February 6, 2024
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Today begins a new series we’re calling “Seeking the Soul: Heart-to-Heart Conversations with the People of Rolling Ridge.” On the first Tuesday of each month in 2024, we’ll be sharing a question-and-answer style interview, between Michael Reed, our Associate Director, with one of our program leaders—the people who help make Rolling Ridge such a vibrant spiritual community. Through insightful and thought-provoking questions, we'll delve into the lives and perspectives of our program leaders, offering you a glimpse into the heart and soul of Rolling Ridge. We hope you’ll enjoy these conversations as much as we do!
Starting off our series is John Kiemele, Rolling Ridge's Listening Collective Director. John's journey with Rolling Ridge began a few years ago, when he moved to New England from the Pacific Northwest, and sought us out as a welcoming contemplative community. He became our program director in 2019—just in time for the COVID pandemic to strike! Over the last few years, John has worked to streamline our core programming, and has recently helped us launch our new ‘Listening Collective,’ with a focus on connecting, supporting and training spiritual directors/deep listeners. As John himself shares, collaborating and growing alongside other spiritual listeners brings him immense joy. Here’s more from Michael’s conversation with John…
“My training in spiritual direction emerged after nearly 20 years in church ministry. I was serving as pastor of education on staff in a local church in the Pacific Northwest when God started deepening my own awareness that education was more about transformation than information. I met the founder of SoulStream from Abbotsford, British Columbia, and as he shared about spiritual direction training from their contemplative perspective, I almost instantly felt a resonance with him and a desire to develop this kind of listening ministry. Once a month for the next two years, I made a three-hour trip each way to gather and train in spiritual direction with this inspiring contemplative community. I felt totally at home and stretched and affirmed. After my formal training, I witnessed deep listening impacting people in my pastoral ministry, and soon realized I was called to develop deep listening and contemplative living beyond my local church.”
“I was a good student, a poor athlete, did well in music, writing, and the arts, deeply invested in my local church, adept in leadership roles, respectful, friendly yet not highly social, focused, determined, inclusive, creative, imaginative, curious.
“While most of those threads still exist to one degree or another, perhaps some of the significant shifts I have experienced since leaving my rural, insular life on the prairies of North Dakota involve developing whole-person contemplative living, relaxing rigidness and living more open and porous to the world around me, experiencing God beyond our containers, finding fullness of life in the present moment, allowing time for transformation, the vital interconnectedness of all living beings, the power and necessity of awe.”
“Various contemplative practices come to mind—for example, lectio divina, visio divina, examen, silence, centering prayer, breath prayers—as well as other things, such as the Eucharist, connection with nature, playing the Native American flute, drumming, and mindful walking.”
“Covid hit shortly after I started at Rolling Ridge and forced almost everyone to pivot to online. Since then most of my work with Rolling Ridge has remained online. Being online has allowed for creative adjustments, helped maintain vital and regular contact with leadership teams for our various program pieces, and has widened the reach and involvement in our opportunities beyond New England. One challenge for me is that in matters of deep listening presence matters, and while the level of presence experienced online can be surprising, there is still something important about being physically present. Incarnation matters. When my wife and I are back in the Boston area, I try to connect as much as I can, though my main presence is online.”
A good cup of hot chai tea and freshly baked bread.
“Deep Listening is not problem solving, analysis, diagnosis, or therapy; it is not traditional discipleship or mentoring or coaching. It is cultivating the time and space to be respectfully present and to connect beneath what is being expressed by another in the moment, and then, through grace-filled conversation, stirring timely attention and evoking awareness and recognition of God’s possible movements and invitations. Deep Listening is about multi-level listening, mutual trust, prayerful presence, compassionate companionship, non-agenda interaction, Divine invitations, inner wisdom, generative awareness. An example of Deep Listening might be sitting with someone wrestling with a transition at work and listening with them to their often hidden and real desires, their sense of God’s invitations, their capacities to respond in ways congruent with who they know themselves to be. Attending, evoking, holding, trusting — these are some of the rhythms of Deep Listening.”
“‘Way of the Heart’ is starting this month, so that is getting lots of energy and attention right now. I’m always excited to introduce people to contemplative living and the power of pause — the power of listening and awakening to Love in their spiritual journeys. Our various SoulCare groups offer life-giving connections as we continue in culturally troubling times. And of course The Listening Collective in all its expressions as it helps us focus our attention and resources to connecting, training and supporting spiritual directors/deep listeners.”
“It always makes me smile whenever I witness participants in ‘Way of the Heart’ really grasp that transformation is not our work but God’s. I see shoulders drop, hear big sighs, and sense hearts opening wider to the grace-filled invitation to cease our striving and consent to God’s initiating, transforming love.”
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“The Listening Collective is an effort to focus our time, attention and resources to enhance the lives and practices of spiritual directors/deep listeners. This idea emerged as Larry [Jay] and I talked about how we might create a stronger, sustainable sense of community with the various aspiring and seasoned spiritual directors/deep listeners associated with Rolling Ridge, as well as others. The way spirituality is evolving in North America and how the landscape of religion is shifting, I think the growth and possibilities of a community like this are timely and amazing, considering the ongoing need for vibrant connections, support, and continuing education. I am excited about the increased depth, breadth, and diversity that are possible within The Listening Collective.”
By contacting Rolling Ridge, either through the designated link on the Rolling Ridge website or by emailing the Ridge directly at thestaff@rollingridge.org.
For someone with little to no experience in contemplative practices or listening as a ministry, we recommend our course “Way of the Heart” as a good way to become grounded in the heart and skills before moving on to “Gateways to God,” our two-year training course in missional spiritual direction. If someone already has a discerned call to spiritual direction and previous experience in deep listening then applying directly to “Gateways to God” would be an option for them.
Henri Nouwen. At a time when my heart felt hollow and dry, one of his profound books found its way to my desk. Having never heard of this author before, I felt strangely seen and heard. Since then his writings consistently have added dimension, texture, and inspiration to my journey through his articulate authenticity, his wide arms and wider heart, his insights, perspectives and questions, his courage, his groundedness, his ordinary and compelling love of God/Spirit.
Start dealing with our personal “Inner Critics” in compassionate, resourceful ways…or…stop allowing unmitigated Fear to dictate our thinking and actions.
Love…and all the courageous voices and advocates reflecting God’s heart.
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The above conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Want to get in touch with John? Click here to email John. Whether it’s about chai tea and freshly baked bread, or how you can get more involved with Rolling Ridge, he’d love to hear from you.
Rolling Ridge Retreat & Conference Center
660 Great Pond Road, North Andover, MA 01845
978-682-8815 thestaff@rollingridge.org
www.rollingridge.org
Rev. Michael Reed serves as the Associate Executive Director of Rolling Ridge, and is an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church. Michael oversees key areas of management, marketing, communications, and fundraising for the Ridge. Prior to joining Rolling Ridge in 2022, he was the founder and Executive Director of the Maker's Place in Trenton, NJ. With graduate degrees in Biblical studies and Christian theology, as well as a passion for putting faith into action, Michael brings together spiritual insight and practical nonprofit experience to his work at Rolling Ridge.
Rolling Ridge Retreat and Conference Center
660 Great Pond Road
North Andover, MA, 01845
thestaff@rollingridge.org
Phone: (978) 682-8815
Fax: (978) 681-1162
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