| dc.description.abstract | Spiritual mentoring, what many call spiritual direction, is one of the ministries of Christian soul care, and it is one of the spiritual disciplines available to Christians in their pursuit of holiness. Supervision of the spiritual mentor is a tool for the spiritual mentor's growth as they co-journey with others. The field of supervision of the spiritual mentor, also known as supervision of the spiritual director, is limited with regards to models of supervision for the spiritual mentor. The research for this dissertation utilized literary and theoretical research methodologies, as well as case study methods and consisted of four major phases: a quantitative phase, a literary phase, a theoretical phase and an illustrative phase with actual case studies.
The research began first by looking to Scripture and Christian history for models of spiritual mentoring, before examining the published models of supervision of the spiritual mentor. The models given to us from Scripture and Christian history are models that see the Holy Spirit as the true guide, Scripture as crucial to the journey, and allowing another mature Christian as co-journeyer. In the review of the literature for published models of supervision of the spiritual mentor the five models found were Center for Religious Development Model, Looking into the Well Model, An Integrated Model, Supervision as Reflection Model, and The Experience Cycle Model.
This dissertation has made a contribution to the field of spiritual mentoring by theorizing a model of supervision to assist the spiritual mentor and the mentor's supervisor to take an evocative and contemplative stance that they too may be listeners of a story in such a way that will help facilitate their growth in Christlikeness. This dissertation developed a model of supervision of the spiritual mentor by using the framework offered by Charles Gerkin's narrative hermeneutical case methodology that was formatted by Leigh Conver, modified, examined and illustrated by this researcher, and named a Narrative Model of supervision of the spiritual mentor. | en_US |
