Parish Church

PLU Summer Institute on Pastoral Theology

What a privilege to be one of the keynote speakers for this year’s PLU’s annual Summer Institute on Pastoral Theology. Granted Dr. Nate Frambach, who is the Associate Professor of Youth & Culture at Wartburg Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa was scheduled

admin June 21, 2012May 5, 2022

Leadership in the New Parish Think-Tank

If you know me at all, then you know how passionate I am about the mission of the grad school where I get to teach.  You may have already heard that The Seattle School was recently awarded a grant to

Dwight J. Friesen February 16, 2012June 7, 2022

inhabit conference: seattle, april 29-30

There is a tectonic shift happening under the surface of the church in North America. Parishioners are returning to the parish. The greater our individual mobility extends, the greater the world’s longing and need for a faith that can be

Dwight J. Friesen March 9, 2011May 13, 2022

seattle’s misisonal clustering

Richard Florida, author of the international best seller Who’s Your City: How the Creative Economy is Making Where you Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life, writes to put it simply, about the importance of place. In his introduction

Dwight J. Friesen November 23, 2010May 7, 2022

2010 Emergent Theological Conversation

In just a couple of days I get to join one of the most important theological conversations that Emergent Village has hosted to date.  The conversation will bring Dr. Musa Dube , Dr. Richard Twiss, and Dr. Colin Greene together

Dwight J. Friesen October 29, 2010January 15, 2021

Intro to the Emerging Church

On October 11th at the Church of the Resurrection in the Lake Hills neighborhood of Bellevue I will begin a short series of conversations introducing folks to all things “Emerging Church.” Its going to be a blast to pull together

admin October 1, 2010May 5, 2022

Networked Church

Got to go down to Portland at the invitation of Karen Ward to participate in an emergent conversation within the Episcopal Church. The event is “Episcopal Village West.” Its so cool to see more of denominations and faith traditions further

admin June 12, 2010May 5, 2022

Parish Collective

Parish Collective is getting ready to host three gatherings of in the Pacific Northwest (Vancouver BC, Seattle, Portland).  The gatherings are designed to draw communities of faith who are deeply committed to embodying the gospel in the radical particularity of

Dwight J. Friesen April 26, 2010May 13, 2022

Contemporvant Worship

Filled with irony, this self mocking look at emerging mega church worship is too funny. The video is made by the team over at North Point Media. Check it out. Peace, dwight

Dwight J. Friesen April 14, 2010November 14, 2022

ChurchRater.com on NPR

My friend, Jim Henderson, founder of Off-the-Map, co-author Jim and Casper Go to Church, and author of Evangelism Without Additives together with Tyler Mahoney started a new web service called: ChurchRater.com. On a number of occasions Jim and I have

Dwight J. Friesen April 1, 2010May 8, 2022

World Café @ Communities First Association

The good folks over at the Communities First Association have invited me to facilitate a “World Café”. Tomorrow is the big day. As you may know, a world café is a structured conversational process for knowledge sharing in which groups of people discuss a

admin March 22, 2010May 5, 2022

Emergent @ CCT, follow-up

A couple of weeks ago I was able to spend a few hours with Christian Churches Together, which is a relatively new ecumenical network in the USA. I have to say that I find these ecumenical gatherings quite encouraging. For

Dwight J. Friesen February 3, 2010November 9, 2021

WWJB – Who Would Jesus Beat?

This morning The New York Times printed a short piece by R. M. Schneiderman titled, “Flock is Now a Fight Team in Some Ministries.” Here’s how the article began: “MEMPHIS — In the back room of a theater on Beale

Dwight J. Friesen February 2, 2010September 21, 2022

Emergent @ Christian Churches Together

This week is the fourth annual gathering of the fairly new ecumenical group, Christian Churches Together (CCT), and this year’s meeting brings them to Seattle, and are being hosted by World Vision. CCT has invited me to facilitate a couple

Dwight J. Friesen January 13, 2010June 10, 2022

local Christ-commons

I am going to begin a series of highlighting churches in the Pacific Northwest – mostly in Seattle and the surrounding area, but I hope to dip down to Portland and reach up to Vancouver from time to time. I

Dwight J. Friesen November 25, 2009May 8, 2022

Local Theologies

Ryan Bolger has created a helpful slide illustrating an overview of local theologies as they have emerged over time.  Ryan is drawing heavily from amazing thought leaders like: David Bosch, Andrew Walls, and Wilbert Shenk. peace, dwight

Dwight J. Friesen November 17, 2009June 7, 2022

Article in Alife, “Learning from Google”

The October 2009 issue of aLife is publishing a short piece I wrote titled: “Learning from Google.” Clearly this little piece emerges from my new book, Thy Kingdom Connected: What the Church can Learn from Facebook, the Internet, and Other

Dwight J. Friesen October 1, 2009June 17, 2022

Speaking @ Transcona Memorial United

In just a couple of weeks I get to head up to Winnipeg (near the town I grew up in – Brandon), to join my friend, Jeff Cook and the Transcona Memorial United Church for a weekend of exploring the

Dwight J. Friesen September 4, 2009May 7, 2022

Thy Kingdom Connected

So my first solo book now has cover art. And is listed on Amazon.com for pre-order. How cool is that? What do you think, is my name big enough? Seriously though, I’m a little concerned about the image of the

Dwight J. Friesen June 12, 2009September 9, 2022

mission in a global context

One of the courses of study I get to guide missional leaders through at MHGS is “Mission in a Global Context.”  Each year one of the learning engagements we do together is teaming up in small groups to participate with

Dwight J. Friesen May 15, 2009November 12, 2020

Seattle’s Ecumenical World Café

Peace, dwight

admin May 1, 2009May 8, 2022

ecumenical emergent gathering

“The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better.” Richard Rohr Come to the first large gathering of Roman Catholic, Mainline Protestant, Evangelical, and other Christians seeking to explore this emergence and convergence together. You’ll be inspired

Dwight J. Friesen January 9, 2009September 20, 2022

emergent village – keeps emerging

Emergent Village continues to emerge as social network of conversationally engaged, missionally minded communities/people of faith.  Check out the statement from EV and listen to a podcast of some of the EV board members talking about the move to an

Dwight J. Friesen October 31, 2008May 11, 2022

evangelical future(s)?

What is the future or possible futures of evangelicalism? The movement of evangelicalism seems to be at a crossroads. The baton of leadership of the modern evangelical movement is being passed along. The political landscape is changing. The philosophical and

Dwight J. Friesen March 21, 2008September 20, 2022

emerging & established churches together?

I find myself looking for conversation partners. I’m looking for new paradigm churches (emerging, neo-monastic, simple, avant-churches, etc.), who are intentionally partnering with more established congregations in mission and mutual transformation. And the reverse as well, for established congregations who

Dwight J. Friesen January 31, 2008September 21, 2022

emergent @ national workshop on Christian Unity

I will be representing emergent village at the National Workshop on Christian Unity in Chicago later this Spring. I’ll have the privilege to present a workshop on emergent village and ecumenism. BTW, Emergent may have some opportunities to include some

Dwight J. Friesen December 30, 2007September 21, 2022

my workshop at, “hear.listen.connect”

My friend Jim Henderson together with the collaborative team at Off-the-Map are gearing up for a national conversation happening in Seattle, in early November. This year’s theme is Hear·Listen·Connect.Presenters include Diana Butler Bass, Brian McLaren, Richard Twiss, Ruth Padilla DeBorst,

Dwight J. Friesen August 24, 2007May 8, 2022

seattle simple churches?

I’m looking for links to, or contact info for simple churches and/or house churches in and around Seattle. If you know of one could you please comment on this blog entry or email me? BTW: in an effort to try

Dwight J. Friesen August 3, 2007September 21, 2022

out of theOOZE

Spencer Burke of theOoze let me get a sneak peek at recently completed book, Out of TheOoze. Having sifted through hundreds of thousands of web contributions to theOOZE.com Spencer Burke has selected a few choice offerings, inviting us to encounter the concerns, wonderings, and awakenings

Dwight J. Friesen August 1, 2007May 8, 2022

emergent update from “faith & order”

Just returned from the 50th anniversary celebration of the Faith & Order Commission of the National Council of Churches in the USA, which took place at the site of the first gathering at Oberlin College. It was great to rub shoulders with people

Dwight J. Friesen July 24, 2007September 23, 2022