About Jen

Hi, my name is Jen Manglos. As a spiritual director, pilgrimage guide, pastor, and writer, I delight in helping others discover their own belovedness in God. Embodiment, hospitality, and storytelling characterize my approach to spiritual direction, pilgrimage guidance, retreats, and pastoring. I am a 4 with a 3 wing on the Enneagram and movies are my love language (so much so that my friend and I started a podcast on film and spirituality called “Stories in the Key of Light”).

For the past fourteen years I have been a spiritual director and retreat curator, holding an MA in Spiritual Formation and Soul Care from the Institute for Spiritual Formation at Talbot School of Theology. I love meeting with individuals as they seek to deepen and grow in life with God. It’s an honor to sit with others and be entrusted with their stories. In the last few years I have moved into training and supervising directors as well. Through retreats, I am able to craft and hold space for others to meet with Jesus. It’s fun to craft experiences that blend together prayer, spiritual practices, creativity, and rest. While I always start with a direction for these times, I also feel like a child on Christmas morning. It’s exciting to see the unique gifts that God has for each person on retreat. Ultimately, I see both of these ministries as forms of hospitality. I welcome people into a set aside time and space to be with God, and from there God welcomes, receives, and loves on them.

I never planned on becoming a pastor, but since college, God has taken me on a journey of loving  people and helping followers of Christ grow and develop into the kind of people who live abundantly in and through Christ. I previously pastored at Bethany Community Church in Seattle (2019-2021) and am currently working to co-create a faith community in the Stumbletown neighborhood of Seattle.

Pilgrimage guidance has been another surprise, but after walking the Camino de Santiago in 2018, my life took a different turn. While walking, I discovered the unique gifts of a pilgrimage experience and wondered how to incorporate it into daily life. When I returned, folks started approaching me for guidance as they planned their own experiences and through time that morphed into my offering support for small groups and individuals. I currently lead groups on curated pilgrimage experience, and also provide assistance for individuals seeking to walk on their own.

I previously coordinated retreats for Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. It was a position
that required me to wear many hats as I taught spiritual retreats, wrote curriculum focused on spiritual practices, trained and oversaw a team of volunteers, coordinated retreats for the ministry, and created structures tohelp the ministry thrive. I especially valued working with my team of volunteers. For many, it was a place where they could belong. In a large church like Saddleback, it can be easy to get lost in the crowds. This ministry was a space where people could be known. I also enjoyed writing and teaching on
spiritual practices. In teaching on spiritual practices, I focused on small, doable steps, along with explanations on the distractions that can come up as we engage in these practices. The spiritual practices are ways for us to connect with God, which means they are for everyone and not just the spiritually elite.

Prior to my position at Saddleback, I was an adjunct faculty member for Talbot School of Theology, within their spiritual formation department. It was a gift to see pastors and church leaders from such diverse backgrounds come together and share openly about their lives, empowered by knowing they are accepted. For some, it was the only source of care in their lives. Additionally, my time as faculty allowed me to resource these students in their own faith development through teaching on spiritual practices.

Throughout my varied positions, I am delighted to create space for folks to discover their belovedness as they circle inward to their truest self with God.

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