Before the conference unfolds with its rich conversations and impactful learning, what might it look like to begin by settling your soul in God’s presence? In this interactive intensive, Alan and Gem Fadling will guide you in creating space to slow down, listen to God, and arrive fully present before the conference begins. Through thoughtful teaching, guided reflection, scripture, and conversation with others, you will have the opportunity to notice what God may already be stirring in your heart and life. Together we will begin the conference in a grounded and attentive posture, open to the work God may want to do in us during our time at TAG.

What if the Christian life was never meant to be a single moment of decision — but an entire journey of transformation? Many of us pray, serve, and show up with sincerity, yet still feel stuck, weary, or uncertain whether real change is possible. Through teaching, reflection, and practice, Jonathan R. Bailey — author of Dwelling in Christ: Discover the Threefold Path of Spiritual Transformation — retrieves the Threefold Way, the ancient path of purgation, illumination, and union, as a framework for understanding how God actually changes us over time. Not a transaction at an altar, but a lifetime of learning, slowly and truthfully, to dwell in God.

In Matthew 18:2-3, Jesus issues one of his most audacious—and mysterious—instructions: “He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’” But what does it mean to become childlike again? In this inspirational yet practical intensive session, clinical psychologist Dr. Kelly Flanagan will explore the fundamental role of openheartedness in the journey back to childlikeness. A carefully crafted mixture of keynote presentation, experiential exercises, and group conversation will leave you with a vision for, and a path toward, the kingdom of heaven.

Two things stand out here. First, Willard had a lot to say about the letters of Paul, enough that one can put together his views on most Pauline themes (law, righteousness, grace, sin, gospel, spirit, flesh, cross, resurrection, life, etc.). Second, Willard’s interpretation has stayed under the radar and out of the fray of scholarly research on Paul. He seems to be doing his own thing that presents Paul as a master of spiritual formation and theology.

This intensive will look at the many places where Willard is interpreting Paul’s letters and putting together his own views of the central themes of Christian teaching. Is there a unique Willardian perspective on Paul? Maybe. If there is, it is one that finds an easy fit with Protestant spiritual formation in the 21st century.

There are many factors that play a role in Christian spiritual formation, but one that exerts outsized influence is desire, or the human capacity to want. There is a profound lack of honest discussion about desire; as a result, we often find ourselves scrambling alone to figure out what to do with our wants. But just because desire is out of sight and out of mind doesn’t mean it isn’t influencing our life, work, and faith in profound ways. This pre-conference intensive will introduce René Girard’s mimetic theory of desire. We will explore how the desires between us press on us more than we could know or say, and how working with these desires could be one of the most important keys to being formed in Christ’s likeness. You will be equipped with exercises and a biblical framework for navigating the pitfalls of desire, giving you access to tools for your own formation and for partnering with others in their formation, too

Do you long to connect with others who share the sacred ministry of companioning? Do you desire space held for you—when you are so often the one who holds it for others? Are you seeking renewal and ongoing nourishment for your ministry of spiritual direction?
Join us for a contemplative mini-retreat designed to foster connection, restoration, and gentle cultivation. Together, we will enter a spacious time to listen, reflect, and be companioned. This mini-retreat invites you to receive—personally and vocationally—so that your ministry may continue to flow from rootedness in the love of the Triune God.

What if the Christian life was never meant to be a single moment of decision — but an entire journey of transformation? Many of us pray, serve, and show up with sincerity, yet still feel stuck, weary, or uncertain whether real change is possible. Through teaching, reflection, and practice, Jonathan R. Bailey — author of Dwelling in Christ: Discover the Threefold Path of Spiritual Transformation — retrieves the Threefold Way, the ancient path of purgation, illumination, and union, as a framework for understanding how God actually changes us over time. Not a transaction at an altar, but a lifetime of learning, slowly and truthfully, to dwell in God.

Description: God’s grace enters our lives in places and ways we may overlook or even resist. And in the midst of God’s unexpected action, we are invited by the Trinity to respond and ultimately collaborate. Through storytelling, spiritual practices, and research based teaching, this intensive will look at the ways God’s grace might show up and how we can respond or resist these gifts. Further, we will unpack the surprising elements of slowness and specificity in our life with God. This material culminates in our increased capacity to say “Yes” to God’s invitations with greater trust, no matter what stage of faith or season of life we are experiencing.

Two things stand out here. First, Willard had a lot to say about the letters of Paul, enough that one can put together his views on most Pauline themes (law, righteousness, grace, sin, gospel, spirit, flesh, cross, resurrection, life, etc.). Second, Willard’s interpretation has stayed under the radar and out of the fray of scholarly research on Paul. He seems to be doing his own thing that presents Paul as a master of spiritual formation and theology.

This intensive will look at the many places where Willard is interpreting Paul’s letters and putting together his own views of the central themes of Christian teaching. Is there a unique Willardian perspective on Paul? Maybe. If there is, it is one that finds an easy fit with Protestant spiritual formation in the 21st century.

Although spiritual formation and spiritual direction programs have taken hold in many academic and parachurch settings, the expectations, structures, and habits of local churches can often seem resistant to a deep focus on Christian formation. We will seek to understand the historical, cultural, ecclesial, and personal forces that give rise to this situation. We will weave together insights from Richard Lovelace, Dallas Willard, Eugene Peterson, Ruth Burrows, and especially Jesus and his earliest friends, all of whom will help us uncover a realistic pathway to cultivate formation-minded pastors and formation-oriented churches.

Theologically speaking, as image-bearers of a triune God, we are formed in and for community. But as historian and theologian Carl Trueman noted, those living in the modern west are the first people in recorded history to participate in communities as autonomous individuals—an orientation that we bring into the church, explaining why most of us engage the spiritual disciplines as a private endeavor for developing individual or personal virtue. Thus, we can experience worship as “alone together,” and our small groups often fall short of providing the kind of connection needed to foster real spiritual growth. To form Christians as Jesus did, we need communities capable of providing the kind of relational attachments in which the hard, vulnerable work of Christlike formation can effectively occur. In this interactive workshop, we’ll present (and experiment with) a simple, replicable communal liturgy for Christlike formation that builds emotional intelligence, creates a culture for knowing and being known, and trains disciples to fulfill the biblical “one another” mandates, all by simply learning to steward the most valuable human asset, our attention.

This session explores how churches can move from a program-centered model to a culture centered on discipleship and spiritual growth. We will examine the practical roles, decisions, and responsibilities of pastors and lay leaders in shaping ministries that intentionally form believers into Christlikeness.

Jesus’s teaching on the Good Shepherd presents several models of leadership to avoid and to embrace. Learn how to spot the characteristics of a wolf, thief, and hired hand as well as differentiate what aspects of his leadership he fulfills and which he asks his followers to embrace.

What do we do with doubt in the Christian life? Is it something to embrace or resist? And, when we do experience doubt, what practices do we need to respond to doubt in honest, authentic, and faithful ways? What can we learn from Christians who have encountered and written on doubt in centuries past? What can we learn from the earliest Christian Monks about doubt? What is helpful and not so helpful about “deconstruction?” And how do we harness doubt as a time of spiritual and personal growth?

Jesus did not leave behind a book. He left behind a community. The purpose of the church has always been to produce people who resemble Jesus in character and lifestyle, and whose shared life embodies and announces the good news of God’s kingdom. Many churches today struggle to connect spiritual formation with the actual life of the church and its mission in the world. What might it look like to recover the church as a school of life that forms us in the way of Jesus?

In this workshop, we will explore formational ecclesiology: the church as a people shaped together in Christlikeness for participation in God’s mission. Drawing on themes that will appear in a forthcoming book, we will consider the metaphor of the church as a “pirate island,” a distinct community with its own rhythms and practices that forms disciples and sends them into the world to spread the holy mischief of God’s kingdom.

Kelly explores how Jesus, the Messiah, is not merely the object of our worship but also the chief worshiper. Drawing on sources from both scripture and historical theology, the lecture demonstrates that Christ, in his full incarnate life, loves the Father for us, weaving our fragmented prayers and imperfect praise into his own perfect faithfulness, thus providing a steady foundation for our uneven faith and life. We will have time for discussion as we consider how these matters affect our corporate and personal lives. [Drawing from Christian Life]

Distracted by doubts, societal pressures and taunting internal dialogues, it has become more challenging than ever to lean confidently into our God-given identity. We are more apt to let the critics, influencers and life’s disappointments mold our personality and our values. But are we so informed by the world that we forget we were first formed by the Creator of the world?

Dr. Amy Bragg Carey and her daughter Anna Marie Carey, authors of the newly released book Claimed by God, will detail the roundabout journeys that led them to step joyfully into their identities as daughters of the King. Together they will lead you through some powerful Scriptures and coinciding declarative statements to help you build life-giving, faith-strengthening disciplines into your day. Come be refreshed and reminded of who God has distinctly created you to be!

Many of us have been formed primarily through left-brain discipleship—teaching, Scripture study, and theology—yet neuroscience suggests that our character (who we are becoming) is shaped most deeply through right-brain encounters with God experienced in our bodies, relationships, and creativity.

In this highly experiential workshop, we will explore how engaging the imagination and the body can deepen our awareness of God’s presence and nurture more holistic formation. In Participants will be gently guided into practices that move beyond thinking about God to encountering God.
Together we will practice visio divina (praying with sacred images), imaginative prayer (entering the Gospel story), and simple embodied prayer rhythms that integrate movement, breath, and attention.

Whether you are new to contemplative practices or longing to deepen your spiritual journey, this session offers spacious, guided time to quiet the mind, awaken the heart, and cultivate a lived sense of God’s nearness.
Come ready to slow down, engage your senses, and encounter God with your whole self.

Exploring Hemispheric Differences in Attention, Perception, and Judgment, and Their Influence on our own growth and spiritual journey.
Iain McGilchrist, in his book The Master and His Emissary, writes that the way we pay attention determines the world we live in, and that our attention is a moral act. Understanding the ways our left and right hemispheres attend to, perceive, and move in this world has a profound impact on the way we live, grow, and relate.

In this seminar, we will take time to explore these differences and consider their impact on our spiritual lives and formation.

Childhood is a stage of rapid spiritual growth. Narratives about God and his kingdom emerge from early relationships and experiences, a child’s sense of identity takes shape, habits for or against the kingdom are cultivated and hardened, and a host of other spiritual capacities form or fail to form. Unfortunately, life today moves so fast that these foundations are hastily constructed, if at all. Hurried schedules, instant gratification, rapid consumerism, accelerated achievement, and fast media get in the way of time-tested cornerstones like Scripture and Stories, Sabbath, Time in nature, Opportunities to contribute to family and community life. Speeding kids past these and many other essentials is a primary contributing factor to the present crisis in spiritual maturity. In this workshop, we’ll overview some common gaps and cracks in modern childhood foundations and explore practical steps to slow the pace and reclaim the good. Drawing on the teaching of Dallas Willard, we’ll zoom in on the final bullet point—”Opportunities to contribute”—as one of the most essential cornerstones for shaping a child’s identity as a creative will and not just a consumer, as an indispensable member of Christ’s Body, and as a Kingdom-collaborator for all eternity.

Most of us want a deeper prayer life but don’t know where to start — or we’ve started and stalled. In this hands-on workshop, Jonathan R. Bailey introduces three accessible, ancient practices that can become lifelong companions: Little Lectio (a five-minute way of letting Scripture read you), Prompt Repentance (a practice of real-time honesty before God), and the Jesus Prayer (a breath-length prayer that has sustained Christians for centuries). You won’t just learn about these prayers — you’ll pray them.

For years in his clinical work, Dr. Kelly Flanagan’s experience of the soul did not match the way the soul is often described in theological discourse, as an untouchable, unoffendable, unwoundable thing. Then, several years ago, in one of Jim’s talks at The Apprentice Gathering, Jim described the soul as “a needy thing.” From there, Kelly began to explore the ways our soul gets wounded in childhood through the ordinary experiences of separation and loneliness, how we cope with those wounds by internalizing or externalizing blame for them, and how this leaves us stuck in cycles of conflict later in life. In this workshop, we’ll explore how to show up in our closest relationships, so that instead of reaggravating those wounds over and over again, we begin to heal them for good.

Instead of ministry “to,” “for,” or even “with” children, the theological turn calls for ministry “beside” children. The posture of “mutuality” emphasizes a move away from pushing and downloading content into children’s developing minds, and instead focuses on sharing life together and the mutual experience of encountering a living God in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came to us as a helpless baby who had to be carried by Mary and Joseph. Jesus grows up, declares we are all “children of God” and calls us to embrace the humility of a child. We need a new imagination for Children’s Ministry, prayer, and worship through embracing the ontological reality that we are all God’s children and the children we minister beside have much to say to us. The posture of a church community embracing that we are all children of God who need to carry each other in mutual interdependence is at the core of a flourishing community of Christian practice. When we interact with children in a posture of mutuality they minister to us, perhaps, even more than we minister to them. Mike will share information gleaned from a Youthfront project funded by Lilly Endowment involving thousands of children, hundreds of churches and a hundred Children’s and Family Pastors.

All sincere Christians want to “become more like Jesus,” more the person whom God wants us to be. But how does this actually happen? Practicing spiritual disciplines? Getting good therapy? Simply living life and getting more mature as we age? Dr. Adrian van Kaam spent a life-time living in intimacy with Jesus. He dedicated his long life as a WWII survivor, priest, psychologist, and scholar to observing and researching the ways that Christians across times and cultures found themselves growing in intimacy with God and being formed into the image of Christ. He summarized and shared his findings through the field of study he founded, formative spirituality. In this workshop, we will explore some of the most significant patterns van Kaam observed, what he identified as formative events and the spiritual dynamics surrounding them. We will explore formative events through scripture, stories from our shared Christian heritage, and reflection on our own lives. We will learn together how to identify everyday formative events in our own lives, and proven ways to cooperate “in real time” with God’s grace offered to us in such events to grow in intimacy with God. If you want to learn biblically grounded, experiential, integrative ways to become more like Jesus in daily life, “come and see.”

Whether crafting a stained-glass window or crafting the human soul, art requires theoretical and practical knowledge. Unfortunately, both types of knowledge—knowledge about the process and knowledge of how to proceed—can be lost. This workshop explores the recurring tendency of the Christian church, broadly construed, to mislay the understanding and informed practice required to make substantial progress in becoming like Christ. While not an extinct craft, the art of being conformed to Christ’s likeness has been on the endangered craft list for some time. After canvassing some of the conditions that have recently obscured the art of becoming Christlike, we turn to what it would take to reclaim the necessary understanding and know-how of Christian spiritual and moral formation

This workshop explores the many challenges to discipleship and unity within multicultural congregations. We will examine how discipleship can and ought to heal hurts that have been experienced by people of color, and identify pastoral and formational practices that help churches nurture healing, dignity, and Christ-centered unity.

Jesus made it clear to his followers that they should lead very differently than the authority figures around them. Hence, servant leadership is the distinctive of Christian Leaders, whose vocation is defined by gentleness rather than force. On the other hand, leaders need strength to protect the people in their care. Join us to learn how Scripture holds on to both these aspects as it directs leaders to be the kind of people who guide others to Jesus.

The rise of digital technologies and online life has de-centered our bodies from our experience of the world. As we lose connection with this material world of trees, rivers, sunlight, and especially, human bodies, we lose connection to the profound spiritual formation offered through it. Christianity is a profoundly material faith. Join Tish for a discussion of how the rise of digitization, AI, and the virtual world is not simply enhancing our experience of materiality but replacing and distorting it, creating a new digital gnosticism that we must resist through counter-formational communities and ancient embodied practices.

Jesus did not leave behind a book. He left behind a community. The purpose of the church has always been to produce people who resemble Jesus in character and lifestyle, and whose shared life embodies and announces the good news of God’s kingdom.
Many churches today struggle to connect spiritual formation with the actual life of the church and its mission in the world. What might it look like to recover the church as a school of life that forms us in the way of Jesus?

In this workshop, we will explore formational ecclesiology: the church as a people shaped together in Christlikeness for participation in God’s mission. Drawing on themes that will appear in a forthcoming book, we will consider the metaphor of the church as a “pirate island,” a distinct community with its own rhythms and practices that forms disciples and sends them into the world to spread the holy mischief of God’s kingdom.

In this highly experiential workshop, we will explore how engaging the imagination and the body can deepen our awareness of God’s presence and nurture more holistic formation. In Participants will be gently guided into practices that move beyond thinking about God to encountering God.
Together we will practice visio divina (praying with sacred images), imaginative prayer (entering the Gospel story), and simple embodied prayer rhythms that integrate movement, breath, and attention.

Whether you are new to contemplative practices or longing to deepen your spiritual journey, this session offers spacious, guided time to quiet the mind, awaken the heart, and cultivate a lived sense of God’s nearness.
Come ready to slow down, engage your senses, and encounter God with your whole self.

In this seminar, we will take time to explore these differences and consider their impact on our spiritual lives and formation.

There is a hunger for connection today. People are searching for faithful guides to help them find connection not just with others, but also with God and with themselves. However, walking alongside others in the journey of faith is not only important and challenging, but it is often shrouded in mystery. How do I walk alongside someone else well in their faith journey? What does it mean to be the kind of person who can hold others well, especially in seasons of challenge, wandering, or liminal spaces? This workshop, hosted by the lead mentors of The Companion: Apprenticeship in Spiritual Direction, will introduce you to core competencies for walking alongside others and give you a key skill to help you do that work.

A Rule of Life sounds rigid — but in the Christian tradition, it’s anything but. In this workshop, Jonathan R. Bailey explores the Rule of Life as a spiritual itinerary for your transformational journey toward God. Drawing on the riches of the monastic past, he provides practical insights into cultivating a personalized Rule — a living document that evolves with you, offering a structured yet flexible framework for spiritual transformation. Participants will explore the historical and spiritual origins of the Rule of Life and break down its essential ingredients, leaving with a framework they can actually begin to live.

In a culture that either moralizes sin or avoids the subject entirely, how can we speak about sin in ways that are honest, relational, and grounded in grace? Drawing from Barbara Brown Taylor’s book Speaking of Sin as well as the attachment framework of the “5 W’s” from Sacred Attachment, this workshop explores the insight that all sins are attempts to fill voids. Participants will learn how autonomy, independence, and misdirected desire shape human behavior—and how understanding sin relationally helps us take it more seriously while living more honestly, responsibly, and dependently before God.

A popular view of spirituality holds that the very best place for spiritual growth and well-being is somewhere remote and isolated, in cloisters, on mountain tops, in the woods or at least a house with lots of land and few neighbors. But Jesus’ spiritual movement, seen in the communities around the Mediterranean, thrived in social centers, both small and large cities, where his disciples did not withdraw from the surrounding social and economic life but remained connected. Since most people seeking a robust spiritual life today are similarly limited to living most of life in cities and towns, formation-minded leaders must develop models of spiritual growth suited to everyday life, a rigorously “non-contemplative” spirituality, especially in a day when Eastern spirituality is in vogue. In this session, we’ll explore the vast resources that Jesus’ spirituality (Western spirituality!) provides for this.

Whether crafting a stained-glass window or crafting the human soul, art requires theoretical and practical knowledge. Unfortunately, both types of knowledge—knowledge about the process and knowledge of how to proceed—can be lost. This workshop explores the recurring tendency of the Christian church, broadly construed, to mislay the understanding and informed practice required to make substantial progress in becoming like Christ. While not an extinct craft, the art of being conformed to Christ’s likeness has been on the endangered craft list for some time. After canvassing some of the conditions that have recently obscured the art of becoming Christlike, we turn to what it would take to reclaim the necessary understanding and know-how of Christian spiritual and moral formation

It has been said that the longest journey is the journey inward (E. deWaal). This workshop will draw from our ancient Celtic Christian brothers and sisters, whose purposes and postures for going on pilgrimage give helpful insight into making our own travels more meaningful, helping us convert our modern understanding of tourism (which in itself is, for the most part, morally neutral) and enhance it, making it an experience of eternal value. The final goal of pilgrimage becomes, ultimately, spiritual transformation into the image of Jesus himself, or as author Cintra Pemberton explains, “interior growth resulting from an exterior journey.” Whether your travels are abroad or to the park down the street, this workshop will suggest ways to be purposeful in your “coming out and going in.”