Extreme spiritual formation

This is the heart of the EXUS challenge. Without spiritual formation, we wouldn’t be anything more than an adventure and social work program. But, life in God is the greatest adventure in the universe, and the only one that will never end!

The following points that appear are the main tools that we use to promote spiritual formation at EXUS. They are not the only ones, as even the adventures, the type of food, the dorm set-up, and the division of responsibilities are designed with this same goal in mind. If you have any questions in these areas, don’t hesitate to contact us.

SF class

The topics in this class are deep and yet simple, and allow us to seek God together. (See list at right) The required reading complements what is discussed in class and challenges you intellectually and spiritually.

Text / Reference books

Syllabus (Spanish)

Life Application class

“Well yes, I learned a lot, but…what do I do now that the semester ends and I return to my home city? How do I put into practice what I learned?” This class deals with taking what God has taught us from theory to practice.

Text / Reference books

Missions class

Here we analyze the lives of past and present missionaries, and try to apply what is learned to our lives. Are you considering cross-cultural missions? You’re gointg to love this class!

Text / Reference books

Bible Chronology class

God has shared His message of love and salvation through the Bible. In this class, we study this message in a chronological way, from Genesis to Revelation, to foster our love for our Creator and our understanding of His plans.

Text / Reference books

X Group

Boys with boys and girls with girls. In these weekly meetings, more personal topics are discussed. And, the greatest challenges and private struggles are dealt with in great confidentiality and with the goal of “sharpening” one another. (Proverbs 27:17).

Journal

We all keep a daily journal of our activities, particularly those that foster our spiritual growth.

Mentors

The men have a male mentor and the ladies, a female mentor. These leaders, who will surely become your close friends, are with whom you can share your deepest thoughts and concerns. They will also be helping and praying for you as you grow and learn in your spiritual walk.

Memorization

¿Are you good at memory games? Good, because here we'll help you memorize the entire Sermon on the Mount (Matther 5-7). Yes, it's a lot of verses, but the blessing of memorizing this passage will make all efforts more than worth your while. Fret not - all our students have been able to do it so far.

Evaluations

Twice during the semester, the program directors will meet with each student individually to give some feedback from the leadership. This will help you to know in what areas you’re doing well, and where you need to grow.

The centrality of discipleship

All who work for EXUS have a common passion: loving Christ in real and practical ways; and helping others who are younger to do the same. This is what we understand by the word discipleship. As we make ourselves available for God to transform our lives, we invest in others’ lives.

There are many programs, books, and groups designed to help young people grow in Christ. However, most of the results of such are small and short-term. Why? Because the focus in on the external (what we do), and not on the heart (who we are). In EXUS, we’re convinced that the Holy Spirit must transform us from the inside out so that our actions and attitudes, thoughts and feelings bear good fruit brought about by the Divine transformation of our heart. Thus, the focus of our program is discipleship, and the heart of discipleship is spiritual formation.

Spiritual formation

Dallas Willard gives the two definitions of spiritual formation: a) "[SF] is the process by which one moves and is moved from self-worship to Christ-centered self-denial as a general condition of life." b) "[SF] is the process leading to the life where all of the essential parts of the human self are effectively organized around God, and its result is love of God with all of the heart, soul, mind, and strength, and of the neighbor as oneself."

in our own words, Christian SF is the process by which we are more like Christ every day; not based on external rules, but on the inner (and external) transformation of our lives caused and sustained by God Himself, nourished by our habits and convictions.

The paragraphs on the right describe the main tools we use to promote spiritual formation at Exus. But this is not a comprehensive list - even our adventures, food, dorm rules, and responsibility sharing are designed for this purpose. The themes listed below are the discussion topics we directly address in SF class:

God's revelation
Desiring God
God's grace
The disciplines
Our identity
Spiritual warfare

Statement of faith

Exus is a Christ-centered, non-denominational program, which does not seek to teach on peripheral doctrinal issues. If you would like to know more about our "doctrine," visit the following link (in Spanish)...

Statement of Faith

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