Sunday, November 15th

This Sunday I (Shane) presented to those present the discussion from the previous Sunday regarding people’s thoughts and feeling about Northbridge at the Lift (see previous post below).

There were a few people present that were not able to be at the last gathering so they and everyone shared a little more about their feelings regarding Northbridge’s current plan and meeting style at the Lift as well as their thoughts regarding next steps for the church.

The three options that seemed to arise from the previous Sunday were revisited and discussed in further detail; these options were:

1.  To continue to meet in East St. Paul and at the Lift and try to become a re-church plant which would entail a high degree of responsibility and involvement throughout more members of the community.  This would also entail trying to get more involved in East St. Paul and with the Lift community to help try and bring in new energy and individuals.

2.  To move to a more small group/support group community that meets in individual’s homes or a central location (like the Lift or another church) as well as meeting on a different day and at a different time.  This option would take away the identify of NB as a church with staff, a formal structure, and any type of ministries.

3.  To decide that the season of Northbridge’s community was coming to an end and celebrate our final month together over Christmas celebrating our history, relationships, and stories.  This option would entail NB no longer gathering formally as a church or a small group.  Individuals would be free to keep the relationships from NB but there would be no regular gathering to necessarily support this.

After discussing these options and deciding that Sunday, November 22nd would be a field-trip Sunday to Jacob’s Well church in Minneapolis to hear a speaker together, those present decided that the first Sunday in December would be a good time to come to a final decision regarding these three options for Northbridge’s future.

The reasoning was that doing so on November 29th was the Sunday after Thanksgiving and many might not be present and that this date would also allow to get the word out to members of the community so they can share their thoughts via the blog as well as considering what they would desire, and perhaps be willing to do, regarding Northbridge’s future.

With this in mind we will meet:

• this coming Sunday, November 22nd at Jacob’s Well in Minneapolis (see community email)
• the following Sunday, November 29th at the Lift and discuss our visit to Jacob’s Well and chapters 2-3 from our community book, ‘The Year of Living Biblically’
• the first Sunday of December and make a decision as a community about which of the three options pertaining to NB’s future we will pursue

What we are asking of you as a member of Northbridge is:

• Please take some time to talk as a family and think about your place at Northbridge and what you would like for our church’s future
• Share your ideas and thoughts on the NB blog if you would like
• Plan to join us for the first Sunday of December as we make a decision regarding our future!

If you will not be able to join us the first Sunday of December we will try and make another option available for you to share your thoughts but of course would love to have as many people present as we could for an important conversation like this.

Thank you and we will see you this Sunday at Jacob’s Well!

Shane

 

Sunday, November 8th

This Sunday I (Shane) reported back to the community the feedback from the surveys we received from the individuals who were not able to be at our community Sunday (October 25th) when we discussed how people were feeling and what people were thinking regarding Northbridge at the Lift.

The following information was a summary of all of the community’s responses that I presented to the community for discussion and consideration:

People Attending Northbridge Currently: 29 (including adults & kids)

Children Attending Northbridge: 9

Adults Attending Northbridge: 20

Number of Respondents to NB Survey: 16 out of 20

Question #1: Where is your current energy level at concerning NB (scale 1-10)

High Rating was a 7 (2 of those); Low Rating was a 1 (2 of those); Average rating was 4.5.

Question #2: What are you most hopeful, pleased with concerning Northbridge currently?

New closeness of relationships that Lift space allows for, Partnership potential with the Lift, informality of Sunday gatherings/feels less stressed, opportunity for any individual/family to share now with less structure

Question #3: What are you most concerned, struggling with concerning Northbridge currently?

Lack of energy that seems evident from participating individuals and Sunday mornings, how will we or will we try and bring in new people, are we possibly hanging onto a ‘church’ structure’ that doesn’t feel very helpful or what we desire any longer

Question #4: Anything else you’d like to add concerning NB?

Still not sure what the plan is for children, wondering who will step up besides Shane to help fill roles and responsibilities, perhaps Northbridge would do better moving from functioning as a ‘church’ to more of a small group community

I (Shane) also shared some other pertinent items for the community to consider that might impact our plans/decisions for our future including:

-Recent notice from The Lift that they might have to move out of the building because the City of St. Paul may potentially require the building’s owner to update $13,000 worth of improvements and to this point she hasn’t agreed to do this.  If she doesn’t agree to do this, no one (including Northbridge) could meet in back space of the building.  (As a side note-we are waiting to hear back from the Lift about what is going to happen).

-If the Lift needs to move they are looking into another building nearby in East St. Paul that NB could potentially move there with them also.

-Finances are surprisingly strong (right now) for Northbridge.  Our income through 3 quarters is greater by a small amount than our expenses which has not happened for a long time for Northbridge.

-Finances could dramatically change starting 2010 because we have at least 3 families and perhaps more that have already stopped attending NB but had agreed to continue supporting the church through 2009.

-Final observation (by Shane): if Northbridge is to ‘begin again’ at the Lift as a church we need to take on the idea of being a ‘re-church plant’, just as if we were starting up a new church.  Based off conversations I’ve had with other church leaders this seems like our only real option for developing enough energy to re-start things at our new location.

-A pertinent question regarding the above comment is…are there enough or any individuals who have the desire and time to help NB become a re-church plans?  If so, we would need to hear from people soon about what time they could offer and what roles they would be willing to help with.  If not, it will be very difficult if not impossible to have more than we currently are experiencing from Sunday to Sunday at the Lift.

-Another potential option that a few people mentioned in their survey comments and that was discussed this Sunday was: if we don’t want to stop the NB relationships but also don’t have the energy and participation from people to become a re-church plant, would looking to change NB to a small group be the best option?  Perhaps meeting in a space like the Lift but just as a study group, not as a church or meeting in individuals homes might be good options.

-A final option would be to decide that NB’s time as a church and community was coming to an end and to make the end of 2009, Christmas Season, a way to celebrate and say goodbye to our shared history together.  It was discussed that we’ve had this option on the table before when we were at different locations but that needs to be addressed again in light of what is currently happening at Northbridge.

Every individual that was present shared their thoughts and Shane stated they would continue this discussion the following Sunday to keep the ideas and planning going.

For a further exposition of this Sunday’s discussion, please download or ’save as’ the following document to your desktop, then open to read:

Sunday November 8th Notes

Shane

 

Sunday, November 1st

This Sunday Joel Swanson shared with the NB community about his summer trek of the Pacific Coast Trail.

Joel had some amazing pictures to share, stories, and powerful insights regarding his experience.

A number of you asked me to pass along Joel’s website so in case you weren’t able to be with us this Sunday, please go here to learn about Joel’s trek…

http://www.joelhikesthepct.blogspot.com

Thanks for sharing with us Joel and Amy!

 

Sunday, October 25th

Greetings fellow Northbridgers!

The following few posts will be regarding our Fall Sunday morning discussions concerning our community’s thoughts about meeting at the Lift and our future plans as a church that have occurred over the last month.

On Sunday, October 25th I (Shane) presented those present with a set of 4 questions to respond regarding our thoughts about meeting at the Lift after having been there for about one month and a half.

The four questions that each individual responded to were the following:

1. When it comes to attending, participating, and helping out at Northbridge where is your current energy level at on a scale of 1-10 (1 being low and 10 being high)?  If you can share why, please do.
2. What are you most hopeful, positive about when it comes to where Northbridge is at currently with its location at the Lift and with its current way of doing things?
3. What are you most concerned, frustrated with when it comes to where Northbridge is at currently with its location at the Lift and with its current way of doing things?
4. What thoughts, ideas, or other comments can you make about what you’ve experienced at the Lift and what you’d like to see for Northbridge going forward?

After a good time of sharing and discussion, I stated that I would email these survey questions out to the members of the community who were not able to be there to obtain their responses.  We agreed that Sunday that after receiving the rest of the community’s thoughts we would re-visit this discussion to get a feel for how the community feels about meeting at the Lift and what ideas, energy, thoughts there were for going forward.

Shane

 

 

The Year of Living Biblically

You can read a summary of our Fall community focus book, The Year of Living Biblically here as well as read some reviews about it, or even purchase it!

Just click on the picture of the book to follow the link and learn more…

Or head to the author’s website to gain even more information about the book, check out what he’s learned, or read some questions about the book.

http://www.ajjacobs.com/books/yolb.asp

 

Pictures of the Lift!

We’ve had a number of individuals express interest in seeing pictures of Northbridge’s new home in East St. Paul at The Lift.

So, without further ado, here are just a few pictures to give you a taste of what to expect of Northbridge’s new home.  Enjoy!!!

The Lift's Front Entrance

Entry Way

Hallway 1

Meeting Room Example

Strorage Room Example

Main Gathering Room Pic 1

Main Gathering Room Pic 2

Main Gathering Room Pic 3

Main Gathering Room Pic 4

There is more to the Lift than presented here but we wanted to give you a taste of what the space has to offer.

Some facts about the Lift:

The space used to be a movie theater and has now been converted to a Community Development Center (CDC) that operates daily in East St. Paul offering tutoring, spiritual education, job training, and other support for the youth of the neighborhood.

You can learn more about the Lift from their website:

http://www.theliftcdc.org/

A few of the benefits of moving to the Lift:

-Natural partnership opportunity with an organization already partnering with its neighborhood community.

-Rooms for children’s education and recreation, small groups and study, Sunday morning gathering time (without being rushed to finish!).

-Limited set-up or tear down on  Sunday mornings; storage space included.

-50% decrease in Rent

Thanks for taking a minute to check Northbridge’s new home out!

 

LT Recommendation & Final Communal Discussion: August 16th

Last week (August 10-14), Shane, Alicia, and Joyce contacted each family of Northbridge that have been still participating with the community Sunday discussions to talk with them about their questions and willingness to commit to the proposal that the Leadership Team was presenting for Northbridge’s next stage.

This proposal was made up of different pieces that had been being presented and discussed over the last few weeks on Sunday mornings and was based off the following: results gathered from Community Criteria Survey completed back in June; information gathered from the weekly Sunday Communal Discussions held over the Summer; research and information about possible locations and other options for Northbridge gathered by the staff and leadership team.

This whole proposal included the following three main items; briefly reviewed here:

1.  Moving to East St. Paul and partnering with The Lift CDC starting in September: would assist with our Sunday gatherings because of space and rent benefits as well as allowing for new opportunities to engage the community and have a shared partner to work with in doing this; also allows for rent to go towards supporting a community organization.

2.  Rearranging staff roles & Child Faith Educator: transition team coming to an end, hiring a child faith educator to work with our children on Sunday mornings, and Shane staying on as pastor with Alicia and Joyce’s roles to be discussed further in time.  Also, finding age and Northbridge appropriate children’s curriculum to help the spiritual development of our young kids on Sundays.

3.  Returning to our normal Sunday morning service styles with some new additions: going back to sharing in music, teaching, prayer, spiritual rituals and practices as well as incorporating some new ways of being together including more small group time, family sharing, children incorporation.  Also would have monthly times for community discussion about Northbridge’s present and future plans working towards 50/50 model of community and staff leadership.

If you would like a further detailed description of the LT’s recommendation to move to the Lift than it provided here, please email Shane.

This last Sunday (August 16th) Shane presented the Leadership Team’s recommendation for Northbridge to move ahead with this proposal starting in September! The following information from the phone interviews was shared with the people present to go along with this recommendation:

-11 families have fully committed to journeying forward with Northbridge through December 2009 both with their physical and financial support.

- 2 families have committed to supporting Northbridge financially through December 2009 but were not able to commit to moving forward with Northbridge and the move to East St. Paul.

-6 families were not able to offer their commitment to journey forward with Northbridge and this recommendation to join the Lift and move to East St. Paul.

After this presentation, Shane shared a brief reflection on the transition time that Northbridge had been involved in over the spring and summer months comparing it to a desert experience as described in the Bible and Christian tradition.  The hope is that this new recommendation to move to East St. Paul and partner with the Lift will become our new season of life beyond the desert experience we’ve been through and will bring renewed experiences of spiritual refreshment, hope, and spiritual growth!

Finally, time for questions, comments, and other feedback was allowed for concerning this final recommendation for Northbridge’s future to close the gathering.

In the announcements it was also shared that the community would be having a send-off/celebration Sunday gathering in the coming weeks to both honor the families who have decided they cannot commit to this new change for Northbridge as well as to celebrate the new plan of moving to the Lift!

Be looking for details as the days move ahead….

In the coming weeks we will be discussing what needs to happen to help the transition to the Lift take place as well as returning to some more times of prayer, reflection, and community engagement so please join us for our last few Sundays at the Shoreview Community Center!

Thank you for keeping up with us on the blog over the summer and for all of your support and participation during this transition time.

Hoping for the best as we look ahead with you!

Shane for the Leadership Team and Staff

 

Week 9 Communal Discussion: July 19th

This last Sunday at Northbridge we continued our community discussion with a look at two important items; the Sunday morning monthly format and Children’s Spiritual Formation.

Shane, Alicia, and Joyce presented a possible monthly format for each week that could incorporate the various ideas touched upon by the community in their sharing the previous week as well as trying to honor the criteria survey results that the community desires a 50% leader-directed and 50% community directed model of involvement.

The Sunday format that was presented was the following:

1st & 3rd Sundays: ‘Teaching Sundays’

• More traditional feel; ‘formal’ education + prayer times
• Children begin gathering in ‘Sunday School/Learning Time’
• Begin hour with prayer/contemplative experience/reading/etc.
• Time for teaching, reading, question & comment time

2nd Sundays: ‘Topic Sundays’

• More innovative, trying to incorporate more voices and new ideas
• Begin with music; children join in
• Children leave for formal gathering for their learning/play time
• Community engages in various topical discussions; auto-biography studies, guest speakers, small group discussion, etc.

4th Sundays: ‘Community Sundays’

• Community Focused and very participatory structure
• Sharing in communion ritual and community meal
• Possible combination of EFFT group and children with communion; allow children to be present and participate
• Community discussions: may include business of the community, vision discussions, teaching ideas, planning for the church as a community together

After presenting this format for the weekly Sundays of the month, there was time for questions, comments, and discussion.

Next, a discussion centered around the topic of children’s spiritual formation at Northbridge.  The staff again presented some important concerns and questions on this area as well as some possible options that may be considered as we move forward.

This discussion will continue to be added to but here is a brief summary of some of what was discussed as potential options for children’s spiritual formation at Northbridge:

• Parents helping volunteer to teach and spend time with children
• Hiring (interns or paid staff) to teach and spend time with the children; possible options include students from Bethel, Northwestern, or other institutions who are training in child development
• Incorporating different types of Faith Curriculum for the children to learn from including the following potential options: Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (Montessori Schools); Compassion by Command (Woodland Hills Church); Etc.

After this presentation there was again a time of dialogue and sharing and the announcement that this discussion will continue to form over the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading and as always, feel free to share your thoughts or comments on the blog and we hope to see you again this next coming Sunday as we continue the discussion!

Shane

 

Week 8 Communal Discussion: July 12th

After having completed the results from the criteria survey and presented some important implications from that survey last Discussion Sunday (see previous blog post) the staff today presented that the leadership team and staff had begun actively looking into possible options for its next meeting location using the survey criteria as a guide.  It was also shared that this search would continue in the coming weeks and the leadership team and staff will keep the community on tap as this search moves forward.

With this in mind we moved ahead into the next stage of our community discussions this Sunday morning by beginning to discuss what the Sunday morning experience may look like when Northbridge starts up at its next meeting location.

This discussion was framed primarily around two issues that the criteria survey brought up: the need to have more time for discussion, practices, and overall community engagement on Sunday mornings while still maintaining some time for our more traditional speaker, education times.

With this in mind, the group gathered was asked to get into small groups and  share their ideas on what they would imagine the teaching and practice times to possibly look like on Sunday mornings as we move ahead.

Here are a selection of the responses from the various groups:

Teaching Time:

• Personal journey shared by individual or families
• Small group discussion after teaching
• Retain question & comment time
• Invite outside speakers for learning and dialogue
• Videos:  using contemporary images as vehicles for teaching- increasing social awareness
• Tying virtues of EFFT study to Sunday experience & involve children in readings
• Raising an issue/topic/thought with a few questions and then break into groups
• Scripture teaching by someone with training (seminary or other) want/like some “hermeneutics”- biblical context, author
• Bring in other resources- books, poetry, “open mic”: what are you reading? What is bringing you insight?
• Studying Biographies  (Nelson Mandela, Dorothy Day, Etc…)
• Christ centered / Relevant
• Multimedia – exploring themes in the world expanding social awareness; how engage world as Christians

Practices Time:

• Formal and informal rituals, practices
• Quaker silence & Contemplative Prayer
• Reading scripture in a lectionary way at times
• Include children and teens
• Symbolic…light candle? Certain songs, Images, Etc.
• Prayer requests in smaller group as well as larger community context
• Context of world events to be held in prayer
• Invite aspiring musicians to play with NB
• Short reading to take home for the week
• “Homework” – take home/process to facilitate discussion
• Communion more than once a month…different forms
• Music – variety (reflects neighborhood)
• Scripture reading…whole book (i.e John)

After the small group sharing time, these ideas were brought to the larger group for discussion and review.  These ideas will be incorporated into future planning of Sundays mornings using our survey’s criteria as we move forward and plan the format of our weekly gatherings.

Feel free to comment or share your thoughts on this week’s content and make sure to keep checking back for further updates!

Shane

 

Week 7 Communal Discussion: June 21st

This Sunday at Northbridge the findings from the previous’ weeks criteria survey were presented for review and discussion.

Joyce, Alicia, and Shane presented these findings as well as certain implications that arose from the surveys results.

Some of the basics about the survey were presented first including the following information:

1. Responses came in either through the survey taken Sunday, June 14th at church or via email.
2. Individuals were asked to respond to 9 criteria questions with multiple choice answers.
3. Responses were received from 75% of current NB households.
4. Responses were received from 70% of current NB individuals.
5. Response points were given a value of 1, 0.5, or 0.3 depending on if respondents gave one or more responses for each questions.

Here were the results of the survey that were shared and the basic implications from each finding below:

1. What level of commitment do you have in Northbridge continuing as a faith community with:
A: an activistic, outreach oriented primary focus?   

• High (46%), Medium (33%), or Low (21%)
  

B: a dialogue, support group primary focus?               

• High (23%), Medium (35%), or Low (23%), No Preference (19%)

-Implication: being both a missional and support community is important to the majority of Northbridge individuals.

2. How far are you willing to drive to Northbridge?

• 10 minutes (0%), 20 minutes (64%), over 30 minutes (36%)

-Implication: driving distance is not as important of a factor as others.

3. How often are you willing to come to the main gathering (Sundays mornings right now) per month?

• Weekly (81%), Every Other Week (19%), Occasionally (0%)

-Implication: meeting weekly for the main gatherings is still preferred.

4. How often are you willing to come outside of Sunday morning gatherings (study group, outings, service activities, etc.)?

• Weekly (10%), Every Other Week (60%), Occasionally (27%), No Preference (3%)

-Implication: attending every other week or occasionally is preferred outside the main gatherings.

5. What times of the day and week would you be open to meeting for the main gathering (mark all that apply for you)?

• Saturday Evening (19%), Sunday Morning (57%), Sunday Evening (21%)

-Implication: meeting on Sunday mornings is still the preferred option for the main gathering.

6. What type of locations would you:

• oppose meeting in: No Preference (58%), Houses (42%)
• like to meet in: No Preference (46%), Church (21%), Community Center (25%), Houses (8%)

-Implication: meeting in house isn’t preferred by many people but meeting in a community center or a church is.

7. What percentage of time of the main gathering time (Sunday morning right now) would you like devoted to:

• teaching/education (receiving):                          30% (50%), 60% (39%)
• spiritual practices/dialogue (participation):  30% (31%), 60% (62%)

-Implication: NB would like to become more participatory on Sunday mornings while still keeping some aspect of receiving in place.

8. What level of commitment do you have in addressing children’s spiritual development:

• High (69%), Medium (27%), or Low (4%)

-Implication: children’s spiritual development continues to be a primary concern for the individuals of Northbridge.

9. What level of leadership involvement are you willing to accept:

• Leader Led (90% leader directed, 10% community directed)-(11%)
• Leader Facilitated (50% leader directed, 50% community  directed)-(70%)
• Communally Led (10 leader directed, 90% community directed)-(19%)

-Implication: a ‘half and half’ model of leadership in which staff and the community both take responsibility for the church is preferred.

Some final important implications that came out of the criteria survey’s results, combined with the community’s discussions from previous weeks and other situational factors led to these implications that were presented:

1. House churches are no longer a preferred option for NB’s future.
2. Meeting in the Shoreview Community Center is no longer a desirable option for NB’s future.
3. Merging with another church is no longer a preferred option for NB’s future.
4. Finding a church, community center, or similar organization that we could share space/partner with is the best option for NB’s next steps.
5. Rent will increase back to it’s normal higher rate at the Shoreview Community Center in September which NB currently can’t afford financially.
6. A two month notice is required by the Shoreview Community Center in advance of our moving out.
7. We will need to begin looking for new locations/partner spaces immediately.
8. We will also need to alert the Shoreview Community Center in early July of our intent to move out to meet their two month notice.
   

Time for questions, comments, and sharing was given at the end of the presentation with the staff sharing that the next stage of beginning to look for a space/partner that Northbridge could join with will now begin.  Communal discussions will continue to take place as this process begins and individuals from the community are still invited here on out to share their ideas, questions, or comments in the coming weeks.

Shane