Bonnie Koenn--Whitney spoke on the disciplines of prayer and meditation at the conference.
Christian Challenge is one of the clubs on campus that is open to all students. Like all clubs they have student leaders in place to head up small group Bible studies.
Saturday, Sept. 25, the students who help lead Christian Challenge had an opportunity to go to a short conference led by Donald S. Whitney, the author of “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,” “Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health” and “Spiritual Disciplines Within the Church.”
“It was meant to help encourage and exhort Christians in the aspect of prayer and meditation. I learned the importance of meditation in general. I never understood the importance of it until Whitney started to talk about it,” sophomore Theology major Devon Provencher said.
He added that Christians don’t “just have to read the Bible, but are encouraged to go deeper and dig for the real meaning and truths of the text.”
Christian Cannon, junior psychology major, also said he learned from Whitney.
“I really learned how when I find myself praying the same things over again, losing track of my thoughts, or getting dis- tracted, that it is not God’s nor my fault; the error lies in the method in which I was praying,” Cannon said.
According to Whitney there are many different methods of meditation, the type he described was praying through
scripture.
Whitney advised the group to use scripture as a guide and tool, to read through it and pray as they read. To let the scripture, as small a verse or even word as it is, soak in and penetrate their hearts.
“It felt more real, more guided, more powerful as I was using what God had given me (His word) to communicate and bring glory back to Him,” Cannon said. “I really enjoyed Saturday. He was a great speaker, very engaging, he used visuals, he allowed us to discuss openly with him, and he challenged us to not just hear what he was teaching but do it. And he gave us time to go and practice it.”
The conference began at 8:30 a.m. and ended at 4:30 p.m. “For the most part it was a really good time that we were all together,” sophomore psychology major Anna Hickey said, “Whitney didn’t get to cover one thing but he said it would have taken like two hours to teach it. But I left more than satisfied”
