I met Chris Webb nearly four years ago at a retreat in the mountains of Colorado. At the time, he was wearing Franciscan robes, which I thought was both kind of cool and very intimidating. As you’ll soon see, though, Chris is anything but intimidating. A warm, generous man with a depth of wisdom that I aspire to, Chris is gifted with both humor and insight (plus, he has a great Welsh accent and can pronounce the longest Welsh word.) In addition to his other roles, Chris has recently changed robe color and is a member of the Grey Robe Benedictines.
Chris’s first book, The Fire of the Word, was released by IVP in December. As a thank you to Chris and to you, I’ll be giving away two copies of The Fire of the Word to two folks who comment on the blog with an answer to this question: What do you most want to know about the practice of spiritual direction? You can only comment once (but you can get your friends to comment for you), and comments will be closed by Saturday, January 21. The winners will be picked by random number generation and will be contacted by email on Monday, January 23.
Introduce yourself to the Anam Cara readers. Who are you? Where do you live? What do you do other than spiritual direction?
I’m Chris Webb and I live in Castle Rock, CO. That’s not my home town, though – not even close! I moved to the US four years ago from Wales where I was an Anglican parish priest. Now I’m President of Renovaré, a spiritual formation ministry based in south Denver.
What brought you to the ministry of spiritual direction?
My years of parish ministry. In local church ministry you very quickly come to understand that shaping a rich and authentic life in Christ requires fitting together a number of different elements. One, of course, is simply acquiring information about the faith, which we typically do through preaching, teaching, study groups, and reading. Another is growing in our experiential knowledge of God through worship, prayer, the sacraments, and life together in community. Many of our churches stop there: if you understand God and have opportunities to meet with God, what more do you need? But I think there are at least two more crucial elements: reflection on our experience of God, and receiving the guidance of others on the journey. That’s what we get in spiritual direction: a chance to meditate on the story as it unfolds, and to allow another person to help us identify the presence of Christ in it.
Why do you think spiritual direction is valuable?
I think I’d want to say direction is more than valuable – I’ve come to believe it’s essential. Developing a life of prayer is like voyaging into a strange and wonderful land – without a guide we’re almost certain to get lost. John of the Cross said that he wrote The Dark Night of the Soul to help beginners to progress quickly into the depths of prayer; that sounds like something many of us might want to do. And he was insistent that this required direction, the guidance of another. I’m convinced he was right.
What’s your favorite thing about being a spiritual director?
The astounding privilege of hearing another’s story of faith, and watching their prayer grow.
What question about spiritual direction do you get asked the most? (And/or what question do you wish you got asked?)
“Where can I find a spiritual director?” is easily the most common. There are more people seeking guidance than there are people willing to provide it. And I’m fairly sure that the rapid professionalization of this ministry isn’t helping. I’m not against having trained directors! But the proliferation of courses, degrees, and accrediting bodies has created the impression that only those with years of study and a collection of impressive certificates on their wall can really give direction. That’s a profound mistake.
You were just given a yacht. What would you name it?
“Useless”. I live a thousand miles from the ocean! Can I trade it in for plane tickets? Then I’d take my family to India for a few weeks, which has always been a dream of mine.
Give us your life story in 6 words.
I can do it in four. “Mostly surprising so far …”
Okay, you can have more than 6 words. Share your full bio.
I spent my childhood in a variety of different places in Britain before heading off to college at Aberystwyth (on the west Wales coast) to study Planetary and Space Physics. That led somewhat surprisingly into ordained ministry in the Church in Wales – it’s a long story. I served in various urban and rural parishes, including a stint with a church for the homeless, a church under the shadow of a steelworks, a parish in the stockbroker-belt of south Wales, and a remote sheep-farming district. It was nothing if not varied! In the middle of all that I wound up working for the denomination which involved, among other things, training missionaries in Nepal, running a meditative labyrinth at arts festivals, and co-ordinating meetings of our diocesan exorcists. Almost twenty years ago I married Sally, who to this day remains the most beautiful woman I know, and our four children have added a necessary dose of craziness into our lives. Then four years ago we were all invited to come over to the US so I could head up Renovaré, which has been a fabulous experience. Since I left school expecting to become a physicist plodding away in a lab in Britain somewhere, this has all been somewhat unexpected.
Anything you’d like to add?
Sure! I have a book that just came out with IVP in December; it’s called The Fire of the Word and looks at ways of reading Scripture that lead us deeper into an experiential knowledge of God. So please do buy it! And then, if you want to contact me and share your thoughts, you can email me at chris@renovare.us.
Now, where’s that yacht…?
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Want to hear Chris talk a little more about The Fire of the Word? Watch this YouTube video here.
Would you like to win a copy of The Fire of the Word? As a thank you to Chris and to you, I’ll be giving away two copies of The Fire of the Word to two folks who comment on the blog with an answer to this question: What do you most want to know about the practice of spiritual direction?You can only comment once (but you can get your friends to comment for you), and comments will be closed by Saturday, January 21. The winners will be picked by random number generation and will be contacted by email on Monday, January 23.