About Us - The QuakersOnline Ministry Team

Jim Heil - The Renegade Quaker

Hi, my name is Jim Heil. I'm the guy who owns this domain name, this website, and the person you will be reaching if you fill out the Contact Us Form. I've been involved with the Quaker Community for about 6 years now. It's been a struggle to find acceptance. My internet ministry has the potential to be very expansive and I know some quakers find this threatening. I am not attached to a Yearly Meeting, although I have attended Wider Gathering of Conservative Friends on one occasion. This would be my preferred place of worship, but after three years of waiting, my application for membership has still not been accepted.

My Christian Upbringing

First and foremost, I am a Christian. I grew up in a nominally Protestant home and attended church every Sunday throughout my childhood and adolescence. Several times during my youth, I responded to alter calls or preaching that asked for my commitment to Christ. I was sincere in wanting to be devoted to Christ, but I was also a misfit and had severe problems with depressions. I never socialized very well with other Christians preferring my non-Christian 'dregs of society' fellowship to that of other believers. The church I grew up with through my young adult life grew further and further away. The obligations, the rituals, the judgement, and the community of people I felt no sense of belonging with, just didn't work. By the time I was twenty-two, I had given up on Christianity that way that it was presented to me. I retreated. For eight months, I stayed at home, in my room, telling God that if He wanted me to move, He would have to tell me to. Not the church. Not my parents. Not the bible. God. This was my introduction to Quakerism. I began to move. Retreating in silence became the only ritual that made sense to me and offered me hope of a better life.

My Re-Introduction to the Work Force

After five years of unemployment due to depression, God finally led me back into the workforce. I reluctantly applied for a job at a movie theatre at his insistence, and continued to show up, day after day, initially through a strong conviction but later through a gentle nudging of the Spirit. I spent ten years working at a movie theatre. Five years as a concession attendant, one year as a doorman and four years as a manager. It's a blur to me now. I didn't much care for the experience, but I suppose it got me to the point that I am at today. It is a big part of my background.

Discovering the Internet

My initial introduction to the internet was through a friend. I heard I could buy some Sex Pistol's concert DVD off of Amazon, and so I asked him to show me how to use it. I admit I got hooked. Without going into too much detail, after several years of surfing websites, God led me to have my own. I paid someone to create theRunway.ca for me back in 2003. This was followed by another online community called ConfluenceoftheRoutes.com. My third website was Rosewaterfoundation.org. It's a quotation website, but has also got some really great music on it. After several years of paying other people to build websites for me, I was finally able to let go of the workforce. I've been studying webdevelopment at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) for the last 2 years.

Finding Quakerism

It's amazing how eerily similar two people's experiences can be. God taught me something that didn't quite match the teaching of my religious upbringing, and I was convinced my practice of faith and principles were uniquely my own. One day while researching a core value statement I was writing, I stumbled upon a group that maintained the same values I was writing about - the Quakers. This led to contacting several people in the ministry and later attending the local liberal meeting. Not all Quakers are created equal, however, and through diligent research and divine guidance, I landed amongst the Wilberite Conservatives. This hasn't been an ideal fit for me, but it is the only Quaker group that has retained a strong Christian witness and unprogrammed meetings. Every group has it's drawbacks. Three years after my application for membership, I still have not been accepted by Ohio Yearly Meeting.

Development of QuakersOnline

QuakersOnline was originally built as an online community about five years ago. The site, as it was created, had to be taken down because of misuse. It's too bad. The website cost me a lot of money to have built. When QuakersOnline first came up, I asked a few administrators of other quaker websites to do a link exchange with me, and I was a suprised by the collabrative "NO" I got from all of them. Where one door closes, another one opens. Determined to build a website that would have traffic, I invested money in creating my own website network, and getting the education I needed to build it myself. QuakersOnline is now a network of about 30 websites. Most of the pages are far from completion, but in time I hope to have a multilingual network that can communicate Quaker Beliefs to people all over the world.

Can God Use Me?

I'm often put off when I see books about Christian disciplines. I don't think we can manipulate God into getting what we want by exercise. In my own experience, there has been a lot more waiting than leading and a lot more suffering than glory. I am a skeptical, somewhat rebellious follower, more often-than-not drudgingly obedient to Christ out of the need for self-preservation than out of love. I don't think any amount of 'positive attitude' self empowerment rethoric is going to change this. This is my witness and the means I have to relate to those I am meant to speak to. When all else fails - Quaker is the New Punk! Only God can make this ministry into something beautiful. I don't have much to say. I'm not one for intellectual babble. I hope God will give me the words, or better yet, the life to lead by example.

Supporting Jim Heil Ministries

For more information about me or my ministries, check out the websites in the linkbar below. Or my personal website can be found @ JimHeil.com. If you would like to financially support my ministries, there are affiliate stores through this link.