c. 1998 Religion News Service

DECATUR, Ga. _ The setting is anything but normal for a Baptist church in the Deep South. So is the worship experience.

As people enter the”Spirituality Center”of Oakhurst Baptist Church, one of the first things they see is a sign reading:”God is present in this place. Feel free to remove your shoes … observe silence … light a candle.” The room is softly lit with lamps and candles. Religious banners hang on the walls. Gentle devotional music plays on a tape recorder. Chairs are arranged in a circle.

Welcome to a”contemplative worship service,”one of the fastest-growing phenomena in moderate Baptist church circles over the past decade.

Tom B. Turner, considered by some the”guru”of spirituality among Baptists, is one of two leaders of the distinctive services held twice a month at the Georgia church.”Most Protestants don’t understand it when I say prayer is my vocation,”Turner said in an interview.”We (Baptists) don’t have the same historic concept of prayer that Roman Catholics, Quakers and others have always had.” Turner began focusing more on prayer after attending a program sponsored by”The Upper Room”magazine at Stillpoint Retreat Center in Nashville in the 1980s.”Even though I am the son of a pastor, and was a pastor for 12 years myself, I didn’t learn what authentic prayer was,”he said.”It changed my life.” Turner publishes a monthly newsletter on spirituality, plus a quarterly journal with scholarly articles on spiritual formation and spiritual direction. He leads spirituality retreats across the country and at his own Pilgrim’s Rest Retreat Center in Greenville, S.C.

In addition to monthly visits to Oakhurst Baptist Church in Decatur and the Nashville retreat center, he leads a weekly retreat at Mars Hill College in Mars Hill, N.C., and has started a new ministry to train others to become spiritual directors.

Turner said the new spirituality movement has grown so fast across the country there are, at last count, more than 500 retreat centers nationwide. Many are interdenominational and dozens are Baptist sponsored.

The worship Turner helped direct at Oakhurst began with 15 minutes of silence, followed by a time when he quietly asked those in the prayer circle to verbally share what had been in their private thoughts.”I work vocationally in spiritual formation, with theology students in training,”said Lloyd Allen, a university professor.”I am supposed to be a model of one who has prayed, who has been silent before God, who has a recent message from God. I come to get a fresh message from God.” Social worker Carol Burgess testified:”I dreaded some tough personnel problems facing me on the job. I spent extra time in Bible study, prayer and journaling. God made the day pass with amazing ease and meaning, and with positive results.” After the testimonies, Turner leads the group in what he calls”spiritual discernment.””What is the most responsible spiritual response you can make to people and situations you have confronted since we last met?”he asks.

This low-key give-and-take continues for about 45 minutes. Then the group takes a 10-minute”friendship”break before returning for a time of singing _ accompanied by Turner on a portable keyboard _ Bible and prayer readings, and chants of praise.

In addition to the services, Oakhurst _ a former Southern Baptist congregation now affiliated with more moderate groups _ has set aside a major portion of its educational building for its spirituality center. The center includes several smaller rooms, called”cells,”where individuals may go for private prayer or Bible study, or where they can meet privately with a spiritual director for personal guidance.

Experts predict there could be more such centers in the future.

Several local Baptist churches across the South now have directors of spiritual formation on their staffs and at least four Baptist seminaries now have professors of spiritual formation on staff.

But the interest in spiritual formation seems more prominent among churches and seminaries affiliated with moderate Baptist groups rather than within the larger, conservative-led Southern Baptist Convention.

Most prominent among the spiritual-formation seminary faculty is Glenn Hinson at Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va. Interest in his writings is so great that Smyth & Helwys Publishers of Macon, Ga., recently reprinted his 1974 book”A Serious Call to A Contemplative Lifestyle.” Mercer University School of Theology in Atlanta requires two courses on spiritual formation.

Lloyd Allen, who teaches at Mercer’s theology school, attends the monthly sessions led by Turner at Oakhurst Baptist.”We … have voluntary prayer-meditation sessions on campus every morning and evening,”he said.”Amazingly, about 65 percent of our students attend every prayer session _ voluntarily! They are hungry for a fresh awareness of God’s presence in their busy lives of study and research.” Trustees at Baptist-related Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., voted in early April to hire a Roman Catholic priest, the Rev. Samuel F. Weber of Saint Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana, to teach at its School of Divinity, scheduled to open in September.”I sincerely believe we are on the verge of a major breakthrough among Baptists in the areas of spiritual formation, spiritual direction and contemplative worship,”said Bill Leonard, dean of Wake Forest’s divinity school.”These are clearly ideas whose time has come for many Baptists.”

DEA END HARWELL