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Click here for August 2010 Spiritual Direction Newsletter
Click here for Newsletter Archives
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
 © 2009 St. Mark's Church |