Spiritual Direction

What do I bring to the first meeting?

Simply bring yourself in the present moment: your love and longing, your grief and loss, your celebration of beauty and grace – or perhaps even your anger toward a God who isn't responding to your pain as you might like or toward a church or community that you believe has let you down.

Bring whatever you notice about your life now: your lived experience, dreams, and emotions, sensations and intuitions, impending decisions, desire to be of service, need for healing. 

Together we will meet in the presence of Love for an intentional time of listening to and following the voice of God in your life, trusting that it is the Spirit who transforms us. Together, we will respond to the presence and activity of God in your life and nurture what comes into being.

What can I expect at the initial meeting?

A typical spiritual direction meeting is 50-60 minutes long. During the introductory meeting, we can take time to get to know each other a bit, discuss the nature of spiritual direction and go over any administrative things that need to be covered. In this first meeting and in subsequent meetings, the focus of the time can be whatever you want it to be.

The purpose of spiritual direction is to grow in your capacity to relate to God. Because of this, the attention and the dialogue are focused on that relationship. It is a time to grow in your capacity to discern the movement and direction of the Holy Spirit in your life. I will often ask you questions to gain greater understanding of your relationship with God and what brings you to spiritual direction at this time. You may ask questions about the nature and process of spiritual direction at any time.

What are the biblical and historical foundations for spiritual direction?

Biblical Foundation & Examples

"Spiritual direction is essentially a Christian ministry of prayer, care, and discernment. It fulfills the call to love one another (John 13:34) by encouraging one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11) to love (Hebrews 10:24) with increasing wisdom and discernment (Philippians 1:9-11). It takes as a basic principle that those who have put their faith in Jesus have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) by the filling of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:12-13), who is given to guide us into all truth (John 16:13). This Spirit-led renewing of the mind allows believers to test and approve God’s will (Romans 12:2), measuring all things according to the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16). Brothers and sisters in Christ are to carry one another’s burdens in prayer (James 5:13-16, Galatians 6:2), be quick to listen to one another (James 1:19), and to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).

Two often-cited examples of the “form” of spiritual direction in Scripture are the story of Eli helping Samuel to properly discern the voice of God (1 Samuel 3) and Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4). In these stories we see a pattern where one who is spiritually wise, through a process of prayerful listening, discernment, and evocative questioning, is able to help another person move more fully into relationship with and obedience to God."

Historical Foundations:

Spiritual direction has been recognized by Christians for centuries as one way to help another person learn how to grow in his or her capacity to attend to the movement of the Holy Spirit in his or her life, primarily through attentiveness to the life of prayer. It is best experienced as a complement to the life of community in the body of Christ, personal devotion to God, and other forms of soul care (participation in a local church, therapy, counseling, discipleship, mentoring, etc.) as they are needed."

Source: https://www.biola.edu/talbot/academics/isf/spiritual-direction

How is spiritual direction different from therapy or counseling?

• Spiritual directors do not have clinical training and are not licensed, so if someone is seeking help with issues such as depression, anxiety, addictions, suicidal thoughts, etc., a spiritual director will refer them to a clinical psychologist or doctor. 

• In therapy the focus is often on the relationship between the therapist and the client. While the director/directee relationship is obviously important, the focus in spiritual direction is primarily on the directee’s relationship with God.

• Thus the frequency of spiritual direction is typically about once a month rather than weekly. This rhythm emphasizes the value of spiritual direction as a place where a spiritual companion (the director) helps provide a space for the directee to pause and pay deeper and closer attention to their life and relationship with God.

• Counseling is often focused on a particular issue, struggle, or problem with the hope of gaining specific guidance, help or relief. Spiritual direction may incorporate some concrete guidance or suggestions, but this is not the focus. Rather, the focus is on helping the directee attend more deeply to their relationship with God."

Source: https://www.biola.edu/talbot/academics/isf/spiritual-direction

Conversatio Divina: https://conversatio.org/

Conversatio Divina pursues spiritual formation through learning, application, and communion with Christ and others. Their resources span the teachings of Dallas Willard, Ignatius of Loyola, and Ancient Christianity, to engage a ‘divine conversation’ on what it means to follow Christ.

Grafted Life Ministries: https://www.graftedlife.org- 

Grafted Life Ministries exists to resource the church in the area of spiritual formation, working with church leaders, trained specialists, and scholars who are focused on spiritual growth.

Renovaré: http://www.renovare.us/ 

Renovaré is a community of Christ-followers who model, resource, and advocate fullness of life with God, experienced by grace through the spiritual practices of Jesus and of the historical Church. We nurture and facilitate interested folks through events, publications, and consultations.

Spiritual Directors International: https://www.sdicompanions.org/

SDI is a learning community for spiritual directors, spiritual companions, and anyone curious about cultivating spiritual practices of Deep Listening and Spiritual Presence Across All Faith Traditions and Spiritual Orientations.

Three Association: https://www.threeassociation.com/

Three Association is a free resource for spiritual directors, supervisors and training programs.

Transforming Center: https://transformingcenter.org

Exists to create space for God to strengthen leaders and transform communities. We serve leaders and influencers of purposeful communities – churches, non-profits, and businesses – who long for new rhythms that allow them to flourish in their life and leadership.