The New Parish • dwight j. friesen

The New Parish: How Neighborhood Churches Are Transforming Mission, Discipleship and Community.

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Co-authored with Paul Sparks & Tim Soerens

The New Parish reflects the learnings gleaned from walking through hundreds of neighborhoods with church leaders who have sought to operationalize the love of God as love of neighbor.

The book is profound in its simplicity; you and your church expression are located somewhere. “Somewhere” matters, and your place – parish – is quite literally the ground for discovering what it looks like to follow Jesus into faithful presence within the normal stuff of every neighborhood life. Only in the late modern world has place and one’s relationship to place been seen as optional, or even as a commodity. Forcing people from their places and stripping places of their history and value was a colonizing tool for oppression.

This book is pointing the church back to discovering the Spirit’s invitation to discover faithful presence in the ecosystem of relations by attending to and from our body in our place with others.

Dwight regularly leads workshops, retreats, and speaks about the new parish, the new local church, and faithfully present leadership. You can reach him here.

The New Parish, Awarded:

2015 Christianity Today Award of Merit (The Church/Pastoral Leadership),
2014 Readers’ Choice Awards Honorable Mention, &
2014 Best Books About the Church from Byron Borger.

“When . . . faith communities begin connecting together, in and for the neighborhood, they learn to depend on God for strength to love, forgive and show grace like never before. . . . The gospel becomes so much more tangible and compelling when the local church is actually a part of the community, connected to the struggles of the people, and even the land itself.” Paul Sparks, Tim Soerens and Dwight J. Friesen have seen–in cities, suburbs and small towns all over North America–how powerful the gospel can be when it takes root in the context of a place, at the intersection of geography, demography, economy and culture. This is not a new idea–the concept of a parish is as old as the Apostle Paul’s letters to the various communities of the ancient church. But in an age of dislocation and disengagement, the notion of a church that knows its place and gives itself to where it finds itself is like a breath of fresh air, like a sign of new life.”

The New Parish, published by InterVarsity Press, April 2014.

What others are saying about The New Parish

“All paths to the future of the church must pass through this book.”
Leonard Sweet, historian, futurist, and author of Rings of Fire, Jesus Manifesto & Giving Blood

“Teeming with fresh ideas and rich energy for the future of the church… This is hands-on missional ecclesiology in its most generative mode.”
Walter Brueggemann, Hebrew bible scholar and author of many books including Prophetic Imagination, The Land, & Journey to the Common Good

“Hands down, one of the most sensible and simultaneously exhilarating books I have read in a long time.”
Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence, and The Age o the Spirit

“Strong communities, strongly rotted in place, are the future: for food, for energy, but also for our spiritual life. This is a powerful account of a necessary future.”
Bill McKibben, author of Wandering Home

“An important reflection on how to overcome one of the biggest threats to the vitality of ministry in the Global north; disembodied practice that doesn’t recognize or collaborate with the active presence of the Holy Spirit incarnate in our communities.”
Alexia Salvatierra, activist & coauthor of Faith-Rooted Organizing

“Sparks, Soerens and Friesen are giving us new eyes to see and convening a new space for what is emerging in our context by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.”
Anthony Smith, core team Transform Network

“One of the most important books on the church, Christian identity and mission that I’ve read in a decade.”
Brian D. McLaren, author of Everything Must Change

“A practical guide for any group of people committed to relevant church expressions.”
Phileena Heuertz, co-found of Gravity: A Center for Contemplative Activism

“Quietly, beneath the purview of the dominant social systems, a revolution is taking place. The church is returning to the local. In The New Parish, three subversives plot the church’s simple way back into the neighborhood. The result is flourishing, renewal of the Spirit, indeed the gospel taking on flesh! This book is your invitation to the revolution!”
David Fitch, Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology @ Northern Seminary, and author of Prodigal Christianity, & Faithful Presence

“In The New Parish, Paul, Tim and Dwight offer a theologically rich vision of church life intertwined with the places we inhabit. In stark contrast to the displacement and fragmentation that dominates our age, this important book calls us to slow down, become rooted, and experience a tase of the abundance and healing that God intends for all creation. Church leaders take heed, the new parish is, without question, the church of the future!”
C. Christopher Smith, coauthor of Slow Church & editor of the Englewood Review of Books

“In a world of increasing mobility, fragmenting relationships and a loss of any real sense of covenant, we need learn again to attend to the various people and places where God has located us. This book is a much-needed antidote to the endemic alienation of our time. Missionary grow home!”
Alan Hirsch, author, activist, & dreamer

“The New Parish offers a vision for Christian community that honors place amidst fragmentation. This book will inspire a new generation of Christian leaders who will answer the yearnings of all of us for authentic community.”
Tremper Longman III, Westmont College and author

“What would it look like if God’s reign were to be more fully realized in your neighborhood? In The New Parish, Tim, Paul and Dwight team up to answer this question in concrete ways. With a rich theology of place and practice, they guide us in how to have a humble posture and be a faithful presence in the neighborhood. This is a must-read!”
JR Woodward, national director of the V3 Church Planting Movement, author of Creating a Missional Culture

“As someone who is doing church as parish, I have found this book a very helpful guide in practically answering what a church could look like as it is lived in community. What I also appreciate is the authors do not gloss over the challenges presented and the hard work involved in developing a new parish. They acknowledge the journey is complex, the transition difficult, and experienced guides are few. This is a resource that will definitely be a textbook for those wanting to embrace a localized view of church in years to come.”
Dave Harder, Mennonite Brethren Herald, May 2014