Spiritual companionship is a way of listening to God in community. This may be experienced one on one or in a group setting. In a one on one setting, the spiritual companion comes alongside the person to help hear, recognize, and discern the work of the Lord in his or her life and to help distinguish the various forces which beckon one down different paths.

A Spiritual Companion is one who will respectfully and prayerfully listen and help to notice what God is doing through life situations, scriptures, and prayer.

Spiritual Companionship is almost a misnomer in that the real companion in the relationship is the Holy Spirit. The companion’s role is to help the person listen deeply to God’s voice, to notice where God has been speaking and is already at work.

A helpful analogy is to imagine a jumble of tangled ropes. The more one fumbles and struggles with the knots, the more tightly entangled it gets. Eventually we give up in frustration and toss the tangled pile to lie useless in a corner. Sometimes it helps to have someone who is less entrenched in the tangle, an outside set of eyes with fresh perspective and patience, to come alongside and gently begin to pull this way, tug that way, and slowly help to loosen the woven mass.

A Spiritual Companion will help you notice where God is at work in your life, to help you discern what He is up to and where He may be inviting you forward in relationship and action. He will help people mature in their faith and deepen their relationship with God so

A Christian spiritual companion is a trained listener who will accompany you as you share about your spiritual journey, helping you to notice God’s presence and activity along the way, as well as your personal reactions and responses. Hospitable, confidential, and grounded in biblical truth, spiritual direction is a ministry that helps you grow in prayer and live into your calling as a follower of Christ.

The Christian life often entails times of spiritual uncertainty—situations in which we are unsure of God’s will, confused about what God is doing in our circumstances, or generally dry in our relationship with God. Spiritual direction is a safe place to explore your questions and concerns about your life with God.

Spiritual companionship is not meant to replace other forms of helping ministries such as biblical, pastoral, or psychological counselling. Spiritual companionship differs from counselling ministries primarily in its focus: the intention in spiritual companionship is not to help solve a problem, but rather to look for God’s activity within any problems and within the rest of the person’s life experience. This perspective invites you into deeper relationship with God in the midst of whatever you are experiencing. Spiritual companionship is designed to compliment rather than compete with these other vital ministries within the Body of Christ.

Spiritual Companionship is not…

• Pastoral Care, where someone seeks spiritual guidance in a time of crisis in their life and faith.
• Mentoring, where someone seeks the wisdom of a person further along the journey of faith and seeks to learn from their life and wisdom.
• Teaching, where information is passed from the teacher to the student.
• Counselling, where someone seeks a professional to help them overcome a past or current problem keeping them from living a full life.

• Someone who has been in church most of their life but feels a longing for a deeper experience of God.
• Someone who came to faith later, enjoyed the early years of learning much, but now senses a deeper hunger for a more personal experience of God.
• Someone deeply in love with God who feels a holy longing for even more.
• Someone whose picture of God as they grew up left them unsure if God was for them or against them, who both fears and desires a deeper connection.

Spiritual coaching sessions are usually once a month in frequency and generally last one hour. Your responsibility is to bring an awareness of God’s activities in your daily life. What are you noticing in your scripture reading, in your prayer life? This includes your “dry” times of not noticing anything. We will open in prayer both silent and spoken. I will listen to both you and to the Holy Spirit as you share what God may be stirring in your soul, and together we may read scripture and pray as we continue to listen together to what God may be directing. He will do the transforming.

• It starts with a conversation — click the contact button to make a phone appointment.
• You can meet with a spiritual coach either in person, over the phone or via video conferencing (skype, FaceTime, zoom)
• A session usually lasts for about an hour and takes place about once a month.
• Compensation varies from person to person in order for it to be available to all who seek it. A range of 40-60 Euros is requested per one hour session; some need to give less, others choose to give more. Payments may be made online or by bank transfer
• Every meeting is confidential, and the spiritual coach will guide the dialogue through attentive listening and thoughtful questions.

Many programs around the world offer education for spiritual directors/coaches.

Please visit the web page https://sustainablefaith.com
SSD is a 2-year formation / certificate program toward serving as a spiritual director.