- The Shape of the Journey -
TS Eliot wrote that the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. Back in black and white Kansas, Dorothy realizes if her heart’s desire isn’t in her own backyard, she never lost it to begin with. That’s it. We only take the journey to learn we didn’t have to.
The person you are meant to be is already standing inside you right here and now. The journey simply strips everything away that is not who you really are. And that happens naturally as you travel through four primary landscapes: healing, learning, mentoring, and serving. Service is what you make of it, but we can help with the other three…
Healing
Counseling and Recovery Services
Are we ever fully healed? Healing is a lifelong process, but being healed enough to bring our lives into a manageable state is the foundation for any further growth. If you want to teach a starving person, you feed him first. If you want to grow spiritually and personally, there has to be enough emotional and relational stability to take first steps.
If you’re wondering why things don’t seem to get better, if relationships remain difficult or out of reach, if there’s grief, substance abuse, depression or other active issues you’re facing, there is groundwork to be done that therapy or recovery counseling can assist. Sometimes finances, employment, or parenting and other relational issues need to be addressed with life skills coaching and counseling. In an initial call we can establish a connection and a plan forward with counselors or therapists from our staff or your local area.
Mentoring
Coaching and Spiritual Direction
No one takes this journey alone. Spirituality is by definition a relationship—with God, Higher Power, each other. The interaction between us in community and one on one is the whole point and process. But just as being alone is limiting, the beliefs of certain groups or churches can limit as well.
This is where the spiritual director comes in–the coach who can help grant permission to think outside the limits and begin the process of living the paradoxical spiritual relationship in a way that can be modeled and practiced. It’s always been done this way between humans and just because we now have instant access to the world’s wisdom, we are not exempt from one on one connection as the basis of our journey. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When healing has established a foundation and the student has learned enough to know he or she now needs to engage in an entirely different way, a relationship with the right teacher can make all the difference.
Mentoring
Coaching and Spiritual Direction
No one takes this journey alone. Spirituality is by definition a relationship—with God, Higher Power, each other. The interaction between us in community and one on one is the whole point and process. But just as being alone is limiting, the beliefs of certain groups or churches can limit as well.
This is where the spiritual director comes in–the coach who can help grant permission to think outside the limits and begin the process of living the paradoxical spiritual relationship in a way that can be modeled and practiced. It’s always been done this way between humans and just because we now have instant access to the world’s wisdom, we are not exempt from one on one connection as the basis of our journey. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When healing has established a foundation and the student has learned enough to know he or she now needs to engage in an entirely different way, a relationship with the right teacher can make all the difference.
Learning
Listening, Discussing, Reading
Learning should be continuous through life. Learning informs the healing process and precedes and continues through and beyond mentoring. But the amount of information available today is so vast and varied--where to turn for the right resources and materials?
Just having someone who’s plowed a row or two ahead can narrow the field and point out the main holes that need filling. In terms of distance learning, we have podcasts, blogs, vlogs, books and audio below. At theeffect website, you can find suggested reading lists, articles, links, an archive of recorded messages and classes. If you’re local, you can attend live weekly sessions or stream if you’re not. Click and see.
Learning
Listening, Discussing, Reading
Learning should be continuous through life. Learning informs the healing process and precedes and continues through and beyond mentoring. But the amount of information available today is so vast and varied--where to turn for the right resources and materials?
Just having someone who’s plowed a row or two ahead can narrow the field and point out the main holes that need filling. In terms of distance learning, we have podcasts, blogs, vlogs, books and audio below. At theeffect website, you can find suggested reading lists, articles, links, an archive of recorded messages and classes. If you’re local, you can attend live weekly sessions or stream if you’re not. Click and see.
Podcast
Get Back to Center. Find Your True North
Each week in our Podcast, we talk about the things that can bring you back to center, whether God, spirituality, community or family or all of them.
Never esoteric or abstract for its own sake; always practical and full of common sense, we’re interested in exploring the effect of what we believe on our lives and questioning what we believe in light of the deep connection we’re meant to live.
Subscribe to our podcast
Podcast
Get Back to Center. Find Your True North
Each week in our Podcast, we talk about the things that can bring you back to center, whether God, spirituality, community or family or all of them.
Never esoteric or abstract for its own sake; always practical and full of common sense, we’re interested in exploring the effect of what we believe on our lives and questioning what we believe in light of the deep connection we’re meant to live.
Subscribe to our podcast
Thoughts along the way
Blogs & Vlogs
Circles within Circles
The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. Eliot’s iconic line reminds that time is not a line, but a circle. Beginning and end one and the […]
Grateful and Amazed
What do you think of as a miracle? Seas parting, walking on water, healings? Dictionaries tell us miracles are events not explainable by natural or scientific laws. But what if an event is not explainable to or by you personally? […]
As Forgiven as We Wish
I’ve tried to make amends to people I’ve hurt in the past. Sometimes I felt reconnected. Sometimes my apology was flatly refused. Sometimes the words of forgiveness were spoken, but everyone knew nothing further was exchanged. In all of them, […]
The Fifth Way
A Western Journey to the Hebrew Heart of Jesus
When Jesus of Nazareth presented his view of God and life, he did so in a deeply ancient and Eastern way. A way completely unlike the four ways we normally approach life--a Fifth Way. Deep inside our Western world views, there is a difficult intellectual and emotional way to the Way that must be negotiated first. A jarring movement from West to East that brings us only to the starting point, to the gate of the Way to the freedom Jesus promises.
The Lord’s Prayer
Living the Aramaic Words
The most well-known prayer in Christianity has become a fixture in Western culture as well; but do we have any idea what it means? Until we peek under the veneer of translation and see the Hebrew intent underneath, we'll never understand that this model prayer was never intended to be read or recited, but to be lived. When understood from an Aramaic point of view, the five lines of the prayer jump out as a reordering of the attitude, process, and priority of our daily moments and form the basis of Jesus' one and only Way to the Father.
The Beatitudes
An Aramaic Portrait of Jesus
Haven't you often wondered what Jesus looked like? We are sometimes frustrated that there is no description of him in the Gospels. But this is not so; there is a detailed description of Jesus in the book of Matthew. The first lines of the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, paint a detailed picture. And if we want to know what Jesus “looked” like, what it was like to walk and live with him, we just need to understand these sayings from an Aramaic point of view. Because if Jesus was not the model for the Kingdom-person he describes, who is?
The Twelve Steps
and the Way of Jesus
While it's obvious why someone recovering from alcohol or drug addiction would need the Twelve Steps of AA, it's not as obvious why they would be relevant to anyone else. Truth is: we're all recovering from something... Very few of us are so healed that the Twelve Steps don't have something vital to teach. This tour through the Twelve Steps considers each step, not from the viewpoint of alcohol and substance abuse recovery, but from its most open and spiritual application—one that Jesus articulated two millennia ago, yet still applies to each of us today.
The James Book
The Wisdom of Jesus’ Brother
Did you know Jesus had a brother? Called ``the Just`` by the earliest followers of Jesus, James led the Jerusalem church for the first thirty years after the crucifixion, was the pillar of the Eastern Church and yet is relatively unknown in the West. As one of the most Jewish books of the New Testament, James gives us a uniquely clear view into the teachings of Jesus. Looking through Hebrew eyes, we see how James taught and led his brother's followers through those first difficult decades of misunderstanding and persecution from both Jewish and Roman worlds.
The Fifth Way
A Western Journey to the Hebrew Heart of Jesus
When Jesus of Nazareth presented his view of God and life, he did so in a deeply ancient and Eastern way. A way completely unlike the four ways we normally approach life--a Fifth Way. Deep inside our Western world views, there is a difficult intellectual and emotional way to the Way that must be negotiated first. A jarring movement from West to East that brings us only to the starting point, to the gate of the Way to the freedom Jesus promises.
The Lord’s Prayer
Living the Aramaic Words
The most well-known prayer in Christianity has become a fixture in Western culture as well; but do we have any idea what it means? Until we peek under the veneer of translation and see the Hebrew intent underneath, we'll never understand that this model prayer was never intended to be read or recited, but to be lived. When understood from an Aramaic point of view, the five lines of the prayer jump out as a reordering of the attitude, process, and priority of our daily moments and form the basis of Jesus' one and only Way to the Father.
The Beatitudes
An Aramaic Portrait of Jesus
Haven't you often wondered what Jesus looked like? We are sometimes frustrated that there is no description of him in the Gospels. But this is not so; there is a detailed description of Jesus in the book of Matthew. The first lines of the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, paint a detailed picture. And if we want to know what Jesus “looked” like, what it was like to walk and live with him, we just need to understand these sayings from an Aramaic point of view. Because if Jesus was not the model for the Kingdom-person he describes, who is?
The Twelve Steps
and the Way of Jesus
While it's obvious why someone recovering from alcohol or drug addiction would need the Twelve Steps of AA, it's not as obvious why they would be relevant to anyone else. Truth is: we're all recovering from something... Very few of us are so healed that the Twelve Steps don't have something vital to teach. This tour through the Twelve Steps considers each step, not from the viewpoint of alcohol and substance abuse recovery, but from its most open and spiritual application—one that Jesus articulated two millennia ago, yet still applies to each of us today.
The James Book
The Wisdom of Jesus’ Brother
Did you know Jesus had a brother? Called ``the Just`` by the earliest followers of Jesus, James led the Jerusalem church for the first thirty years after the crucifixion, was the pillar of the Eastern Church and yet is relatively unknown in the West. As one of the most Jewish books of the New Testament, James gives us a uniquely clear view into the teachings of Jesus. Looking through Hebrew eyes, we see how James taught and led his brother's followers through those first difficult decades of misunderstanding and persecution from both Jewish and Roman worlds.
About Dave
Dave Brisbin is a published author, speaker, coach, and songwriter. He is the teaching pastor of theeffect, a faith community and recovery ministry in San Clemente, CA serving those searching for deeper spiritual expression within the Christian tradition, free from limiting beliefs and behavior. He is also the executive director of Encompass Recovery, an addiction treatment center in San Juan Capistrano. Working in ministry and non-profit endeavors for the last 20 years, his prior experience directing corporate communications enables him to understand the concerns of corporate executives and bring solutions for centered living. He holds a BA in English Lit/Writing, a Masters in Divinity, and is board certified as professional pastoral counselor by the AACC and AACT.
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Contact
Get in Touch. We want to hear from you.
Whether you want to explore the benefits of one on one connection or the community of our Sunday worship and weekly workshops, we want to hear from you.
You can fill out the form at right, or if you’d like to talk right away, feel free to call the number below. And if you’re in our local area, you can join us for any of our weekly gatherings or schedule a time to talk. See our calendar for gathering times.
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