Anam Cara: Fall 2019

Hello Missional Wisdom Dispersed Community,

On September 19th, Anam Cara, Missional Wisdom’s missional spiritual direction program, started its second year of training spiritual directors. At this retreat, we welcomed back our fantastic 2018 Cohort who have completed their first year of training. We also welcomed seven equally fantastic new people to the program, who make up our 2019 Cohort. In total, we have fifteen people going through the Anam Cara training now!

At this retreat, we explored how the hero’s journey relates to the spiritual journey and were introduced to individual and communal discernment models. Wendi Bernau has done extensive research about the hero’s journey through her doctoral work at Wesley Theological Seminary, and through her study she created a graphic novel of the book of Judith. Wendi’s work and energy offered space for participants to consider their own spiritual journey and their directee’s as they went throughout the retreat. Matt Johnson offered two powerful teachings related to discernment, which he drew heavily upon his own experience of being a missional spiritual director in the SoCe neighborhood in Wichita. Participants were given the opportunity to practice the Examen and to use the Re-Cycle Community Discernment model as part of the training. 

Of course, we also had plenty of fun! Evenings were filled with great food catered from local Asheville favorites and singing songs together. We also played several quirky and fun games, one of our favorite ways to teach folks about spiritual guidance. It was a powerful, fun, and joyful weekend. The Anam Cara faculty are blown away by the growth that our folks are making in their journey in becoming Missional Spiritual Directors!