A seminary education should do more than just equip students with head knowledge.  At Talbot, we believe that one's time at seminary should also further your transformation into Christ’s likeness and deepen one's relationship with God.  It is out of this belief that Talbot’s Spiritual Formation Focus was incorporated into the Talbot-Kyiv Extension curriculum, requiring all Talbot students to take two spiritual formation courses in the duration of their program. These courses help students to further understand the new life believers have in Christ, and partner with the Holy Spirit in this transformation process. 

The Spiritual Formation Focus courses are SF 501 Introduction to Spiritual Theology [link] and Formation and SF 503 Personal Foundations for Spiritual Formation [link]. On the La Mirada campus, students meet in small group cohorts during the semesters in which they are taking the Spiritual Formation Focus courses. Due to the modular nature of study at the Kyiv Extension, students meet once per session (up to four times a year) in spiritual formation groups for the entirety of their education. The groups cover the same material as the main campus cohorts but that material is covered over a greater time period. 

"Talbot's Spiritual Formation Focus has helped me to see the inseparable connection between theology and the personal process of sanctification. I was always bothered by the separation between what I know, what I believe and how I live. And so I was constantly striving not just to have a right relationship with God but to see real change in my character in the development of that relationship. It was these courses in spiritual formation that helped me to understand how the process of transformation occurs and how the Christian life is directly related to God’s presence with us and the divine life lived in us."

Larisa Fokina, TST graduate