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 [...]
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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 [...]
Read the Rest...Comments | Posted on January 23, 2012
Home, Homelessness, Homecoming Part 1 – Brian Walsh
By Parish Collective
Comments | Posted on January 20, 2012
Home, Homelessness, Homecoming Part 2 -Brian Walsh
By Parish Collective
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The Crucible of the Real
By Paul Sparks
Are we living at the crux of the ages? An astonishing turn of hyper-accelerated events confronts us with the crucible of the real. Urban Decay … Climate Collapse … Digital Distraction … Suburban Sprawl … the list travels on indefinitely. The Real is converging on our society’s grandest illusions. Reality is running direct interference on [...]
Read the Rest...Comments | Posted on January 19, 2012
The Church of Tuesday Morning
By Tim Soerens
If a living organism doesn’t in some way have a body, would you still call it living?If a church is meant to be an embodied witness of the gospel, but is only seen together in worship gatherings, is the church-as-body metaphor still appropriate? What would it mean to point to the body of Christ on [...]
Read the Rest...Comments | Posted on January 10, 2012
Michael Frost
By Parish Collective
What does place have to say to the word “missional”? from Parish Collective on Vimeo.
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