Be Careful What You Ask for!

Be Careful What You Ask for!

My story might be similar to many of yours. For some time, God had been breaking my heart for those around me whose economic circumstances were different from my own. But I just didn’t know what to do about it. My church family has a strong, beautiful ministry heart and was reaching out to some lower income communities, but I lived in the opposite direction of those and the location made involvement a challenge for me. My heart remained broken and I continued to feel the nudge to enter in. I just didn’t know where to begin. So I prayed....Read more …

The Struggle

When it comes to writing about prayer, I consider myself qualified to do so only as a fellow sojourner who desires to see people in my life to come to know Jesus. I want God’s power to flow through me for the advancement of his Kingdom. At some unconscious level, I used to think that someone’s conversion was up to me, my clever presentation of the gospel, my compelling apologetic, my solid argument. I thought it was my job to convict, confront, and convince others of the error of their ways. But—and is this really surprising?—more often than not my...Read more …

On the Radio – Walk the Way

This is Walk the Way, brought to you by Q Place. I’m Jeff Klein. Are you all alone? Researchers have said that the majority of Americans experience “crowded loneliness.” We are continually exposed to people, but have no meaningful connection with them. We’re surrounded, hardly ever alone, and yet, isolated. We stop at the crowded coffee shop and commute to work on a packed train, but our ipods are in our ears. We grocery shop or exercise or spend the day in and out of meetings and lunches, without so much as a glance up. At the end of our...Read more …
Wolfgang

Wolfgang

When he walked up to the register, I had to look up to make eye contact with him. I greeted him and asked, “What can I get started for you?” He told me he wanted a venti nonfat latte. I marked the cup and asked my next question, “What’s your name?” Wolfgang. It took a few more interactions before I cemented his name in my head, and the first time I greeted him by name when I saw him in line, his face lit up. Wolfgang and I had this 30-second encounter five days a week for several years. One...Read more …
Burning Bushes

Burning Bushes

We all know the story of Moses. Fleeing Egypt as a murderer, he ends up tending sheep in the wilderness for 40 years. Was this the dream Moses had for his life? Probably not. Life as a fugitive was a far cry from the one he knew growing up in the Pharaoh’s house. But God had a different plan for him and chose an interesting way to reveal it. Let’s talk about the famous burning bush. Most likely, this wasn’t the first fire that Moses would have seen while out with his sheep; brush fires were common in the dry...Read more …

On the Radio – Walk the Way

This is Walk the Way, brought to you by Q Place. I’m Jeff Klein. I love the YouTube video that shows a massive, clumsy, walrus dancing the tango with one of her handlers. It’s true! In a zoo in Istanbul, Turkey, Sara the Walrus dances an impressive tango with her aquatics trainer. Apparently, the ability to dance was dormant deep within this particular walrus. Who’d have thought? And here’s where I’m going with this: Latent within each follower of Jesus is the ability to walk His way. But I’m not sure how many of us really believe we’re capable. Yet we are! Within...Read more …

When Opportunity Knocks

Sometimes opportunity comes literally knocking at your door. I was at my desk working when my peripheral vision caught movement outside through my front window. I looked up. Someone was walking toward the house but I couldn’t make out who. It was snowing, and the hat and the hood made identification tricky. I got up immediately, grabbed my coat from the entry hooks, and just as he knocked (I could see through my front-door windows now that it was, indeed, a he), opened the door and stepped out to greet him. He was a bit taken aback that I was...Read more …

More

More. As I sit down to write this blog, a scene from one of my favorite movies comes to mind. It’s from Oliver when young Oliver Twist holds his bowl in front of his face and dares to ask the scowling Mr. Bumble for more porridge. “Please, sir, I want some more.” At Q Place we believe that the spiritually hungry are often like Oliver. They are longing for something substantial to fill the emptiness inside, but what they experience from Christians may feel more like Mr. Bumble’s suspicious gaze. Instead of being met at their point of need, they...Read more …

President’s Corner

Dear friends, Welcome to the first edition of our new digital newsletter, “On Q”! Our title is a play on words with the idiom “on cue” which means, “an indication that the time has come.” In the performing arts, actors are expected to pay attention to the cues so that they can deliver their lines “on cue,” at just the right time. At Q Place we believe that the time has come for a new paradigm shift in evangelism, so that all Christians can partner with God in what he’s doing in the world to redeem it. As a ministry we...Read more …

Get Pumped: Spiritual Fitness at the YMCA

Deanna had a question. As she filled out the paperwork needed to volunteer at her local YMCA, she wondered about the first part of the Y’s mission statement: To put Christian principles into practice through programs that build a healthy spirit, mind, and body for all Clearly, the YMCA does well with physical fitness, and its after-school programs help build minds. But Deanna’s question was this: What does the YMCA do to help people build spiritual fitness? In many local YMCAs, the answer is, unfortunately, not much. Deanna’s question pointed her to an opportunity. As she watched people coming through...Read more …