Why? Our purpose in Way of the Spirit is to ground and energize leadings for service, peace, and justice, empowering each person’s unique giftedness to build up Beloved Community within and beyond our home faith communities.

Way of the Spirit faces the social, political, and environmental upheavals of our times centered in a Loving God who guides and energizes us for Good.

How? Way of the Spirit Midwest combines ten online-distance learning sessions (four hours each) with two residential retreats (three nights) near Richmond, Indiana. Participants commit to assigned readings, daily personal prayer of their choice, writing with monthly prompts, sharing and listening compassionately to others, and to self-initiated “spiritual experiments.”

• Program calendar here

What?

• Program content builds over two years, woven with invitations to varied prayer practices
• The curriculum begins with a Quaker approach to the inward journey and awareness of the Holy One.
• Sessions explore spiritual discernment, personal identity in relationship with God, spiritual giftedness, beloved community, forgiveness, leadings of the Spirit, spiritual accompaniment (Quaker Eldering), models of universal ministry, and becoming everyday prophets.
• Small group process for contemplative sharing, listening, and discerning
• Personal spiritual experiments to apply learning toward faithful service to others.
• Explore full curriculum here.

• Attend all residential retreats and online Saturday sessions. Our collaborative learning model in Way of the Spirit depends on our availability for each other.
• Commit and engage daily spiritual practices of your choice
• Read 80-100 pages of assigned material per month
• Write informal, personal reflections each month on an assigned prompt in a private online community. Read and respond to others’ reflections.
• Practice contemplative group processes to share, listen, and respond.
• Experiment with leadings of the Spirit to engage spiritual giftedness in concrete ways, reflect with others, learn, and try something new. The measure of success is faithfulness, not scale of an effort, a specific achievement, or outward approval.
• Meet for spiritual accompaniment with program staff as desired.
• Create an anchor committee in one’s own faith community during the second phase of experimenting with leadings. An Anchor Committee is a small, local or online circle of support for personal discernment in faithfulness. 

Way of the Spirit is no small effort! Imagine 15-20 hours per month, in addition to personal prayer. The time commitment is meant to be more substantial and sustained than a single retreat experience, but much less than a degree or certificate program. It’s worth it.