Welcome to the Inner Journey website. The primary purpose of this website is share blogs I have written designed to integrate the insights from psychology, primarily through the lens of the Diamond Approach, a sacred psychology, with Christian spirituality and the Christian tradition. I have been a Mennonite Christian pastor since 1993, a Christian spiritual director since 1998, a certified pastoral counsellor since 2006, and a student of the Diamond Approach since 2006. I became a registered psychotherapist as part of the College of Registered Psychotherapist of Ontario in 2016. My faith journey can be found below.
To see current blogs, click on blog posts below.
To see current blogs, click on blog posts below.
My Personal Spiritual Journey
I grew up in a small rural United Church in Southwestern Ontario. During my teen years, I joined a modern Mennonite youth group and this was my doorway into the Mennonite Christian tradition. I attended University of Waterloo where I studied mathematics and computers, something very different then theology or psychology. During my third year at university, when I was struggling with low self esteem and relationship issues, I experienced a powerful moment of forgiveness and repentance. This mystical experience opened my awareness to the living dynamic of God that loves me. Up to this point, my faith was primarily a mental faith with many beliefs that shaped my behaviour, decisions, and feelings. This mystical experience initiated a personal journey that I have been on ever since, one of understanding this Divine Reality, and how to help myself and others experience this Sacred Dimension more deeply in our lives.
Following university, I worked for Canada Trust (now TD Canada Trust) in the field of computing and got married. During my third year there, we bought a home and this purchase triggered an intense search. Now that I was married, making significant income, and owned a home, what was I do with the rest of my life? This search led me to read books on popular psychology and church growth. I took days off work to do mission work and go on workshops. This search led me to return to school where I completed a Master of Divinity over a four year period, taking courses at Conrad Grebel College and Waterloo Lutheran Seminary in Waterloo, and Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, USA. Part of this journey involved working as a chaplain for the House of Friendship leading spiritual discovery groups for men. Up to this point, I possessed a theology that saw God as primarily transcendent and abstract and not very connected to human experience. However, since the men at the House of Friendship often had issues around God, I could not talked about God directly or abstractly. These men helped me see the need for an experiential theology, a theology of God that grew more out of human experience and not one that came only from history or the Bible.
In 1993, I began a part-time pastoral position at Hagerman Mennonite Church in Markham, Ontario. Since this role was part-time, I became a founding member and volunteer Support Coordinator of the AIDS Committee of York Region. AIDS was close to my heart for I had two hemophiliac brothers who died from it during the 1990’s due to HIV contaminated blood products they received. I led a support group for people and families living with HIV/AIDS and visited many people living with AIDS. I was involved in many funerals. Due to this volunteer work, the Community Care Access Centre of York Region (CCAC) invited me to be a pastoral counsellor for them which I did part-time for eleven years.
In 1995, I took a seminary course on personal devotions, and one of the requirements for this course was to meet regularly with a spiritual director. I found these one-on-one direction times immensely helpful and so I have met with a spiritual director or been part of spiritual formation school ever since.
A year later, one of my clients with the CCAC wanted me to teach her how to pray so she could experience the comforting presence of God. Interestingly enough, this was not something I had been taught in seminary, and so realizing the need for more training, I pursued spiritual direction training through the Mennonite seminary in Elkhart. Within the spiritual direction literature, my eyes were opened to writings that integrated psychology with Christian spirituality and thus finally, I was introduced to an experiential theology that resonated well with my Christian faith and life experience.
In 2001, I began a five year process to become certified as a psychospiritual therapist with the Canadian Association of Canadian Association of Spiritual Care . Over these years, I became trained in different modalities of individual and marriage therapy. Throughout these years of training, we, as students, did lots of theological reflection where we pondered how God was present within a counselling session through the healing that happened, or the insights that arose for the client.
During these 10 years of training in spiritual direction and pastoral counselling techniques, I worked part-time as a pastor at Mennonite Churches in the Markham-Stouffville area and as a pastoral counsellor for the CCAC of York Region. All of this training flowed into my pastoring, in particular, my preaching and pastoral care, and it shaped how I worked as a pastoral counsellor with CCAC clients dealing with life- threatening illness. I also started to receive occasional requests for spiritual direction.
In 2006, my family moved to the Kitchener-Waterloo area to be closer to aging parents. During this transition, I took a three month sabbatical to further research and write about the integration between psychology and Christian spirituality. It was during this sabbatical that a new Diamond Approach school started in Toronto. I attended the first weekend retreat and here I discovered a spiritual formation framework that used the different insights of psychology for the purposes of soul development. This was the first psychological framework that I had encountered that work intentionally at integrating psychology with religious mysticism and the dynamics of God or what it calls Essence or True Nature. The school involves attending 2 five day retreats and one seven day retreat at Crieff Hills Retreat Centre south of Guelph along with monthly teachings by Skype and one-on-one sessions with a Diamond Approach teacher. Since 2006, I have been a student of this Diamond Approach school flow into the Diamond Approach have flowed into my pastoral and spiritual direction work.
Employment-wise, from 2006 to 2008, I functioned half-time as a Regional Minister within my denomination visiting and supporting 30 plus Mennonite churches. I spend my remaining pastoral time during these years as an interim minister helping two churches prepare for new incoming pastors. From 2008 to 2011, I was a full-time associate pastor for a Mennonite Church in Waterloo where I coordinated Christian education, missions, youth, and youth adult ministries within the church. My experiences as a pastoral leader during these five years has been fruitful ground for the spiritual work that I intentionally worked at within the Diamond School. During these years, along with providing one-on-one spiritual direction, I have also experimented with leading spiritual formation groups that incorporate insights that come from integrating psychology, the Diamond Approach, and Christian spirituality. From 2012 to 2016, I offered a biweekly Inner Journey group (fall and winter/spring) where people come to work at their spiritual growth and formation using the insights of the Diamond Approach and Christian theology.
Since April, 2013, I have benn pastoring ¾ time at Mannheim Mennonite Church (1494 Bleams Rd–-1 km west of the village of Mannheim) where my spiritual direction training and experience flows into my preaching, Formation hour, and pastoral care. If you are looking for a caring Christian community that is seeking to be relevant in today’s postmodern culture, then check us out.
In spring (2017) I became a provisional PCE supervisor through Canadian Association of Spiritual Care where I will train people to become psychospiritual therapists under the supervision of a CASC PCE supervisor. Mannheim Mennonite Church decided, for a pilot year , to become the base for a PCE training site where PCE students will ministering in local congregations and a senior community within the Wilmot Mennonite Ministerial. The pilot year was affirmed as very positive by the church so that PCE training ministry is now fully supported by my church going forward.
I grew up in a small rural United Church in Southwestern Ontario. During my teen years, I joined a modern Mennonite youth group and this was my doorway into the Mennonite Christian tradition. I attended University of Waterloo where I studied mathematics and computers, something very different then theology or psychology. During my third year at university, when I was struggling with low self esteem and relationship issues, I experienced a powerful moment of forgiveness and repentance. This mystical experience opened my awareness to the living dynamic of God that loves me. Up to this point, my faith was primarily a mental faith with many beliefs that shaped my behaviour, decisions, and feelings. This mystical experience initiated a personal journey that I have been on ever since, one of understanding this Divine Reality, and how to help myself and others experience this Sacred Dimension more deeply in our lives.
Following university, I worked for Canada Trust (now TD Canada Trust) in the field of computing and got married. During my third year there, we bought a home and this purchase triggered an intense search. Now that I was married, making significant income, and owned a home, what was I do with the rest of my life? This search led me to read books on popular psychology and church growth. I took days off work to do mission work and go on workshops. This search led me to return to school where I completed a Master of Divinity over a four year period, taking courses at Conrad Grebel College and Waterloo Lutheran Seminary in Waterloo, and Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, USA. Part of this journey involved working as a chaplain for the House of Friendship leading spiritual discovery groups for men. Up to this point, I possessed a theology that saw God as primarily transcendent and abstract and not very connected to human experience. However, since the men at the House of Friendship often had issues around God, I could not talked about God directly or abstractly. These men helped me see the need for an experiential theology, a theology of God that grew more out of human experience and not one that came only from history or the Bible.
In 1993, I began a part-time pastoral position at Hagerman Mennonite Church in Markham, Ontario. Since this role was part-time, I became a founding member and volunteer Support Coordinator of the AIDS Committee of York Region. AIDS was close to my heart for I had two hemophiliac brothers who died from it during the 1990’s due to HIV contaminated blood products they received. I led a support group for people and families living with HIV/AIDS and visited many people living with AIDS. I was involved in many funerals. Due to this volunteer work, the Community Care Access Centre of York Region (CCAC) invited me to be a pastoral counsellor for them which I did part-time for eleven years.
In 1995, I took a seminary course on personal devotions, and one of the requirements for this course was to meet regularly with a spiritual director. I found these one-on-one direction times immensely helpful and so I have met with a spiritual director or been part of spiritual formation school ever since.
A year later, one of my clients with the CCAC wanted me to teach her how to pray so she could experience the comforting presence of God. Interestingly enough, this was not something I had been taught in seminary, and so realizing the need for more training, I pursued spiritual direction training through the Mennonite seminary in Elkhart. Within the spiritual direction literature, my eyes were opened to writings that integrated psychology with Christian spirituality and thus finally, I was introduced to an experiential theology that resonated well with my Christian faith and life experience.
In 2001, I began a five year process to become certified as a psychospiritual therapist with the Canadian Association of Canadian Association of Spiritual Care . Over these years, I became trained in different modalities of individual and marriage therapy. Throughout these years of training, we, as students, did lots of theological reflection where we pondered how God was present within a counselling session through the healing that happened, or the insights that arose for the client.
During these 10 years of training in spiritual direction and pastoral counselling techniques, I worked part-time as a pastor at Mennonite Churches in the Markham-Stouffville area and as a pastoral counsellor for the CCAC of York Region. All of this training flowed into my pastoring, in particular, my preaching and pastoral care, and it shaped how I worked as a pastoral counsellor with CCAC clients dealing with life- threatening illness. I also started to receive occasional requests for spiritual direction.
In 2006, my family moved to the Kitchener-Waterloo area to be closer to aging parents. During this transition, I took a three month sabbatical to further research and write about the integration between psychology and Christian spirituality. It was during this sabbatical that a new Diamond Approach school started in Toronto. I attended the first weekend retreat and here I discovered a spiritual formation framework that used the different insights of psychology for the purposes of soul development. This was the first psychological framework that I had encountered that work intentionally at integrating psychology with religious mysticism and the dynamics of God or what it calls Essence or True Nature. The school involves attending 2 five day retreats and one seven day retreat at Crieff Hills Retreat Centre south of Guelph along with monthly teachings by Skype and one-on-one sessions with a Diamond Approach teacher. Since 2006, I have been a student of this Diamond Approach school flow into the Diamond Approach have flowed into my pastoral and spiritual direction work.
Employment-wise, from 2006 to 2008, I functioned half-time as a Regional Minister within my denomination visiting and supporting 30 plus Mennonite churches. I spend my remaining pastoral time during these years as an interim minister helping two churches prepare for new incoming pastors. From 2008 to 2011, I was a full-time associate pastor for a Mennonite Church in Waterloo where I coordinated Christian education, missions, youth, and youth adult ministries within the church. My experiences as a pastoral leader during these five years has been fruitful ground for the spiritual work that I intentionally worked at within the Diamond School. During these years, along with providing one-on-one spiritual direction, I have also experimented with leading spiritual formation groups that incorporate insights that come from integrating psychology, the Diamond Approach, and Christian spirituality. From 2012 to 2016, I offered a biweekly Inner Journey group (fall and winter/spring) where people come to work at their spiritual growth and formation using the insights of the Diamond Approach and Christian theology.
Since April, 2013, I have benn pastoring ¾ time at Mannheim Mennonite Church (1494 Bleams Rd–-1 km west of the village of Mannheim) where my spiritual direction training and experience flows into my preaching, Formation hour, and pastoral care. If you are looking for a caring Christian community that is seeking to be relevant in today’s postmodern culture, then check us out.
In spring (2017) I became a provisional PCE supervisor through Canadian Association of Spiritual Care where I will train people to become psychospiritual therapists under the supervision of a CASC PCE supervisor. Mannheim Mennonite Church decided, for a pilot year , to become the base for a PCE training site where PCE students will ministering in local congregations and a senior community within the Wilmot Mennonite Ministerial. The pilot year was affirmed as very positive by the church so that PCE training ministry is now fully supported by my church going forward.
