Grounding Our Faith:
Prayer and Spiritual Practices for Challenging Times

A virtual conference with Dr. Faith Nostbakken

Our study conference this year will be held online. Click on the session titles below to join, or find the links on our events page.

Friday, February 5, 2021 Friday – 7:00 pm
Spiritual Practices to Help Us Thrive

We will explore what constitutes spiritual practice and what we can draw upon in our Christian heritage to keep ourselves well, engaged, and hopeful in these challenging times. How do we consider our lives holistically and pay attention to some very basic aspects of care? These include care of the body (the Temple of the Spirit); solitude and community (our relationships); prayer (our connection with God); Sabbath (our relationship to time); and service (our call to give and receive in community—the gospel invitation).

Saturday, Feb. 6, 2021 – 10:00 am
Pathways to Prayer – Each Person is Unique

Prayer: What is it? In this session, we will look at different understandings and explanations of prayer. We will consider various ways to approach and enter into prayer and how our temperament or personality might attract us to one way of prayer rather than another.

Saturday, Feb 6, 2021 – 7:00 pm
Reading Scripture as Prayer

We can read the Bible for information, and we can read the Bible for spiritual formation. One is a form of study and the other a form of prayer. In this session we will turn to a centuries’-old practice of praying Scripture known as lectio divina (sacred reading) that engages our ears, our minds, and our hearts as we open ourselves slowly, quietly, receptively to God’s Word.

Sunday, Feb 7, 2021 – 10:00 am
Sermon: Lord, Teach Us to Pray

The disciples requested of Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray,” and he gave them the Lord’s Prayer. How might we continue to include this prayer in our own spiritual practice not simply as words we recite but as petitions that draw us closer to God in all our circumstances?

Faith Nostbakken is an experienced spiritual director and retreat facilitator at the Providence Renewal Centre in Edmonton, and an ordained deacon of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. She has a Master of Theological Studies and a PhD in English Literature, having taught at the University of Alberta and authored several books. Currently she is also pursuing a Doctor of Ministry at the Saskatoon Theological Union. She is also a photographer, writer, and educator here in Edmonton.