Starting Something New E-Book

Beth A. Booram

• Herausgeber: IVP Formatio
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Seitenzahl: 237

Beschreibung

Do you have a dream? Do you have a creative idea stirring within you to do something different or start something new? If so, you're not alone. Many people have God-given dreams but don?t know how to discern what they are and develop them into something real. Most of these dreamers aren't business people or experienced entrepreneurs. They're just sincere Christ-followers who need a spiritual and practical guide to help them realize their dream—whether it be to start a new ministry, non-profit or business, or even the vision to begin a new lifestyle.Drawing from her personal experience and the stories of fifteen others, spiritual director Beth Booram has written this companion guide for those who wonder if they have a God-given idea but don?t know what to do with it. Interviews from people like Chris Smith, Phileena Heuertz and Randy Reese who have courageously embraced a God-prompted idea are included with each chapter to add further vision and insight. Carefully designed exercises at the end of each chapter will guide and provide practical support for those who are on the spiritual journey of identifying and acting on a God-given dream. By the end, you will know that one of the privileged tasks of life is to discern, shape, birth and sustain something new.

Leseprobe

STARTING SOMETHING NEW

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION FOR YOUR GOD-GIVEN DREAM

Beth A. Booram

www.IVPress.com/books

InterVarsity Press P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL [email protected]

©2015 by Beth A. Booram

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, visit intervarsity.org.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

While any stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information may have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

The poem on p. 11 is from “Selection for January 5” by Joyce Rupp, Fragments of Your Ancient Name: 365 Glimpses of the Divine for Daily Meditation (Notre Dame, IN: Sorin Books, 2011).

The epigraph on p. 32 is the “Gentle God Prayer” by Corine Murray of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Dubuque, IA (2002). Used by permission.

The epigraph on p. 142 is “The Risk of Birth” by Madeleine L’Engle (1974). Copyright ©1978 by Crosswicks, Ltd. Used by permission.

The prayer on p. 171 is by John Philip Newell, Sounds of the Eternal: A Celtic Psalter (San Antonio, TX: New Beginnings, 2012), p. 58. Used by permission.

Cover design: Cindy Kiple

Images: © mitza/iStockphoto

ISBN 978-0-8308-9719-3 (digital) ISBN 978-0-8308-3597-3 (print)

To David

Living this dream with you is what makes it a dream for me.

To Dave and Jody Nixon

Your way of living was my inspiration; your friendship and support a treasured gift.

And to all

who have a dream inside them

and wonder if it is from God and for them to tend.

CONTENTS

Introduction

A Guide for Finding a Spiritual Director

PART ONE: DISCERNING A GOD-GIVEN DREAM

Interview: Abby Kuzma and the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic

1 Conceiving

Reflection: Paying Attention to What You Are Praying

Interview: Randy Reese and VantagePoint3

2 Brooding

Reflection: Discerning Your Personal Values

Interview: Phileena Heuertz and Gravity—a Center for Contemplative Activism

3 Welcoming

Reflection: Welcoming Your Dream

Interview: Chris Smith and the Englewood Review of Books

4 Discerning

Reflection: A Personal and Prayerful Approach to Discernment

Reflection: Calling a Clearness Committee

PART TWO: SHAPING A GOD-GIVEN DREAM

Interview: MaryBeth Jackson and the Viewfinder Project

5 Naming

Reflection: Choosing a Name

Interview: Elizabeth Roney and Liz Alig Fashion

6 Shaping

Reflection: Shaping Your Dream

Interview: Dave Baldwin and Furnace Hills Coffee

7 Sorting

Reflection: Learning to Sort Things Out

Interview: Joanna Taft and the Harrison Center for the Arts

8 Changing

Reflection: Standing at the Crossroads

Interview: Nate Hershey and City Life Wheels

9 Waiting

Reflection: In the Waiting Room

Interview: Melissa Millis and Nou Hope

10 Dying

Reflection: Paying Attention to What’s Happening Through the Dying Process

Interview: Suzy Roth and Hands of Hope Adoption and Orphan Care Ministry

11 Resurrecting

Reflection: Signs of Life

PART THREE: BIRTHING A GOD-GIVEN DREAM

Interview: Tom Durant and Eco Café Haiti

12 Birthing

Reflection: Ideas to Celebrate and Dedicate Your Dream

Interview: Katie Taylor and Film School Africa

13 Living

Reflection: Your New Normal and Your Growing Edge

Interview: Sibyl Towner and the Springs

14 Sustaining

Reflection: My Rhythms and Rule of Life

Epilogue: What Comes of Dreams

Acknowledgments

Appendix: Web Resources

Notes

Praise for Starting Something New

About the Author

Formatio

More Titles from InterVarsity Press

Oh, Dreamer who quietly enters my life With your basketful of transforming symbols, You come sailing the inaudible night skies Within the silent corridors of my sleep Bringing the needed truths I barely perceive In the bold, glaring light of my active days. Hearken to me with your messengers. Gift me, please, with dreams of revelation So the uncertain path I trod to my true self Becomes every clearer and ready to walk.

Joyce Rupp, Fragments of Your Ancient Name

Selection for January 5

INTRODUCTION

Hope postponed grieves the heart; but when a dream comes true, life is full and sweet.

Proverbs 13:12 (The Voice)

DOES EVERYONE HAVE A DREAM? Some secret ambition or desire that they hold close to their vest and privately cherish? Or are only certain people given a dream by God: some vision of great weight and proportion that they’re to give their lives to? I have a growing sense that many people live with creative, Spirit-inspired ideas stirring inside them, but have little to no clue (and sometimes courage) how to pay attention to and nurture those dreams.

How do I know this? I suppose first and foremost because I am one who, for the last number of years, has been trying to understand a gnawing urge within me to create something for which I had no name. All I could say with words and capture in writing was that I felt as though God was awakening a seed of something he had planted in me, but I didn’t know what kind of seed it was. A new church? A new ministry? A new nonprofit of some kind?

The other source of my growing conviction comes through my practice as a spiritual director. My role is to listen deeply for the activity of God within a person as she or he shares about her or his life and then help that person attend and respond to God’s activity. So, as a spiritual director, when I listen to my directees, it’s not uncommon to hear bubbling up within them a spark of an idea, an innovative unction from the Spirit, for which they often feel some trepidation, as well as great interest and attraction.

The challenge comes when they try to voice their desire, often with a mixture of animation and apprehension, and begin to ask questions like, How do I know for sure that this dream is from God and for me? And what in the world do I do with it?

Not only do I draw from my own recent experience of realizing a dream and my work in spiritual direction, I have also interviewed a number of people in my own geography and around the country who have courageously embraced, often with great sacrifice, a God-prompted idea that seemed to have their names on it. Prior to each chapter, I will share one of these stories of dreams come to life. My hope and prayer is that as you read them, you will develop the courage to believe in your God-given dream and begin cultivating it with great care.

This book is intended to be a companion guide offering spiritual direction for those who are wondering if they have a God-given dream forming inside them but don’t know what to do with it. It’s for people who are contemplating an embryonic idea—starting something new—but aren’t sure where to begin. It’s written to provide assurance and coaching for those in the birthing process, a process that feels both creative and confusing at times. And finally, it’s written to offer practical help and support for those who are actively tending a God-given dream and need to know how to bring it to life and sustain it.

Each chapter describes a unique stage in the gestation of a God-given dream—from birthing it to sustaining it. Then at the end of each chapter you will find a reflection exercise with questions similar to what a spiritual director might ask, questions that will help you process where you are in the gestation of your God-given dream and how to cooperate with God in that stage. I encourage you to use a journal, perhaps a unique journal, different from the one you use for other purposes, and write and process your reflections and responses.

In addition, I hope this book is a unique and helpful resource for other spiritual directors and for those who would like to use it when they meet with one. If you don’t currently have a spiritual director and are interested and curious about how to find one, a guide for how to look for a director at the end of the introduction may be of help. Following that is a guide to assist spiritual directors in how to utilize this book with directees who are tending a God-given dream. I encourage you to read both guides in order to understand how spiritual direction and this book might work together.

DREAM DEFINED

When I use the term dream, I’m using it broadly. The types of dreams I’m speaking of are quite varied, as represented by the individuals whose stories I will tell. Some dreams involved a change of lifestyle; some a new vocation; others began a new business, organization or nonprofit; and some dreams involved a number of these versions. The following are a few examples of some of their dreams. One of them might remind you of the seed that’s growing within you.

a dream to live intentionally in community with others in an impoverished area of the city, developing a life of simplicity and sustainability, living with less consumption and less waste

a dream to combine a love of fashion design and a conviction about fair trade manufacturing and environmental consciousness in a clothing design line

a dream to start an agency that represents the legal rights of an under­served population in a community

a dream to begin a local nonprofit that teaches young men and women a trade that can lead to gainful employment, and mentoring them as you reveal Jesus to them

a dream to establish an art gallery within a community or church that brings healing to the city, supports cultural entrepreneurship and celebrates the arts

a dream to use business and leadership expertise to teach a community in a developing country how to create a sustainable agriculture for growing food and making money for their livelihood

a dream to help local churches deepen their discipleship and empower ordinary Christ-followers to discover their calling through well-designed resources and training

THE CREATIVE WORK OF BIRTHING DREAMS

So, let’s begin by considering some defining elements important to this creative work of birthing dreams. The first has to do with the tone of this artful work. You’ve probably heard it said that dreams are fragile. I think there is some truth in that. But maybe more accurately, the container that holds our dreams is fragile. Our heart contains the seeds of God-given desires. And if we aren’t careful with our hearts, they close up, shutting us off from our dreams.

That’s why gardening terms like tending and cultivating seem to best describe the way we care for God’s dreams within us. Tending has the same root word found in attention and tender. If you put those two words together, they capture the tone of our work. We must pay tender attention to the seed germ of this dream in order to cultivate it. Yes, like a gardener tending a just-sprouting seed, loosening the soil around it, weeding with care so as not to uproot it, protecting it from harsh weather and watering it, we act as a gardener, nurturing the life form of our dreams.

To protect our dreams we must tend our heart, creating space and giving time for the seed to grow. We must keep our heart pure, uncluttered and clear at the center so that we can hear from God. To protect our hearts, we must be careful who we share our dreams with so that those with the tendency to dash dreams don’t dash ours. And we must feed the dream by thinking, writing and talking about it with those who can help us cultivate it.

The tone of our care is important. So is the significance of our dream. By significance I mean its weight and impact, specifically on the one carrying out the dream. While we might dream about any number of things we would like to do someday—like take a trip to Ireland or parachute out of an airplane or meet a personal hero—the type of dream this book is about is one whose consequence to our lives will be considerable.

If you think about it this way, when you embrace this kind of dream it will substantially shape the way you live your life. It will cause you to reorder your priorities. It will more than likely require change—maybe a change of vocation, geography or lifestyle. It will necessitate risk and sacrifice. And it will take courage and belief in God and in you to see it through.

So, God-given dreams are ones that have significance. But don’t mistake that to mean they have to have dramatic impact on the entire world to be important to pay attention to. They may not affect huge numbers of people or solve the world’s most looming problems. What makes a Spirit-inspired dream so important is that it is deposited in you! You are the unique receptacle, and you are the only person who can give birth to it—it’s your baby! God, who knows you intimately through and through, who has fashioned you inside and out and has been with you through thick and thin, has deposited the seed of this dream in you for you to harvest.

This is a good place to clarify the word dream in relationship to another word you might be thinking about—calling. Are they one and the same? Can they be used interchangeably? I would say no. When I think of calling, I understand it to refer to an overarching life passion and purpose. I hear people say things like “I’m called to be a teacher” or “I’m called to lead people into an experience of God through visual arts.” Frederick Buechner is often quoted for his description of calling: “Our calling is where our deepest gladness and the world’s hunger meet.” So, if that’s your understanding of calling, then here’s the difference between our calling and a God-given dream.

While calling is also God-given, a dream is a specific application or step toward living out one’s calling. Our dream should align with our developing understanding of our calling and be an expression of it. Our calling is discerned and honed over a lifetime, while a dream is embraced and accomplished within a shorter period of time, though we may live into it for years to come.

So, back to your dream. Whether you see it or not, you have the unique capacities and life experiences that realizing this dream requires. You have the passion and perspective necessary to launch this dream. That doesn’t mean others haven’t been or won’t be involved in the shaping and accomplishing of this endeavor, but it is yours to steward. And if you don’t, the dream will lie dormant or might even die within you.

The tone and significance of this work are important elements, and, finally, so is the focus. I believe that to effectively realize the creative work of God within us, we must learn to become narrow in our range of focus. It takes great attention and concentration to nurture a creative instinct. I’ve learned from my own process that it wasn’t going to happen unless I remained doggedly fixed on it and refused to be pushed off-center from it.

According to Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, there’s a reason why many successful people and organizations don’t automatically become very successful. He calls the reason “the clarity paradox,” which he sums up in four predictable phases:

Phase 1: When we really have clarity of purpose, it leads to success.

Phase 2: When we have success, it leads to more options and opportunities.

Phase 3: When we have increased options and opportunities, it leads to diffused efforts.

Phase 4: Diffused efforts undermine the very clarity that led to our success in the first place.

McKeown concludes, “Curiously, and overstating the point in order to make it, success is a catalyst for failure.” That may sound terribly discouraging to you, yet these are important words to heed for those of us who are starting something new. His words underscore why it’s so important that when we begin to invest ourselves in a God-given dream, we need to keep our focus, not only in the beginning but throughout the birthing, living and sustaining of it.

On this same point, someone else’s words come to mind. Do you know the often told story in the Bible about two sisters named Mary and Martha? Jesus was in their home one day, along with a number of his disciples. He was teaching them when Martha, busy in the kitchen, interrupted Jesus with—you can imagine—a clearly annoyed tone in her voice. She asked him to tell her sister, Mary, to get up from her place sitting at his feet listening to him teach and help get lunch on the table. Jesus responded with some pointed words: “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42).

I’ve heard a lot of interpretations of this story, as you might have, and most of the time Martha takes a beating. The typical application is that we all need to choose the “one thing” that Mary discovered—to sit at the feet of Jesus. Well, that’s good and true, and there’s a time that that is exactly what we need to do. However, we can’t remain at Jesus’ feet all the time. We have to get up at some point and “get lunch on the table.”

I wonder if there’s another application to this story. Jesus is really suggesting that “there is only one thing worth being concerned about” at a time, and if you discover that, it won’t be taken away from you. Mary was embodying the posture of a person who was aware of what was most important in that moment, and she focused on it. She was present. She was a single-tasker. Martha, on the other hand, was a multitasker; she was worried about and distracted by many things.

If we are eager to harvest the seed of our God-given dream, we must become single-taskers. We must stay with it until it sprouts, watch over it as it grows and feed it along the way. If we try to attend to more than one dream at a time, it’s likely that none of our dreams will see the light of day. I learned that the honest way! It became clear that it was going to require more patience, determination and focus than I ever imagined to birth my God-given dream. Let me end by telling you about it.

WAY LEADS TO WAY

It might help if I start a few years back. In 2004 my husband, David, and I found ourselves in a place we hadn’t anticipated: jobless. Because of some soul-crushing experiences related to our pastoral roles within a local church, we both resigned. It wasn’t premeditated. It was simply a choice of survival. Jesus’ words “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?” (Luke 9:25) described the way we were experiencing our situation. We came to realize that our souls were at stake. And so we both, simultaneously, jumped ship and hoped that God would be there to throw us a line.

For several years after, I pined for a vocational role that fit me the way my role in that church had fit me. It aligned so well with my passion and gifts. I worked with some amazing and creative people. I saw God do the deep work of healing many hearts. I enjoyed tremendous fruit. So, I did what many do when they have lost something important and meaningful. I kept looking for its replacement. And I kept looking where I had found it before—on the staff of a local church. I tried that twice, hoping that I might find my niche, my sweet spot, but both times I had the sense that I couldn’t really root in that soil. It wasn’t my place.

During that time, my good friend Ann quoted Robert Frost to me. She said, “Remember that ‘way leads to way.’” That seemed like wisdom and resonated with me, that each way, though it wasn’t where I would ultimately land, led to the next way and then the next. So, I continued to turn down roads that looked promising and walked through open doors that seemed to have potential. One of the doors was a training course to become a spiritual director.

I met Dave Nixon, the founding pastor of Vineyard Central and a ministry called Sustainable Faith in Cincinnati, when he spoke at our church. In a conversation with him afterward, I learned that he led a School of Spiritual Direction cohort each year, and there was one beginning in just a couple of months. I’d become curious about receiving training to offer spiritual direction after having met with my own director on and off for many years. I’d also become more drawn to ministry with individuals in contrast to the large gatherings that I’d invested so much time and energy toward in my previous roles. So, with a small amount of investigation and a dose of prayer, I jumped on the chance to participate in the School of Spiritual Direction, quite unaware at the time of the significance of the decision.

We met for our first cohort in September at Sustainable Faith, an urban retreat center housed in a former convent. The ambiance of the space was so alluring to me. Built in the late 1800s, it had enormously high ceilings, hardwood floors, exposed brick and generous-size rooms. It was drenched in a quiet spirit that felt sacred—a spirit of peace and welcome. I wondered if all those decades of nuns praying, not to mention Dave, Jody and their community praying, had permeated the atmosphere to the point that shalom was palpable.

As I drove away that first time, I found myself thinking about the experience and even saying to myself, I’d love to do that. Well, over time and after many returns to the convent, I began to write in my journal about a desire that was stirring within me to start a similar ministry in Indianapolis, where I live. One weekend, more than a year later, I shared my desires with our house church/small group community. We had gone away for the weekend together, and I hadn’t really shared with anyone what I was thinking. It felt big and vulnerable to openly declare it. Would they wonder secretly, Who do you think you are? Or would they not believe me that I was serious about it, or think that the idea was dumb?

To be honest, I don’t even remember their reactions. But knowing them as I do, I would guess that they were lovingly attentive and took me seriously. Most important, David and I began to talk more earnestly about this dream, imagining what it might be like and being realistic about the obstacles in the way. One thing you need to know about my husband is that he is, without a doubt, my strongest supporter. And he never once questioned my dream—for me. He made it clear that he was behind me and would support me all the way, but it wasn’t his thing.

So, I researched how to write a business plan and wrote one, began meeting with people smarter than me about doing this kind of thing, and began to pray—earnestly and maybe even a little obsessively. I kept writing about my desires and talking with David about what it could be like. The most overwhelming and formidable mountain to climb involved two issues: funding it and figuring out how to do it with my husband’s support but not his personal investment.

Then something unexpected happened. I was invited by Cindy Bunch, my editor at InterVarsity Press, to a writing retreat at a beautiful retreat center, the Bellfry, in the mountains of Virginia. David and I had planned a vacation right after, so he came along with me to the retreat. Together we watched Anne Grizzle, the owner and host of the retreat center, as she offered us her gracious gift of hospitality, leadership and presence. The experience made quite an impression.

We left there and continued our vacation, but our conversation kept returning to our experience at the Bellfry. I knew something had shifted within David when I found him on his computer, an hour after we got home from vacation, looking for properties!

There have been many twists, turns, about-faces and alternate routes taken since that time. I will tell you more about them throughout this book. But what you’d probably like to know, and what I’d love to share, is that on June 1, 2012, we moved into a hundred-year-old home in the heart of our beloved city and have established an urban retreat center called Sustainable Faith Indy. Yes, we are living our dream!

A GUIDE FOR FINDING A SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR

If you don’t currently have a spiritual director but are curious about how to find one, let me offer a few suggestions that could benefit your search. There are three primary sources to consider when trying to locate one. The first may be obvious, but it’s your own network. Think of people you know who are meeting with a spiritual director or would be familiar with directors in your area. Priests, pastors, nuns, Christian educators, retreat leaders, authors and counselors are often good resources.

Second, consider contacting any nearby theological schools, convents, monasteries or retreat centers for names of spiritual directors in your area. It’s common for these types of communities to make referrals of spiritual directors to the broader Christian community. Some will even have a training program they offer for those interested in learning the art of spiritual direction.

Finally, there are a few organizations that you can consult online. The first and largest is called Spiritual Directors International (sdiworld.org). Several aids on their website will help you in your search for a spiritual director in your area. Keep in mind that the spiritual directors listed in their “Seek and Find Guide” are from all faith traditions. Another organization you can consult is the Evangelical Spiritual Directors Association (ecswisdom.org/esda/tips). On both SDI’s and ESDA’s websites you can read about how to find a spiritual director, what to ask them, and how to determine who is a good fit.

Which brings us to another consideration when looking for a spiritual director: what makes for a good fit? The answer to that question is very personal. You will need to trust your own instincts and be patient and determined about finding someone who works well for you. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

Do I prefer a female or male spiritual director? Or is either fine?

From what faith, denomination or spiritual tradition do I prefer my director to be?

How far am I willing to travel to meet with a spiritual director?

Would I be comfortable meeting for spiritual direction “virtually”—via phone, Skype, etc.?

How much can I afford to pay to meet with one?

Once you identify a few names, I encourage you to set up an interview with two or three.

Here are some questions you might ask them:

How would you describe the ministry of spiritual direction?

How do you approach offering spiritual direction?

How many years have you been offering spiritual direction?

Where were you trained?

How often do you typically meet with directees?

How much is your fee? (Some directors charge a flat fee, some ask for what you can afford, and some don’t charge a fee.)

Finally, here are some things to think about as you reflect on your time with each spiritual director you interviewed:

How did I feel in their meeting space? Did the setting feel comfortable to me?

What was the chemistry like between us?

What did I enjoy about my interaction with this spiritual director?

Was there anything I didn’t like about my experience?

Of those I’ve met with, who am I most drawn to?

I hope that as you explore finding a spiritual director, you will discover someone who is a great fit for you! I think of meeting with my spiritual director as a spiritual practice; once a month, I check in with her so that she can help me be attentive to my own soul and how God is engaging me in my own spiritual formation. If I can be of any assistance in your search, please don’t hesitate to email me ([email protected]). I’d be delighted to help!

A GUIDE FOR SPIRITUAL DIRECTORS: USING THIS BOOK IN SPIRITUAL DIRECTION

In our work as spiritual directors we have the sacred vocation of listening for the distant echoes of a drumbeat within a directee, reverberations that belong to the beat of their own heart and God’s heart and relate to a unique work they are being called by God to do in the world. We understand that we aren’t really