In His Circle

The Transformative Power of Spiritual Community: Chantal Johnson | Ep 18

• Tiffany Windsor • Episode 18

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What if building a spiritual community could transform your life in unexpected ways? Join host Tiffany Windsor for a heartfelt conversation with author Chantal Johnson, as they explore the essence of being part of God's spiritual family. You'll gain practical insights on fostering genuine online and in-person connections, emphasizing the power of like-mindedness over mere similarities. Chantal shares her inspiring experiences from hosting a diverse Bible study group, and offers valuable advice on cultivating meaningful relationships through shared interests, whether in church, at work, or during hobbies. They highlight the enriching impact that different life stages and perspectives can bring to a spiritual community.

Discover how consistent engagement through Bible study and creative arts can become a cornerstone for building and maintaining a faith-grounded community. Listen in as Tiffany and Chantal discuss the importance of creating time for community activities that attract both believers and non-believers, offering ongoing opportunities for connection and personal growth. Chantal also introduces her book, "Blessings Beyond the Page," which delves into Psalm 119 to provide practical applications of scripture in everyday life. The episode concludes with a heartfelt prayer, encouraging listeners to seek and nurture their own communities rooted in faith and love. Don't miss this enriching discussion on how spiritual community can bring joy and deeper connections into your life.

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Announcer:

Welcome to In His Circle, from women for women. We're here to help you find peace in knowing you are in God's hands. Our goal is sharing the Word of God in simple conversations. We're here to help you thrive every day. And now, here is your host.

Tiffany Windsor:

Good morning, welcome to In His Circle. I'm Tiffany Windsor. Today we're going to talk about building spiritual community. What is it and what does it look like? And joining me is author Chantal Johnson. Chantal, welcome back to In His Circle,

Chantal Johnson:

I love this opportunity to share more and to learn more and to be part of In His Circle.

Tiffany Windsor:

Well, we're delighted to have you here, and Chantal and I met recently through mutual friends and we've had some really wonderful chats and the opportunity to get to know each other much better. We both have a common love of building community. I wanted to talk today about building spiritual community and, of course, we're going to start off with what is it and what does it look like, and we'll go into some other aspects of it. Chantal, what is spiritual community?

Chantal Johnson:

So community is kind of a buzzword, right. I think it's a wonderful word. We talk about getting connected in community. We want community.

Chantal Johnson:

Spiritual community is going to be being part of God's spiritual family. The beauty when we have the Lord, we are already in a community. We just don't always know that. And so for me, a spiritual community is going to be people, not just women, but predominantly since we are talking about, you know, we've talked about friendship before, and so we're looking at a spiritual community that we can be a part of, either on our own or, you know, if we're married or things like that. But for us as women to be part of a spiritual community, for me it's going to be a group of women, and the size can be whatever size you're comfortable with, but it's obviously a group, right, it needs to be at least like maybe three. But it's going to be those that want to build that spiritual side of friendship and community and life together. So it looks like for me, spiritual community are those that are walking with the Lord, and I get to walk with them.

Tiffany Windsor:

One of the things that's the foundation of In His Circle is building community, and it's so awesome these days how you don't have to have community with someone next door. I mean, this is worldwide. One of the things you and I share in common is we come from the creative craft industry, and so we've had a community there, but building a new spiritual community is something that's going to be new to me through Inner Circle, and so how do you suggest that we begin building a community?

Chantal Johnson:

So, again, if we're going to talk about a spiritual community online, that's going to be a little different than spiritual community in person. I think both are very important, especially in the world that we live in today. So I think community starts with you've got to have a connection. You've got to find where that connection is with someone. If we're talking about a spiritual community, it's going to be those that love the Lord.

Chantal Johnson:

I was recently on a, it was a craft retreat, but it was an online craft retreat and I was part of the teaching and I remember sharing the craft that I was doing and why I was doing it. And it had to do with belts and we had taken Western belts or leather belts and created bracelets because we were going to put the belt of truth on. It was a way for us to have a reminder of God's word. And a comment came. A live comment said I love to find those that love the Lord.

Chantal Johnson:

So I think very first and foremost is we let people know that we have the love of Jesus, not in a preachy way, not in a judgy way, because he wasn't, but that we just have that love and we want to share that and let that be the foundation of our community. So online community is probably a little different than in-person community. In person, we're going to find people through our church, through our work, through our hobbies or interests, and we're going to try to pull them and bring them not pull them, but bring them into the things that we love doing or how we love to serve. Online I'm learning that and I think Facebook and Instagram are great ways to have that spiritual community, but it needs to make sure that it's a connection and not just like a Facebook like or a part on Instagram, that it goes a little deeper, because that's what community is it's a little deeper.

Tiffany Windsor:

What I love about this is that I have been seeking my community. I've been divorced for many, many years, I have no children, and so I missed all of the moms who have the children and growing up and staying in community through different events with the children and being married and all of that. So there's all different types of community and that's what I love about this.

Chantal Johnson:

There are, and in fact that's the beauty of community. We don't necessarily want to find people who are like us. We want to find people who are like-minded, and that's very different. Like us is that you need to like what I like, do what I do, go where I go, shop where I shop. That's being like me. But being like-minded is having that mind of Christ that says I want to offer hospitality, I want to be generous, I want to serve, I want to cook for people, I want to visit people. That is like-minded and we all can do that.

Chantal Johnson:

What I love to find in community is the commonality of Jesus. But then we can all be different. I host a Bible study every week in my home and there's about 15 to 20. And there are very few of us at the same life stage and I love that because there is energy, there is wisdom, there is growth. That happens. And I find that if we're all the same, sometimes we need someone to either challenge us or we need someone to teach, and so I want our spiritual community to look different in the fact that, yes, we're like-minded but we have different gifts and talents and we're to use them all to share God's grace.

Tiffany Windsor:

What I love is the commonality that you and I have is how, when I was very active doing my creative work and was connected with a huge audience, at that time our tagline was changing lives through creativity, and to me, it's such a perfect way to bring people together. Now a lot of women may say, well, I'm not creative, I can't do any of that. But what I've loved learning about you, chantal, and learning about the creative projects that you do and how you tie it in, is that anyone can do this. You take away this factor of I can't or I'm intimidated, to include everyone.

Chantal Johnson:

Yeah, and that is really important and I think for me and thank you for saying that but it is so important to include everyone and to give the idea that we are all creative and a part of creating a community is getting creative on how we build that community. And one thing I have found for the love of art my mom is from France. I learned how to crochet when I was like six. I learned how to embroider when I was probably six. I've learned how to do all kinds of things and then over the years I've been on design teams and I've done all different kinds of things and the thing you hear is, oh, you can do that, but I could never do that. And the thing you hear is, oh, you can do that, but I could never do that.

Chantal Johnson:

And I think we serve a creative God and therefore we are made in his image. We are creative. We just don't necessarily all have the same creativity, but it's all there. And so in Bible study and this is great for community in general, for me, for Bible study I don't want us just to open a book, whether it's a, whether you know a Bible study or the Bible or things that I don't want to just open it and put it right back on the shelf and forget what we did.

Chantal Johnson:

So I try to create unique reminders and it's through the arts and crafts process, if you will of God's love for us and the things that we've learned. And they range from simple stringing beads on elastic and making a bracelet with the charm to creating verse card holders, and what I do is I'll have some say, oh, I can't do that, and I'll say you can, you can't step by step, or they get to do as little or as much embellishments. I have some that will embellish till midnight and I have some that will be done at 8.15 and we started at 8.10, you know. But it builds community and I think we can find creative ways to do that. So mine's through arts and crafts and I love to bake and I host and I love to do all that.

Chantal Johnson:

But somebody really may love thinking of the art world. You know cookie decorating. So you build a community. You love to garden, you build a community around that and it can always be God centered. And then we go out and we do those things. And then, as a community, we go out and we serve and we love and we do those things that God has called us to do.

Tiffany Windsor:

I think you're kind of answering my next question, but one of the depths of resistance for a lot of people is I don't have time. You know, I have so many other commitments. How does one start a new community that feels is going to serve and be able to bring in the right people who will come at that time? Because building community is about staying in community, not coming and going in pieces.

Chantal Johnson:

And so first, I think we have to decide that community is really important, and a lot of times we say we don't have time for things, we don't have time for that, I don't have any more time. Well, we need to maybe step back and say what do we have time for things? We don't have time for that, I don't have any more time. Well, we need to maybe step back and say what do we have time for? Is there an area? Am I going to the coffee shop and reading a book? Okay, we can put community in there. Am I watching a little bit of, you know, binge watching? We could put community in there.

Chantal Johnson:

Not that any of those things are inherently bad or negative, but if we want to build community and God calls us to build community, but community can be right where we live, with who we already know.

Chantal Johnson:

And then, when you've made community important and you want to share that, you're going to have people that want community and you're going to have people that say they want community and there's a difference. People that want community will be in their day in, day out, or however often. So, for, like example, my Bible study is an extension of my community and I offer it to everyone and the door is again open, always room for one more. I have some that come every time and I have some that come some of the time, and that's okay with me, because I want to be the one to offer the opportunity for community. So it's always opportunity for community, so it's always there for people. And so I think also, when you say I don't have time and then you create the time, then you see how much it's invested and worth your time and you'll want to keep that community going and you'll find creative ways and then you'll love the people that come for the short term or the long term.

Tiffany Windsor:

Yeah, Are you finding that you are gathering non-believers and believers into your community through the creative yes, yes, I am.

Chantal Johnson:

That's one area of the creative arts for us and, tiffany, we've known this that there is a beautiful process in that creative arts, no matter which one it is, I think, because everyone can come, everyone can learn, everyone can laugh at their mistakes. We learn to embrace all of the things that go with that. And so when you offer that because I have Bible study with, with creative arts, and then I just have some creative arts that I opened to everyone, knowing that some may or may not know the Lord, and that's just a beautiful way to say, hey, we just want to share that love and the joy that comes from this. So for me, I have both, and I have also women that come from very different denominational backgrounds or no background, and what a beautiful thing it is to see how much we really do have in common when we focus on what God has to say about community and friendship and love and life and things like that.

Tiffany Windsor:

Well said, because we do have a lot in common and there are these false walls that are put up that don't need to be there. So that's awesome. As I mentioned, chantal is an author and this is her book. Can you tell us a bit about Beyond the Page?

Chantal Johnson:

It's Blessings Beyond the Page and it's a look at Psalm 119. It's the longest Psalm and it's just rich. It's rich with practical applications and the way. I love the lens. The Psalmist writes about how he views God's word, and so I took that and I looked at obviously not every verse, but a big portion of it and found 25 blessings that come from the pages of scripture that don't just stay there. And so it's designed, can be done individually or as a group. It has a part one which is a five day, which could be a retreat, it could be just a short study, and then part two is 20 days, and so it's kind of like a Monday through Friday type thing, and what I do is, when I teach these types of studies, we meet once a week and we talk about the week before.

Chantal Johnson:

The method that I love to use is to write out the scripture that we are focusing on it's called a precept and then to handwrite a scripture. That is what we're to ponder or to meditate on, and then some practical. You know, what are you gaining from the scriptures? And then, what praise do we give In Nehemiah it talks about when Nehemiah read the word of the Lord, the people wept because they didn't know, and then, once they knew the word, they went and had a celebration, and so there's always a praise when you come after reading God's word. And I love this because you can take this as deep as you want, you can get commentaries, you can look up Greek and Hebrew and all this, or you can just literally write out a scripture and write out your thoughts and all this, or you can just literally write out a scripture and write out your thoughts.

Tiffany Windsor:

I love how you have laid out this book, because you give a lot of information and then room for us to take notes. And I love that it's day after day after day, because that encourages us to stay on the path of completing, and it's a beautiful way to engage with the Lord every day, and it's just beautiful. Where can our listeners find your book?

Chantal Johnson:

They can find it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Walmart online, pretty much where books are sold, all right.

Tiffany Windsor:

Thank you so much. I look forward to welcoming you back to In A Circle for a future podcast and may I ask you to pray us out today.

Chantal Johnson:

Absolutely, and I look forward to being back with all of y'all and I hope just everything we talk about just points you to a love of Jesus deeper and to love his people more. Let's pray, god. We thank you for this day, for the beauty, for the blessings. We thank you for community, how you designed it for us, because you know how beneficial and how blessings just come from community. I pray that we all seek community, that we find community, that we be a catalyst for our communities to know you more. We pray this in Jesus' name Amen.

Announcer:

Thank you for joining us for today's podcast. For more information, go to InHisCirclecom. Sign up for our newsletter and social media. We love your feedback. Please leave reviews, comments and subscribe to this podcast to help us get the word out about In His Circle. Thank you and, dear friends, have a blessed day.

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