Spiritual Formation

What is Spiritual Formation?

At CVC, we place a high value on spiritual formation, on intentionally allowing the Lord access to every part of our hearts. This is a life-long process and there are many tools to be used in this pursuit. Some of the tools are personal -- silence; solitude; contemplative prayer; allowing time to simply BE with Jesus. Other tools are used in the context of community -- LifeGroups focused specifically on formational topics; spiritual direction; inner healing prayer; and clearness committees.

Spiritual Direction

What is Spiritual Direction?
Spiritual Direction is an ancient form of pastoral care that fosters the relationship between a person and God in the everyday-ness of life. It’s that simple and that profound.
The term spiritual direction itself is a bit misleading; spiritual companion, friend or guide are more accurate terms because it is God who “directs” and the spiritual director simply helps the directee discover for themselves “what the Father is doing.”

What does a Spiritual Direction session look like?
Typically you meet with a Spiritual Director once a month for an hour. The director may open with prayer and silence, a question, or a contemplative exercise such as scripture reading and reflection. Then you talk about whatever is on your mind:  Spouse, children, church, internal struggles, doubts, and dreams. God is at work in the midst of daily life!

The director listens attentively and, occasionally, asks a finely-tuned question to help you probe deeper, or offers an observation. He or she may have you sit with the Lord regarding questions that come up.

The result of ongoing spiritual direction is transformation! The directee gains new insights about the Lord, self, and circumstances enabling growth in intimacy with God and others.

How are directors trained?
Directors at CVC have been trained through Sustainable Faith’s two-year certificate program. The program is recognized and recommended by the Evangelical Spiritual Director’s Association. The curriculum includes extensive reading, reports, practice, peer review and intense personal formation. The cost is nearly $4,000 including fees and books and each director personally paid for the training.

Interested in meeting with a Spiritual Director?

Contact De Landgraf for more information or to set an appointment

Inner Healing Prayer

What is Inner Healing Prayer?

Inner healing prayer is designed to bring Christ’s healing to the broken, wounded, and painful areas of our hearts and lives (and we all have them) so that we are free to respond to current situations in healthy, godly ways.

Why not just “forget the past and move on?” 

The short answer? We can’t and here’s why…

  • Each life experience correlates to a particular pattern of neuron networks firing – and this pattern develops the first time we do anything. When we repeat an activity, we fire the same set of neural networks. So, in a sense, life becomes a living memory because so much of what we do is an unconscious repetition of what we have done in the past.

  • The implicit models we form early in life tend to emerge automatically in response to certain internal and external stimuli. (Example: Mom’s furrowed brow was followed by an angry outburst; today you feel anxious and threatened when someone furrows their brow.) This is supported by research in marriage and family therapy that suggests approximately 80 percent of the emotional conflict between couples is rooted in events that predate the couple knowing each other.

How does inner healing prayer help?

Jesus is Immanuel, which means “God with us” and this promise is the foundation for all we do. As painful memories are visited and Jesus reveals his Presence and truth perspective, healing happens and the memory itself changes – which, in turn, creates new neural pathways.

The ultimate goal is to help us learn to perceive the Lord’s presence, and abide in an interactive connection with Jesus as we walk through life each day.

Contact De Landgraf to set an appointment

Clearness Committee

What is a Clearness Committee?

A two-hour meeting where a group of 4-5 trained individuals:
• listen to you share about your decision or issue
• ask questions to help you fully probe the issue
• offer observations (if desired)
• never speak of it again – to you or anyone else

Behind the Clearness Committee is a simple belief that each of us has an inner teacher, a voice of truth, (we call it the Holy Spirit) who offers the guidance and power we need to deal with our problems. However, that inner voice is often garbled by all kinds of inward and outward interference. The function of the Clearness Committee is not to fix people’s problems from the OUTSIDE, but to help people remove the interference so they can hear the voice of God INSIDE.

Where did the Clearness Committee originate?

It was formed in the 1660’s by the Quakers who needed a way to deal with personal problems by drawing on both their inner resources (their own discernment) and community resources. Why? Because they had no clerical leaders to “solve” their problems for them.

Why do we offer this service at CVC?

When the Clearness Committee is understood and practiced, it is a spiritual discipline that can become a way to:

  • renew community in our individualistic times

  • free people from their isolation in decision making

  • counteract the unhelpful excesses we call caring

  • create space for the Spirit to move among us with healing and power

What types of decisions are appropriate for a Clearness Committee?

Major life decisions such as marriage, career choices, or moving are a natural fit, but Committees can also be helpful for relationship issues or less tangible, spiritual problems such as stuckness, dryness in relationship with God, or the “feeling” that something is wrong.

Contact De Landgraf to set an appointment.