Daniel Prechtel is a spiritual director and consultant with Lamb & Lion Spiritual Guidance Ministries, which provides personal, group, and church/organization spiritual direction, consulting, apprenticeship, and spiritual formation programs. He also offers long-distance spiritual guidance as well as online spiritual direction and dreamwork groups.
Prechtel has designed this paperback for "all who desire useful models for group spiritual companionship and a resource for developing leaders of these groups." He begins by making a good case for the formation of small groups in churches and moves on to a brief historical overview of traditions of spiritual guidance along with an assessment of their theological and psycho-spiritual dimensions.
The core of Where Two or Three Are Gathered is an impressive compilation of ten models of spiritual companionship groups delivered in four categories:
• Groups for Sharing Spiritual Practices and Exercises: Circle of the Spirit, Holy Reading, Contemplative Prayer
• Groups for Cultivating Inner Awareness and Discernment: Spiritual Friends, Dreamwork, Communal Dreaming
• Groups for Building a Spiritual Community of Support: Benedictine Community, Companions in Transition
• Groups for Compassion and Social Action: Healing Prayer, Covenant for Justice and Peace
In addition to this helpful material, Prechtel provides a set of spiritual exercises for Circle of the Spirit groups and retreats. We liked "God Within You in Unity," "Names of God Through Your Life," and "Those Who Have Been Christ for You."
