Our Ministry

Where and How

Spiritual Direction

Johann and Annalena are both trained spiritual Directors in the contemplative spirituality . They are available on a one on one basis to assist believers in Spiritual Direction.

This process assists you to live contemplatively.

“We cannot attain the presence of God. We’re already totally in the presence of God. What’s absent is awareness”.
Richard Rohr

The main concepts of Spiritual Direction are:

  • The work of God through His Spirit is central in spiritual direction .
  • God constantly talks to me
  • Assist people to become sensitive for the presence of God in the ordinary. My awareness for God is increased.
  • To discern what God says and what movements He wants to create in our lives.
  • To recognize God’s hand in your everyday experiences, in all spheres of life .
  • To allow God to transform you through His grace and this first– hand intimacy with Him.
  • Assisting the believer to move closer to himself – his emotions – his inner world – and to discover what and where God is busy in his life.
  • Liberating believers from a shallow life on the surface.
  • Believers discover God’s will for a specific situations– through the Spirit – they  are not lead towards it. It’s not about giving advice or counseling.

Spiritual Formation

“Christian spiritual formation is the process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others”
Robert Mulholland

“The Spirit-driven process of forming the inner world of the human self in such a way that it becomes like the inner being of Christ himself”
Dallas Willard

Jesus said: Dwell in me as I will dwell in you.  |  Make your Home in me as I make mine in you.  |  Home is where we can rest and be healed.

This is about a personal encounter with God to experience skills to live with Him, grow spiritually, recognize our wounds and to enter the process of healing. This is not a quick fix, but a life-long journey.

The contents of the workshops are:

Level One : “Getting to know yourself to get to know God better”

1. Discover their unconditional belovedness

• We can only give the gift of belovedness in so far as I have claimed it for myself.
• How do we overcome the voice of the world shouting : “Prove yourself”?

2. Learn how to live with Jesus. Get introduced to disciplines that help us to repeat Jesus’s life. To be Jesus disciple means then to be with Him, learning from Him to live our lives as He would have. It is to be His student in Kingdom living.

• The spiritual disciplines of “Lectio Divina, Examen, Silence and Solitude are explored.

3. Reflect on your spiritual and emotional life.
Recognise where they are in their spiritual journey as broken and wounded people.
We cannot become spiritual more mature than we are emotionally healthy and well

• Self-knowledge is crucial for healing and spiritual growth.
• Look at your family of origin, your culture, your story and reflect on the critical happenings in your life and how that influenced you.
• Come in touch with your own emotions and skills to manage them to grow in emotional soundness.
• Forgiveness
• The False Self. Discover different defence mechanisms we try in order to cope with life. It is the incomplete self, trying to pass as the whole self.
• Discover your real identity to be able to live freely and lightly.
• How can we answer on God’s love, love others well and become part of Gods Kingdom agenda for the world.

“Pain that is not transformed is transmitted”.

Level Two : Invitation to love and follow a life of Transformation (Become a new kind of person)

1. In a modern world of pressure and demands, we learn the rhythm of a life that Jesus Himself demonstrated. The Cycle of Grace vs the Cycle of Works

  • Knowing God loves you
  • Nurturing your spiritual life
  • Understanding who you are called to be in the world
  • Restoring life- balance.

2. The heart of spiritual transformation :

God did not put me on earth to fulfil a “ to do list” He is more interested in what I am and become than what I do. Those who flourish always bring blessing to others in the most unexpected and humble circumstances.
Rick Warren.

I become a new person by :

  • Surrendering. The pathway to transformation- to let God be God in every aspect of our lives.
  • To lay down that which we previously were willing to die for.
  • The recovery of our deep longing to indeed belong and surrender to someone transcendent, a longing that is very dim and distant when we are imprisoned in our egos.
  •  Shifting from self– centeredness to God-centeredness is a life-long process.
  • Living from the reality of Jesus’s 24/7 presence. I live inside of Jesus / Jesus lives inside of me. Practical implications.
  • Training for the journey : Jesus is here – as a coach – to train us for the Kingdom lifestyle. Practical habits and spiritual exercises to prevent you from the same mistakes, destructive behavioural patterns and character defects.

3. To acquire a contemplative life – a life practising God’s presence.
Become sensitive to the movement of the Spirit versus our own preferences.
The capacity to distinguish between those things that draw us towards God and those which lead us away.

  • In finding Him I find my true self. In finding my true self, I find Him.
  • Honesty with ourselves is a series of humiliations of the false self – which is painful.
  • Becoming honest opens our lives for the depths of God’s grace and sets into motion a deep and lasting life- change.
  • The biggest threat to this contemplative lifestyle is busyness. Hurry keeps us from living well and recognising God’s presence.

4. Grieving and Loss

  • Life comes out of death. Allowing pain to shape us.
  • The degree to which I learn to grieve my own losses is equal to the depth of my relationship with God and the compassion I can offer others.

5. Evaluate yourself: Where are you? (Fill in questionaires)

  • Become aware of specific practical aspects of your life that God wants to transform.
  • Determine your spiritual and emotional healthiness.

Disciple Making

What if it were possible to do what Jesus did? What if, like Jesus, we could make a major impact on our world without ever traveling more than a hundred miles from home? What if we could take a group of “unschooled and ordinary men” and equip them to turn the world upside down (Acts 4:13)? What if in just four short years we could create a movement of disciple-makers, just like Jesus?

JESUS STRATEGY!

We know that Jesus had a timetable for His public ministry. He had just three years to prepare people to launch a movement. So He chose disciple making as His strategy, the most time-consuming strategy that one could imagine. Seventeen times we find Jesus with the masses, but forty-six times we see Him with His disciples. These few disciples, within two years after the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, went out and “filled Jerusalem” with Jesus’s teaching (Acts 5:28). Within four and a half years they had planted multiplying churches and equipped multiplying disciples (Acts 9:31). Within eighteen years it was said of them that “they turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6 ). And in twenty-eight years it was said that “the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world” (Colossians 1:6). For four years Jesus lived out the values He championed in His Everyday Commission. He made disciples who could make disciples! But within seventy years, the cadre of people around Jesus had taken His good news into every corner of the Roman world. Do we have better efficiencies in mind?  Can we do better, investing in Christian mass messaging and once-a-week preaching services?

Participants in these workshops:

  • Discover the Biblical concepts and vision of Disciple-making
  • Rediscover the implications of following Christ.
  • Learn how to become like Christ
  • Learn how to repeat Jesus’s life – to do what Jesus did.

 

  • Discover practical strategies how to disciple people
  • Are introduced to the method of Discovery groups as “hothouse” for Disciplemaking
  • Leave the workshop with a practical plan how to start a disciple-making movement.

From Success to Significance : Halftime SA

What is Halftime?

“Halftime” is a phrase that was coined by Bob Buford, author of the bestselling book by the same title. It refers to the stage that many people reach (usually somewhere in mid-life) where they become more aware of their life, where it is going and where they want it to change.

It is a time when, (despite and often following success) frustration and emptiness motivate people to start asking the hard questions and seek more life-purpose.

Halftime is a pause to reflect on who we are, what we have to work with, what has gone well and not so well in the first half, and then to make eye contact with God and get our unique assignment for the second half and go do it with everything we have.

“Most people are over prepared for the first half of life and underprepared for the second half.  And there’s no university for the second half of life.” – Peter Drucker

 “Halftime is the university for your second half.” – Bob Buford

How do you know you’re in Halftime?

A growing number of people reach a point in life where the pursuit of success alone is not enough. You are in Halftime if you want your second half to count for something more … perhaps something eternal. You desire the joy and satisfaction of living for a cause bigger than yourself, moving from being focused largely on success to pursuing significance.

How do you get from here to there?

The healthiest Halftimers do not travel the road alone. Rather, they connect with a coach or with peers who are on their own journey and learn from others who have successfully made it to the other side.

We can help

Over the past decade, the Halftime Institute has become the leading authority in this space. We focus our efforts on individuals just like you—marketplace leaders with a deep desire for a second half rich in eternal significance.

  1. CORE – who am I and what is my mission/purpose on earth?
  2. CAPACITY – how can I develop extra margin with my time, money and spiritual overflow?
  3. CONTEXT – what is the best platform/workplace and role that fits me the best in order to live out my calling?

How do we serve people?

  1. Halftime Seminars (9 hours)
    Participants are guided to discover there Ephesians 2:10 calling and draft a personal mission statement.
  2. Halftime Forums (9 sessions over a period of one year)
    The Halftime Forum is a 12-month experience designed for men and women who are serious about transitioning their lives from success to significance.

Each Forum is limited to 6 – 8 people. You will be equipped with the tools, resources, peer input, Halftime Coaching and accountability to God’s will for the second half of your life.

The Halftime Forum experience will be helpful for you if you’ve been asking questions like:

  • What do I want to be remembered for?
  • What could I do with my life that excites me and could make a difference in peoples’ lives?
  • How do I go on this journey with my spouse and family in a way that enables them to thrive in this next season of life
  • Can my current marketplace role be a platform for living out my life purpose? If not, how will I transition?

A forum kicks off with weekend session followed by  eight 4 hour meetings scheduled over the course of one year.
Personal one on one ‘Halftime Coaching’ also available: Once per month over a period of one year

6 + 12 =

Financial support

The ministry is operated on faith based principles and dependent on voluntary donors who believe in our vision.

Project leader:
Mr Ritz de la Batt
Email: ritz@vdslegal.co.za

Auditors:
FHBC, Wellington
Email: info@fhbc.co.za

Donations can be made to:
Visarend Trust, ABSA Paarl.
Branch code 632005
Account number : 922 799 6908