Spiritual Direction Certification

From our friends at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary at Lenoir-Rhyne University:

We are happy to announce that our new Spiritual Direction Certification Program here on the campus of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary is going wonderfully!  We will begin our fourth year in January 2020.

Each new cycle has had 16 new participants, but we have the capacity for 24.  So far in our program we have had people from 9 different denominations and 12 different states.

Spiritual direction is a centuries-old Christian tradition; however, it has largely stayed rooted in the Roman, Eastern, and Anglican community.  Somehow, it fell off the Protestant “radar” for far too long.

Over the last few decades our candidacy committees have seen the value in spiritual direction and are increasingly suggesting that our seminary candidates participate in spiritual direction. This trend matches a growing desire within Protestantism to embrace this ancient tradition again.

In search of spiritual directors, we Protestants have turned largely to our wonderful brothers and sisters in the non-Protestant traditions.  They have served us well.

We would like to begin to raise up new generations of Protestant (and Lutheran!) spiritual directors. With this sense of calling, we are offering our Spiritual Direction Certification Program:

Holy Listening – We believe holy listening is at the core of spiritual direction. It’s listening to one another, and most attentively to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. The real and most genuine spiritual director is always the Holy Spirit.

Everyone is Welcome to Apply – Our primary purpose is to train people who feel called to be such spiritual friends, spiritual companions; however, we welcome those whose main interest is to deepen their own spiritual practices.

Within the Christian Tradition – Ours is an experience in spiritual direction grounded in Trinitarian faith. However, we recognize that there is deep spiritual wisdom that can be found in other faith traditions. We will draw on those traditions and will integrate them from a Christian perspective.

What

~ four intensives, always from Wednesday noon until Saturday noon

~ small mentor groups, each with its own mentor

Between the intensives, participants will:

~ read key books and write short reaction papers

~ have the opportunity to interact with mentor and mentor group

~ find and meet regularly with a spiritual director

~ find a willing person to be their spiritual directee

When

~ new intensive cycles begin in January of each year

~ application deadline is December 15

~ intensives are held in January and June over a two-year period

~ the next cycle of intensives is January 15-18, 2020; June 17-20, 2020; January 13-16, 2021; June 16-19, 2021

Costs

~ total cost for the program is $3,000 (price includes tuition and food)

~ participants find their own lodging (limited on-campus housing is available for $25 a night)

Interested?  We’d love to hear from you:

Pastor Gary Dreier, Director | gary.dreier@lr.edu | 803.461-3222

Application available at:

http://www.lr.edu/ltss/afl (select the “Certification Programs” pull-down menu)