
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.
https://theeffect.org/resources/videos-streaming
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

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

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.





