Arts of Spiritual Conversations

We create community around spiritual conversations that are safe and will help people self discover new things about the God of the Bible. We want to help you if you are a follower of Christ to be able to talk to others with more love and insights from God.  Trust more and love your neighbors more.  This will make our gardens of life more like what the God of the Bible said in Genesis…  God saw all that He had made and it was very good.  verse 31 of Chapter 1. We Gotta Get Back to the Garden

There is a fresh wind blowing for years from the group who call themselves Q place Arts of Spiritual Conversations .  The CEO Mary Schaller has led the charge to take the clear and simple message to all – you can learn again a way of life to love neighbors who believe differently. You can be a safe person and eventually have spiritual conversations that allow you to be you and them to be who them.

Gary Poole has a book called Seeker Small Groups. seeker groups  For over a decade he has helped people explore what they believe through these discussion groups. Seeker Small Groups, provides a detailed blueprint for facilitating small group discussions that assist spiritual seekers with investigating Christianity. He has also written The Complete Book of Questions, a collection of 1,001 conversation starters, and numerous group study guides including The Three Habits of Highly Contagious Christians, The Tough Questions Series, and Experiencing the Passion of Jesus (with Lee Strobel) to accompany the film, The Passion of the Christ. In 2005, Experiencing the Passion of Jesus became the first discussion guide ever to receive the prestigious Charles “Kip” Jordon Christian Book of the Year award. Garry lives in suburban Chicago and consults on evangelism and seeker small groups at churches around the world.

A seeker small group is a community of non Christians who gather regularly with one or two Christians to explore spiritual matters. Meeting in a variety of locations from homes to offices to restaurants or churches, the Christian organizes and facilitates the discussions based on the seekers’ spiritual questions and issues. The group leaders can be effective without the gift of evangelism and with or without formal apologetic training. With or without much small group training this is a no wonder cutting edge outreach tool which is vital and powerful.  Imagine this – you walk over to your next door neighbor and are invited inside.  You invite them to your home and others. With refreshments you have lots of fun conversations and fun and laughter. At the right time you invited group of 11 or 12 to living room for a one hour highly interactive and invigorating discussion about spiritual matters. People are wrestling with their beliefs and what they believe and what the Bible teaches. Even though the participants do not all agree, there appears to be an overflow of respect and unconditional acceptance.seeker groups book

It is obvious that most are not Christians yet.  People can come one time to check it out and be just as respected for coming one time as someone who chose to come and be part of the group for a longer duration.

SAFE – The first distinct advantage of a seeker small group is that this is a very safe place. Seekers can investigate the claims of Christianity at their own pace. They are accepted no matter what or where they are on their spiritual journey. There is no judgement only a spirit of acceptance. The goal of this safe place is to provide an invitation or opportunity and atmosphere for seekers to openly express their thoughts and feelings and voice their issues and concerns.  All of this happens without fear of criticism. Our hope is they will get to place to enjoy sharing their issues and concerns about the Bible and its claims.

We work closely with Q place.  They help change our hearts and minds to be nicer human beings when wanting to make new friends and perhaps one day talk about spiritual things.  We learn to listen better and respect others more.