Introduction1. What Is a Spiritual Legacy?2. The Spiritual Will3. Story Legacies 4. Story Legacies--How to Get Started5. Telling Your Master Stories6. How to Tell a Good Story7. Dealing with Pain and Painful People: A Story of My Own8. So You Hate to Write: Reluctant Writers and Other Forms of Legacy Work9. What to Do with Spiritual Legacy Work--Revising, Preserving, and SharingConclusionAppendixesSpiritual Legacy QuestionsValues, Virtues, and ValuablesGenerating Topics: What to Write aboutAdditional Examples of Spiritual Legacy Work

Discover Your Spiritual Legacy and How to Pass It On"'The single best way to preserve a life is through story.' Yes. Daniel Taylor, a natural-born storyteller, has spent a lifetime studying stories, from the intricate art of the great modernist writers to the homemade narratives by which we make sense of our own lives. In Creating a Spiritual Legacy, he passes on what he has learned so we can put it to use. This book is itself a legacy, a rich inheritance that can be claimed by anyone who reads it."--John Wilson, editor of Books & Culture"Dan Taylor has made an important contribution on the notion of spiritual legacy. In the whirl of new technologies and overwhelming information, we tend to forget the old verities, the blessing of wisdom passed along from parent to child, from friend to friend, from teacher to student. Focusing on the outward orientation of fostering a spiritual legacy, Dan keeps it very practical. His book grows gracefully from the soil of his teachers: Frederick Buechner, Patricia Hampl, and Annie Dillard, and will function as an inspiration as well as a how-to manual."--Dale Brown, director of The Buechner Institute and chair of the English department, King College"It's hard to get perspective on life. Kierkegaard was right: 'Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward.' But Creating a Spiritual Legacy can help you do both. In it Daniel Taylor helps you understand and then tell your own story. This book will bless you and help you bless others. I'll use it for myself and my family, and I can't wait to use it with my students."--Ben Patterson, campus pastor, Westmont College"Creating a Spiritual Legacy is direct in its insight as to how creativity is to be formed and then left in trust for those fortunate enough to receive the heritage. As Taylor tells us, 'You are your stories.' So get by yourself, take a chair, and get ready to receive. A book like this requires the total person you may yet become through the simple art of paying attention."--Calvin Miller, professor of research and distinguished writer in residence, Beeson Divinity School