Nate Bettger is a licensed spiritual director and has been practicing since 2011. He has been facilitating small groups of all ages for over 10 years and is passionate about fueling people’s experience of God and community. Nate is dedicated to the study of Celtic Spirituality, Christian mystics, Men’s Rites of Passage, and redesigning ritual for our modern times. He has witnessed and led many transformational gatherings made up of individuals of a diverse rainbow of spiritual paths.
From 2008 through 2012, Nate helped his wife, Kat Seltzer run Mandala Yoga Community which was an incredible opportunity not only in running a small business, but in creating a business with deep intention for community and personal growth. Nate has also been very passionate about men’s spirituality and did his Rites of Passage in 2010, through M.A.L.Es (Men as Learners and Elders) which was founded by Richard Rohr. After being invited to serve on the M.A.L.Es Council of Elders in 2011, Nate went on to serve on the founding board of Illuman (the now current facilitator of M.A.L.Es and other programs).
Nate’s primary gifting and passion is to fuel individuals’ experiences of God and community. As a spiritual director, his desire to act as a second set of ears to your experience of your spiritual life and your understanding of the direction of the divine in your life. You can find out more about his offering of spiritual direction HERE. Nate is also joining the staff at Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland, OR as a resident chaplain in training, after which he will pursue a career in hospital chaplaincy.
Nate went to Bethel College in St Paul, MN (’03), got his BA in Youth Ministry, completed his Masters in Divinity at Bethel Seminary (’06) with an emphasis in Spiritual Formation, and has his certificate in Spiritual Formation (’12) and Certificate of Spiritual Direction (’13) from George Fox Seminary in Portland. His hope is to continue to pursue community spiritual formation within the framework of the neighborhood conversation and cross-cultural dialog.
Nate’s particular areas of interest are:
- conversational transformation
- spiritual formation
- relational mentoring and counseling
- small group strengthening
- men’s work (spiritual, emotional, and relational)
- Intergenerational community
- New visions of the gifts we offer to the community
- teaching for the 21st century, and more.
Tools I use extensively:
- Bill Plotkin’s Wheel of Eco- and Soul-Centric Development
- The Enneagram
- Non-violent Communication (Marshall Rosenberg)
- 9 Stages of Spiritual Development (as described by Richard Rohr)
- Practice of Awareness and conscious observer (as described by Anthony deMello)
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**Personal experiences…
If your church is serious.intentional about building the Kingdom…you want Nate on your team, by your side…in it with you. He gets the church…
he gets the ones in the margins…on the edge, and he gets them together…sitting with the questions.wondering. Nate is totally sold out…bent on building the bridges of truth and trust with the hungry ones. What he is learning in the listening places is stuff you need to hear and understand if your desire is connect, bring into community the ones he is knowing and loving. I count it as honor to walk with Nate as mentor, friend, partner in ministry…he teaches me.
~…parker | founder.director of bridgeworks.
I have known Nate for several years. He is safe, kind, loving, honest, joyful, a creative thinker and a force for bringing disparate folks together to enjoy community — in ways that they may have yet to experience — He is truly gifted in this way. My family also enjoys Nate. He is one dedicated to making contributions to the lives of others that he does not take credit for. He is trustworthy and should be considered as an invaluable addition to any effort to truly explore and experience what it means to live in community.
~Bill Dahl (Author of The Porpoise Diving Life, community and educational activist in Redmond, OR)
“Nate is the Johnny Appleseed of the 21st Century for Bend, but instead of sharing seeds for fruit trees, he is sharing the love, challenge and vision of Christ’s message to any and all who will take time to recognize his gift.
His ability to empathize with whomever he is with will be the genesis for a faith-based intentional community, unfettered by age, walls, income, political agenda or preconceived notions about what spirituality is about.
The Bettger “seeds” will bring fruition and harvest for the Bend community which will make it a future place for tolerance, spiritual growth and exceptional Christian love. “
~Tim Conlon (advisor to bridgeWORKS – bend)
“Nate is well grounded in Christian faith which frees him to serve others regardless of their circumstances. He accepts others, listens well, and seeks to know each person as created by God. He builds relationships with young adults, caring for them with the love of Christ. His personal disciplines keep him healthy spiritually and physically, leading others in the way of Jesus. He is articulate and perceptive and seeks to learn from every situation.”
~Rev. Lorraine Stuart (Spiritual Director, pastor of Spiritual formation @ 1st Presbyterian Church Bend)
Hi, Nate,
I’m glad I found your site. I attended the Men’s Initiation event in Sept. ’11 in Upstate NY. Good experience for me. I’ve been a pastor in the United Church of Christ for 38 years–now nearing retirement.
In your reflection on Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem, I reflected on my own personal journey. For most of my professional ministry, I was haunted by the sense that I was inadequate for the “call”, and would never get there. I had some good qualities for pastoral work, and the churches I served grew in numbers, depth, activity and outreach. I was doing a lot of good things, but not always for the best reasons. But, deep down I was still stuck in the same place. I was still trying to earn God’s love, because I just wasn’t worthy in all of my stark reality.
The transformation happened not through accumulated wisdom from being a pastor for so many years. I noticed, instead, that in my dreams, and in my times of listening/prayer(sometimes on silent retreats), I never encountered the God whom I felt had always judged me so harshly. Instead, I met a Master who revealed me to me, but without judgment and punishment. Like the Men’s Initiation retreat, I experienced a God who was revealed in my real experiences of life, and who loved me, and challenged me to leap into the future, trusting that I would discover more and more why I was born. I like myself more, even though I am mortified at some of my innermost thoughts and impulses. But that’s not all that there is to me. As the Prayer of St. Francis states so well, I feel that I am more able to be a channel for the transcendent, not just a good performer of pastoral duties.
Thanks for your work.
Yours, Rev. Jeff Johnson, First Congregational Church of Milton(MA), UCC