At the Table: Christian Community for the Common Good
While the world becomes increasingly complex, professionalized, and disconnected, the church is experiencing a crisis of identity. Do we follow suit and strive to out-program, out-professionalize, and out-attract the rest of the world? Or do gather at the table and focus on the small and simple community-based practices that have been our strength across the generations?
At the Table is a Podcast for church leaders interested in community-based ministry that contributes to the common good via mutual relationships, spiritual practice, simplicity, and an awareness of God’s activity in our communities. Each month, we will have conversations with leaders and practitioners of community-based ministry to reflect on and learn about the core practices, theological underpinnings, and immediate invitations of this important work. We believe that something miraculous happens when Christian community gathers with neighbors at the table.
You can learn more about the work of place-based ministry and the common good by visiting www.nicholastangen.com and subscribing to Nicholas Tangen's Newsletter.
At the Table: Christian Community for the Common Good
Sacred Sites with Jim Bear Jacobs
Today’s episode is a conversation with Rev Jim Bear Jacobs, the co-director of Racial Justice at the Minnesota Council of Churches, and the founder of Healing Minnesota Stories, an organization that strives to create understanding and healing between Native American and non-Native people. Jim Bear also curated and facilitates a Sacred Sites Tour in the Twin Cities, exploring sites of importance for the Dakota people, the original residents and stewards of the area.
Jim Bear is a storyteller at heart, and the Sacred Sites Tour that he leads folks on is a testament to his skill and his love the craft. And he is quick to remind his listeners that story is not just something that emerges from the mind or the individual, but resides in place, in the community and in the very earth on which a story happened and where that story is told. In this episode, we talk about the nature of this place-based storytelling and its roots in Indigenous traditions, why it’s important for white folk and dominant culture churches to learn the stories, past and present, or their indigenous neighbors, and how to pay attention to the sacred spaces in our own neighborhoods. This is an episode that might be good to listen to on a walk in your own community, but wherever you listen, I hope you enjoy this conversation with Rev Jim Bear Jacobs.
You can learn more about Healing Minnesota Stories and the Sacred Sites Tour at Healing Minnesota Stories | Minnesota Council of Churches (mnchurches.org)
Also, be sure to sign up for my Email Newsletter to receive updates about the podcast, read some of my own original writing, and find resources for churches living out the call to be neighbors.
www.nicholastangen.com