October 4, 2009
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
August 22, 2009
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:
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!
August 21, 2009
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
July 25, 2009
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’
2nd Sundays: ‘Topic Sundays’
4th Sundays: ‘Community Sundays’
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:
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
July 25, 2009
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:
Practices Time:
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
June 22, 2009
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:
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?
B: a dialogue, support group primary focus?
-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?
-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?
-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.)?
-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)?
-Implication: meeting on Sunday mornings is still the preferred option for the main gathering.
6. What type of locations would you:
-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:
-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:
-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:
-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:
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
June 18, 2009
This past Sunday Northbridge continued its discussion process with the staff presenting a set of 9 criteria defining questions for the individuals of the community to respond to during the gathering.
After presenting each criteria question, the staff discussed with the community any clarifying comments or thoughts that came with each question.
Here are the 9 questions that were presented for the community to respond to for themselves and Northbridge in the future:
1. What level of commitment do you have in Northbridge continuing as a faith community with:
A: an activistic, outreach oriented primary focus? High, Medium, or Low
B: a dialogue, support group primary focus? High, Medium, or Low
2. How far are you willing to drive to Northbridge?
10 minutes, 20 minutes, over 30 minutes
3. How often are you willing to come to the main gathering (Sundays mornings right now) per month?
Weekly, Every Other Week, Occasionally
4. How often are you willing to come outside of Sunday morning gatherings (study group, outings, service activities, etc.)?
Weekly, Every Other Week, Occasionally
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, Sunday Morning, Sunday Evening
6. What type of locations would you:
A: oppose meeting in: Church, Community Center, Houses
B: like to meet in: Church, Community Center, Houses
7. What percentage of time of the main gathering time (Sunday morning right now) would you like devoted to:
A: teaching/education (receiving): 30%, 60%, 90%
B: spiritual practices/dialogue (participation): 30%, 60%, 90%
8. What level of commitment do you have in addressing children’s spiritual development:
High, Medium, or Low
9. What level of leadership involvement are you willing to accept:
Leader Led (90% leader directed, 10% community directed)
Leader Facilitated (50% leader directed, 50% community directed)
Communally Led (10 leader directed, 90% community directed)
The responses from individuals will be tallied (both from those who were present on Sunday and those who email their surveys in) and then calculated to give us a better feel for what criteria we will be using as we begin to look ahead into potential practical options for Northbridge’s future.
Feel free to continue to submit your comments on the blog here or email your survey to Shane if you haven’t done so yet.
Shane
June 18, 2009
After a two week break we returned to our communal discussions on the transition process of Northbridge and the future of our faith community.
In the weeks since our last Sunday discussion the staff and leadership team had reviewed some of the potential reasons behind the ’stuckness’ that Northbridge seems to have experienced over the last few years that came out of the obstacles the community identified in our most recent community discussion. This Sunday the staff presented a ’systemic look’ at this ’stuckness’ to the community and potential reasons for it.
Here is a brief review of the presentation on NB’s systemic ’stuckness’:
1. Significant change in mission statement from pre-2006 to post-2006 leads to a significant change in how Northbridge wants to understand itself.
2. Community aspirations, goals, and desires have remained remarkably stable over the last three year’s community discussions, planning conversations meaning…
3. It may be more important to begin to look at next steps rather than continue to process what NB wants meaning…
4. Our current mission statement may already adequately capture what we desire as a community.
Final stuckness thoughts…
1. Stuckness is a sign of a symptom struggling to adjust to changes within it that are necessary; money, attendance are symptoms of the stuckness but not the real underlying problem.
2. Change is upon us as a faith community…no matter what.
3. Lack of making a decision is a decision.
4. What decision do we want to make?
(If you would like a more detailed PowerPoint presentation of this please email Shane)
The staff then presented some preliminary options for Northbridge’s next steps in light of the aspirations, obstacles to reaching those aspirations, and the systemic challenges that Northbridge faces shared this morning. It was noted that this signals a move from the initial ‘community processing time’ that we’ve been involved in to a more intentional ‘decision making process time’ for Northbridge’s next steps.
The options presented included two more ‘conservative’ options including:
Two more progressive options were also presented that included:
After the presentation, the community was given time to respond with their questions, reflections, and comments.
Please continue to share your thoughts and comments on this blog with us. The Sunday conversations will continue next week.
Shane
May 28, 2009
This past Sunday (May 17th) the staff of Northbridge presented two important things to the community that again were steps forward from the previous Sunday’s discussion:
First, Shane presented what the democratic process of decision making and planning exactly is that the staff and leadership team have used to get us this far in our community discussions and why this process has been used instead of the more ‘traditional’ church model of decision making and planning.
Here are a few of the challenges of the traditional church process that were presented:
Here are a few of the benefits of the democratic church process that were presented:
(For more information on this democratic process feel free to email Shane)
Second, Alicia presented what seemed to be the common obstacles that arose from the community’s discussion on what challenges Northbridge faces to achieving the six aspirations that had previously been identified.
These obstacles (with simple examples or explanations included here) were:
1. Lack of Facility-rushed Sundays (need to get out of space); lack of proximity to each other, lack of actual neighborhood, lack of routine.
2. Staff/Leadership-functioning as a ‘part-time church’, lack of experience in leaders, staff role questions.
3. Deconstruction-lack of sense of ‘ wider’ church connection, questions around kids faith formation, deconstruction of beliefs, theology, practices.
4. Differences-interpersonal (vulnerability), personalities, preferences, church practices, backgrounds, experiences.
5. Outreach-challenge with sustainability, introverted style of leadership and community personality, comfortable with supporting each other.
6. Time-people can offer during week, leaders can offer, limited Sunday morning time.
After the presentation of the democratic process and these six obstacles there was a good time of sharing in communal response and questions.
We will continue our community discussions in two weeks after having a simple service and outdoor picnic for Memorial Day Sunday and having a guest speaker from the Lift Community in St. Paul share with us the last Sunday in May.
Please plan to join us for these next two Sundays and on Sunday, June 7th when we will move into the next phase of our communal discussions.
Shane
May 16, 2009
Last Sunday the topic for discussion was taking a look at what obstacles the community of Northbridge faces to reaching the 6 communal aspirations that were identified and discussed the previous week.
People present on Sunday were invited to break up into six small groups as each group took an in-depth look at what obstacles they could identify for just one aspiration. After a time of individual idea sharing within their groups, each group was then invited to share their thoughts with the larger community as the responses were recorded on a marker board for all to see. Following each group’s sharing, the rest of the groups had some time to share any additional obstacles they could think of for achieving that specific aspiration.
Below are the 6 aspirations and the various obstacles that were identified for each one:
Neighbor Awareness: proximity, time, lack of existing relationships with diversity, lack of actual neighborhood, lack of opportunities for informal activities, no routine or activities, assimilating new people into broader community, unknown prejudices-lack of awareness of them, how to fit children into outward awareness, no model of how to do it (pluralism), lack of facility
Communal Awareness: too busy (outside NB), proximity to each other, only see each other once a week, habits (sit with same people), divergent lifestyle phases, personality-introverted style, opportunities to be vulnerable (in need), difficulty to share needs/weakness, lack of facility, lack of small group gathering for intimacy, unspoken discomfort (going along), rushed Sundays (at NB), structure as an obstacle/certain things must be done on Sunday
Self Awareness: defensiveness, time limits, lack of closeness that’s needed for honesty, inaccurate self-image, insecurity, fear of self, fear of the cost of self awareness (egos attaching to the world), projection (get upset about other people’s problems when they’re your own), lack of mature leadership (experience), personal woundedness (unhealed), lack of opportunities to promote self-awareness
God Awareness: preferences and practices are different, personal things that interfere with our relationship with others and God, self esteem issues, fear of the unknown, time, personal commitment, distraction (personal and communal), motivation-failure to take action, failure to make genuine commitment, deconstructed ideas & images (God, prayer, church), differences
Challenge: pressure to conform, different backgrounds/education, fear of getting bills paid, fear of being part of hierarchy, challenge of losing control, fear of control and conformity, challenge of playing it safe, challenge of going against denominational pull, different levels of commitment, different levels of spirituality, fear of being vulnerable (being judged), tendency towards sameness/tradition, fitting children into the process-kids questions
Celebration: time, energy, sarcasm (unhealthy ways), too much structure, not knowing how or what to celebrate, different backgrounds, don’t celebrate tradition, lack of “woo” or outgoing nature, lack of organization, limited musicians, hard time creating new ideas, knowing how to plan roles so everyone has a part
The identification of these obstacles to reaching the six commuanl aspirations will continue to help us in this process of identifying where were are going as a community in our continued weekly discussions.
As always, feel free to share a comment or idea on these obstacles and we look forward to continuing the discussion with you this coming Sunday!
Shane
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