School of Spiritual Direction
We have three new cohorts (J, K and L) of the School of Spiritual Direction planned for the 2011-12 calendar year and have made what we think will be good changes. First, the training time has been lengthened by 2 months. This extra time will give students more room to complete readings, receive and offer spiritual direction, and digest the the experience. Second, the training will now start in September and end in May. We think this will work better for cohort members who have children in school. (We’ll begin after the kids are back in school and end before summer chaos break!) Third, we’re inviting 1-2 others to help teach, train and supervise. We believe you’ll benefit greatly from this expanded teaching perspective. Fourth, we’ve made it more easier to “pay as you go,” giving you the option to stretch payment out over 9 months.
So if you’ve been looking for training in this ancient charism of the church, we’d love to have you join us in the coming year. After the training you’ll find yourself listening to people in a whole new way, one that will serve you and others well if you’re involved in any form of ministry where one-on-one conversation, discernment and prayer matter deeply.
A current participant wrote recently about her experience. You can read that here. It might give you a taste of what a cohort is like.
2011-12 Modules
Please note that the first and last session are 3-day sessions while the middle three sessions are 2-day sessions. That makes five meetings in all.
Cohort J: Cincinnati OH
(Led by Dave Nixon)
• Sept 12-14 (Mon-Wed)
• Nov 8-9 (Tues-Wed)
• Jan 10-11 (Tues-Wed)
• March 13-14 (Tues-Wed)
• May 7-9 (Mon-Wed)
(For Cohort J we can move the middle 3 intensives / modules to Monday-Tuesday times if that works best for participants.)
Cohort K: Cincinnati OH
(Led jointly by Dave Nixon and Beth Booram)
• Sept 15-17 (Thur-Sat)
• Nov 11-12 (Fri-Sat)
• Jan 13-14 (Fri-Sat)
• March 16-17 (Fri-Sat)
• May 10-12 (Thur-Sat)
Cohort L: Houston TX
(Led jointly by Dave Nixon and Kris Miller)
• Sept 8-10 (Thurs-Sat)
• Nov 18-19 (Fri-Sat)
• Jan 20-21 (Fri-Sat)
• March 23-24 (Fri-Sat)
• May 17-19 (Thurs-Sat)
2012-2013 Modules
We’ll begin new modules in September of 2012. If interested, email us at dave at sustainablefaith dot com and let us know. We’ll arrange a conversation by phone or in person to answer your questions.
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COST
The cost for the training is $1475. You can reserve your spot in any of the cohorts with a $275 deposit by August 19, 2011. If the balance is paid in full by Sept. 1, we can offer a $100 discount. Otherwise, the balance can be paid in 8 equal payments of $150, falling due on the first of the month, starting Oct. 1, 2011 and ending May 1, 2012.
Books, transportation, lodging and food aren’t included, but for Cincinnati cohorts we can help by offering you rooms in the Convent with breakfast and dinner included for a modest fee of $40 per night as long as space is available. We also have a rich network of people who live right around us and are part of our community of faith. Many of them have guest rooms. Once our own rooms fill up we’ll do what we can to find you accommodations within a block or two of the Convent and for the same price. For the Houston cohort, the location is yet to be determined, so we’ll keep participants posted on that one.
You can reserve your spot by going to our secure online server to pay your deposit. Please specify there what cohort you’re signing up for. Keep in mind, however, that you’ll first need to fill out an application and schedule a phone conversation (or face-to-face) with Dave Nixon if you haven’t already done so.
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REGISTRATION
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OUR ORIENTATION
Our training in spiritual direction flows from a decidedly trinitarian and christocentric basis. That is, we believe in the triune God, confessing God as the creator of all, confessing Jesus as God revealed in the flesh, and confessing the Holy Spirit as the gift of God who empowers us through the resurrection of Christ to enter into God’s redemptive work. We are Christ-followers, attempting to embody the very life and message of Jesus so as to represent him to the world.
Having said that, it’s necessary to add that we don’t see or use or promote spiritual direction as a “tool” for Christian evangelism. We believe that spiritual direction is to be offered in a “disinterested” manner and without conditions. As Jesus points out, God’s sun and rain fall on all people –– the good and the bad, the just and the unjust –– simply because it’s a comprehensive (perfect) love.
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THE COMPONENTS OF OUR TRAINING
1 Reading
[For a complete reading list, please email Dave: info at sustainablefaith dot com]
I want to be careful here not to overstate the importance of the readings for your training in the work of spiritual direction. In our present culture we have a particularly nasty habit of confusing information with wisdom — and the intellectual acquisition of a spiritual good with the embodied practice that should reflect it. In short, we tend toward gnosticism. But spiritual direction has to do with one person attending well to the spiritual well-being of another as it relates to the God-conversation, and this is something you can do (and do well!) without ever reading a book. As long as we keep this firmly in mind, then we can approach our reading in the way I’d like to present it: as a point of departure for reflecting on our own lives and the practice of spiritual direction. It’s inherently good to hear the perspectives of those who have walked this path and thought hard about its meaning. My hope is that you’ll slowly — very slowly — chew over their thoughts and digest only the parts that seem fitting
2 Group Discussion
Throughout human history one of the primary modes for learning has been through the free exchange of ideas between mutually interested people. And that’s why we have discussion. Our readings will form the basis of much discussion, but you’re always free to bring up questions or topics that pertain to the practice of spiritual direction. Much of our discussion will also flow from exercises we do together and tapes we listen to and watch together.
3 General Reports
One week before each session you’ll submit via email to all the participants in your cohort a 2-page report in which you:
• comment on your readings (what you’re learning, how you’re being challenged, etc.)
• comment on any spiritual direction you’re providing others
• share from the experience of being directed/guided by someone else
• invite others to pray about the circumstances of your own life
• submit any question you’d like to discuss in the upcoming session
You’re not graded by your writing ability. Just reflect and write. This monthly exercise will help you surface things helpful to our time together.
4 Field Work: Offering Direction
In the course of this training each person agrees to accept two directees in order to begin live, hands-on training. Several of these sessions will be recorded and sent to us so we can listen and offer appropriate feedback & supervision to the participants.
“Isn’t this premature?” you might ask. I’m reminded here of a conversation between a young bishop and the keen spiritual director Francis de Sales. The young bishop repeatedly asked de Sales how to attain spiritual maturity, and all the old master would answer was, “Love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself.” When the young man was then sufficiently exasperated, his mentor finally elaborated, “There are lots of people besides you who want me to tell them methods and systems and secret ways of becoming mature, but all I can tell them is that the sole secret is a hearty love of God, and the only way of attaining that is by loving.” (The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales, Jean Pierre Camus)
A chief way, then, of growing as a spiritual director is by beginning the work of spiritual direction. So let’s begin early. We’ll give you ideas for finding suitable candidates so that you’re not left to your own resources.
5 Field Work: Receiving Direction
Each participant in the training agrees to be under direction. If you already have a spiritual director, great! If you can get one before entering the training, all the better. If you need help in finding one, we can provide suggestions. The wisdom here is that we expect and desire for others no less than what we expect and desire for ourselves. Therefore, we’re willing to entrust ourselves to the compassionate and wise discernment of another person. Regard it as “spiritual flossing” as well as a way to grow in your own practice and relate to your directees.
6 Supervision
After I receive recordings of your spiritual direction session we’ll schedule a 30-minute phone conversation with you (or a face-to-face meeting if you live close by) to debrief it with you. You can also contact us in between sessions for conversation about anything relevant to the training experience.
7 Peer Supervision
During the third, fourth and last sessions we’ll practice peer supervision. In peer supervision you get to unpack with a few others (a subset of the cohort) any aspect of your experience of providing spiritual direction to others. We use a model of peer supervision that’s both simple and useful. If in the future you find spiritual direction to be a regular part of what you offer others, peer supervision is a healthy practice to continue, and the model we use is easily transferable.
8 Deep Practice of Spiritual Disciplines
Each participant agrees to enter into an a consistent and deep practice of 1-2 spiritual disciplines over the course of our time together. The specific disciplines will be selected after prayer, discussion and discernment during our first time together. If we yield to the work of the Spirit in our own lives, we offer a great gift to directees.