Congregational Spiritual Direction
Across The Episcopal Church, congregations are navigating profound change. Many are experiencing leadership transitions, financial constraints, volunteer fatigue, and declining participation. These are organizational as well as spiritual challenges. They invite deeper questions about identity, vocation, leadership, and God’s call for your congregation.
To meet these challenges, the Iona Collaborative at Seminary of the Southwest developed congregational spiritual direction as a way to accompany small churches through what we call the small church journey: making the intellectual, emotional, organizational, and ultimately spiritual transition toward becoming a church without full-time clergy leadership.
We are happy you are considering congregational spiritual direction for your congregation.
Please read through this page and contact Rebecca Hall, Project Director,
to talk through your questions, concerns, or to plan for next steps.
What is Congregational Spiritual Direction?
Congregational Spiritual Direction builds on the traditions of individual and group spiritual direction while extending them in a distinctive way: accompanying the congregation itself as a living body in its ongoing relationship with God.
Each church we work with is assigned a spiritual director who lives within driving distance of the church. Depending on the church and its preferences, spiritual direction will take place both inside worship (some exercises will fit into sermon slots for the entire congregation) and outside worship (during vestry meetings or other planned leadership meetings).
Spiritual directors help a congregation shift from primarily asking church questions – How do we increase membership? How do we attract more families? What are growth strategies we should try? – toward also asking God questions:
- Where do we see God at work in our ministry right now?
- Where is the Holy Spirit giving us energy and enthusiasm these days?
- Who are we being called to become given the changes we are experiencing?
- What is giving us life right now?
- What are we being invited to let go of so we can focus on God’s call for us?
- How is our grief of losing what used to be getting in our way of answering God’s call for our future?
- What unique gifts and assets has God entrusted to this congregation that benefit the community outside our walls?
Congregational spiritual direction is based on the spiritual direction principles of awareness, reflection, and discernment. It helps congregations grow in awareness of who God is calling them to be today, reflect on the ministry they have done and are currently doing, and discern what God is calling them to in the future.
Congregations That Would Benefit from Spiritual Direction
While all congregations, like individuals, could benefit from spiritual direction, we are looking for churches that:
- are navigating change, transition, or new possibilities;
- have moved or will move toward lay leadership, bi-vocational ministry, or part-time clergy leadership;
- want to move beyond managing institutional challenges toward deeper spiritual growth and discernment;
- are willing to engage with a spiritual director to grow in awareness, reflect on their ministry, and discern where God is calling them at this time;
- are curious, reflective, and open to listening for the Holy Spirit, who might be calling them to something unexpected.
Congregations do not need to be in crisis. We hope to include churches of different leadership arrangements and ministry settings whose participation will help us understand how congregational spiritual direction can serve the wider Church.
