Sustaining Pastoral Excellence

Spiritual Direction Gaining Momentum in Covenant March 9, 2010

CHICAGO, IL (March 8, 2010) – Spiritual director networks that are being formed in several conferences of the Evangelical Covenant Church are providing new opportunities for Covenant pastors and laity to strengthen their relationships with God, says Dan Pietrzyk, director of the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence program.

The Pacific Southwest Conference has long had a network of spiritual directors, but the increasing number of trained Covenant spiritual directors enabled the North Pacific, Northwest, and Midwest conferences to develop their networks last year. Plans for 2010 call for networks to be developed in the Great Lakes, East Coast, and Central conferences.

“They’re another support mechanism for ministers and lay people in Covenant churches,” Pietrzyk says.

Spiritual direction is a process by which trained directors help individuals to discern (recognize) and respond to the movement of God in their lives, often focused around historically accepted disciplines.

Spiritual direction is in keeping with the historical Covenant ethos of asking, “How is your walk with Jesus?” Pietrzyk says, adding, “We are a people of the word, a people of prayer, and a people of community.”

Establishing a new network includes assembling a list of directors within a given conference and identifying a point person who can guide people to a director in their area, Pietrzyk says. The name of the point person and contact information is available on conference websites.

A majority of spiritual directors have been trained through the Center for Spiritual Direction, which is operated through North Park Theological Seminary. The three-year program will enter its sixth year this summer.

The number of directors has increased to a level that a first national gathering could be supported during January’s Midwinter Pastors Conference in Denver. The development of directors and emerging networks is the result of a strong partnership involving the seminary and the departments of Christian Formation and Ordered Ministry.

Pietrzyk says he hopes that enough people from each conference will be trained so that networks can be offered throughout the denomination. “I think that would be a gift to each conference to have a set of spiritual directors.”

The deadline for applying to the upcoming classes at the Center for Spiritual Direction is April 15.

Published by Covenant News Wire; http://www.covchurch.org/cov/news/item7591

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