Introducing the 9 Arts of Spiritual Conversations

I ran in the rain at noon on New Years Day. This marks my 7th #run in 7 days. I have never exercised in any capacity 7 days in a row. Now I feel lots of pressure, like I do every New Years Day: Run every day for a month! Run every day for a year! Write every day! Never yell again! Never cheat on gluten and dairy! Call gramma every week! There are so many ways I could improve my body, mind, spirit, and relationships. I hope this year I’ll practice “gentle” discipline in all these areas. Allowing that...Read more …

This is Walk the Way. Brought to you by Q Place. I’m Jeff Klein. How do you know if your church is “getting the job done?” Determining this is usually equivalent to how many people are sitting in the seats on Sunday morning. Let’s face it, the more people sitting in worship on a Sunday morning, the more successful we feel. But is this a good metric? I’m a Sunday-sitter. But during the rest of the week am I engaged with my neighbors? My co-workers? Am I on the mission of God bringing the Kingdom to where I live, work,...Read more …

For some people, practices like noticing, listening, praying, welcoming and asking questions just come naturally. But when it comes to sharing the gospel with those who believe differently than we do, here’s the game changer: realizing that these natural relationship builders are also natural steps toward sharing the gospel. That’s precisely what being in our church’s 9 Arts of Spiritual Conversations class did for Jeanne—she realized that her relationship with a co-worker was a trusted opening for sharing the gospel! What happened as a result was fantastic! Jeanne, a teacher, shared a classroom with another teacher, Sofie. Of course, most days it was “business...Read more …

When I (Crilly) think of dinosaurs, I am immediately taken back to a childhood memory of my grandma’s home. My Grandmother Crilly was a child of the Depression. She grew up a fatherless immigrant and married very young, only to divorce her abusive first husband and marry my grandfather, a quiet and gentle man. My grandma was a neat freak, probably with an obsessive-compulsive disorder that manifested itself in cleanliness. She put paper towels between every plate in the cabinet. She was constantly concerned about bugs getting into her home. She had clear plastic covering her nice sofa and chairs....Read more …

Have you ever seen those statistics that show how much time the average person might spend on certain activities throughout their lives? For example, it’s been said that the average person spends 2 years of their life watching commercials, 2.5 years cooking, and just over 4 years driving their car. All kinds of activities get measured—but one in particular typically comes out at the top: work. Did you know that, on average, a person spends 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, in the workplace?! That’s 2080 hours in a workplace during a typical year—just think about how much time that...Read more …

This is Walk the Way. Brought to you by Q Place, I’m Jeff Klein. Do our methods match the Master’s ways? When it comes to telling the world about the Gospel we believe in and who it is that we follow, I find the methods chosen by some Christians interesting to say the least. Is blatant violence, yelling, and anger really spreading the good news of the gospel? And if the medium is the message, what are we actually saying our message is by acting that way? Will our snarled faces and defensive postures accomplish anything? Are these God’s ways?...Read more …

I’ve been reading the book Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi. It’s the author’s own story of the friendships, investigations, and dreams that God used to lead him to Himself. As I read, I found his comments about Christians and their ways of evangelism interesting and insightful to say the least. For example, he writes: There is a simple reason I never listened to street preachers…they treated me like an object of their agenda. Unfortunately, I have found that many Christians think of evangelism the same way, foisting Christian beliefs on strangers in chance encounters. The problem with this approach is...Read more …

As a seasoned Christian, I have heard many a message derived from Matthew 28:19-20 where Jesus tells us to “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you….” Not only have I heard the scripture, but I have also read it several times, and, without equivocation, I truly believe it, as it is the Great Commission; however, I must admit that I have not been as proactive as I should be in fulfilling this...Read more …

What a rich, rich, Easter weekend. It started on Good Friday night when we pondered the wood of the Cross, on which was hung the world’s salvation. On Saturday, we watched a joyous festival of art, music and theatre that took us through the stories of the Old Testament that point to Christ, our Savior. Then on Sunday our family gathered with friends at a 6AM service to exclaim and proclaim, “Christ is RISEN! He has RISEN INDEED!” And just like we had experienced before, this all-out worship party was complete with baptisms, dancing, Holy Communion and ringing the bells....Read more …