CHICAGO, IL (May 26, 2015) — The new Association of Covenant Spiritual Directors will give the growing number of people engaged in the ministry in the larger Covenant greater opportunity to connect and resource one another, said Jim Gaderlund, the president pro-tem.

Currently, there are networks within many of the conferences made up of clergy and laity who minister to pastors, staff ministers, spouses and missionaries. Gaderlund said the new association is open to spiritual directors in those networks as well as directors who feel called to work with laity. Spiritual directors who are not in our conference networks and who work mostly with laypeople often haven’t felt as connected,” Gaderlund said, “to the larger movement of spiritual direction in the Covenant.”

A temporary leadership team for the group has been guiding the association until it holds its first annual meeting during the Midwinter Conference next year.

There will be three types of membership. For full membership, a person must be an active member in a Covenant church. An associate membership will be available to those who live someplace where there is no Covenant church but still stay connected with the denomination in some fashion. A student membership will be available to those who are still in training programs including North Park’s Weborg Center.

A previous Covenant Companion online article highlighted the start of the spiritual direction movement in the denomination.