Joanna’s Story

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It can be both exciting and overwhelming to recognize that something is stirring in you…that perhaps the Spirit is inviting you to listen more deeply for God’s invitation at this season in your life. I’m Joanna Quintrell, the Executive Director of the JCA, and I will never forget experiencing those first stirrings on my own journey!

Dan Beach and I were pastors at a big church and grateful to be there doing what we loved and felt gifted for. When the vision for the Journey Center was given in 2003, it was unexpected and confusing. All we knew was that God wanted to do “something new” here in Sonoma County, California and we were being invited to leave the familiar to birth something pioneering…Journey Center Santa Rosa.

We searched for others who had gone before us on this path and were unable to find companions for the early years of our journey. What an adventure we were on (and still are) as we learned to listen deeply to God’s invitation to say “yes” to a new and different way to be in the community and with people.

Since then, we have learned so much about the spiritual practice of discernment (listening deeply to the heart of God and our own true heart), creating and holding sacred space to which everyone is welcomed, offering contemplative resources in a variety of accessible ways, identifying God’s particular call and mission for our context… and the behind-the-scenes “nuts and bolts” that it takes to cooperate with what the Spirit is unfolding.

In 2016, we birthed a second nonprofit organization…the Journey Center Association. We exist to companion you on your journey of discernment, each step of the way. If you sense that something is stirring in you, that perhaps you are being invited to birth something in your community, I invite you to explore the resources that we offer. Please do feel free to get in touch for a first conversation; we would love to meet you and be helpful in any way that we can!