RePlacing Church: Local Spirituality, Innovative Community & Social Change with Ben Katt

In this episode, I discuss the third of the Five Signs of the Parish Movement, “Gathering to Remember,” by examining why parish expressions are ambivalent about Gathering, listening to what the book of Hebrews teaches us about why we gather, and exploring the three main questions neighborhood church expressions are asking about Gathering.

 *Learn from 30 neighborhoods in 30 days by following the RePlacing Church #NeighborhoodsForDays Odyssey* Parish church expressions are emerging in neighborhoods everywhere. Whatever they are called - neighborhood church plants, missional communities, neomonastic communities, faith-based social enterprises - these diverse expressions seem to exhibit five common signs as they join God’s renewal in their particular places. In this five part series, I explore the Five Signs of the Parish Movement:

Centering on Christ

Inhabiting Our Parish

Gathering to Remember

Collaborating for God’s Renewal

Linking Across Parishes

Gathering to Remember: Trusting that God is at work, we draw together in worship to remember the larger story of our faith, rehearse the kind of people God desires us to be in the parish, and encourage one another in love and discernment. We have discovered that the more active we are in joining God’s renewal in our neighborhoods, the more crucial it is for us to gather back together to grow in our faith, strengthen one another and remember that we are a part of the massive story of God.

SUBSCRIBE and REVIEW The RePLACING CHURCH Podcast on iTunes or listen on Google Play and Podbean. 

Sign up for RePLACING CHURCH updates at www.replacingchurch.org.

Like on Facebook, Follow on Instagram.

Dr. Christopher B. James joins me to talk about his research on church planting in Seattle, including the unique dynamics of the so-called “None Zone,” the four expressions of church that his extensive research identified (Great Commission Team, Household of the Spirit, New Community, and Neighborhood Incarnation), and the gifts and liabilities of neighborhood expressions of the church.

 *Learn from 30 neighborhoods in 30 days by following the RePlacing Church #NeighborhoodsForDays Odyssey* Chris is the Assistant Professor of Evangelism and Missional Christianity at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. He is also a pastor’s husband and practitioner who, along with his wife and family, is in the early stages of forming a neighborhood church expression. His research on “New Churches in the None Zone” will be published in the near future, but you can stay connected with his work at chrisbjames.com or by following him on Twitter.

SUBSCRIBE and REVIEW The RePLACING CHURCH Podcast on iTunes or listen on Google Play and Podbean. 

Sign up for RePLACING CHURCH updates at www.replacingchurch.org.

Like on Facebook, Follow on Instagram.

In this episode, I discuss the second of the Five Signs of the Parish Movement, “Inhabiting Our Place,” by talking about the President of China, the former "Pearl Button Capital of the World," and stories from Genesis and Jeremiah.

Parish church expressions are emerging in neighborhoods everywhere. Whatever they are called - neighborhood church plants, missional communities, neomonastic communities, faith-based social enterprises - these diverse expressions seem to exhibit five common signs as they join God’s renewal in their particular places. In this five part series, I explore the Five Signs of the Parish Movement: 

Centering on Christ 

Inhabiting the Parish

Gathering to Remember

Collaborating for God’s Renewal

Linking Across Parishes

Inhabiting Our Parish: Rooting our lives in our neighborhood, we seek to join God’s renewal in, with, and for our place. Rather than trying to be all things to all people, we are learning to accept our limitations as a gift from God, live with intentionality, be known by our actual neighbors and tangibly love those around us. We seek to participate in God’s renewal by listening to, serving, and caring for the land and the people where we live, work and play.

SUBSCRIBE and REVIEW The RePLACING CHURCH Podcast on iTunes or listen on Google Play and Podbean. 

Sign up for RePLACING CHURCH updates at www.replacingchurch.org.

Like on Facebook, Follow on Instagram.

Sean Gladding joins me to discuss his fresh perspectives on the Bible and the Ten Commandments, and talk about how neighborhood churches can adapt through action and reflection, ‘receive’ instead of ‘build’ the Kingdom of God, remember neighborhood stories, and send out community members well.

Sean is part of the neighborhood faith community "formerly known as Communality" in the Martin Luther King neighborhood in the east end of Lexington, Kentucky. He is the author of The Story of God, the Story of Us and TEN: Words of Life for an Addicted, Compulsive, Cynical, Divided and Worn-out Culture. He is an avid fan of the Norwich City Canaries.

SUBSCRIBE and REVIEW The RePLACING CHURCH Podcast on iTunes or listen on Google Play and Podbean. 

Sign up for RePLACING CHURCH updates at www.replacingchurch.org.

DeAmon “The Roving Listener” Harges and Rev. Michael Mather join me to share their friendship with us, tell some incredible stories from the Mapleton Fall Creek neighborhood of Indianapolis, and teach us how to listen to neighbors and ask questions that lead to dignity, discovery, and abundance.

DeAmon Harges, the original “Roving Listener” at Broadway United Methodist Church, is the founder of The Learning Tree, a community organization that practices asset-based community development, “making the invisible visible by celebrating and gathering people in ways that build community, economy, and mutual delight.”

Rev. Michael Mather is pastor of Broadway United Methodist Church in Indianapolis.

Support the Cultivating Joy Initiative of The Learning Tree here. 

Watch DeAmon’s TedXIndianapolis talk.

 

SUBSCRIBE and REVIEW The RePLACING CHURCH Podcast on iTunes or listen on Google Play and Podbean. 

Sign up for RePLACING CHURCH updates at www.replacingchurch.org.

Dee Yaccino joins me to talk about power dynamics in church partnerships, harnessing social capital, a different approach to short term missions, and what the church in the US can learn from the church in Latin America.

Dee has been involved in transformational cross-cultural ministry for almost 30 years, beginning with community development work in rural Bolivia and continuing with extensive partnership building based in the Dominican Republic. With her husband, Tom, Dee co-directs Del Camino Connection as they create a community of connectors who link churches with the Global Church to leverage our shared spiritual, human, and financial resources in response to Jesus’ mission to make all things new.

SUBSCRIBE and REVIEW The RePLACING CHURCH Podcast on iTunes or listen on Google Play and Podbean. 

Sign up for RePLACING CHURCH updates at www.replacingchurch.org.

Ronnie Matthew Harris joins me to talk about what church planters can learn from community developers and urban planners, the profound experience that compelled him to join in the fight against modern day slavery, and his beloved Chicago neighborhood, Bronzeville, and its fascinating history as a "Black Wall Street," birthplace of jazz, and stopping grounds of President Barack Obama.

Ronnie is a community organizer, social entrepreneur, and modern day abolitionist. As the Executive Director of Paul's Journey, Ronnie facilitates community learning and development, and seeks innovative solutions to challenges that undermine the dignity of human persons and/or the rule of law; promotes the positive effects of walking, biking, and public transportation with Go Bronzeville initiative; and fights to abolish modern day slavery through the I AM Campaign.

SUBSCRIBE and REVIEW The RePLACING CHURCH Podcast on iTunes or listen on Google Play and Podbean. 

Sign up for RePLACING CHURCH updates at www.replacingchurch.org.

Perhaps the church as we know it is being replaced and replaced because God is actually being replaced... In this episode, part 4a of the RePlacing Church series, I take a look at what I call "Carl Sagan's Psalm," interact with Diana Butler Bass' excellent recent book Grounded, and listen to the wisdom of folks like St. Thomas Aquinas, Barbara Brown Taylor, and Supreme Leader Snoke, as I explore what is leading to the grounding movements happening in the church, namely, the shift from a conventional, vertical understanding of God to a more horizontal, grounded understanding of God.

The RePlacing Church Series Episode 7: The Scattering Church (RePlacing Church, 1 of 4)

Episode 8: The Innovating Church (RePlacing Church, 2 or 4)

Episode 11: The Integrating Church (RePlacing Church, 3 of 4)

SUBSCRIBE and REVIEW The RePLACING CHURCH Podcast on iTunes or listen on Google Play and Podbean. 

Sign up for RePLACING CHURCH updates at www.replacingchurch.org.

Reesheda Graham-Washington joins me to talk about returning and giving back to the neighborhood she grew up in, learning “Asset Based Community Development” from the innate practices of her Great-Grandmother and African ancestors, social entrepreneurship risks and funding, her latest venture (L!VE Cafe), and the one thing she wants the church to hear from her as a black woman.

Reesheda is the Executive Director of Communities First Association, the Founder and CEO of L!VE Cafe, a transformational experience cafe and creative space, a licensed minister in the Evangelical Covenant Church, and a former education leader in Chicago Public Schools. 

 

Support L!VE Cafe: a Transformational Experience Cafe Creative Space:

https://www.fundable.com/lve-cafe

 

SUBSCRIBE and REVIEW The RePLACING CHURCH Podcast at www.replacingchurch.org/itunes.

Sign up for RePLACING CHURCH updates at www.replacingchurch.org.

Mandy Smith joins me to talk about her book, The Vulnerable Pastor, her own journey into vulnerability, and vulnerability as it relates to leadership, prayer, marginalization and vocation. 

Originally from Australia, Mandy is lead pastor of University Christian Church, a campus and neighborhood congregation with its own fair-trade café, Rohs Street Cafe, in Cincinnati. She writes regularly for Missio Alliance Blog and Christianity Today, and is author of The Vulnerable Pastor.

SUBSCRIBE and REVIEW The RePLACING CHURCH Podcast at www.replacingchurch.org/itunes.

Sign up for RePLACING CHURCH updates at www.replacingchurch.org.