Jules Badger

I’m a wife, mum, grandmother, sister, daughter, friend, and fellow companion on the road with Jesus. I’m a maturing extrovert who loves silent retreats and is very happy working from home in solitude. I work as a content writer for The Salvation Army’s SALT magazine, and I’m married to a Salvation Army officer, Magnificent Major Mat Badger!

We are part of The Salvation Army Johnsonville faith community, with Mat being the corps officer/senior pastor. Together we published When the Light Goes Out in 2023, a book about our journey with my mental health battle in 2012. It’s now only available as an e-book, and you can find it in all the usual places.

I read extensively, write poetry, spend time in my garden, crochet giant colourful blankets for the people I love, facetime with my grandies using all the special effects, and look forward to eating fish n chips with Mat each week at the beach. Most importantly, I am beloved of God—this fact is central to my identity.

I love offering spiritual direction! It brings me so much joy and fulfilment to hold space for people wanting to deepen their intimacy with God. After many years of pastoral work, preaching and teaching, I know God has called me to a more specific ministry, that of prayerfully listening with curiosity and intentionality to the person right in front of me. Please know that you are safe to bring all of yourself to a session: questions, doubts, laughter, longing, anger, joy, frustration, grief, contentment, confusion, disappointment, regret, desire, fear, hope. Nothing you are feeling or experiencing is ever unwelcome.

My Practice

My spiritual direction practice is called “Be”. With the tagline ‘Be still, be present, become, beloved.’ I believe that taking quiet pauses regularly to be still and present with God, in a fully embodied and wholistic posture, is vital to becoming our full and authentic selves. We are all beloved by God. Who you are, and whose you are matter more than what you do or produce, and this is foundational to spiritual direction.

We don’t have to do or say anything to earn God’s love for us other than receive it. When we discover and practice this truth, everything changes. It did for me, and I count it such a privilege to accompanying others on their journey into settling into their beloved-ness too.

I’m Ngāti Pākehā and consider myself Tangata Tiriti, and I not only welcome but celebrate LGBTQIA+ people of faith in my practice. I welcome those in full-time and lay ministry from any denomination.