Where do we find God? How do we find God? Does God only show up in our pristine sanctuaries, with dark wooden pews, high lofty ceilings, and brightly colored stained glass windows? Does God speak only through well-tuned choirs, eloquent prayers, and polished and well-rehearsed preachers? Of course the answer is a resounding “No.” But do we really live out of that belief or do we instead offer implicit claims that indeed these are the only places and the only ways that God shows up in our world, the only altars where the divine is met?

In her latest book, An Altar in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor offers us new ways of experiencing God whenever and wherever we may find ourselves. Taylor shares with us a series of spiritual practices, but not necessarily ones with which we may be familiar — for instance, the practices of getting lost, of saying no, of feeling pain. 
While writing from a uniquely Christian perspective, Taylor draws on all of her faith experiences that have come before and after she left church, a story that is told in her most recently successful book, Leaving Church. Thus inviting us all into a richer and broader way of living and being in our bodies, our church, and our world. Never have I been told to look at myself in the mirror naked, to “wear my skin” as a spiritual practice, but that is what I was asked to do in Altar. (I haven’t worked up to that one yet.) 
Barbara Brown Taylor writes with honesty, sincerity and authenticity about all of these spiritual practices and how difficult they are at times for her to live out. She might also be the first person I’ve ever read who introduces her chapter on prayer by saying she doesn’t really like to pray. (Finally, a chapter on prayer I can read without feeling guilty about my own prayer life.) This is the book for me, and I think this is a book for all people traveling on a spiritual and faith-filled path, a path that invites us to stand up from our comfortable pews and step outside the doors of our sanctuaries not just to meet the creator but also to walk along side Her. 

I would have read this book because I love Barbara Brown Taylor, but it has also been a helpful way for me to begin this next year of exploration of what we mean when we say spiritual formation or spiritual practices. As we begin planning the Alliance Convocation for 2010 at Asilomar in Pacific Grove, California, the committee is asking this question.   Over the next several months various Alliance members will reflect on these questions as well. Look for their thoughts in future connections. You can buy An Altar in the World through the Alliance Store and then join us next summer to engage in an array of spiritual practices and perhaps even create some new ones of your own.