“Spiritual disciplines” are things we do to stay in love with God and grow in faith. They can be things we do alone or together; they can be ways to spend time with God or to serve others. As the people of Sylva First UMC share one of their spiritual disciplines with you each week, we hope it will inspire you to new ways of loving God and growing in faith.
Hello my name is Alan R Brown. I have been Alan R Brown for as long as I can remember. For the last 7 years people have addressed things to my house as the Rev. & Mr. Alan R Brown and in the last 3 years things have been delivered to Rev. Dr. & Mr. Alan R Brown. However, in our church circles I am Mary’s husband. Being all those things is awesome because it allows me the opportunity to be a part of a church community like Sylva FUMC that fosters and promotes spiritual disciplines.
I really learned a lot about spiritual disciplines in my confirmation class growing up but they really took hold in my summers Working at Wilderness Trail. One of the main things we did every day hiking was taking quiet time to just sit and listen for God. This is something I try to do every day and it has evolved from sitting in the woods in the morning for 10 mins to just finding time to be quiet with my self and God. I do this either in the morning in my walks or in the afternoons on my commute home. Just to take time to pray and talk to God. Using these times allows me to be able to hear God speak.
In these times of quarantine spiritual disciplines like quiet time have an added bonus: not only do they keep me connected to God, but they also keep me connected to the people of this congregation because I know others are listening to God, too.
