Claim OwnershipAt the Table: Christian Community for the Common Good
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© 2024 At the Table: Christian Community for the Common Good
Description
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.
26 Episodes
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Today’s episode is a conversation with Amar Peterman, a scholar, writer, and theologian living in Milwaukee and currently working for Interfaith America. Through his newsletter This Common Life, Amar reflects on the Christian call into the public square, and his forthcoming book of the same title, is an effort to name a uniquely Christian conception of the common good. Amar’s experience navigating the predominately white spaces in the Evangelical church as an Indian-American adoptee has given...
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 storytel...
Today’s episode is a conversation with Pete Marchetto, one of the founders and organizers of the Port Jervis Repair Café in Port Jervis NY. Each month, Pete, his spouse, and the community at St Peter’s Lutheran church open the church to neighbors and community members in need of repairs for household items – vacuums, lamps, chairs, clothing, zippers, and more. Repair coaches help folks to restore their things to working condition, teaching them valuable skills, and building community along th...
Today’s episode is a conversation with Tammy Greidanus and Howard Lawrence from Keep Neighbouring in Edmonton, formerly called Abundant Communities. Keep Neighbouring is an initiative that builds connections and relationships between neighbors to support healthy communities, bringing folks together for block parties, place-based projects, and community development. For over a decade, the Abundant Communities initiative has focused on connecting neighbors one block at a time, contributing to a...
Today’s episode is a conversation with Dr. Seth Kaplan, Professional Lecturer at John Hopkins University, expert on Fragile States, and author of the book “Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society, One Zip Code at a Time.” Dr Kaplan argues that to address social decline in the US, we must refocus our attention on the neighborhood, on strengthening local institutions, and attending to the health of our local relationships. Dr Kaplan draws on his years of experience working with intern...
Peter Block joins the podcast again, this time with a new book; "Activating the Common Good: Reclaiming Control of Our Collective Wellbeing". Peter invites us to discover and treasure the commons, to embrace relational activism, and to pay attention to a handful of critical fields for activating the common good. Along the way, we talk about eulogies, the challenge of simplicity, leader burnout, and possibility. Be sure to follow Peter Block on Linkedin and at his website Peter Block - Welcome...
In this episode, I share a bit about what grounds me in this work and my hopes for Season 2 of At the Table: Christian Community for the Common Good. I ask for your feedback, questions, and stories which you can send to me at nick@nicholastangen.com. And I introduce a new segment I'm calling Table Talks where I offer some questions for you to bring to your church's coffee hour or your own dinner table. I'm looking forward to this season of the podcast and all that we might learn together...
In 2023, I have had 16 different conversations with lay people, clergy, writers, activists, and neighbors all committed to the idea of a place-based and discerning church. A church with the power and the freedom to contribute to the flourishing of their neighborhood, not with services and charity, but with connection, community, and authenticity. These conversations have been catalysts for my own work and imagination, and I pray that they have been for you as well. As we come to the end ...
Today’s episode is a conversation with Reverend Jose Humphreys III, a pastor, church planter, and consultant helping the church to take place seriously and think differently about the impact of our dollars. He is the author of Seeing Jesus in East Harlem: What Happens When Churches Show Up and Stay Put, and Ecosystems of Jubilee: Economic Ethics for the Neighborhood. Rev Jose and I talk about Metro Hope Covenant Church which he helped plant in Harlem, the beauty of particularity, and an alter...
Today’s episode is a conversation with Stephanie and Darryl Answer, who are faculty members at the Asset Based Community Development Institute at DePaul University, and founders of New Community Church in Kansas City, Missouri. New Community is a church that takes seriously the call to be the neighbor by highlighting and animating gifts, reimagining how the church thinks about money and power, and tending to their neighborhood’s relational capital. Darryl and Stephanie truly practice what the...
Today’s Episode is a conversation with Tim Soerens, the Co-founding Executive Director of the Parish Collective, an organization that connects people to be the church in the neighborhood. Tim recently wrote a book titled “Everywhere you look: Discovering the Church Right Where You Are”, that casts a vision for a church rooted in place and a faith practiced in the small simple practices of our daily lives together. In this conversation, Tim and I talk about his work with the Parish Collective,...
Today’s episode is a conversation with Pastor Travis Norvell, known around town and on Twitter as the Pedaling Pastor. Travis serves at Judson Memorial Baptist Church in South Minneapolis and can often be seen riding his bike around the neighborhood, connecting with community members. He’s the author of “Church on the Move: A Practical Guide for Ministry in the Community”, a book that highlights the impact possible when churches leave the car at home and bike, walk, and bus in their neighborh...
Today’s episode is a conversation with DeAmon Harges, the original roving listener. DeAmon has been about that place-based work for his whole life, and credits his grandparents with instilling the skills and temperament for listening deeply within community. A couple months ago, I interviewed Pastor Mike Mather on the podcast, who worked alongside DeAmon at Broadway Methodist Church in South Bend, Indiana. Pastor Mike told me that DeAmon work as the Roving Listener broadened his and the congr...
Today’s episode is a conversation with my friend Jeremy Myers, the Christiansen Chair of Religion and Vocation at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, MN. Jeremy has been a religion professor for a lot of years and found his way into this work through youth ministry. In this conversation we talk about a framework for Public Church, and the power of learning rooted in individual experience. Jeremy is a thoughtful and passionate leader, and he challenges us in the church to decide if we are...
Today’s episode is a conversation with my good friend Catalina Morales Bahena, the Formation and Coaching Manager at Faith in Action a national organizing institution working for racial and economic justice. She is a student, a Dreamer, and a practiced community organizer. We talk about the discipline of community organizing, power and power building, and how dominant culture churches can take part in meaningful community organizing in their own communities. Catalina is a real one, and she sp...
Today’s episode is a conversation with Professor Dirk Lange. Professor Lange works as the professor of Worship and Confessions at Luther Seminary and as the Assistant General Secretary for Ecumenical Relations at the Lutheran World Federation. He also wrote an incredible book titled “Today Everything is Different” discussing his time in Leipzig accompanying underground prayer groups at the heart of the Peaceful Revolution in East Germany. Today we talk about his incredible work with the Luthe...
Today’s episode is a conversation with Kelly Sherman-Conroy, a storyteller, healer, church worker, and the first Native Woman Theologian with a PhD in the ELCA. She is a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation and has devoted her life to creating space, recognition, and belonging for indigenous Christians in a dominant culture church. Kelly is one of the hardest working people I know, speaking often at churches, seminaries, and colleges. Leading Sacred Site tours in the Twin Cities, and teach...
My guest today is Sam Rahberg. Sam is a Benedictine, a spiritual director, a writer, and the Director of the Spiritual Direction program at St John’s university and seminary. Sam’s work with leaders in the church around vocation and discernment, and his profound wisdom about the contemplative life, has inspired me for as long as I’ve known him. And I asked him to join me for a conversation about spiritual practice and what the contemplative spiritual tradition can offer Christian communities ...
Today's episode is a conversation with Pastor Eric Hoffer & Rachel Carmicheal, who both serve at Salem Lutheran Church in North Minneapolis. Today we talk about food and the practice of building community around shared meals. We talk about Salem’s love of food ministry and the experiences around hosting a weekly community meal for the Camden neighborhood where the church is located. These two lovely people remind me that small simple community building practices can have outsized impacts,...
Kristina Fruge and Geoffrey Gill work at the Riverside Innovation Hub, a learning community project housed by Augsburg University. Their work invites congregations to step into their role as public churches and to be the neighbor in their communities. I work closely with these two incredible leaders and the Riverside Innovation Hub team. In this episode, we talk about their experience in Christian community, their work with the Riverside Innovation hub, and the small simple invitations to be ...
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