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 [...]

Comments | Posted on February 17, 2013

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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 [...]

Comments | Posted on March 26, 2012

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 [...]

Comments | Posted on March 16, 2012

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 [...]

Comments | Posted on March 1, 2012

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 [...]

Comments | Posted on February 22, 2012

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 [...]

Comments | Posted on February 6, 2012

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 [...]

Comments | Posted on February 1, 2012

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 [...]

Comments | Posted on January 30, 2012

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 [...]

Comments | Posted on January 23, 2012