Have we limited God’s ability to speak in our world today? Have we relegated God’s creative voice to the select persons who share our particular religious system? Kriz himself felt like he was falling out of faith until non-Christians encouraged him to “fall toward Christ.” Join us for an evening of captivating dialogues and unexpected [...]
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Re-Placing Holy Week: Towards a Public + Local Liturgy
By Brandon Rhodes
If the gospel of Jesus has public implications, and not just private/interior ones, then our liturgical lives should reflect that. And if our church life is meant to be first-and-foremost local, then we should expect our particular locality to also have a big part in our liturgical life. Together, the local is the primary public arena [...]
Read the Rest...Comments | Posted on March 26, 2012
“Missional” needs to talk neighborhood…
By Parish Collective
Martin Robinson has a great article up on “Together in Mission” surrounding the current state of the missional movement. He says it’s started to spin its tires as questions of leadership structure and preferred ministry models begin to torque us from shared missional life together. In addition to discipleship, Robinson suggests that place is foundational [...]
Read the Rest...Comments | Posted on March 16, 2012
What on Earth is Happening?
By Howard Lawrence
There is a growing movement of people who are recognizing their responsibility for their neighbours and neighbourhoods and are doing something about it. One such person commented “when I began to pay attention to my neighbourhood, I was struck by my growing affection for my neighbours, I really care for them!” Over the past several [...]
Read the Rest...Comments | Posted on March 1, 2012
Becoming “Church-With” in East Portland [CT Article]
By Brandon Rhodes
The journey into practice, presence, and place can be slower, stranger, and also richer than we may expect. It’s often more mustard-seed-y than I’m used to reading about. I chronicled the story of one neighborhood’s churches as they together are seeking the Kingdom of God in their neighborhood. Revitalization began with listening to neighbors [...]
Read the Rest...Comments | Posted on February 22, 2012
The Place of Prayer
By Justin Mayfield
My church prays the Lord’s Prayer (or we call it “Our Father” at our gathering) every Sunday. We started praying it in old english at the whim of some of those who grew up rehearsing it in that fashion. Old english is new to me but the Spirit has helped me embrace this practice by [...]
Read the Rest...Comments | Posted on February 6, 2012
Counting The Cost
By Brandon Rhodes
I love my neighborhood, but miss a lot of my friends elsewhere in town. In 2008 I helped plant a neighborhood church on the fringes of Portland with a strong emphasis on sharing life and letting a small 10×10 block area be our arena for mission. What I didn’t realize was the cost of this [...]
Read the Rest...Comments | Posted on February 1, 2012
Flannery O’Connor and the Local Church
By Brandon Rhodes
Our friends at The Other Journal have posted a great piece by Andrew W.E. Carlson on the work of Flannery O’Connor and the folks of Awake! in Seattle’s Aurora neighborhood. Andrew writes: A lot of people write stories with the idea of achieving some kind of universal appeal. It’s no different with music, film, and [...]
Read the Rest...Comments | Posted on January 30, 2012
Toward Neighbourhood-Based or Incarnational Churches:
By Howard Lawrence
The Missional Church Conversation has led many Church leaders to refocus on place-based ministry, which in most cases is expressed in the neighbourhood context. Historically of course, the church was rooted deeply in neighbourhoods. In the past, followers of Christ would participate in the various denominational church communities within their own neighbourhoods. Churches of this [...]
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