Certificate in Spiritual Direction
Training in the practice of listening, discernment, and prayer in the Christian Protestant tradition
Spiritual Direction at North Park
The 15-credit-hour certificate in spiritual direction prepares you to offer spiritual guidance rooted in the Protestant tradition and emphasizes personal formation, supervised practice, and peer learning. Through training in holy listening, spiritual discernment, and prayer, you’ll develop the skills and formation needed for spiritual accompaniment and become equipped to serve as a spiritual director in a church, ministry, or other faith communities.
A distinctive feature of the program is its requirement that applicants have at least one year of personal spiritual direction before enrollment. Plus, the cohort model allows for a variety of Christian traditions, credentialed clergy and active lay people, and men and women to learn deeply together.
Program length and modalities
Students complete this part-time program in 25 months as part of a cohort. It combines year-round online coursework with three one-week summer intensives on the North Park Theological Seminary campus.
Certificate requirements
- Year one
- Summer intensive I
- SPFM 7501 – Foundations of Listening and Discerning
- 2026 cohort dates: July 20–26
- Online course
- SPFM 7502 – Listening and Discerning Practicum I
- Begins on the first day of the fall semester and ends on the last day of the spring semester
- Requires 10 meetings with a spiritual director
- Summer intensive I
- Year two
- Summer intensive II
- SPFM 7503 – Spiritual Directing: Listening to the Movement of God with Another
- Begins with a retreat day
- Cohort dates
- 2025 cohort: July 13–18
- 2026 cohort: July 12–17, 2027
- Online course: SPFM 7504 – Spiritual Directing Practicum II
- Summer intensive II
- Year three
- Summer intensive III
- SPFM 7505 – The Ministry of Spiritual Direction: Listening to God in the Church and World
- Begins with a silent retreat and ends with a consecration service and the awarding of certificates
- Cohort dates
- 2024 cohort: July 20–26
- 2025 cohort: July 19–25, 2027
- 2026 cohort: July 24–30, 2028
- Summer intensive III
My wife and I serve in Alaska with native communities and people, and the certificate in spiritual direction has given us tools to walk with people as they find Christ in their own culture rather than make them wear cultural Christianity that doesn’t fit them.
Mike Alverts
My practicum year doing spiritual direction with a handful of directees was amazing. Living out the call God has placed on my life inspires so much humble awe! It is truly beautiful to accompany others on their faith journey and to witness the Holy Spirit at work in their lives and in mine.
April Lyon
In this program, I discovered that spiritual direction was not just about giving advice or solving problems; it is about offering a safe and sacred space for people to explore their profound questions, longings, and struggles. I humbly accept the call and leave the rest to the Holy Spirit, the true director.
Tori Mack
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C. John Weborg Center for Spiritual Direction
The C. John Weborg Center for Spiritual Direction is rooted in North Park Theological Seminary, an accredited seminary with trained faculty across theological and ministry disciplines. Credits earned in the certificate can be applied to North Park master’s degrees, and degree-seeking students can complete the certificate within their program.
Learn more about the center
FAQ
All applicants have in common that they have encountered God through spiritual direction themselves and feel a potential call to do the same for others.
Discernment is key in our training. How do we know the voice of God? Can we trust our inner promptings? But discernment for spiritual direction need not be complete before starting the program. Both the application process and the first year of certificate training—listening to the movement of God in oneself—are considered part of the discernment period.
This program is designed for mature Christian lay leaders and ministers who would benefit from training and supervised experience in the ministry of spiritual direction. Applicants should have, at a minimum, a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university and one year of experience receiving spiritual direction.
Many applicants may be trained ministers, but each cohort comprises laypeople and clergy with a variety of professional backgrounds. The uniting profile should be that they have encountered God in new and deeply personal ways, beyond mere knowledge, and feel a call to do the same for others.
The Center for Spiritual Direction partners with the Association of Covenant Spiritual Directors, which can assist in your search.
Contact
Office of Seminary Admissions
Old Main, third floor
3225 W. Foster Ave.
Chicago, IL 60625
(773) 244-6229
semadmissions@northpark.edu