Paul Sparks (1) (1969–)

I can criticize this book in places. I wish it was a little meatier in theology and more practical and less suggestive in practice. But some books find you when you need them. I attended the Parish Collective conference this year and picked up the book there. The conference was good for me. I was a crying mess through most of it because of the joy of being in a room with so many like-minded people. But they were practitioners, I was a pastoral candidate dreaming of ministry ahead.

As serendipity would have it, I was in conversation with a church in Florida. Now some months later I am their pastor. Some months after the conference, I finally cracked open my copy of the New Parish and read it cover-to-cover. This book describes the direction of where I would like our church to move and gave me some language around it. It also gave me some practical hooks for inhabiting place a little more.

A church within and in-with the community is a faithful presence integrating community, mission and formation. This is grand vision for church. One question I have is how to move a commuter church (which my congregation is partly) to this gently without alienating those who feel less connected.… (altro)