Featured Events

You can find all the details on the latest stuff going on at theeffect right here. For a month-at-a-glance look at all gatherings and events, see our Calendar.

book study: Roaming Free Inside the Cage: Online

wednesdays | 6:30PM | online study, starting July 2025

book study: Roaming Free Inside the Cage: A Daoist Approach to the Enneagram and Spiritual Transformation

We are working through the book, Roaming Free Inside the Cage by William Schafer PhD. The subtitle, A Daoist Approach to the Enneagram and Spiritual Transformation, brings multiple layers of meaning to a study of the Enneagram. Ancient Chinese Dao’s insistence that we won’t find our Way in isolation or the abstract, but inextricably tied to the substance of each lived moment, is the hallmark of Jesus’ Way and Kingdom, so the Enneagram takes on much more than a personality typing system. It becomes another tool for self-discovery, healing, and transformation.

Book summary from Amazon:
We are born with our hearts and arms open wide-trusting, confident, and brimming with vibrant life energy. Over time, though, the challenges of life constrain that flow, leaving us unbalanced. We often find ourselves stuck in inertia, exhausted by overdoing, or strained and preoccupied with trying to control everything. Roaming Free Inside the Cage will help you identify your unique pattern of imbalance and reclaim your inborn freedom so that you can move forward with clarity of vision, confidence in your own power, and composure in the face of life’s adversities. “There is much to digest and absorb here, principles and practices, history, symbolism, and poetic expression. This work requires only the caution that, as in much that is written about the Enneagram, we are dealing with subjective internal experience rather than objective external measurement. This is a book on experience of, rather than knowledge about. Come to it with a willingness to use the principles of optimal learning, be receptive and grounded in order to open your heart and mind with curiosity, and have the expectation of benefit. Then you will indeed benefit greatly from this fundamental, deep and penetrating work on the Enneagram and the Dao.” -David Daniels, M.D., September 2009, Clinical Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Stanford Medical School

Order your book as soon as possible. The Amazon link is here.

Our weekly book study meets online via Zoom connection, Wednesday evenings @ 6:30P PST. Click here for links and more information. Come join us to dive into a different world of experience and a different level of presence. Hope to see you on the little screen for this!

And if you want to see our archives of past book studies and workshops, click here to visit our Workshop Youtube channel.

book study: Just This: Online

wednesdays | 6:30PM | online study

book study: Just This: Prompts and Practices for Contemplation

We are working through the book, Just This by Richard Rohr. The book is a collection of meditations on the contemplative life and mindset and what it brings to our daily experience. A more recent book by Rohr, it captures his thoughts on contemplative practice as he winds up his career and moves into a less visible place in his ministry and work. Seems it will be a great follow on to Br. Lawrence and his practice of presence.

Book summary from Amazon:
Just This is a collection of brief and evocative meditations and practices that invite us to cultivate the gift of waking up to the beauty of reality in all its glorious ordinariness. With his signature blend of contemplation, theology, and pastoral sensitivity, Fr Richard Rohr creates a spaciousness for the soul to grow into a kind of seeing that goes far beyond merely looking to recognizing and thus appreciating. This is the heart of contemplation, the centerpiece of any inner dialogue that frees us from the traps of our perceptions and preoccupations. The contemplative mind does not tell us what to see; it teaches us how to see what we behold.

Order your book as soon as possible. The Amazon link is here.

 

Our weekly book study meets online via Zoom connection, Wednesday evenings @ 6:30P PST. Click here for links and more information. Come join us to dive into a different world of experience and a different level of presence. Hope to see you on the little screen for this!

And if you want to see our archives of past book studies and workshops, click here to visit our Workshop Youtube channel.

Conversations: Online

Conversations

tuesdays | 6:30 PM | online

Conversations: applying faith to life

Sunday morning messages go by quickly.

And the format doesn’t give time for the processing and discussion that gets us down to real understanding–and maybe more importantly, how concepts and issues actually apply to daily life and make it better. Tuesday evenings, we’ll dig back into material from the previous Sunday to discuss, dive into completely new topics, hear personal stories, see how our faith applies to real life…and makes it better.

Conversations is held online via Zoom connection. Click here for links and more information. Join us Tuesdays: 6:30PM PST.

And if you want to see our archives of past book studies and workshops, click here to visit our Workshop Youtube channel.

Prayer: Online Gathering

Conversations

first mondays of month | 6:30 PM | online gathering

Prayer: stronger together

Since the pandemic started, we’ve been isolated to one degree or another, and the issues we face individually and collectively, in our families, community, nation, globe seem to have increased exponentially.

Praying together and having time to talk about the issues we face and for what we’re grateful, to listen and support and realize God’s empowerment in our lives is what this gathering is all about. Come join us online to pray and support each other when we need it most.

You can pray with us through Zoom connection online. Click here for links and more information.

Join us on the first Monday of each month: 6:30PM PST.

Latest News

Upcoming events, announcements, ministry updates, blogs.

Message Archive

Watch us live online, watch and listen to archived messages and gatherings.

Personal Stories

Stories from people who’ve experienced the effect of theeffect in their lives.

Everyone is recovering from something… Admitting this is the first step in spiritual life, because any unfinished business in our lives–trauma, unforgiveness, fear-based perceptions–fosters compulsive behavior and keeps us from connecting spiritually and emotionally.

Since we’re all recovering, we accept everyone right as they are—no expiration dates or deadlines. We don’t tell anyone what to believe or do. We present points of view that we hope will engage seekers in their own journey; help them unlearn limiting perceptions, beliefs, and compulsions; give opportunities to get involved in community, building the trust we all need to find real identity, meaning, and purpose. In other words, to engage the transforming Way of living life that Jesus called Kingdom…non-religiously understood from a first century Hebrew point of view.

 

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Embedded in the fun and laughter of each of our gatherings and events is the connection and accountability as well as the structure, discipline, and opportunity for service that authentic community is all about. We help create programs for physical support, emotional recovery, and spiritual formation that can meet any person’s needs. Such programs work at two levels: first to address a person’s physical and emotional stability—clinical, financial, relational, professional—anything that distracts from working on the second level: true spiritual formation centered around the contemplative way of life defined by an original Hebrew understanding of the message of Jesus.

Rather than telling people what to believe or think, we model and encourage engagement in a personal and communal spiritual journey that allows people to experience their own worthiness of connection and acceptance, to find the freedom from underlying fears that brings real meaning and purpose into focus.

 

Effect in Action

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Seeing ourselves as a learning and recovery community that worships together, the focus isn’t on Sunday morning alone, but on every day of the week as we gather for worship, healing and support workshops, studies, 12 step meetings, counseling and mentoring sessions, referral services, and social events.

Our Sunday gathering starts at 10AM and includes worship with one of the best worship bands in the area. We also have online discussion and study groups on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 6:30P PST. See our interactive calendar and our Facebook page to stay in touch with what is happening each week. You can also sign up on our elist for email enews updates.

 

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