Clergy Care

It's really of no surprise to me that so many of my clergy colleagues have shown an interest in the ministry of spiritual direction - not to be directors, but rather to receive direction.  As I think about who should be in spiritual direction, clergy and lay leaders are at the top of my list.

Clergy and lay leaders need to be continually looking for and recognizing God at work in the world and in their lives.  They need someone to regularly help them live into their call as a child of God and a Christian leader - someone who isn't asking them to report on their numerical success in church ministry.  Church leaders need a safe place to have holy conversations without the fear of how said conversations might impact or be reflected in an annual review.  They need a place where it is OK to come down off the pedestal, to be real, to be vulnerable with what they are feeling and experiencing.  There needs to be a set-aside place to allow the struggles, joys, and questions of faith to surface and be handled with loving care. A place where a leader's heart always departs having been touched by the Spirit and the conversation.

All of us need spiritual direction to some extent, but it is my opinion that those leading the church - those who are often looked at as super-spiritual and beyond needing spiritual guidance - are the ones needing it most.  Leading the church is a lonely business, yet God repeatedly calls us to be in community - not one of competition, but one of support and wholeness.  We need not travel this life of ministry alone for there are people to companion with us as we go.  Friends... colleagues... let us take the time to tend to our souls.  Let us risk our egos and have the vulnerability needed to engage with God on a deeper, more honest level.  I promise you, the Spirit will lead the way.