noticing | Search Results

Right Then and There

Posted on July 6, 2016
/Under Introducing the 9 Arts of Spiritual Conversations

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 …

5 Ways We Are Doing Evangelism Wrong

Posted on May 16, 2016
/Under Welcoming

Editor’s Note: If you have the desire to engage in spiritual conversations with those who believe differently, you will undoubtedly find the following thoughts helpful, recently written by Q Place president, Mary Schaller, for crosswalk.com. Somehow, our ways of spreading the good news about Jesus have turned into bad news for so many. Before we can facilitate any spiritual conversation, our lives have to welcome. We have to love. ____________________________ Insensitive. Judgmental. Hypocritical. Narrow minded. Preachy. This was the rapid-fire response I got from a small group discussion I was facilitating when the topic of evangelism came up. It was a...Read more …

Evangelism. A Negative Experience.

Posted on April 27, 2016
/Under On Q

In interviews about our new book, The 9 Arts of Spiritual Conversations, I’ve been asked if the way that Christians share their faith needs to change. So I tell about a conversation I had in a Q Place when the subject of evangelism came up. The participants, who did not yet claim to be followers of Jesus, said they thought evangelism was a negative experience for most people like them. Even the Christians in the room had a negative opinion about evangelism. While the group members that day probably didn’t agree on much about God and the Bible, they all...Read more …

The Choice Is Yours

Posted on April 13, 2016
/Under Noticing

When various people from various calls of life all “happened” to arrive at a Whole Foods grocery store near Superior, Colorado, at about the same time one day, none of them expected they would get out of their respective cars, cross the parking lot, and find a woman, collapsed next to her cart, sobbing. Deborah Greene was just on her way out of the store with her groceries when her phone rang. She paused to answer it and that’s when her brother told her that their father had killed himself. Eleven months later, after grappling with the guilt and trauma...Read more …

We are intimately linked in this harvest work.

Posted on April 1, 2016
/Under On Q

Eight years ago two friends of mine, Jim Henderson and Randy Siever, invited me to their workshop called “The Art of Noticing.” They pointed out that Jesus had a habit of simply noticing people. If Jesus made a point of noticing people like Zacchaeus up in a tree or a woman who touched him within a pressing crowd, shouldn’t we? Through the next few years the Lord showed our Q Place team eight other practices that Jesus exhibited when He interacted with people. After noticing, we added praying, listening, asking questions, loving, and welcoming to the list of practices that build...Read more …

Good Medicine

Posted on January 11, 2016
/Under Noticing

Ever been so intent on noticing others that you had no idea someone was noticing you? An experience I had a few years ago confirmed that you never know who’s watching your life. It was Christmastime and Starbucks was its usual crazy busy. I had been working a lot but had no defining moment that I could point to that would explain what I did to throw my back out. I spent most of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day on the couch, but I knew that others had covered for me while I was gone during Thanksgiving. There was no...Read more …

Sukkot

Posted on November 3, 2015
/Under On Q

I find it fascinating to consider the Jewish fall festival celebration of Sukkot and its implications for us as we plan for Thanksgiving and think ahead to Christmas. Sukkot, the seventh and final in a series of yearly feasts given to Israel as a way of remembering God’s faithfulness, is more commonly known to many of us as the Feast of Tabernacles or Tents. During Sukkot—then and now—Jewish families construct a small, hastily built hut or tent—a sukkah—to eat their meals in throughout the festival. This structure is an actual, physical remembrance of the temporary, transient, portable dwellings Israel lived in during...Read more …

‘Tis the Season

Posted on October 26, 2015
/Under On Q

With Thanksgiving coming soon, the season of Advent beginning shortly after that, and Christmas right around the corner, we are stepping into the time of year when people are most open to spiritual things. As a Christ-follower, would you consider asking God how He might want you to enter the holiday season as His representative? We have experienced Emmanuel! We know God is with us! Let us share Him in tangible ways that others might begin to experience the same through us! We’ve likely all heard this before, but may God grant that we know and act in accord with...Read more …

On the Radio – Walk the Way

Posted on October 16, 2015
/Under Noticing

This is Walk the Way, brought to you by Q Place, I’m Jeff Klein. And I’m Pam Klein. When he walked up to the register, the barista greeted him and asked, “What can I get started for you?” He replied: “a venti nonfat latte.” She marked the cup and then asked, “What’s your name?” Wolfgang. After a few more interactions like that one, the barista cemented his name in her head, always greeting him by name. Similar 30-second encounters occurred for several years. Until one day the barista realized that Wolfgang had stopped coming altogether. Fast forward a year. And...Read more …

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