and be aware of God’s doing. The authentic Christian spirituality is two-fold: contemplative and active, and it’s the contemplative aspect for which we often have to make time.”
He told of a woman who spent each visit with her pastoral counselor by endlessly talking about all the problems surrounding her life. Eventually, he told her to stop talking, go to her room, and just listen. When she returned for her next visit, she was a changed person, now talking about the wonders of God’s world all around her that she had never taken time to notice.
“She started by mentioning the potted plant in her room,” Bryant said. “She told her counselor that she had never noticed how breathtakingly beautiful the plant truly was. Then she talked of all the other wondrous aspects of God’s presence that she noticed.
“It’s from our listening that our social justice comes from,” he went on to say. “If we have an inner emptiness, then we have an empty activism. But as I have read the Bible, the heart of listening is to be found in the Hebrew word ‘xxx,’ meaning ‘here am I.’”
Bryant was elected to his post with The Upper Room in 1997. The Upper Room is an international, interdenominational ministry focused on the practices needed to strengthen personal and congregational spirituality. While its devotional guides are printed at The United Methodist General Board of Discipleship, the resources are used to encourage the life of Christian disciples in various denominations through 82 editions and 44 languages. The Upper Room is also known for its prayer ministries, the Walk to Emmaus movement, and in its response to recent natural disasters, such as the tsunami and hurricanes.
