Years ago, when I was beginning my training in spiritual direction, I had the opportunity to spend a month in community with a group of Benedictine monks and nuns. There were many insights God gave me through their friendship, but one particular lesson was something they embodied more than taught: humility.

They were a humble community. They didn’t draw attention to their humility or promote it—which seems like an obvious thing to say, except I’ve seen humility put on...

Many of you have heard about the passing of Eugene Peterson last week. Such a loss for us. Our heartfelt prayers go out to his family and friends. In case you missed the news, go ahead and take the time to read more about this influential man.

I have trusted Peterson and his team to give me a refreshed take on scripture for many years now. The Message breathed new life into verses that had become rote for me. I was able to enjoy nuances of phrase, and gained a deeper appreciation for long...

“As a holy listener …. I have to put myself out of the way, to become humble in the true sense of knowing my place in the order of God’s creation …. above, all, I must be reverent, for I am entrusted with something precious and tender.” (Margaret Guenther)

This is the essence of spiritual direction. Enjoy a conversation between Gem Fadling and Beth Booram, who is a seasoned spiritual director. Here are the questions discussed:

• How do you meet with God? What...

We’ve said before that at the heart of all we do is people. Where are the people? What do they need? How can we help them take their next step? One model we’ve used over the course of our lives is The Critical Journey by Janet Hagberg and Robert Guelich.

Listen in as we describe the six stages in a life of faith. It is so helpful to see where you are in your journey. It can help you feel validated and understood. It can also help you to see where others are in their journey and...

Most of us know how to teach for information, but how do you lead a team or group for transformation? On this week’s podcast we will share with you our approach and our methods, drawing on our 25 years of experience. We are talking about Leading for Transformation.

Here are a few bullet points from our conversation:

• The importance of preparing who you are.
• Spiritual leadership as hospitality. Holding space for others.
• Making space for spiritual practices &...

In this podcast, I'll share a little personal story about my own daily engagement with scripture in my spiritual journey. I want to talk a bit about unhurried ways I’ve been seeking to come to the Bible in recent years.

Last Spring, about 15 months ago, I began engaging a chronological Bible reading plan. I hadn’t ever read through the Bible that way and thought it might be a life-giving practice for me.

Basically, what I did was listen to the chapters for a particular day while...

Since we are in between Season 1 and Season 2, Alan and I decided to provide you with a couple of mini-episodes. Today, I am going to walk you through a spiritual practice I’ve developed called, “SLOW.” It is an an acronym for STOP, LINGER, OBSERVE and WONDER.

SLOW is a practice you can engage, in just a couple of minutes at any point in your day. It’s a helpful process of re-focusing and re-engaging.

It’s very difficult to be truly productive when you feel...

“We need not have a position of influence to be a person of influence.”

Join Alan and Gem as they wrap up Season 1 with a conversation on Alan's book, An Unhurried Leader. A few highlights:

This isn’t a book just for people who are in organizational leadership roles. Leaders are influencers. God entrusts to each of us the privilege and responsibility to be persons of kingdom influence wherever he has planted us and in whatever relationships we find ourselves.

One chapter is...

Recently, Alan had the opportunity to speak in all three weekend services at The Church at Rocky Peak as a pre-release event for An Unhurried Leader. The talk was more conversation than sermon. You can get a front row seat for the interaction between Alan and Pastor Dave Cox on the topic of unhurried influence. This is probably the best summary yet of the substance of this book. We hope you’ll enjoy listening.

If you scroll down past the podcast player, you can...

Is it possible to have a busy life that is also unhurried? Can our life with God and our work with God become more and more connected and fruitful? Listen to this week’s conversation with Dr. Carol Taylor, president of Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri, as we talk about what she’s learned in years of leadership.

In our conversation with Carol we talked quite a bit about what a growing integration of our personal spiritual formation in Christ and our roles and...