Practices
‘Practices for the Refounding of God’s People’: Part 2: Practices for Refounding.
The British and European church has benefitted from the arrival of Christian migrants from Africa and Asia, a ‘blessed reflex’ from the early days of mission. According to Alan Roxburgh the Canadian church has benefitted from the wisdom of First Nations indigenous peoples who have embodied an appreciation of the land...
A Church in Englewood and Place in our Culture
Chris Smith is co-author of Slow Church[1] and editor of the Englewood Review of Books. Here in conversation with Alan Roxburgh he describes how his own church transitioned from its life as a large city church into a vibrant neighbourhood church deeply embedded within its community. That church was able to make this transition because of its long history...
Book review: Faithful Presence by David Fitch
This conversation between David Fitch and Alan Roxburgh revolves around David’s recent book Faithful Presence[1] and his life in a church plant near Chicago. David describes his book under three headings: The Presence of God at work in localities, discerned through Practices such as Eucharist, shared meals and reconciliation. We are located in Places where sometimes we will be gathered with other Christians and sometimes...
Following the Spirit, Finding Life, Sharing Bread
In this video interview with Alan Roxburgh, Fred Liggin recalls when his church took up listening practices among the elders and then the congregation and at the same time, began walking with a homeless family who went on to flourish within their community. Eighteen other faith groups in the city became interested in this way of working and across the city...
Webinar: Why Stories Matter
It is stories that transform our lives. But we have largely given over the awareness of our lives to experts and so-called professionals who, so the reasoning goes, because of their training, expertise and degrees, know our minds. We have to discover, again, how to share and listen to the stories buried, and often lost, within us. As God’s people we believe it is within such stories that the Spirit is fermenting imagination and life.
Re-imagining church and mission in the Scottish borders
The first year was to be a year of listening to the community. What was God up to in this neighbourhood? That was not an easy discipline for Alistair who was something of an activist and could easily frame what he might do in this situation. The point of the year of listening was to ask questions and particularly to gain a sense of the spiritual journeys that people were engaged in. Year two saw Alistair and Ruth initiating a gathering – the Gateways Gathering. This gathering responded ...
Webinar: Beyond the Billboard
Sally Mann and Alan Roxburgh lead this conversation which keeps a hopeful focus on what God is doing Beyond the Billboard. The billboard is a manufactured thing, a commodity, and it may mask a beautiful view beyond. Sally and Alan wonder if we have tended to treat our churches and our faith as a kind of billboard. There are brands and programmes and ideas, but...
Sacred Space
Andrea Campanale, with other local Christians set up ‘Sacred Space’ as a way to reach spiritual seekers in their town. They organized artistic events which had the potential to open up questions of faith and Andrea learned a form of Christian ‘card reading’, which made a way into faith conversations. In conversation with Martin Robinson and Mary Publicover Andrea used the language of ‘space’ (Sacred Space) to describe the opportunities they created for talk and listening and, she felt, divine encounter.
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...