"Building a Spiritual Direction Framework"

Chapter 1, Describe the role, substance, and place of spiritual direction in your church and life. Who nurtures this holy conversation in your life?


The church where I attend is a Baptist church. Our church was once a church the relied on rules and regulations to govern the church. Having many meetings and making decisions based on the majority rules has basically become a thing of the past. Spiritual direction as a way of life has been something that I have, as senior pastor, been trying to incorporate as part of what we do as a church body and it is improving the spiritual life of the church. We have been emphasizing the spiritual disciplines of prayer, study of scripture, Christian service and fasting as a means of strengthening our relationship with each other and discovering God’s plan for our lives and the life of the church. We have set aside time at the beginning of the worship for silence and meditation while the choir prayerfully prepares to lead worship. We have created an intercessory prayer team whose primary role is to pray for healing and the direction of our faith community with extra devotion to praying for the pastor and elected officers and church leaders. The men are presently working on a covenant agreement that will aid them in helping them to under gird each other as they take the journey of life. Spiritual direction is helping us to turn away from doing as a church to becoming as a church.

Spiritual direction has become for me a necessary discipline for being effective in pastoral ministry. It is helping me to better discern the areas of my life that need to be strengthened and made whole. Spiritual direction has provided for me, a sense of balance when it comes to family, church, self and community. Devoting intentional time to prayer, study unrelated to find sermon material, contemplation and quiet time has help in sermon preparation and ministry in general. I have a better sense of discernment in the area of counseling and helping people to discover God at work in their lives. Spiritual direction has enabled me to obtain a better sense of purpose which in turn has made it easier to say no to things that do not fit my purpose. Spiritual direction helps me to balance home, church and community by increasing my awareness of what matters most, godly relationship. Spiritual direction heighten has helped me to understand and relate to what others are going through, where they are spiritually and where they believe that God wants them to be.


The person who nurtures this holy conversation in my life is also serving as pastor. It is important for me to have someone who I know is traveling a similar road to the one that I am on. We have a “Friendship as direction” type relationship and our sharing for the most part is mutual. From the beginning, our relationship grew out of a mutual interest in spiritual formation even though, at the time, neither of us knew little if anything about spiritual direction. One thing that we were both aware of from the beginning was the need to stay spiritually in touch with God and being replenished and renewed to better serve God and his people. Presently we hold each other accountable, listen to and try to discern each others perception of what God is saying to us. Paul Jones points out that the most widespread form of spiritual direction is between author and reader. My spiritual buddy keeps me supplied with plenty of good reading material for developing spiritually. Spiritual direction helps me to keep my focus centered on God, as well as mend my soul. Without it I would not have a sense of direction and I would not have been able to make it this far.

Chapter 2, Explain the 6 components of your Theological World.

The “Theological World” that most resembles mine is TW1 Feeling-longing, obsession-separation as being abandoned, State-alien, Atonement-love as tearing the veil, Christology-Reveler and Epiphania-Reunion as homecoming. As long as I can remember, my search has been for unconditional love from my father. There was always this tension, and still is, between the two of us pertaining to the subject of love. His mother died when he was very young and his father did not do a very good job passing along unconditional love to him. There was plenty of love in my family coming from the women, which created a balance for me, but there is still that longing that at times, makes it challenging for me to continue relationships that do not merit growth. During my adolescent stage and early adult years, I struggled with abandonment. I struggled with my mother’s leaving for work. It was terribly upsetting to have my favorite aunt baby sit me and then leave. I can still remember the screaming that usually led to her secretly leaving. I wrestle with members leaving the church and tend to take the blame for it even today. In some instances I am to blame and for healthy reasons, but I still tend to need to work through the feeling of being left alone in those instances. The state that I frequently experience is that of alienation. Usually feelings of alienation come in arenas where I spend a substantial amount time with people and spiritual growth and love has not resulted in the relationship. While I am usually cautious when it comes to building the relationships that I long for in faith communities, I still see love as tearing the veil. For me “love conquers all,” which means that there are many things that I am usually willing to overlook as a result of that love. Sometimes this is not always reciprocated but that’s okay because “Spiritual direction” has as much to do, if not more so, with what God is able to do through me in the process. I concur with Paul Jones’ Christological view Jesus as Reveler. God delights in our returning. I believe that he gets rather giddy when we experience the joy of coming home, reunion. World 1 people are always looking for reunion experiences. What better way to express God’s response than to revisit the parable of the “Prodigal Son.” God celebrates our return and who desires for us to do the same with others

Chapter 3, I experienced discipleship in the context of an Anabaptist--Sect Type of Faith Community. Share your discipleship experience with characteristics of either Sect or Church, or possibly a blend as depicted in the Wesleyan Model in the text. What were the strengths and weaknesses in your Faith Community's spiritual direction process?
I experienced discipleship in the context of Pentecostal sect-type of faith community. The leadership in the Pentecostal church that I grew up in almost always discouraged the membership from allowing themselves to be exposed to readings that were not written within the context of the denomination. The inerrant Word of God as the primary source, along with literature written by the chief apostle were sufficient readings in obtaining perfection. Perfection was to be the main goal of every member and it was measured by outward appearances such as dress codes which usually applied to women, songs about trying to make to heaven, and works that proved that one was a perfect Christian.

Teachings and sermons on perfection usually centered around the repeated themes of baptism in Jesus’ name, following the teachings of the apostles, “preaching and teaching the truth”, participating regularly in the disciplines of prayer and fasting, “working out your soul salvation, which basically meant, working for salvation. Much of the teachings is about being saved, knowing that you are still saved and being saved at the return of Christ. The evidence of the salvation is speaking in tongues and living a holy life. Not living a holy life could result in being “silenced” or inactive, or even expelled from the church until one repents for their sin or sins.

Spiritual direction is something that is passed down from the top. The established order within the denomination begin with the “chief apostle”, or head man in the organization instructs the “apostles” who instruct the “bishops” who instruct “pastors” who instruct the “elders” and ministers and the membership at large. At the bottom of the hierarchy and separate from the men are the missionaries, who are primarily responsible for training the women to train other women to be perfect and to obey their men.

I did not learn much about grace in this environment as a child, but did acquire a deep love for God and people. They really do a great job praying and supporting each other. Whenever a member experienced difficulty whether, spiritually, physically, or financially they pray almost without ceasing for that person. The area that they least understand and that frightens them most is when a person is wrestling emotionally. They don’t quite know how to deal with that one. I think one of the reasons why they work really hard at trying to keep people perfect is because they do not know how to handle imperfection through forgiveness and grace.


Chapter 4, Reflect upon the spiritual direction technique demonstrated by the Desert Fathers in name and release the distractions in contemplation (p. 119). Post after you have practiced this technique during your personal formation such as a Lectio Divina.”

Renouncing mindless thoughts” as practiced by the deserts fathers is something that you really need to practice regularly. Instead of emptying my mind I found myself replacing that emptiness with something else. It is as if no thoughts begets thoughts and the more you think about not thinking the more you think. Decarte said, “I think therefore I am”. It feels a bit unusual to trying to silence my mind when I use it so often to prove to me that I am still existing. Experiencing “the now” is also challenging because it seems as though my mind is either wandering somewhere in the past or running towards some point in the future and there is no in between when it comes to silence.



Chapter 5, Select one spiritual mode that you feel called to practice. Don't push your self, allow your self to feel at ease and relaxed in God's presence. Post your reflections on this experience.

Contemplation and the Prayer of Centering – It’s 10:30 pm. The house is silent, no television, no conversation and no ringing cell phones. I’m sitting in the dark which helps me to better sense God’s presence. For ten minutes I sit in silence. It takes longer than I expect to empty my mind of the busy events of the day. As I try and focus on the now and gain a sense of presence, many thoughts begin to run through my mind, thoughts of my father, my mother, last weeks worship, the hospital visits, homework, and even the time. If I am not thinking about the past, I am thinking about the future but the themes are the same. Finally, for just a few minutes I am able to experience a quiet space as I whisper his name.

Jesus’ name becomes my montra. I repeat his name over and over while imagining people bringing to him their friends and relatives to be healed. I could almost hear him asking them before healing them, “What do you want me to do for?” Suddenly I become one those needing to be healed. In my imaginings there was no one to bring me to Jesus so I brought myself and I knew that he would know that. He asks me, “Ben, what do you want me to do for you?” I envision myself asking Jesus to heal my body, my mind and help me to with my spiritual direction. At the end of my prayer time Christ is my total focus. I am totally consumed by him and the distractions that troubled me in the beginning I lay at his feet and leave for bed feeling burdens had been lifted.
Chapter 6, Select an aphorism that connects with your journey. Post a reflection.
The aphorism that connects best with my spiritual journey is Paul Jones (Being loved and loving), “To love a stranger as oneself is to love the stranger within oneself.”

Jesus placed a high premium on love. It was his love for restored humanity that sent him to the cross to die for the sins of the world. Jesus, encouraging his disciples to continue to love each other said them at their last supper together, “By this shall all men shall know that you are my disciples that you love one another.” (John 13:35) Unconditional love is the highest level of love that God calls us to give and we usually reserve it for family and friends. In this business, I frequently meet people who might be considered as “unlovable.” Usually they appear to be unlovable because they do not measure up to some specification that I have placed on them via what is in my heart. Generally, it is easier for me to exhibit some measure of love after people have demonstrated that they deserve my love and will not reject it or abuse it, a continuation of unfulfilled love in me. Sometimes that perspective causes me to be judgmental, if no more than in my heart, and that posses a problem for me. What I have discovered in my quest to love folk unconditionally is that, where humans beings are concerned, our love will always be incomplete apart from God’s love. God gives us difficult people to love to improve those difficult areas in our lives that keep us from experiencing the depth of his love. I have discovered that the only thing that can stand between me and the people God send for me to love is me. My journey is a journey of unconditional love, the kind of love that only God can give.

Chapter 7, Envision and describe a model of spiritual direction that release renewal in your congregation. How does this model reflect a biblical pattern?

The model of spiritual direction that I envision for my church is one that the lay leadership will partake of and take ownership in. Pastors leading the spiritual direction as spiritual directors in their faith communities is a noble idea but not practical and really not totally biblical. According to Ephesians 4:11, 12 God has given the church pastors and other spiritual leaders for the purpose of perfecting of believers, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. The role of pastoral leadership is to empower people and to teach them to allow God to give them direction. The mandate from Jesus to go into all of the world, was a mandate to the leadership of the church go and evangelize, win souls for Christ. But the other part of that mandate was to produce disciples who were capable of evangelizing and reproduction disciples as they went into all the world. I envision a church where lay folk practice spiritual direction, partner with and learn from one-with-one direction as well as execute the process with each other.