3. The Ministry Framework of Spiritual Direction
Presented at the 2024 Remnant Mission Retreat
My third topic explores how spiritual direction can serve as a framework for ministry. To understand this, we must ask: What are you doing in ministry? And, biblically, what “fruit” do you expect?
Our culture often assumes ministry is about helping people, providing encouragement and support, sometimes framed as faith making lives happier. Another flawed assumption is to focus on “growing the church,” often viewed through a business lens of increasing members and finances, rather than a literal organic growth.
The Bible offers a different view: helping people grow into Christ’s image. Ephesians 4 details Christ’s gifts for equipping saints for ministry, edifying the body, and achieving unity in faith and knowledge, leading to Christ-like maturity. 2 Peter 1 further emphasizes spiritual growth, urging us to add virtues to our faith, leading to a fruitful knowledge of Christ. A ministry framework of spiritual direction aims at this: spiritual growth to Christ-like maturity, our resurrection telos.
We understand ministry’s true goal by examining faith’s relation to daily life. If ministry aims to help worldly lives, faith is helpful if it brings happiness and success. Spiritual direction reverses this focus to Christ’s life within us, asking: “How is life helping me grow spiritually?” For example, how does job searching teach patience and trust? How does loving difficult people change me? The focus is inward transformation, not outward results.
This contrast is seen in the stories we live by: the world’s story (birth to death, faith as worldly help then heaven) versus faith’s story (new life in the Spirit through baptism, goal is resurrection and the world to come, focus on Christ-like transformation). Too few Christians grasp this biblical narrative. Spiritual direction operates within the story of faith. If life’s goal is Christ-like growth, ministry directs prayer for maturity. Help and comfort are by-products.
Two emphases are central, One is coaching prayer lives for a deeper relationship with God, teaching prayer and listening for God’s voice, experiencing grace and forgiveness (faith moving from head to heart). The other is helping people take responsibility, not blame. In John 5, Jesus asked if the man wanted to get well, revealing a victim mentality. Victims resist help. We should have compassion but train people to respond to challenges as growth in faith and virtue, rather than as problems to fix. I’m not saying ignore complainers, but without moving them towards prayer and faith-rooted responsibility, we can’t help them grow spiritually and will waste time trying to “help.”
Spiritual direction occurs in regular, ongoing conversations, contrasting with emergency-based ministry, which Thornton called the “ambulance syndrome.” This emergency focus, rooted in the minister’s need to be needed, hinders spiritual growth and fosters dependence. Ministry involves emergencies, but the goal is to move people from crisis to seeing God in their story, from the world’s story to faith’s.
How do we shift? When people seek help, I explain our ministry: monthly meetings about prayer and God’s work in their lives. A woman who constantly complained about her husband stopped after I suggested regular meetings focused on prayer and personal responsibility. She didn’t pursue that, but also stopped complaining to me.
Knowing our ministry’s focus helps avoid wasted time and frustration with those resistant to change. Fruitful ministry patiently focuses on what helps people learn and grow. Long-term spiritual direction with willing individuals leads to life change. Christ transforms those committed to prayer and open to new things. This ministry is rewarding.
As lives change, people become real witnesses, attracting others to Christ’s work. Those transformed want to share their experience. This is the Remnant Mission: creating a holy, healthy presence whose lives witness for Christ.
Discussion Questions
What are your thoughts about the presentation? Go around the group and give everyone 1-2 minutes to answer.
What is the focus of a typical pastoral meeting in your church?
Discuss the distinction between providing spiritual direction and providing “help” for life’s problems. How do these things sometimes overlap? How can we keep the proper focus when giving help?
How might you envision a reorientation of your ministry around long-term formational goals and away from short-term concerns?
What challenges can you envision to this reorientation in your church?What is your current approach to spiritual formation in your church or mission?