4mat

A handful of us from NieuCommunities San Diego and Vancouver attended an intensive one-day workshop on a very cool teaching curriculum called 4mat. Some good hands-on, interaction, and a headful of information that should really help us in our time of teaching and coaching. Thankfully, there were elements of drawing as well, which saved those of us who sometimes numb with so much information.

frank viola on organic church

If you want to hear a provocative take on a Trinitarian expression of church, carve out 30 minutes and click here to listen to Frank Viola bring it in his always passionate way.

joining the conversation

I'm a fan of a few organizations' Facebook pages... Balboa Park. A couple of non-profits. A local art museum, and Wooster Collective, one of my fav online street art blogs.

I like how Wooster uses Facebook. They've recently been posting questions that are relevant to those who follow them, questions that invite people into the conversation about their passion—street art. And it got me thinking about the questions we were pondering tonight about our neighborhood, and how we might join conversations already taking place.

Wooster keeps me thinking about street art through their FB questions, and invites folks into the conversation. "Mapping the hood" is another great expression of inviting people into a conversation that matters. It's an interactive art installation in North Park, and is brilliantly furthering—and inviting people into—the conversation about what their community is becoming.

It's all got me thinking both about the medium and the message of these conversations we're having, and what it may look like to join others' conversations already taking place, as well as inviting others into ours.

— Jon

Voices: Mapping the Hood

On Sunday we visited the North Park Festival of the Arts, and stumbled across "Voices: Mapping the Hood." It's an interactive art installation in North Park that invites people to join the conversation on what makes a great community. Some really terrific concepts here that are provocative and engaging. Really great use of the medium.

I describe the photos in my Flickr set.

Our First Road Trip

April 2-5 was our first Beyond Borders Road Trip. We set aside the weekend to invite people into our rhythms of communion with God, community with each other and missional life in our neighborhood and city.

The weekend started off with a day in Golden Hill and our surrounding neighborhoods. We explored, engaged in conversation about what God is doing in San Diego and feasted on street tacos in Logan Heights.

Saturday morning we left for Ensenada, Mexico. We spent the day at Casa Esperanza, a homeless shelter for women and children. After some painting and playing with the kids we enjoyed a meal together and ended the day by sharing our life stories with one another.

We were introduced to Casa Esperanza by "Reflejo," a collective of Mexican Christ followers who share life together as they serve Jesus in their own neighborhoods and city. One of the most exciting things about the relationships we're building in Mexico is the partnership that's beginning to form between NieuCommunities and Reflejo. We've found a common heart beat with them and are beginning to link arms and dream about how God might be bringing us together for ministry.

The Road Trip ended on sunday evening after a fairly long wait to cross the border at Tecate. Individually and collectively God planted some significant seeds in all of us that are already beginning to grow and produce fruit. The best is yet to come! :)

discipling our children

I was just reading a blog post by Hugh Halter on kids and home groups...

http://hughhalter.com/?p=83

...and it challenged me to think about ways our community could more intentionally disciple our children. Utilizing other churches to do it is certainly an option, especially if they're geared up for it. But I'm not sure a healthy community should ever fully outsource the discipleship of their children. So consider this an invitation to think with us about creative ways we could nurture our whole community...even the littlest ones among us.

Staff Meetings