On a spiritual journey: A place where my heart feels at home

Thoughts from Mike Hotz,
Twin Cities Tending the Holy Coordinator

How have you approached your spiritual journey? 

I grew up Presbyterian and my spiritual journey started as a young adult exploring the connection between faith and life, leading me to appreciate ecumenical and more broad-based faith experiences. This led me to study at Luther Seminary and then accept ministry and pastoral roles in a variety of denominations and diverse settings. I have always thought that one vessel – one denomination or branch of the Christian family – couldn’t contain all that God was doing.  That led me on many journeys in my ministry, and eventually into Spiritual Direction. Having a Spiritual Director has been an important part of my own continued faith formation, and a few years ago I began discerning if I could offer spiritual direction back to those in vocational ministry. That led me to Christos.  

What’s your Christos story? 

I looked at Spiritual Direction programs in the denomination I served, those offered by seminaries and other faith communities, and Christos spoke to me. I wanted a place where my heart felt at home. The ecumenical sense of Christos was appealing, as I wanted a place where many people could be at home, no matter with which “branch” of Christianity they were aligned. I wanted to be around a diverse company of people with a broad set of faith experiences and perspectives in faith and spirituality.  

“Christos was a wonderful place to continue to live out my faith life during Spiritual Direction training. I found that Tending the Holy was more than a program. It is a community that engages in communal discerning about where God is leading you. ”

I have used my Christos Training in so many more ways than I could have imagined. I graduated in 2020 and called on my training immediately to engage with my congregation as we navigated the pandemic and social unrest happening in the world. As my Tending the Holy cohort pivoted to online learning and remained deeply engaged, I learned that spirituality and faith can be nurtured even in the midst of unprecedented disruption.

It has been a gift to serve as a Christos Tending the Holy facilitator and now as a Coordinator in the Twin Cities. My Christos journey has shown me that God reveals to us little by little over time, as the curtain gets pulled away and we see what God has planned for us. When we give God space and permission to mold and shape us, God takes that seriously. It may not end up as we expect, and that’s the best part.  Create space and let God into it. Give God your whole self without expectation about what God might do. 

Read more about Mike Hotz here