Congregations should offer regular instruction on each spiritual discipline (prayer, study, fasting, service, giving, worship, confession, and silence), to show possible outlets for practice and examples from life.
In addition, congregations should offer opportunities to act, such as mission work and prayer vigils. Doing and learning need to go hand in hand. Otherwise, the doing loses its foundation, or the learning becomes sterile and precious.
The point isn’t to promote a single way, but several ways that work together to promote spiritual well-being. For example:
“¢ Confession opens one’s eyes and heart to distance from God
“¢ Prayer seeks to bridge that distance
“¢ Mission follows as a way to express gratitude for feeling closer
to God
“¢ Stewardship follows as a way to act out Christian values in one’s
personal life
“¢ Fasting follows as a way to rethink one’s life in basic ways
Clergy should offer spiritual direction focused on:
“¢ Getting beyond obstacles
“¢ Developing a personal plan for spiritual discipline
“¢ Establishing a healthy relationship between pastor and congregant (better than the usual power-based relationship)
It is especially important that clergy offer spiritual direction to all key leaders to establish a proper relationship between clergy and leadership; it will build trust.
Spiritual direction will shift the focus of leadership from organizational management to mission and servanthood.
The congregation should steadily expand a core cadre of leaders who understand spiritual vitality as essential.
For specifics on each of the classical spiritual disciplines and best practices on how to teach them, please join the Church Wellness Project at www.churchwellness.com.
Tom Ehrich is a writer, consultant, and leader of workshops. An Episcopal priest, he lives in New York City. The church wellness project can be found at www.churchwellness.com.
