The Embedded Church Podcast

A One-stop Shop for Flourishing: The Story of Revive Church

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Kyle Morris, Eric O Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 08:00:00 +0000

In this episode, we talk with Kyle Morris who is the Lead Pastor of Revive Church in Arvada, CO. We hear about his church's decision to stay where they were and seek the shalom of their neighborhood rather than move to a different (and wealthier) part of the city.

This decision forced the church to deal with a problem of too much space through the acquisition of a shopping center, and then radically re-thinking how they used all of the space. Rather than starting with needs within the church, they asked questions about needs within the neighborhood. And what they discovered was that their neighborhood needed 1) childcare, 2) workforce development, 3) affordable housing, and 4) new business incubation.

This process led the church to redevelop the shopping center into an exciting project called The Bridge where they partner with other local organizations to help meet some of the city's identified needs. Kyle talks about the challenges of leading a church while also leading a number of initiatives. He discusses finding a balance between investing in the neighborhood where you live and where your church is located. And, he talks about the challenge of adapting while staying mission focused with changing circumstances.

Episode Contributors

Kyle Morris, Lead Pastor of Revive Church

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Revive Church

The Bridge - The shopping center owned by Revive Church that has been revived physically and is home to thriving for-profit and non-profit organizations that are collaborating and working to serve vulnerable families.

Beyond Home - A nonprofit whose mission is to provide a comprehensive approach for families to become self-sufficient for life

Marsh Collective - A team of consultants that works with leaders, companies, patrons, and developers to help clarify vision for their city, business, or team

Lionheart Children's Academy - A nonprofit Christian organization committed to excellence in early childhood education

CrossPurpose - A non-profit organization abolishing relational, economic, and spiritual poverty through career and community development

Colorado Foundation for Conductive Education - A nonprofit organization that offers an intensive, holistic alternative approach to traditional therapy for individuals with motor disabilities

"Churches Don’t Have to Be Lousy Stewards. Here’s Proof" Story of Revive Church by Amy Sherman and Jacob Baldwin in Common Good Magazine: Issue 11, May 2023

Canoeing in the Mountains by Tod Bolsinger

Art of Neighboring by Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon

Church Unleashed by Frank R. Tillapaugh

Key Terms

- Proximity

- Placemaking

- Affordable Housing

- Shalom

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Being a Place in the Neighborhood: The Camp House & Mission Chattanooga

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Matt Busby, Eric O Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 5 Dec 2023 08:00:00 +0000

In this episode, we talk with Matt Busby who is the Senior Associate Pastor at Mission Chattanooga. Matt describes for us the evolution of a relationship between a specific church (Mission Chattanooga) and a coffee shop/restaurant/event space (The Camp House) in three different neighborhoods in downtown Chattanooga. Mission Chattanooga and Camp House began renting in the Southside neighborhood, moved to the MLK neighborhood, and now are located in the Onion Bottom Neighborhood.

This conversation highlights some of the ways that a church can bless the neighborhood in which it is located. The Camp House has been a gathering space, a cultural incubator, and a forum for important community conversations. And by drawing people into the neighborhood this entity has helped to enliven the neighborhood. In addition to gathering a diverse community for worship, Mission Chattanooga has sought ways to bless the neighborhood through mercy ministries and civic engagement.

Matt shares with us some of the tradeoffs between working with volunteers in a non-profit setting and paid employees in a for profit endeavor. He also talks about his shifting pastoral identity as he navigates dividing his position description between event coordination and pastoral ministry. If you have ever wondered about how a church building can be utilized to bless a neighborhood throughout the week, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

Episode Contributors

Rev. Matt Busby is the Senior Associate Pastor at Mission Chattanooga

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Mission Chattanooga

Chattanooga Design Studio

Sidewalks in the Kingdom by Eric O. Jacobsen

The Space Between by Eric O. Jacobsen

Eugene Cho

Mike Watkins Architect - Urban design and architecture firm dedicated to designing and implementing a walkable, lasting, and beautiful public realm that fosters community

Key Terms

- Charrette

- Third Place

- Chronological Connectivity

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Bonus: A Podcast Collaborative with Device & Virtue

Tue, 13 Dec 2022 08:05:00 +0000

Stained glass, digital photos, or a pile of rocks. Today, we join the co-hosts of the Device & Virtue podcast to talk about how the church builds memories and the role of technology in this space. It’s a podcast inside a podcast.

Memories help people establish identities and build communities, and physical places are fertile ground where memories take root. But are new digital spaces uprooting our memories, or giving them new soil to grow in?

As Christians, God consistently calls us to remember all that he has done and the ways he has been faithful. How can we root our memories in physical places and digital spaces, and cultivate the benefits of both?

We asked our friends Adam Graber and Chris Ridgeway, the co-hosts of the Device & Virtue podcast, to help us sort this out. Call it a podcast playdate. We ask each other questions such as:

What does memory look like in digital and built spaces?

How do these spaces shape the capacity, and content, of our memory?

Hear stories of churches that have established creative practices that both embrace lament and celebrate God’s healing. If your church wants to build memory and community through digital and physical spaces, check out this episode!

Learn more about the Device & Virtue podcast on their website, Twitter and on Instagram. Listen on Apple, Google, Spotify, and everywhere else.

Adam Graber co-hosts the Device & Virtue podcast, is a consultant with Leadership Network and FaithTech, and a coach at Wheaton College’s Center for Faith & Innovation. Adam researches and writes on emerging technologies, and consults with Christian leaders on digital spiritual formation. He has developed tech courses for Northern Seminary and Fuller Seminary.

Chris Ridgeway consults and coaches on digital transformation, brand strategy, and teamwork + leadership for businesses and non-profits. He writes and comments on: digital privacy, culture, tech, ethics, strategy, & leadership. He cares about justice and urban environments. He has developed a course teaching nervous cyclists how to become confident commuters.

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe, Adam Graber, and Chris Ridgeway

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

The Workers in Your Neighborhood and the Church

Tue, 8 Nov 2022 08:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Eric and Sara Joy listen to the story of Kevin Finch, the Executive Director of Big Table and a former pastor who was moonlighting as restaurant critic. During his days as a pastor and a restaurant critic, Kevin was exposed to the high levels of need that existed among workers in the hospitality industry. As he sought a way to provide help and care for this often overlooked sector, he could not find a single nonprofit that was dedicated to serving this particular community. Then he received a very unusual and distinct calling from God to step up to the plate to address this need.

This calling led Kevin to begin Big Table in 2009, a nonprofit solely dedicated to meeting the needs of workers in the restaurant and hospitality industry. Operating on a referral model, Big Table helps cover rent, provide cars, assist navigating health issues, etc. for those in the hospitality industry. Kevin impresses upon listeners the need to really see the people in your community and neighborhood who are so often overlooked because these relationships are too often viewed as purely transactional. He sparks a new way of thinking and a new population to consider when it comes to caring for the least in your neighborhood.

Sara Joy and Eric also speak with two field guides who provide more insight into the work of Big Table and the needs that so many service and hospitality industry workers face in their daily lives. Paul Cunningham, head pastor of La Jolla Presbyterian Church, shares how his church helped establish a Big Table presence in the San Diego area. Through funds and connections to the local restaurants, the church has been a catalyst for expanding Big Table to southern California. Paul also shares how their collaboration with Big Table has inspired his congregants to be kinder and more generous people to those with whom they come in contact in the service industry. He reiterates the importance of seeing the unseen people in the community and caring for them in tangible ways.

Eliza Harris Juliano, another field guide for this episode, provides a helpful perspective from urban planning as she notes that housing and transportation costs together are large factors that affect the livelihood of hourly wage workers, like those in the restaurant and hospitality industries. She highlights that when workers have to live far from their job, they are more dependent on reliable transportation which can be costly when it comes to maintaining a car. She also points out that deficient and/or unreliable public transit is another hurdle that these workers face, particularly when being late to a job because of a slow bus can actually cost them their job. Providing affordable housing in places near jobs and increasing public transit infrastructure to serve these areas are ways this sector of the community can be better supported. In that regard, she encourages listeners to pay attention to zoning and advocate for better policies that create the places where people of all socioeconomic classes can live together.

Episode Contributors

Kevin Finch is the Executive Director of Big Table based in Spokane, Washington.

Rev. Dr. Paul Cunningham is the Head Pastor of La Jolla Presbyterian Church

Eliza Harris Juliano is a Principal in the Urban Design studio and serves as the firm’s Director of Urbanism at Canin Associates based in Orlando Florida.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode. Sign up for the free online Community Forum on November 22, 2022 to discuss this episode with Eric, Sara Joy, and Chris and other podcast listeners. Register today!

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Big Table

Big Table | Serving Hope Video

La Jolla Presbyterian Church

The Center for Neighborhood Technology

Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY)

Yes In God's Backyard (YIGBY)

Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It by M. Nolan Gray

Key Terms

- Affordable Housing

- Inclusionary Zoning

- Missing Middle Housing

- NIMBY (Not in my backyard)

- YIMBY (Yes in my backyard)

- Zoning

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Affordable Housing and the Church

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Sara Joy and Eric talk with Pastor Dwayne Cline about James North Baptist Church and their journey towards providing affordable housing in their neighborhood in the north end Hamilton, Ontario. With a vision for incarnational ministry, James North has been serving their neighborhood for over 130 years. As one of the most economically depressed neighborhoods in the city, they have faithfully provided care and resources for many of those struggling to make ends meet. As the neighborhood tide began to change with new development and rising property prices in more recent years, the church recognized a growing need to provide affordable housing options for the long-time local residents. Their solution was to build affordable housing into their church property plans.

The church had already drawn plans and paid over $700K in costs for designing their new church building when they hit the pause button to rethink their property. In prayerful consideration, they decided to go back to the drawing board and design a new building that would also accommodate 45 units of affordable housing. The total project cost was $22 million with half of those costs related to the housing and half related to the church. They used a mix of government funds and a church capital campaign to cover the development expenses. Additionally, they worked in close collaboration with Indwell, a faith-based affordable housing developer, to guide the project to successful completion. Indwell also provides the property management and supportive services necessary for the property. The level of grit and collaboration required of the church has been great, but their relationships with the city officials and local neighborhood players opened doors for a successful project.

Eric and Sara Joy also speak with two field guides who provide more insight into the affordable housing context and resources that exist to guide churches in participating and advocating in this arena. Jill Shook, founder of Making Housing and Community Happen, explains classifications of affordable housing and talks about how churches can advocate for policy changes that allow for more affordable housing production in their communities while also considering opportunities for churches to play a direct role in providing it themselves. Patrick Duggan, Executive Director of the United Church of Christ Church Building and Loan Fund, gives some practical steps for churches to assess whether affordable housing makes sense in light of their location and their mission. He also shares about ways churches can mitigate risks by partnering with organizations like his to guide the development process.

Episode Contributors

Dwayne Cline is the Lead Pastor of James North Baptist Church in Hamilton, Ontario.

Dr. Jill Shook is the Founding Director of Making Housing and Community Happen, working with churches to bring about housing justice in the United States. She is author of Making Housing Happen: Faith Based Affordable Housing Models. She has developed and taught Housing Justice and Community Organizing in the Azusa Pacific University MA Social Work Department. Today she does a variety of workshops, including One-Day Housing Justice Workshops around the US.

Rev. Dr. Patrick Duggan is the Executive Director of the United Church of Christ Church Building and Loan Fund. He is responsible for advancing the mission and growing the capacity, reach and social impact of CB&LF products and services. Patrick has more than 30 years of experience in bi-vocational ministry, serving the local church while working in the public sector, including education, government, nonprofit organizations and economic and community development.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode. Sign up for the free online Community Forum on August 23, 2022 to discuss this episode with Eric, Sara Joy, and Chris and other podcast listeners. Register today!

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

James North Baptist Church

Growing to Serve: The Story of James North - video

Indwell - a Christian charity that creates affordable housing communities

Making Housing and Community Happen - a faith-based nonprofit that equips congregations, community leaders, and neighbors with practical tools needed to transform their communities to end homelessness, and to stabilize the cost of housing

United Church of Christ Church Building & Loan Fund - an institution that transforms communities by helping the Church live into God’s economy, helping congregations plan, raise, finance, and build transformative projects

CNU - Members Christian Caucus: Churches + Affordable Housing Case Studies

Ministries of Mercy by Tim Keller

Christianity's Surprise by C. Kavin Rowe

Making Housing Happen: Faith Based Affordable Housing Models by Jill Shook

Key Terms

- Affordable Housing

- Displacement

- Entitlements

- Gentrification

- Inclusionary Zoning

- Tax Credits

- Zoning

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Art and the Church

Tue, 13 Sep 2022 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Sara Joy and Eric talk with Pastor Gabe Coyle about the fruition of Four Chapter Gallery, an art space developed, curated, and managed by Christ Community Church in downtown Kansas City. As an artist himself, Gabe discusses how his passions and dreams have taken on new shape by planting a church with the intention of connecting with the local arts community. The Four Chapter Gallery was born in 2013 from both the passion of church staff and the neighborhood request to see gallery space as part of the church development.

Using the biblical framework of four chapters (movements): creation, fall, redemption, and restoration, the Four Chapter Gallery seeks to bring flourishing to the local arts community by offering beautiful gallery space and valuable support in promoting the work of the artist and treating each artist with care and dignity. Additionally, Christ Community Church has chosen to make the art gallery a significant budget line item so that everything is funded by the church, which provides the flexibility to not take a percentage from the artists. The gallery has gained a respected reputation among artists and their shows are currently booked out through January 2024.

The Four Chapter Gallery hosts concept-based art exhibitions that engage culturally relevant themes and ideas. They have three core values when it comes to the kind of work they desire to present in their space. These values are:

Art with ideas - artwork that has been created around particular themes, ideas, or research.

The work of emerging artists - they has a special desire to boost emerging artists.

Art that creates generative conversation - they love exhibiting work that presses into issues relevant to the culture, city, and neighborhood in a generative way.

Eric and Sara Joy also speak with two field guides who provide more insight into the value and characteristics of good gallery space and programming for art and the ways that churches have engaged art throughout history. Sandra Bowden, an artist and curator, discusses the value of gallery space and programming that supports the artist and provides thoughtful, educational connections with the art to steward a viewer's experience with the art itself. David Taylor from Fuller Theological Seminary provides the historical framework on the connections between art and the church, highlighting various movements in history and within specific theological traditions that have come to shape the way churches engage with art.

Episode Contributors

Gabe Coyle is the Campus Pastor of Christ Community Church in downtown Kansas City, MO.

Sandra Bowden is a visual artist based in Chatham, MA. She has been interpreting Scripture and her own spiritual walk through mixed media for more than forty years. She has been acclaimed as one of the most unique, impressive and inspiring Christian artists in America. Bowden’s work has been featured in books, magazines and gallery shows across the United States, Canada, Italy and Jerusalem. She is co-author of Seeing the Unseen: Launching and Managing a Church Gallery.

David Taylor is Associate Professor of Theology and Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary. Prior to his appointment at Fuller, Dr. Taylor served as a pastor for ten years in Austin, Texas. Taylor serves on the advisory board for Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts as well as IVP Academic’s series, “Studies in Theology and the Arts” and has served as board member of Christians In the Visual Arts (CIVA). He is the author of Glimpses of the New Creation: Worship and the Formative Power of the Arts and The Theater of God’s Glory: Calvin, Creation and the Liturgical Arts. He is editor of For the Beauty of the Church: Casting a Vision for the Arts.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Christ Community Church - Downtown KC

Four Chapter Gallery

Christian Community Development Association (CCDA)

Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA)

Agents of Flourishing by Amy Sherman

Seeing the Unseen: Launching and Managing a Church Gallery by Sandra Bowden and Marianne Lettieri

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Third place and the Church

Tue, 9 Aug 2022 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Eric and Sara Joy chat with Pastor Scott Woller about the model of building both a church and a coffee shop. While Pastor Scott does not say it directly, in essence, he aimed to develop a "third place." Third place is a term coined by Ray Oldenburg to describe those places that we find ourselves visiting on a fairly regular basis that are not our homes and not our places of work. Third places can take a variety of forms. They can be coffee shops, pubs, barber shops, or even a collection of mailboxes near some seating. Third places play a crucial role in connecting people in a neighborhood and breaking down barriers presented by demographic differences.

With a mission to reach the urban dweller who may have little interest or experience with a church, Scott and his wife started Corner Coffee as a way to connect with neighbors and build relationships within walking distance of where they live and worship. He started Corner Church alongside Corner Coffee in order to reach regular customers in the neighborhood with the gospel.

A distinctly different model than a church with a coffee shop in the lobby, Corner Coffee is the main user and lease holder on the property and Corner Church leases space from the coffee shop in order to meet there on Sundays. The pastoral staff of Corner Church also serve in management, service, and administrative capacities for the coffee shop. The financials between the church and the coffee shop are completely separate, and Pastor Scott shares about the risky and sometimes tough road it has been to build both a profitable business and a sustaining church. Despite the difficulties, they have been dedicated to creating a place that cultivates regular, consistent interactions with the neighborhood so they can make a difference in people's lives. A coffee shop has been their chosen venue for turning a localized customer base of "regulars" into friends and community members.

He also discusses their church's foundation of evangelism being centered on "redefinition." This approach means they want to be at the forefront of redefining what is means to be a follower of Christ, what it means to be the church, and walking relationally with people through the learning process. This is their "why" and what motivates them to continue pressing into the daily grind of coffee shop work and pastoring. Since its inception in the North Loop in 2005, Corner Church has planted three additional coffee shops and churches in walkable neighborhoods in the Minneapolis metro area.

Eric and Sara Joy also speak with two field guides who expand upon the concept of third places in communities and the important role these play in our civic relationships and well-being. Hazel Borys with PlaceMakers shares her definition of third place, why these spaces matter, and important characteristics that make them successful. Rich Heyman from the University of Texas provides the historic background on the development of third places and the positives and negatives that can be associated with these communal spaces.

Episode Contributors

Scott Woller is the North Loop Pastor of Corner Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Rich Heyman is a Lecturer in the Department of American Studies at University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include cultural geography, urban geography, critical theory and Marxism, history of geography, pedagogy, and public space. He recently contributed to an article in The Atlantic entitled Do Yourself a Favor and Go Find a ‘Third Place’.

Hazel Borys is the Managing Director at PlaceMakers. As Managing Principal, Hazel inspires the company to deliver an exceptional product to a developing marketplace. She guides governments through zoning reforms — allowing walkable, mixed-use, compact, resilient places to develop by-right — and helps developers get things built under the increasingly-prevalent form-based codes and character-based land use laws of the new economy.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Corner Church

Corner Coffee

PlaceMakers

Do Yourself a Favor and Go Find a ‘Third Place’ - The Atlantic

The third place: What is it & how does it relate to coffee shops? - Perfect Daily Grind

The Great Good Place by Ray Oldenburg

Season 5: Episode 2 - Social Infrastructure and the church - The Embedded Church Podcast

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Pedestrian Shed

- Proximity

- Third Place

- Social Capital

- Suburbanization

- Zoning

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Social infrastructure and the Church

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Eric and Sara Joy talk with Pastor Scott Pontier about how Jamestown Harbor Church has explored the needs and opportunities for creating a "center" in their suburban community. After a few years of conversation with the local township board and other organizations, they landed on partnering with a local sports program to design a facility that provides gathering space for the church and also serve as a sports complex. Though not using the term specifically, it is evident through this interview that the missional heart of Jamestown Harbor Church has been to create "social infrastructure" in order to be a blessing to their community.

Social infrastructure is a term coined by Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist from NYU, which refers to the physical spaces and places that are the venue for the formation of civic, social bonds with those in living in proximity to one another. The journey of Jamestown Harbor Church demonstrates a church leadership team and congregation that has sought to identify where there is a deficit of social infrastructure in their community and discern how their church can play a super important role in creating a venue that fills the void and builds opportunities for people to form relationships in their suburban context.

Pastor Scott stresses the importance of being flexible and being more in love with your mission than your stuff as essential qualities for taking on partnerships and building places that are to be used freely by the local community. He acknowledges that the process has been arduous at times with dead-ends or outcomes that look vastly different than anticipated, but trusting that God is at work and staying laser-focused on the mission of blessing the community has enabled this vision to move forward despite the unplanned pathways. At Jamestown Harbor Church they are intent on creating a place where relationships are formed and deepened among members of their township so that people can experience the fullness of shalom found in Jesus.

Eric and Sara Joy also speak with a couple of field guides who provide professional expertise to expand upon the sociological and design facets of social infrastructure. Eric Klinenberg of NYU shares his definition of social infrastructure, why it is so important, and how it differs from social capital. He also discusses the ways churches can either support or detract from building cohesive and integrated communities with their facilities and programs. Greg Snider with Aspen Group gives more color to the community process that Jamestown Harbor Church engaged before landing on their current plan for to include a sports complex. He also highlights several avenues churches can pursue when considering the type and design of social infrastructure elements on their properties.

Episode Contributors

Scott Pontier is the Lead Pastor of Jamestown Harbor Church in Hudsonville, Michigan.

Eric Klinenberg is Helen Gould Shepard Professor of Social Science and Director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. A New York Times bestselling author, he has written several books including Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life (Crown, 2018), Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone (The Penguin Press, 2012), Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media (Metropolitan Books, 2007), and Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago (University of Chicago Press, 2002).

Greg Snider is a Ministry Space Strategist at Aspen Group. He has more than 20 years of construction experience in residential, light commercial, and interior build-out. Fifteen of those years were spent building churches, including Living Water Church in Bolingbrook, Illinois, West Side Christian Church in Springfield, Illinois, and Community Christian Church in Naperville, Illinois. At Aspen Group, he works diligently to obtain an intimate understanding of the mission and vision of each church. He then uses this knowledge to guide the project team as they translate that vision into effective design and ultimately into a finished, ministry-enhancing facility.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode. Sign up for the free online Community Forum on July 26, 2022 to discuss this episode with Eric, Sara Joy, and Chris and other podcast listeners. Register today!

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Jamestown Harbor Church

Aspen Group

Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg

The Celtic Way of Evangelism by George G. Hunter III

Season 1: Episode 2 - Community Collaborations (Third Church Community Charrette Process) - The Embedded Church Podcast

Season 3: Episode 6 - Reading Palaces for the People - The Embedded Church Podcast

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Charrette

- Civic Sphere

- Fragmentation

- Public Belonging

- Social Belonging

- Social Capital

- Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)

- Social Infrastructure

- Threshold

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Access to food and the Church

Tue, 14 Jun 2022 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Eric and Sara Joy talk with Pastor Cynthia Wallace about how the Oasis Farm and Fishery was implemented and is operating out of Bible Center Church in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Originally begun as an educational initiative to help families learn how to eat and cook healthier, the program has evolved into growing food for the local community. This work began as the church gained a deeper understanding of the food insecurity, or lack of access to food, that so many of the local neighborhood residents are facing.

Pastor Cynthia reminds us that listening to God and your neighbors is a vital part of recognizing what needs the local church is called to fulfill in the community. The process can be slow and full of small steps, but God has been faithful to expand the work of Bible Center Church in a well-timed and manageable way. The Oasis Farm and Fishery has been in operation for almost nine years, expanding to include gardening classes, cooking classes, farm stands, and vegetable box delivery in the community.

Eric and Sara Joy also speak with a couple of field guides who provide professional research expertise to expand upon the social and economic implications of food insecurity in our communities. Both Dr. Stephanie Boddie of Baylor University and Dr. Norman Wirzba of Duke University help us better understand the extent of how poor access to healthy food in our communities is detrimental to our well-being and contrary to the way God designed us to eat and enjoy food. Each of these field guides provides inspiring challenges to churches to be a light of the Gospel in their communities through growing and enjoying food together.

Episode Contributors

Cynthia Wallace is the Executive Pastor of Bible Center Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is also the Executive Director of the Oasis Project, which includes the Oasis Farm and Fishery.

Dr. Stephanie Clintonia Boddie is Assistant Professor of Church and Community Ministries with affiliations at the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, the George W. Truett Theological Seminary, and the School of Education at Baylor University. Boddie is also a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society and an alumni fellow at the Robert A. Fox Leadership Program. Her research interests include Congregation-Based Social Surveys, Trends in Faith-Based Initiatives, and Social Entrepreneurial Approaches to Disparities in Wealth, Health, and Food Insecurity. She teaches a course entitled: Black Churches: Past, Present, and Future.

Dr. Norman Wirzba is Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology and Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute of Ethics at Duke University. His research and teaching interests are at the intersections of theology, philosophy, ecology, and agrarian and environmental studies. He has written several books including The Way of Love: Recovering the Heart of Christianity; Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating; This Sacred Life: Humanity's Place in a Wounded World; and Agrarian Spirit: Cultivating Faith, Community, and the Land (forthcoming).

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode. Sign up for the free online Community Forum on June 28, 2022 to discuss this episode with Eric, Sara Joy, and Chris and other podcast listeners. Register today!

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Oasis Farm and Fishery

Bible Center Church

Hope in Homewood – article about the Everyday Cafe run by Bible Center Church

Black Church Food Security Network

Agrarian Spirit: Cultivating Faith, Community, and the Land (forthcoming) by Norman Wirzba

Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating by Norman Wirzba

This Sacred Life: Humanity's Place in a Wounded World by Norman Wirzba

The Way of Love: Recovering the Heart of Christianity by Norman Wirzba

What’s Not to Like: All the Good Things that Happen in School Gardens (Tricia Elisara's Blog)

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Embodiment

- Food Desert

- Hospitality

- Localism

- Zoning

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Welcome to Season 5 Trailer

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe, Chris Elisara) — Tue, 24 May 2022 07:05:00 +0000

We're kicking off Season 5 in just a few short weeks! Tune in to the trailer to hear more about this season's theme - "Outside the Box: Placemaking & gospel mission beyond the church walls" along with the ways we're changing up the format a bit.

Aaand, that's a wrap for Season 4! What we learned...

Tue, 5 Oct 2021 07:00:00 +0000

We want to learn more about who is out there listening! Please take this short survey to tell us more about who you are, why you listen, and how we can make the podcast better for you!

In this final episode of Season 4, Sara Joy and Eric, along with Josh Yates and Chris Elisara from Ormond Center, unpack some of the common themes and fresh discoveries of the past 9 episodes. Here are a few snippets from this conversation.

Audience: We discovered that we have at least three distinct audiences for our podcast. Obviously we have pastors listening as the majority of our guests have been pastors. But we have practitioners who have been trained in or work in the built environment (developers, architects, planners) listening as well. And, we have a number of listeners who are neither pastors nor practitioners, but are very interested in this subject. We call these listeners the piqued. Which of these categories best describes you?

Churches: Churches are important anchor institutions in most communities. Churches play a unique role in bringing shalom to particular places. Local churches can help to contain and sustain the narrative in a neighborhood. While we are committed to the idea that the church scattered can contribute to shalom, we continue to be inspired by all the surprising ways that the gathered church (with a humble, outward posture) gets drawn into what God is doing in the neighborhood.

Geography: The guests for Season 4 come from a variety of geographic contexts. Whether its better to define those contexts in terms of cities or states depends on how important it is to you that Texas gets named. In any case, we noted that we want to continue to expand the geographic variety of our guests.

Shalom as Soil: We discovered that our metaphor of soil being made in a bucket as a picture of the conditions needed for forming shalom was great, but needed to be developed a bit. The bucket analogy helps us see how local materials are transformed and utilized to bring new life to a community. But the bucket analogy is somewhat limited in its usefulness to leaders because it suggests a mostly passive role for community leaders who are seeking shalom. We turned to a compost heap as a helpful auxiliary metaphor for seeking shalom. The compost heap also makes soil, but unlike the bucket, it makes soil by an active process of someone adding materials to it. We talked about how those seeking shalom need to be adept in both passive waiting for and active contributing to the shalom of the local community.

Challenge: We end this episode by thinking of specific challenges for each of our three listener groups: Pastors, Professionals, and the Piqued. We’re hoping that every one of our listeners will identify with one of these groups and will consider taking on one of our challenges.

This has been such a fun and productive season. We are grateful to our partners at Ormond Center for collaborating to make it happen and to every one of our listeners for continuing to listen and share with others.

We want to learn more about who is out there listening! Please take this short survey to tell us more about who you are, why you listen, and how we can make the podcast better for you!

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Sign up for our email list and find more information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Jeremiah 29:7

Sex, Economy, Freedom, & Community: Eight Essays by Wendell Berry

Coda Challenges from Season 4 - developed by Ormond Center

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Hospitality

- Shalom

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Jonathan Brooks on Completing the Narrative in Your Neighborhood

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Sara Joy Proppe, Jonathan Brooks, Eric O. Jacobsen) — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode Sara Joy and Eric interview Jonathan Brooks of Chicago, currently co-pastor at Lawndale Community Church and the former pastor of Caanan Community Church in Englewood and author of Church Forsaken: Practicing Presence in Neglected Neighborhoods. Jonathan tells how his attempt to get out of Englewood by pursuing a career in architecture, led him right back to his old neighborhood where he had to learn to see it with different eyes. "Pastah J" shares about becoming a pastor in the neighborhood where he grew up and discovering that God was very much at work in this neighborhood of Chicago. Turns out that the narrative of Englewood involved much more than violence, drugs, and brokenness, and Jonathan found a lot of goodness and beauty throughout as he stuck around and got to know his neighbors.

What makes Jonathan’s story particularly interesting is how he learned to ‘see’ his neighborhood while serving as a pastor at a local church. He learned that a local church could tip the scales towards the hopeful side of the narrative by engaging local residents and empowering them to make positive changes in the neighborhood. Jonathan’s insights about completing the narrative are not only for churches in under-resourced neighborhoods, but are relevant for middle and even upper class neighborhoods as well, where the tendency is sometimes to hide the pain and suffering within the neighborhood behind a façade of wealth and privilege. In those neighborhoods, completing the narrative involves being more honest about the brokenness.

Whether your neighborhood feels rich or poor, this episode can help you and your church practice God’s faithful presence right where you live.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Jonathan Brooks

Englewood Rising

Christian Community Development Association

Church Forsaken: Practicing Presence in Neglected Neighborhoods by Jonathan Brooks

Making Neighborhoods Whole: A Handbook for Christian Community Development by Wayne Gordon and John M. Perkins

The New Parish: How Neighborhood Churches Are Transforming Mission, Discipleship and Community by Paul Sparks Tim Soerens, and Dwight J. Friesen

Everywhere You Look: Discovering the Church Right Where You Are by Tim Soerens and Walter Brueggemann

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Eyes on the Street

- Food Desert

- Gentrification

- Parish

- Placemaking

- Social Determinants of Health

- Third Place

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Pete Kelly on Seeking Shalom in Apartment Buildings

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe, Pete Kelly) — Tue, 7 Sep 2021 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Eric and Sara Joy talk with Pete Kelly, the CEO of Apartment Life. For many reasons, Eric and Sara Joy are really excited to share with listeners this timely conversation. (Side note, Pete Kelly did visit Tacoma just two weeks after the episode was recorded and confirmed that Tacoma is way cooler than most cities in Texas -- this is Eric's note <--- [SJ would like to note that Eric is trying way too hard to make his city look cool] ).

Over the past decade or so, there has been a renewed and encouraging interest in loving our neighbors within the Christian community. There have been some really helpful resources providing a persuasive call and practical suggestions for how Christians can engage their neighbors. Most of these resources understandably are focused on how to love your neighbor when they and you both live in detached single family homes. In these kinds of settings there are all sorts of organic ways to slowly build relationships with your neighbors.

But the question of how to engage neighbors when they (and/or we) live in apartment buildings remains. This has proven to be a much tougher nut to crack. Apartment dwellers don’t have yards or driveways where they can naturally connect with others around them. Fortunately, Pete shares how the team at Apartment Life has been working on this issue for a long time and have come up with some really interesting and effective strategies for building relationships with and among the apartment dwellers in our cities. What makes their ministry model especially compelling is that it also works as a business model. Many apartment building owners contract with Apartment Life because it helps them avoid costly turnover by retaining residents.

This is an important and timely conversation in light of the fact that we are undergoing a significant demographic shift right now and more and more people are eschewing the single family detached home in favor of higher density multifamily settings. As Christians motivated to seek the shalom of our neighborhood learning how to serve our neighbors in multifamily settings is going to be increasingly important.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Apartment Life

Missional Living Curriculum developed by Apartment Life

Videos featuring Apartment Life

- Atheist Property Manager Plants a Church

- From Dead End to New Hope

- AL Team and Church Planters

- Iranian Neighbor Accepts Christ

Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery

My Vertical Neighborhood: How Strangers Became a Community by Lynda MacGibbon

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Affordable Housing

- Belonging

- Density

- Hospitality

- Missional Theology

- Mixed Income Neighborhood

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Cynthia Wallace on Holistic Neighboring

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Cynthia Wallace, Sara Joy Proppe, Eric O. Jacobsen) — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Eric and Sara Joy interview Cynthia Wallace, Executive Pastor and Executive Director, about the providential birth of The Oasis Project, a community and economic development initiative led by Bible Center Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When their pastor in Michigan prayed over Cynthia and her husband, John, saying they would go to Pittsburgh and create an oasis, they had no idea how prophetic that moment would be. With John serving as the Senior Pastor of Bible Center Church and Cynthia heading up the church’s The Oasis Project they have actively responded to their call to 'seek the shalom of the Homewood neighborhood in Pittsburgh.

Guided by the slogan, “the church has left the building”, their ministry to the neighborhood started small by simply picking up trash. As the church members noticed what they were seeing and listened to their neighbors, they began to see concrete opportunities to seek the welfare of their community.

For example, a problem with school absenteeism, has led to a vibrant transportation ministry. A problem with access to healthy food has led to an urban farm. A problem with a lack of third places (and accessible wifi) has led to opening a coffee shop. And the list goes on. The Oasis Project now hosts a residential community, a business entrepreneurship training program, after school programs, a commercial kitchen, and a number of other practical ministry initiatives. And, Bible Center Church is able to do all this with a modest congregation of a couple of hundred members. Tune in for the inspiring story shared by Cynthia about how she and her husband responded faithfully to this ambitious call the Lord had placed on their hearts.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

The Oasis Project

Bible Center Church

Hope in Homewood – article about the Everyday Cafe

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Third Place

- Adaptive Re-use

- Gentrification

- Food Desert

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Rob Kaple on Church Renovation as Placemaking

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe, Rob Kaple) — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Eric and Sara Joy interview Rob Kaple of Grace Midtown Atlanta. The church came on their radar when they noticed in Public Square, an online publication of the Congress for the New Urbanism, that the church had won a merit award for good design in the Block, Street, and Building category of CNU's 2021 Charter Awards. It is somewhat unusual to see a church featured in an official publication of the CNU and even more unusual when the church is an evangelical mega church. So their interest was piqued. After a little investigating they connected with Rob Kaple who is the Lead Pastor of Grace Midtown and had a front row seat for that building project.

In this interview our attention is turned to practical examples of placemaking. Rob provides listeners with a compelling story of how he and his congregation went through a paradigm shift as they considered how to best utilize their facility to support their mission. Their facility is located at the intersection of an upscale neighborhood and an underinvested neighborhood. At first they considered a complete tear down and rebuild of a new building that would be oriented towards the upscale neighborhood. But they decided that it was more in line with their mission to repurpose the main building and to orient their church towards the underinvested neighborhood.

This initial decision led to additional decisions which allowed them to leverage physical connections to their neighborhood. And after they had begun their project, they made the happy discovery that the famous Atlanta Beltline would be coming right past their front door, making the church easily accessible to pedestrians and bicyclists. This was a fun conversation and an unusual story to be sure. Our hope is that this kind of story will become less unusual as churches learn the value of placemaking and taking the physical context of their neighborhood more seriously.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Grace Midtown Atlanta

A new kind of church, in a former warehouse on CNU Public Square

The Atlanta Beltline Project

Atlanta Olympics

Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City by Timothy Keller

Will Mancini on Upper Room and Lower Room Thinking

For a Kunstleresque smackdown on Atlanta read “Atlanta: Does Edge City Have a Future” in The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition by James Howard Kunstler

Congress for the New Urbanism

Kronberg Urbanists + Architects

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Embedded Church

- Mixed Use

- Border Vacuum

- Redlining

- Placemaking

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Adam Ward on Sharing the Stories of a Place

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Adam Ward, Sara Joy Proppe, Eric O. Jacobsen) — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 07:05:00 +0000

In this episode, Eric and Sara Joy talk with Adam Ward about his podcast, For Columbus, based in Columbus, Ohio. Unlike other podcast hosts who aspire to expand their audience as far as possible, Adam is happy to limit his reach to those who love and serve Columbus. In this podcast, Adam shares stories about leaders serving God’s kingdom in a local setting.

Most Christian leaders are too busy with their own ministries to pay attention to other things that are happening in their own backyard. The For Columbus podcast addresses that problem by providing an easy way for everyone to hear about the cool things that other leaders are doing in their city. It’s exciting to discover how God is at work just down the street or across town. And these stories can generate support and provide opportunities for collaboration across different ministries.

This is a ministry idea that has very low barriers to entry. Anyone can start a local podcast in their own city. Adam shares some tips on how to get started. It’s a great way to build camaraderie among ministry leaders, bring hope to a city, as well as engender civic pride among local residents.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

For Columbus Podcast hosted by Adam Ward

Barna Research Access

Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America by James Fallows and Deborah Fallows

The Externally Focused Quest: Becoming the Best Church for the Community by Eric Swanson and Rick Rusaw

To Transform a City: Whole Church, Whole Gospel, Whole City by Eric Swanson

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Church Gathered / Church Scattered

- Social Determinants of Health

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Amy Sherman on Shalom

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Amy Sherman, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 07:05:00 +0000

In this episode, Eric and Sara Joy interview Dr. Amy Sherman, Senior Fellow and Director of Center on Faith in Communities (CFIC) at the Sagamore Institute to gain her thoughtful insight on the nuance and meaning of the word shalom.

In particular, Amy shares about her forthcoming book, Agents of Flourishing, which centers around six endowments of flourishing (or shalom) that are identified as: the Good, the True, the Beautiful, the Just, the Prosperous, and the Sustainable. She discusses the role of the church in each of these and provides examples and strategies that churches can adopt to be active in these endowments. Her humble approach shines as she talks about the valuable model the church can be simply through advocating for and living out of a lens of human dignity. She laments how we have often failed in this realm and challenges the church to think creatively, be vulnerable, and take some wise risks for the good of their local communities.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Culture Making by Andy Crouch

Playing God by Andy Crouch

Becoming Whole by Brian Fikkert and Kelly Kapick

The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch

The Church and Its Vocation by Michael Goheen

Kingdom Calling by Amy Sherman

How God Became King by N.T. Wright

Simply Christian by N.T. Wright

Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright

Made to Flourish - an organization that empower pastors and their churches to integrate faith, work, and economic wisdom for the flourishing of their communities

Proximity Project - a consulting and education firm that helps churches align their mission with their property assets for the flourishing of their neighborhood

Sagamore Institute - an organization that builds and implements solutions to society’s biggest problems. Through research, consulting, and impact investing, they fight for a society uplifted by heartland policy innovation, business solutions, and citizen engagement

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Church Gathered / Church Scattered

- Shalom

- Social Determinants (of health)

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Can you really make a place?

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Chris Elisara, Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 07:05:00 +0000

In this episode, Sara Joy and Eric continue their conversation about place with Chris Elisara at Ormond Center to consider the various ways we impact the places we live, work, play, and worship. Placemaking can sound like an abstract concept, but it is essentially helping our places become places worth caring about. Anyone or any church can engage in placemaking.

Some key questions addressed in this episode are:

1. Is placemaking possible? Place is not just given, we contribute to our places in ways that honor God and in ways that dishonor God every day.

2. Is placemaking Biblical? Part of our calling as humans and as followers of Christ is to bless others through activities like placemaking.

3. Is placemaking ecclesial? Not only is it appropriate for the church to be involved in placemaking. The church has a unique role and perspective on placemaking.

4. Is placemaking scalable? Placemaking can be as simple as putting a dog bowl with water in front of the church or as complex as helping to design a network of sidewalks for the community.

In addition to talking about placemaking itself, we also discover that Chris’s actual job title is ‘Studio Lead for and Senior Fellow for Placemaking’ at Ormond Center. That definitely gives The Embedded Church podcast some street cred.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life by Eric Klinenberg

Redemptive Placemaking Toolkit: Discerning your church's mission in the built environment by Sara Joy Proppe & Edward Dunar (Use discount code EmbeddedChurch at checkout to receive 15% off purchase price.)

Tactical Urbanism by Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia

Seaside City of Ideas - a documentary film about the making of Seaside, FL and the community design intentions behind this New Urbanist town

Parish Collective - an organization connecting people to be the church in the neighborhood

Placemakers - a group of planners, urban designers, form-based code wranglers, storytellers, advisors and advocates working on making places

Project for Public Spaces - an organization bringing public spaces to life by planning and designing them with the people who use them every day

Proximity Project - a consulting and education firm that helps churches align their mission with their property assets for the flourishing of their neighborhood

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website

- Place

- Placemaking

- Tactical Urbanism

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Defining Place

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Sara Joy Proppe, Eric O. Jacobsen) — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 07:05:00 +0000

Place is a key element of shalom because our identities are rooted in place and we connect to one another through place. In this episode, Eric and Sara Joy discuss the difference between place and space (and why place isn’t always good and space isn’t always bad), while framing both within a biblical understanding. They trace the theme of place from the beginning to the end of the Bible, noting how we are redeemed in place. They also talk with Chris Elisara from Ormond Center who shares about his perception and experience of place and its importance in his family life and community. And they find out where Chris’s cool accent comes from.

They also challenge the notion that we need to choose whether to care for people or places and note that we often are called to love people through loving their places.

Lastly, we find out yet, another reason while Texans are a peculiar (awesome!) breed.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

First and Main Films: Find out more about the films that Chris Elisara mentions in this interview

Better Cities Film Festival

Where Mortals Dwell: A Christian View of Place for Today by Craig Bartholomew

“The Work of Local Culture” in Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community: Eight Essays by Wendell Berry

Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America by James and Deborah Fallows

A Christian Theology of Place: Explorations in Practical, Pastoral and Empirical Theology by John Inge

Reclaiming Place in a Disengaged World: An Interview with Eric O. Jacobsen in Fuller Magazine: Issue 17

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Place (and Space)

- Hospitality

- Placelessness

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

What is shalom and how is it like dirt?

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 1 Jun 2021 07:05:00 +0000

In this episode Eric and Sara Joy build a more robust understanding of shalom, reflecting on the meaning of the term beyond the standard definition of peace to include a proactive seeking of flourishing and right relationships with each other, with God, and with our whole community. They even note that shalom can and should be sought and reflected in the built environment of our communities.

Bringing in Josh Yates, the Executive Director of Ormond Center at Duke Divinity School, to expound upon this Eric and Sara Joy find out how his personal and professional quest to define and pursue "thriving" has connected deeply with a biblical understanding of shalom. Yates lays out several things we need to unlearn, relearn, and keep learning in order to embrace this biblical vision of shalom for our communities. In particular, he notes the need to broaden the interpretation of shalom and recognize and reverse the incomplete understanding of shalom that has historically been present in Christian community, contending that shalom brings a coherence and unity to things that we have tended to pit against one another.

Additionally, Yates discusses our current cultural moment and how shalom is worked out in the local context. Recognizing there are compounding crises, such as loneliness, trust in institutions, racism, affecting the deep fractures in our society, he remains hopeful for society more broadly if the Christian church can recognize the emerging opportunities for meaningful, biblical engagement within this cultural context. He outlines three key opportunities, which include: 1) the turn to well-being, 2) the turn to wholeness, and 3) the turn to local. Each of these opportunities are deeply related to shalom and the holistic understanding of how God designed us to develop local culture, seek thriving, and live in community and relationship with one another.

Access Show Notes with pictures and links related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church.

Related Resources

Sex, Economy, Freedom, & Community: Eight Essays by Wendell Berry

Living Toward a Vision: Biblical Reflections on Shalom by Walter Brueggemann

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

The New Localism by Bruce Katz and Jeremy Nowak

Christianity's Surprise by Kavin Rowe

For the Life of the World by Miroslav Volf and Matthew Croasmun

Jeremiah 29:7 "But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare." (ESV)

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Built Environment

- Fragmentation

- Localism

- Missional Theology

- Place

- Shalom

- Social Determinants

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Season 4 Trailer: Cultivating Neighborhood Shalom

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 18 May 2021 11:10:13 +0000

Jeremiah 29:7 calls us to seek the welfare (shalom) of the specific places to which we have been called. During Season 4, we will be exploring what this means for pastors and other leaders as they seek to be faithful to this challenging mandate. In this trailer, we introduce our theme and we introduce our listeners to our new partners from Ormond Center at Duke Divinity School. Josh Yates is the Executive Director and Chris Elisara is Studio Lead and Senior Fellow for Placemaking for Ormond Center.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Ormond Center at Duke Divinity School

Jeremiah 29:7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Find these Key Terms The Embedded Church website:

- Built Environment

- Place

- Shalom

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 08:05:00 +0000

In this episode, Eric takes the lead in expounding on the book Palaces for the People written by Eric Klinenberg in 2018. Klinenberg is a sociologist at NYU who coined the term "social infrastructure" to capture the idea that shared physical places shape the way people act and the relationships people develop. He has studied how the presence of social infrastructure or the lack thereof can have direct implications on the well-being and resiliency of our local communities. His early research discovered that during the Chicago heat wave in the 90s, when controlling for neighborhood demographics, communities with more thriving public spaces fared better than those without because neighbors knew one another and kept tabs on the health of each other.

Klinenberg contends that libraries, in particular, have played a valuable social infrastructure role in our local neighborhoods. Unfortunately, government budget cuts have discounted the value of these places and libraries are increasingly going by the wayside. He argues that we would be wise to invest in these places of social infrastructure, such as libraries, parks, schools, and churches because they are accessible to everyone and provide tangible resources to the community while encouraging the formation of social bonds. Investing in places like these presents an effective place-based solution for the crime, disconnection, and polarization we are experiencing in our current cultural climate.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg

99% Invisible Podcast interview with Eric Klinenberg

Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America by Chris Arnade

The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community by Ray Oldenburg

"Learning Virtue Through Public Transit" by Sara Joy Proppe

Defensible Space Theory by Oscar Newman

Broken Windows Theory by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling

Andrew Carnegie - a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist who made his wealth by leading the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. He is one of the most prominent philanthropists in the history of U.S. and funded the building of numerous public libraries across the country.

John 4 - Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the well story

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Social capital

- Social infrastructure

- Third Place

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 1 Dec 2020 08:05:00 +0000

In this episode Eric interviews Sara Joy about Jane Jacobs’ pioneering book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Written in 1961 this book represented a scathing critique of orthodox city planning from an unexpected source. Jane Jacobs was neither an architect nor a trained planner, but she was a keen observer of how cities and neighborhoods actually worked. She had the patience and instinct to look for the complex order at work within what appeared to be chaotic urban environments. And, she had the gumption not only to engage the ‘experts’ in a male dominated field, but to challenge some of their most sacred principles.

She writes in an engaging, disarming style and invites the reader to meet the people she knows and to love the places she loves as she describes the fundamental principles behind cities that are alive. As an added bonus, this episode includes a friendly battle between Eric and Sara Joy as they try to establish which one of them is truly the bigger fan of Jane Jacobs.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City by Anthony Flynn

The Good City and the Good Life: Renewing the American Community by Daniel Kemmis

The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community by Ray Oldenburg

Desiring the Kingdom by James K.A. Smith

The City as Liturgy: An Orthodox Theologian Corresponds with Jane Jacobs About a Gentle Reconciliation of Science and Religion by Dr. Timothy Patitsas

Citizen Jane: Battle for the City - Documentary

Picture of Eric's Jane Jacobs Linocut Print by @PeterJacobsenArt

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Ballet of Street Life

- Density

- Eyes on the Street

- Third Place

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Reading Home from Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Sara Joy Proppe, Eric O. Jacobsen) — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 08:05:00 +0000

In this episode, Sara Joy interviews Eric about the book Home From Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler. Published in 1996, this book remains incredibly relevant for the place where we find ourselves today as we confront a rising decline of shared, civic life. In fact, Eric has referred to Kunstler as a "lawless prophet." This prophetic voice of Kunstler rings clear as we consider the ways our cities have fostered our disconnection from time and place, leaving us "home from nowhere."

Kunstler, an artist in several respects, makes a case for retaining value judgements when it comes to creating places of beauty and civic art. He argues that there are patterns innately pleasing to human beings and we do well to recognize this truth and build places accordingly. To do so, honors who we are and our connection to the past and the future as participants in a larger story. He also asserts that we live in the tension of desiring beauty, yet being constantly faced with the reality that beauty fades. Continuing to produce beautiful, civic art and civic spaces, however, is an avenue for developing the connective tissue that provides for civil society. Kunstler believes we need to rebuild our cities to make them worth caring about, which means valuing public space.

He unpacks this call more through his discussions of charm, shame, freedom, and responsibility, throwing some new ideas and curve balls around what he thinks these words truly mean and how they relate to our civic life and how we ought to design our cities. Kunstler provides some provocative, and sometimes salty, assertions about where we have gone wrong in our cultural understandings of the human condition and seems to be calling for repentance. Since brazen and bold statements are his modus operandi, we recognize that some of what he writes can be edgy and should be taken with a grain of salt. In spite of this, he adds some keen insights to the conversation around cities, design, civic life, and the human condition.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler

Home from Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler

The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition by James Howard Kunstler

The Ghastly Tragedy of the Suburbs, TED talk by James Howard Kunstler

Lawless Prophet: James Howard Kunstler and the New Urbanist Critique of American Sprawl by Eric O. Jacobsen

Romans 7:15-19 "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing."

John 12:3-8 "Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me."

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Charm

- Chronological Connectivity

- City Beautiful Movement

- Civic Art

- Traditional Neighborhood Development

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Discussing Cities for People by Jan Gehl

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 3 Nov 2020 08:05:00 +0000

In this episode, Eric interviews Sara Joy about Jan Gehl’s masterful book, Cities for People. Jan Gehl is an architect who believes that paying attention to how actual humans interact with buildings and public spaces is the most important factor to consider when building or developing these spaces. This seemingly obvious approach actually makes Gehl an anomaly in his field. But, it also makes him very successful in developing places where people choose to spend time even when they don’t have to. For this reason, Gehl has been a popular consultant who has worked for major cities throughout the world.

Gehl’s book is on the expensive side, but well worth it. It also could look a little intimidating, but it is a very accessible and interesting read. In this interview, Sara Joy helps make Cities for People more approachable by providing an overview of Gehl’s major ideas and by providing some scintillating examples of the kinds of brilliant insights a careful reader will gain through devoting some attention to this book. Sara Joy also provides some practical strategies for gleaning insights from the book without having to read it cover to cover. And lastly, for those who just aren’t ready to plunk down the cash or spend the time with Gehl’s actual book, Sara Joy provides some other ways to access some of Gehl’s best thinking.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Jan Gehl - author of Cities for People and world-renown urban designer who champions the "human scale" component of design in our cities

Cities for People by Jan Gehl

How to Study Public Life by Jan Gehl

Jan Gehl TED Talk

The Human Scale – documentary that highlights the urban design concepts promoted by the work of Jan Gehl

"There are No God Forsaken Places" by Tom Ketteringham, article about Pastor Jonathan Brooks and the Englewood Billboard Campaign

Church Forsaken: Practicing Presence in Neglected Neighborhoods by Jonathan Brooks

Grand Ol’ Days - annual street festival in St. Paul, Minnesota

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Desire Paths

- Density

- Edge Effect

- Piano Effect

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Walkable City by Jeff Speck

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 07:05:00 +0000

Why is walking so important for our health, wealth, and the environment? Are there particular conditions in a city that encourage (or discourage) people to walk? Does promoting walkability mean we get rid of all the cars?

In this episode, Sara Joy interviews Eric about why he likes the book Walkable City by Jeff Speck so much. And, on a personal note, we learn what are Eric's favorite aspects of walking the neighborhood where his church is located are and how he sees walking as an important component that defines Jesus' ministry while on earth.

Through our discussion, we hash out Speck's research that shows there are a myriad of health, economic, and sustainability benefits associated with walking. And, we consider the four conditions, or characteristics, of walkability that he believes need to be present in order to encourage people to walk. Walks need to be useful, safe, comfortable, and interesting.

Speck further unpacks each one of these conditions with 10 distinct steps of walkability. We dig into several of these steps for our listeners. In particular, we spend some time discussing step one - putting cars in their place - and what that actually means. Not getting rid of cars, but simply prioritizing people over cars while valuing space for both (in their right places!). We also talk about the important step of mixing the uses and how Speck's focus on housing is a unique and interesting perspective for understanding why mixed-use development in our cities is so critical. We highlight the value of narrow streets, enclosed space, thresholds, and trees for making good, walkable places as well. In short, we show that good walkability has many layers even though it is such a basic act.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Support our work! You can give online to our Indiegogo Campaign.

Related Resources

Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time by Jeff Speck

The Walkable City: TED Talk by Jeff Speck

What’s a STROAD, and why does it matter? Strong Towns

Walkscore an online tool for scoring your neighborhood in terms of walkability, which takes into factors such as proximity of goods and services and access to transit.

Peripateo a Greek word used often in the Bible (93 instances in the NT) both for literal walking and for living in general “I urge you to live (walk) a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Ephesians 4:1

Genesis 3:8-9 “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’”

Micah 6:8 “He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Luke 10:33-34 “But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.”

Mark 5:27-29 “When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.’ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.”

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU)

- Enclosure

- Inclusionary Zoning

- Induced Demand

- Missing Tooth Concept

- Mixed Use Development

- Walkability

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Reading Happy City by Charles Montgomery

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 6 Oct 2020 07:05:00 +0000

What makes a city a 'happy city'? Is there a correlation between the wealth of a city and its happiness? According to Charles Montgomery, author of Happy City, happiness is about having meaningful connections with the people who are proximate to us. People often think that things like houses, cars, and toys will make us happy. But whatever happiness we gain from those things is usually short term. Montgomery makes the case that since lasting happiness comes from meaningful human connections, we will tend to be more happy when we live and work in settings that encourage and allow that kind of interaction. A happy city, then is a city that encourages meaningful connections between people. In this episode Eric interviews Sara Joy about Happy City and we consider Montgomery’s thesis through a lens of faith.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Happy City by Charles Montgomery

Eudomainia a Greek word for happiness.

Ebenezer Howard is a British urban planner to came up with the concept of Garden Cities which allowed people to live in a natural setting close to the city which was influential on the development of the American suburb.

Le Corbusier is the Swiss architect and founder of the International Style of architecture and creator of the Plan Voisin.

Plan Voisin is Le Corbusier’s plan to replace all the buildings of central Paris with a uniform set of highrise buildings with green space between them. This became a template for low income housing in the United States.

Pruitt-Igoe is a low income housing project built in St. Louis in 1954 that was inspired by the Plan Voisin. It was a complete disaster that became internationally famous for its poverty, crime, and racial segregation. It was torn down in mid-1970s.

The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces by William Holly Whyte

Documentary: Social Life of Small Urban Spaces

Jeremiah 29:7 “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

Zechariah 8:4-5 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.”

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Density

- Proximity

- Sprawl

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Season 3 Trailer: Reading with Eric & Sara Joy

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Sara Joy Proppe, Eric O. Jacobsen) — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 07:05:04 +0000

On The Embedded Church podcast, we often make references to terms, books, and urban thinkers that might be unfamiliar to our audience. We decided to address that concern in Season 3, by introducing our listeners to the books and authors who have had a major impact on our understanding of neighborhood design.

Welcome to an entire season dedicated to Eric and Sara Joy talking about books. The episodes will be spaced two weeks apart to allow listeners a chance to read each featured book before we talk about it. But also, be assured, listeners will learn a lot about these books and some of their key ideas just by listening. We’re kind of hoping that a few of our listeners will order these books and give them to their pastor for Christmas. Nothing says, “I love you, pastor” more than a gift-wrapped copy of Happy City waiting under the tree after the Christmas Eve service.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Happy City by Charles Montgomery

Walkable City by Jeff Speck

Cities for People by Jan Gehl

Home from Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Interview with Eric Klinenberg - 99% Invisible Podcast

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Three Pieces of Glass: Discussing Eric's New Book

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Sara Joy Proppe, Eric O. Jacobsen) — Tue, 7 Jul 2020 07:05:05 +0000

In this episode, Sara Joy interviews Eric about his most recent book, Three Pieces of Glass: Why We Feel Lonely in a World Mediated by Screens. Released in May of 2020, Eric's book dives into our current crisis of loneliness citing it as partly resulting from a lack of belonging we feel in regard to the places and the people who most often inhabit the world in proximity to us. He makes the case that from the advent of the car (the windshield) and designing our cities for driving, to our TV screens, and now our smart phones, we have become more fragmented from places, neighbors, and friends. These three mediating pieces of glass remove us from embodied interaction with one another and have slowly atrophied our abilities to engage in neighborly and civic discourse, eroding a sense of belonging for us.

He encourages his readers to be catalysts of belonging by taking small steps that can emulate the goodness of belonging and community connection as represented by the "kingdom belonging" modeled for us in the gospel. He challenges churches and individuals to be active in supporting policy choices at the city level that provide places for walkability, connection, and gathering with people over auto-oriented developments. And, he urges people to put away their smart phones, turn off their TVs, and take some walks to connect with the places and people in proximity to them.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Three Pieces of Glass: Why We Feel Lonely in a World Mediated by Screens by Eric O. Jacobsen

The Gospel in a Pluralist Society by Lesslie Newbigin

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometime Lonely World by Vivek Murthy

Unlocking Us Podcast: Dr. Vivek Murthy & Brene Brown on Loneliness and Connection

I Miss Singing at Church (NY Times Op Ed) by Tish Harrison Warren

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Belonging

- Fragmentation

- Kingdom Belonging

- Personal Belonging

- Proximity

- Public Belonging

- Social Belonging

- Zoning

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Community Engagement in the Historically Black Church

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 07:05:11 +0000

In this episode, we talk with Rev. David Wright who is the Assistant to the Pastor of the Peoples Baptist Church (PBC) in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, MA. David is also the Executive Director of the Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston. We learn from David about the long-standing history of community engagement for the Peoples Baptist Church, which has been a pillar for the African American community in Boston for over 200 years. He shares about some of the distinct ways that the black church engages its community in the US and how movements such as ‘urban renewal’ and gentrification have impacted the ministry of PBC over its more recent history. And finally, we broach the subject of racial justice and discuss how this issue looks coming into the national spotlight at this particular time from the perspective of the African American community.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and Problem of Race in America by Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith

unChristian: What A New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity. . .And Why It Matters by David Kinnaman

Abolitionist Movement

William Lloyd Garrison

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Mixed Income Neighborhood

- Proximity

- Urban Renewal

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

The Church as a Place of Inclusion

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 07:05:23 +0000

In this episode we talk with Jamison Galt, who is the Pastor of Resurrection Church Clinton Hill in Brooklyn, New York. In its relatively new existence as a church plant, Resurrection Church has already occupied five different buildings in the same neighborhood. Access to space in each location has been birthed through relationships that Jamison has cultivated with other pastors and people in the local community. This has given Jamison an interesting perspective on the neighborhood and how the physical form of a building and relationships impact ministry. Jamison loves his neighborhood and its rich history, but he is also acutely aware of how many of the buildings in his neighborhood convey the subtle message that if you are not one of us, you don’t belong here. Thankfully, there are exceptions to that rule. Some businesses have figured out how to be welcoming places for all. Jamison wants Resurrection Church to be that kind of place. And, we can listen in as he wrestles with the issue of place and belonging in his dense, diverse, and dynamic neighborhood.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

The Doctrine of the Christian Life (A Theology of Lordship) by John Frame

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Belonging

- Mixed Use

- Mixed Income

- Perichoresis

Notable People Who Lived in Clinton Hill

· Richard Wright

· Colson Whitehead

· Spike Lee

· Notorious BIG

· Jay Z

· Biggie Smalls

· Walt Whitman

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Discovering Neighborhood Dreams as a Church

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 07:05:17 +0000

In this episode, we interview Nathan and Kristi Ivey about the work they have done and continue to do through Sojourn Church Midtown in Louisville, KY. With backgrounds in finance and government, they bring a unique lens to their former and current roles as Pastor and Director of Mercy Ministry. They have come to recognize that an important part of neighborhood engagement and mercy work involves asking neighbors what their hopes and dreams are for their neighborhood. A simple place to start, but so easily overlooked. They share about the lesson they learned from doing a neighborhood festival the "wrong" way and how this failure provided a needed reminder to join in the paths already developed by the local community. They also talk about "wins" they've had in events like neighborhood dog washes to health clinics.

Growing from Sojourn Church Midtown's mercy ministry work, Nathan Ivey has since started a nonprofit called Seed to Oaks, which seeks to mobilize churches to know and reach their neighborhoods in practical ways. They have developed particular resources and strategy sessions for churches to utilize as they navigate neighborhood ministry in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Midtown Neighborhood Study - a Neighborhood 360° Assessment led by Seed to Oaks for Sojourn Church Midtown

12 Proven Ways to Give Hope - a COVID-19 resource booklet by Seed to Oaks

Seed to Oaks COVID-19 Strategy Sessions

When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert

Ministries of Mercy by Tim Keller

Beyond Charity by John Perkins

The Externally-Focused Church by Rick Rusaw & Eric Swanson

On Social Justice by St. Basil the Great

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Embodiment

- Frederick Law Olmsted - (1822-1903) American Landscape Architect, Author, Conservationist; designer of Central Park

- Gentrification

- Social Capital

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Learning the Neighborhood Vernacular

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O Jacobsen) — Tue, 9 Jun 2020 07:05:02 +0000

In this episode we interview Pastor Thurman Williams, who is the lead pastor of New City Fellowship: West End in St. Louis, MO. Growing up as a son of a Methodist pastor in the suburbs of Baltimore, he felt the call to explore leading ministry in urban Baltimore. Through his experiences in Baltimore, he was called to co-pastor a church in St. Louis to work towards racial integration within the church that is situated on the "Delmar Divide," a street of historic racial divide in the city. He has since led a church plant in the West End neighborhood comprised mostly by the African-American community north of this divide.

Thurman shares humbly about his own journey to overcome aspects of "Messiah" complex and learn the importance of listening to the story of the ways God is already at work in the neighborhood. He has come to recognize that often the neighborhood is the best teacher for him and the church as they seek to be ministers of the gospel. In particular, he notes the importance of recognizing the community vernacular in approach to ministry. For example, they discovered that for those living in the West End walkability to the church was crucial for attendance and identification with the church. Members wanted a church in the West End that felt like the West End neighborhood. This reality shows just how importance place is to identity and mission.

While this episode does not dive deeply into issues of racial injustice, there are references to historical divisions along racial lines in our cities. The built environment has played a distinct role in dividing communities, particularly along racial lines, and these divisions continue to be perpetuated with how our cities are designed and maintained. We share some resources here that expose these realities so that you can be better educated and call for reform in your spheres of influence. The built environment is not neutral and learning to read the community vernacular is a step in recognizing its power and calling for neighborhood infrastructure that promotes the flourishing of all.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Let Justice Roll Down by John Perkins

The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby

The Trouble I've Seen by Drew Hart

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

How the Government Segregated America's Cities by Design

Crossing a St Louis Street that Divides Communities, a short BBC film on Delmar Boulevard

Zoning Matters: How Land Use Policies Shape Our Lives, a short video by How Housing Matters

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Belonging

- Local Culture

- Walkability

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Advancing Mission During Covid Crisis

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 26 May 2020 07:00:12 +0000

In this episode, we bring Keith Case back to our show to talk about how his church Providencia WPB in West Palm Beach, FL, is pursuing their mission in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis. Their church includes a lot of young adults working in industries that have been hit hard by the pandemic, so the church has helped incubate a new ministry to aid people in finding jobs. Keith also talks about the grieving that both he and his community have gone through as they process not being able to gather physically and enjoy face to face community interaction. In spite of this, they have developed some new rhythms for interacting with one another and within the community that have been meaningful and life-giving. Additionally, Keith discusses how the pandemic has impacted his preaching style and the ways this has shaped the way that Providencia understands itself as a community.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Providencia WPB

Dr. Curt Thompson

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

Embodiment

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Leaning Into Your Church's Embedded Identity

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 08:30:01 +0000

In this episode, I talk with my co-host Sara Joy Proppe about her work with Proximity Project. Proximity Project offers educational and consulting services for church leaders who want to leverage their church property to better engage with their neighbors. In addition to talking with Sara Joy about some of the ways she has helped churches better serve their neighbors, I also talk with her about some of the motivating factors that led her to start Proximity Project.

This being the final episode of Season 1, Sara Joy and I also reflect on what we learned from this season. And, we spend some time discussing where we might go in Season 2. We end with an appeal to our listeners to share their thoughts on any topics we should explore or church leaders we should interview. If you have any comments or suggestions concerning Season 2, you can write us at info@embeddedchurch.com. Also, you can join our mailing list to receive updates about this and future podcasts.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Proximity Project

A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, et al.

The Architecture of Happiness by Alain De Botton

Suburban Nation by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck

Sidewalks in the Kingdom by Eric O. Jacobsen

The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler

Home from Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler

Happy City by Charles Montgomery

Walkable City by Jeff Speck

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Built Environment

- Hospitality

- Placemaking

- Proximity

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Moving From a 'Come and See' to a 'Go and Be' Posture

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Sara Joy Proppe, Eric O. Jacobsen) — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 08:30:02 +0000

In this episode we talk with Karen Wilk who is the pastor of NEW (Neighbourhood Engagement Workers’) Community, a missional community in her neighborhood in Edmonton, Alberta. She shares with us about her transition from pastoring a large, traditional church to engaging a new paradigm of 'go and be' in the neighborhood. This has led to her work in developing practices and postures that encourage and equip churches to resource their members to develop intentional neighborhood networks within their home communities.

In particular she shares about the Abundant Community Initiative she has helped develop and lead in Edmonton. Based on The Abundant Community by Peter Block and John McKnight, the model raises up 'block connectors' who serve in three roles in the local neighborhood. These roles include being a point person, a party person, and a listener. Within these roles, block connectors work to connect neighbors with one another and rally together when neighbors have needs to support, as well as plan times of celebration and socialization for the neighborhood, and seek to listen to the conversations happening within the broader city and the opportunities that exist for neighbors to play active roles in the community.

Karen wears several hats in her work as a cultivator of missional communities. As a leader of workshops to guide churches in resourcing their members to adopt missional mindsets in their neighborhoods, she is a National Team Member for Forge Missional Training Network and a Go Local Catalyser with Resonate Global Mission of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. She has also authored a guidebook entitled, Don't Invite Them to Church: Moving from a Come and See to a Go and Be Church.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Abundant Community Initiative

The Abundant Community by Peter Block and John McKnight

The Art of Neighboring by Jay Pathak, Dave Runyon, et al.

The Bees of Rainbow Falls: Finding Faith, Imagination, and Delight in Your Neighbourhood by Preston Pouteaux

Forge International

The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating Apostolic Movements by Alan Hirsch

Joining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World by Alan J. Roxburgh

Resonate Global Mission

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Hospitality

- Missional Theology

- Neighboring

- Proximity

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

The Embedded Church in a Rural Setting

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Sara Joy Proppe, Eric O. Jacobsen) — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 08:30:23 +0000

In this episode we talk with Matt Canlis who is the Pastor of Trinity Church in Wenatchee, Washington. A few years ago, Matt was a Pastoral Assistant in Scotland and discovered the parish model of pastoral ministry. He learned how to engage the people of his parish by walking around and visiting with them in their homes, schools, businesses, and pubs. He also learned to structure his week so that he wouldn’t be at the mercy of his own or his congregation’s expectations.

After his time in Scotland, Matt and his family were called back to the United States to serve at Trinity Church in Wenatchee, Washington. In this transition, Matt has been deliberate about continuing the parish ministry model and his weekly rhythms in this new context.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Trinity Church

Livegodspeed - check here for Matt’s new book Backyard Pilgrim coming in 2020

Jesus and the Victory of God by NT Wright

Under the Unpredictable Plant by Eugene Peterson

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Belonging

- Embodiment

- Hospitality

- Localism

- Parish

- Proximity

- Shalom

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

The Missional Rhythms of an Embedded Church

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Sara Joy Proppe, Eric O. Jacobsen) — Tue, 3 Dec 2019 08:30:01 +0000

In this episode, we talk with Renee and James B Notkin who are co-Pastors of Union Church in Seattle. Union Church is a church plant located in the South Lake Union Neighborhood in Seattle. In planting Union Church, the Notkins were looking to develop a missional church model that would provide weekly opportunities for three basic discipleship commitments:

· Remain in me

· Love one another

· Go into the world

This led them to a pattern of life together in which the format for their Sunday gathering followed a regular four week rotation of worship, small groups, and service.

In living into this vision, what Renee and James B didn’t expect was that the neighborhood would experience cataclysmic transformation. A decade ago, South Lake Union was an underdeveloped semi industrial stretch of land nestled between the Seattle Center and Lake Union. And then Amazon decided to locate their headquarters there. Seemingly overnight, their church was a few blocks away from the busiest intersection in Seattle.

In this conversation, we discuss how Renee and James B look for opportunities to find points of connection with their new neighbors, to care for those who might be overlooked in a time of economic growth, and to continue to provide vital programs for the congregation.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Union Church Seattle

Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America by Daryl Gruder

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Missional Theology

- Third Place

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Commercial Enterprises as a Church

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 08:30:02 +0000

In this episode Chris Barras, the Lead Pastor of Area 10 Faith Community shares about the entrepreneurial heart and spirit that drives how his church has taken shape in their neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia. Coming from a background in management at Starbucks, Chris has an ethos for developing "third places," a term coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg to refer to the places you spend time outside of your home and your work. In other words, the place where you meet with friends and neighbors.

The church meets at the Byrd Theater, a historic theater in the heart of the neighborhood. Renting this space for their main worship service has both freed and forced the church to be creative in the ways they find and use ancillary space for church ministry and needs. With a need for Sunday nursery space, but not wanting to have an empty storefront for the rest of the week, the church opened Coffee & Cartwheels, a combination coffee shop and indoor playspace that both adults and kids can enjoy.

Additionally, the church has now opened 2810, a community gathering space that houses church offices and places for their small groups to meet, but operates as a public event and meeting rental space throughout most of the week. Chris also shares about some of the general business mechanics of starting LLCs and managing these spaces.

The episode wraps up with a discussion of the loneliness that Chris encounters in Richmond and a call for churches to develop places for people in their communities to connect and talk with one another.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Cities of God by Rodney Stark

The Great Good Place by Ray Oldenburg

Home from Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler

Sidewalks in the Kingdom by Eric O. Jacobsen

Suburban Nation by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck

Walkscore.com

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Infill Development

- Third Place

- Walk Score

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

What exactly is an Embedded Church?

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Nathan Carter, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 08:30:21 +0000

In Episode 7, we talk with Nathan Carter who is a pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois. When the church chose to relocate to an urban neighborhood in Chicago, the leadership asked the 30 original members to move into the neighborhood where the church was locating. There were 20 members who were willing, so effectively the church started its new chapter with a committed membership living in close proximity to the church itself. This model of being a church has reinforced Immanuel's commitment to remain in the neighborhood despite some hurdles they've encountered with parking, zoning, and the City of Chicago.

At the last minute, while working towards acquiring their property, the church learned that they did not meet zoning code requirements in terms of parking. The building has no parking on site and there is no space to add parking. The Chicago zoning code requires a set number of parking spaces to be provided for religious assembly. The church was committed to the neighborhood and purchasing the site, so they explored their options for being approved for acquisition and use without meeting the city parking requirements. Leaning on the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), a federal law that prohibits the implementation of any land use regulation that imposes a "substantial burden" on the religious exercise of a person or religious assembly or institution, the church decided to sue the City of Chicago. While the litigation is currently on-going, Immanuel has successfully moved into the building and is putting down roots in the neighborhood. Their work on this parking issue has effectively started changing the Chicago zoning code to reduce the parking requirements for religious uses.

In this episode we also talk through the 4 characteristics of an embedded church and to what extent Immanuel Baptist Church reflects these. The 4 characteristics include: 1) a direct connection to the public right-of-way; 2) a de-emphasis of a parking lot; 3) a mix of building types and uses within walking distance; and 4) an intentional mission mindset for engaging the local neighborhood.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Center Church by Timothy Keller

Citizenship Papers by Wendell Berry

The Connecting Church: Beyond Small Groups to Authentic Community by Randy Frazee

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Preaching to a Post-Everything World by Zack Eswine

RLUIPA (Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act)

Sensing Jesus: Life and Ministry as a Human Being by Zack Eswine

Strong Towns

Tradition, History, and Sequoias by Wilfred M. McClay

The Wisdom of Stability: Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Belonging

- Embedded

- Embodiment

- Proximity

- Rootedness

- Zoning

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Walkability and Partnering with Civic and Non-Profit Organizations

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 08:30:11 +0000

In this episode, we talk with Keith Case who is the Lead Pastor / Church Planter at Providencia in West Palm Beach, Florida. West Palm Beach is a fairly walkable community that also includes a couple of significant barriers to walkability – namely the existence of a four lane arterial that cuts the downtown off from the waterfront as well as a notable lack of street trees. In our conversation, we drill down on the requisite elements of walkability and discuss what Keith and his church are doing to improve the walkability of their community. A major part of Providencia's mission strategy is to partner with civic organizations such as Connect West Palm Beach, the Downtown Development Authority, and others. Keith and his church love to celebrate with their neighbors and so it’s fitting that we conclude the show with a story of a birthday party for Keith in which everybody was invited.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Walkable City by Jeff Speck

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Connect West Palm Beach

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Family Life and Ministry in the Neighborhood

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 5 Nov 2019 08:30:20 +0000

In this episode, we talk with Andy Metzger who is a Pastor at The Summit Church in Denver, CO. What makes Summit’s story interesting is that Andy lives 975 steps from the church. And in fact, all of the Pastors on Staff at Summit live within a mile of the church. The Summit Church is located in the Five Points (or RiNo) neighborhood of Denver which is a fast growing, artsy, very walkable neighborhood (walk score 76).

Andy talks about the advantages of living and ministering in a walkable neighborhood. It’s easy to get the church community together spontaneously and inviting people to church can feel very natural and spontaneous. Andy also shares some of the challenges of living in the city as well. People still struggle with loneliness despite being surrounded by lots of people, crime is a concern, and parents don’t feel as free to let their children play outside unsupervised.

Despite the advantages or disadvantages of their context, the leadership of The Summit Church felt a strong call from God to plant in this particular neighborhood. They are committed to living and ministering within the neighborhood and are teaching their members to see themselves as missionaries wherever they live.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

The Summit Church

RiNo Arts District

Walk Score

Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:

- Neighboring

- Orange Juice Test

- Proximity

- Rootedness

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Ministering in Small Steps: The Neighborhood Pedestrian Shed

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 07:30:02 +0000

On this episode, Eric O. Jacobsen, Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church Tacoma and our very own co-host of The Embedded Church Podcast and author of Sidewalks in the Kingdom and The Space Between, shares with us about the small steps his church is taking in Tacoma, Washington, to care for their neighborhood. By identifying the 99 buildings and businesses that are situated within a 1/8-mile radius or the “pedestrian shed” of the church property, they have developed a weekly practice of highlighting a specific building and committing to pray for the flourishing of that particular site, owner, and business.

Drawing on his own experience of living in walkable places, Eric also talks about being a pastor who walks and the implications this has had on developing relationships, slowing down time, and opening up space for ministry in sometimes unexpected ways.

“We did a lot of work cultivating an attitude that we call ‘inside-out.’ We wanted to be a church that cares as much about what’s going on outside in our neighborhood as what’s going on inside our church.”

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler

Suburban Nation by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, & Jeff Speck

Walkable City by Jeff Speck

Congress for the New Urbanism

Find these key terms on The Embedded Church website:

· Pedestrian Shed

· Traditional Neighborhood Planning

· Walkability

· Zoning

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Supporting the Neighborhood Story

Tue, 22 Oct 2019 07:30:06 +0000

On this episode, Stephanie Williams O’Brien, Co-lead Pastor of Mill City Church in Minneapolis, MN, tells about being a church that meets in a local school and the creative partnerships they’ve formed to address the needs of local students. The non-profit, The Sheridan Story, formed by the church has now grown from an individual church initiative to a replicable model being implemented by churches across the Twin Cities to serve the students of local schools. She highlights the value of seeing their church as supportive actors in the story God is already telling on the ground in the local community. She suggests that God's vision is often far bigger than those we have in mind ourselves. The key is listening.

Connect with Stephanie directly at PastorSteph.com or follow her on Twitter and Instagram @pastorsteph. Her book, Stay Curious was just released in September 2019.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Christian Community Development Association

Lupton Center

Made to Flourish

The Sheridan Story

The New Parish by Dwight Friesen, Tim Soerens, and Paul Sparks

Practicing the Way of Jesus by Mark Scandrette

Subterranean: Why the Future of the Church is Rootedness by Dan White Jr.

Find these key terms on The Embedded Church website:

· Affordable Housing

· Gentrification

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Community Collaborations: Introduction to the Charrette Process

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Eric O. Jacobsen, Sara Joy Proppe) — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 07:15:14 +0000

In this episode, Corey Widmer, Pastor of Third Church in Richmond, Virginia, talks to us about his church’s efforts to encourage flourishing in their neighborhood by hosting a community-wide conversation called a charrette.

Some time ago, Third Church lost a lot of trust with their neighbors by putting together a plan to expand their building without consulting them. More recently, the church decided to take a different approach. This time they brought their neighbors in at the beginning of the process and asked them what they wanted from the neighborhood. After dealing with some initial skepticism, they were able to convince most of their neighbors that their efforts were sincere, and the neighbors agreed to participate in a week-long charrette.

Third Church brought in a charrette facilitator, a team of architecture students, and a number of experts to help with the process. Over that week, they met with neighbors in various groupings (residential, commercial, educational, and public officials) and asked them what they wanted for the neighborhood. As people shared ideas, the architects sketched out their ideas and put them on the walls. A couple of times during the week, they pulled the best ideas together and invited the whole neighborhood to come and give feedback.

The result of this process was a comprehensive plan for neighborhood development that could guide each stakeholder as they considered the development of their properties and facilities. But perhaps the greater achievement of this process was that it restored trust for Third Church within the neighborhood and it solidified their members’ commitment to the neighborhood as a strategic context for ministry.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Christian Community Development Association

National Charrette Institute

Walkable City by Jeff Speck

The Charrette Handbook

Find these key terms on The Embedded Church website:

· Charrette

· Curb Cuts

· Walkability

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions

Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer

Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative

Tending to Placemaking as a Church

christianurbanist@gmail.com (Sara Joy Proppe, Eric O. Jacobsen) — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 07:05:09 +0000

In this episode, we talk with Chris Ganski who is a pastor at City Reformed Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Chris talks about City Reformed Church’s decision to purchase a commercial building in the heart of a walkable neighborhood and convert it into a church. He notes how that decision really shaped and clarified the mission of the church. While purchasing that building clarified their mission, it was only one of many steps that would need to be taken to really live into their calling.

Chris regularly challenges the congregation to understand themselves as having entered into a covenant not only with each other, but also with the neighborhood surrounding the church. He shares honestly about the slow and patient work of placemaking in his particular community. He also shares about his love of food and discusses the important role of food in forming community. And, as a side note, Chris sets a new record for literary references on the Embedded Church Podcast.

Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources.

More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.

Related Resources

Project for Public Spaces

How Not To Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor by James KA Smith

The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry

Mystery and Manners by Flannery O’Connor

Find these key terms on The Embedded Church website:

· Placemaking

Show Credits

Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe

Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions