Do You Believe Your Life is a Spiritual Journey?

At Corydon Presbyterian Church, we believe that the journey is a particularly apt metaphor for understanding the nature of a spiritual life:

• Journeys imply continuing change in the journeyer, in response to new experiences
• Journeys don’t always have a clear or fixed destination; these sometimes change enroute
• Journeys are often more pleasant and meaningful when shared with fellow travelers
• Most often it is the experience of the journey that is most significant, rather than where the journey ends up
• Often we confront unexpected roadblocks and other difficulties that challenge us to innovate, improvise, rethink our trip, or take another route.
• In those times we may question whether the journey was ever a good idea in the first place, or if we are on the right path.
• Fellow travelers may be on another path, but headed in the same direction, or having walked with us, may diverge onto another path
• Many different paths can lead to the same destination—each has its own unique set of challenges and potentials to learn and grow. “My way or the highway” is definitely not the case with people’s lives!

In our Sharing Spiritual Journeys group, we talk about what is on our hearts and minds—joys, concerns, doubts, questions, etc. In pursuing our journey, we sometimes watch videos and discuss them, or read and discuss books suggested by a member, or have a speaker on some topic we feel is relevant to our journeys. A question or concern of a member always takes precedence in each meeting, however.

There is no doctrine or theology that we are required to adhere to; we even have had (and still have) agnostics, atheists, questioners and skeptics as members of this group. Members come from all kinds of religious backgrounds, including none at all. We feel this group is a place where it is safe to explore doubts about faith, for faith and doubt are inextricably tied to one another, like two sides of a coin. If there were no doubt, faith would make no sense as a concept; it would be “just the way it is.” Faith and doubt each are essential to the definition of the other. We believe that the best way to deal with doubts about faith is not to suppress them (which is often the unspoken rule in church congregations), but to explore them in a safe and supportive place, where we can wrestle honestly with them. Often a new perspective or synthesis emerges which gives a deeper meaning of faith to the doubter.

There is no teacher for the group. We have a convener/ facilitator, who keeps the group going and helps the discussion flow. The group meets on Sundays, at 11:30, after worship and coffee time fellowship. We welcome anyone from the community who believes their life is a spiritual journey (whether they are “religious” or a churchgoer or not) and have a notion that this kind of group of fellow journeyers would be helpful to them, and that this kind of experience would be a growing experience to help them in their journey.