Conversations
The Bayview Webinar: The Long Journey into Neighborhood.
Danny Fong is founding pastor of a church plant in San Francisco, in The Bayview neighborhood. He describes this, in his conversation with Mark Lau Branson, as one of the abandoned places of the empire. It has long been a community of migrants and a place of poverty and racial tension. Danny’s church planting team had first felt a call towards the neglected fringes of the city fifteen years ago, but as a community of Chinese-Americans, had been warned away...
The Bayview Webinar: Discerning God in the local economy
Danny Fong and other directors of their technology company were sensitive to the labor issues of the Bayview district and the poverty of opportunity for young people. Three years ago, they opted to move their business into the neighborhood and to share their space with the church. The principal of the business, Chi-Ming Chien, took a sabbatical. Walking the streets, he noted signs of activity but also abandoned premises...
Beyond the Billboard 1: How do we talk about this?
Sally Mann, JMP Editorial Board Member, in conversation with Alan Roxburgh around crumbling ecclesial structures and the billboard metaphor. What is the new language we can use about this strange hopeful space we are in? How do we begin to give language to our own roles in this new space? In this conversation, context and community emerge as two keys to the answers.
Beyond the Billboard 2: What about leadership?
Sally Mann and Alan Roxburgh continue to discuss mission and church "beyond the billboard". They wonder what church leadership may look like in our radically new and changing contexts. Sally proposes some challenging practices which may help a church leader take on a more open posture within the community.
Beyond the Billboard 3: Acts 16 and Finding Lydia
Sally Mann and Alan Roxburgh continue their conversation about mission and church 'beyond the billboards'. They remember Acts 16 and the story of Lydia 'outside the walls' and wonder who Lydia is for us today. Lydia will not walk into our churches, but God is at work within her. When we do engage with her new ways of thinking about church will emerge. But Sally warns that this newness will often emerge among the poor and that in itself may be challenging.
Around the Table: March 2017
How might God be leading us in this time and place?
On March 31, 2017 we held our first virtual conversation Around the Table to invite others to join us in reflecting upon the work of the Spirit in recent JMP stories. A full recording of the webinar and shorter clips to view and share can be found on our YouTube channel.
Around the Table: Willing Vulnerability
These three short clips from the Around the Table Webinar all describe the vulnerability of communities willing to be responsive as they encounter God in the stranger.
Around the Table: Hospitality
A central gospel metaphor for mission is hospitality. Jesus’ ministry was often conducted at an open table, it was ‘porous’, but how hospitable is the church in her central practice, the Eucharist? Which practices and postures do ready us to listen attentively among the many stories which confront us? Paul Weston and Mark Lau Branson raise these questions in two short clips from our Around the Table Webinar.