Toward spiritual growth: Implementing group spiritual direction for caregivers at Trinity Baptist Church, Conyers, Georgia

As America's population continues to age, an increasing number of individuals find themselves in the position of giving care to their loved ones and to the elderly. Consequently, churches are filled with caregivers, both informal and professional caregivers alike, who are seeking ways to connect with their religious and spiritual heritage in order to bring meaning, healing, and order to the caregiving role. One such way is through small group spiritual direction. In this study, the relationship between spiritual direction and caregiver spiritual formation was explored in the context of four focus groups. The investigator used a variety of quantitative and qualitative tools to measure how spiritual direction impacted caregivers, and he also provided an interpretation of the data to test the hypothesis.;As the investigator examined whether small group spiritual direction brought caregivers into a closer relationship with God, he met the following goals: (1) To meet four times over the course of a month in a small focus group that incorporates spiritual direction with caregivers. (2) To encourage participants to raise their own awareness of God's activity in their lives and in their role as caregivers. (3) To challenge participants to have a vibrant spiritual and prayer life. (4) To provide a safe environment and ministry of presence that allows participants to discuss and reflect freely. The evidence showed that spiritual direction raised the caregivers' awareness of God but did not necessarily support the hypothesis that spiritual direction impacted positive spiritual growth; quite the contrary, spiritual direction in some cases may have actually hindered a caregiver's spiritual growth if not accomplished with great tact or sensitivity to each participant's ability to assimilate to the group dynamic.