GROUP SPIRITUAL DIRECTION
You have a special treat this week. I’ve asked my wife, Grace, to write a post on group spiritual direction. She writes below that we “somehow stumbled into several group spiritual direction spaces” recently and she is right. I knew that she as a spiritual director deeply resonated with group (groups range between as small as 4 and as big as 8) spiritual direction perhaps even more so than the one on one kind. For me, this opportunity has been a surprising discovery—simply savoring the process of “accompanying” others and being “accompanied” by others. At the core of who I am, this practice fulfills my deepest desire of freedom—inner freedom to pursue and discover one’s authentic created being. One particular joy I am experiencing is that my wife and I get to do this “ministry” of accompaniment together. (It is more her leading and facilitating and I get to ride along beside her.)
Group Spiritual Direction
By Grace Kim
Someone recently wrote to me, “Together, may we be part of a movement of space-makers!” My heart fills with hope as I ponder such a movement. A core value I have is holding hospitable space for others. Chong and I have somehow stumbled into several group spiritual direction spaces during the Covid-19 pandemic. We have discovered that we love building community around group spiritual direction. Group spiritual direction builds deep connections within a community in ways that are counter-cultural and counter-intuitive.
Group spiritual direction provides a space that is hospitable and safe. We begin with grounding ourselves together in the reality of God’s loving presence. We then have a time of reflection where we can examine our lives and recent interior movements. This can happen through a variety of practices, such as Lectio Divina, Prayer of Examen, reflection questions, etc. We take turns “presenting”. The space is made and held in which the presenter can hear herself and become attuned to how God is with her in the moment. The rest of the group is there to support and hold her in that loving presence of God and to pay attention to the movement of the Spirit for the presenter and the community. The group is blessed as we attune ourselves to the presenter and to God’s presence with her. Our own desire for God and love for the presenter find spaciousness and deepen as we listen to the Spirit together. At the end of a session, we often jokingly will say, “This is like a drug.” I think what we are saying is that we have ventured into a space and experience that is unlike what we normally experience anywhere else, which leaves us hungering for more.
Such a space is fostered through some foundational beliefs that we agree to enter into together. The first is the agreement that the presenter himself holds the key that can unlock the answers that he is seeking. ee cummings said, “We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch.” In group spiritual direction, we listen deeply, so the presenter can experience the sacredness of his being and his own story. Chong and I have been deeply impacted by Henri Nouwen’s definition of hospitality. Nouwen says, “The paradox of hospitality is that it wants to create emptiness, not a fearful emptiness, but a friendly emptiness where strangers can enter and discover themselves as created free; free to sing their own songs, speak their own languages, dance their own dances; free also to leave and follow their own vocations.” This is a beautiful description of the art of group spiritual direction.
Another foundational belief is the deep trust in the work of the Holy Spirit that is already taking place in the presenter’s life. As a community, we enter together into what the Spirit is doing. The group, as such, does not try to give advice or offer solutions. We trust that God has been actively at work in the presenter’s life and that “he who began a good work. . .will bring it to completion” (Philippians 1:6). We are all cooperating with the Holy Spirit together to bring about what God desires to bring about in and through the presenter’s life. We are all participating in the One Love, Who is God.
As you may know, Chong and I are in a season of discernment for what God may have for us for our next season of life and ministry. We have found joy in engaging in group spiritual direction together and want to explore further opportunities. If you are part of a group or a community who seek a fresh mode of building deep connection and a sense of belongingness in an atmosphere of love and freedom, Chong and I would be happy to talk to you about helping you cultivate such a group!