Spiritual Direction

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Fellow Pilgrims:

I am the first to serve this congregation as a Spiritual Director. Spiritual direction will probably be new to most people. As a Spiritual Director, I assist the staff and congregation of St. Mark’s as needed by providing resources in the furtherance of their ministries. I will be teaching, preaching, providing pastoral care, hospital chaplaincy at least once a week, assisting at worship, and prayer. There is no set number of days or hours to be spent in the office. I am under the direct supervision of the Rector and meet with him every week. I attend weekly staff meetings. Other meetings and duties can be assigned as needed by the Rector or can be requested by other staff, the Vestry, and the congregation.

In spiritual direction, there is no set number, frequency, or duration of appointments with people or groups seeking spiritual direction. This relationship is individually tailored to the individual or group requesting spiritual direction. Usually this will involve face-to-face meetings but can take other forms when necessary. The duration of the relationship and the meeting location will be mutually agreed upon. The meetings are confidential. My primary responsibility is to be a Spiritual Director to all who request spiritual direction.

Spiritual direction is concerned with helping someone directly with his or her relationship with God. Spiritual direction questions may include but not be limited to ones such as these. “Whose am I (God’s or ???)? Who am I with respect to God? Who is God for me? How do I pray or meditate? What are my spiritual gifts? How do I bring my problems and concerns directly to God? How do I listen to God?” You bring your honest questions to me and we explore them together with God as our partner. Nothing is off-limits and everything is confidential.

Spiritual direction involves much listening and helping the other person walk their spiritual pilgrimage. There are as many spiritual pilgrimages as there are people. There is no single cookie-cutter approach. Spiritual direction is directly concerned with a person’s actual experience of his or her own relationship with God. Spiritual direction is the help given to a Christian by another Christian which enables that person to pay attention to God’s personal communication with them, to respond to this personally communicating God, to grow in intimacy with God, and to live out the consequences of their relationship.

The focus is on religious experience more than ideas about religion. This experience should be seen as the expression of the Christian’s ongoing personal relationship which God has established with each one of us. Spiritual direction is concerned with the whole person. Our spiritual life is not just the life of the mind, emotions, soul, or spirit. It is the life of the whole person—head, heart, gut, soul, and spirit. Spiritual direction is concerned with the whole person who a child of God, who is seeking to recover the perfect likeness to God in Christ, by the Spirit of Christ Who died for each one of us. The Holy Spirit is an integral part of Spiritual Direction. There is no “one size fits all” in spiritual direction.
Each one of us walks in our own way with Jesus. Within the framework of Scripture, there is almost an infinite variety of different ways to go outside and be playful with Jesus. You can see that diversity at worship at St. Marks. We like a wide variety of types of music. Some lift their hands while praying and singing while others don’t. Some kneel and others sit. Some cross themselves but others do not. Some bow before the altar and others do not. Some are more formal while others are more informal. However, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. We all confess Jesus as our Risen Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ died for each one of us and loves us. We accept Scripture as the foundation for life and faith and the authority for us in life. Those other differences are adiaphora or literally things that do not make a difference. Spiritual direction means remaining true to our personality and preferences and to Jesus Christ our Risen Lord and Savior. Spiritual direction invites us to go outside the routine and mundane, be playful, and be with Jesus. A spiritual director helps you do this. A spiritual director listens to you and to God about you. Spiritual direction is not therapy.

Give me a call if you would like to start spiritual direction or get more information on spiritual direction (630-404-1261). A spiritual director may meet with you as often or as little as you want and need. I have the M.Div. from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, the Certificate in Anglican Studies from Trinity Episcopal School of the Ministry in conjunction with Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, a B.A. from Illinois State University, and a M.A. from Michigan State University. If you wish, I can provide further information about my training, publications, pastoral experience, or other information.

Thomas Merton said, “Spiritual direction is, in reality, nothing more than a way of leading us to see and obey the real Director — the Holy Spirit hidden in the depths of our soul.” The spiritual director walks with another as they both walk with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

In Christ’s love,
Chuck Ellenbaum ><>+
Spiritual Director