Join the Revival of the Commons

Loving thy neighbor has never been so uncommonly radical.

Yet we believe it is the healing remedy for our deep societal fragmentation. If you long for a counter-cultural way of life that invites you into wholeness, presence, and love of God and neighbor…

Exhale. You are not alone.

Join the revival of the commons.

Welcome to The Commons Revival, a publication of the School of Neighborhood Life, by me, Jessica Ketola and my fellow urban monk, David Nixon. We are incurable dreamers, avant-garde practitioners, and surprisingly hopeful despite our melancholic proclivity. Here, we will explore what it means to return to presence in an age of fragmentation (because let’s face it, it hurts to be alive these days). We will wrestle with Jesus’ provocative invitation, calling us out of our cultural captivity into a revolutionary way of love—to reclaim an embodied faith as we are woven together in Christ’s way of love and justice in our neighborhoods.

There is another way to live.

Many like you feel the Spirit’s invitation to leave behind the big event of church to be the church in the everyday life of the neighborhood. To move from disembodiment and disconnection toward solidarity, proximity, and presence—joining in God’s healing work in your place.

This is the journey we are on—along with fellow practitioners across the country. And while we don’t have it all figured out, we’ll be sharing what we’re learning and wrestling with, along with stories of hope from the ground.

The Commons Revival is dedicated to accompanying you on the transformational journey toward faithful presence in the neighborhood—providing support and encouragement for those tugged toward an expression of church life that's simpler, more local, home-based, relationally strong, and missionally oriented. Here you'll find: 1) stories from the frontline to inspire you; 2) theological reflections to ground you; and 3) practical, how-to articles to resource you.

“The seeds of the gospel are really small. They’re really about meeting God at dinner tables and in living rooms and in little towns that may not be known by the rest of the world. But it seems like that’s exactly what happens when God moves into the neighborhood in Jesus…It’s that which I think we’re invited into is to grow into a neighborhood, to plant ourselves somewhere and to get to know people there, and to see the seeds of the kingdom grow there” (Shane Claiborne qtd. in Sparks et al., The New Parish, 2014).

We hope that our words will be sustenance for the journey as you grow in faithful presence in your neighborhood.

- J + D