Can Spiritual Formation Actually Be Measured?
A new wave of research is mapping how practices, relationships, and shared life reliably shape Christlike character — and why formation is always communal (Footnotes by John Ortberg).
A new wave of research is mapping how practices, relationships, and shared life reliably shape Christlike character — and why formation is always communal (Footnotes by John Ortberg).
Paralyzed at seventeen and a quadriplegic for nearly sixty years, Joni Eareckson Tada talks with John Ortberg about despair, anger at God, and pain. What emerges is a hard-won hope: that Jesus is "the treasure, not the consolation prize," a word for anyone whose circumstances may never be okay.
Why the transformation of the soul matters more than the miles (Footnotes by John Ortberg)
These three ministries encourage and facilitate pilgrimages of body and of soul (Footnotes by John Ortberg).
A generation exhausted by screens, speed, and endless self-optimization is trading comfort for meaning — and finding the road still has power to reshape a soul (Footnote by John Ortberg).
In this episode of Formation, John Ortberg sits down with a Silicon Valley pastor whose pursuit of attention, rest, and spiritual formation was interrupted by a panic attack — and reshaped by an ancient prayer practice, the problem with multitasking, and the rise of AI.
Maybe the church's deepest failure isn't lack of truth, but failure to take the inner life seriously. (Footnotes by John Ortberg.)
Christian ministries confront a long-ignored reality: spiritual growth stalls when emotions stay buried. From emotional honesty to trauma healing to mental-health-safe churches, transformation requires more than belief—it demands facing the soul’s hidden wounds. (Footnotes by John Ortberg.)
Success can hide astonishing levels of emotional isolation, and spiritual formation may be the last place we look. (Footnotes by John Ortberg.)
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