History
In 1987 six persons with similar spiritual nudgings and longings began
meeting together regularly to share their spiritual journeys, provide
mutual accountability for one another, and to be attentive to God's
continuing call upon their lives, personally.
The experience was nurturing, encouraging, and compelling. Out of their times of openness to God and one another, they were led to provide quiet days apart for themselves, their friends, and others who might be so drawn. These retreats were held in the Lancaster and Bethlehem areas of Eastern Pennsylvania.
Gradually it became clear that God was calling for something more ongoing and connected. In the Fall of 1992 this vision developed into the first year of the school which consisted of 28 persons plus 10 team and faculty members who responded to an invitation to "a deeper friendship with God..."
Purpose
Our Purpose
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To bring people together who desire to grow in their relationship with God, themselves and others.
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To provide programs in which participants explore their own spiritual roots, weed out the things that inhibit growth and claim the essentials for a deeper relationship with God.
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To provide direction in opening the self to various Christian traditions that can deepen faith and increase the understanding of God's movement.
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To offer assistance in exploring the riches of prayer and the contemplative life.
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To help believers be more attentive to God's continuing call, releasing their gifts into the body of Christ and the world around them.
- tending the springs of the devotional life
- nurturing a greater awareness of God
- deepening faith commitments
By the end of this school year, it became apparent that this was only a beginning. Thus, a second year course was developed, then a third year, which has become a continuing experience of learning, growing, and becoming, and later a fourth track, consisting of those who have sensed a call to walk intentionally with others as spiritual friends or guides, called Spiritual Direction Training.