Spiritual Direction

For the next two years (2009-2011), I will receive training in spiritual direction through a program called Selah. Most people that I’ve talked to from the Christian circles I’ve grown up in have never heard of spiritual direction, or if they have, know very little about it. I had never heard of it either until just a few years ago. The subtitle of one of my all-time favorite books about pastoral ministry, The Contemplative Pastor by Eugene Peterson, is Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction. Peterson pleads with pastors to revive this ancient ministry of the church that has been lost in many evangelical circles. Pastors are reminded that their role as pastor is not simply to “run a church” but to engage in the difficult work of “curing souls.” Fortunately, today there has been a growing awareness of this vital ministry, and more and more pastors and lay-leaders are not only receiving spiritual direction, but also offering it to others.

So what is spiritual direction, and what does a spiritual director do? Although spiritual direction can happen spontaneously between friends or with a pastor/mentor/discipler, spiritual direction in a formal sense is a one-to-one ministry where typically a person meets with a trained director for a one-hour session once every four to six weeks. Henri Nouwen says, “A Spiritual Director is not a counselor, a therapist or an analyst, but a mature fellow Christian to whom we choose to be accountable for living our spiritual life and from whom we can expect prayerful guidance in our constant struggle to discern God’s activity.” So when would a person seek spiritual direction? One reason might be that the person is struggling to pray. Or maybe someone is trying to discern how God is moving in his/her life, and is looking for a companion to listen/discern alongside him/her. Maybe someone can detect that she is angry with God or has become cold in heart, and does not understand what is at the root of this anger/coldness. Many times we have questions about “Where is God in this situation?” “What is God trying to say to me right now?” “

So a spiritual director is someone we turn to when we want to talk about our spiritual life, our relationship with God, our spiritual experiences with God, our struggles and experiences in prayer, to talk about what we think God might be doing or saying through everyday occurrences or situations, etc. We do not turn to the spiritual director to give us answers to our theological questions, to teach us techniques for the spiritual life, to solve our problems, or to treat our dysfunctions. Rather we seek a companion, a fellow journeyman, who will listen attentively to us and to the Holy Spirit as we share the story that God is authoring in our lives.

The curriculum for the spiritual direction program I am in includes extensive reading, reflection papers, attendance at six 4-day residentials throughout the New England area, being in spiritual direction, and giving spiritual direction. During the residentials, students will be attending teaching sessions, having personal time in prayer and meditation, and practicing giving spiritual direction to one another. Spiritual direction has become a deep passion of mine—I am so thoroughly excited to be pursuing this.

Slight change in degree program

I am changing from the World Missions and Evangelism over to the Master of Arts in Religion program (MAR), with a concentration in Missions and World Religion. The MAR degree is unique in that students can choose their own concentration and have more flexibility to choose classes according to personal goals. I'm also applying for a Certificate in International Mission and Ecumenism through the Boston Theological Institute (BTI), which is a consortium of nine theological schools in the Boston area. Through the BTI I am able to take courses at member schools. With the MAR degree and the certificate, I'm required to write an integrative paper that summarizes my reflection on mission and ecumenical studies. My reasoning in making this change and pursuing the Certificate is to slightly secularize the name of my degree in the event that we move abroad and I wish to teach in a non-Christian setting. I'm still defining my goals, but at this point all I know is that I want to learn to think and live like a globally-minded Christian with the goal of reaching my neighbor for Christ. I hope that one day God opens doors for me to work with immigrants or international students.

Course overviews

I thought I should provide some clarification on our classes, because the course title is not always sufficient.

Dave’s classes:

• Pastoral ministry: the different facets of being a pastor: pastor as teacher, counselor, leader, preacher; studying the sacraments (baptism, communion, marriage)
• Intro to Islam: exploring the history and beliefs of Islam. The coolest thing about this class is that we’re required to interview a Muslim or spend 5 hours witnessing to Muslims!

Cindy’s classes:

• Theology of Mission: we seek to understand the Biblical basis for missions in the OT, the NT and look at current trends in missions.
• Church planting in Muslim contexts: this is really a cross-cultural church planting class. It’s taught by a former missionary to Morocco so most of the case studies are in a Muslim context. I’m hoping to do my research paper and demographic study on church planting among Muslims in Texas.
• Biblical Global Justice: we look at justice from a Biblical perspective, and discuss social justice issues like health care reform, education, abortion, slavery, the poor, human trafficking, etc. This class really tugs at my heart—there is so much overwhelming suffering in the world that I don’t know where to start in action. I’m also convicted by my lack of prayer or concern, because I focus so much on myself and my own worries.
• Intro to Islam: (see above)

In the near future, Dave will write a post about Spiritual Direction--what it is and why he feels God leading him to pursue training as a spiritual director.

Church plant!

Last month, we committed to being part of the core group of a church plant that was started by a group of Christians, the majority of whom have some connection with Gordon-Conwell. This church plant has been such a blessing to us! The vision for North Point Evangelical Presbyterian Church came together earlier this year. The church has a pastoral leadership team consisting of a husband/wife/GC Old Testament professors and an Australian who recently graduated from GC with MDiv and counseling degrees. Dave is serving weekly leading worship on the guitar (and I pitched in last week with my tambourine and shaker, just like the good ole days. It was challenging playing with Alicia and Josiah clinging on to one leg apiece.) We are both a part of the worship ministry team, helping plan the worship service and create the ethos and values of the church. That experience in itself has been so rich. Our planning times have been unexpectedly deep, contemplative, and thought-provoking. We've learned so much about symbolism and form in the worship service, and have developed a greater appreciation for liturgy.

The North Point's vision is to be an equipping and sending church, meaning raising up and training Christians to spread the Gospel and serve God as they feel He is calling them. We had our hard launch (Grand Opening) just two Sundays ago, so the church is still young and small, but we love it and are so glad God led us here!

Kids' update

Charis is thoroughly enjoying herself in 1st grade at a nearby private Christian school. In addition to mastering the spelling of three-letter words, she is taking piano lessons and praise dance lessons at her school. The poor thing comes home absolutely exhausted at the end of every day, as she is still adjusting to being in school all day. I really miss her when she’s goneL But I thank God for the good friends and teachers He’s provided for her—she has really come out of her shell since we moved here last year!

Alicia attends Gordon-Conwell’s on-campus Nursery School Tuesday and Thursday mornings. She is still a little shy, but loves being a big girl and going to school all by herself. She has also resumed her beloved AWANA activities. She is sure to tell me each week that she did not eat too many cookies because they have too much sugar and food coloring. Good girl.

Josiah stays at home with Mommy and Daddy. He is all boy, and is content to wrestle and fight bad guys all day long. Unlike his sisters, he does not enjoy sitting down with crayons and paper. Josiah is very verbal and does not cease to amaze me with all the clever things he says. He is turning 3 next month!

Book review of Sacred Rhythms

Ruth Haley Barton, Sacred Rhythms, Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2006. 191 pp. ISBN 0-8308-333-1.

The Christian walk has been likened to a pilgrimage. We journey through life’s terrain of highs and lows experiencing seasons of intimacy with God as well as periods of spiritual depletion. We might try to fill our lives with more activity but eventually we burn out and are confronted with the reality that we are longing for much more. Ruth Haley Barton is a spiritual director, author and conference speaker who knows this too well. Sacred Rhythms shares her journey from longing for more into embracing spiritual practices that helped her experience deep spiritual transformation.

This book was a timely gift, given to me during a critical season in my life. As a mother of three young children, I felt like I was always on the verge of spiritual, physical, and emotional exhaustion. So when I read the opening chapters about how the author was serving God yet joylessly burning-out in the midst of so-called “Christian Fatigue Syndrome”, I knew I had found a sympathetic ear. Rather than just tweaking her schedule or spicing up her daily devotions, Barton made the radical decision to adjust her lifestyle to create space for spiritual transformation by implementing spiritual disciplines. She characterizes these disciplines as rhythms. The word rhythm conveys something natural and instinctive, like the ocean’s tides and the changing of the seasons, as well as something beautiful, like the step of a dance or the meter of a symphonic piece. The disciplines themselves are merely the pillars around which we set up our God-ward lives, not the goal itself. Only God can do the transforming, but we can create the conditions that keep us open and available to Him.

According to Barton, desire is the beginning of the spiritual journey. The desire to have deepest longings filled, the desire to know God more intimately, help us move from desire to discipline. The disciplines she covers in this book are solitude, lectio divina (contemplative Scripture reading), prayer, honoring the body, self-examination, discernment, and Sabbath. In each chapter she gives a basic definition of the discipline, and then takes it deeper and broader. She includes personal reflections, concluding with practical application in the practice section, which encourages you to incorporate the discipline into daily life. The author wants us to experience the disciplines personally, and so she includes a lot of personal testimony. At times the reader may not be able to relate to the intensity of longing and dissatisfaction she generalizes for the average Christian, but she is able to describe the appeal and necessity of these disciplines through her personal experiences in a way which makes these ancient practices seem not only relevant but necessary for today. Before I read this book, I had already observed Sabbath for many years and could testify to its spiritual and physical benefits. But from conversations with other Christians, I could tell that Sabbath seemed like an observance of a bygone age, anachronistically unstylish or impractical for today. Barton does a fine job of acknowledging that sentiment, but then inspiring the reader to observe a day (or half-day) of rest, being faithful to the biblical spirit of the Sabbath and giving freedom to tailor one’s Sabbath observance according to what brings delight and rest to the individual. Rather than feeling like a restriction, it is true that Sabbath rest is something you can grow to crave! The chapter on Self-Examination left perhaps the greatest impression on me. This practice involves opening ourselves up to God’s presence in our lives by meditating on who God is and who we are in the light of His presence, and through confession of sin. Self-examination facilitates self-awareness, which in turn allows God to work in the deepest parts of our souls.

The culmination of these disciplines is the “Rule of Life”, from the Benedictine monastic tradition. The Rule is a personalized, intentional ordering of our lives to create space for God to work in our lives, rather than just waiting for transformation to spontaneously happen to us. The final chapter of the book guides the reader on how to formulate a personal Rule of Life by choosing the disciplines that best suit our needs for the moment, including Barton’s own Rule to serve as an example. Two appendices give tips on how to learn and practice these disciplines in community with others, which she highly encourages. The notes include some bibliographic material, but I felt it was too sparse; I would have preferred a more extensive listing.

It would be best to ruminate on the material in the book over several readings over a period of time—these lifestyle-changing disciplines cannot be implemented overnight. At times we may even experience resistance to the disciplines. I have taken this book on personal solitude retreats and have read and re-read a chapter at a time, as needed. What I appreciate about Barton’s style is that she writes with the heart and passion of a modern-day mystic. She opens a treasure box of spiritual practices that are sadly foreign to the modern-day Protestant evangelical. She warns the reader that opening oneself up to spiritual transformation is risky—we must be willing to be exposed, and deal honestly with “what isn’t working so that we can craft a way of life that is more congruent with our deepest desires.” The key here to spiritual transformation is not doing, but rather un-doing—learning to be still and silent before the Lord so that He can speak to us out of the din of everyday life. It’s not about suppressing desire, but rather stirring our God-given desire toward the only One who can abundantly fill it.

This book would be a great companion to the spiritual formation classic Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster, which is a more comprehensive treatment of the disciplines. Barton’s book would appeal to the Christian who is looking for a more simplistic and personal approach. Spiritual disciplines are not about legalism or works-based mentality; in fact, Barton’s tone is full of grace. It’s about having our deepest needs met in God. Spiritual transformation is a mystery—this book sheds some light on how we can invite God into our everyday life to work in us.

Ramadan Prayer Booklet

My sister-in-law Vanessa forwarded this to me: a Ramadan prayer booklet. Check out this website: http://www.30-days.net/. Click on Download PDF booklet and you'll find a colorful, informative guide for praying through Ramadan. Ramadan this year is Aug. 22-Sept. 20. Dave and I hope to participate in some Ramadan activities at a nearby mosque, sharing a meal with Muslims and praying for their salvation in Jesus.