January 5, 2024
Exactly one year ago this week, I lost my home when I left the church I had served for five and a half years. I had a great relationship with the church and community, but my commitment required that I leave this community and church while continuing to serve faithfully as an elder in The United Methodist Church. This move brought with it a relocation to an unknown field of service, a dependency on others for housing, a complicated financial situation, and the loss of social and personal relationships. I was devastated.
For decades, I have longed to attend an Academy for Spiritual Formation. I learned of the Academy through the many clergy and laity who attended the conference. Their ministry has impacted my life. I have witnessed in these people who have served as leaders and examples a deep spirituality that lives a life filled with embodied love, quiet strength, and deep passion.
After I was ordained in 2019, I indulged in hobbies and enjoyed reading books and listening to podcasts for my own entertainment. I took a break from intentional study and found ways to expand my personal growth outside of church life. During that time, I realized I needed a new vision and direction to guide me to fruitful results in life and ministry.
To celebrate the New Year of 2020, I intentionally spent time alone for a retreat at the rectory. During the days of the retreat, I journaled and reflected on my journey. I got back in touch with my sense of calling to the discipline of spiritual formation and my love of formative theology. I put my own twist on my reflective inquiry using a variation of Gary Keller’s question that many of us have been led to ask in recent years in leadership and new church development: “What can I do by doing that?”
The result of this period of discernment was a sense of grounding in my desire to become a spiritual leader with the qualities I had seen in others who had attended to continuing spiritual growth as academy participants. As I focused my mind and spirit on the steps I should take to live according to this new clarity of purpose, I felt the guidance of the Holy Spirit. My hope, I wrote in my journal, was that within five years I would have the opportunity to attend a two-year academy in Alabama.
As the events of 2020 unfolded, I began to prepare. So much happened that I lost track of the timeline and was distracted by many things. When I was caught off guard by the church I served going into a discernment process to leave, I saw the impact that external turmoil can have on the inside of the church and on my own soul.
During this time of crisis for myself professionally, emotionally, and spiritually, registration opened for the next two-year Academy, beginning in November 2022. That month, I finished a season of service at my church, moved from the parsonage to a warehouse and limbo, and began a new role as a District Developer. The start date for Academy #42 was postponed another quarter to January 2023, which was a relief for me during this time of transition. It was the added grace I needed to participate in this new experience of a covenant community.
Joining Academy #42 has energized and stabilized me during a time of transition and new beginnings. I have nurtured and taken responsibility for my own well-being as a person in a way that allows me to be of service to others who have experienced the pain and confusion of loss and change. I have received prayers from Academy leaders while my life has been disrupted by the circumstances of my withdrawal. I have received support from the covenant community from people I have yet to meet in person.
This transitional period in The United Methodist Church has been a time of great change in my own heart and life. Moments of crisis have opened space for learning and growth. The flexibility and freedom gained from leaving the church life I knew has been fertile ground for me to grow as a whole person and as a spiritual leader. When Session 4 ended in October, we reached the midpoint of our journey as a covenant community. That week in particular, I felt a joy and freedom like I have never experienced in my ministry thus far. As I continue Academy #42, I look forward to continuing to challenge myself to the depths of learning experiences and discipleship that await me in 2024.
By: Rev. Carol Glatt
