Iona Gathers Team of Spiritual Directors for Work in Congregational Spiritual Direction

The Iona Collaborative recently hosted a gathering at Seminary of the Southwest in Austin for spiritual directors preparing to accompany small congregations in Texas and Michigan. New spiritual directors included Rosemary Hagan and Betsy Lawrence of Michigan, and Tia Norman and Kathy Reiter of Texas. Also attending were Janet Davis of Texas and April Williams of Michigan, who are both returning spiritual directors. Together, the group learned, practiced, and reflected on what it means to listen deeply to the shared life of an entire congregation. 

Small congregations are vital centers within our church, and many are navigating enormous change—not only organizational but also emotional and spiritual. Congregational Spiritual Direction does not begin with the assumption that a congregation is a problem to be solved. Instead, spiritual directors accompany congregations as they listen, notice, and discern together.

Congregations naturally spend much of their time asking practical questions: How will we care for our building? Where will we find volunteers? Should this ministry continue? How might we welcome new people?

Congregational Spiritual Direction helps congregations ask deeper questions: Where is God already at work among us? What might we be invited to release? Who is God calling us to become?

Over the last several years, the Iona Collaborative has developed a series of tools to support communal discernment. During our time together in Austin, role-playing gave the spiritual directors opportunities to move these tools from ideas on a page into the shared life of a congregation.

And then there is a moment when the Holy Spirit simply shows up.

As I watched the spiritual directors practice through role-playing, I began to notice moments of “aha.” Their listening deepened beyond a single person’s experience and became attuned to the life of an entire congregation—to where the Spirit might be moving collectively. The tools came alive.

This work is also an opportunity to learn. As spiritual directors begin accompanying invited congregations in Texas and Michigan, we will be listening alongside them—paying attention to what happens when a congregation is given sustained space for awareness, reflection, and discernment.

What we learn will help us better understand the practice of Congregational Spiritual Direction: where it is fruitful, what spiritual directors need to accompany congregations well, and how this work might serve the wider church.