MEET OUR SPIRITUAL DIRECTORS

John March

Spiritual Director and Executive Director

Our tendency is to look for God exclusively in the spectacular and transcendent moments of life, but in reality, God is always with us. God’s grace is always coming to us. And God’s Spirit speaks to us in a variety of ways through the experiences of our ordinary lives.

Jesus said, “When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” Spiritual direction is a prayerful conversation where I join you in paying attention to the secret, hidden work of God in your life. Our tendency is to look for God exclusively in the spectacular and transcendent moments of life, but in reality, God is always with us. God’s grace is always coming to us. And God’s Spirit speaks to us in a variety of ways through the experiences of our ordinary lives. Learning to listen to God in spiritual direction typically involves paying attention to the hopes and fears, desires and dreams, and the frustrations and failings of our everyday journeys. When we do this, we enter deeper into the experience of God at work in and through us. I feel privileged to be able to sit with people in this sacred space with God.
Here’s a little bit about my journey with God. I grew up in Minnesota. I studied engineering in Boston. I spent a year as a missionary in Malawi. I met my wife and got married while in seminary at Gordon-Conwell where I earned an MDiv. Then, we returned to the Minneapolis area to start a church in 2009. It was this endeavor that awakened in me an awareness of my deep need to discover God in the ordinary everyday moments of life. Spiritual direction was the place where I learned how to do this. I have been offering spiritual direction to others since 2015. I completed a training program called Selah offered by Leadership Transformations.

John is available for spiritual direction in person, by phone or video conferencing.

Kim Isaak

Spiritual Director, Pastor

I come alongside others to listen in confidential, unhurried settings where your life and story are met with interest, respect, gentleness and compassion. I trust that God is present and active in all aspects of our lives.  

As a Spiritual Director, I come alongside others to listen in confidential, unhurried settings where your life and story are met with interest, respect, gentleness and compassion, trusting that God is with us in these conversations. Together we discover where God is in your story and nurture your friendship with God. I enjoy leading retreats where individuals and teams can step aside from the crazy busy noise and make room to listen to God. An area which I feel particularly passionate about is offering a safe place for pastors, spiritual directors and other soul care providers to have a place to listen and care for their own souls.

A little about me…
Gazing up at the prairie blue sky, I just knew that God was up there. Somewhere. Somewhere just beyond my reach but still, always there. I wondered a lot about God as a child, I said my prayers at mealtimes and bedtime. Over time I memorized quite a bit of Scripture and knew the Bible well, but if I was honest, I was not convinced that God liked me all that much.
In my early 30’s and in a season of immense change and mounting grief, God gifted me with an experience that I had always longed for; someone to really, truly listen to me. Formally, this experience was named Spiritual Direction, where two come together to listen for God’s voice and presence. Informally, it was a place deep within me where I knew I had come home and could honestly be myself, just as I was. My self-disclosure was met with interest, compassion, grace, gentleness, kindness, and a sacred reverence that I had never known before. I was not a problem which needed to be fixed but someone who needed to experience God’s unconditional love. I still recall hearing myself say in that first conversation, “This is love, and I don’t know how to love like this.”  Having a safe place to talk about my inner life, which included God, changed me and the trajectory of my life.  I became more honest with myself and others. I became aware of what I really felt, and gained courage to talk about these things with Jesus in my prayer. I found my voice. I learned how to place myself in God’s story revealed in the Scripture, and I learned to hear the voice of God – the tone of voice as much as the words. Shame eventually had less power. I discovered real peace, contentment, freedom, and hope. Less afraid to be alone, I began to welcome solitude and silence. I became motivated more by love and less by fear, and over time I came to truly know myself as the Beloved. Prayer, even if it seems empty and dry at times, has become a delight and as natural as my breath. From this anchored place in God, I gained clarity about what I value and how God and I partner together in renewing this world.

My post-secondary education began with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Manitoba. Then for 10 years I was employed as a Senior Divisional Manager of a furniture manufacturing company. During a 15-year Spiritual Direction apprenticeship with Rev. Jean Leih, the Founder of Restoration Ministries, I completed my Master’s Degree in Spiritual Formation and Leadership from Spring Arbor University in 2012. Since then, I was licensed for Pastoral Ministry in 2013, completed my Supervision training with Together in the Mystery in 2018 and in 2019 completed a 9-month internship in Clinical Pastoral Education. In my time with CPE I had the graced experience of learning to companion the suffering, the dying and those who love them. I am also a certified presenter of Centering Prayer by Contemplative Outreach. I completed extensive training in Inner Relationship Focusing which is a compassionate, non-invasive way to be present to trauma as it is felt in the body and am a Certified Focusing Teacher.

I married my husband, Phil in 1988 and we have two grown children and a doodle named, Linus. We like to play together outdoors, particularly anywhere near water, forests or mountains. I enjoy reading, long walks, traveling, and creating with my calligraphy pens and ink.

Kim is available for spiritual direction in person, by phone, email, Zoom, Skype or doxy.me.

Brenda Henry

One of my deepest joys is companioning others on their faith journey toward a deeper knowing of God and self.

My childhood in northern Minnesota, saturated with summer weekends at our family lake cabin, instilled in me a love of adventure. Although I might not have recognized it at the time, the sense of God’s presence I experienced while catching sunfish from our faded old rowboat, building tree forts with my cousins, and feeling the spray of water on my face as I skied, instilled in me a deep awareness of fullness of life. These experiences have much to do with the unyielding nature of hope I have discovered within myself. They are places where I began to understand the truth of Acts 17:28: “For in Him we live and move and have our being.”

Nearness to God has been my lifelong heart’s cry and the reason my eight-year-old self wanted not only to be a water-skier, but to be a nun too. Yes, Houston, we have a problem—at least it seemed so to me. To that point in my young life, I understood God to be quite a serious Person, and I wasn’t sure where He weighed in on issues of fun and desire—yet these were the places I felt most alive.

In my early twenties I discovered that same sense of aliveness in God’s Living Word, and I leaned into it through decades of living, loving, and raising a family. Subsequently, a deep experience of grief and brokenness seemed to bring my life to a standstill, and I found myself crawling through a desert place, struggling to keep sand out of my eyes—hoping that then I might be able to see what to do next. In the dryness of that desert experience I discovered an altar, a sacred place where I could lean in and ask God all the questions I wanted. Questions like: “How did I get here?”  “Where are You?” “Who am I now?”

Faith drove me to that altar, but it was Love that held me there; Love that listened to my rants, and still drew me towards Himself; Love that told me the truth—that He really was not so heavy handed after all, and, by the way, that really was Him with me in the rowboat.

Although my theology is most deeply rooted in my personal love relationship with the Lord, it is framed by my experience of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. My childhood heart’s cry did not lead me to a convent, but it did, ultimately, direct me toward receiving my MATS degree at Bethel Seminary in 2010.

Conversations with my Spiritual Director have been a vital, life-giving part of my adventure in knowing the Lord, others, and myself more accurately and more intimately. One of my deepest joys, along with spending time with my family and friends, writing, playing outdoors, and cheering for the Minnesota Twins, is companioning others on their faith journey toward a deeper knowing of God and self.

 I completed my training in Spiritual Direction at Christos Center for Spiritual Formation in 2013, having sensed God’s call to this ministry shortly after completing my Seminary education.  I knew it must be the Lord because it tugged at my heart with the same joy and sense of adventure I felt all those years ago in that little faded fishing boat...a tug that told me that a fresh spray of living water was headed in my direction.

Brenda is available for spiritual direction in person and over zoom.

Diane Johnson

With each person I meet, I am reminded of God’s involvement in all of life.

I believe that throughout my life God has been preparing me for the ministry of Spiritual Direction. In my early childhood in downtown Minneapolis, through college, and in each of my work and personal experiences, I have been challenged to recognize Gods presence in my life. At times my relationship with God has felt solid, at other times I felt far removed and longed for a deeper relationship with the triune God who is my Creator, Savior, and Sustainer.

I worked for 35 years in corporate America where my positions ranged from computer programmer to project lead to middle manager. In each position my underlying concern was for the welfare and spiritual lives of my coworkers. God eventually called me out of corporate life and I entered Luther Seminary where I graduated with my MA.

After graduation, I realized my spiritual journey into a deeper relationship with God was only beginning. I sought Spiritual Direction to help me discern where the journey might lead. As a result I began and completed my training as a Spiritual Director through Christos Center for Spiritual Formation.

Now my passion is to listen to the life stories of people and discern with them how God has been and continues to be present in their lives. With each person I meet, I am reminded of God’s involvement in all of life. Each of my interests from kayaking to reading to travel also points to that involvement. I am especially touched by floating with the loons in my kayak. The loons are God’s amazing creations and gazing into the clear water of the lake reminds me of my own transparency to God.

Diane is available for spiritual direction in person and by phone.

Sarah Patton

My deepest desire and profoundest joy is listening as a companion-guide to the sojourner exploring the spiritual aspect of their life experience – the one walking toward wholeness.

I am walking toward wholeness. I love to say it. I love to use it as a closing in a note or email.

Traveling through life, we experience hurt, loss, and suffering. Some of us experience more brokenness than others but we all experience it. We want to heal; we want to be made whole.

What do I mean by wholeness? Wholeness means restoration of who we are created to be: bringing forth the gifts we can offer the world, an inner calm, freedom, and a sense of completeness. As life unfolds, we face joys and new challenges; so we keep walking toward wholeness. For the spiritual seeker, it is life’s journey.

I was a unique, lonely child, some might even say a weird kid. At age nine, I wanted to be a minister, an unusual goal as women pastors were not yet graduating from seminaries. I even began writing a book of sermons. My childhood was unhappy and turbulent; looking back I believe God held onto me. By the time I was 22 years old, both of my parents had died. I was bereft. After a period of confusion about God, I decided to return bringing my unanswered questions.

I asked God that I would remain faithful, to make me strong, to endure in putting down roots to become like a tree planted by streams of water, and to nurture a family that walks in God’s way. Tending a sapling isn’t the same as sitting in the shade of a mature tree but the seed was planted and I knew what I must do – cultivate, tend, and guard – so that someday my descendants would be able to sit in the shade. I knew it meant facing obstacles, encountering resistance and roadblocks. And so it has been.

Ten years ago, my life had fallen apart and I was again bereft and coming to God with my unanswered questions. The way opened to study Scripture in a small group, deeply diving into the meaning of the original language. It was a safe place to bring my questions. Spiritual direction was offered as part of the experience. As I brought my wounded self – my anger, my doubts, my fears, my wounds – to my Spiritual Director and to God, I began to heal. I experienced being beloved by God, not just intellectually but in the bedrock of my being. The desire to become a Spiritual Director emerged. I wanted to be a holy listener to another’s story, to accompany another seeking to see God’s movement, to witness another’s realization of being beloved by God.

I became a certified Spiritual Director in 2019, graduating from Christos Center for Spiritual Formation. My deepest desire and profoundest joy is listening as a companion-guide to the sojourner exploring the spiritual aspect of their life experience – the one walking toward wholeness.

Sarah is available for spiritual direction in person, by phone or video conferencing.

Leanne Esch

I love creating spaces for people to meet with God.

The first spiritual experience I remember happened during a family camping trip to California when I was a kid. I was standing in a grove of majestic, peaceful Redwoods. As I closed my eyes and listened to the whooshing sound of the wind in the pines, I remember the unmistakable feeling that the presence of Love was there with me. In moments when God has been hard to see, often I reconnect with who God is through nature.  I believe God is personal, loving, and available to all.

As a spiritual director, my desire is to create a peaceful, non-judgmental, compassionate space for you to explore who you are, who God is, and how you are uniquely made to be in the world.  I welcome hard, unanswerable questions.  I celebrate human resiliency and look for opportunities to illuminate unseen strength.  I love to pray.  I value diversity and seek awareness of my unseen biases.  I am not afraid to hold pain and acknowledge I can’t fix it.  I believe in the healing power of simple presence with another. 

 I completed a two-year spiritual direction training program through Shalem Institute in December of 2019. I am currently enrolled in Shalem Institute’s 18 month program, “Transforming Communities: Leading Contemplative Groups and Retreats.”  Prior to pursuing spiritual direction as a vocation, I worked as a social worker and caregiver for seniors.

I love camping, writing, exploring, eating, and having fun.  I enjoy cross-cultural experiences and love to travel to new places.  I am entering into a new adventure of sharing songs I have written.  You can find them on my website:  www.leanneirene.com.

Leanne is available for spiritual direction in person or via Zoom.