Lifelong Learning

Who we are

Lifelong learners with the curiosity and passion to keep growing and developing, and encouraging others to do the same

Questions to consider

In all of the Wellbeing Guides these same 5 questions are applied to the Characteristic being highlighted. They are an invitation to reflect on the Characteristic and to consider for yourself why it is important.

Why does having an attitude of learning matter?

What impact do people with an attitude of learning have?

What does this mean for you in practice?

How you might be able to grow in your learning? 

If you are in leadership, how are you encouraging others to grow in learning?

If you would like to be reminded of all the Characteristics in the Wycliffe Profile, go to the following page:

Introducing the Welcome Guides

Spiritual Foundations

for Lifelong Learning

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

Prov 9.10

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matt.11.29-30

As you contemplate your approach to lifelong learning keeping these verses in mind is crucial. This is because they highlight how all knowledge and wisdom, all learning in other words, begins with God and springs from the relationship you have with him. This relationship with the Lord, Yahweh, who is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent, is paramount. It is foundational to how you approach the gaining of knowledge and wisdom, and from there the choices you make about what you do in life.

These verses also point to how Jesus is not a silent observer in your life, he is a gentle and humble teacher, who wants you to discover the joy and passion of learning and growing with him. Do not confuse gentleness and humility with a lack of strength however. A yoke is not without weight, and can cause the wearer to go to places they might not wish to. Though his heart is gentle Jesus will sometimes lead us on paths that can be deeply challenging, shocking even. Are you ready to follow him and to hear what he has to say to you?

In the Wellbeing Guides you will find paragraphs (like the one in the green box below) that express what the particular Characteristic being highlighted might look like using active verbs such as: ‘I am maintaining’, ‘I am seeking to grow…’. These paragraphs try to capture aspects of what each Characteristic is about as holistically as possible.

In terms of spiritual foundations, the same paragraph is used in each Guide, but is applied each time through the lens of the Characteristic in focus. Hence, very different questions arise from exploring the idea of, for example, ‘extending grace to others’ as Adaptable Communicators and as Innovative Investigators.

I am maintaining and deepening my spiritual walk, seeking to grow more like Christ through God’s grace. I am extending that grace to others, whole-heartedly participating in community life and demonstrating the fruit of the spirit. I am seeking to grow in understanding and engagement with the leading of the Holy Spirit, through prayer, study and reflection with others.

As you reflect on the paragraph above, and particularly on how you are ‘growing in understanding‘, pay attention to what your mind is dwelling on most and what you are seeking in life. Taking time like this can sometimes be uncomfortable, but it can also be encouraging. God longs for you to bring your challenges, your struggles, your uncertainties and your painful experiences to him. He knows what is happening in your life, and will not be surprised by what you have to say. So rather than remain at a distance, take the time to speak to him about it. The key here is authenticity—don’t feign faith or understanding. Instead, be candid with your questions and courageous in your doubts. God can handle them all. And, whilst it is true that he can, and often does, remain silent, rest assured, God is never absent. Amidst the struggles, hold onto the truth that His presence endures, even, or perhaps especially, in his silences.

YOU AND SEEKING GOD

“As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.”

Ps.42.1

“I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.”

A.W. Tozer”
  • How might you ‘deliberately encourage‘ your longing after God?
  • What does ‘holy desire’ look and feel like for you?
  • In what areas might you describe your ‘religious life’ as ‘stiff and wooden‘ or ‘complacent’?
  • What resources do you have (inner and outer) that draw you towards God, and pull you out of wooden or complacent attitudes and behaviours?
YOU AND QUESTIONING GOD

“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me for ever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and answer, Lord my God.”

Ps.13.1-3

“We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts.”

A.W. Tozer

“Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.””

John 20.29
  • How do you deal with the hard things that happen to you and in the world around you?
  • What questions might you want to ask God? What stops you from asking them?
  • What do you do with the silence of God? Where does it leave you looking for answers?
  • What helps you to trust and believe when you cannot see?
YOU AND SEEKING UNDERSTANDING

“Faith is a reasoning trust, a trust which reckons thoughtfully and confidently upon the trustworthiness of God.”

John Stott

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

James.1. 5
  • Reflecting on your faith and its intersection with the world around you – what are you watching, reading, or listening to, that makes you curious, that helps you grow and develop? 
  • How intentional are you in following up on the ideas and thoughts that are stimulated? 
  • How do you stop yourself from living in an echo chamber?
  • How do you translate what you are learning into real change – and how do you share this with others?
GOING DEEPER

Here we highlight ideas and resources, which you are of course free to explore or not. We have tried to come up with different ways to engage with the topics, suggesting activities, books, blogs, videos….that may interest you. We also encourage you to browse our Library of Resources and/or talk to others, including your Pastor or Spiritual Director or mentor, if you have one, for some recommendations.

Seeking God

  • The urgency and intensity you feel towards seeking God wholeheartedly will vary throughout your life. Personality, life stage and health are some of the many reasons why your focus might not be razor sharp. What matters is what you do when you notice there is an issue. How ready are you to pay attention to a cooling in your relationship with God? Below are a few ideas to explore:
    • Self-awareness and seeking God
      • Spiritual Pathway Assessment – a questionnaire which explores the idea of different spiritual pathways.
      • Taking a test like the Enneagram which places like Lee Abbey and Scargill House run, can be helpful in learning about yourself and your relationship with God. See the Courses to Consider tab for links to these places.

Questioning God

  • Alan Jamieson, in his book, A Churchless Faith, writes “Doubt is no more the enemy of Christian faith than certitude is. Yet where are the places…where people can express serious doubts and questions about their Christian faith? Where in your church is there room for people to say ‘Prayer doesn’t work’, ‘God has left me’, ‘I don’t know that I believe in salvation, evangelism, hell, creation (or any other major area of faith)’? We need to realise that God is in the question as well as the answer and living with the question is part of the journey.” If this resonates with you take some time to listen to where your doubts are coming from. Consider the following:
    • Take some time on a retreat to consider what your questions are, and allow space to bring to him the doubts you may have. Job had reason to feel confused and angry, but if he had not sat with his pain and questions, he would not have heard what God had to say to him.
    • Sometimes our doubts do not come from questions but from a desire to do things that we fear God does not want us to do, or from an answer to prayer we do not like. How much do you think this might play into any questions you have?
    • If you need to process with another person consider talking to your pastor, a spiritual director or a close friend. In particular, consider how you might walk alongside people who are struggling with questions and doubts. Take some time to reflect on Job and the companions he has – consider the responses they gave and what God had to say about that at the end of the book.
    • Try reading this book by Skye Jethani, With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God – who knew that a preposition had so much influence? Skye’s book will challenge the way that you think about God and faith, digging deep into our motivations and heart issues. You can’t read this book and not see yourself and others differently! 

Seeking Understanding

Stepping outside your comfort zone involves considering activities that push you beyond familiarity into spaces conducive to learning and personal growth. This involves both embracing new experiences (learning) and integrating them into your life (growth). It’s crucial to recognise the tendency to stay in a routine, be it in professional or personal aspects of learning. Seeking education, training, or information from both Christian and secular sources is essential for holistic development.

Exploring Learning

  • Some ideas to stretch you in ways you might find challenging:
    • Learn about and use a new software tool
    • Enrol in a practical course that is outside your current skillset – first aid, gardening, basic plumbing….the list is endless
    • Consider taking on a public speaking role
  • Some reading:
  • Exploring creativity
    • Consider picking up a new hobby – something you have always wanted to do, or something that you may never be brilliant at but can enjoy anyway!
    • Try writing about a tricky issue with your non-dominant hand. Aside from being amusing, and usually quite messy, some interesting ways of thinking about it might result.
    • Consider the following books for ideas along this vein:
      • The Creative Soul Within: a book published by Zondervan that offers ideas and a way to explore creativity
      • In The Artist’s Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom, Christine Valters Paintner, explores the Rule of St. Benedict, summarised in the phrase “pray and work,”  as it relates to creative expression. Artists of all stripes and stations in life–poets or painters, potters or photographers–will discover how traditions of Benedictine, Celtic, and desert spirituality can offer new sources of inspiration for their work. 
Inside Wycliffe
Outside Wycliffe
  • Your Pastor
  • Spiritual Director – if you would like more information about this, check out the section on Spiritual Direction in our Library of Resources
    • Your parish priest/pastor may know the name of a spiritual director. It is also possible to google ‘spiritual directors’ in your area.
    • London Centre for Spiritual Direction: a London based page that lists spiritual directors from around the country, largely in the south-east
    • Prayer Eleven: organised geographically
  • Practical Courses
    • St John’s Ambulance run regular First Aid courses of all kinds
    • Continuous Professional Development will be part of your own development plan, (if you do not have one, talk to your PCC). Look at what your own professional suggests for ongoing learning and sign up for a course.
    • Search for DIY, plumbing, painting and decorating courses near you and sign up!

Lifelong Learning and…

the Importance of Reflection

Growth is an interesting word. It describes a natural, physiological process over which you have no control, and, conversely, an intentional, internal process over which you do have control. Both types of growth can be fostered by good food, regular exercise and love and attention; both can be stunted by poor diet, inactivity and inattention. If you want to foster learning in your life you need to ask yourself what you can do to nourish, engage and exercise it. As you read, you are invited to reflect on the processes, the people and the places that may help or may hinder this. The following paragraph provides some focus for these ideas and will be used twice in this Guide to explore what this means for lifelong learning.

I use a reflective process to understand myself, my life and my work. I am engaged in ongoing learning. I actively seek accountability to aid in reflection, personal growth and professional development.

Taking time to reflect on what you are doing, and why, is a critical skill for Lifelong Learning. Reflection enables you to think about how the people and situations you are encountering help you to grow. In this Guide, the focus is on reflective practice and reflexivity. There can be some confusion as to what the difference is between these two. In short, they both use the same tool of reflection but have different foci, one external (work, what you do), and the other internal (the self). In this Guide you have the opportunity to focus first on your work, then on yourself. When doing so, you are invited to consider what you are currently learning, what you are doing well, what you could be doing better, and, importantly, what changes you might need to make.

YOU AND REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience.

John Dewey

The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.

Prov. 4.7
  • The reason you engage in reflective practice is to create space to focus on what you do, particularly at work. You do this in order to gain new insight and make changes as needed. When did you last look at your work in this way? Consider investing some time to ask yourself the following questions:
    • What am I learning about the things I am doing, at work and at home? 
    • What am I pleased about?
    • Where might I need to change? 
    • Where am I growing in my practice?
YOU AND REFLEXIVE PRACTICE

Reflexivity is “…when researchers deliberately turn their attention to their own processes of constructing the world, with the goal of saying something fresh and new about that…world.”

John Swinton and Harriet Mowat

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it – not forgetting what they have heard but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.”

Jm.1.22-25
  • The reason you engage in reflexive practice is to create space to focus on how what impacts you as an individual. We do this in order to gain new insight and make changes as needed. When did you last look at yourself in this way? Consider investing some time out to ask yourself the following questions:
    • What am I learning about myself in the things I am doing, at work and at home? 
    • What am I pleased about?
    • Where might I need to change? 
    • How is my practice helping me to grow?
GOING DEEPER

Here we highlight ideas and resources, which you are of course free to explore or not. We have tried to come up with different ways to engage with the topics, suggesting activities, books, blogs, videos….that may interest you. We also encourage you to browse our Library of Resources and/or talk to others, including your Pastor or Spiritual Director or mentor, if you have one, for some recommendations.

Reflecting on reflective practice and reflexivity

  • If you would like to understand a bit more reflective practice and reflexivity, here are a few ideas:
  • For some practical ideas to try regarding reflective practice and reflexivity, try:
    • The Walk of Change: a series of questions, which can be done with another person, focused on addressing an issue in your life, internal or external, you want to see change.
    • Take some time to purposefully reflect on your responses to the Bible. Apply the same questions above to your reading: What am I learning about myself? What are you pleased about? Where might you need to change? How is my bible reading helping me to grow?
    • Consider studying the Psalms – this commentary by James M. Hamilton, Psalms, is a really helpful walkthrough these amazing poems.

Dealing with what you discover

  • All of us have habits and behaviours that we would prefer other people not to see. Sometimes we would rather live in denial than face the reality of what we are thinking, feeling and even believing. Below are a list of areas that may cause concern for people which might include:
    • Mental health issues
    • Considerations around marriage and singleness
    • Family dynamics
    • Healthy lifestyle
    • Addictive behaviours
  • If you recognise these issues in yourself (or others that come to mind) consider the following:
    • Don’t ignore them
    • Pray about them
    • Talk to someone you trust
    • Read about the issue to get some more help – there is wide variety of links and resources in the health part of the Library of Resources (located in the People of Integrity section).
    • If you support families dealing with any of these issues for themselves or children, as well as the Library section on health, also check out what Tory, Wycliffe’s TCK Coordinator has available.
  • The Wycliffe Member Code of Conduct is worth a look when thinking about some of these issues. A link to this Code can be found in the Members Handbook on p.7. The Handbook can be found on the Hub in Workday.
Inside Wycliffe
Outside Wycliffe
  • Your Pastor, or Pastoral Support in your church
  • Spiritual Director – you can ask your parish priest for the name of a spiritual director, or you can click here and you will be taken to a London based page that lists spiritual directors from around the country
  • If UK based, you could talk to your GP if you feel you need help with your mental health, or to your church for people who may be able to offer mental health support such as counselling.
  • If based overseas there may be counselling centres you can access. You may also have staff care support, life coaching and counsellors available depending on your location.
  • Life Coaching: there are many people trained as life coaches, here are few we know people have found helpful

Lifelong Learning and…

Fostering Growth

Fostering growth in yourself and in others requires intentionality and accountability. Without intentionality it is easy to coast and not grow in your learning, or in supporting others in theirs. Accountability helps you, and those you support, to be intentional. It is focused less on deterrence and more on providing a safe space for a realistic assessment regarding personal growth and development. In this section the focus is on how your own accountability structures and the opportunities you have to offer accountability to others.

I use a reflective process to understand myself, my life and my work. I am engaged in ongoing learning. I actively seek accountability to aid in reflection, personal growth and professional development.

As you think through your own experience of lifelong learning you are invited to consider who you have in your life that gives you the gift of their time and energy, and is able to ask you hard questions. It is also an opportunity to consider who you are offering that same gift to. Remember to look at Going Deeper

ACCOUNTABILITY AND YOU

Accountability is essential to personal growth, as well as team growth. How can you improve if you’re never wrong? If you don’t admit a mistake and take responsibility for it, you’re bound to make the same one again.

Pat Summitt

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

Prov. 27.17
  • In what areas of your life, particularly in the context of work, might you need to be more accountable?
  • Who do you have in your life who can ask you the hard questions about your choices and what you are doing? 
  • Accountability is necessarily accompanied by vulnerability. How ready are you to have your blind spots and lack of knowledge pointed out to you? Are you more likely to react defensively or to take a posture of humility and learning?
  • Reflect on your experiences of being held accountable and how that has contributed to your own personal and professional growth. In what areas could you improve your openness to learning and be more intentional about pursuing growth?
ACCOUNTABILITY WITH OTHERS

“To me a leader is someone who holds her or himself accountable for finding potential in people or processes.”

Brené Brown

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Heb.10.24-25
  • Take some time to reflect and ask yourself if there is someone in your work team who might also like to have an accountability relationship?
  • Reflect on your experiences of holding others accountable in the past in terms of your actions, the processes you used and their response. In each area consider what went well and what could have gone better. What lessons can you take forward from this?
  • If you have never found yourself in a position of needing to hold someone accountable, why do you think this might be? Some possible reasons may be: you have not noticed a need; you feel unconfident to speak up; you are unfamiliar with the appropriate processes to do this effectively; some other reason. How might you address this?
  • How can you express empathy while still encouraging responsibility and growth?
  • If you are in a leadership role, how do you exemplify and demonstrate accountability with regard to improving your skills and knowledge?
GOING DEEPER

Here we highlight ideas and resources, which you are of course free to explore or not. We have tried to come up with different ways to engage with the topics, suggesting activities, books, blogs, videos….that may interest you. We also encourage you to browse our Library of Resources and/or talk to others, including your Pastor or Spiritual Director or mentor, if you have one, for some recommendations.

Exploring Accountability

  • Accountability partners: this is a person or a group of people you trust to share both your joys and struggles with. It is a relationship that is defined somewhat by intentionality…there is an expectation that they will, and you will, ask hard questions and encourage each other in your spiritual, personal and professional growth. Accountability in each of these areas can look very different but the processes are similar.
  • Being vulnerable with others: if you want to be truly accountable you need to be prepared to be vulnerable with the people you trust in that position. Vulnerability is a topic that is explored in the Flexible Co-workers Guide, where the focus is on bringing your vulnerabilities before God. Here the emphasis is on being vulnerable with others. If you want to explore this a bit more consider using the following reflection:
    • Spend some time identifying something you find easy to talk to others about (e.g. your children, something you feel passionate about…) and something you find very difficult to talk to others about (e.g. your children, something you feel passionate about…!). As far as possible try and choose things which are personal to you.
    • Now reflect on what makes the difference in your attitude to these two things.
      • What about that topic makes it easy to be open or makes you feel threatened or defensive?
      • What sensations do you notice in your body, physically (tense, stomach clenched, relaxed…) and emotionally (scared, happy, wound up…), when you feel open and when you feel threatened or defensive?
      • How does talking about it with others impact those feelings (physical and emotional)? Does it amplify the sensations or help to regulate them?
      • How important is it that you allow others to be aware of how you feel about this topic/s, and why?
      • Consider taking your thoughts to God in prayer. Ask him to help you see what he might want to say to you and who it might be good to talk to.
  • For more about vulnerability you can browse our Resource Library for books – but here are a couple of recommendations to start you off:

Coaching and mentoring

  • Formal and informal accountability: much of what has been written above reflects an accountability system that is set up informally with friends or colleagues. A more formal accountability system is one that is situated within coaching and mentoring relationships and is specifically connected to learning and goal-setting.
    • If you are in leadership or are offering coaching and mentoring to others who are younger or less experienced than you on a regular basis, it is worth getting some input on how best to do this. Look at the Library of Resources for some books, blogs and podcasts on this topic. Check the tab Courses to Consider for ideas of training.
    • If you are not involved in mentoring or coaching, but would like to either be mentored/coached or be equipped to offer this talk to your line manager and/or PCC for possible options. Explore the Library of Resources and the Courses to Consider tab as mentioned above.
Inside Wycliffe
Outside Wycliffe
  • Your Pastor
  • Spiritual Director – you can ask your parish priest for the name of a spiritual director, or you can click here and you will be taken to a London based page that lists spiritual directors from around the country
  • Life Coaching: there are many people trained as life coaches, here are few we know people have found helpful:

Coaching and Mentoring Training

  • There are many coaching and mentoring courses that you can enrol upon. If you are seconded, it is worth asking the learning and development people in your organisation or otherwise contact Simon Connelly at Wycliffe for ideas or recommendations specific to your situation.
  • If you are with SIL there is an online course called Mentoring which can be found on course-connections.
  • Individual coaching – Harmony consulting offer support and coaching to help you thrive

Lifelong learners with the curiosity and passion to keep growing and developing,
and encouraging others to do the same.

Intelligent people are always ready to learn.
Their ears are open for knowledge.

Prov.18.15