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For a congregation to experience renewal, it must travel together through a process of discernment. In this process, leaders have to let go of their picture of what the future holds for them, without yet having a compelling new picture to replace it.

Letting go of one's preconceived notions and moving into new perspectives shaped, takes on through a place the Rev. Rod Miller, the Baltimore-Washington Conference director of connectional ministries calls the Deep Middle."

Miller writes the Deep Middle "... is Deep because its resources take us deeper and deeper into awareness of who we are, how we connect with others, what we are to do, and why we are doing it. It is Middle because it exists between the need and the response, between the issue and the solution, and between the want and the fulfillment."

I like the phrase, Deep Middle. It's what it feels like when I'm working with a congregational group and the group moves into a particular kind of space with one another - open, authentic, curious, generative. Aha's come and relationships deepen and remarkable things get created. God feels very present.

The Deep Middle conjures a picture of the place of at-one-ment - where everything comes together. It's simplicity reminds me that the co-creating Jesus place of insight, healing, creation and recreation is always an option when people gather.

The more present and open we are to one another, to the needs of those beyond us, and to Spirit; the stronger our commitment to make a positive difference and give our energy to things that matter....the more likely we'll find ourselves in that Deep Middle space. It's in the Deep Middle space that we experience what it feels like to really be church. And when we create together from a Deep Middle place, doing church feels entirely different.

If leadership is the ability to help people get to a place they couldn't get to by themselves, then perhaps spiritual leadership is the ability to help people get to that Deep Middle place -- the place of faithful not knowing, of communally listening and praying and pondering, of learning to want and work for the "more" that God wants for us.

The health of a congregation and certainly congregational renewal depends heavily on the ability of a congregation's leaders - lay and clergy - to provide that kind spiritual leadership.

The season of Advent is almost upon us. It's the perfect time to reflect on the Deep Middle and spiritual leadership and practice it. We can't lead people to a place we aren't willing to go ourselves.

To experience the Deep Middle, Miller recommends creating short and long-term communities, recognizing that the quality of community life has more impact than ideas, concepts and beliefs.

It's essential, he says, to "develop a philosophy of blessing that holds everyone as creative, resourceful and whole." In the Deep Middle, one's priorities become deep listening, gratitude, wonder, imagination, staying in the present, trust, failure as learning, and play.

Authenticity is critical. Be Christ and create Kingdom environments rather than preaching Christ and teaching about the Kingdom.

Accessing the Deep Middle, Miller says, "takes thinking with our minds, sensing with our hearts, being moved in our guts and a willingness to risk stepping out with our feet.

"The early church knew that the way people lived is what attracted outsiders to their communities and ultimately to their faith. "Look, see how they love one another", they said. Change comes from communities living in the Deep Middle together and going where they know they need to go."

Mary Sellon Huycke is one of the authors of the Courageous Space newsletter, www.CourageousSpace.com. To read some further reflections from Rod Miller on Deep Middle go to http://www.burgeoning.wordpress.com/