Programs and Support for Congregations


Home I Services I Courses & Workshops I Contact
Programming for Congregations
These are a few of the programs Spiritual Directions offers. We can also develop customized programs for staff and/or congregational members. Programs can be held at Spiritual Directions Centre or at your site. Please phone 403-210-2802 if you are interested in booking any of these programs for your organization.
Breathing Life Into Ministry: Professional Development and Stress Management for Clergy
Breathing Life Into Ministry provides many services to congregations and their leaders. Watch for details about this stress management program for order of ministry personnel. For your interest, a 10 segment series on "The Integrated Christian Person" is now appearing on the BLM blog from late May until the middle of June. http://breathinglifeintoministry.blogspot.com
Cup of Covenant for Ministry Personnel
This one day retreat for renewal and reflection can be arranged for any group or denomination. Theme: To be chosen by the denomination or group requesting the retreat. Facilitator: Rev. John Griffith
Grounding Group
We are aware of the changing perceptions of the church's place in our community. Demands for change placed on aging congregations, expanding role expectations and lack of support for clergy all increase the work-load and stress for these leaders, contributing to rising levels of burnout. Grounding is an eight week group for 6 to 8 Order of Ministry personnel who will meet to reflect on their call to ministry and the way they are living out that call. This group is for leaders who want to be more intentional about their life and ministry, or are experiencing challenges and changes in ministry and wish to reflect on their vocation in a deep and serious way. This course provides an opportunity to take time to keep centered in your spiritual life and share experiences of ministry with colleagues. Grounding: addresses the high levels of stress experienced by ministers, priests and other professional church leaders. provides an opportunity to intentionally reflect on the call of God that guides and supports your life work. It is a discernment process to clarify ministry goals and options. is suitable for leaders who are ready to share their ministry journey with peers, and willing to put in some time between sessions to assess ministry gifts and skills. is a process-oriented course guided by the expressed needs of the group. Our exploration will be shaped by facilitators’ input, participants’ stories, use of evaluation instruments and small group discussion. Format for the Eight Week Course: Beginning the Discussion: group building, defining the four calls that define our ministry and sharing our experiences of call. The Roots of Our Faith and Call: identifying the family influences and personality traits that are the ground of our faith experience--revisiting the decisions that brought us into the Christian family and subsequent leadership roles. The Roots of our Faith and Call (continued) Identifying Our Gifts for Ministry: assessing our leadership style and discovering how we hear the voice of God. Keeping the Faith: naming our faith questions and how we live them out, and exploring the ways in which we help others to do the same. The themes for the last 3 weeks will be determined by the group. Issues may include: assessing our own spiritual disciplines, self-care needs, conflict management strategies, costs and blocks to following the call or identifying resources needed to take the next step.
Time: Mornings, 9 am to noon. Watch for next date Subsidized Cost: $350 Location: Spiritual Directions Office, 1407 - 10 Street SW, Calgary, Alberta Facilitator: John Griffith is an ordained minister who has served four congregations in the Moravian Church and the United Church of Canada in the past 30 years and is the Founder and Director of Spiritual Directions. He has extensive experience in pastoral care, lay leadership training, spiritual direction, teaching spiritual disciplines and facilitating spiritual formation individually and in small groups.
Living The Questions
This is a twelve week small group discussion program that includes input from many presenters on DVD. It is an open, liberal approach to exploring the meaning of the Christian faith as it relates to your life. New insights into the Christian scriptures and the expanding contemporary spiritual environment have left many people with questions about the Christian faith. This course encourages you to ask and to live the questions. It allows you room to explore and discuss without forcing answers on you. It assumes that God is at work in you and in your life, and you will come to your own answers. It does give information through a DVD format that is helpful in your spiritual questing while being a part of a group of like-minded journeyers. This course is for seekers and for seasoned Christians who want to go deeper into their own faith experience. Courses We Are Aware Of: Parkdale United Church, 2919 – 8^th Ave. NW, Phone 283-3301 Scarboro United Church, 134 Scarboro Avenue SW, Cost $10, Phone 244-1161 Red Deer Lake United Church, on Highway 22, west of Spruce Meadows, 7 pm, Phone 256-3181 (or Karola at 995-1810) Woodcliff United Church, 5010 Spruce Drive SW, Phone 249-3121 Deer Park United Church, 77 Deer Point Road SE, Phone 278-8268 Hillhurst United Church, 1227 Kensington Close NW, Donation $10, Phone 283-1539 Lakeview United Church, 3023 - 63^rd Avenue SW, 7 pm, Phone 242-5760 St. Peter’s Anglican Church, 903 - 75^th Avenue SW, Phone 252-0393 St. Thomas United Church, 100 Hawkwood Blvd, NW, Phone 241-0366 St. Stephen's Anglican Church, 1121 - 14 Avenue SW, Cost: $10/session or $120 VISA fee for all, Phone 244-4879
Small Group Ministry Leadership Program
As we learn more about the emerging church movement, it becomes clear that Small Group Ministry upholds and strengthens the emerging church perspective by creating opportunities for: meaningful relationships, authentic dialogue, respectful understanding of differences and real impact on people's lives. This new design for Small Group Ministry Leadership honours the emerging church with a focus on individual transformation. During each of the 6 sessions participants will try out a new spiritual practice, gently share their thoughts and feelings during “check-in” and closing circles, and seek guidance and support from each other while learning how to lead an effective Small Group. The topics to be covered in the sessions are: Covenanting with Each Other, Prayer and Spiritual Practices, Healthy Relationships in Groups, Meetings That Matter, Your Call to Leadership and Starting Your Own Small Group. If this is something that your church may consider as part of its future direction, come out and experience a real, live Small Group Program at Spiritual Directions.
“Small groups or any form of community that enables members to know one another in non-superficial ways and form the church, are essential to the tranformational vessel."
6 evenings, 7 to 9 pm. $120 (discounts for groups over 3 people. Maximum of 12 people.) Facilitator: Sidney Courtice-Craig
Training for the Ministry of Spiritual Direction This two year part-time certificate program is offered at the FCJ Centre John Griffith is one of the instructors.
This Program is for: people thirty years of age or over who are attentive to their own faith journey and are consciously seeking to deepen their spiritual experience, people who are aware of a longing in others to share and explore their questions about life and faith, lay people (doctors, nurses, social workers, teachers, counsellors) who wish to develop their gifts and talents in ministry, clergy and church workers who believe God is calling them to a one-to-one companioning of others, people who recognize within themselves the call from God to minister to others in this way.
The Program is: ecumenical, experiential: includes: small group discussion and role playing, case studies, plenary sessions, personal and group supervision, journal keeping and practice of spiritual direction, designed to help you discern your call to companioning others, for developing skills in spiritual formation that will enable you to work effectively with others, for your own spiritual development. It Includes: an introduction to spiritual direction, foundational issues in spirituality, spiritual disciplines as tools for personal reflection, discernment in spiritual direction, theological perspectives that guide the transformation process, spiritual conversation, listening skills, personal prayer and human development, standards of practice and ethical concerns, three written reflection papers on given themes.
Application Requirements: completed application form along with a non-refundable $20 processing fee, a mandatory interview with program staff, two references, one of which must be from a minister, priest or spiritual director. Begins September 2011 Please phone John Griffith at 210-2802 for further details.
Course Facilitators: Rick Beck is an ordained minister in the Moravian tradition, currently serving Good Shepherd Moravian Church in north west Calgary. Joan Cartlidge comes from Australia, where she was involved in retreats, Spiritual Direction and Parish outreach at the Ignatian Spirituality Centre at Campion Kew. Joan is an accredited CPE chaplain, has her Bachelor of Theology degree and a Masters degree in Religious Education. She trained as a Spiritual Director at the Centre for Religious Development in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has a keen interest in spiritual direction, retreats and reflection days. Cecilia Connolly has a rich background in education, both as a teacher and an administrator. After retiring as Principal of the FCJ school in Jersey, Channel Islands in 2002, Cecilia came to Canada where she pursued studies at both St. Mary's College in Calgary, and JSTB in Berkeley, California. Cecilia has recently studied CPE and Spiritual Accompaniment in England and Wales. She has strong gifts in scripture, music art and dance. John Griffith is an ordained minister who has served four congregations in the Moravian Church and the United Church of Canada in the past 30 years and is the founder and past Director of Spiritual Directions Centre. He has extensive experience in pastoral care, lay leadership training, spiritual direction, teaching spiritual disciplines and facilitating spiritual formation individually and in small groups. Pastoral care and Spiritual Formation are his areas of expertise and the way he expresses the spiritual gifts of faith, teaching and nurturing leadership.

For further information or to receive our free e-newsletter, please e-mail: admin@spiritualdirections.com 1407 - 10 Street SW, Calgary, AB, T2R 1E7, Phone: 403-210-2802 Spiritual Directions Centre (Calgary) is a registered not-for-profit society.
Thursday, June 30, 2011 9:00:33 AM

Programming for Congregations