Other People Play Too
Someone emailed me recently asking me about visiting MFA (this happens a couple of times a month.) This time the guy was flying in from out of town, so I gave him a list of people-I-like who he might want to check out while he was here. (I’m all for getting the biggest bang out of your flying buck.) After I typed it up, I realized other cyberfolks might want the info too. If nothing else, the wide variety of how these folks live as Jesus-y people should inspire you. This is by no means a comprehensive list of the pomo hotbed that is Seattle, but it’s a nice pupu platter. Feel free to add your own reccomended communities in the comments below.
Shalom!
Rachelle
Church of the Apostles (a.k.a. COTA) This is our “sister abbey” a few blocks from us. Same heart for the same neighborhood, different techniques. Headed up by Karen Ward and her extordinarily committed bunch of twenty somethings. May favorite part? They use their building as a neighborhood arts center, The Abbey.
Quest - A Christ Commons. Dwight and Lynette are some of our favorite friends and have been hosting this home-based community for nigh onto ten years. He’s also a professor at Mars Hill Graduate school, which is a great post-modern seminary in Seattle
On the House / Church of the Undignified This is probably my favorite missional community in Seattle. Benji and Abby just hung out on Cap Hill for a better part of a year, learning and listening and hearing what the neighborhood wanted. When the answer came back “free space to do and show art,” they opened a coffeehouse-style gallery. “Church” meets on the weekends but otherwise it’s a community living room. A little more evangelical than the MFA folks, and with a healing vibe a la Vineyard. I really respect these folks and how they live — serving thier parish with refeshing honesty and heart.
CityChurch (I may have the name wrong.) Even though Justin thinks I’m a crazy person, I salute this group for surviving and thriving. They’ve made it past the two year mark, which usually signals a group’s demise, and they sent MFA one of our gentlest souls (and fabu photographer), Daniel as a new monkpal. This is the pastor’s website…not sure if they have a separate site for the church or not. It’s an semievangelical house church with a culturally current vibe, all 20 somethings (as far as I know.)
Hi Rachelle,
If I may offer an update/correction: Seattle Metro Church (not CityChurch) is not entirely composed of twentysomethings; Radical Congruency is the personal blog of Justin (and sometimes Aaron and myself, other SMC-ites); I don’t think Justin would consider himself a pastor (SMC uses a non-pastoral, non-hierarchal leadership model, and is small enough to be mostly consensus-based), but he does think that you’re crazy (which is OK - I think he says it with admiration).
Semievangelical - heh, I like that.
Thanks for this list. A couple of them are new to me.
Cheers,
Daniel
Hi Rachelle,
If I may offer an update/correction: Seattle Metro Church (not CityChurch) is not entirely composed of twentysomethings; Radical Congruency is the personal blog of Justin (and sometimes Aaron and myself, other SMC-ites); I don’t think Justin would consider himself a pastor (SMC uses a non-pastoral, non-hierarchal leadership model, and is small enough to be mostly consensus-based), but he does think that you’re crazy (which is OK - I think he says it with admiration).
Semievangelical - heh, I like that.
Thanks for this list. A couple of them are new to me.
Cheers,
Daniel
(Hm, having trouble posting, sorry if this goes through twice!)
Rachelle,
I think the Compline Service at Saint Mark’s Cathedral would make a good addition to the list.
(yes, this is a shameless plug to one of my communities and place of work.)
Peace,
Eliacin