June 20, 2024

God, The Potter, and Beautiful Things from my Perspective

 By Rev. Rachel E. Benefield, M.Div., M.Phil.

“You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of the dust, you make beautiful things out of us.”  

-- Beautiful Things by Gungor

The Call to Worship:

“You are the potter.”

“We are the clay.”

As we set up the potter’s wheel in the center of the community worship space, I realized what a huge role I had stepped into: being watched by others as I threw pottery on the wheel. I worried that I might be too self conscious …. Thankfully that thought receded, and I embraced the idea of being the community potter. I had lived in this listening neighborhood long enough to feel secure and relaxed.  The ‘call to worship’ began: “You are the potter. We are the clay.”  As I engaged in worship, God became, through me, the Potter.  

So often when I work in clay, I consider who I am as the clay. I am conscious of God working with me; now I felt God was working through me. In this ‘call to worship,’ my attention shifted to God, the Potter. The call to worship was really saying to me, “ I am the Potter, You are the Clay.” It was as if God was whispering this in my heart, through this fluidity as co-creators. "Wow. I am here in the center of this worship space with this beloved community, my beloved community," I thought. I became attentive to the clay, treating it with extra care, compassion, and hopefulness. Recognizing God the Potter’s role in making “beautiful things." I began focusing on my skills as a potter and an awareness that I was tuning into the clay. 

Centering

Centering is the most important part of throwing on the wheel. If the clay is not centered, it will be difficult to create anything a potter wants to keep. To center the clay, the potter takes a ball of clay and places it on the center of the wheel. As I took the clay and began to center it, it reminded me of centering prayer. I imagined that I was the clay needing to be centered before God in prayer in my daily living and in my life in general, in order to make something beautiful and meaningful. I listened to the lyrics of the song “Beautiful Things” echoing in and through me: “You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of the dust, you make beautiful things out of us.”   I recognized in the lyrics the voice of God singing. The clay is not the one that is centering. It is God that is doing the centering. It is God that is doing the work within me. God is the Potter who is making something beautiful out of my life! I don’t even have to do the work of centering myself – In fact, I can’t. It is God that I am yielding myself to, just like the clay. I only need to make myself available and God will do the rest, the work. God will center me in the rich gift of my being, to create in me my Godself, the Image of God within me.  During this part of worship, I felt myself let go, trusting God will do the work within me.  God the Potter, will handle me with care, just as I handle the clay with care.  Through it all, God has been present.  Even in the darkest times God is holding me and has held me in the past.

ReClaiming 

During the last morning worship, I sat with the community around the empty Potter’s stool, in front of the still wheel.  Throughout our time together, we had reflected on the wisdom of St. John of the Cross and the dark night of the soul. In our sacred contemplation that morning, we considered how ‘spiritual growth requires us to let go of our attachments to this world and embrace the divine’. As I sat there looking at the larger bowl that I had thrown the night before, I suddenly realized it represented an attachment, like my dependence on, or attachment to, the things I can control or maybe my ego. So, I stood, and walked with intention towards the bowl, picking it up carefully, with many of the community watching me. I tore the bowl into pieces and put it in the container I had for residue, for reclaiming clay. I felt an awareness that God was inviting me to a deeper place, a deeper trust. As John of the Cross teaches, it is only when we are stripped of everything that we realize God alone is everything. The work of transformation is possible in the dark night. The passage of the dark night is a necessary part of transformation. I had to let go of the bowl, but in my experience as the potter, I knew it was not lost. As we let go of our false identities and false self, we are free for the divine to have more space within to grow. We are invited to be open to the creativity and novelty of 'God in me,' co-creating something new that emerges from the brokenness. Indeed, God makes all things new, even transforming the dust and broken pieces of our lives.

June 20, 2024

Loss and the Art of Holy Listening

A Letter from the Executive Director, Kaye Westmark

Our Beloved Community has suffered many losses this year: loss of parents, children, siblings, and churches. I find this quote to be a good companion in the pain and disorientation of grief. The prayers we share holding each other in our hearts sooths the deep sadness that comes in the wake of death and letting go. God’s mercy and grace abound in the ties that bind us. Thank you for the outpouring of your love and compassion. 

Spiritual directors live in moments of deep listening to God, ourselves, creation, and others. In the dark moments we hold space for those we companion. We attune the ear of our hearts, providing safe, sacred spaces of healing, wholeness, peace, justice, and freedom for all we encounter. “Listening is the oldest and perhaps the most powerful tool of healing.  It is often through the quality of our listening and not the wisdom of our words that we are able to affect the most profound changes in the people around us. Our listening creates a sanctuary for the homeless parts within the other person.” 

Over the 19 years since being certified as a spiritual director, I have come to appreciate living as a spiritual director in every aspect of my life. We bring light into the world by living out our vocation of spiritual directors. A quote by Henri Nouwen keeps our hearts as spiritual directors anchored: “My broader vocation is simply to enjoy God’s presence, do God’s will and be grateful wherever I am…The question of where to live and what to do is really insignificant compared to the question of how to keep the eyes of my heart focused on the Lord.” 

With discernment and focus on the Lord the most important work of CSS is to train spiritual directors.  With Dr. Heidi Miller and a stellar staff, we offer excellent top-quality certification training in spiritual direction.  We are more than halfway through the three-year training with 23 amazing participants slated to complete the training Oct 2025.  We will begin our next 3-year training course in the fall of 2026.  If you know of anyone who is looking for spiritual direction training or longing to be a spiritual director, please contact me (kwestmark@centerforsacredspace.org), and I will personally reach out to them. 

Part of our program includes sustaining those who have been trained. This includes continuing education, peer supervision, silent retreats, offering spaces of connection, resources and accountability of being in spiritual direction as a director. If you are interested in being part of sustaining our community, please reach out to Donell Seager (dseager@center forsacredspace.org). 

Take a moment to reflect on the following questions:  

• How are you living out moments of your life as a spiritual director?  

• What life practices do you engage in to sustain your ministry as a spiritual director?  

• Are you in peer supervision or one on one supervision? 

As a member of CSS, you contribute to this Kin-dom work. If the spirit of God is stirring in your heart to become more active in CSS or to make a monthly or a one-time donation, please contact me. We pay attention to what the spirit is bringing forward and welcome hearing from you. 

June 20, 2024

A Heart Made Ready

by Donell Seager, Director of Spiritual Formation and Worship

Blessing That Holds a Nest in Its Branches 

by Jan Richardson 

I found this blessing in Jan Richardson’s book The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief. Upon reading it, I felt like it was written about me and the grief I’ve been carrying for Christ’s church for nearly 25 years. This grief felt too big, too much for me, and I often asked God how I could ever have any impact or influence on the direction of a local church, let alone the Church universal. 

However, after doing an examen of my ministry, I can see how God has used this grief to inform the steps of faith I’ve taken over these years. For instance, I recalled praying the Abraham story. What God illuminated was the phrase: Go to a land that I will show you, a land flowing with milk and honey. I had no idea what this meant for my life, so I just sat with it and continued to pray. As only God can do, it became clear that this meant that my family and I were to go to a small United Methodist church, one that was very contemporary, had no organ, no hymns, and no liturgy. I felt like a fish out of water; yet it was the pastor of that church who invited me to register for the spiritual direction training program the conference was offering. I took a step of faith and registered for and completed the training. During the training, I began to discern how I as a spiritual director could co-labor with God in the deepening of someone’s prayer and life with God. This small step of faith has had an impact on several  individuals.

The next small step of faith was taking the coursework for certification in spiritual formation through Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary where I took an American Methodism history course that illuminated exactly when, where, and how the Methodist church lost its deep roots of spiritual formation. I began to have hope that the United Methodist Church could reclaim its roots and once again be a Church that is deeply rooted in spiritual formation. 

In the summer of 2021, Kaye invited me to partner with her in forming the Center for Sacred Space. I took this step of faith because I could envision how my gifts and graces could be used within the Center for Sacred Space. My passion for spiritual direction and spiritual formation could be lived out in our mission, which is to provide and create safe, sacred space to empower all people to live a contemplative way of life bringing healing, wholeness, peace, justice, and freedom to their lives and their communities. While my ministry with the Center for Sacred Space was and continues to be life-giving, I still had within me this grief for the Church, and I had a deep longing to discover and discern how I might co-labor with God in a way that would have impact on the Church.

About ten months ago, the conference formed the Clergy and Congregational Wellness Initiative. Through my ministry with the CSS, I began to have conversations with the director of this initiative. We discerned that we were to collaborate and offer a half-day formational retreat on trauma for the clergy of our conference. Twenty-two UMC clergy registered for this formational opportunity and are now on their journey of healing from trauma so that they can better lead their congregations. Taking the step of faith to collaborate with the conference in offering this formational opportunity for clergy in our conference has opened within me the freedom to dream and envision other formational opportunities that will give clergy and congregations the tools they need to embrace spiritual formation as the way forward. 

Through my ministry with CSS, I am having conversations with Ashley Davis, the Bishop’s Assistant about the potential for the following formational opportunities for clergy and/or congregations:

• A four-session course offering ways to heal clergy and congregations and offer practical tools for discovering God’s new way forward.

• A day retreat with Amy Oden on Christian mindfulness.

• Finding Light in the Darkness, a mental health symposium for clergy.

• Small groups of clergy working through Ruth Haley Barton’s book, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership.

The hope and life-giving energy I feel within me for Christ's Church is immeasurable. God has turned the grief I carried into hope. I am ever so grateful.

If our ministry with the conference excites you and gives you hope for the Church, we would welcome any financial support you are willing to give. Please reach out to Kaye Westmark at kwestmark@CenterforSacredSpace.org or me at dseager@CenterforSacredSpace.org.

May 11, 2024

Art of Holy Listening: Fifth Gathering

by Roger Short

The Art of Holy Listening III conducted its fifth gathering at Blue Lake Camp, during April 24-27, 2024. The theme for the gathering was "Learning to Listen in Painful and Anxious Places." In community formation sessions faculty person, the Rev. Dr. Heidi Miller, presented and expanded on the writings of both St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, who were 16th century Christian mystics, authors, teachers, and spiritual directors. Miller touched on the Dark Night of the Soul--what it is and why it occurs. Participants learned how painful and anxious "places" are related to growth toward spiritual maturity. Participants explored the significance of the Dark Night Journey in the practice of spiritual direction.

The central image for worship during the gathering was that of a potter, working with clay to form and reform objects of art and utility. The Bible's book of Jeremiah, chapter 18, served as the scriptural foundation for participants' worship experiences. The repeated call to worship was, "You are the potter. We are the clay."

Pleasant weather and beautiful outdoor surroundings seemed to counterbalance the somber tones of community formation and worship. Laughter was heard in listening circle groups. Tears were shared, too. Mealtimes were especially convivial. Sabbath rest and silence were welcomed. A few participants were not able to attend this gathering, and they were sorely missed.

As participants contemplated new (to them) spiritual practices and made plans for home-based engagement, they agreed to hold one another in prayer until the next gathering, scheduled for October 21-24, 2024.

Just as the setting of a story can sometimes be a character within the story itself, so too the setting of Blue Lake Methodist Camp has been an influential aspect of the training, going far beyond just playing the role of “backdrop.” Many of us talk of how driving through the archway is a crossing of the threshold from the busyness of life to the solitude of deep listening in our training retreats. The peaceful trails and the lake sights and sounds draw attendees into the active stillness of nature and to an awareness of our place in it. 

The methods of study have included personal listening, collective listening, community connection, and the use of the arts in devotion. We also practice embodied listening with yoga, our drum circle, dance, walks in nature, and silent movement. Shared meals and times of worship alike are steeped in intention. Our community formation sessions, taught by Dr. Heidi Miller, are enlightening and challenging, and Dr. Miller’s careful sense of the move of the Spirit allows for pauses as we awaken to the signposts on each of our own journeys. 

I would like to share an awakening I had during one of Dr. Miller’s lectures. (Please also check out the “Call for Awakenings” shared further down in the newsletter to submit your own.) 

During the Thursday Community Formation session of our last retreat, Dr. Miller was teaching us of awakenings, showing us through her movement (for this part she walked into the center of the circle of our tables) how when we are headed toward an awakening it starts to feel uncomfortable. For this point, she paused on her journey into the center. She reminded us that any time we are journeying into new territory, our mind’s conditioning feels this as discomfort, often registering that discomfort unconsciously in our physical bodies. At this point in the journey, she said, we will often stop the forward movement and start to numb or distract ourselves from the discomfort. We might circle back (for this point she walked back to her starting point) to an old coping strategy. As I listened I thought about how we do these things: how we bury ourselves in work, go on a side quest to “fix ourselves,” or project that discomfort off on others around us, blaming them for the uncomfortable feelings we are registering in our bodies. 

Dr. Miller encouraged us instead, when we are able and aware enough to do it, to lean in, moving into the discomfort for the sake of the joy of awakening on the other side of it. She did not gloss over this idea of discomfort. She acknowledged that it can be very painful, often feeling like anguish. 

Then, something beautiful happened. As she was teaching us about this, the Holy Spirit seemed to really be moving. Sitting at my desk, I was soaking in her revelatory words and hearing the audible sounds around me of those for whom pieces were falling into place for their own journeys. I saw some of my fellow listeners tear up. I heard and felt a sudden intake of breath from those around me. God had walked in.

Dr. Miller -- ever sensitive to the Holy Spirit -- said in a hushed tone, “We’re going to stop there. We are on Holy Ground.” It brings tears again to my eyes as I write this. She had us turn to one another in clusters to share what was coming up for us in that moment. Many of us had deep revelations, and they were all different. Tailor-made to each of us as only the Divine can do.  

My own revelation came with a few words she spoke about how an awakening can be so painful it feels like a betrayal. She reminded us that in many Christian services the words “On the night he was betrayed” begins the communion ceremony. For myself, the struggles of my own journey and awakening have been very painful of late, so I really connected strongly to the pain of betrayal. Dr. Miller’s words ignited in me a fire of understanding that when it feels like a betrayal, it’s nothing more than an indicator light that some conditioning in my mind is being dismantled. A dismantling is an uncovering, like the uncovering of Sight when the scales fell from Paul’s eyes. When it feels like a betrayal -- when it is full on anguish -- the cover is being ripped off to reveal the awakening that is being birthed. 

I was reminded that this is what we are about when we are Holy Listening. We are Midwives of the Soul. We are there to be present to the birth of a soul’s light through the anguish of labor. And for me, the revelation in our training session was insight into my own awakening, so that I can first be the midwife of my own soul, in order to hopefully serve others in that same way. 

In our formation so far as companions of the soul in this program, we have been reminded of our belovedness, studied our place in an interdependent natural environment, discovered our membership in beloved community, and have begun to study different stages of a soul’s awakening. We are now in a season of studying the mystics with St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, tending the garden of the soul and listening deeply in times of great difficulty. I am so grateful for this training and for the people on the journey with me. 

November 3, 2023

THIRD GATHERING COMPLETED

During October 23-26, 2023, the third gathering of the Center for Sacred Space's Art of Holy Listening III was conducted at Blue Lake Camp near Andalusia, Alabama. The gathering was begun with a campfire and s'mores. Check it out... 

Community formation teaching centered on awakening--awakening to God, to self, and to beloved community. Worship reinforced that theme and built on others, including the biblical story of "blind" Bartimaeus, who, as Dr. Miller underscored, "saw" better than Jesus' apostles did at the time. 

In listening circle groups participants contemplated each other's listening logs, sharing thoughts, images, insights, and SILENCE. 

Here are a few of the participants' comments:

"The gathering was the best so far, because it was so relatable. Loved breaking into groups with questions we had to discuss and then sharing at community witness."

"I love the way everything is woven together with Heidi, worship and listening circles. I really get the arch of the teaching, It is really so good."

"I think I can do this, be a spiritual director."

"This training has saved my life."

"How can we do this in our churches?"

"I loved hearing others talk about how they were experiencing the material."

"The labyrinth walk was helpful."

NEXT GATHERING: FEBRUARY 6-9, 2024!

September 6, 2023

VIRTUAL GATHERING

The Art of Holy Listening III community met online on September 5, 2023, for support, encouragement, and teaching by Dr. Heidi Miller. Participants "checked in" with one or two words on how they were arriving, then they viewed a short video, as they "crossed the threshold." In her teaching Dr. Miller unpacked "layers" of love, as described in Howard Thurman's book, Jesus and the Disinherited. Participants took advantage of multiple opportunities to share personally in a chat box and in virtual breakout rooms. Executive Director, Kaye Westmark, hosted the meeting. All seemed eager to gather in person agaiin, which is the program plan for October 23-26, 2023. 

The Spirit is on the Move

Summer News 2023

May 8, 2023

SECOND GATHERING COMPLETED

The second gathering of the Art of Holy Listening III is "in the books," as participants, faculty, and staff worshiped, learned, celebrated, and built community together, during April 27-30, 2023. Blue Lake Camp and Retreat Center near Andalusia, Alabama, provided the comfy, quiet, secluded, natural environment for everyone to "slow down" and "go deep" into the theme of Discovering 'Belovedness': Awakening to the Spirit. 

Participants took time to tell their Life Tree stories and to listen deeply to one another. During community formation, Dr. Miller led the group in revisiting and reframing the biblical narrative of Genesis 3. Participants worked at locating their particular stories in the great story of the scriptures. 

Listening Circle Group Supervisor, Betty Johnson, was welcomed in this gathering, as were two participants who had been prevented from attending the first gathering in February. All are eager for an online gathering in September and the next in-person gathering October 23-26, 2023. 

Prayers for this ministry are invited and welcomed.

Here are a few photos from the gathering...

March 6, 2023

FIRST GATHERING COMPLETED

February 11, 2023

ANTICIPATION

The Art of Holy Listening III, a spiritual direction training program offered by the Center For Sacred Space, Inc., is set to begin February 16, 2023. Participants and staff are eager to begin a spiritual journey/adventure together. Watch here for updates on the progress of this ministry.