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What are the 5 Signs of the Parish Movement?
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In love, Jesus the Christ moved into the neighborhood and inhabited an obscure village called Nazareth. As an Afro-Asiatic, first century Palestinian Jew, he embedded his life in the sacred ordinary of his place, growing in wisdom and truth as he accompanied the displaced, dined with the disinherited and taught his friends and followers how to look again at those invisibilized by society. Christ through the Holy Spirit invites us to be an extension of this heavenly love, an embodied presence to work for the repair, healing and flourishing of all things. Inhabiting zip codes all over the globe, we seek to center our daily lives around the life and love of Christ, joining together with people and places through the transformative work of God’s Kin-dom.
Written by José Humphreys III and Christiana Rice
➤ Research spiritual practices that appeal to you
➤ Try one new practice this week
➤ Schedule a time to practice with a group of friends
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Becoming rooted people in the same proximity, we seek to join the liberating story of God in, with, and for our place, its inhabitants, and those who stewarded the land before us. All of us are made in the image of God, which means our worth is imbued with gifts and abilities. However, we recognize there will be systems and structures that devalue some inhabitants because of their identity or heritage. We will stay alert and engaged against injustices around us that might exist. Rather than seeking power or wielding control, we begin with an intentional effort to know and be known by our actual neighbors - to actively participate in listening, loving, and caring for the land and people where we live. Learning together how to faithfully embody kinship and equity at street level gives us wisdom to discern our limits, strengths, and responsibilities elsewhere.
Written by Michael Mata & Shannan Martin
➤ Think through your typical week and estimate the amount of energy and intention you have toward your neighborhood
➤ Research and write a list of local business you’d like to patronize this week or month
➤ After listening for something that community members want to see done, do it. Could be a small project, like picking up litter or offering to take those with limited mobility to vote
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We gather to weave our parish into the larger story of our faith. Trusting that God has always been at work we draw together in worship to encourage one another in love and discernment to be present to the Spirit’s activity all around us. This discernment leads us to engage in our communities. We have discovered that the more active we are in our neighborhoods joining in God’s renewal, the more crucial it is for us to step back together and remember the massive story of God. We so easily forget. We come together to name the brokenness around us, bear our collective burden, celebrate our common hope, and be transformed together in the neighborhood.
Written by Coté Soerens & Jonathan Brooks
➤ Write down a story of something you’ve seen God do recently.
➤ Ask some friends over for dinner with the purpose of sharing stories
➤ Schedule a regular rhythm for sharing stories
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We trust God will invite us to weave new relationships and projects for the common good in our shared common ground. It’s never been more important to foster unity between all the diverse followers of Christ within our local contexts. Joining God’s renewal within the broken systems of our world, we seek to reconcile fractured relationships and celebrate differences by collaborating across cultural barriers and learning to live in solidarity with those in need. If ever there was going to be a robust movement of unity in the 21st century church it will likely be lay-led, local, and in the neighborhood. When unity and trust grows between us, it is amazing how we can work together and build peace for the common good.
Written by Majora Carter & Tim Soerens
➤ Listen to your neighbors and begin to notice practical needs/issues you see in your neighborhood
➤ Google search local expressions of church or nonprofits in your neighborhood that are working to meet those needs
➤ Reach out and ask how you can become involved, remembering your role as a listener and learner
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This is the most interconnected moment the world has ever experienced. While this reveals Divine diversity, the dominant stories of our time often unravel local cultures and diminish our differences, producing false homogeny and erasure. We must produce an alternative by reimagining our connections. As we intentionally build relationships across contexts, we are seeking a spacious gospel that illuminates and confronts our biases, convinces us of generous inclusion, and honors the unique way the Good News manifests itself in places different from our own. The practice of linking across parishes exposes our inequities, expands our creativity, and weaves together a church across time and place that can manifest the multi-faceted beauty of God.
Written by Paul Sparks & Sunia Gibbs
➤ Google search and make a list of local expressions of church in your context
➤ Visit neighborhood or parish-based churches in different parts of your city
➤ Plan a meeting with one faith community leader and ask if they will allow you to join them as a listener and learner