Photo: Touching Strangers Series by Richard Renaldi

As a community, we are shaped by our shared values —those things that we fiercely love and hold dear, our "non-negotiables"  — one of which is  is Deep Listening.

DEEP LISTENING
We listen deeply to the Spirit at work within our own stories, the stories of our neighbors, and the stories of our place until we become fully immersed in the mystery of God’s Story of love that heals us and heals the world.

This posture of Deep Listening locates us well in the humility and self-giving love of Christ's example. Jesus Christ, who spoke Creation into existence, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself of all privilege and power to take on our humanity and enter our world, laying down his life for love (Philippians 2). The scandal of the incarnation is profound.

We also are invited into this cruciform practice to enter the world of others for the sake of love. Yet often, we are caught up in our own worlds, occupied with our own self-interests and the demands of our lives. How do we repent, shift, and orient our lives differently in order to live lives of love?

How do we enter the worlds of others?

​How do we give up our privilege, our biases, our comfort, and our preconceived ideas to truly listen — deeply and thoughtfully? How do we pause before rushing in with our own experiences and worldviews? How do we slow down to listen well and let our hearts be impacted by the stories of our neighbors?

This is vital as we seek to incarnate love in our everyday lives. History is full of the atrocities of imperialism, colonization, racism, and gentrification. Often we fail to enter the world of the other, to esteem their interests higher than ourselves, to truly listen and honor the wisdom of their stories. “For our conversion to the Lord implies this conversion to our neighbor” — a radical transformation where we come to know “Christ present in exploited and oppressed persons.”[1] We are called to listen deeply to the stories that contradict our own, allowing them to affect us, shape us, and form us in the radical love of Christ.


[1] Gustavo Gutiérrez, “Liberating Spirituality,” in Spiritual Writings (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2011), 49.

by Jessica Ketola
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The deep seeds of racism continue to bear hate in our community. We must disrupt, overturn, and till the soil of systems that are perfectly designed for the results we are getting now with gross inequities and racial violence and terror.

People ask — how do we work for change? The answer is that change happens on the ground — in the very soil that has been cultivated and then stolen from our black and indigenous siblings. The battlegrounds are our neighborhoods. And this is being played out in vivid color here in the Ridgecrest neighborhood as a black, middle-school activist is being threatened by numerous racist neighbors. And it seems Shoreline Police are responding as the system is designed to — by favoring imagined threats from white folk and dismissing real threats from black folk. We must decide whose streets these are. Are these streets for the white, the privileged and the power-brokers or are these streets for everyone?

We have been told that we have little power to affect change and have thus given up the gift of what it means to be a citizen, to love our neighbor, and to be responsible to a place and to the flourishing of all the diverse people who live here. We must pick up our God-given vocations to be cultivators, creators, and architects of our own places. The power to create a new foundation of equity lies here on the ground.

Decisions that affect our entire community are being made by a small group of people - in school board rooms and city planning meetings. Decisions that shape and affect our lives together here — decisions about zoning and who owns the land, small businesses, walkability, parks and sidewalks, human services, mental health, and policing. If we do nothing, the powers of greed, white supremacy, capitalism, and imperialism will continue to wreak havoc all while singing us a siren song. We must WAKE UP and SHOW UP. We must no longer abdicate our power. We must begin to tear down and dismantle systems that are not working for all. And we must reimagine together a new future. One that I believe Dr. King imagined as God's dream for the Beloved Community and one that The Practicing Church embraces wholeheartedly.

If you live in Shoreline, I urge you to follow Black Lives Matter - Shoreline (or the chapter in your community) and show your support. Get involved, give, write emails, and attend rallies and protests. Use your voice to amplify the voices of black and indigenous leaders already on the ground doing good work in your neighborhood! Support courageous and passionate neighbors like these Shoreline youth who are putting their hearts, souls, and bodies on the line to reimagine a new future!

Together we can lean into the radical way of Jesus to love our neighbor, dismantle oppression, disrupt empire, and fight for justice!
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Won't you join us?
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by Jessica Ketola

Photo by Benjamin Sow on Unsplash

Last night we gathered for our neighborhood dinner where every week we gather with around twenty of our neighbors to share a meal and our lives. One of our newest attendees is a vivacious 6-year-old girl who loves it so much that she convinced her aunt who was watching her for the evening to bring her! Of course, the big draw are the little friends her age who live in our downstairs apartment. However, I have to believe that this is only a piece of the puzzle — for we are all hard-wired for community.

​You see, there is also Fred, the doting grandpa, who doesn't yet have grandchildren of his own, but who brings treats for the kids every week (and the dogs for that matter) and kindly engages them in play while their parents eat. And we can't go without mentioning Patmon, the sweet golden retriever who serves as a therapy dog by day and the consummate playful companion by night. You add in delicious and plentiful food, raucous conversations, and the warmth and energy of fitting twenty people around the table — and it's no wonder this is becoming a beloved event even for our smallest members.

One thing I know is that when the community comes together, anything is possible. You can feel it palpable in the air. Already, the gifts of the community are being activated. We have gardeners and want-to-be gardeners. We have cooks and those who aspire to. We have tired parents and doting aunts and uncles. We have students who struggle with homework and teachers who offer guidance. We have those with construction skills and those who panic at the sight of a hammer. We have neighborhood activists, marathon runners, cyclists, and beer connoisseurs. We have engineers, therapists, doulas, and business owners. Ours is a diverse community — and one can begin to sense that when we come together, there is nothing we can't solve.

And this is where the dreaming happens. When we begin to grasp that we are not consumers, but citizens, with the power to create a community where everyone can thrive. And I am beginning to hear this around the table these days. For the conversation is subtly changing from what can I do? to what can WE do? And the slightest of shifts brings about an entirely new set of possibilities. For when we move from powerlessness and the overwhelming feeling that there is little we can do — we are filled with a fierce and burgeoning hope that when we offer our gifts in concert with the gifts of the entire community, dreams really do come true.

And so I encourage you this week to let new imaginations stir within you. What are you dreaming about? What good in the world would you like to see that seems currently out of reach? What injustices around you tug at your heart? Like Jesus, what moves you with compassion? What hopes keep stubbornly rising?

And before you censor yourself and give yourself every good reason why this won't work, and quit before you begin — get in a room with your community, some friends, some pilgrims, some neighbors. Share your dreams and see if there might be a collective dream that arises.

Because like my 6-year-old neighbor and her aunt, who taking it all in, told me she was inspired to think about how she could do this in her own neighborhood, you too might begin to appreciate the abundance of riches found in community and realize that anything is possible.

by Jessica Ketola

 In Advent, we celebrate that God is with us.

God is near. In John 1, we encounter a God, who became flesh and blood to dwell among us. God with skin on, here with us, Immanuel. It is absolutely breath-taking.

The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.
[I John 1:14 MSG]

All this so that we would see what God is like. So we would see this one-of-a-kind glory, this extravagant goodness, and this bountiful generosity.

This is the mystery of the incarnation (God in human form) that now by the Holy Spirit continues in us, the church. Our shared, everyday lives are to be a sign and a witness that God is near.

For are we not meant to be the community of God embodying the compassion of Jesus in the neighborhoods we live in?

Like Christ, aren't we to be faithfully present amongst our neighbors in the particularities of our places, seeking healing, peace, and the flourishing of all? Are we not called to be fit together brick by brick to be a dwelling place for the presence of God?

God is building a home. God's using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what God is building. God used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now God's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home. [Eph 2:21-22 MSG]

This is why our current models of church fail us. For we are not called to be individualistic, spiritual consumers but followers of Jesus -- being formed and knit together to join God's work of transformation in the world. Much is at stake. For our current brand of Western Christianity seems to have not only lost its mooring but its spiritual vitality and social credibility. It has sold-out to nationalism, economic imperialism, and the idols of technological progress, materialism, and wanton individualism.

Alan Roxburgh, in Joining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World, argues that the traditional, institutional church (like other social institutions) no longer works; it is unravelling. The good news, however, is that underneath the unravelling, God is up to something.

“The Spirit is busy re-founding the church for our time... showing us how to embody a way of life that makes space for alternative patterns of organizing life together—not more and better church programming that tries harder and harder to attract people, but a thicker sense of community that joins people together more holistically and organically."

We are called to be the church.

To be an incarnational community that participates in and demonstrates God's goodness to our neighbors.

This is why we emphasize faithful presence over a slick worship gathering and formational practices over spiritual consumption. We want to join God's work already present here in our place, at our neighborhood dinners, at Turning Point community meals, at the Social Justice Book Club, at One Cup Coffee, and at the Methadone Clinic. We want to join with God's work of peace and wholeness in our community by partnering with the city, the schools, local nonprofits, our neighborhood association and other faith communities. And we want to live a way of Love here together in this place in a way that is compelling to our neighbors.

As the letter to Colossians puts it, “In Christ, the fullness of Deity is presently living in bodily form—and you [Colossians, together among yourselves] have the fullness of Christ” [2:9]. This radical vision of a local community incarnating the reign of God now, of God’s future penetrating the present through a Spirit-led extended family, was vital to the dynamic witness and power of the early church.

No one has ever seen God,
not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made him plain as day.
[John 1:18 MSG]

Jesus, our Immanuel, came to show us a God with us and among us. And as followers of Jesus, we too, are called to be God with skin — embodying the presence of God in the world. We are called to be a visible, viable, social alternative. We are to be a transformative community living life together rooted in our places, joining in God’s work of renewing all things. So that all those around us can see this God as plain as day and can experience God's love present with and among them.

by Jessica Ketola

Last weekend, we attended the Love Thy Neighbor Ordinary Revival gathering -- and one of the critical shifts they talked about was moving...

from fragmented isolation to neighborhood presence.

We are all too familiar with our hyper-mobile, technological, consumeristic, and individualistic culture and the ensuing fragmentation. Fragmentation of neighborhoods, families and communities that leaves so many of us today suffering from anxiety, depression and loneliness. But what is our response as the people of God? And how do we begin to imagine what it means to be faithfully present weaving a fabric of care in our places? [stolen from The New Parish] For this move from fragmented isolation to neighborhood presence is such an important shift. For how are we supposed to be love incarnate -- to reveal what God is like to our neighbors -- if we are not present?

This fall, there are going to be lots of opportunities for you to be present in your neighborhoods and communities. Whether that is a neighborhood dinner, a Muslim/Christian listening event, a social justice book club, a pub theology gathering or a 5K fun run, I encourage you to SHOW UP. Some of you have more bandwidth than others; and certainly, all of you have plenty of reasons why you don't have time, energy... yada yada yada ( I know I do!) But I want to encourage you, maybe even challenge you...to be present. In your neighborhood. At your local coffee shop. At the community forum. Your life will only be enriched.

I was talking with someone this week who shared how she was experiencing an increase in her quality of life -- the synergy and community that happens when you begin to run into folks everyday -- at the school pickup, the coffee shop, the grocery store and the local art show. It is an intangible gift until you experience it. The joy and beauty of belonging to a place, of feeling a sense of pride and ownership of the neighborhood, a feeling of being known and knowing others. This is the gift of presence in the neighborhood.

Of course, it will look different for each of us, depending on the unique contexts in which we live our lives, the demands of work and family and our passions and interests.

But no one is exempt.

You see, we don't get the privilege of talking without walking (it out).

Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup -- where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? [James 2:14-17 The Message]

For our faith must be expressed in action. This is why we are The Practicing Church. And formation doesn't happen just on Sunday. It happens on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday. And so we don't get to talk about justice and healing and renewal in the world without somehow, even in very small ways, participating in this work.

So many of you are steeped in this healing work in the world as counselors, teachers, mental health workers and chaplains that you feel like there is nothing left when you get home. Others of you are beginning to experience the joy of neighborhood presence. Still others of you are not sure where to begin. And so if this idea of neighborhood presence feels daunting to you, start small. But do start.

Love your neighbor -- your actual neighbors. It is a tremendous gift that just keeps on giving.

Root in a particular place and allow God's dream to grow there.

Show up and be present. Learn the names and faces of your community. Listen deeply to their stories.

Open up your homes. Open up your hearts. Open up your lives.

This week, as I've heard beautiful stories of heartache and resilience that moved me to tears at a cultural community event, as I've thrown back my head and laughed with my Muslim neighbor, as I've participated in a community forum for my neighbors experiencing homelessness, as I've grieved with my neighbor experiencing a tragic loss and as I've made of fool of myself with the neighborhood kids at Turning Point, my life is so much bigger, fuller and richer. And I feel alive and connected to God's dream here.

For surely it is the work of the Spirit. All I have to do is show up.

by Jessica Ketola

Why Neighborhood Sunday? Why this emphasis on the neighborhood? Well, I'm so glad you asked. We are leaning into innovative and embodied ways of being the church. If you are connected to our community, you likely are familiar with some of the ways that today's prevalent form of church is no longer serving us well. Church gatherings on Sunday mornings often disparagingly resemble a movie theater where congregants are more spectators than participants, more consumers than activists, more individualists than members of a family. It is easy to get our "Jesus fix" for an hour or two and then return home to our separate lives. Much more challenging to pursue living into the way of Jesus together where each one participates and offers their gifts. Not just on Sunday but on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday. 

But this is hard! I hear it all the time. In our culture, we don't live in proximity. This isn't practical. We commute to work. We commute to church. We commute to friends, and shopping and recreation. We live fragmented lives. Yes, I am well aware of this. We all collectively are battling these realities.

And yet in my previous paradigm of church, I found it was difficult to love my neighbor and to be present to those around me in my everyday life when I was always leaving it. For many good reasons I'm sure -- for church and for small group, for events and lots of  other "good things". And yet, I struggled to feel like we were truly living into our vocation as followers of Jesus. So often our religious activity can actually lead us into  some form of  "escapism" from the world instead of a response to Jesus' commission to join in its renewal. I was busy. I was tired. But was I transformed? And was anyone around me experiencing the transforming love of God? Was there anything different or compelling about the way we were living out our faith? And was our community a better place to live because we were here?

This is why a million longings, thoughts and ideas landed and began to resonate deep within my soul as my paradigm began to shift. What if we could accept our own limitations and not run ourselves ragged, creating practices that were doable, communal and sustainable? What if we could step into the responsibility of caring for the people right around us in the places we live, work and play? What if we could participate in God's dream for our neighborhoods? What if our lives began to feel more whole as our work and church and social lives began to interweave and intersect? What if it was actually possible to share life, to bump into each other at the grocery store and the coffee shop, and to share in bringing God's shalom to our neighborhoods? What if we could begin to receive the richness of community as we slow down and partake in relationship and goodness right here under our noses? 

Why do neighborhood? Because WE DESPERATELY NEED OUR NEIGHBORS. We, as human creatures, are wired to live in community. We need to be known and to know others. To give and to receive. To be a part of a larger whole. We cannot flourish nor will our communities flourish apart from this.

Why do church in the neighborhood? Because NO ONE GOES TO CHURCH ANYMORE. If you haven't noticed, that ship sailed a long time ago. Certainly in the context of a growing secular culture in Seattle, an invitation to church might be considered almost as outlandish as an invitation to an extra-terrestrial conference. Church today is simply irrelevant to most. But the story of God's renewal in the world is far from over. And the hunger for spirituality persists -- the longing for meaning and purpose and community. If we are to join God's healing work in the world, we must leave behind our comfortable, safe buildings and GO TO THE PEOPLE. Live among them. Build houses. Plant gardens. Settle down and work for the flourishing of our communities. [Jeremiah 29:5-7]

This is why I love the idea of church in the neighborhood. As a remedy to the fragmentation of our day. As the testing ground for our faith. As a way to live counter culturally into a new way of being the church. And as a sign and a witness to demonstrate what Jesus looks like in the context of our communities. 

I know this is challenging. You probably live somewhere already. You most likely commute to church. You probably have a job already. You most likely commute to work. You might already have friends across town. You most likely commute to socialize. I get it. This was my life too. However, as I began to pray into the "what if's", slowly but surely I began to see God lead us into a new way of being the church. I would be lying to your face if I told you it has been easy or without cost. And there were many times along the way that I thought, "this is never going to work." And surely those times are still ahead. And yet four years later, we are beginning to taste the first fruits of being church in our neighborhood, and it is more compelling than ever. 

So what if you prayed about moving intentionally into a neighborhood? What if you prayed about starting a business or finding a job in your local community? What if you began to ask God to connect you with other followers of Jesus in your own neighborhood so that you could begin to dream together? What if you changed just a few practices in your everyday lives - like putting your kids on the same soccer team as your neighbors? Or getting your cold brew at your locally owned neighborhood coffee shop? Or walking in your neighborhood? Or frequenting your local community concerts, events, and parks? 

This is not easy. This is hard. This is what Jesus describes as the narrow road. And yet, as a faith community, we are going to lean into the discomfort. If we never get uncomfortable, we will never live beyond the status quo. And we will miss out on what God is doing. And we will certainly fail to innovate in a time when the church so desperately needs to innovate.  And so yes, we are doing Neighborhood Sunday. And it is experimental. And clunky. And uncomfortable. And we will most likely fail and find new iterations. But we are going to try some things. And we are going to learn some things. And I believe that as we do so, we will continue to lean into God's dream for us and for our community. 

Happy Neighborhood Sunday!
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WANT TO DIG DEEPER? CHECK THESE OUT! 
The New Parish 
Abundant Community 
Slow Church 
The Art of Neighboring 
Missional: Joining God in the Neighborhood 
Five Hopeful Signs That Dare Us To Be The Church 
RePlacing Church Podcast: The Innovative Church

​by Jessica Ketola

Why invest in getting to know your neighbors? Besides all the studies done on the strength of community and the wellbeing found in being connected. With decreases in physical and mental illness, crime and the debilitating effects of isolation and poverty. With the bonus increase of resources and resiliency.

When we come together as neighbors and citizens, there is always enough.

This is the premise of Abundant Community and asset based community development. I can’t say enough about it. In fact, many of these principles are at work in our beloved nonprofit, Turning Point, where we hope to bring people together so that everyone benefits and the community flourishes. As we began our summer educational day camp yesterday, it was already evident. Tutors. Kids. Families. Of many different cultures, languages and backgrounds. And yet as they prepared to load the bus for their first adventure to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, I was confident that there would be rich conversation and valuable cross-cultural learning, as they look at how they might contribute to make the world a better place. [Sidebar: You can also participate in making the world a better place and send a kid to camp.] But even beyond the ideological and sociological ramifications of why investing in your local community makes sense and what I believe is quite a compelling case being made for the return to the local. Besides all of this...

I have to say that neighboring is just simply “freakin’ awesome”.

[This was a phrase co-opted by this year’s Leadership in the New Parish cohort in jest, but it seems to work just fine here.]
 
I love knowing my neighbors. I love that when my neighbor’s sister passed away recently, the other neighbors on the block rallied around her family. I love that we got to offer a room to her mother from out of town. What an honor it was to be invited into that sacred space. I love that neighbors helped go through her sister’s house, clean and help move belongings. In the midst of incomprehensible grief and sorrow. What a gift.
 
I love knowing my neighbors. I love that my amazingly spunky and strong neighbor, now in her late eighties, still thought it was a good idea to get up on her roof and clean the gutters. I did not love when she tragically fell off her ladder and bruised her ribs, but it was surely providential when the neighbor next door heard the crash and came running. I love that as neighbors we called and texted each other, coordinating visits to the hospital and nursing home until she returned home. I love it even more that the neighbor that had come running also confiscated her ladder and told her if she needed it, she knew where to find him.
 
I love knowing my neighbors. I love that we have holiday celebrations, summer barbecues and Seahawks parties. I love that our family was invited to Samish Island this year to celebrate the Fourth of July along with several of our neighbors who have done this for years on end as their kids have grown up together. We were so blessed to be invited to a wonderful day of stunning views, beach fun, friendship, fireworks, paddle boarding, and grilled oysters over the fire. What extravagance!

What a gift it is to know my neighbors. Of course, my neighborhood is unique. Our family has only lived here for a year and yet we’ve been ushered into a rich fabric of care that our neighbors have developed over decades. However, it is a striking example of the value of neighboring.

It enriches our lives. It creates a built-in fabric of care. And it offers us resources that we wouldn’t have otherwise.

For one neighbor, a hotel wasn’t needed. For another, outside help was not required and the family could breathe easier knowing that neighbors were close if she needed anything. And in our own family's story, we were welcomed generously into an experience far outside of our own resources and relational investment. This is the beauty of community. This is the gift of knowing our neighbors. We become rich in every way. And it is truly “freakin’ awesome”!

by Jessica Ketola
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