Embedded in 
A Groaning Creation 

All Creation is groaning, and as the apostle Paul notes in Romans 8, we too groan, as we wait for God's redemption. And its not just us as a persons who groan, but our churches and our neighborhoods too. What might a life together look like that is attentive to this groaning? Not the sort of triumphal life that drowns out the groaning, but one that hears the groaning and yearns with every fiber of our being for God's redemption. The articles below, including a poignant meditation by theologian Brian Bantum, explore the landscape of this groaning creation within which we find ourselves.
 

Cultivating Communities works alongside cohorts of churches that are in close-proximity to each other, providing resources and helping them discern what it might look like for their congregations and their places to flourish. Our first three cohorts (one in the mountains of East Tennessee, one on the west side of Chicago, and one in Indianapolis) are now underway.

(Learn more about our cohorts and 
the Cultivating Communities Learning Journey)

Living by kinship, not consumption In our day we may not have a Caesar, writes Brian Bantum, but we do live in a world where the things we consume are sometimes inevitable and necessary but oftentimes a means to escape, to feel, to numb, to claim some semblance of agency, to assert control or signal prestige. Add to cart. And we add to the world’s futility, and she groans from a condition not of her own making. ( via The Christian Century )

How Do You Resurrect an Empty Church? It is a story replaying over and over in cities across the United States, where older churches have been hammered by neighborhood change and maintenance costs, coinciding with a national trend of plummeting religious attendance across faiths. (via Slate)