Parish Church

leading postures

A few years ago I asked a few people to help me see myself as “pastor” and “leader”. Through the process of that three month conversation I made a number of commitments that I revisit often and fail even frequently.

Dwight J. Friesen October 28, 2004September 14, 2022

Ecclesial Being-Unto-Death

Like most people 😉 my mind occasionally drifts to happy thoughts of Heidegger’s notion of Dasein as being-unto-death.  Marty (can I call him Marty?) reminds us that when people becomes aware of their inevitable death; really aware, like after a

Dwight J. Friesen October 26, 2004September 28, 2022

leading… why no one IS “leader”

I was rereading The Web of Life and The Hidden Connections by Capra this morning (he may be best known for his book The Tao of Physics).  These thoughts come from his work: A living social system of any sort, be

Dwight J. Friesen October 13, 2004September 13, 2022

the E-word

Avant-churches don’t spend much time talking about evangelism anymore. Maybe for good reason. The fifty years following WWII Western evangelicalism produced hordes of evangelism techniques, manuals, tracts, laws, programs, para-church ministries, etc. This was vital to the modern evangelical project.

Dwight J. Friesen September 26, 2004May 6, 2022

the “parish” corrective

The return of the parish appears to be an ecclesial movement sweeping Western Christ-communities.  I’ve been thinking of it as the parish corrective.  I would characterize this corrective as a local church move to embody “full life” or embody the

Dwight J. Friesen September 24, 2004December 7, 2020

yes, and…

It is my hope that even our harshest critics can serve a vital role in our “becoming.”  Look at the shaping impact of the protestant church on the church of Rome; could there have been a Vatican 2, without the

Dwight J. Friesen September 10, 2004October 25, 2022

a mostly unhelpful conservative critique of the emerging church

D. A. Carson who was one of the more respected Conservative evangelical New Testament scholars and one of my former teachers, has recently offered the following criticism of the “emerging church.”  In Dr. Carson’s clear, and at times, biting comments, he raises

Dwight J. Friesen September 2, 2004November 30, 2020

stone soup

I enjoy making soup. I literally have a pot of soup on right now. So see a few months back Lynette and I made a ham. And in my mind, any ham meal has a soup chaser. I put the

Dwight J. Friesen September 1, 2004January 14, 2021

Resonate

I been so swamped lately I don’t know which way is up. We spent part of last week in Canada last week, visiting my folks. It was nice to be together though we almost missed the ferry on our way

Dwight J. Friesen August 31, 2004January 14, 2021

missionalization

So much energy has been spent wrestling with the church and institutionalization. Institutionalization happens when reified social constructs become untouchable. What is then often needed is some form of prophetic deconstruction of that social construct – enabling us to see

Dwight J. Friesen August 4, 2004June 9, 2022

Community Mapping

Bill Wallenbeck of Jacob’s Well just preached a sermon called Scale-Free Networks and the Kingdom using some concepts of Scale-free networks, he even drew on some of my research. Check it out.  Tim Samoff posted some photos of a community-mapping

Dwight J. Friesen July 20, 2004May 5, 2022

Thank You Kansas City & Jacob’s Well

Well, I’m home for one day and then I’m off again. This is not the way my life has usually is… how do people who travel all the time get the everyday stuff done? I spent the last couple of

Dwight J. Friesen June 16, 2004November 29, 2022

There’s Got to be More Than This

It seems that many of the worship gatherings within the world of emerging churches reinforce dualism. Without meaning to, they seem to say, “When we’re together, we’re worshipping” and “when we’re not, we’re not.” I can’t help but wonder how

Dwight J. Friesen May 4, 2004December 3, 2022

My Latest Essay… “Hubbing”

I finished my “unleadership” essay for my doctoral program. I titled it, “Hubbing: The “Being” and “Act” of Leadership within Dynamic Christ-Clusters.” I hope to take some of the main ideas from the essay and turning it into shorter and

Dwight J. Friesen April 28, 2004December 1, 2022

Summoned

Do leaders exist ontologically? I know that some church traditions claim an ontological ordination but that just seems to set us up for abuse of power, (of course the church would never abuse its power). Most leadership literature speaks more

Dwight J. Friesen March 25, 2004December 6, 2022

Questions to Emerging Leaders

Questions to emerging leaders: Peace, dwight

Dwight J. Friesen March 21, 2004December 7, 2022

Growth of a Scale-Free Network

Last night I had the opportunity to take a few minutes in a class at Mars Hill Grad School to present a boiled-down version of my Scale-Free Kingdom/Churches as Christ-Clusters paradigm. Dr. Bryan Burton who is guiding the theology course

Dwight J. Friesen March 5, 2004June 6, 2024

Fulfill Not Abolish

Back in the 1920’s E. Stanley Jones wrote something to the effect of, Christ did not come to abolish Judaism but to fulfill it. Jones went on to build a case challenging the colonialist missionary movement of his day, arguing

Dwight J. Friesen March 1, 2004December 8, 2022

Let’s Get (Meta)physical

In the words of Olivia Newton John – almost – “Let’s get metaphysical, metaphysical, we wanna get metaphysical, let us hear Christ’s body talk…” (or something like that). I’m in the process of writing a short paper on leadership. I

Dwight J. Friesen February 11, 2004December 8, 2022

Missional, Incarnational, Embodied, or Bodied?

I continue to struggle with the growing use of the term “missional.” I’ve often used the term, yet I’m becoming concerned about what the cultural baggage hidden underneath the idea. I choose to emphasize embodied living (maybe even bodied living)

Dwight J. Friesen January 14, 2004December 12, 2022

Interviewed by theooze

Almost a year ago theOoze.com interviewed me for their Seedstories deal, which has been undergoing a retooling for some time. Seedstories is a curated collection of stories and interviews with people from around the globe who are pioneering new expressions

Dwight J. Friesen January 7, 2004December 8, 2022

why relational church?

why relational church? by dwight j. friesen Doug has a love/hate relationship with the church.  Some of his fondest memories, his life shaping moments and his deep relationships have been within the body of Christ.  He became a pastor to

Dwight J. Friesen December 17, 2003May 4, 2022

Opening

A friend emailed a couple of questions yesterday: “What are the drawbacks to Post-Modernism? What are weaknesses within the ‘post-modern’ church?” Here are my efforts at a response… There are likely as many drawbacks to the pomo as there are

Dwight J. Friesen December 11, 2003November 14, 2022

Trans-Church

In dialogue with my friend Thomas, we found ourselves wondering about the church as trans. Take a look at the “da Vinci Code” for some of the impetus for the discussion. The church seems to struggle with its identity. One

Dwight J. Friesen December 2, 2003November 15, 2022

Worship Search

I’m not exactly looking for new forms of worship; as much as I am wanting to learn from what appears to be a human impulse to worship. Human beings seem to have a penchant to worship. Forming desire for the

Dwight J. Friesen October 11, 2003November 18, 2022

Spiritual Leadership

I just returned from a denominational conference and was shocked by the “us” verses “them” conversation representing the clergy verses the laity. As though “we” clergy (or whatever we are) have an experience of God that we need to lead

Dwight J. Friesen October 10, 2003November 18, 2022

Resurrection is Impossibility

Michael Jinkins, writes: “When the church faces the prospect of its own demise (for whatever reasons), it faces a critical moment when its vocation is called into question, when it has the unparalleled opportunity to comprehend and render its life.

Dwight J. Friesen September 18, 2003November 21, 2022

Post-Missional Presence?

I continue to wrestle with what feels like a growing tension between the Missional and Incarnational approaches to life. I may be way of base here, does anyone else feel this tension? Is it just me? I guess when I

Dwight J. Friesen September 11, 2003November 22, 2022

Church Discovering

Recently I was in a discussion about whether we should still plant churches… or even, would the Apostle Paul plant churches today. It seems to me that we need new language to discuss the idea of pioneering new Christ-communities. I’m

Dwight J. Friesen September 10, 2003November 22, 2022

Walking With

A couple of weeks ago Mark Humphries – Winnipeg artist, spiritual innovator and community curate – emailed me regarding how I might define ‘relationality’ within the rhythm of community gathering. Mark’s email, alone is a testament to his generosity… I

Dwight J. Friesen September 4, 2003November 22, 2022