TOUCHSTONE
Offering, encouraging and teaching friendship in Christ to leaders in the business, political, arts and spiritual marketplaces.
Welcome to Touchstone
Touchstone is a loosely linked community focused on offering, encouraging and teaching friendship in Christ to leaders in the business, political, arts and spiritual marketplaces.
Spiritual Friendship Now in Print!
A Special Announcement!
We interrupt this series of Monday Thoughts to let you know that over the past numbers of years Norm has been writing a book and it has now been published!
“Spiritual Friendship, The Art of Being Friends with God and a few Others” is now available for your reading pleasure.
From the back cover:
“The idea of spiritual friendship is ancient. Yet for many modern Christians, the concept of being vulnerable and transparent with another pilgrim on the way is mysterious and new. Different from “discipling” another believer-a relationship that implies leader and follower, teacher and student-spiritual friendship is built on equality, mutual trust, accountability and risk-taking by both parties. Spiritual friendships aren’t easy, but they’re worth it.”
To purchase a copy of this book please visit:
Booklore-121 First Street, Orangeville, ON
Good Books-588 Kerr Street, Oakville, ON
Ontario Christian Books-125 Queen St. S, Streetsville, ON
Also available at:
www.chapters.indigo.ca and www.amazon.ca. (search under Norm Allen)
“Longing in my heart” (2)
Six of us were on retreat last weekend and one of us suggested a way to focus a late afternoon conversation in the sunshine. He invited us to listen to a reading of today’s prayer and chat about which desire or fear caught our attention. More >
“Longing in my heart”
This line from an old Bonnie Raitt song was running through my alleged mind one morning last week. I’d finished my morning coffee with God and was puzzling over Jesus’ words “you’ll never be hungry or thirsty if you come to me”. (Norm’s loose translation) More >
Temporary (two weeks later)
“Everything I have is temporary” was running through my mind ever since I wrote the thought entitled “Temporary” two weeks ago- the source kept eluding my recall. I found it last week in Mavis Staples’ song “God is not sleeping”. More >
Thomas and the Titanic
Our human longing to connect with a bigger story was expressed this weekend in myriad ways as people all over the world connected to the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. In his book Secular Age, Charles Taylor says that this sort of event demonstrates that spiritual longing still wants to find expression even when not completely articulated. More >
