Spiritual Development...

I saw the following in a report on spiritual development in theological education and thought it would interest people.

What is being done?

• Individual mentoring and personal development interviews.
• Structured mentoring programmes that major on agreed-upon goals and peer relationships.
• Devotional times, chapels, small groups for sharing and prayer.
• Courses on: The Literature of Spirituality, Spiritual Life, Spirituality, Personality (with follow-up option), Spiritual Disciplines, Individual Faith
• History (intensive course on personal past stories and their impact on the present), Spiritual Leadership Development, Spiritual and Family
• roots, Following Jesus, Senior Class.
• Preliminary interviews with new students, final colloquium before graduation and vocational counsel.
• Self-evaluation questionnaires that are compared to the observations of two externals.
• Teachers discuss spiritual formation and how it can be integrated in courses and assignments.

Who is doing it? (a survey taken at the EEAA General Assembly in 2005 indicated that "mentoring staff' represented the major challenge schools were facing in terms
of finding adequate staff and faculty)

• Personal tutors, faculty members, directors, accountability groups, chaplains, psychologists, external counsellors, campus pastors.
• Transparent faculty.
• Small cell groups of ten students and a faculty/staff couple who act as mentors, men to men, women to women.
• Community life in dorms.
• Each class year has a pastor or tutor who meets each student every week.
• Church mentors linked to supervision from the school.
• Older students are responsible for worship services and devotion times, thus setting the pattern for younger ones. Tradition is a part of spiritual development.

When and where is it taking place?

• Weekly mentoring groups, cell groups, trios.
• Individual appointments.
• Meetings in teacher's homes.
• Prayer days on campus.
• Off campus Retreats for men and women separately.
• Morning or prayer, worship and devotion.
• Cell groups lead evening prayer meeting once per week

What tools are being used?

• Spiritual diary.
• Personal growth form which is evaluated together.
• Series of individual "spiritual exercises" with follow up in a group context.
• Special questionnaire that is used for all practical assignments and then discussed.
• Tools for spiritual disciplines and relational issues.
• Mentoring manual with questions for self evaluation and tutor evaluation.
• Annual goat setting.
• Myers-Briggs personality type indicator.

How is spiritual development assessed?

• The main tool is a mentor evaluation through an interview (56% of respondents).
• One school indicated that personal development is integrated into the assessed . academic programme.
• Other assessment tools included (in order of frequency): courses on spiritual life, small group sessions, spiritual diary, self-evaluation, discussion in staff, yearly evaluation, prayer, formal portfolio, spiritual life committee, meetings with principal, evaluation forms and annual written personal and development essays.

The Theological Educator Vol 2.1

What is being done?
Who is doing it?
When and where is it taking place?
What tools are being used?
How is spiritual development assessed?