Introducing the 9 Arts of Spiritual Conversations

Earlier this summer, On Q published a blog that took a look at the important first step in creating a missional culture in any church: face the facts. Although it can be hard to take an honest look at your church’s missional culture, there’s a very good chance that doing so will be the key to jumpstarting important changes and shifts in your church’s mindset and ministry. The first step in building a missional culture in any church is to be strong and courageous—you must set aside the fear of being honest with yourself and your congregation. Soon after that, we looked at another step that any church could take in order to...Read more …

 Here’s a radio-minute that aired nationally this week on Q Place’s Walk the Way: This is Walk the Way, brought to you by Q Place, I’m Jeff Klein. And I’m Pam Klein. Paul Sparks, Tim Soerens, and Dwight D. Friesen, say this in their book, The New Parish: Most of your presence in your neighborhood is incredibly ordinary, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be intentional. For example, you drink coffee at the local cafe instead of driving miles away. You play pickup basketball with neighbors at the park around the corner instead of playing in a church league. You and a few neighbors...Read more …

For years, Dave drove the same roads from Chicago to his folks’ house in eastern Pennsylvania. That is, until the first time he drove it with his new wife, Jen. Jen decided she would consult Google in order to determine the best route. Dave found this utterly ludicrous! After all, hadn’t he been driving the best, fastest, and only route for years? Apparently not. When it was Jen’s turn to drive, and her new husband fell asleep in the passenger seat next to her, she switched to her route. And when Dave woke up, they had already arrived, an hour and a half...Read more …

About thirty-five years ago, Wayne Gordon accepted a job as a history teacher and head coach of the football team at a high school in the Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. In 1975, this area was one of the poorest and most crime-ridden in the city and few people saw much good coming from there. Still, “Coach” purchased a weight machine and placed it in plain view in a first-floor storefront room below his apartment, for all his players to see as they passed by. Beginning with the basics Sure enough, they asked if they could come and lift weights. “Yes,” Coach replied, “on one condition.” Here...Read more …

As Colin Marshall and Tony Payne write in their book The Vine Project, “it seems too obvious to say that God’s people are the agency by which the word is proclaimed in prayerful dependence on the Spirit. Who else is it going to be?” But it’s a good thing to be reminded of. As it says in Ephesians 2:10, “we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago”– good things like noticing others, praying for them and their lives even if you’ve never spoken to them...Read more …

This is Walk the Way. Brought to you by Q Place. I’m Jeff Klein. As I travel, speaking to churches to help them become better at making disciples who make disciples, one consistent theme continually emerges: we really don’t know how to move in a way that starts small, grows slowly, and builds deep. The church at large is so into their weekend worship experiences and big events that it rarely gets around to encouraging the simplicity and intentionality of people walking alongside people. Now, I’m not down on weekend worship or great events, but they will simply not create...Read more …

The lives of two Texas state congressmen intersected earlier this month when the they became stranded in the Lonestar State due to massive flight cancellations up and down the East Coast because of a huge late-season snowstorm. Meet Beto and Will That’s when the two men–representatives Beto O’Rourke (Democrat, El Paso) and Will Hurd (Republican, San Antonio)–decided they would embark on a 36-hour road trip–together–so that neither one of them would miss the important votes coming up on Capitol Hill. After securing a rental car, they headed to Washington, D.C.  Wouldn’t you have wanted to be a fly in that...Read more …

Like a harsh word spoken without tact, or a fire burning outside a fireplace, missionality by itself can hurt the cause of Christ more than it helps. This is why missional has an inseparable twin. The word is incarnational. It means “to take on flesh.” If missional means “to go,” incarnation is about how you go and what people see as you go….Incarnation is critical because it will eventually determine whether or not people will want to know you or your God. – Hugh Halter               Incarnational living–the type of evangelism that Hugh Halter...Read more …

It’s just hard to deny. We like the big stuff! The grandiose Olympic opening ceremony; the glamorous, opulent wedding of our favorite royal or celebrity; the nail-biting, Game 7, Cubs-clinching 2016 MLB World Series. (Okay. Let’s face it. That was fantastic!) We eat it up. BIG! And, we carry this perspective into our thoughts about evangelism. We like the big outreach event, the dramatic conversion, the closing deal with the all-important sinner’s prayer. The little stuff? It just doesn’t seem to matter as much to us. However, in order to share the good news about Jesus intentionally today, we need to...Read more …