Prior to 2021 I had never heard the term spiritual formation. I had heard about prayer, Bible study, and fasting, but sadly, it was through a legalistic lens. Truth be told, I developed an aversion to these practices. I hated feeling like if I didn’t pray on my knees for at least an hour, didn’t read the Bible in a year, or give up food and water for 24 hours, God would be displeased with me. There was no connection to deepening a relationship with God. I felt as if my spiritual formation involved staying out of trouble. In 2021, however, a dear friend began to mention words and phrases like spiritual direction, spiritual formation, consolation, desolation, Lectio Divina, the Examen of Consciousness, and breath prayers.

I was immediately drawn in. This was different.

Intimate. Life-giving. Relational. Beautiful.

Once my curiosity was piqued, I became voracious. I looked up spiritual formation and discovered experiences like New Life Fellowship’s School of Formation, Transforming Center’s Transforming Community retreats, Anam Cara’s Scripture Circles, and various Spiritual Direction training programs. I’ve been reflecting on some of the Ignatian practices I’ve learned about in these spaces and the work that I’ve done with educators and other participants across the country after publishing Open Windows, Open Minds: Developing Antiracist, Pro-Human Students, and the release of my TED-Ed Talk, “Four Ways to Have Healthy Conversations About Race,” especially in light of the current state of the U.S.

Across the United States, and increasingly around the world, “Christian” nationalism¹*Editorial Note: David Swanson has written several excellent pieces for Missio Alliance on Christian Nationalism. Begin here if you are unsure of what it is: https://www.missioalliance.org/christian-nationalism-what-defines-it/. ~CK is malforming us and fueling polarization and fear, breaking our relationships across the human family, and erasing honest conversations about race, history, and justice from public spaces, classrooms, and even churches. Book bans target stories of racial struggle and resilience. Some faith leaders preach from a place that prioritizes power over lament, repentance, and reconciliation.

What if spiritual formation practices can help us to engage in racial healing instead of fracture? I believe that these ancient practices can help us to sow the seeds of shalom in our world.

Why Shalom?

Shalom is not simply the absence of conflict–it is the presence of wholeness, right relationship, and sacred flourishing in every dimension of life. In Hebrew, shalom carries meanings of peace, completeness, soundness, welfare, harmony, and prosperity–not in material terms alone, but in the fullness of God’s intended design. Shalom offers something uniquely expansive, both ancient and enduring. It is the reality of nothing missing and nothing broken. Shalom is the world as it should be–God with humanity, humanity with one another, communities with creation, and souls with themselves. It is the ongoing invitation to re-member the body of Christ torn by division, to walk in ways of forgiveness, accountability, and mutual dignity that restore rather than erase. Shalom is what we were made for. It is what racialization has robbed. And it is what the Spirit is restoring, one surrendered life at a time.

In a world fractured by racialization, injustice, and wounded histories, God invites followers of the Way of Jesus to a formational healing journey that is both personal and communal, existing as both a social imperative and a holy calling. Through Scripture and ancient Christian practices, the Holy Spirit extends a loving hand to bring us to slow, Spirit-led work that cannot be legislated away or silenced by fear.

Shalom is the ongoing invitation to re-member the body of Christ torn by division. Shalom is what we were made for. It is what racialization has robbed. And it is what the Spirit is restoring, one surrendered life at a time. Share on X

Here are a few central formational practices I have found particularly helpful in pursuing holistic racial healing:

Racial Healing Through Lectio Divina

Lectio Divina–“Sacred Reading”–is an ancient Christian practice of encountering Scripture not for information, but for transformation. When engaged through the lens of racial healing as spiritual formation, Lectio Divina can become a doorway into beloved community. Lectio Divina can:

• Slow us down to really listen: Racial healing cannot be rushed. Lectio Divina invites us to slow our pace, to let Scripture speak into us, not simply at us. It allows the Holy Spirit to reveal what we might otherwise skip over, especially verses we’ve misapplied or avoided in racialized contexts.
• Uncover internalized lies: Through sacred reflection, Lectio Divina makes space for us to ask hard questions like, Whose voice do I hear in this text—God’s or culture’s? Have I believed lies about my worth or the worth of others? What has the Word been saying that I never had ears to hear? It’s a place where the Spirit gently says, “Let’s look at this together.”
• Bring Scripture into the context of real-life wounds: Lectio Divina invites us to bring our full selves to the Word, including racial grief, shame, confusion, fatigue, and longing. The text becomes a mirror and a balm, opening the space between intellect and intuition, allowing the Spirit to do healing work beneath the surface. And when healing comes, it’s beyond conceptual.

By exploring Scripture through a listening posture, we uncover false narratives we’ve inherited about race, God, ourselves, and others, and begin loosening their grip through truth, courage, vulnerability, and hope. Unlearning becomes sacred ground. As we bury the brokenness that once shaped us, we begin to bless the possibility of what may grow in its place.

Racial Healing Through The Examen of Consciousness

By engaging with the Examen of Consciousness, we can turn racial shame into the soil for growth, moving beyond guilt and shame towards Spirit-led restoration. We can hold space for the necessary sacred mourning and witness how truth told in love can become a balm for both personal and generational racialized wounds. This sacred space gives us space to disrupt the racial ideologies that distort our view of humanity, and attune to the Spirit. The Examen can:

• Name what is often unseen: Racial socialization teaches us to ignore or normalize harmful patterns. The Examen invites us to pause and notice how race, power, fear, and defensiveness show up in our daily interactions. It teaches us to listen not only with our minds, but with our bodies, emotions, and spirits. We begin to track where racialized harm, shame, or solidarity lives in our physical selves.
• Invite God into the real story: It can allow us to be honest and loved in our racial formation. We lovingly ask: What is the Spirit revealing about the stories I believe about myself and others?
• Transform guilt into grace-filled action: Rather than spiraling in shame or remaining mired in guilt, we can move through reflection into Spirit-led transformation. Racial healing is rooted in God’s mercy, not our pursuit of perfection.

In a world fractured by racialization, injustice, and wounded histories, God invites followers of the Way of Jesus to a formational healing journey that is personal and communal, existing as both social imperative and holy calling. Share on X

Racial Healing Through Centering/Contemplative Prayer

• Create space for honest encounter: In silence, we are less able to hide behind performance or defensiveness. Contemplative prayer invites us to sit before God without pretense, and becomes a place where shame, fear, anger, and sorrow can be held without judgment.
• Unmask internalized narratives: Contemplative space allows ample time for the Spirit to gently surface the false stories we’ve internalized about ourselves and others, especially those formed through racial trauma, bias, or historical distortion. Rather than jumping to defensiveness or despair in hard conversations about race, contemplative prayer trains us to respond, not react. We are taught to breathe deeply, pause prayerfully, and trust the Spirit’s work in others, not simply our own efforts.
• Center God’s love as the source of healing: Contemplative prayer orients us around the belovedness of all people, reminding us that we are not trying to “achieve” racial healing on our own. Instead, it is the Spirit’s renewing work that we join. The more we abide in God’s presence, the more our hearts begin to ache for what God aches for. In contemplative prayer, we are filled with compassion once again, re-aligned with the heart of Jesus.

Racial Healing Through Imaginative Prayer

In The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race, Rev. Dr. Willie James Jennings says that we have a diseased social imagination and consciousness that needs to be replaced by a compelling new invitation to life together. Through an Imaginative Prayer Practice, we develop a spiritual rhythm that helps us to envision how racial healing continues to shape us over a lifetime, walking each day in hope, actively living the shalom we’ve tended. We imagine ourselves as a member of the divine lineage of hope-bearers, creating a hospitable, wide table where we enjoy communal healing and radical welcome. At this common table, we move from individual healing to collective transformation. Imaginative prayer can:

• Re-humanize what racism has deformed: Many people carry racial trauma or internalized superiority/shame. Imaginative prayer gives us space to meet God in those wounds. It also helps us recover the sacred Imago Dei within ourselves and in others by inviting us to see people, especially those we’ve been taught to fear, ignore, or judge, as God sees them.
• Breaks through cognitive defenses: When conversations around race hit intellectual resistance, imaginative prayer speaks to the heart and body. It bypasses the mind’s defenses and opens deeper empathy and conviction within one’s soul.
• Rebuild holy imagination for justice: At its core, imaginative prayer aligns our desires with God’s. To dismantle unjust systems, we must first imagine what wholeness looks like. Imaginative prayer lets the Spirit plant divine visions of beloved community, repair, and joy within us.

Instead of retreating into political defensiveness or destructive despair, apprentices of Jesus are called back to the heart of the Gospel: to lament truthfully, confess courageously, heal faithfully, and sow seeds of justice, mercy, and beloved community, even in hard soil. The gift of this journey is that we get to see the world and ourselves with new eyes. The work of racial healing is not optional for followers of the Way of Jesus. It is a way of being that is essential to our formation into the likeness of Christ. Spiritual formation is a deeply raw, courageous, and redemptive process that has proven critical to the racial healing we so desperately need.

A Prayer for Shalom

Jesus, you are our true north. Our Shalom.

You have made us one and destroyed the dividing wall of hostility between us.

We are to reflect who you are.

We are to be the aroma of the ‘kin-dom’ of God.

In you, nothing is missing, and nothing is broken.

May we become whole in you.

Lord, hear our prayer.

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The work of racial healing is not optional for followers of the Way of Jesus. It is a way of being that is essential to our formation into the likeness of Christ. Spiritual formation has proven critical to the racial healing we need. Share on X