Seeking God Together: An Introduction to Group Spiritual Direction

by Alice Fryling

The Spirit is speaking. Can you hear him? If you're longing to become more attentive to God--to listen to him, know his voice and experience his love, spiritual direction can point the way. In Seeking God Together, experienced spiritual director Alice Fryling offers a unique introduction specifically for group spiritual a place where individuals can experience what it means to be listened to and loved by others, so that they can learn to listen more attentively to God in their daily lives and be used by God. Out of her years of being both director and directee, Fryling offers practical, step-by-step guidance for those who would like to start, lead or participate in group spiritual direction. Her book will help you know what to expect and fully equip you for the different aspects of the group experience, including learning to listen to God, using Scripture in a group, navigating different personalities, setting group expectations and asking life-giving questions. She also provides an appendix with opening exercises for use in your meetings together. "The intentional goal of group spiritual direction," Alice writes, "is to help each participant become more aware of God in their lives, for the sake of others. Spiritual direction leads you to an awakening of the soul." The Spirit is speaking to you and to others. Here is a book to help you and a group of soul friends listen for and with each other as you seek God together.

Genres: Christian, Spirituality, Theology, Faith, Prayer, Nonfiction

148 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 18, 2008

About the author

Alice Frying is a spiritual director and the author of nine books, including Seeking God Together: An Introduction to Group Spiritual Direction. She has been giving Enneagram workshops for fifteen years, teaching participants how to use the Enneagram to know God and themselves more deeply. She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren.

Reviews

[Laney Dugan]

This was a beautiful book that expanded my imagination for how the ministry of spiritual direction can unfold within a local church or group of people. I wish I had been able to read it in a slightly shorter time span so as to retain a bit more of its cohesiveness, but it imparted much wisdom even if it was read in fits and spurts. My curiosity is thoroughly piqued concerning this model for spiritual direction… and I hope I get to try it someday!

[Keith]

This is a great book for understanding and equipping not only in group SD but also as it relates to spiritual direction in general. Having read a lot of books on SD i felt this one was among the best for bringing it all together in both theory and practice. Fryling lays out purpose, plans and problem solving.

[Hope Helms]

This book was a lovely read packed with helpful insights, and well written. This book made me much more excited and intrigued to participate in and facilitate group spiritual direction. Will be returning to this many times as a reference and resource!

[Kennedy Cook]

Interesting

[Jamie Lang]

It was really good. It makes me want to join a group for spiritual direction, just to be able to watch the Holy Spirit work.

[Alison]

Alice Fryling’s book Seeking God Together: An Introduction to Group Spiritual Direction is an instructive book on how to venture into the practice of spiritual direction either as a director, a directee, in one on one sessions or in groups. The book focuses on the latter as a means of increasing the awareness and accessibility of spiritual direction to the average church attender. Alice’s conversational style creates a welcoming tone that encourages the reader to listen to her wisdom. Listening is one of the defining features of spiritual direction. Alice writes, “First and foremost the spiritual director listens.” Within the group setting the same applies. Contemplative, open spirited, and humble listening on the part of the group allows the directee to feel safe in sharing their spiritual journey and emotions. The silence of listening provides time for each person in the group to hear from God. Fryling states that in group spiritual direction the group come together as fellow travellers who encourage one another, share their maps, and provide alternative perspectives on the view. The directee hears from the group members as they have heard from him/her as each one is listening to what God has to say.

[Gretchen Magruder]

Seeking God Together is a helpful read for anyone who is learning spiritual direction in a formal way, but also for those who are involved in spiritual communities where spiritual direction can be practiced in groups like Fryling describes, but also in our regular interactions with followers of Jesus.

“The intentional goal of group spiritual direction is to help each participant become more aware of God in their lives for the sake of others.”

I loved her chapter on the power of listening and the ways to listen (Ch 4), as well as a challenge on asking life-giving questions in chapter 5. The book is full of practical ideas and strategies, but also the helpful theological framework to support spiritual direction.

[David Woods]

Really enjoyed Alice's writing. I will look forward to reading another work by her in the future. This was a great introduction to spiritual direction, specifically group spiritual direction for me. There were great tangible takeaways and practices I'm excited to integrate into my life. I will return to this as a resource for how to be a better listener and question asker as well!

[Julia]

This book is a great introduction to spiritual direction in general and a great how-to for group spiritual direction. I think it makes an excellent primer for the first year of spiritual direction training.

[Rachel Hafler]

This is a highly practical intro to group spiritual direction. I greatly appreciate the lists of questions to use in group sessions as well as the guided meditations and structure for a session included in the appendices.

[Faith]

I absolutely loved this book! It gave such good insight into spiritual direction. I loved how she mentioned that different people will respond to it differently and brought the MBTI into it. Spiritual direction is definitely something that I would like to look into after reading this!

[Raylene Berryman]

An excellent read

Wow! I love what Alice Frying has written about in this book. I especially love her gift for asking the right questions. I highly recommend this book whether you are seeking God in groups or on your own. It if full of lots of practical suggestions.

[Rachel Watson]

A good book that includes both conceptual and practical guidance. I am skeptical, however, of the modern approach to spiritual direction. While this book handles it better than most I've read (and I haven't read many), it still feels a bit untethered to the nature and purposes of the God I know.

[Margaret]

Read this for my Spiritual Direction class - excellent... well written. Even though it's geared towards group direction that would be utilized in a church or ministry, the foundational ideas and practices around all of spiritual direction are discussed. Very helpful.

[Brad Bracewell]

Valuable resource for Spiritual Direction

Great insight and practical resources pulled from various resources. Appendix offers great insight for personal and group reflection. Very helpful.

[Adam Bloch]

Recommended with caveats: The church needs more active listeners, but I don't know if we should remove critical listening, either. If the spiritual director and directee are well versed in biblical theology, I think I would be less concerned with the (potentially-over)emphasis on feelings.

[Steve Watson]

A quick read on spiritual direction, with ideas on how it can be used as a practice in small groups. Assumes a Christian, likely an evangelical audience.

[Rob]

First half is solid intro to group spiritual direction, but latter half of the book tried to go into too many other topics with too little depth

[Kevin Megill]

Excellent book. Worth re-reading. Worth recommending. About forming a spiritual direction small group; that is, about people in community learning to hear God's voice in their lives.

[Sarah Miller]

This is a fantastic book

[Tiffany Bird]

It was difficult to not highlight this entire book. Beautifully concise and packed with all the core complements of spiritual direction!

[Ike Unger]

This book is an excellent introduction to Spiritual direction. As someone new to the term spiritual director, this gave me a wonderful overview and also many great ideas on how to run a group myself.

[Austyn Dentry]

LOVE THIS BOOK! So so good!

[Elizabeth Forshee]

Great book for defining the heart of spiritual direction.

[Ruthann]

I liked this book- it has a good perspective and is an easy fast read. Highly Recommend if you want to understand spiritual direction for groups

[Natalie Riediger]

I thought I was a good listener, then I read this book…

[Rob Steinbach]

This was a great simple read on group spiritual direction.

[Kyle Haack]

Very helpful book on spiritual formation and group spiritual direction.

[Jana]

Great little book on group spiritual direction. Very insightful and makes it seem very doable. I hadn't considered group direction before reading this book but I'm very interested now.

[Scott R. See]

very good insight. concepts contained also relevant to individual spiritual direction
very good practical questions to use within spiritual direction.