Don’t conform yourselves to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your minds, so that you can judge what God’s will is – what is good, pleasing and perfect.

– Romans 12:2 (The Inclusive Bible)

What Is Forming Us?

Even long after my last first days of school, late August still carries its own kind of energy. Calendars begin to fill, familiar rhythms start up again, and there is a sense of something beginning. Are you feeling this too? In this transition, I feel the pull to pause and not only think about fall plans, but also wonder who we are becoming and what is shaping us.

While we often think of formation happening in our childhood or college days, we don’t ever stop being shaped. Every day we are being formed by something, whether it’s the stories we hear, the headlines we read, the relationships we nurture, the practices we do, the fears we carry, or the hopes we cling to. Whether we are aware of it or not, all of it is shifting how we see the world.

This has been squarely on my mind ever since I heard Bishop LaTrelle Easterling speak at a United Methodist gathering for immigrant justice. Reflecting on the disconnect that can emerge between the faith Christians profess and the ways we learn to see and respond to our neighbors, she named “the miseducation of the baptized.” The phrase points to the reality that even people deeply rooted in the Church are still being shaped by the assumptions, values, and messages around us. The question is not whether we are being formed, but whether we are intentional about what is doing the forming.

Christian formation, then, isn’t simply about learning more. It is about allowing the way of Jesus to continually reshape how we understand God, our neighbors, ourselves, and the world. That kind of formation rarely happens in isolation. It happens around tables with open Bibles and open hearts, when someone else’s question helps us hear Scripture in a new way or a different perspective stretches our imagination. It happens as we learn practices that ground us in God’s presence, listen more deeply to one another, and build relationships where grace has room to do its quiet work.

This fall, there are many ways to find a place within that work at Saint John’s. Disciple One and Bread & Belonging gather weekly to dive into the Bible and consider how Scripture speaks into our lives and our world. Guest speakers and book studies will help us consider faithful responses to Christian nationalism. Our Contemplative Retreats will introduce practices for deepening our connection with God, while Listening Well will help us practice hearing one another with greater curiosity, humility, and care.

These classes, along with small groups and Sunday School classes that gather throughout the year, give us places to learn and people to question, practice, listen, and grow with. They help us be intentional about who we are becoming together.

As we begin again this season, I wonder what it might look like for each of us to pay closer attention to what is forming us – and how that formation might change us and change the world. Where might you make room for a new question, a different voice, a deeper relationship, or a practice that draws you closer to God? How might the Spirit be forming you?

Our Festival of New Beginnings this Sunday is a chance to meet leaders, learn about what’s ahead, and find a place to begin. I hope you’ll join us.