001. How God Gets Our Attention and the Pace of Formation ft. Tyler Staton

What does it mean to know God, not as a doctrine held, but as a presence inhabited? Tyler Staton joins John for the first conversation in Formation's history: an unhurried exploration of how the Holy Spirit forms us, why prayer is less about technique than attention, and what it looks like to discover God not only in the sanctuary but in the chaos of a basketball sideline, a marriage, and a cancer diagnosis. This is a conversation about the ancient and the empirical, and how sometimes we may look for formation in all the wrong places.

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About Tyler Staton:

Tyler Staton is the lead pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon, and the national director of 24-7 Prayer USA. He is the author of two books — Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools and The Familiar Stranger — both of which take seriously the gap between what Christians say they believe about God and what they actually experience in daily life. Tyler studied at Southeastern University and has spent much of his ministry in New York and Portland, two cities that have sharpened his theology as much as any classroom. He told us that his cancer diagnosis a few years ago didn't lead him to pray for healing — it led him to ask what God might want to form in him through limitation. That is the kind of practitioner he is.

What this conversation explores:

• Why the Holy Spirit is the most neglected and most contested person of the Trinity and what a more integrated pneumatology might actually look like in ordinary life
• Dallas Willard's "golden triangle" of spiritual formation: practices, movements of the Spirit, and suffering, and why removing any one of the three is detrimental 
• The difference between discernment and miracle-seeking, and why Tyler believes the deeper invitation of the Spirit is often hidden inside what we're most eager to escape
• What it means to "find yourself in the story" — Tyler's practice of praying through Scripture in seasons of doubt, loss, and confusion
• How family life and marriage in particular function as formation's most honest classroom

Resources mentioned:

• Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools — Tyler Staton
• The Familiar Stranger — Tyler Staton
• Renovation of the Heart — Dallas Willard
• Fresh Air: The Holy Spirit for an Inspired and Empowered Life — Jack Levison
• Miracles — C.S. Lewis
• Ministry and the Miraculous — Lewis Smedes
• The Protestant Spiritual Formation Movement — Todd Keesler
• The Examen

Connect with Tyler Staton:

Website: bridgetown.church

Instagram: @tylerstaton

Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools, available wherever books are sold

The Familiar Stranger, available wherever books are sold

About Formation:

Formation is a podcast that explores the science and soul of spiritual formation. Each episode brings together the ancient wisdom of the contemplative tradition and the best of modern research. John Ortberg sits down with some of the most rigorous and honest thinkers working at the intersection of faith and human flourishing for extended, unhurried conversations about how we are being shaped. New episodes every other week, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Connect with Formation:

Website: [www.formationpodcast.com]

Newsletter: [www.formationpodcast.com/subscribe]

Socials: [@formationjohn]