The New Parish: How Neighborhood Churches Are Transforming Mission, Discipleship and Community Paperback – Illustrated, April 4, 2014

Lots of us have theories on where the Holy Spirit is leading the church in North American in the 21st century. Lots of angsty people hope the church will reach Millenials. Lots of doomsayers believe the Spirit is letting the church die.I'm putting my money on one basic idea: The Spirit is leading churches to re-root in their communities, in their local neighborhoods.Many churches do this already, natively. But surprisingly a lot less do than could. It's not uncommon for people living in a neighborhood to have little or no contact with the community of people who worship together in a church building right on their block.Anecdotally, there are at least five churches I can walk to in my own neighborhood where I don't no a single person who attends there. I don't know where their members live. I've never met anyone who attends these churches.Also anecdotally, when I tell people I am the pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, Arkansas, even if they live right next door to the church, more than once I have had them ask, "Where is that church?" Or: "Is that the church there on Rolling Hills somewhere?"There are perhaps many reasons why individual churches are in the neighborhood while not being in the neighborhood. If they are a church like ours with a denominational affiliation that tends to attract members from across the region rather than in the specific neighborhood, the church may not have as part of its identity the notion that it is a part of the neighborhood.It is, on the other hand, surprising to me that congregations don't take the injunction from Jesus, "Love your neighbor," as a practical and geographical suggestion. In other words, as a church, if we are to love our neighbor, we might start right next door, with our actual neighbors... with the school next to us, the other churches nearby, the rehab center down the street, the offices and businesses around the corner, the POA down the block.This is why I am so attracted to Paul Sparks, Tim Soerens, and Dwight Friesen's new book, The New Parish: How Neighborhood Churches Are Transforming Mission, Discipleship and Community. They have captured in this book the heart of a movement that I believe will be the signal movement of local congregations in the 21st century. Churches will thrive in community by re-rooting in their local communities.On one level, the book brings nothing radically new to the conversation. Community organizing has been around for a while. Neighborhoods have been rediscovering themselves not just from a Christian perspective, but in the post-modern era also.What is helpful about the way these three pastors frame the conversation, however, is by understanding the parish as an integral part of designing fresh expressions of neighborhood life.First, they emphasize that many of us have gotten into the habit, unfortunately, of living above place. In our global, networked world, we know more people on Facebook than in our neighborhood, and think of ourselves as a part of interest groups more than our block. So the book is first of all an invitation to live in rather than above place.Second, these pastors help us define the new parish in ways that has resonances with the old parish model, but with enlivening new modalities. As just one example, since many churches often exist even within one neighborhood, the new parish model invites the possibility of collaboration and mutual mission together in the neighborhood across denominational lines.Additionally, in the new parish, the neighborhood contributes to the form of the church as much as the church helps define the parish. Neighborhoods, and the way they mutually care for each other, can teach churches something about love and faithfulness.Overall, the authors of The New Parish adopt a mentality of the new commons, and strive to find the church in all of life. The book doesn't simply redefine the relationship between church and neighborhoods. It is up to some ecclesiological work, redefining the nature of the church itself. The church is now defined by the way it faithfully presences itself in the midst of the new commons.The New Parish is published by IVP Press, which is both a strength and a weakness. It's strong on offering devotional resources for readers of the book to think through the spirituality of the transition to a new parish way of thinking. It is soft on some of the ethnographic and social science research I think could be really fruitful in convincing readers why a strong re-rooting of congregations matters for redevelopment in communities and neighborhoods. Perhaps Dwight Friesen, the author who is also on seminary faculty, will write some kind of companion piece that picks up more of this research. I would love it if he did.My favorite chapter is the chapter on re-rooting itself, chapter 7. The authors recognize that if we are going to let re-rooting inhabit our imaginations, we are going to need to imagine it on three levels. First, we are called to re-root on a personal level. We are called to get to know our neighbors, wherever we actually individually live. Then, congregations are being called to re-root in their local neighborhoods. Then, third, we are called to re-root with other people of faith in our neighborhoods. This will look like ecumenical partnerships, or groups from different denominational affiliations who are committed to causes in our neighborhoods.I have seen some of these practices already at work in our own community. We have a group of churches who have identified a neighborhood in which they wish to serve a weekly community meal, because there are hungry people. People of faith are partnering together to build community gardens, set up Free Libraries, tutor at the schools, and more.Often, these kinds of neighborhood re-rooting are even transcending religious boundaries. We have served our meal with the youth group from the synagogue. We celebrate congregational ministry in the summer with congregations of people from at least three historic religious traditions.The authors conclude with a chapter on "linking," a topic dear to the heart of Dwight Friesen, whose previous book was Thy Kingdom Connected (ēmersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith): What the Church Can Learn from Facebook, the Internet, and Other Networks. The authors recognize that although churches are called to re-root in their neighborhoods, in the new parish model this will include learning best practices from other parishes and communities around the world. Never before have there been as many opportunities for people to share with each other about their parish practices through links and networks at the global level.The authors have travelled around the country seeing how other new parish ministries are developing. They encourage reader to reach out and learn, nationally and globally, in what might be a kind of new denominationalism. It's a worthy final proposal, and will be a good check on the new parish movement so it is ecumenical rather than parochial.I conclude with a series of questions from the book. If you are serious about re-rooting in your neighborhood as a Christian, and discovering how your local congregation can re-root in its own parish, consider working through these with a friend or group of brothers and sisters in Christ.1. Where do you live? Describe the contours of your neighborhood. What narratives or values seem present in the place where you live?2. How might you describe your current relationship to your place?3. What might be an intentional and natural next step for you to live even more fully present within and in-with your place?4. Walk with a friend or two: Invite a neighbor to join you on your walk through your neighborhood. As you walk together share what you see and hope for.5. Are you a character in your neighborhood? Wonder together about ways of rooting within your parish so people might come to know of and depend on you.6. Have a conversation with your community of faith exploring intentional ways of being present as a group in the life of your neighborhood.

Sweet is right. All roads to the future of the church do pass through this book. Sparks, Soerens and Friesen have provided the church with a surprisingly original and generative ecclesiology in a compact, readable form.The book’s success emerges from their unique point of departure: rethinking “church” through the lens of presence in a particular place. A revitalized notion of parish stands in as their key theologically freighted term, referring to “all the relationships (including the land) where the local church lives out its faith together...large enough to live life together...and small enough to be known” (23). The authors’ argument develops by identifying the problem, explaining foundational concepts, and finishes with practices for parish life.How do we hold together the multifaceted vocations of the local church in an age of postmodern transience, technological disembodiment, hour commutes, and cultural divides? How can we be formed around Jesus, live intentionally as a Christian community and holistically engage our city in mission without repeating our colonialist history?The New Parish makes a strong argument that the starting point for any answer to these questions begins with re-embracing neighborhood scale locality. Returning church to particular places--each with a unique history, people, culture, set issues and aspirations--reintroduces us to the immediacy of our relational way of life. The reconciling gospel reconnects us to God, self, others and creation. But when we commute to church to practice the gospel, we forget that each of those relationships existed in the place we left. God only lives in the church building and is absent in the neighborhood. Our identities remain fractured by their dislocation from a sense of home. Our call to neighbor becomes abstracted into the Universal Neighbor while we fail learn the names of the person next door, much less have them over for dinner. And the land, if not forgotten entirely, is never remembered to exist beneath one’s lawn. Rooting our ecclesial activities in a particular place goes a long way toward reorienting these shortcomings.The authors admit that Parish is only meant as an introduction, nonetheless as this paradigm is implemented by the American Church at least two aspects of our culture need to be named if their methodology is to be effective:1) Our society has not created all places equal. Racial and economic divides plague our geographies. Any successful parish model will require relocation and redistribution.2) Chronic racial segregation in the church must be named and overcome. Our church’s should manifest the same multiculturalism of our parish...and if the parish is monocultural, we should ask why. (there are exceptions here, but mostly related to the needs of marginalized peoples)Personally, I am on a journey toward a parish yet to be revealed. The past nine years, I have been a child of my age, moving from one city to another. Leaving home was invaluably formative, but I increasingly feel the itch to put down roots. The New Parish is now a key part of helping frame what this means--for myself, my family, community and ministry. Hopefully, my wife and I will arrive in the place God is calling us to long term soon. When we do, we will begin looking for a particular plot to call our own, a place to love and from which to love the world.

I read this book with great anticipation. The idea that the church should serve and be a part of its neighborhood sounded like such a great idea. As I read the theory, and a few stories of the authors' experiences, I kept waiting to get to the part where the theory could be applied to a real congregation. Unfortunately that part of the book hasn't been written, probably because my situation does not match with the authors' assumptions. While mentioning that not all neighborhoods are the same, all the examples came from experiences with city neighborhoods. But that's not where all of us live. How do we connect with neighborhoods when there is no gathering place, no businesses or stores, no sense of neighbor? I think it can be done, but I would like to have had some ideas, some examples, even some encouragement. I bought the book looking for some direction, not a road map, but at least a step or two to take. I finished the book with no more direction than when I had begun.

"The New Parish" confirmed what God has been saying to me over the past few months: "You've got to quit thinking of your congregation as the people who come to church on Sunday morning, and start thinking of your congregation as your neighbors whom I've called you to serve." Sparks, Soerens and Friesen encourage our "faithful presence" where God has planted us, and to work from a "resources based" mentality rather than one that is "needs based." I highly recommend this book, especially if you've been praying about how to reach your neighborhood or community for Christ.

Rooted in practice this book challenges me to consider what parish ministry could look like. Conceptually engaging with useful reflective questions I read this in one sitting yet will take a long time to process it.

Very easy to read and informative and helpful

A course book for my daughter in her final year of 'vicar training'.

A great read particularly for those people who want to reconnect with their local neighbourhod.

This book is written with an obvious bias. It is rife with a strong left-leaning worldview and barely-couched insults and innuendo directed at those who may not share a socialist perspective on how neighborhoods, and economies as a whole, should function. If you believe that the definition of leadership as commonly expressed: "Leadership is influence." Then this book is not for you. If you would push back against a perspective that the animals need the gospel--not just the humans; then this book is not for you. If you don't believe that the main objective of a Christian here on Earth is to create a better planet through a barter system economy, public gardens, and a restoration of Earth to an 'Eden-like' state--then this book is not for you. If you are looking for practical, realistic, and applicable approaches to effective ministry in North America--This book is definitely NOT for you!