Coming into the Doctorate of Ministry program, I wanted to focus on providing support and resources neurodivergent clergy, both for clergy themselves and the people that oversee them. My original thought was that this would look like professional development for pastors who lead staffs, District Superintendents, General Superintendents, compassionate ministry leaders, and the like. Essentially I thought that I would be attempting to address the problem from the top of the structure down. However, after this course, I am envisioning another approach, or at the very least, a tandem initiative, which is spiritual direction for neurodivergent clergy.
There must be organizational change in allowing people to be themselves, as God created them, in the structure of the Church. To only allow people who are neurotypical the ability to belong, participate, and lead robs the dignity of not only neurodivergent people, but any differently abled person. In other words, when everyone must conform to the ideal, people will either make that change and be disingenuous, or they will be left behind.
This is a problem that Christianity has dealt with with all the back to the struggles in establishing the Church in the book of Acts. Paul and Barnabas has to go before a council to determine whether or not Gentiles should be circumcised in order to “be saved.”(Acts 15, Holy Bible: New International Version. 2011) In her book “Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction,” Margaret Guenther discusses the experience of women in the Church, writing:
Most women know the stories and language of men. Just as I learned in graduate school to function well in a context and terminology that was not my own, most women know the accepted language of religious observance and traditional spirituality. Yet we cannot expect openness and sensitivity from men until they are equally acquainted with the spirituality and language of women. Some male directors may persist in an unconscious but arrogant assumption that their language, perceptions, and experience are the norm, and women who turn to them for spiritual direction will be patronized or dismissed outright.(111, Guenther 1992)
If this is true for the experience of one particular group that has been marginalized by the Church, then I would contend that this is also true for every other group, which now is increasingly including neurodivergent Christians. “Just as with racism and sexism, the excluded minority population internalizes the views of the dominant culture so that people with disabilities also come to understand themselves and act in ways that confirm the expected stereotypes.”(11, Yong 2011) It is a disservice to not think of how we interact with people around us who we have deemed to be “different” for whatever reasons.
This new multi-faceted approach to supporting neurodivergent clergy (from the top of the structure down and from the ground floor up) will require spiritual direction for individuals and for the organization. It is my belief that there are many neurodivergent pastors who have tried for a long time to fit into the systems of discipleship and leadership that is considered “normal” by institutions such as universities and seminaries, by denominational leaders, by the Church as a universal body, by peers, by boards and elders, and even by congregations themselves. In fact, the seminaries that are training our future clergy members are doing a disservice to anyone who has a disability by failing to adequately address any major disability theological concepts in it’s curriculum, and further the leaders of those seminaries generally agree that their students would not be prepared to understand the complexities of that field of theology.(94, Annandale, Naomi H and Carter, Erik W 2014)
The question then is how does one support neurodivergent clergy through spiritual formation, and how does the Church itself address the lack of inclusion or understanding of the same clergy? The first and immediate need is to create a spiritual formation posture that is understanding of the issues neurodivergent clergy face. This may require continuing education for spiritual directors and their supervisors, or it may require different modules in their initial training, or it may simply require more people who are neurodivergent to become spiritual directors themselves.
Having neurodivergent spiritual directors holding space for neurodivergent clergy (or any other neurodivergent spiritual directees) opens the story of God further for them to be a part of it. To be able to see oneself in the story of God is to see a God that loves everyone, not just the “chosen” people who also happen to look like the people who conform to societal norms. Parker Palmer helps to illustrate that in his SDI International interview by reflecting on learning from younger people while also teaching them.
part of what’s important here in increasing the age range of folks who do spiritual direction is that an intergenerational dialogue at this time in history is invaluable. In fact, I think it’s critical to our future. And the older I get, the more I understand that. And the more new life I get from connecting with people one and two generations younger than myself. I think this new world that’s coming at us, this new horizon, is way too complex to be understood without that intergenerational dialogue.(SDI - The Home of Spiritual Companionship 2015)
If it is important to extend spiritual direction generationally because of the complexity of one group to understand it all, I would argue that it is important for it to expand to different groups as well.
To address the support required for neurodivergent clergy from the top down, there will need to be considerable work done and wisdom in choosing which audiences to address. Quite simply, catching young clergy in seminary or other training programs will be the easiest as their minds are already focused on learning. This is a good approach for a long vision, but it will require time as they will need to graduate, find a position, be placed, etc. They also may have some difficulty in thinking about some of the questions found in a book like Elizabeth Liebert’s “The Soul of Discernment: A Spiritual Practice for Communities and Institutions.”(Liebert 2015)
To address local churches with staff, districts, or even the denomination will pose it’s own challenges, if for no other reason that time and the many other initiatives placed before them. But it would have the potential for having the greatest impact in the short term. They would also have a depth of experience to draw on to make connections. Liebert writes “Regular practice of Awareness Examen for Discernment Groups will, over time, sensitize your group to the ways God works with you and will help you become more adept in cooperating with the richness of life that God intends for your group.”(34, Liebert 2015) These leaders would be more likely to seek discernment out for the group as opposed to self because they know what it means to lead people.
Everyone deserves to have a spot at the table and to be understood because we are all made in the image of God. “Any human experience, therefore, as the product of an encounter within the universe, has many dimensions.”(24, Barry 2004) To not hold space for neurodivergent people is pulling up the ladder that has been climbed by many different ostracized communities before them. This will be what is taken forward from this class: hold space for neurodivergent clergy through spiritual formation, and educate and train leaders through corporate spiritual formation.