Silencio: Reflective Practices for Nurturing Your Soul

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Matt Scott

“It’s in that place of deeper solitude and reflection that we meet the living God face to face, heart to heart.” – Steve Macchia  

Find a time and space for a personal retreat. Maybe you only have a few hours and a bench somewhere in nature. Schedule it and prioritize it because you will have a million reasons why you should fill it with something else. In this final episode of season 28, we continue to explore the spiritual practices that are at the heart of Leadership Transformations Inc. and have been celebrated throughout Christendom. This week, Steve and Matt discuss the transforming power of personal retreats. Three things are needed for personal retreats: a set time and place; attentive listening to and with God; and seeing retreat as a place of God’s transforming work. Matt talked about the need to guard retreats – unless we prioritize them, a million other things will demand our attention. Matt and Steve discussed the power of attentive listening that frees us from coming into retreats with predetermined ideas of what we need to hear from God. Finally, Steve speaks to the power of retreats as a place of meeting with God face to face. 

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net.

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Matt Scott

“You don’t need to memorize where all the Psalms are, just pray the Psalms.” – Steve Macchia 

 The Psalms are a reminder that God is not threatened by our emotions. He is big enough to handle the combination of human emotions – faith and doub, hope and despair, joy and sorrow. In episode thirteen, we continue to explore the spiritual practices that are at the heart of Leadership Transformations Inc. and have been celebrated throughout Christendom. This week, Steve and Matt reflect on praying the psalms. The Psalms teach us how to pray. Steve and Matt share practical ways to pray through the Psalms and some of their favorite Psalms. his episode concludes with a guided reflection to help you adopt the practice of praying the Psalms. 

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net.

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Matt Scott

“Our lives are driven by our loves – what we think about, dwell upon, what we allow to be enthroned in our hearts. When we re-order our loves, we re-order our lives.” – Matt Scott 

Simply put, we become what we love. In episode twelve, we continue to explore the spiritual practices that are at the heart of Leadership Transformations Inc. and have been celebrated throughout Christendom. This week, Steve and Matt reflect on re-ordering our loves. When we think about re-ordering our loves, we are talking about what are we attached to, what we think we can’t live without. The biggest factor in re-ordering our loves is to become aware of these things that we hold tightly. Steve and Matt share how these idols of the heart can be people, possessions, power, or persuasion. All of our disordered loves need to be diminished or released altogether. This day-by-day, moment-by-moment process allows Christ to become our greatest affection. 

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net.

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Matt Scott

“We all have a rule of life, a way of living, already. The question is, are we living in response to God’s invitation for us?” – Steve Macchia  

A “Rule of Life” has nothing to do with rules. The best way to translate it is the “way” of life. All of us have a rule of life already at work. The question is, are we living in the way that God wants us to be living?

In episode eleven, we continue to explore the spiritual practices that are at the heart of Leadership Transformations Inc. and have been celebrated throughout Christendom. This week, Steve and Matt focus on the practice of having a Rule of Life. Steve defines a Rule of Life as “Spirit-empowered rhythms and relationships that create, redeem, sustain, transform the lives that God invites us to humbly fulfill for Christ’s glory.” Steve and Matt share how a rule of life will be much more meaningful if we take the time to ask questions about our unique thumbprint and footprint. Our unique thumbprint has to do with the roles and relationships we have, our gifts, our desires, our vision, and our mission in life. Our unique footprint encompasses our spiritual life, our relational life, our physical life, our financial life, and our missional life.

If this episode has been helpful for you, you may be interested in other Rule of Life resources from LTI including online workshops, previous podcast episodes, the Crafting a Rule of Life book, and the www.ruleoflife.com website. 

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net.

“Gratitude is a remedy for my bent towards entitlement.” – Matt Scott 

 In this world filled with gripes, gossip, and guesswork in relationships, saying an occasional “thank you” is good for our souls. In episode ten, we continue to explore the spiritual practices that are at the heart of Leadership Transformations Inc. and have been celebrated throughout Christendom. This week, Steve and Matt focus on the practice of gratitude. Matt shares how gratitude is a remedy towards entitlement, the belief that God or others owe us something. Gratitude works in our discontentment, self-centeredness, and selfish ambition. Steve shares how we can express gratitude through trials, being able to say “Thank You Lord even for that tough experience in my life. This episode concludes with a guided reflection to help you adopt the practice of gratitude. 

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net.