Parish Church

The Future of Seattle

This is worth checking out. Peace, dwight

Dwight J. Friesen October 12, 2021September 26, 2022

Discovering Your Mezzo Parish

Guiding your faith community into even greater faithful presence within its parish invites discernment of the collective. Where and how to focus time and energy is a vital and ongoing journey of listening and adapting. Sometimes we get sidetracked by

Dwight J. Friesen October 6, 2021November 12, 2021

Parish Collective, Inhabit/Connect 2021

Here are two great panel discussions from Parish Collective’s, 2021 Inhabit Connect. “Inhabit Connect” is the pandemic substitute for Parish Collective’s annual flagship event in Seattle, the Inhabit Conference. By the Way tickets for the 2022 in person Inhabit are

Dwight J. Friesen October 1, 2021November 4, 2021

Learning from Recent Church History

Mike Cosper and a talented team at Christianity Today’s CT Podcasts have produced series exploring “The Rise & Fall of Mars Hill.” As you likely know, Mars Hill Church was planted in 1996 and pastored by Mark Driscoll in Seattle

Dwight J. Friesen September 23, 2021November 4, 2021

Flipping the Script on Church Owned Property

Flipping the Script on Stewardship: COVID-19 & the Shift from Church Property to Kingdom Building For more than a year, your church’s building has been unused.  Yet, not having access to it didn’t stop your faith community from being a

Dwight J. Friesen August 2, 2021November 8, 2021

“Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon

Where I’m From By George Ella Lyon I am from clothespins, from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride. I am from the dirt under the back porch. (Black, glistening it tasted like beets.) I am from the forsythia bush, the Dutch elm whose

Dwight J. Friesen April 6, 2021November 20, 2021

Holy Communion Online

Last week during my school’s Wednesday Holy Communion & prayer time a student shared some beautiful words at the Table. It appears these words were first used at  Mt Hollywood Church in Los Angeles, California on Palm Sunday, 2020. If anyone

Dwight J. Friesen April 5, 2021November 2, 2022

Faithful Presence in Bend Oregon

“The Spirit teaches us how to participate with God in the restoration of all things; maybe the more common term for this would be mission…[I]t’s a mission which connects our unique desires to the work of the Spirit to keep

Dwight J. Friesen March 5, 2021November 22, 2021

Today! “Interfaith Perspectives on Loving Our Neighbors”

Today The Parliament of the World’s Religions is joining organizers and community leaders in Chicago as part of the City’s Together We Heal initiative by hosting a series of virtual programs to foster conversation and share tools on healing and

Dwight J. Friesen February 23, 2021September 26, 2022

The Black Church

“This is the story and song our ancestors bequeathed to us, and it comes at a time in our country when the very things they struggled and died for — faith and freedom, justice and equality, democracy and grace —

Dwight J. Friesen February 13, 2021November 22, 2021

Leadership & First Followers

In the late 2000’s (maybe 2009?) at Washington State’s Sasquatch Festival during a performance by Santigold of her hit, “Unstoppable” a lone guy starts dancing on a hill. Derek Sivers made this video famous by using it to illustrate the

Dwight J. Friesen February 1, 2021November 24, 2021

“Little Boxes” – A Rant about Racism, Suburbs & Feeling Special

In 1962 Malvina Reynolds released her song “Little Boxes” – used as the theme for the Showtime series “Weeds” – and it’s a song capturing the fear of being ordinary, at least in part. The fear of having a ticky-tacky

Dwight J. Friesen January 28, 2021November 8, 2021

Father Greg Boyle: Widow, Orphan, & Stranger

“For unless love becomes tenderness—the connective tissue of love—it never becomes transformational. The tender doesn’t happen tomorrow . . . only now.” Gregory Boyle The Tacoma Catholic Worker newsletter which graced my mailbox yesterday referred back to some of the

Dwight J. Friesen December 1, 2020November 24, 2021

THEOS… a UK think tank needed here

My friend, Tim Soerens of Parish Collective recently introduced me to the remarkable UK think-tank, THEOS, (follow THEOS on facebook). THEOS stimulates the debate about the place of religion in society, challenging and changing ideas through research, commentary and events.

Dwight J. Friesen November 12, 2020November 14, 2022

10 Personal Parish Practices & Postures During 2020

In this pandemic era many of us find ourselves walking our neighborhoods more than ever. Many are also experiencing limitations in terms of gathering together with others. So doing things with your group or your church may not be available.

Dwight J. Friesen October 12, 2020November 2, 2022

Five Signs of New Parish Expressions

Immediately following the release of The New Parish, Paul Sparks, Tim Soerens, myself, and a number of artists who joined us for legs of the tour hit the road. Our travels – which were a purposeful blending of on the

Dwight J. Friesen October 5, 2020January 13, 2021

Report on UN-Habitat “World Urban Forum 10”

Back in February of 2020, just before COVID-19 re-ordered life as we’ve known it, myself and a crew of international, multi-faith urban thinkers and place practitioners gathered in Abu Dhabi to participate the United Nations, Habitat’s tenth convening of the

Dwight J. Friesen September 30, 2020November 2, 2022

Faith(s) for the Environment – Call to Action

The ongoing collaboration between the Parliament of World Religions together with the UN-Environment Programme, has set forth a “Faith for Earth: A Call for Action.” This beautifully compiled document describes the essential, unshakeable reverence that all religions have for creation

Dwight J. Friesen September 2, 2020September 28, 2022

Closer to the Edge, Dr. Ron Ruthruff

My friend and colleague, Dr. Ron Ruthruff delivered a short talk at my school the other day drawing on some of the themes of his latest book. Ron’s new book is Closer to the Edge. He’s a good guy. A

Dwight J. Friesen June 27, 2020December 21, 2022

Inhabit Conference 2020 @ Home Edition

In the revelation of this moment with COVID-19 and systemic racial injustice – is it too late to reorganize the church in the neighborhood for a more equitable future? For far too long, we as a society have ignored the

Dwight J. Friesen June 24, 2020November 8, 2022

Can “White” People Be Saved?

I recently reread Willie James Jennings‘ essay, “Can ‘White’ People Be Saved?” (highly recommended), after defining ‘whiteness’ and walking through the tragic history of the collusion the Christian faith with white supremacy Dr. Jennings writes: “As I close – I

Dwight J. Friesen June 5, 2020May 12, 2022

COVID-19 Teaching us about Traffic?

Really helpful article by Joe Cartright who runs the think tank and blog City Observatory. Cartright’s article is posted on Strong Towns, its called: What COVID-19 Teaches Us About How to Fix Highways, by Joe Cartright The Small Towns‘ podcast

Dwight J. Friesen May 20, 2020September 26, 2022

Neighborhood Soul Mapping

My friend, Dan Jacobs introduced me to this cool use of Google Maps to help celebrate the character of Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood.

Dwight J. Friesen May 20, 2020September 26, 2022

You are Here!

You are here! Actually your are there; I am here. This is amazing! This is real. Like no time in modern history – or least not since the inventions of the steam ship, the locative, the automobile, and the airplane

Dwight J. Friesen May 5, 2020September 26, 2022

Place as Teacher

Here’s a little video The Seattle School put together, briefly talking about how our bodies placed in the real world is the primary means through which we discover what is real. Enjoy. Peace, dwight

Dwight J. Friesen May 4, 2020September 26, 2022

Urban Shalom Forum @ WUF-10

During the World Urban Forum 10 in Abu Dhabi urban thinkers and practitioners from around the world and from a number faith traditions gathered at the invitation of the Urban Shalom Society. These gatherings serve multiple purposes it seems to

Dwight J. Friesen February 18, 2020September 26, 2022

Thriving Cities Framework

One of the most vital conversations at the intersection of: cities, humans, environment, design, and faith is happening at Thriving Cities. As their website says, “Thriving Cities Group uses a multi-disciplinary approach that brings together decades of research, training, community

Dwight J. Friesen September 29, 2019November 29, 2022

Great Time with the CBOQ

Just finished up a wonderful few days as the keynote speaker at the annual Canadian Baptists of Ontario & Quebec “Reignite” leadership conference. All the Bapist leaders and their partners are invited to pause their regular day-to-day work, and gather

Dwight J. Friesen November 8, 2018May 6, 2022

Congress for New Urbanism

My friend Chris Elisara invited to join him at the Congress for New Urbanism (CNU), when its conference was here in Seattle a few weeks back. I’ve posted just two of the amazing talks from the event. One of the

Dwight J. Friesen May 16, 2017September 26, 2022

The Womxn’s March on Seattle

Wow! What a Day! I have never loved felt more proud of my city than I do today. The Womxn’s March on Seattle was truly beautiful. Lynette and I carpooled with some neighbors, we had a blast… if that’s the right

Dwight J. Friesen January 21, 2017September 26, 2022