Creating a Spiritual Legacy: How to Share Your Stories, Values, and Wisdom

We establish wills to pass on our possessions and property to family members and friends, but what about the things that really matter: our values, beliefs, wisdom, and stories? Those are the things of lasting significance, the things that make up a spiritual legacy. Daniel Taylor, a heralded teacher, bestselling author of Letters to My Children (over 50,000 sold), and a proven master of preserving spiritual legacies, shows how anyone--not just professional authors or those who consider themselves creative--can preserve and pass on their vision of life.

No matter what age or stage of life you're in, creating a spiritual legacy both enriches your own life and blesses the lives of those you love. Chock full of practical guidance, exercises, and examples, this hands-on book helps ordinary people identify wisdom and core values and articulate them in an enduring story form. Taylor promotes the importance of spiritual legacies and shows how to express them not only in writing but also using audio-visual formats and crafts.

From the Back Cover

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