Dear Gary,

I am e mailing from the UK where I serve as a Baptist Pastor.

I was fascinated and challenged by the quote from Sacred Pathways that Rick Warren included in The Purpose Driven Life. Now I have read (twice) Sacred Pathways and want to thank you for the tremendous and helpful insights I have found there. I am at present re reading it again to use much of its insights in a teaching in the church both on Sundays and in weekly home groups. I really believe that if more Christians could grasp these truths that they would really mature in their walk with the Lord. May be it would also stop some of the constant movement of people between churches according to what style is flavour of the month!

Every Blessing, Pastor Adams

Gary -

I just finished your book "Sacred Pathways" and what an eye-opener it was for me. It is SO easy to define "THE" pathway to spirituality as the pathway most natural for ME. And that is a crucial misstep for a pastor! My primary pathway is intellectual and my secondary pathway is an enthusiast (a strange combination, I admit). but THANKS for giving me the language to understand my spiritual development in a way I never have before!!

I am a pastor of a church in New York. We are a church of about 450 that has grown by 175 people in four years. We are excited about the future.

God bless, D. W.

Dear Gary,

Over the past several months I have read many of your books, including Authentic Faith, Sacred Pathways, Sacred Marriage, and, most recently, Sacred Parenting. Typically when I read a book I just read it - I don't usually take notes or spend a whole lot of time pondering what is said in the book. However, two of your books have affected me so profoundly that I've had to go back and re-read them and take notes and learn more. They are Sacred Pathways and Sacred Parenting.

Mostly I wanted to thank you for writing these books. For allowing God to work through you in all your books. For continuing to pursue a career in writing even if it had a rocky start.

I hesitated to write to you, knowing that you most likely receive emails and letters like mine all the time. But I felt such a strong urging from God to just say thank you. To let you know that your work - or rather, God's work through you - is touching and affecting my life.

I live in the state of Minnesota. I will look forward to hearing you speak if you travels ever take you out to this part of the country.

In Christ, Beth

Gary,

Thank you for "Sacred Pathways." It is a lot of fun - and very healthy and affirming -- to see signs of these temperaments in various experiences, people and relationships. I have enjoyed 'nailing down' the temperaments that I share with my wife; that has helped us identify spiritual activities that we might want to do together and those we would want to do separately or with other people. Way cool!

I am looking forward to reading "Sacred Marriage." We might eventually want to start a couples' study based on it. Thanks and blessings.

D.D.
California

Hi Gary

I am reading your book 'Sacred Pathways' and just thought I'd email to say how wonderfully encouraging and liberating it has been for me!

I am a very active Christian Activist - involved in various 'family values' groups lobbying Government against pornography etc.

I feel passionately compelled to speak out against the unGodly things I see going on in the community.

I have also had to battle discouragement when other church members seem apathetic or (worse) get that 'oh no here goes Gail on another crusade!' look when I approach!

It's great to recognize that my way of serving God is just one of many and that each spiritual pathway has its special place in God's heart - no need to take it personally when other Christians don't see things your way!

Your advice and warnings for Activists were spot on as far as I am concerned and I will certainly email some of them around to all my activist friends!

Thanks and God Bless, G.G. -
Australia

Gary,

I just wanted to write to you and let you know what a wonderful impact your book “Sacred Pathways” has had on me. I picked it up several weeks back while our teaching team from the church was out at Willow Creek for a conference. I had been told of your work by one of our music ministers when I first joined the staff here back in February of this year. Anyway, what a tremendous book! Shortly after reading it, I was asked by our two primary teaching pastors to write and help deliver (we’re a multi-campus church) a sermon for this past weekend, November 28th, on the topic of faithfulness. We are at the tail end of a series called “Extreme Makeover” in which we’re looking at Galatians 5 (Fruit of the Spirit) as our primary text. As I began to brainstorm a way to approach this topic, I wondered if it might be possible to use many of the ideas that you present in Sacred Pathways to share with our congregation the many “flavors of faithfulness” that God is growing in his people. I thought it might be fun to take a particular fruit that has many varieties and use it as the metaphor which would be woven throughout the service. This being Washington, apples seemed like a metaphor ripe for the picking. I discovered on Washington’s apple website (http://www.bestapples.com/) that there are nine varieties of apple that are grown and exported here in the state. It was a sign from heaven J, since you also speak of nine spiritual temperaments. So I went about trying to match up a particular variety of apple with the spiritual temperaments you discuss, and the message took off from there. I thought I’d attach a copy of that message for you to check out if you have the time.

Our worship team did some creative brainstorming on how to deliver this message, and we decided that I would deliver the message in narrative form as a Washington state apple grower, and since we we’re going to attempt to cover all nine temperaments (apples) in one service, we thought it best to break up the message into an introduction with three different sections at different times of the service. We also thought it would be fun to try to tailor the service in such a way that there was an element that would hit all nine temperaments in some way. We also combined some of our ideas with some of the evaluation questions in your book and some of the study guide from your website and created an “Orchard Guide” for people to take at the end of the service to use individually or in their small groups to help them determine how they were designed to best bear fruit for Christ. It was a really fun, different kind of service. We took buckets full of three apple varieties at a time and compared them with the temperaments that you bring out in the book (with some of the temperament names changed a bit for more user-friendliness). I delivered the sermon in bib overalls and a John Deere hat with a little bit of a Southern accent (I’m a Northwest native, but since I just moved here from Tennessee, and given the narrative nature of the message, I thought it would be good to have a little different sound).

The response to the message has been really good. Many people have been sharing what kind of apples they are and how they best grow in faithfulness. It was really eye-opening for many folks (just as your book was to me!). Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that around 1,800 people this weekend were introduced to many of your God-inspired thoughts. I’m looking forward to checking out some of your other work. Thanks for the inspiration and for letting God use you in so many ways. May He bless you and your family as you continue to serve him.

Oh, by the way, I’m primarily a naturalist, intellectual, and ascetic, or as you’ll see in the message, I’m a Cameo Pink Fuji Lady!

Yours in Christ, Pastor Scott
Washington

Dear Gary,

Our Home Group has just completed a 5 week study on your book. It was really great and helped us the further understand our worship and different ways of worshiping and praising God. We also learnt to be tolerant of other pathways which we may not relate to. We are members of the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Perth, Western Australia.
Thanks for your book.

J.G.