Spiritual direction is “help given by one Christian to another which enables that person to pay attention to God’s personal communication to him or her, to respond to this personally communicating God, to grow in intimacy with this God, and to live out the consequences of the relationship.” (William A. Barry and William J. Connolly, The Practice of Spiritual Direction)
How is your relationship with God? Just so you understand, there is no right or wrong answer to this question. Your relationship with God is personal and will not look like anyone else’s.
So, let me ask you again, “how is your relationship with God?” Often, the response I get to this question is “good”, “complicated”, “I don’t know” and even “what do you mean? I believe in God and go to church every Sunday.”
Allow me to ask you just a few more questions to ponder. How do you know when God answers your prayer? How do you know what God really wants you to do?
Simply put, that is what spiritual director help you define, your relationship with God and how to deepen that relationship.
Spiritual direction focuses on religious experience, relationship, and navigation of where you are being led. It’s far more than praying and waiting. It is learning to develop ways to hear, see, feel and follow where God’s path for you. After all the real spiritual director is God. It’s not counseling, advice giving, or problem solving. A spiritual director helps a person respond to God’s invite into a deeper relationship with God. Reminding us all once again, God is the actual spiritual director.
When seeking spiritual direction, you must have a trusting, non-compromising relationship. One that is neutral, but who you can connect with on a spiritual level. However, much like the Doctor who shouldn’t treat themselves, a spiritual director’s needs to be able to say, “this is not working, lets’ refer you to another spiritual director”. There should be no hard feelings between those working together. This is similar to you not “connecting with” a pastor, or co-worker, it just isn’t right, and that is okay!
With that being said, please understand that while I am happy to speak with you about Spiritual direction, I will not be taking on any one from the congregation. However, I can refer you to someone else who can help you on your walk.
I am offering my service to the council and the congregation, to help guide us on our journey as we grow. I feel great things will be happening for Central Lutheran.
I will be hosting a prayer study group, as well as a prayer shawl/prayer patch ministry, and looking into a women’s bible study. If you are interested in any of these programs, let me know.