Resources
The Parish Collective has a growing series of resources designed for churches and the leaders who serve at every level of the church’s life. We have developed these resources in partnership with leaders around the world. They have come out of our on-the-ground work in understanding how to catalyze missional transformation at every level of the church’s life.
Parish Collective resources work with you – they’re designed to connect with where a church is at rather than some ideal of where it should be. The idea behind our resources is that in cultivating parish shaped churches and neighborhoods there are no magic bullets, no one-size-fits-all programs; there is no simple measurement or assessment that gives us the answers about how to form churches or faith communities in a specific, local context. You need a tool kit of resources you can apply in different situations that assist you catalyze parish transformation. While these resources are interconnected we have set them into a series of primary areas so you can conveniently locate those that will be most immediately helpful to you.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions you might have about our resources and how to implement them in your unique context.
Parish Collective Consultants
Tim SoerensTim Soerens is a church planter, social entrepreneur, and co-founding director of the Parish Collective. As co-director of the Parish Collective he convenes ministry leaders, teaches, and consults with organizations seeking human flourishing in particular neighborhoods while also working collaboratively across the city. Previously, he was founding pastor of Cascade Neighborhood Church where he also served as vice-president of the Cascade Neighborhood Council, founding member of Lake Union Opportunity Alliance, and co-founder of the Cascade Farmer’s Market. He is working towards a new church community in the Wallingford neighborhood, while also coaching multiple neighborhood churches. As a social entrepreneur, he is the founding adviser launching the Hub-Seattle, an innovative co-working space for change makers in both non-profit and business sectors. Tim earned a B.A. in Rhetorical Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Masters of Divinity from Mars Hill Graduate School, Seattle. He lives in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle with his wife Maria-Jose Soerens and their son Lukas.
Paul SparksPaul is Co-Founder and a Lead Consultant of the Parish Collective, a network of over 200 Churches and Community Organizations that are rooted in particular neighborhoods, and linked across the United States and Canada. As a recognized grassroots leader and organizer, he is a frequent speaker and consultant around themes of placemaking and neighborhood networking. Paul is also the Co-Founder of Local Life Tacoma, a non-profit group which hosts and sponsors a multitude of events for educating and nurturing the social fabric of Tacoma’s neighborhoods. Paul is an ordained pastor with over 22 years of ministry and community development experience. He has served on staff with a number of churches and community orgs including, most recently, as Project Director for the Northwest Leadership Foundation. Paul lives in an urban neighborhood at the heart of Downtown Tacoma, Washington with his co-conspiring wife Elizabeth. They curate a growing faith community comprised of friends, artists, and entrepeneurs seeking a common life together with their neighbors.
Dr. Dwight FriesenDr. Freisen is the Assistant Professor of Contextual Theology at Mars Hill Graduate School. He was the community-curate of an Eastside emerging simple church for more than eleven years and currently speaks, consultants, and facilitates for churches, denominations and mission agencies throughout the Unites States and around the world on issues of postmodern culture, social systems and missional Christianity. He has authored or co-authored numerous articles and books including Thy Kingdom Connected an excellent book exploring network theory and the way connecting lies at the core of the gospel. He has done groundbreaking work exploring new forms of pedagogy which integrate institutional scholasticism with on-the-ground practice in place.