Application

Here are the pieces necessary for your completed application to the Participating in God’s Power program:

1. Cover Sheet (personal information)
2. Responses to application questions
3. Recommendations (2)
4. Application Fee ($50, non-refundable)

Cover sheet and application are available here:

PIGP Cover Sheet & Application as Word document

PIGP Cover Sheet & Application a PDF

Recommendations:

Along with contact information for your two references, please have them write recommendations addressing the following:

1. Your readiness and aptitude for this program;
2. Your emotional and spiritual maturity;
3. Your preparation to enter this program; and
4. Your new areas of growth as well as your demonstrated gifts.One of these people should be a member of your home meeting or church, a spiritual director or mentor, or some other member of your spiritual community. Recommendations sent by e-mail to admissions@schoolofthespirit.org are acceptable.

Application fee:

$50 application fee can be made with a check, credit card, or PayPal account. Please make your check payable to The School of the Spirit Ministry. If accepted into the program, this fee will apply towards your tuition. If your application is not accepted, the fee is non-refundable.

Other fees:

The year-long Participating in God’s Power program costs $4,820. There are generous scholarships available, and your ability to pay will not be a factor in your acceptance into the program.  No one has ever been rejected from a School of the Spirit program for lack of funds. For more information about these money matters, please click here.

Application deadline:

The deadline to apply is December 15, 2023 (this includes letters of recommendation.) If you need an extension, please let us know and we will work to accommodate you!

Submission of Application

Your application may be submitted electronically (preferred method) to admissions@schoolofthespirit.org. Or you can print out the PDF version and send it by postal mail to 4 Long Shoals Rd. Ste. B484 Arden, NC 28704. 

(For time considerations, we would prefer written responses. However, if written responses are a challenge for you, we are open to receiving an audio file or having a one-on-one conversation with you.)

Application Questions

1. Tell us about why you are drawn to be part of this program.  Please include a description of how you became clear in heart, mind, and spirit to apply to this program and how you see this opportunity fitting into the arc of your spiritual journey. (2-3 pages)
2. Respond succinctly but fully in answering the following discernment questions:
   

   These questions are meant for your own discernment as well as to assist us in the admission process. If you have any concerns about these questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

1. We all lead busy lives. This program asks that you engage in a daily spiritual practice, attend all the residencies, and participate in the mirroring and accountability small groups. How will you make space in your life to honor these commitments? 
2. The program asks participants to commit to an increasing ability to be present with yourself and others in those places where we carry old hurts, and at the same time encounter the deepest, truest part of ourselves. What feelings or resistances do you encounter as you contemplate being present in that way?
3. In what ways do you protect yourself as a result of life experiences, and how do those patterns impact your spiritual life?
4. School of the Spirit programs work from an understanding of the Christian grounding of Quakerism and with Christ-centered language. At the same time, we expect participants to develop the spiritual discipline of “listening in tongues” which welcomes others using their own hearts’ language to describe that which is beyond any words.  Which of these will be hardest for you?  How do you imagine working with that resistance, whatever it is?
5. A big advantage of doing this work together is that we can provide witness, feedback, support and accountability to each other.  In your experience, what has helped you trust others to witness your inner work?  What helps you to be a trustworthy witness to another?
6. How have you been called to tend to the fabric of creation, of which we are all a part? What has limited or blocked your capacity to tend to the sacred, either in your own heart or in the world? How do you feel about those blocks or limits?

8. For your safety and health, are there any limitations that might affect your participation in this program? (See the sample daily schedule in the Program Guide.)
9. Experience has shown us that the work of seeking a deeper, more faithful relationship with the Divine, and attending to the spiritual scar tissue that gets in the way of that connection, can be difficult and deeply unsettling work.  What resources, internal and external, do you bring to support you as you do so?
10. What other questions, if any, have come up for you regarding undertaking this program?

 

Childcare: While we would want to support anyone attending, including parents of young children, we consider the program schedule to be so demanding, and the program content to require a high level of focus akin to an immersion experience, that we would urge interested applicants to come without their children. If no other childcare options are available, we are open to being in conversation with parents about how they envision being full participants in the program while also having children present.

Questions? We’d Love to Help!

For more information, please email info@schoolofthespsirit.org