The Association for Christian Character Development
Presents the Discovery Seminar

We live in a time of unprecedented expansion of knowledge. The depth and breadth, as well as the rapid access and retrieval, of human knowledge would stun our forebears. We are all permanently embedded in this flow of information, yet we are still left with Jesus' question, "For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself?"

The Information Age is at the same time the Isolation Age. We are more isolated and out-of-sync than ever before. We have in many ways lost each other and ourselves. Many people sense powerlessness over their lives, their relationships, themselves. Many complain of not being worthy and lacking significance. Many feel disconnected from themselves and others - even those closest to them. Often, as a result of our disconnection, isolation, and powerlessness, we turn to various diversions to anesthetize the discomforts of life. The ways we numb out are legion: materialism, workaholism, addictions, TV, video games; the list is as endless as people are unique.

Whether there is a direct connection between the expansion of knowledge and the increasing human disconnection is a topic for others. The essential question, the burning question is what can we do to become reconnected with what's important, how can we relate to others in life the way we know it could be?

Even among Christians, similar trends toward disconnection and isolation are apparent. We are filled with more biblical knowledge than we are living day-to-day. Like the rich man who came to Jesus seeking eternal life in Matthew 19, we know the answers to the questions of faith, but struggle to answer with our whole lives. How can what we know become what we live?

This discrepancy between knowledge and what is lived calls for a transformational breakthrough - more knowledge is not the answer, we've all tried that many times. We need to transform the very way we relate to God, others, and ourselves. We must take a radical leap to a new competency in relationship, rather than just an incremental step from the way we related in the past.

Discovery is a response to the cry for a radical change. Discovery is a breakthrough for negotiating new and different strategies for loving and living, a means to gain experience and insight into the fundamental assumptions that govern your life, and an opportunity to order the chaos in your life and to release the unique beauty of God's gift in you.

In Discovery, you will get at the root of your self-perceptions and your strategies for loving, living, relating, and achieving intimacy with God and people. You will gain a new vantage point on your life, from which new possibilities will be both evident and achievable.

Discovery is an invitation to journey beyond your current limitations of what is possible for you - past the restraints your existing assumptions place on your relationships. This journey will bring you to the place where you will be able to break through these assumptions and impact your relationships in ways you know God desires for you.

Through the Discovery seminar, you will gain actual experience and practice with the insights and actions required to develop the relationship God has ordained for you - to order chaos and release beauty in your life and those around you. With these experiences, practices, and insights you will discover a sense of vision and destiny, which God has gifted in you. You will experience the confidence of being divinely called to a deeper quality of living and loving.

Fruit from Discovery

The disciplines required in examining ourselves transform the foundations of our spiritual life-the way we think, relate, feel, and behave. At this core level we do not find formulas or dogma, we find the mind of God. The Divine process of transformation that Discovery facilitates is an ongoing act of preparing for God's love in you as well as the unique continuing expression of your love to others. The results of this process include:

• Clarifying your vision for the future and prioritizing your commitments to better serve your calling. You will develop your ability to take action in ways that contribute to the vision and destiny God has revealed through your longings to love and be loved.
• Deepening the fulfillment you experience in the most fundamental aspects of life-especially in daily activities such as working with your spouse, building a career, educating your children, and making wise and diligent choices when it comes to relating to friends and family. You will begin to experience making the difference your life was destined to make.
• Breaking through the cultural assumptions, opinion, theory, and thinking that is designed to make you believe that you are a product of your past or environment. Discovery is a call to a future compelled by imagination and grounded in what God has revealed through your gifts and most intimate longings.
• Developing ways of thinking that compel you to relate to mystery, risk, and change as opportunities instead of problems. You will practice valuable disciplines that will support you in resolving conflict and breakdown with hope, grace, and mercy.
• Engaging your daily commitments with a confidence that the Spirit of God is with you. You will experience an anticipation and sense of adventure when facing the challenges and struggles that naturally arise out of ordering the chaos of everyday life as well as taking on the risks and responsibilities of loving another person.

Details of the Discovery Seminar Content:

Based on a model of learning through experience and logical discussion, Discovery challenges cultural assumptions and strategies of living and loving and imparts useful tools to impact the basic, foundational issues of our lives. In many ways, Discovery is like a laboratory - a chance to step out of the flow of automatic reactions, immediate judgments, and complex relational dynamics of every day life into an environment in which the principles driving your experience can be identified, examined, tested, and clarified

Discovery is not a set of formulas, advice, dogmatic practices, or an organized set of rules designed to give you the answers to living life so you can be successful. It is designed to support you in making a transformation or shift in what you believe is possible in your relationships with God and others. With this change in perspective, many other aspects of life will change. Discovery is an opportunity to go beyond knowing conceptually to being able to actually live those truths - an opportunity to be true rather than just know conceptual truths about God, life, love, intimacy, and relationship. Discovery is an opportunity to experience revelations and insights about God's plan for the development of your unique character and destiny that will make a tangible and immediate difference in your quality of life. Participants in Discovery experience T.S. Eliot's line, "We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time." This shift from theory to practice is the single most powerful component of the three-day program.

Discovery employs the Christian methods of inquiry that Jesus challenged his disciples with. Through discussions and exercises we reenact our life strategies. Like the Apostles, we have the opportunity to discover in new ways the gift God has made us to be and what is most effective or least effective in fulfilling our life's purposes. By engaging age-old questions in ways that impact how we live, revelation can be translated into potent action.

Why Do People Attend Discovery?

For the successful person, there is a renewed freedom and recognition in your relationships. You can develop a deeper sense of gratefulness for your family and those you work with.

For the intellectual, there is a deeper sense of intimacy in relationships and confidence that results in a breakthrough of potent action that makes a difference. You can experience a deeper sense of autonomy and creativity in all domains of life.

For church leaders, there is a sharpening of communication skills and an ability to resolve relational upsets one-on-one and in groups. There is a renewed hope and vision for the future and a release of the past.

For the strong-willed, there is an experience of patience and listening that can result in a breakthrough in appreciating family and friends. You can develop a deeper wisdom of what is called for to have primary relationships be rewarding.

For those whose lives are working well, there is a renewed passion toward your vision of life and a deep experience of your worth, your contribution to others and of the difference you make.

For more information contact:
Reconciliation Training Service    P O Box 533      Amherst NH 03031
Or call Kris Kile at: 603-672-7057 or email Kris at: kris@accd.org
Or Call Gaby Harris at: 603-672-3209 or email Gaby at: gaby@accd.org

Click here for a Registration Form