Abundant Resources

Christianity Today Awards The New Parish

Every December Christianity Today publishes its books of the year. This year in “The Church/Pastoral Leadership” CT awarded The New Parish: How Neighborhood Churches are Transforming Mission, Discipleship and Community its Award of Merit! Writing of our book for CT

Dwight J. Friesen December 15, 2014November 3, 2022

The New Parish

I am thrilled to announce the release of the new book, co-authored by myself, and Paul Sparks, and Tim Soerens. It’s called,The New Parish: How Neighborhood Churches are Transforming Mission, Discipleship and Community. This project emerged out of loneliness, developed

Dwight J. Friesen March 13, 2014June 10, 2022

Dwight’s Top Ten Books of 2013

Here’s my list of book picks for 2013, (once again have included a few books published the year before which I didn’t get to until 2013). So many more could have been included and I probably left out some that

Dwight J. Friesen December 19, 2013October 28, 2022

New Parish Leadership

Parish Collective together with The Seattle School have launched a place based leadership certificate. Participants of the Leadership in the New Parish Certificate at The Seattle School share their experience and what they’re discovering. Peace, dwight

Dwight J. Friesen June 4, 2013January 13, 2021

Inhabit Conference 2013

Inhabit: The Art of Parish Renewal April 19-20, 2013, Seattle, WA The last two years the Inhabit Conference “Sold Out!” Hundreds of parish leaders gathered to celebrate the move toward a more embodied, participatory, and sustainable way of being the

Dwight J. Friesen March 1, 2013May 5, 2022

Dwight’s Top Ten Books of 2012

Here’s my list of book picks form 2012 (have a listed a few books published last year which I didn’t get to until 2012). I am grateful for the women and men who birthed these books into being; your labor

Dwight J. Friesen December 22, 2012October 28, 2022

Simon Sinek, Getting to “Why”

Simon Sinek is helping me rethink how I imagine the big why of a pastor. I am coming to see: 1 – What is the work of pastoring a church, 2 – How is following the Spirit in discovering a

Dwight J. Friesen February 18, 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

Dwight’s Top Ten Books of 2011

Here’s my top ten list of books from 2011. Most years I try to pull together a list of the recently published books that have worked their way into my imagination in some important way. Surely more books could be

Dwight J. Friesen December 15, 2011October 28, 2022

“The Seattle School” has arrived

I’m excited to inform you that as of the beginning of last week we officially changed the name of our school – Mars Hill Graduate School is now The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. The staff has been hard

Dwight J. Friesen August 17, 2011January 14, 2021

Come Hang out with Mark Scandrette

On June 30, 2011 (Thursday) you are welcome to come over to my place and spend the evening with others committed to being formed in the Way of Jesus. Mark Scandrette will be with us, 7:00 pm (bring wine and/or

Dwight J. Friesen June 17, 2011May 31, 2022

On Being Wrong

Last month Kathryn Schulz delivered an outstanding TED talk on the idea of “Being Wrong.” Early in her talk she askes her audience what it feels like to be wrong. The audience responds with. “awful”, thumbs-down, embarrassing, etc. To which

Dwight J. Friesen April 14, 2011December 21, 2023

Speaking @ GFU’s Chapel

Yesterday I got to head down to Newburg, Oregon to speak in the chapel at GFU. It was super fun, and I got to go down with Lynette and Pascal and make a mini family getaway out of it. I

Dwight J. Friesen March 29, 2011May 5, 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

come hang out with Steve Knight

My friend Steve Knight is going to be in the Seattle area this week. You may know his blog, knightopia, Steve is one of the primary organizers of TransFORM which held its first big conference in DC last year. And he is

Dwight J. Friesen January 26, 2011May 7, 2022

pedagogy of presence with Jon Stanley

Navigating the cacophonous choruses of our culture’s religious and secular fundamentalists can be overwhelming. What does it mean for Christians to be salt and light in this acrimonious cultural climate? How might Christians live faithfully without colluding with partisan shouting?

Dwight J. Friesen January 21, 2011October 21, 2020

Dwight’s Top Ten Books of 2010

Here’s my top ten list of books from 2010. At the end of each year I compile a list of the recently published books that have worked their way into my imagination in some important way. Surely more books could

Dwight J. Friesen January 6, 2011October 28, 2022

The Danger of a Single Story

“Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.” Chimamanda

Dwight J. Friesen October 26, 2010May 5, 2022

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

Dwight J. Friesen October 1, 2010May 5, 2022

Hanging with Scandrette, et al

This Sunday, (8/29) I’m hosting an open conversational space with Mark Scandrette, so if you are in or around Bellevue/Seattle you are welcome to join the missional banter. The grill, and condiments will be here, but food and drinks are

Dwight J. Friesen August 26, 2010January 15, 2021

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

Dwight J. Friesen June 12, 2010May 5, 2022

emergent village 2010 theological conversation

Paragraph I am so excited about the 2010 Emergent Village Theological Conversation. Like prior EV theological conversations, academic luminaries will enter into conversation with pastors – no notes, no papers delivered, no formality – simply a conversation about things that

Dwight J. Friesen April 21, 2010November 14, 2022

summer class – partnering with Seattle churches

Every summer trimester at MHGS I get to guide a group of emerging leaders through a selected readings course . . . for us “selected readings” means that faculty members are given some space to develop a course around an

Dwight J. Friesen April 5, 2010November 14, 2022

“Free for All” April 15-16 Durham, NC

There is a free conference being held in Durham, NC (April 15&16, 2010) bringing people together in discussion around the themes raised in the outstanding new book by Tim Conder & Dan Rhodes, Free for All: Rediscovering the Bible In

Dwight J. Friesen March 31, 2010January 15, 2021

Relational Hermeneutic

This book was born in the context of an eleven-year life altering experiment in ecclesial life, fleshed out in learning communities with thoughtful women and men who never ceased to ask insightful and revealing questions, and now it is being

Dwight J. Friesen March 29, 2010November 9, 2021

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

Dwight J. Friesen March 22, 2010May 5, 2022

dwight j. friesen