Asbury’s New Christian Spiritual Direction Degree!
By the look of his countenance when he entered my office, I could tell Dan was facing some sort of burden. He sat down in my comfy chair and after a time of prayer processed a major decision he was facing. As I asked Dan questions about his life and walk with God, he began to discern from the Lord that he was unable to hear God’s voice due to the amount of culture-clutter in his soul. What we experienced in that hour together was an example of classic spiritual direction.
Spiritual direction is helping others to have awareness of God’s presence in their lives and discernment about what the Lord is saying to them right now. It’s an ancient ministry that’s been in our Christian tradition since the earliest centuries of our faith. Spiritual direction is not counseling, in which counselors offer solutions. Instead, spiritual direction is asking discerning questions in ways that allow the solutions to come directly from the Holy Spirit.
In my role as a professor at Asbury Seminary, I’ve noticed an increase in the number of students (and alumni) who ask me either to serve as their spiritual director or to refer them to one. It’s difficult, for my bandwidth is limited and I don’t know many spiritual directors with the theological training to make me comfortable sending people to them. Because spiritual direction addresses people at the soul-level of their lives, choosing a spiritual director takes deep discernment. It’s important to ensure that we’re opening our soul to someone who holds to foundational, apostolic Christianity. Training for spiritual directors should be Biblically robust, theologically grounded, and spiritually sensitive.
Most spiritual direction lies in the realm of the Roman Catholic Church, yet in recent years evangelical Protestants have discovered the blessing of this unique ministry. Catholics do much of the training for spiritual directors, yet we think this unique ministry is part of our Wesleyan DNA, particularly regarding group spiritual direction through banding. Because of this, we believe Asbury Seminary is an ideal place to train theologically educated and spiritually mature men and women who can offer this unique ministry in their local churches, in parachurch organizations, or their own spiritual direction ministries.
Asbury Seminary is pleased to announce a 48-hour MA degree in Christian Spiritual Direction. The courses are offered via a Hybrid format (2.5 days on campus, the rest online), making it convenient for those already serving in full-time ministry positions. For some Asbury alumni, a few of the required general courses may already be fulfilled, making the degree even more accessible. The classes focus both on theory (theology, anthropology, personal formation) and praxis (offering and receiving spiritual direction). In addition to the sound Biblical foundation in our classes, the readings and coursework provide us an opportunity to sit at the feet of those in the ancient church, allowing them to serve as our own directors.
Dr. Steve Martyn and I will be the primary professors for this degree. While the Admissions Office is always a great place to start the inquiry process, should you have questions of any kind about this degree, we’d look forward to hearing from you.
Michael C. Voigts, Ph.D.
Professor of Christian Spirituality and Theology
ATS Classes of 1993, 2004
I have a masters in Spiritual Formation that I received from Asbury in 2019. What additional courses would I need to complete for the Christian Spiritual Direction masters degree?