Chapter Six: Continually Immersed in Jesu
/“O Lord, who has mercy on all, take away from me my sins, and mercifully kindle in me the fire of your Holy Spirit. Take away from me the heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh, a heart to love and adore you, a heart to delight in you, to follow and enjoy you, for Christ's sake.”
— Ambrose: c.339-397
“Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
— Jesus, as quoted in John 4:14
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One of the fruits to emerge from the thousands of hours spent sitting with individuals and small groups in Jesus’ presence was a “public face” for Touchstone’s work.
For nearly 30 years Touchstone hosted what became known as “Touchstone Forums.” These events served as a platform for bankers, lawyers, accountants, and investment people to discuss challenges, opportunities, and ethics in their professional worlds.
Many people worked hard with me over several years—meeting for dinner in the evening, for coffee on the weekend, or on retreat. We learned from one another. But in the process, I learned how to live my life in a marketplace that doesn’t necessarily feel holy but is holy because the presence of God is there. Out of that learning came the structure and content of our Forums, with many of these same men and women teaching at these events from their own experience of life and God.
One particularly memorable Forum, which took place at the Ontario Legislative Building, Queen’s Park, began with a conversation between three friends. Tom McCullough was a senior executive with one of the big banks when the government of Conservative Premier Mike Harris was cutting taxes for the rich and benefits for the poor. I remember Tom saying that he struggled with getting a tax cut on the backs of women who were having their welfare payments reduced. Frank Klees, another good friend, served in the Harris cabinet implementing some of these programs. Rick Tobias, who ran Yonge Street Mission, was the third member of the conversation. I arranged for the three to meet and discuss these issues, all as people of faith, but who came from very different perspectives.
Their conversation led to a Touchstone Forum, where a couple of hundred people gathered at the Queen’s Park dining room. Voices of the poor were included on video, and we had a very long conversation about why Frank was doing what he was doing as a politician, why Rick was doing what he was doing as a servant of the poor, and why Tom had the moral doubts that he did. Our first objective was to demonstrate that you could have civilized conversation with people who were coming from very different points of view, while at the same time grappling with difficult societal issues. And we succeeded that night in a wonderful way, creating an environment in which people of affluence and power were confronted with the voices of the poor and with some of the struggles that we all face in trying to figure out how to exercise power and use our money wisely for the good of our society.
One friend who participated was a senior person with an investment firm who, through his foundation, engaged in serious philanthropy. After that event he said that he realized philanthropy had to be about more than just being generous and giving money; he needed to become an advocate for those who are poor.
Through Touchstone Forums we explored ego, pride, wealth, and all manner of temptations. Sometimes, there were surprises. At one Forum—which was held at the National Club, on the theme of addictions to money, shopping, work, and alcohol—one fellow stood up and confessed to the scores of people present that he was a sexual addict, before reading aloud a passage about addictions that I had assigned him from Catholic priest and theologian Ron Rolheiser. He had a private story he was dealing with, but he willingly made himself vulnerable that day.
One spring, we had a series of Forums about justice, focussing on street people and prisoners. Ron Nikkel, of Prison Fellowship International, spoke at one of the events about restorative justice. At another, Greg Paul from Sanctuary, together with Dion Oxford and Luke Allen from Salvation Army Gateway spoke about their lives in service to the homeless and the poor. And then we brought together a group of people—business guys Peter Bouffard, Richard Innes, Mike Wilson, and street worker Steve Martin—who each spoke about how they responded to the prophet Micah’s reflection recorded in Micah 6:8, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Eileen Henderson, Director of Circles of Support, co-sponsored a Forum with Franciscan priest Brennan Manning, author of The Ragamuffin Gospel, and Abba’s Child. Our crowd found his writing helpful, so I was pleased to have Touchstone offer this event. Circles of Support served sexual offenders who had recently been released from prison, providing support with the aim of keeping them from re-offending. I wanted to interview Eileen before we heard from Manning. I asked her, “Why should this audience, who probably think, ‘Put them in jail, lock them up, and throw away the key,’ care about the work you are doing to support sexual offenders?” Eileen responded, “First, in God’s economy, there are no throwaways. Second, and this will be harder to hear, you want me doing what I am doing to keep these men from re-offending to protect your kids and your grandkids.” To this day, many people who were there say that they don’t remember a word of what Brennan Manning had to say, but they never forgot what Eileen said about the actual, practical implications of somebody doing the social service work that she was doing in and through Circles of Support.
Touchstone Forums seemed to resonate with audiences, who may not have known the speakers firsthand, but would identify with their experiences in the trenches.
Beyond the Forums, Touchstone also held celebratory events around anniversaries, jazz nights, and dances—excuses to come together socially in friendship. And for 25 years our “Holy Land Tour” took golf foursomes to North Carolina where we combined playing with praying.
At the same time my work and friendships with leaders in the faith marketplace provided many and significant opportunities for me to speak into their respective worlds.
Ron Nikkel, for example, has been a friend for nearly 50 years. We met in our youth ministry days. By the time Touchstone emerged, Ron was president of Prison Fellowship International (PFI) in Washington D.C. Over the subsequent decades, Touchstone remained small and located mainly in one community while Ron built an international organization with well over 100 affiliates. Our missions were different but our friendship, even at a distance, drew us into regular conversation. Eventually we scheduled two-day retreats twice a year alternating between cottages near where we each lived.
We both have rich meditative lives, and during these retreats we explored tools for structuring our times together. We’ve used Ignatian, Franciscan, Celtic, and Orthodox prayers and liturgies, blended with plenty of silence to enable the Spirit to interrupt. Things that were helpful to us quickly found their way to my business circles, and groups of faith-based leaders. But helpful prayers and practices also found their way to larger organizational gatherings.
For instance, every four years Ron hosted a large event for PFI, which brought together 1,000 people from more than 100 countries representing many language groups; often, six or seven languages would be simultaneously translated during large group times. At Ron’s invitation, I began leading non-denominational morning prayers starting in the late 90’s at PFI Conferences in Washington, Bulgaria, as well as in Hong Kong and other places. (Normally, at these gatherings, Eastern Orthodox Christians conducted their own morning prayers, Roman Catholics conducted a mass, and I lead the non-denominational prayers.)
But we had quite a remarkable experience at a conference in 2001 in South Africa.
There were a couple of hundred of us in attendance. As usual, I lead the non-denominational morning prayers, the Catholics celebrated Mass, and the Orthodox had their own separate liturgy.
On the final evening, we were scheduled to concelebrate Communion with the Protestants (in all their variety), the Catholics, and the Orthodox. It was to be a complex but wonderful experience, one that Ron would negotiate with care. On the last morning the Catholics decided that since they were scheduled to have Eucharist that evening, they would join the non-denominational prayers. When word got out about that, the Orthodox also joined in.
I believe the Spirit offered a grace note in anticipation of this development because I had selected as the opening prayer this prayer from an early church father (whom all three faith traditions regard highly) Ambrose of Milan:
“O Lord, who has mercy on all, take away from me my sins, and mercifully kindle in me the fire of your Holy Spirit. Take away from me the heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh, a heart to love and adore you, a heart to delight in you, to follow and enjoy you, for Christ's sake.” (Ambrose: c.339-397)
The morning went as planned, with some quiet reflection on a Gospel story and some additional commentary from me. The Orthodox are averse to much North American evangelical preaching and teaching, but what I did in our common time seemed to be okay. And that night, as the con-celebrated communion was beginning, the Orthodox bishop stood to offer some comments. He removed his kamilávka—a cylindrical, clerical headdress—and placed it on his shoulder, signaling, I was told, that he was about to give a blessing.
Speaking through one of the interpreters, the bishop told us that that morning he’d had a wonderful experience; it was the first time in his life he had experienced the whole Body of Christ.
As a result, Ron and I discussed the possibility of creating something similar for the large Prison Fellowship International Convocation that was due to take place in Toronto in the summer of 2003. And we began to plan for morning prayers that all three Christian faith groups could attend.
The first morning I was scared to death. I stood in front of a thousand people—not as a representative of Touchstone, but as friend of the President; it was Ron who would face any negative repercussions that would ensue if things didn’t go well. I knew that what we were attempting was risky.
In opening, I told those assembled that I live in “Headwaters” country, with rivers going north and south from where we live an hour north of Toronto; the Humber, the Grand, and the Credit rivers all go south. The Nottawasaga and other rivers go north. Susan and I live right at the junction, where water travels down many, many streams for recreation, for beauty, for cleansing, for swimming, and for refreshment. You can imagine, within an hour of us, kids swimming, people fishing and canoeing, water treatment plants providing nourishment and refreshment to hundreds of thousands—maybe millions—of people. We can play happily in water; it leads to laughter and enjoyment, shared memories.
So, all these rivers go in different directions and have different names and different attributes, but they all come from the same source, which is the headwaters of Ontario in the Niagara escarpment.
“Here today we represent many streams of faith,” I said. “We are Roman Catholic, we are Protestant, we are Orthodox. Within each of those mainstreams, there are all kinds of mini streams. But we are coming together with Jesus as our headwaters. We each have different streams of that faith in which we play, learn, grow, and are refreshed. We are very different. We don’t pretend that we agree with each other; we don’t pretend that we all have the same faith. We don’t pretend that we agree on things like communion, our understanding of revelation, our understanding of community. There are a whole lot of things that we disagree on. But we do share the same Head: Jesus Christ.”
As I prepared for that conference, I realized that the headwaters illustration was an important metaphor for me, because it was out of all those traditions that I was learning and discovering how to serve. How could I find prayers, Scriptures, processes, and practices for listening to God that would be invitational to each person—and all the assembled people—without excluding anybody?
Through God’s grace those morning sessions became wonderful times of prayer, reflection, and kindness shared amongst people of diverse language, culture, and denominational background. In later convocations we repeated the practice of having communal morning prayers, and they were something that people looked forward to; they were one of the few times in any of our experiences where all traditions could be together under one roof, and somehow, worship together.
Of course, Ron was not the only leader who opened such doors for Touchstone; I’ve had the privilege of serving widely diverse audiences, thanks to invitations that came through friendships with people like Brian Stiller (World Evangelical Alliance), John Vissers (Knox College at the University of Toronto), singer-songwriter and minister Glen Soderholm, Rick Tobias (Yonge Street Mission), David Stiller (Opportunity International Canada) and many other leaders of faith-based organizations. My individual faith practices were shaped as I searched for ways to bring spiritual reflection to colleagues in their organizations. I came to these opportunities always as “a friend” of the president, pastor, executive director, or chairman of the board, which allowed me to say: “I am here out of friendship. I am not here out of self-promotion or a desire to sell anything.”
It was the hours spent sitting in pairs that allowed those wider audiences to be engaged. And it was the hours spent exploring all the various streams and practices of the Christian faith that convinced me that while each can be satisfying on its own, they all have faith-enriching things to offer us.
But I recognize that I have been fortunate to wade in these diverse waters. I have paddled in the Jesuit creek, swam in the Franciscan lake, and sat by the rivers of the Celtic tradition at Holy Island. Certainly, in my own background as a Baptist, water was an important metaphor. Baptism was an act of obedience, but more important was the conviction that when we went down into the waters of baptism and then were raised up, we would become people who would walk in newness of life. I am convinced that being immersed in Jesus is what we need.
And that has been my life’s passion—to be continually immersed in Jesus, bathed in the presence of his life, so that then, when we surface into the myriad activities that compose our everyday lives, we do so walking in newness and freshness of life, in and through him.
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A Touchstone Testimonial
Norm and I met from opposite ends of youth work—Norm in ministry with mostly suburban middle-class and privileged kids, while I worked with troubled youth who were largely urban, poor, and socially marginalized. Our ministries could not have been more different, yet we were drawn together in realizing that there was ultimately little difference between my “down and out” kids and his privileged “up and out” kids. Although there was a vast separation between our respective geographies and cultures, and no small degree of antipathy between our groups, the goal and means of our respective ministries were the same—unconditional friendship in the name of Jesus.
Our own friendship with each other grew as we recognized the deep love of Christ for the underprivileged and overprivileged alike. At the same time Norm and I became increasingly aware of our own dissatisfaction with not only the social, political, and economic binaries that defined the worth and dignity of persons, but also the religious binaries that fostered judgmentalism and excluded the “undeserving” and the “different.”
Our ministry experiences and struggles propelled both of us to seek the deeper meaning of our faith and the inclusive love of Christ. I hungered for a deeper relationship with Christ, which led me to explore the riches inherent in the spiritual disciplines and practices of the Desert Fathers and Mothers and ancient communities of faith. Following several retreats in a Trappist monastery I pursued studies in spirituality at a Jesuit University and found common spiritual ground with people from different church and cultural backgrounds than my own. It was both satisfying and compelling and affirmed my deepening desire to focus on Jesus plus nothing (only Christ at the centre).
Norm was on a similar journey and our friendship grew even more meaningful as we began sharing our experiences and insights during times of personal retreat and reflection. Although our vocations were taking us in different directions with Norm developing Touchstone through ministry primarily among top executives and leaders in Canada, I was developing the outreach of Prison Fellowship International through working with key political, social, and religious leaders around the world. While Norm was building relationships with business leaders, among them those in personal crisis, he was also working to connect them with social issues of poverty, homelessness, and justice. Meanwhile, I was building relationships among people imprisoned and building connections among Christian leaders to work for justice and reconciliation among prisoners and communities.
Norm and I spoke frequently about our respective challenges and met several times a year to share our struggles. Our spiritual companionship grew through mutual encouragement, spiritual conversation, and holding each other to account as leaders. The understanding, support, and trust that grew between us sustained me through some of my most difficult and conflictive times in building a global ministry of reconciliation focused on Jesus Christ instead of ecclesial and theological definitions as well as the ever-present dynamics of racial and cultural superiority.
I trusted Norm as a friend and comrade in Christ whom I could count on, no matter what. Norm’s ministry in Touchstone resonated with spiritual integrity focused on Jesus that was expressed in his relationships with leaders across a wide spectrum of differences. His spirituality as a follower of Jesus was evidenced through the inclusive work of Touchstone. Norm understood and supported me and the ministry I was trying to do through PFI. He connected well with many of our key leaders from other countries. Because of our friendship and trust they were open to Norm who was able to speak simply and strategically into the complex leadership milieu of the disparate Christian traditions, cultural orientations, and political stripes comprising the PFI world. Through relationships and teaching he encouraged a sense of unity in diversity, with the compelling vision and reality of our “Headwaters—Jesus Christ alone.
— Ron Nikkel, President Emeritus, Prison Fellowship International
Questions for reflection or discussion:
Norm opens this chapter by describing Touchstone Forums as a “fruit” of the thousands of hours spent in intimate conversation with others, “in the presence of Jesus.” How do you practice the presence of Jesus in your life?
What are some of the fruits you have seen from practicing the presence of Jesus?
Norm references “the struggles that we all face in trying to figure out how to exercise power and use our money wisely for the good of our society.” What struggles do you face—or have you faced—as you have reflected on how to exercise the power and money (or other resources) you have been given for the wider good of our society?
As Norm’s work with Touchstone matured over the decades, God opened doors of opportunity for him to serve in some remarkable ways. Out of the various events and anecdotes that Norm describes, which one(s) strike you as holding lessons for your own life? Why?
Throughout this book, Norm describes various Christian faith prayers and practices that enriched not only his own life, but also his ministry to others. Which “streams” of the faith intrigue you? Which one(s) might you like to further explore?
Norm concludes the chapter saying that his life’s passion has been to be continually immersed in Jesus. What is your life’s passion?
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