This past weekend (April 29-30), we had two fantastic TransFORM gatherings — one on the West Coast (in Seattle) and one in the Northeast (in Cohoes, NY). I’m so thankful for the partnership on the West Coast with Parish Collective and Mars Hill Graduate School (now called the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology). And in upstate New York, thanks to John Martinez and all the folks at The Distillery for hosting the northeast regional gathering and to all who participated in it!

We had ~350 people with us in Seattle for Inhabit Conference, and 20 missional practitioners gathered in Cohoes for the Minigathering.

All of the videos from the TransFORM Northeast Minigathering have been posted online at www.minigathering.org. Here are some of the highlights:

Jackie Hayes: “Global and Local Activism for Church People”
Jeff Godowski: “LGBT Issues and the Church as an Ally”
Pam Heatley: “Emerging Church Children and Youth”
Doug Pagitt: “The Church in the Inventive Age”
Nelson Costa Jr.: “The Emergent Church in South America”
Don Heatley: “The Mobile Church”

There are a number of videos and links from Inhabit Conference 2011 that have already been posted and hopefully more will be finding there way out in the coming days and weeks. Here are a few highlights from Inhabit that I’m excited to share with all of you right now:

Inhabit Conference kickoff
Shane Claiborne: Video greetings to Inhabit
Micah Bournes spoken word: “What Can I Do?”
Micah Bournes spoken word: “I Love Y’All … For Real”
Impromptu performance art: Practice. Presence. Place.
Mark Scandrette: Incarnating into your neighborhood
Tripp Fuller: “The Church as an Embassy of Reconciliation”
Phil Shepherd: “Virtual Church” workshop
Paul Sparks: True Neighborhood Leadership

Plans are coming together for the next TransFORM regional gathering, which is being organized this time in partnership with our friends at Parish Collective. It’s going to be a West Coast gathering, April 29-30 at Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle, and I’m really excited about the amazing missional practitioners who’ll be participating.

I’ll be in Seattle this week (Tuesday night through Thursday night) to finalize some of the details that we plan to announce very soon, including main session speakers, workshop leaders, registration, etc.! Watch for another update soon.

If you’re in the Seattle area, I’d love to connect with you in person! Please shoot me an email and let’s try to meetup while I’m out there.

Here are some links that are worth checking out as we consider together how to form new emergent missional communities of practice:

What are some of the implications of “social constructionism” on missional community formation? That’s the question to consider after watching this video interview with leading thinker Kenneth Gergen (in English and Espanol) »

Anthony Smith has started a series of blog posts reflecting on the writing of social learning theorist Etienne Wenger. Read his first post on “Mobilizing an Army of Love” »

Anthony and I will be leading a workshop on missional communities at the next Big Tent Christianity conference, February 10-11 in Phoenix, Arizona. Join us and others from TransFORM (Eliacin Rosario-Cruz, Tripp Fuller, etc.). Register by January 28 to save $10 »

The Evolutionary Christianity teleseminar series has made available an amazing assortment of conversations on faith and science, and it is continuing with a number of live seminars/online discussions over the next two weeks. Access audio from previous teleseminars and get more info about the upcoming live seminars »

Jonathan Brink is working on editing essays for the first Civitas Press project, “The Practice of Love: Living Into the Kingdom of God.” Find out more and how you might be able to be involved »

“The marketplace for religion has changed very dramatically, and I don’t think new sermons or new hymns or new seating will help until the overall public association between intolerance, as young people see it, and religion fades.”
—Robert Putnam, in the new book American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us

Quoted in “When the church itself needs saving” published by the Washington Post

TransFORM Network (http://www.transformnetwork.org) and The Parish Collective (http://www.parishcollective.org) are joining forces to host a West Coast regional gathering on missional community formation, Friday-Sunday, April 29-May 1, 2011, at Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle, Washington.

Launched in Fall 2009, TransFORM held its first regional gathering earlier this year in Washington, D.C., which was attended by around 250 people. Participants in that gathering took up an impromptu collection to help fund a similar West Coast Gathering, which yielded $1,000 to help get this April 2011 event off the ground.

The Parish Collective, which began in Fall 2008, held a series of city-wide gatherings (in conjunction with Forge Canada) in June 2010 in four Pacific Northwest cities — Edmonton, Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland.

As the network organizers for TransFORM and The Parish Collective, we are very excited to be working together now on a regional event to focus on training and mobilizing people to form missional communities of practice with a special emphasis on rootedness in neighborhoods and a robust theology of place. Thanks to Mars Hill Graduate School for their hospitality in hosting this event. More details will be announced soon as planning moves forward!

For more information, please contact Steve Knight (TransFORM Network, stevek@missionalshift.com) or Paul Sparks (The Parish Collective, info@parishcollective.org).

“We need thousands of leaders to help lead existing churches through the current paradigm shift. AND we need thousands of leaders to help plant new faith communities. Both are essential, and progress in one helps the other. Among church planters, we need folks who will start churches to help alienated churchgoers … people who will drop out of church unless somebody forms a more open space where they can survive and thrive spiritually. But no less important — more important, in my opinion — we need church planters who will go much farther than most alienated churchgoers would want to go — to meet the ‘spiritual but not religious’ where they are and form faith communities among them, forming authentic disciples or followers of Jesus without needless religious baggage. So I just wanted to say to you and anyone else feeling this call … you’re needed. Fan the flame. Go for it. Don’t let anyone discourage you!”

Read the rest of Brian’s post

If you haven’t already, join TransFORM by registering on this website and start getting better connected with others who are on this journey together — over 1,000 members!

In the July/August 2010 issue of Tikkun magazine, Andrea Smith writes in her article “Dismantling Hierarchy, Queering Society” shares an interesting observation/comment about “the emergent movement.” (Jay Bakker also has an editorial in this issue of Tikkun, which is available online for $5.) I wanted to post an excerpt here that’s a bit longer than Twitter will allow to give a space for people to read and reflect and respond in civil dialogue. Here’s what Smith says,

“By describing the emergent movement as a queering of evangelicalism, I don’t necessarily mean that it offers an open critique of homophobia (although some emergent church leaders such as Brian McLaren have spoken out against homophobia). Rather, I see this movement as challenging of normalizing logics within evangelicalism. This movement has sought to challenge the meaning of evangelicalism as being based on doctrinal correctness, and instead to imagine it a more open-ended ongoing theological conversation.”

What do you think?

At American University:
McDonalds and Subway 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW (in the tunnel on campus)

Down New Mexico Avenue (but still walk-able) is:
Chef Geoffs 3201 New Mexico Avenue

Down the street (north of campus totally walk-able) are the following:
Starbucks / Chicken Out / Le Pain (sandwiches) 4866 Massachusetts Avenue

Across the street is:
Tara Thai 4855 Massachusetts Avenue
Wagshal’s Deli

In Tenleytown (near the metro):
Starbucks
Angelico pizza 4529 Wisconsin Avenue
Neisha Thai 4445 Wisconsin Avenue
Robeks (juice bar) 4523 Wisconsin Avenue
Marvelous Market 4530 Wisconsin Avenue
Guapos 4515 Wisconsin Avenue
Whole Foods 4530 40th Street, NW (behind Guapos)
Crisp and Juice (chicken) 4533 Wisconsin Avenue
Dancing Crab (hard shell crabs and shrimp) 4611 Wisconsin Avenue a Washington landmark BTW it where Sonny Jerguson used to go after Redskin games back in the day
Murphy’s Law Irish Restaurant 4624 Wisconsin Avenue
Steak n Egg Kitchen 4700 Wisconsin Avenue
4912 (another Thai place) 4912 Wisconsin Avenue
Z-burger 4312 Wisconsin Avenue
Café India 4909 Wisconsin Avenue
Ruby Tuesday 4200 Wisconsin
Chipotle Mexican Grill 4301 Wisconsin Avenue

Friendship Heights ( one metro stop into Maryland):
Cheesecake Factory 5335 Wisconsin Avenue
Maggianos 5333 Wisconsin Avenue
Chadwicks 5247 Wisconsin Avenue
Booeymonger 5252 Wisconsin Avenue

Drivable and still close by:
Listrani’s 5100 MacArthur Blvd
Bambu 5101 MacArthur Blvd

Greetings, TransFORMers!

It’s almost here – the TransFORM conference planning team is looking forward to this weekend’s conference, and we hope you are, too.

We know that a lot of you all are flying in to the DC area and will be relying on mass transit to get around. The DC mass transit system is really good, but there’s some stuff you should know:

1) Buses: The buses in DC are quite good, regular and reliable. The buses out in the VA and Maryland suburbs … not so much. There is much less reliance on the bus in the ‘burbs, so the buses are less frequent and not necessarily on time. Bear in mind that weekend schedules are MUCH sparser than weekday schedules. My advice would be to cab it, but if you do decide to take the bus, NextBus is your best friend. This site http://www.wmata.com/rider_tools/nextbus/arrivals.cfm gives real time arrivals for buses throughout the MetroBus system, and it is absolutely invaluable.

2) Metro: The nearest Metro to the conference hotel is Shady Grove, at the end of the Red Line (a full DC metrorail map can be found at http://www.wmata.com/rail/maps/map.cfm. In fact, there is a free shuttle from the conference hotel to the Shady Grove metro station. If you decide to drive yourself to the Shady Grove station and metro in, there is parking, but please be aware that you can only pay for parking with a SmartTrip card. You can buy these in the station (look for machines with the SmartTrip logo (http://www.wmata.com/fares/smartrip/).

3) Trains: The trains in DC are great … comparatively clean and quiet (most of the time), but service on the weekends is a lot sparser than weekdays. Travel on Friday shouldn’t be an issue, but is not at all unusual to be waiting for 20 minutes for a train on Saturday or Sunday. Again, Metro’s online real time arrival tools are invaluable … you can get real-time train arrivals online at http://www.wmata.com/rider_tools/pids/real_time_arrivals.cfm. Be sure to factor in time for transfers if you are staying somewhere that is not on the Red Line.

4) How to get from the metro to Wesley campus: The nearest metro stop to Wesley is Tenleytown/AU. American University runs three shuttles (http://www.american.edu/finance/facilities/shuttle.cfm) with service every 10-15 minutes from the metro station. [Note: On Friday the shuttle will run from 7am – 3:30am(Sat) and on Sat 8am – 3:30am (Sun).] When you get to the top of the escalator, continue ahead to the first street corner. The shuttle stop is there, at the front of the queue of buses. Wesley has good directions for how to get to the Wesley campus from the AU campus here http://www.wesleyseminary.edu/admissions/id.228/default.asp#Main.

To walk from the Tenleytown/AU metro stop to Wesley campus: Cross Wisconsin Avenue and turn left to Nebraska Avenue. Turn right on Nebraska and walk until you come to the traffic circle. Turn right onto Massachusetts Avenue and walk down the hill, pass the Kogard Building. Wesley will be on the opposite side of the street at 4500 Massachusetts Avenue.

Walking map: http://www.mapquest.com/mq/1-VKx2sZZkkEHT__pz3Fym

5) Cab service: Cab service in DC is very good. Most DC cabs will NOT take a credit card, so be sure to carry cash with you. $20 should cover you for one way fare plus tip to Wesley from most destinations. If you’re staying in DC or Virginia, I can personally recommend Red Top Cab ( 703 522-3333 in Arlington, 202 544-1212 in DC 703 333-3333 in Fairfax). They offer very good service and they WILL take a credit card. You can also make a reservation with Red Top online at http://www.redtopcab.com.

6) Trip Planner: If you need to figure out how to get elsewhere via public transit while you’re in DC, the Trip Planner on the WMATA home page (http://www.wmata.com) is pretty awesome.

We can’t wait to meet you all!!

Amy Moffitt
for the TransFORM East Coast Gathering planning team

UPDATE 4/28/2010: Parking at/around Wesley Theological Seminary campus — For those who are driving, yes, you may park on campus — anyplace that’s legal (i.e., don’t block fire zones) and on the street at the bottom of the hill outside Wesley Seminary.

Additional parking can be found at the garage for the Katzen Center (center for the arts at American University) up Massachusetts Avenue, but that costs something and we’re not sure at this point what that fee is for daily parking. There may also be parking back in the neighborhood behind Wesley Seminary, as well, but you will have to read the signs closely to see where you can or can’t park.

I’m really excited to announce that a new series of podcasts has launched, featuring conversations with missional practitioners. It’s called the TransFORM Round Table, and Jonathan Brink is the host of these fascinating discussions. As Jonathan explains:

“The purpose of this podcast is to highlight communities who are living out a missional approach to the Way of Jesus. I’ve selected a Round Table approach because I want this to be a dialog as much as an interview. My hope is to create a robust conversation for those who are looking to engage a missional approach to ministry, to bring out great ideas and foster healthy dialog.”

Check out the first installment of the TransFORM Round Table, featuring Pam and Don Heatley (Vision Community Church), Kathy Escobar (The Refuge), and Stephanie and Phil Shepherd (The Eucatastrophe).

All of these folks (except for Stephanie) will be a part of the TransFORM East Coast gathering, April 30-May 2, at Wesley Seminary in Washington, D.C.