Wednesday, November 21, 2007

sean's take on the road trip

This past weekend our NieuCommunities Director and friend, Rob Yackley, took a group of us down to San Diego to scout out some NieuCommunities possibilities. We kicked off our time down there meeting with a young missional leader named Jason who is one of the lead participants in an activisitic community in the area called "Ecclesia Collective." Jason and his cohorts are doing some exceptionally NC like activities in ministry and service that would be a natural help to us developing a site as we collaborate with them.

We then took a detour to take in some of the artistic elements of San Diego over at Balboa Park where we were able to check out the Dead Sea Scrolls on display. Artistic expression is a HUGE part of the NieuCommunities experience, so checking out what they have available in this realm was awesome.

After the Dead Sea Scrolls Rob sent us out in 2 groups of four on a walking tour of an area of San Diego with the greatest NC probabilities called Golden Hill. Its an economically poorer part of the city, yet rich in relational and historical context.

The questions Rob gave us to assist in our exploration as we were "Wandering on Golden Hill" were:

> Find a couple of things that say something about the history of the neighborhood.
> Look for something subtle, maybe even unexpected, that says something about what's important to people in the neighborhood.
> Describe your favorite house, building, and city view.
> Look for something that symbolizes hope.
> Look for something that symbolizes a lost cause.
> Describe the churches you saw and what the buildings/names of these churches might communicate.
> Find something else (besides a church) that is attempting to tap into people's spirituality and need for significance.
> Buy something you'd never find in your neighborhood.
> Ask a local what their favorite thing is about their neighborhood.
> Ask a local what they wish was better about their neighborhood.
> What didn't you see? What was missing? What seems needed?

As you can imagine, these questions, coupled with the opportunity to wander around Golden Hill for a couple of hours with like-minded friends made for a wonderful close for our exploration.

We ended the day at the Turf Club, an old steak house frequented by Frank Sinatra and his "Rat Pack" gang where you cook your own steak on an indoor community grill. VERY cool!

As Deb describes in her post this week, its nearly impossible for us to plan for our future at this time, but this chance to dream a bit with some NieuCommunities friends was a GREAT break. Even if we were to JUMP at the possibilities presented in San Diego we wouldn't be starting the process until next summer, so...we've got time to dream.

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