A place of Deep and thoughtful reflection
about ministry in our time

We’re entering a new era in ministry; the evidence of the shifting ground of our culture is all around us. Models of ministry that have been assumed and relied on over the past number of decades are demonstrating themselves to be unfruitful; the theological weaknesses, blindspots, and gaps of old ministry paradigms are being revealed in our increasingly post-Christian setting. This is actually good news! God is doing a refining and pruning work in His Church.

We believe this moment calls for thoughtful, non-anxious reflection, humility, and the willingness to dig deeper, ground ourselves deeper in the gospel, and learn from those who have gone before us and those in different cultural contexts about what it means to be faithful and fruitful in the times in which we live.

The founders have conceived of Iona House as a unique, relational place for the support of ministry practitioners; a place of reflection, inspiration, formation, mutual learning, and training for those seeking to faithfully embody and proclaim the Lordship of Jesus to a world in need.

A School for Spiritual Directors

Finding a great, orthodox, committed Christian Spiritual Director in our society is actually quite challenging. We believe that the Church in our time desperately needs Spiritual Directors who are deeply grounded in the Great Tradition of the Christian Church as well as discerning about how to navigate the complexities of our post-Christian context. Spiritual Directors, in order to do what they are called to do, need to learn and practice ascetical theology, understand a truly Christian anthropology, and have their imagination and spiritual instincts deeply formed in the way of Christ and the wisdom of the Church. Our training program will seek to address these needs.

A School for catechists

The Church, broadly speaking, is woefully under-catechized and ignorant of its own heritage of faith and practice. Within a divided and broken Christendom, confusion reigns. It is often said that the Church in America is a mile-wide and an inch-deep. We hope to unleash a movement of well-trained lay catechists to assist their pastors and leaders in offering Bible studies, leading small groups, and teaching classes within their own churches in order to address the problem of shallow spiritual formation. We hope to be a strategic resource to churches across Northern California and beyond.