Conversations with Heather Neds

Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Neds.

Hi Heather, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Thank you for allowing me to share my passion with you! My name is Heather Neds and I am Making Scripture Relevant. I write prayers, reflection questions and blog posts to make scripture accessible to people every day in little ways.

My family moved around a lot when I was growing up, going from Minnesota, Iowa, California, Arizona, and Missouri. I attended ten different schools through my elementary to high school career so had to start over getting established in a new place every couple of years. Besides my parents and my younger brother, the only constant in my life was my faith. Whenever we’d move to a new city, we first found a church where we could be a part of the faith community. Church became my sanctuary in more ways than one.

In 1988, we settled in Kansas City where I graduated high school and college, got married and raised my three daughters. Throughout the years, my faith remained in the forefront of my life. I started out volunteering at the church, teaching teens and soon found myself working full-time working with families of middle school and high school, providing opportunities to grow in faith and serve the community.

When I left Youth Ministry, my desire to share faith didn’t stop. I began teaching a scripture study at Keeler Women’s Center in Kansas City, KS in 2013. It was that group of women and my connection to the Benedictine Sisters there that opened me up to sharing faith with a community beyond the walls of a church. They encouraged me to start a blog where more women could access the study which included weekly prayers and reflection questions based on the readings of the Catholic Church’s Liturgical Year.

This weekly scripture study continues to serve the community via Making Scripture Relevant and Keeler Women’s Center. It is also used in church settings with women’s groups, small Christian communities and with RCIA programs (a group within the Catholic Church of adults seeking to become Catholic). Making Scripture Relevant is me sharing prayers and reflections on the scripture. I share personal stories and thoughts on how to grow in faith and be the person God created.

Making Scripture Relevant is a platform I created to build a community where people could feel comfortable talking about faith and sharing it with others. I recently moved to ATX where I am focusing on this work full time. It gives me such joy to be able to give my full attention to sharing faith with others on a daily basis. Plus, I can begin to provide additional resources such as prayer guides retreat experiences and very soon will begin promoting the Discipleship 5K: A Physical and Spiritual Journey to the Cross, a longtime book project I began in 2013. It will be published later this year.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No road is smooth. There are always going to be ups and downs, curves, warning signs and obstacles. Yes, there have been struggles, but they have been opportunities for me to grow and to learn.

Probably the biggest obstacle in building Making Scripture Relevant is people’s fear to share their own faith. Most people believe in something or the absence of something, but they do not give it time or attention to see what they can do with it. Religion, like politics is not a subject you are supposed to bring up in conversation. When you do, you open yourself up to ridicule and judgement. This fear keeps many from talking openly about what they believe or even hinting that put any sort of value on faith or religion. My experience with faith is rooted in the scripture and the Bible is so much a part of me, I view it as a vital organ to keep me alive.

As with any individual starting a business on their own merit, it takes a lot of time and resources. It was hard to validate or rationalize time to dedicate to something I was passionate about, especially something like this when there is no monetary return on the content or service I provide. When delegating my time, I needed to focus on working and raising a family, often sacrificing my time to give somewhere else for someone else.

When COVID hit and everything shut down, it became my time. I was able to dedicate my attention on building Making Scripture Relevant into a vehicle where I could share faith and it gave me the time to finish my book, a project I’d been dreaming about since 2013. It became my full-time job instead of a hobby that I’d spend a few hours a week working on. And now when I look in the rearview mirror, I know that even though the passion was planted in me several years ago, I needed the time for it to grow and for me to grow. The sacrifices I made have been worth it.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
So many people talk about self-care these days and how it is important to take care of one’s physical and mental health. A person’s spiritual health is important too. My work provides people access to scripture without picking up a Bible and an opportunity to reflect on and connect with their spiritual side. I provide quick, easy, and tangible ways for people to connect with something greater than themselves for a minute.

Key elements of self-care are meditation and exercise. In my book, Discipleship 5K, I combine the physical, the mental and the spiritual (body, mind and spirit), providing a structure to achieve this. There are exercises and reflections every day for a series of 12 weeks. It is not a weight-loss or exercise book describing how to run a 5K instead it is a guide to help change habits and mindset to reach the goal of living a happier, healthier life.

Every person is a spiritual being and Making Scripture Relevant is a way for people to feed that part of themselves and find ongoing support of this healthier lifestyle with daily prayers and scripture reflections. It brings me such joy to be able to offer something people crave but often don’t give time or attention to because they are consumed with expectations and obligations.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
Making Scripture Relevant is found on Facebook and Instagram. The weekly scripture study is on the website and posted on the Facebook page. People can also sign up to receive the study via email each Wednesday morning when it is posted.

My book, Discipleship 5K: A Physical and Spiritual Journey to the Cross was recently submitted to the publisher (Westbow Press) and look to have it available late Spring or Summer this year.

Contact Info:

• Email: heather@makingscripturerelevant.com
• Website: https://makingscripturerelevant.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/makingscripturerelevant
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/makingscripturerelevant
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/discipleship5k
• Other: https://weeklyscripturejournal.com/

Image Credits
Photos: Credit to Ron Neds Book Cover: Credit to Roberto Nickson