“‘Spiritual Clinic’ for a Healthy Church and Abundant Spirituality”

November & December 2002, United Methodists in Service, http://www.koreanumc.org, pp. 14–17

Rev. Taehun Yoon, the author of this article, is currently (as of 2002) serving as Staff Chaplain and Clinical Pastoral Education Supervisor Resident at the James H. Quillen VA Medical Center in Johnson City, Tennessee. www.taehunyoon.com (He has been retired from the appointed ministry since June 2014.)

[This article is best read in conjunction with the one titled “The Seven Steps of Scripture Meditation,” published in the July–August 2002 issue of United Methodists in Service, pp. 16–18.]

Introduction:

The “Integral Spirituality Clinic” is a program designed to help modern people—living in an age of uncertainty—discover and practice the abundant joy of life in Christ. The life God granted to humanity in the Garden of Eden was “very good,” healthy, and dignified. This program, “Spiritual Clinic,” aims to help people dream of such a life and experience glimpses of it here and now. Through this program, we believe the church can become healthier and grow stronger.

In Eden, humanity lived joyfully and beautifully in right relationship with God. However, due to human misjudgment, that relationship was broken, and people became alienated from God. At the same time, all other human relationships began to fall apart. Broken relationships cause wounds. These wounds result from the pressures and oppressive conditions of daily life: loss of meaning, lethargy, lack of confidence, unchanged personality traits despite earnest faith life, anxiety, joyless service in the church, broken relationships with spouses, children, or others, etc. These are the painful realities experienced by those alienated from God. Consequently, fear and anger accumulate in our hearts, and we live enslaved under the shadow of these emotions.

Through the words of Paul, God offers a path of liberation from this slavery and invites us to live a free life:
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:4–7)

Whatever circumstances we may face, we can turn to God in faith through Christ. In this process, God guards our hearts and minds and grants us peace. With this peace, we can treat others with gentleness. As a result, we can form communities of peace. We begin to lay a foundation for the Eden that God created. When we think of Jesus who walks with us and guides us through this whole process, we are filled with joy. As we dream of the Eden to come, we find happiness. In Christ, our relationship with God is restored, and our relationships with others are also renewed. Thus, we gain a life of joy.

This is precisely what the “Spiritual Clinic” seeks to pursue: to help us become free people in Christ, living in joy and happiness. When practiced in small group settings over a set period, this training leads to the overflowing of the fountain of joy that God gives us through the mind of Christ.

Three Stages of the Spiritual Clinic:

The “Spiritual Clinic” (Integral Spirituality Clinic) consists of three stages:

Transforming the Ego-Self (Self-Identity Formation)
Transforming the Relational Self
Transforming the Responsible Self

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Transforming the Ego-Self (Self-Identity Formation)

This stage, which can be called the Introductory Level, is based on the theme “Rejoicing in Christ Clinic.” As the name suggests, the goal of this stage is to restore the “individual image of God” in each participant.

This stage consists of a total of 14 sessions. The core training focus of this stage is Lectio Divina (Scriptural Meditation). Participants are trained to live out the teachings received through Scripture and prayer in their daily lives. This training begins from session 7. Before this, participants go through a preparatory process, which includes the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) test and Focusing Prayer training.

The MBTI test helps participants discover their personality type. This psychological tool categorizes people into 16 types based on functions like extroversion/introversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, and judging/perceiving. Through this, participants come to recognize the personality traits God has given them. Gaining this self-understanding helps them begin their spiritual journey. The MBTI test is administered during the first session.

Focusing Prayer is a meditative prayer method adapted from the work of Dr. Eugene T. Gendlin. Through this training, participants learn to pray deeply and become aware of inner wounds, anger, and sources of anxiety. As the Holy Spirit joins them in prayer, these hidden issues are revealed and gradually healed through deeper communion with God. Sessions 1 through 6 focus on this training.

After completing this phase, participants begin the Lectio Divina training. Using the insights gained from their MBTI results, they engage in meditating on different biblical passages tailored to their personality types. While sessions 1–6 introduced and practiced Focusing Prayer, starting from session 7, each meeting begins with Focusing Prayer followed by Lectio Divina.

Through this combination of Focusing Prayer and Lectio Divina, participants gain practical spiritual tools they can use to engage in intimate dialogue with God anywhere, anytime. They experience the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They are trained to entrust their personal struggles to the Spirit’s work, leading to healing and transformation. As a result, they move from anxiety and anger into a life of authentic prayer and meditation—true conversation with God. This brings them into a liberating and indescribable experience of freedom, overflowing with joy, because they rediscover their true selves as created by God, beyond the distorted and lost self.

Eligibility: Participants must be 18 years or older (high school graduates), and each clinic is limited to a maximum of 20 people to ensure quality of training and interaction. Since this program is focused more on practical training than on theory, this small-group format is essential. After completing the Introductory Level, participants are expected to practice these disciplines in their daily lives for 3 to 6 months before advancing to the Intermediate Level.

2. Transforming the Relational Self

This stage, which can be called the Intermediate Level, is titled “Team Spirit Clinic.” The goal of this stage is to train participants for the formation of a foundational community.

This stage consists of three main processes:

Personal Clinic:
In the first process, participants receive training in tolerance and acceptance, transforming thought patterns, and developing creative thinking.
Clinic for Married or Engaged Couples:
In the second process, participants assess the level of confusion or conflict in the relationship, receive training in cooperative communication, and engage in therapeutic work for strengthening marital relationships.
Family Clinic with Children:
The final process is a family clinic with children. This is placed at the end of the intermediate level because most children’s issues stem from emotional wounds and unhealed experiences during their development, often influenced by their parents. Therefore, parental healing is a prerequisite before addressing the child’s issues. In this process, training is divided into several areas:
- Parental guidance
- Self-assessment
- Stress evaluation
- Parental perspectives
- Parental roles and work
- Parent-child dynamics
- Child development training
- Social behavior of children
- Interpersonal relationships
- Problem-solving skills
- Anger resolution
- Independent study habits
- Children’s self-esteem
- Planning for the future

Even after completing the Intermediate Level, participants are expected to continue practicing in their daily lives for 3 to 6 months before moving on to the final stage.

The Introductory and Intermediate Levels are considered preparation stages for the final “Life Integration Stage.”

3. Transforming the Responsible Self

The final stage, known as the Life Integration Stage, is titled “Cornerstone Clinic.” The focus of this stage is on developing responsible foundational communities.

To achieve this, participants undergo training through various steps such as:

Volunteerism,
The Joy of Christ,
Stephen Ministries,
The Joy of the Creative Image, and
The Joy of Life Together.

At this stage, special emphasis is placed on the attitude of a volunteer to nurture a sense of social responsibility.
Christ voluntarily left the glory of heaven and came into the suffering of humanity.
He is “The One who suffered on His own initiative.”
This can be simply described as Voluntary Suffering (自願奉仕).
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the United States, founded on Christian values, is still sustained today by this very spirit of volunteerism.
Police reserves, fire department auxiliaries, even local administrative units such as the Planning Board or Zoning Board, as well as school board members and community organization leaders, are mostly volunteers.
All church members, too, are voluntary servants.

Such voluntary commitment brings us unfading joy like pure gold from heaven, flowing over like a river.
As Christians, we are trained to boldly take part in society in this way.

After completing this final stage, participants begin to experience a profound integration in their church, society, family, and personal life.
They live with a deep sense of fulfillment, abundance, and joy, recognizing the unique mission God has entrusted to them.
From this, a spring of joy bursts forth.
Worries, meaninglessness, and the symptoms of inner illness vanish.
They begin to live as a little Christ or anonymous Christ, embodying eternal life here on earth.

They become true disciples of the Lord who transcend time and space, casting the light of Christ far and wide—even to future generations.

For those who wish to become leaders of the Spirituality Clinic, there is a leadership training stage available, which one can join after completing the Life Integration Stage.

This leadership training is titled “Great Sharing” (Certified Clinic Leadership Training).
In this phase, participants are trained in:

Living in community,
Listening deeply,
Sharing experiences and expressions,
Inviting the lost into life together,
Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE), and
Joy in serving neighbors.

This training prepares participants to become certified leaders who can guide others through the full journey of the Spirituality Clinic.

Example:

While the author was pastoring at Comac United Methodist Church, he implemented this program with the congregation. Every class was filled with a warm and joyful atmosphere. Each time the participants engaged in meditation, they experienced God’s grace. As they prayed together and shared their reflections on the Word, their inner selves opened up, walls of resistance crumbled, and they encountered God’s comfort and healing.

One church member, for example, came to realize that although her conscious prayer topic was about financial difficulties, the Holy Spirit led her to uncover a deeper, unconscious wound: the fear stemming from her transition through menopause. She then began to pray specifically about that fear, and through the process, experienced the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit.

This training offers spiritual power that is just as profound as the grace received during early morning prayer or revival services. Its flexibility—in terms of time and location—makes it especially well-suited to the busy lives of Korean immigrants. Meditation can be practiced anytime, anywhere, without constraint. The “Spiritual Clinic” program is even more effective when spouses participate together. It can also be helpful for churches experiencing tension to conduct a 3-night, 4-day retreat exclusively for church leaders, before conflicts become more serious. Trained pastors can lead this program in their own congregations.

It has already been six years since the program began. At first, it went through many trial-and-error stages due to a lack of experience and understanding. But now, it has become more stabilized. If any readers would like more detailed information or further discussion, please feel free to contact the author.

Conclusion:

When our relationship with God is properly and healthily established, we ourselves become whole and healthy. Only then can we begin to build happy and healthy relationships with others. In this process, our relationship with the Eternal Other—God—becomes a shared and beautiful relationship, and as our relationships with our neighbors are restored, we begin to build the Kingdom of God, Eden, here on earth. This, I firmly believe, is what evangelism and mission are all about.

A blessed self, a blessed family, and a blessed community come from discovering our true selves. To minister and lead with this vision and sense of direction is, in my view, a faithful response by spiritual leaders to God’s calling for the Korean Church. I sincerely hope that a new horizon opens for the vision of Korean leaders who are faithfully serving around the world.

Written by Rev. Taehun Yoon,
James H. Quillen VA Medical Center, TN