Values

Incarnation // rooted faithfulness
God’s dream for the world wasn’t launched with a new idea or book or way to be spiritual.  It was to enter the mess of things, root in a place, and bring redemption in slow, strange ways.  In Jesus’ incarnation we learn the ancient truth that spirituality is always an embodied ordeal that gives its location, context, and limits an astonishingly sincere consideration.  Parish Collective thus bears witness to the story of incarnation by equipping churches to be shaped by their neighborhoods as God’s transformative agents.

Kingdom // the glorious mundane
God’s dream for the world looks smaller than much of religion’s conventional pomp.  It’s like a mustard seed, rooting in local obscurity but flourishing in the fullness of time.  Trusting Jesus on this, we’re sold on his claim that God is up to big things in the small stuff, the glorious mundane.  Simple practices like cooking for the new parents next door, having lunch with the homeless guy who digs through your recycling bin, and taking your kids to play at the park can become ways of redemptively joining God in the neighborhood.  Big projects are great, too; but they start in the shade of the mustard seed.

Crucifixion // giving ourselves to a place
God’s dream for the world always carries the shape of a cross.  That means our journey back to the neighborhood involves risk and sacrifice.  Finding abundant life in the neighborhood requires a countercultural resolve to reject the world’s escapist mobility and instead join the suffering of our neighborhoods.  As the Lord Jesus obeyed God by giving himself for creation, so we obey God by giving ourselves for our neighborhoods.

Resurrection // renewal + shalom
God’s dream for the world was launched when the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead, and lurks about through all of creation to this day.  The story of new creation inspires us to live as its foretastes in our neighborhoods, and to creatively redeem their social, spiritual, economic, and physical architecture as advance pictures of God’s dream for them.  The Parish Collective invites churches to embody the gospel as they practice resurrection and seek the shalom of their cities.

Ascension // distributed power
God’s dream for the world is shared with humanity — we’re God’s co-laborers precisely as we’re Christ’s image-bearers.  And that means serving and loving and having power just like how God does — by sharing it, and inviting others in the messy glory of distributed power.  That’s why the Parish Collective prizes neighborhood-rooted churches and practitioners that share their vision, listen carefully and deferringly to the margins, and lead as joyous servants.

Pentecost // the gift of connection
God’s dream for the world is carried forward by the Spirit and among a peculiar people, the church.  The story of Pentecost inspires us to cherish our common bond in the Spirit and reminds us of our deep dependence on one another as God’s new family.  That inspires the Parish Collective to awaken churches to our need for one another, to discover how to best root in our diverse neighborhoods through partnering in prayer, pedagogy, and playfulness across our cities.