At the Table: Christian Community for the Common Good Nicholas Tangen

Today’s episode is a conversation with Gabrielle Clowdus, one of the founders and leaders with Settled, a Minnesota-based organization helping churches to establish permanent supportive tiny home villages for folks experiencing long-term homelessness.

Settled’s approach to addressing homelessness includes housing, but more importantly, focuses on building supportive networks with church members and neighbors to support folks coming out of long-term homelessness. Gabrielle and her team work with congregations to create the context and the spiritual depth that prepares them to reimagine their property for tiny home villages and supports them as they live into the realities of living in and among their neighbors.

In this episode we talk about the original vision for Settled, what a Sacred Settlement looks like at churches they work with, the beautiful messiness of working and living alongside long-term homelessness, and what it takes for churches to host these kinds of vital communities. Settled is thinking well outside the box when it comes to homelessness and inviting churches to take advantage of their property and live into the freedom of the Gospel for the sake of the common good. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Gabrielle Clowdus.

www.settled.org
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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 him a healthy skepticism about simplistic definitions of the common good. Left unexamined, the common good can become one more tool of marginalization, especially when defined by what majority culture decides is both common and good.

Amar’s careful analysis and studied theological thought make him an incredible and principled leader in the world of public theology and the place-based church. We talk about what we mean by both the words common and good, the qualities of authentic Christian community, and the centrality of Jesus Christ in our work towards the many common goods. Amar is an amazing writer, a brilliant theologian, and a good friend who always challenges me to examine my own theological commitments and exercise some precision when talking about God’s work in the commons. I hope you enjoy this conversation with my good friend, Amar Peterman.

Amar D. Peterman (amarpeterman.com)

This Common Life | Amar D. Peterman | Substack

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

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

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 the way.

The repair café movement was started in Amsterdam by Martine Potsma as a way of resisting a throw away culture, encouraging sustainability, and lessening the number of things taking up space in landfills. Today, there are over 2500 repair cafes across the world.

Pete and his team have been hosting the Port Jervis repair café since 2023, and have learned a lot in just under a year of operation. In this episode Pete gives us a glimpse into the experience of a repair café, and we talk about planned obsolescence, the throw away culture, and the power of restoration through simple repairs. The repair cafes are a beautiful expression of neighborhood creativity and the common good, and a model of engagement that faith communities seem especially capable of practicing. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Pete Marchetto.

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

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 greater sense of safety and security, and providing increased opportunity for neighbors to participate in civic life.

The very beginning of this work in Edmonton was influenced by Asset-Based Community Development and the work of Peter Block, including the book Abundant Communities: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods. Howard and Tammy, both neighbors and practitioners, work with Keep Neighboring and bring years of wisdom leading neighbor-led and place-based work on the ground. We talk about asset-based community development, why block parties matter, how cities and local governments can support the work, and what they have learned over the last decade of focusing on neighborhood relationships and development.

Keep Neighboring is an incredible example of a city and neighborhoods taking relationships seriously for the sake of the common good. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Howard Lawrence and Tammy Greidanus.

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

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 international organizations and governments, as well as his own rich neighborhood life and faith community, to invite citizens and institutions to renew our attention to the places where we live and the neighborhood relationships that help communities, and indeed nations, to flourish.

I think “Fragile Neighborhoods” is essential reading for anyone who wants to take place-based work seriously, and I hope you enjoy this conversation with Dr. Seth Kaplan.

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