Our partners at Cultivating Communities have just launched The Shape of Our Lives! To celebrate, they’re giving away free copies to the first 100 people who register for Awakenings 2025 at the regular rate. Register now to snag yours! 

The Shape of Our Lives digs into six factors—desire, conviction, character, story, practice, and institution—that often operate beneath our consciousness but profoundly affect our spiritual formation, both as individuals and congregations. As Christians across America grapple with the value and purpose of church, this accessible volume provides a roadmap for exploring what motivates and forms us.

The Shape of Our Lives is for:

• Church leaders who want their communities to be transformed

• Followers of Jesus who desire more depth in their relationships with God

• Small groups journeying together through spiritual formation

• Congregations grappling with how to be a faithful Christian community in a culture defined by partisanship and division

• Anyone who senses they somehow missed or overlooked the foundations of congregational formation

How does a community of people—with their different and sometimes competing values—grow together? How can congregations make room for God’s spirit to be at work? The Shape of Our Lives will give you and your Christian community the language to renew these conversations and embark on the journey of congregational formation.