The Basics

Church was never supposed to be a place.

It was supposed to be a process…
…a journey of pilgrims holding each other’s hands on the Way to a life of meaning, purpose, identity.

What is theeffect?

Behind that question stands another: we often ask each other what we believe, when the real question is what difference it makes that we believe.

Theeffect is all about that difference. Living, both in community and as individuals, theeffect of God’s love as conveyed by the teachings of Jesus—understood from a first century, Hebrew/Aramaic point of view. This message is at once completely practical and experiential, deeply embedded in the activities of daily life and full of common sense. It always points to full inclusivity and the awareness that we are all completely accepted as we are and as connected to each other and God’s spirit as we want to be.

This message is especially powerful for addicts and alcoholics, but every one of us needs to know by experience that we are enough—that we are acceptable and loved exactly as we are right here now. And for anyone who has come to the end of their own ability to cope with business as usual—for those who have come to believe that church is irrelevant or who’ve been hurt or burned out by religion, theeffect is a place to begin again. As both a faith community and recovery ministry, we have a mix of programs and gatherings geared to help people sufficiently recover their balance from relational dysfunction and compulsive behavior to then really engage a spiritual journey.

What theeffect really is, is a way of life.

When we begin to see that our faith is not what we think but what we do, we’ve taken a step toward engaging the Way of life that Jesus taught. Everything we do at theeffect is geared toward first understanding, then experiencing, and finally living this Way–theeffect of which is a visibly transformed life.

Our gatherings are warm and intimate, and building relationship is central in everything we do. Creating a safe place where people can freely express themselves and find themselves and feel accepted without condition is our highest priority. The Way of Jesus is never passive or vicarious–it’s always passionate, experiential, involved, first-person…engaged. And so as a community, we are always looking for ways to be fully extended and expended along the Way of our own spiritual journeys.

• In study, we are looking to unlearn as much as learn in order to clear away whatever is blocking our view of God’s nature.
• In worship, we are letting go of the distraction and compulsive thinking that keeps us insulated from God’s presence.
• In service, we are finding how to lose ourselves in the lives of those who cross our paths.

Finding the connection between our faith and the moment by moment details of our lives is the thread that binds all three of these areas of growth.