Collegeville Institute

Bearings Online

  • Home
  • About
  • Events
  • Podcasts
  • News
  • Giving
  • Comprehensive Campaign

Title of the document Make A Gift Now

Menu
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Bearings Online
  • Calling Initiatives
  • Fellows Program
  • Giving
  • News
  • Podcasts
  • Comprehensive Campaign
  • Residency Programs
      • Scholars, clergy, church leaders, thinkers, artists, and writers who are seeking to discern and communicate the meaning of Christian identity and unity in a religiously and culturally diverse world are invited to apply for our residency programs.
      • Get Practical Information »
      • Apply for a Fellowship »
      • View 2024-25 Scholars »
      • Resident Scholars Program

        for those looking to stay a semester or a full academic year

      • Program Details
      • Work and Scholarship
      • Housing and Facilities
      • Application Process
      • Former Resident Scholars
      • Short term Residencies

        for those looking to stay for a shorter period of time

      • Program Details
      • Living and Working
      • Application Process
      • Former Short Term Scholars
      • Learn More »
    • Close
  • Writing Programs
      • Each year, the Collegeville Institute opens its doors to writers of faith for intensive writing workshops. In addition, the Collegeville Institute partners with other institutes, seminaries, or churches to coordinate regional off-site workshops.
      • 2025 Workshops

      • Pop-Up Writers Workshops
        • Pop-Up Writing Workshop, March 22, 2025 (Colorado Springs, CO)
        • Pop-Up Writing Workshop, March 29, 2025 (Birmingham-Vestavia Hills, AL)
        • Pop-Up Writing Workshop, April 5, 2025 (Asheville, NC)
      • Flesh and Blood: Crafting a Communal Constructive Theological Anthropology, May 27-30, 2025
      • Apart, and Yet A Part, June 9-18, 2025
      • A Sparked Imagination, June 23-27, 2025
      • Deep and Wide: Longform Prose Revision, July 9-18, 2025
      • The Release:  How Writing in an Economy of Gifts Liberates Writers, September 29, 2025
      • Fifty Pairs of Eyes: Creating Characters in Fiction, Non-Fiction and Poetry, October 27-November 1, 2025
      • Waiting for Words: An Advent Writing Workshop with Lauren Winner – 2025, December 2-6, 2025
    • Apply Now »
    • Close
  • Calling Initiatives
      • The Communities of Calling Initiative invites congregations into a 5-year project on vocation.
        The Called to Lives of Meaning and Purpose Initiative, coordinated by the Collegeville Institute, funds 13 innovation hubs from across North America.
      • Calling Initiatives Overview »
      • Research Seminars on Vocation »
    • Resources on Vocation:

      • BridgeIntroducing Calling & Discernment – language of calling, models of discernment, and calling across the lifespan
      • gabriel-brito-80atz53Th9o-unsplash-2Prayer & Worship – prayers, hymns, sermons, spiritual practices, and liturgical year resources
      • Vis-Group-2Small Group Series – adult education and faith formation guides for congregational use
      • FrancoisVideos & Interviews – video storytelling projects on vocation from Christian and interfaith perspectives
    • Close
  • Fellows Program
    • Bringing together an ecumenical group of gifted Minnesota faith leaders, the Collegeville Institute Fellows Program focuses on leadership development with the goal of strengthening religious leaders’ sense of themselves as civic leaders.
    • Fellows Program Overview
    • Rural Minnesota Fellows Program
    • Multi-Religious Fellows Program
    • Close
  • Participant Publications
  • Search
You are here: Home / Events / Writing the Spiritual Life: A Workshop for Religious Leaders with Lauren Winner

Writing the Spiritual Life: A Workshop for Religious Leaders with Lauren Winner

May 14, 2021 By

Event Details

  • Date(s): Monday, Nov 15th, 2021-Sunday, Nov 21st, 2021
  • Venue: Warren Conference Center in Ashland, MA
  • Categories: Regional Workshop, Writing Workshop
Lauren Winner

Lauren Winner

In this workshop, we’ll have two aims – to explore the ways writing is already part of our life of spiritual practice (even if we don’t always recognize it as such), and to grow in our writerly craft. Unlike many writing workshops, our focus will not be on group discussion of work you have already written. Rather, this will be a generative workshop, in which we’ll do a good bit of new writing each day. (But never fear – there will be some traditional “workshopping.” Your fellow participants will read and discuss at least one piece you write while in Massachusetts.)

This workshop, then, will include both beginners and advanced writers – it aims to meet you if you are stuck in your writing life; if you want to grow beyond genres that are familiar to you (whether that be the sermon, the report, or the memoir); if you have always wanted to write but are not even sure what that desire means; if you are at the end of writing a book and not sure what comes next; if you want a week of creative stimulation that will nourish your writing life  and your spiritual life into the winter and spring.

And, beginning October 25,  participants will receive in their email one writing exercise per week. Participants won’t be required to do these prompts, and they won’t submit them to the workshop, but they may help you get into a creative and writerly frame of mind as the workshop approaches.

This workshop will be hosted at the Warren Conference Center in Ashland, MA. The workshop is limited to 12 participants.

It’s hard for me not to gush. Lauren is punctual, strong, witty, commanding, and powerful. The writing exercises were lively and creative, like little literary firestarters; her instruction on the structure and architecture of a book tied seamlessly with her instruction about words, sentences, and voice. This seems like a first-rate MFA-level seminar from a generous, masterful instructor.

—participant in “Revision, Christian Spirituality, and the Writing Life: A Week with Lauren Winner,” Summer 2017

Application Process:

Please note: Participants will not be expected to submit writing before the workshop, but there will be a good bit of reading to do beforehand.  

The application deadline for this workshop has now passed.

More from my site

  • Disillusionment and the DivineDisillusionment and the Divine
  • A Good Place to Write — and ReviseA Good Place to Write — and Revise
  • Wearing GodWearing God
  • Faith and Writing SeriesFaith and Writing Series
  • Lauren Winner Leads Final 2020 Writing Workshop OnlineLauren Winner Leads Final 2020 Writing Workshop Online

Writing Workshops

  • Current Writing Workshops

Event Categories

Collegeville Institute Tour

Check out our virtual 360-degree tour experience and see our beautiful campus with its many amenities!

CI 360 Tour

Latest News

Dr. Aizaiah Yong appointed as new Executive Director of Collegeville Institute 

April 14, 2025

Collegeville Institute welcomes Andrew McNeil as its new Director of Communications.

March 11, 2025

Meet a Resident Scholar

March 11, 2025

Subscribe

Sign up for our email newsletter today, and keep up to date with what's going on at the Collegeville Institute.

Sign Up Today

Get Involved

Give online

Check out our writing workshops and our residential programs.

Contact Us

2475 Ecumenical Drive
PO Box 8000
Collegeville, MN 56321

Phone: 320-363-3366
Email: staff@collegevilleinstitute.org

Map/Directions

Copyright © 2025 Collegeville Institute. Read our Privacy Policy.