Go Deeper Into Deeply Formed

An Introduction to this Newsletter & the Broader Work

Feb 12, 2026

A Work Born Out of My Own Story

For over twenty-five years in ministry—mentoring individuals and couples, leading groups, and developing leaders—I experienced measures of God’s grace in both my life and the lives of others. And yet, beneath the surface, I carried a persistent sense that there was something more.

Despite knowledge, experience, and visible fruit, I found myself stuck in patterns of anxiety, fear, and shame. Eventually, I hit a wall. I longed for deeper freedom in Christ and more spiritual fruit. Slowly, I came to see that what I needed was to connect more deeply with God and his love for me. I needed to be more deeply formed.

Deeply Formed was born out of my own ongoing journey of healing and wholeness in Christ. The phrase came during a season of trial, capturing both what I most needed and what I sensed I was being invited to offer others. It names a present work of God—one bearing real fruit in my life—while also remaining aspirational, something still unfolding.

At its heart, this work is about coming alongside others in their journey of renewal and formation. It is about holding space for people to process their lived experience and encounter the divine love that reorders our disordered lives.

I come to this newsletter not as an expert who has completed the journey, but as a learner and fellow traveler. I am walking the long road of faith, sharing what I am learning along the way in hopes it may serve others. This space is not for those who believe they have arrived. It is for Christian seekers—or any seeker for that matter. For anyone who finds they have a quiet, or not so quiet, ache for something more.

What Will Be Shared Here

To a large extent, what I share here will revolve around the integration of psychology and Christian spiritual formation as expressed through my practice of soul care. I will also write about beauty, history, nature, culture, travel, and parts of my own story.

What God uses to renew and form us certainly includes the intimate, private spaces of soul care—but it also goes far beyond them. All of life is lived in the presence of God.

So I reserve the right to “go off script” and reflect on the wide and wondrous world God has given us—a world through which we encounter him, grow in awareness, and awaken to our true selves and our aliveness in Christ.

Presence Over Content

While content shared here is part of the work of Deeply Formed, it’s not the point. It’s a means to an end. It’s in service to something else. It’s in service to presence. To be more fully present to the world we live in, the people in our lives and most fundamentally to the God who is himself, already and always, present to us.

In Jn 5:39-40, Jesus said,

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have eternal life.”

We approach Scripture not primarily as information to master, but as a place of encounter. While teaching and theology are essential, their purpose is to lead us into living communion with Jesus, through whom we are invited to participate in the fuller life of love shared between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Biblical content serves presence; understanding serves relationship; formation flows from abiding.

So my hope is that this digital space will not keep you too long. That it would be a bit of a filling station along the way, putting fuel in your tank to energize you for a fuller experience of life in Christ. A life of participation in the beautiful mysteries of God, the glories of nature and culture and healthier relationships—with God, self and others.

Come. Be filled.

-Jared