With You Ministries Mission Statement
This Christian formation and spiritual care ministry exists to support and encourage pastors, pastor spouses, church staffs, seminarians, professors, missionaries, Christian camping staff and other ministry leaders who desire to grow a deeper intimacy with God. The ministry offers opportunities for growth through personal spiritual direction, guided contemplative retreats, and uniquely designed staff enrichment experiences.
It is through my contacts with ministry people in a variety of contexts that I have seen first hand how isolated many pastors, missionaries and other Christian leaders feel. It surprised me when I started doing Pastoral Spiritual Direction in 1998 how rare it was for persons in ministry to have found anyone they could really trust to meet with regularly, sharing in confidence how it really is with them. Everyone needs somewhere to go to gain perspective when life and ministry gets heavy and feels overwhelming. Without support and enouragement, the stresses eventually take their toll, eroding both the joy and the effectiveness of ministry.
This is why I felt led to devote myself more fully to helping Christian leaders maintain the depth and quality of their inner life with God. My experience is that once a person begins this refreshing process with someone they can trust there is a developing eagerness to continue exploring how their joy in life and ministry is rooted in the quality of their relationship with Christ. I see the strong desire that exists today among these committed men and women to continue to deepen their intimacy with God in order to be healthier in ministry to others. It has been a huge blessing to me to see the difference it makes when a person has opportunity to share unafraid the heavy issues they face, knowing they are able to do so with a caring companion who will hold all in confidence. I know what a help it has been for me over the years to have access to my spiritual director monthly, to have someone who will listen well regarding the weighty issues I might be carrying, and who will encourage me by helping me see how God is at work.
I’ve chosen to name this project With You Ministries. It is essentially what I do. I spend time with men and women in ministry in order to convey and communicate as deeply as I can that I will be a caring and prayerful companion with them over the long haul. But far greater than that, we explore together the incomparable ways that Jesus Christ is with them, loving them unconditionally, and committed to walk with them in what they do every minute of every day. His promise is, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Mt. 28.20).
It is through my contacts with ministry people in a variety of contexts that I have seen first hand how isolated many pastors, missionaries and other Christian leaders feel. It surprised me when I started doing Pastoral Spiritual Direction in 1998 how rare it was for persons in ministry to have found anyone they could really trust to meet with regularly, sharing in confidence how it really is with them. Everyone needs somewhere to go to gain perspective when life and ministry gets heavy and feels overwhelming. Without support and enouragement, the stresses eventually take their toll, eroding both the joy and the effectiveness of ministry.
This is why I felt led to devote myself more fully to helping Christian leaders maintain the depth and quality of their inner life with God. My experience is that once a person begins this refreshing process with someone they can trust there is a developing eagerness to continue exploring how their joy in life and ministry is rooted in the quality of their relationship with Christ. I see the strong desire that exists today among these committed men and women to continue to deepen their intimacy with God in order to be healthier in ministry to others. It has been a huge blessing to me to see the difference it makes when a person has opportunity to share unafraid the heavy issues they face, knowing they are able to do so with a caring companion who will hold all in confidence. I know what a help it has been for me over the years to have access to my spiritual director monthly, to have someone who will listen well regarding the weighty issues I might be carrying, and who will encourage me by helping me see how God is at work.
I’ve chosen to name this project With You Ministries. It is essentially what I do. I spend time with men and women in ministry in order to convey and communicate as deeply as I can that I will be a caring and prayerful companion with them over the long haul. But far greater than that, we explore together the incomparable ways that Jesus Christ is with them, loving them unconditionally, and committed to walk with them in what they do every minute of every day. His promise is, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Mt. 28.20).
