How Useful Is The Group Spiritual Direction In Myanmar Baptist Church?

 S Htike Wai Saing

East Asia School of Theology (EAST), Singapore

14 December 2018 Submitted for course The Art and Science of Mentoring and Spiritual Direction (shared with permission)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I.          Introduction

            Myanmar is a Buddhist country and the Buddhists are very strong in their religion. Meditation is their way of calming down their mind and finding a way of peace in their heart. They are very devoted people and they have full respect for their god. Baptist has been introduced by the American missionary called Adoniram Judson 200 years ago. Baptists are the majority denomination in Myanmar. They love their Baptist tradition very much and they do not want to change the way they worship. I have learned about Spiritual Direction and it is very useful for my ministry and me. As we are part of the body of Christ, living as a community is not an option yet a way of life for all the Christians. Therefore, Group Spiritual Direction would be the best option for all the Christians to be in unity with diversity in Christ. Our job may be different yet our goal or mission must be one in Christ.

            Implementing Individual Spiritual Direction might be difficult in Baptist Community in Myanmar, as they do not have any idea about it. They might think that it is another denominational practice or some way of meditation like the Buddhists practice. Therefore, I would like to introduce them Group Spiritual Direction to them first. In this paper, I would like to present how useful is the Group Spiritual Direction in Myanmar Baptist Churches.

II.        Is Spiritual Direction useful in Myanmar?

            Spiritual Direction is not a new practice but it was practiced many years ago to transform lives and get guidance from God.[1] It is an important fact for Myanmar Baptist Churches because they do not accept the new thing, as they are very traditional. They will only accept what has done in history. Spiritual Direction is closely related to counseling, mentoring and discipling.[2] It is also an advantage because the Baptist Churches in Myanmar are not strong in mentoring and discipleship. Pastoral counseling is the weakest in Myanmar. Since they want a quiet and peaceful way of worshipping, we can introduce Spiritual Direction then followed by other necessary spiritual tools like pastoral counseling, mentoring, and discipling to improve their Spiritual growth. Alice stated that the purpose of spiritual direction is to bring out a person’s spiritual freedom, his inmost truth, which is the likeness of Christ in his soul.[3] It is very important to Christians in Myanmar because Myanmar is very strong in Buddhists and as a result, Christians are facing oppression every day. Their inner spirit is always exposing to the way the Buddhist culture and it is like a seed growing among the thorns. If we do not care about the inner spirit, it will be a problem for a Christian.

            Henri Nouwen defines the spiritual direction as asking “the big questions, the fundamental questions, the universal ones in the context of a supportive community.”[4] Myanmar people are very eager to learn but very shy to ask questions in the class. It could be due to their high ego as well. But if we introduce Spiritual Direction to them, it will be very useful because they are not asking to men but to God directly. It is a very useful way for them to know more about God and to have a better relationship with God. Comparing to discipleship, Spiritual Direction takes more lightly to agenda yet wait for the Holy Spirit to choose the topics, guide the discussion, and teach.[5] The people from Myanmar are generally very flexible and most of the time they do not hold strictly on agenda. Introducing Spiritual direction will be useful for them, as they do not need to rely on their agenda yet to wait for the Holy Spirit to guide and teach them.

III.       What is Group Spiritual Direction and how is it useful for Myanmar?

            Group Spiritual is similar to individual Spiritual Direction where a member in a group has an opportunity to be spiritual directee and the group responds prayerfully to whatever the directee chooses to present.[6] There might be some problem of directing away from God but as a group, there is accountability to one another and they can direct back to God. It will be challenging for Myanmar community and if the directee is a dominant or older person, the rest of the group members might not have the courage to bring them back to God. I think we should set clear instruction where everyone in a group has authority to direct back to God.    The leader of this group should be trained as a spiritual director and he should have a gift to do this.[7] Since Myanmar respects elders and power, the leader should be a trained person so that he or she could lead this group without disrespect from members. There is more chance for males to be Spiritual Director because males are more dominate in Myanmar. The most important thing for Group Spiritual Direction is “Absolute confidentiality.”[8] It is another drawback for Group Spiritual Direction compared to Individual Spiritual Direction. We need more power from the Holy Spirit to keep the confidential thing secret. It is very challenging for the Myanmar community.

            The most difficult task in Group Spiritual Direction would be “listening and discerning.” As Alice has mentioned, Job as a directee and his friends could not do a very good job.[9] A teacher or mentor’s job is to correct the direction of his or her students or mentee. Most of the time, people only notice whom they physically see and they might ignore the Holy Spirit whom they cannot see with their physical eyes. It would be a challenge for Myanmar community but it would also be a benefit to practice to walk with the Holy Spirit whom we cannot see with our own eyes. We should listen when others discern and express their discernment to the group.[10] It would be difficult for all of us when we listen to other people’s discernment about another person’s problem. The director should discern and make the clear decision whether the discernment is on the same track with the directee’s feeling. It will be useful for the Myanmar community as they are emotional people and they can put themselves on other people’s shoes.

            Asking life-giving questions in Group Spiritual Direction is good but it is not to have an answer but to draw closer to God in the midst of the questions.[11] Most people might come to Spiritual Direction with no agenda in mind. It is good to start with some basic questions[12] and continue with the leading of the Holy Spirit. It will be useful for the Myanmar community because they do not want any agenda on hand when they come to church service. It is the time to lead them through the Holy Spirit to get closer to God but it is important not to give our advice yet let the Spirit give them the advice for their lives. It is important to ask thoughtful questions[13] not to hurt their feelings or make them angry.

            Myanmar people concerns about other people’s feeling and they sometimes ignore their feelings and thoughts due to the political issues in the past. It will be helpful to dig out the hidden feelings and thoughts from them. Hiding feelings and neglected feelings can be discovered through questions and God may heal their feelings effectively.[14] Lectio Divina would be helpful for them to calm them down and concentrate on the Holy Spirit. “Lectio divina is an element in a lifelong process of turning toward God.”[15] Through this process, they can practice not only hearing the word of God but also listening what God wants us to do. It will be a very good experience for Myanmar people as they like quiet and meditation. It is good to have as a group because they can hear other people’s opinion and view.

            In Group Spiritual Direction, we don’t confess our sins if the Holy Spirit brought up in our mind, we only confess or agree with God quietly.[16] It will be very useful for the Myanmar community because they do not want people to point out their sins and mistakes. It will be good that when the Holy Spirit convicts them to confess, they can confess quietly with God. They will also like it because it is not human who reveals their sins but God. In Group Spiritual Direction, they pray the scripture and they pray in silence.[17] It will be very helpful to Baptist Christians because when they pray they pray silently. This method of praying in scripture is also useful because most people only pray for their needs and they do not know about praying according to the Scripture.

            Group Spiritual Direction will be useful for Myanmar Baptist community in many ways. They will have group bonding; they will know how to respect one another and more care about one another. They will have an experience about listening and discernment by learning from one another where they can practice their spiritual gifts as a group. They will know more about their brothers and sisters and more concern about their life struggles as well. They will know how to walk with the Holy Spirit more and they will also have practice rather than knowledge. I think in overall, Group Spiritual Direction will be very useful to Myanmar Baptist Community but we will only know the true result when we started the session itself.

IV.       Conclusion

            Theory and practice are always different. I think the Group Spiritual Direction might be very useful for Myanmar Baptist Churches. We will know the true result only when we start implementing in this community. As Alice has mentioned in her book, we need to troubleshoot the problems along the way like attendance, leadership, and group participation.[18] The question like how many people could attend regularly; how is their participation; or is the leader gifted in Spiritual Direction and lead the group? This Group Spiritual Direction may or may not be successful in Myanmar Baptist community. If we do not start to introduce this to our community, we will never know whether it will be successful or not. As for me, I think this Group Spiritual Direction will be useful in Myanmar Baptist Churches and I will start with my church soon.