Spiritual Direction

I feel a little giddy now being a part of the blogging world. My profile page will probably give most of this away, but I intend to use this blog as a chance to reflect on the contemporary church, doctrine and philosophy. I think these three are too often estranged and need to be reunited.


I recently finished Peterson’s "Working the Angels." One of the things I appreciated most about it was the final section about Spiritual Direction. I have been thinking recently that pastors should pour more time into the spiritual health of their congregations as opposed to simple counseling. I don’t think there is anything specifically wrong with the counseling profession, but it holds too high a place in the pastoral world today. Too many pastors have given up the hard and prayerful work of directing souls and have replaced it with the more culturally appropriate practice of pop-psychology. I believe my job as a pastor to be much more concerned with discipleship and the bearing of spiritual fruit than with analysis. I firmly believe that counseling has its place, and as pastors, we will always be counselors to some degree, but I can’t let that interfere with my concern for the souls in the church. As a result of his work and others (Dallas Willard and so forth) I have decided to pay much more attention, at least try, to the “soulishness” of those around me.