Center for Soul Care: Taking Healing and Holiness Seriously
by Marilyn Elliot (DMin, 2006; MA, 1998), Vice President of Community Formation
“Asbury Seminary is a worshipping community of formation and learning. We acknowledge the need for, and indeed, the crucial relationship between, academic and spiritual formation. Our campuses should be rich environments for spiritual development, global community, sacrificial service, catechesis, and holiness, to the end that Asbury Seminary might propel a 21st-century renewed emphasis and deeper understanding of holiness. If students do not graduate holy and Spirit-filled, then we have not fulfilled our mission. To this end, we must extend formation opportunities to all our faculty, staff and students.” (Core Value #3)
This fall Asbury Theological Seminary will gently launch a Center for Soul Care on the bottom floor of McPheeters, across from the Asbury Inn. The goal of this initiative is intentional focus on individual growth and transformation into a holy and healthy life within the context of relational covenant community. Personal transformation within a loving communal context – these are the two streams on which we are focusing.
The development of a Christ-like soul is not a solitary task. The community plays a powerful role. David Benner, in his book “Spirituality and the Awakening Self”1 makes a strong case for this. “Genuine transformation occurs only within a communal and interpersonal context. Often those communal contexts inhibit transformation, but they can facilitate it and always mediate it. We either open each other up to the transformational possibilities that we encounter in life or close each other down (xii).”
And yet, transformation is personal. Transformation belongs to the spiritual dimension of our life, inspired and guided by the presence of God’s Spirit deep within. We must not be naïve about the forces at play in the lives of our people. Students arrive having had deep and profound experiences of God, and yet also heavily in transition from recent losses or new commitments, bearing past scars of abuse and trauma, dealing with (often hidden or managed) addictions and obsessions, sometimes with gender questions, and always with hopes for deep healing. In short, we are a broken people, living in a breaking culture.
Summit Church (summitconnect.org), on its reGROUP ministry site says, “Brokenness is much broader than addictive behavior such as substance abuse. In fact, any deep attachment to something that separates us from God and others is harmful to ourselves and the world around us. Many of us need … healing from living life on this less-than-it-should-be planet.”
Like any intensive life stage, seminary adds its own risks. Patrick Carnes, co-author of “In the Shadows of the Net” (page 52) says, “Addicts often point to the connection between their addiction and the stress of high-performance demands involving an important personal investment. Graduate school, for example, is often the time when people first encounter compulsivity…Unstructured time, heavy responsibility for self-direction, and high demands for excellence seem to be the common elements that are easy triggers for compulsive or addictive behaviors.”
The Center for Soul Care dream envisions transformation of members of the host community, of students and their families, and of alumni, particularly alumni giving their lives in gospel ministry. Located in a space, but not in the least limited to this space, the Center for Soul Care will be a culture changing presence, first on the Wilmore campus and then beyond.
—-
1 Benner, David. Spirituality and the Awakening Self. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Brazos Press, 2012.
Time Management, Excellence, Spiritual Formation/Development and Direction of the Holy Spirit would seem to be the “stuff” of Asburian leadership passed on to those who would receive their spiritual love and training and be willing to teach what they caught.
Do glad to hear of the formation of this care center. As a minister that didn’t know the depth of my brokenness until I was graduated and in a pastoral appointment, my time at seminary could have benefited greatly from the community creating space for the care of my soul, outside the classroom and chapel services. I hope your efforts bring hope and healing to many students trying to be faithful to the call on their life.