Horizons Magazine

In The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (New York: Little Brown, 2000), Malcolm Gladwell explores the “stickiness factor”—the quality that makes people take notice and then, amid many other choices and distractions, keep paying attention to a product, person or idea. What makes something or someone “sticky” can be hard to pin down. But even more mysterious is when something sticky eventually fades away then resurfaces to again capture peoples’ attention, decades or even centuries later!

For example, the notion of “a thin place”—a place where the divide between heaven and earth (or the divine and the earthly) feels less marked—was popular in Celtic spirituality in the Early Middle Ages. But it’s a concept that resounds with many people, even today.

Over time, our ancestors developed spiritual practices and faith practices that would remind us whose we are and enable us to dwell in the wonder and warmth of that truth. This issue explores just a few of those practices—mindsets and movements that were once frequent, but perhaps gathered some dust only to be rediscovered as still valuable.

Tim Stead reflects on how Christian spirituality can be strengthened by mindfulness, a practice often associated with Buddhism. In Soon Chi describes a mass baptism—a common occurrence, as the disciples converted early Christians, that is part of the Christian Korean story, but one that many North American Christians have not experienced. Throughout this issue, you’ll hear about many small ways that individuals and churches can use ancient practices today on their faith journeys.