Developing One’s Personal Prayer Life: An Essential Element for Spiritual Formation in the Fundamental Evangelical Community

Abstract

In this Doctor of Ministry Research Portfolio, the author explored spiritual formation, being formed into the image of Christ, from three perspectives: her spiritual autobiography, instructional model of spiritual formation, and action research project. One of the major themes that surfaced in the author’s spiritual autobiography (Chapter II: Getting to Know God—A Lifelong Process) was how God used various aspects of instruction to lead her to a saving faith in the Lord as well as to aid in forming her spiritually. Drawing from this, she developed her model of spiritual formation as an instructional one. Based on the ongoing work of God and the directive of the Great Commission to make and teach disciples, this model (Chapter III: Making Disciples—An Instructional Model of Spiritual Formation) examined instructional considerations and included applications for formal worship and personal and public practices. The third perspective of spiritual formation in this portfolio involved an action research project that used the author’s instructional model and another theme that emanated from her spiritual biography, prayer. This action research project took the form of an online prayer workshop (Chapter IV: An Online Personal Prayer Workshop Designed for Vulnerable Evangelicals) and was designed to explore various aspects of prayer, while also considering the impact of one’s personality type and spiritual temperaments. While participants reported an enhanced prayer life and a deeper relationship with God, recommended modifications to the model are noted in Chapter V. Overall, this workshop and portfolio both demonstrate that instruction can be an effective means to foster spiritual formation.