Most of the people who have been spiritual mentors to me don’t even know that I would regard them in that way.
Ben Campbell Johnson was Professor of Evangelism and Spiritual Direction at Columbia Theological Seminary when I was living in Atlanta in the early ‘90s (prior to my even knowing seminary was a thing!). Though now I’d say that the Spirit was drawing me back to church, then I would have said that events in my life were driving me back to church.
I was finding it hard to ‘like’ any churches I visited. I wanted the kind of experience I had known in my home church and, well, there's no place like home! Frustrated with my ‘failed’ attempts at finding a church, I called the pastor at my home church. “How do I find a church that will feel like home?” I asked. Bob (who’d later become an even more important spiritual mentor – more on that in a minute) suggested that I visit with one of his beloved seminary professors who happened to be teaching at nearby Columbia Seminary.
Ben welcomed me into his office and listened as I recounted my need to re-connect to church. He endured my critiques of every church I had tried and he nodded sagely as I described why my home church was so dear to me.
Then there was a long pause. I could almost see him thinking. “Why don’t you go back to [here he named a couple of the churches I had tried], but see what happens if you worship with a different goal. Try going to church not looking for what you might get, but curious about what you might give. I wonder if some of those churches might look different with that measuring stick.”
Kindly, gently, but also firmly and clearly, Ben helped me to see that I had turned my priorities upside down. I do not remember feeling judged or ‘corrected’ but I knew that I needed to re-shape my church search.
Ben further wondered out loud whether I might want to audit a night course he was teaching at Columbia. “It’s called Discerning God’s Will, and it starts tomorrow night. Here’s the book we’ll be using. Come join us!” I accepted that invitation and the class - well, that’s another blog for another day!
(Providentially, Ben was serving communion at chapel when I made a prospective student visit to Columbia a couple of years later. After he offered me the cup of salvation, he winked and said, “I wondered when I’d see you here!”)
Ben and I had no formal pastoral relationship, it wasn’t even a particularly close or deep relationship, but was a spiritual nurturer and guide to me. I smiled when Thompson included a quote from Ben Campbell Johnson in the margins of this week’s chapter in Soul Feast.
>Pause and consider: Who has been a spiritual nurturer and guide to you? Smile a prayer of thanksgiving for each person who has been a spiritual resource for you.
Ben Campbell Johnson was Professor of Evangelism and Spiritual Direction at Columbia Theological Seminary when I was living in Atlanta in the early ‘90s (prior to my even knowing seminary was a thing!). Though now I’d say that the Spirit was drawing me back to church, then I would have said that events in my life were driving me back to church.
I was finding it hard to ‘like’ any churches I visited. I wanted the kind of experience I had known in my home church and, well, there's no place like home! Frustrated with my ‘failed’ attempts at finding a church, I called the pastor at my home church. “How do I find a church that will feel like home?” I asked. Bob (who’d later become an even more important spiritual mentor – more on that in a minute) suggested that I visit with one of his beloved seminary professors who happened to be teaching at nearby Columbia Seminary.
Ben welcomed me into his office and listened as I recounted my need to re-connect to church. He endured my critiques of every church I had tried and he nodded sagely as I described why my home church was so dear to me.
Then there was a long pause. I could almost see him thinking. “Why don’t you go back to [here he named a couple of the churches I had tried], but see what happens if you worship with a different goal. Try going to church not looking for what you might get, but curious about what you might give. I wonder if some of those churches might look different with that measuring stick.”
Kindly, gently, but also firmly and clearly, Ben helped me to see that I had turned my priorities upside down. I do not remember feeling judged or ‘corrected’ but I knew that I needed to re-shape my church search.
Ben further wondered out loud whether I might want to audit a night course he was teaching at Columbia. “It’s called Discerning God’s Will, and it starts tomorrow night. Here’s the book we’ll be using. Come join us!” I accepted that invitation and the class - well, that’s another blog for another day!
(Providentially, Ben was serving communion at chapel when I made a prospective student visit to Columbia a couple of years later. After he offered me the cup of salvation, he winked and said, “I wondered when I’d see you here!”)
Ben and I had no formal pastoral relationship, it wasn’t even a particularly close or deep relationship, but was a spiritual nurturer and guide to me. I smiled when Thompson included a quote from Ben Campbell Johnson in the margins of this week’s chapter in Soul Feast.
>Pause and consider: Who has been a spiritual nurturer and guide to you? Smile a prayer of thanksgiving for each person who has been a spiritual resource for you.
Garden Star (a.k.a., Star Aloe)
We rely on all kinds of guides, consultants and mentors in our lives. Once in Scotland, I fished on the River Tay with church friends and their fishing club’s resident ghillie. The ghillie - or fishing guide - knew which holes were biting, he had patience to help me refine my wild casting technique and he could tell story after story from many many journeys along the river. Ghillies have depth experience at fishing coupled with a deep passion for sharing the fruits of their experience with others who want to take up the fishing life.
Spiritual directors (a.k.a. spiritual guides or mentors) do the kinds of thing ghillies do, but for one’s spiritual life. That’s what Ben Johnson was doing for me when I was finding my way back to church. I wonder how many times he had heard similar tales of woe and longing? Yet he listened and affirmed my story. He did not step in and start telling me which church I should join, rather he effectively said, “Try throwing your line in over there.” Most of all, it was clear that Ben was spiritually attuned from a lifetime’s spiritual journey; he was a knowledgeable guide for the Way I was trying to navigate.
Pause and consider> What kinds of spiritual questions or challenges might you want to take up with a knowledgeable resource and compassionate listener?
Spiritual directors (a.k.a. spiritual guides or mentors) do the kinds of thing ghillies do, but for one’s spiritual life. That’s what Ben Johnson was doing for me when I was finding my way back to church. I wonder how many times he had heard similar tales of woe and longing? Yet he listened and affirmed my story. He did not step in and start telling me which church I should join, rather he effectively said, “Try throwing your line in over there.” Most of all, it was clear that Ben was spiritually attuned from a lifetime’s spiritual journey; he was a knowledgeable guide for the Way I was trying to navigate.
Pause and consider> What kinds of spiritual questions or challenges might you want to take up with a knowledgeable resource and compassionate listener?
Garden Starburst (a.k.a., Allium cristophii)
Apart from guidance that is directive, as when Ben helped me navigate a particular hurdle, spiritual guides can also be shining signposts (guiding 'stars' - hence my garden selections this week? insert cheesy grin here) that bring us to new awareness about the life of faith.
Bob Bardin – the pastor who preached when I was installed as Pastor at North Raleigh – is another spiritual guide who has shaped my life. He was the pastor at my home church from about the time I graduated from college and on through my first career. I wasn’t there week in and week out (I lived in a different city), but Bob’s engaging sermons and worship leadership fed my spirit every time I worshiped in Wilmington. Of course he guided me when he suggested that I visit with Ben Campbell Johnson, but was even more of an influence on me in the ways he taught me about grace in the way he lived his life.
I remember a phone conversation with Bob shortly after I landed at White Memorial. His parents were members there and visiting with them made me want to catch up – it had been so many years since our last encounter and his life and ministry had been, well, turned upside down. “Tell me what you’ve been doing.” I asked Bob. “Well, I’ve recognized that I’m an ‘extra grace required’ person and I’m serving in an ‘extra grace required’ church, so we are finding our way together.” One sentence spoke volumes to me. It was confession, assurance of pardon and invitation to discipleship all rolled into one!
Our paths crossed again several years later when I was serving as vacancy counselor for a church in Goldsboro. (You might say that vacancy counselors are spiritual directors for search committees as they journey through an interim period and toward new pastoral leadership!) Imagine my delight when I learned that that congregation was in conversation with one of the influencers of my own spiritual life, Bob Bardin. It was a privilege when I was able to be a part of Bob’s re-entry into ministry in the PC(USA) and an absolute joy when he was able to be a part of my new ministry at NRPC.
Spiritual directors can also be spiritually attuned friends who journey alongside you as you make your way in faith and life. Such a peer-to-peer relationship might stretch over a season or a lifetime. Or spiritual directors can be more formalized relationships that might feel like a cross between talking with a counselor and talking with a pastor. And, of course, many pastors are gifted to function as spiritual directors.
>Pause and Consider: Who has shaped your understanding of grace or helped you understand its depths?
One of the marginal quotes in Thompson’s chapter summarizes the role of a spiritual director: “So what does the spiritual director teach? In the simplest and also most profound terms, the spiritual director is simultaneously a learner and a teacher of discernment: What is happening? Where is God in this person’s life? What is the story? Where does this person’s story fit in our common Christian story?” (p. 116, quoting Margaret Guenther)
This chapter on spiritual direction is a reminder that we are not alone as we make the journey of faith. Many have traveled this way before, many are making this journey even as we are and many will surely come behind us. Thompson’s urge – and mine – is that you seek out a partner or mentor who can guide you and accompany you as you journey ever deeper into relationship with the risen and living One. (And if you’re looking for a formal spiritual director, I’ll be glad to help you in your search!)
Until next time,
Peace
Lisa
Thompson, Marjorie, Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life (New Rev edition). Westminster John Knox Press, 2014
(Postscript: About the time that I was making my way back into active church life, Sue Monk Kidd was writing When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life's Sacred Questions. I listened to that book on Audible over the weekend and can recommend it as an armchair form of spiritual direction offered by a consummate story teller. Would love to collect names of anyone who'd want to work through that book together? Lemmeknow!)
Bob Bardin – the pastor who preached when I was installed as Pastor at North Raleigh – is another spiritual guide who has shaped my life. He was the pastor at my home church from about the time I graduated from college and on through my first career. I wasn’t there week in and week out (I lived in a different city), but Bob’s engaging sermons and worship leadership fed my spirit every time I worshiped in Wilmington. Of course he guided me when he suggested that I visit with Ben Campbell Johnson, but was even more of an influence on me in the ways he taught me about grace in the way he lived his life.
I remember a phone conversation with Bob shortly after I landed at White Memorial. His parents were members there and visiting with them made me want to catch up – it had been so many years since our last encounter and his life and ministry had been, well, turned upside down. “Tell me what you’ve been doing.” I asked Bob. “Well, I’ve recognized that I’m an ‘extra grace required’ person and I’m serving in an ‘extra grace required’ church, so we are finding our way together.” One sentence spoke volumes to me. It was confession, assurance of pardon and invitation to discipleship all rolled into one!
Our paths crossed again several years later when I was serving as vacancy counselor for a church in Goldsboro. (You might say that vacancy counselors are spiritual directors for search committees as they journey through an interim period and toward new pastoral leadership!) Imagine my delight when I learned that that congregation was in conversation with one of the influencers of my own spiritual life, Bob Bardin. It was a privilege when I was able to be a part of Bob’s re-entry into ministry in the PC(USA) and an absolute joy when he was able to be a part of my new ministry at NRPC.
Spiritual directors can also be spiritually attuned friends who journey alongside you as you make your way in faith and life. Such a peer-to-peer relationship might stretch over a season or a lifetime. Or spiritual directors can be more formalized relationships that might feel like a cross between talking with a counselor and talking with a pastor. And, of course, many pastors are gifted to function as spiritual directors.
>Pause and Consider: Who has shaped your understanding of grace or helped you understand its depths?
One of the marginal quotes in Thompson’s chapter summarizes the role of a spiritual director: “So what does the spiritual director teach? In the simplest and also most profound terms, the spiritual director is simultaneously a learner and a teacher of discernment: What is happening? Where is God in this person’s life? What is the story? Where does this person’s story fit in our common Christian story?” (p. 116, quoting Margaret Guenther)
This chapter on spiritual direction is a reminder that we are not alone as we make the journey of faith. Many have traveled this way before, many are making this journey even as we are and many will surely come behind us. Thompson’s urge – and mine – is that you seek out a partner or mentor who can guide you and accompany you as you journey ever deeper into relationship with the risen and living One. (And if you’re looking for a formal spiritual director, I’ll be glad to help you in your search!)
Until next time,
Peace
Lisa
Thompson, Marjorie, Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life (New Rev edition). Westminster John Knox Press, 2014
(Postscript: About the time that I was making my way back into active church life, Sue Monk Kidd was writing When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life's Sacred Questions. I listened to that book on Audible over the weekend and can recommend it as an armchair form of spiritual direction offered by a consummate story teller. Would love to collect names of anyone who'd want to work through that book together? Lemmeknow!)
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