We are entering the season of Epiphany. This is the time in the church year when we celebrate the revelation, or epiphany, of Jesus to the nations. It is a celebration of the gift of Jesus becoming public and known to all. How might your congregation live into this spirit of Epiphany, seeking to celebrate the presence of Jesus in the public squares of our lives?

A local congregation’s ability to celebrate the presence of Jesus in the public square hinges on its ability to practice accompaniment with their neighbors. Although it might seem like a simple thing, it has actually proven to be incredibly intimidating. 

We have seen many leaders and congregations struggle to initiate and sustain this practice of accompaniment beyond their church walls. There are many reasons why this happens. 

• It’s scary to move into spaces and relationships that are new and unknown to us. 
• It’s counterintuitive to encounter someone with the sole purpose of getting to know them rather than actively gaining something from them (i.e., a commitment to visit or join the church, information about what they want from the church, etc.). 
• It feels unnatural because we don’t want to come across as pushy or too aggressive. 
• It’s time consuming and none of us have extra time to do this intensive and slow work.
• It seems overwhelming and we don’t know where to start.

Accompaniment can be intimidating, but it has never been more necessary.

We were recently interviewed on the Rev. Adam Butler, one of the hosts, articulated the necessity of accompaniment this way:

“There seems to shift right now from ‘We won’t have churches anymore if we don’t get people in the building’ to ‘we won’t have churches anymore if we won’t go out of the building.’ And that is an anxiety producing thing to say. It feels like the opposite of what we’re supposed to be doing. But we can’t exist anymore as churches if we don’t have an outward focus.”

Pastor Butler nailed it. But we have to remember that we aren’t practicing accompaniment in order to ensure the church’s existence. We practice accompaniment because it is true to who God is, it is true to who we are as God’s creation, and it is how we honor our neighbors. 

At the Riverside Innovation Hub we love Ezekiel’s vision of the river of life in Ezekiel 47. In her commentary on this biblical text, claims the river in Ezekiel’s vision to be a metaphor for God’s jubilee. A jubilee that can only be proclaimed if it becomes specific in ending actual suffering. She says, 

When one speaks of the jubilee, it is essential to have before one the concrete situation that one is experiencing: debts, poverty, unemployment, violence, discrimination, exclusion, conflicts, sorrow, dehumanizing consumerism, the lethargy of the churches. For the jubilee is the good news that supposedly puts an end to that reality of suffering and dehumanization. . . If we speak of jubilee in a generic sense, the injustice is hidden, and the jubilee loses its power and ceases to be jubilee.

It is plain and simple. We cannot proclaim the good news and jubilee of Jesus in the lives of our neighbors if we are unaware of their concrete situations and experiences.

But it’s scary and intimidating to do this work!

Yes, it is. We get that. We also know that it isn’t your neighbor that you fear but failure or “doing it incorrectly.” There are plenty of wrong ways to practice accompaniment, but there is no one right way. Use common sense, humility, and compassion and you will avoid most of the wrong ways. One resource we like to direct people to is published by the Episcopal Church. We especially like the list of sample questions to ask with neighbors and people who are not a part of your church. 

But it’s counterintuitive to do this work just for the sake of getting to know people when what we really should be doing is trying to get them to join our church!

Yes and no. We believe this is actually the intuitive work we should all be doing. The church exists to speak and act the good news of Jesus into peoples’ lives. If we don’t know what their bad news is, then we won’t know how to speak the good news to them. Again, we cannot proclaim the good news and jubilee of Jesus in the lives of our neighbors if we are unaware of their concrete situations and experiences. This approach might feel weird because it isn’t the approach we’ve taken, BUT it’s the approach we should have been taking all along.

But we don’t want to come across as being pushy or aggressive. (whispered softly so the people in the booth next to us don’t hear) 

If you stay humble and compassionate and make use of the One-to-One Relational Meeting guide, then I don’t think this will happen. People will experience you as being invested in them rather than invested in trying to sell them something. And – sometimes – our desire to not come across as pushy or aggressive leaves us coming across as aloof and uninterested. 

But we don’t have the extra time to do this!

I hear ya! We are all spread so thin right now. But this work still needs to be done. So, what can you let go of in order to pick up this new work? I imagine there might be some models and tasks and duties and meetings occupying your congregation’s time that are outdated and no longer necessary. Maybe you can let go of some of these temporarily to make more time for accompaniment. And maybe you will realize that temporarily isn’t long enough! We are putting more time into maintaining institutions that a growing number of people do not find necessary and this is preventing us from putting time into learning how we might still proclaim the good news of Jesus into their lives.

But it’s so overwhelming and we have no idea where to start!

Here are some ideas:

1. Identify key institutions in your congregation’s neighborhood – a school, a coffee shop, a parks and recreation center, city hall, etc. – identify a key leader from each of these institutions and schedule a time to have a one-to-one relational meeting with them. At the end of the meeting, ask them who else they think you should meet with in the neighborhood.
2. Identify key individuals in your congregation’s neighborhood you think you should know – a principal, a local story-teller, that neighbor who volunteers for everything, the woman who always puts fresh tomatoes out on the curb for people to take during the summer, the elderly man who is always down at the community garden – and schedule a time to have a one-to-one relational meeting with them. At the end of the meeting, ask them who else they think you should meet with in the neighborhood.
3. Start with people you already know. Spend some time with folks you already know but might not know well. Ask if you could spend some time asking them some questions and getting to know who they are and what their hopes and dreams are for the neighborhood. These could be your neighbors, co-workers, barista, etc.
4. Identify some “listening posts” in your neighborhood. These are places where people are already gathering to discuss the issues that are most important to them. These could be coffee shops, dinner, cafes, or bars. They could be neighborhood association meetings or school board meetings. Find a way for members of your congregation to be present where these conversations are happening so you can listen to your neighbors express their hopes and dreams and concerns for their community.

These are just a few ideas of how you can begin this work. You can read more about accompaniment and find additional resources in The Artform of Accompaniment blog.

We all want to be known. We all want to have hope and good news spoken and enacted into our lives. If the church keeps sitting back waiting for people to enter our buildings, then I’m afraid we are giving up. People may not be coming back to our churches. If we believe we have something good to share with them, then we will need to find ways to encounter them where they live their lives and we will need to find ways to share that good news with them in those places. 

This is not an act of desperation. This is how we live in a way that is true to who God is and true to who God has made us to be. Becoming public and practicing accompaniment aren’t last ditch efforts to save the church. They are exactly what God has made us for. Accompaniment is who we are!

The post Accompaniment is Who We Are (you got this!) appeared first on Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation.

The Public Church Framework begins in accompaniment. This sounds and looks great on paper, but we have found many leaders and congregations struggle with this artform. They struggle with putting it into practice. They even struggle with the word. So, it is important to explain what accompaniment is, what it is not, why it is important, and how it might be practiced.

What is it?

Accompaniment is the word we use to describe the first artform, or movement, of the Public Church Framework. It is used to describe a faith community’s movement out into its neighborhood or context. It assumes a desire to know the neighbor, and their story, in their own words. It assumes our neighbor is not just “everyone in God’s creation”, but is also those who live right next-door — people, institutions, systems, watersheds, grove of trees, herds of cattle, and other creatures around us.

Accompaniment takes seriously the location in which our faith communities are planted and challenges us to do the intentional work of getting to know these places and those who call these places home. We do this become we believe God is already at work bringing about redemption in these places. Accompaniment is a way for us to uncover the work God is already doing in our neighborhoods. Accompaniment happens as our faith communities engage their neighborhoods and neighbors in order to (1) hear how they are already experiencing wholeness, healing, redemption, reconciliation and (2) how the faith community might come alongside their neighbors as they seek these things. If our faith communities want to proclaim good news into people’s’ lives, then we first have to do the hard work of listening to our neighbors’ stories.

What is it NOT?

Accompaniment is often misunderstood in some particular ways. Therefore, it is helpful to be explicit about what accompaniment is not.

1. Accompaniment is NOT searching for a problem to solve. It is not a way in which we look for something to fix.
2. Accompaniment is NOT market research. We are not conducting a survey in order to discover what type of church our neighbors wish to join.
3. Accompaniment is NOT agenda-driven. It is not a process of listening to others in order to find ways they might fit into the work you are planning. Accompaniment prioritizes the neighbor and their story.

Why is it important?

The artform of accompaniment is important for several reasons. Some theological and some practical.

It is important theologically because we confess faith in a God who accompanies creation. The God of scripture creates a world of accompaniment where humans, other creatures, vegetation, climate, etc. accompany and provide for one another — for better or worse. God’s creative word that brings about this creation becomes incarnate in Jesus Christ who is God’s word accompanying (dwelling with) us. God’s spirit continues to free us and empower us to be in accompaniment with one another. Therefore, accompaniment becomes the way in which we live out God’s mission in our world and specifically in our neighborhoods.

Accompaniment is also important for practical reasons. The reality is that fewer people are seeking to be involved in faith communities. If we wish to play a meaningful role in people’s’ lives, then we will need to seek them out and engage them in the places where they live their lives rather than expecting them to show up in our places. Lastly, if faith communities want their members to learn to live into God’s mission in their daily lives, then faith communities will need to practice this together. Our faith, and Christ’s love, compels us to accompany our neighbors.

How is it practiced?

There are endless ways to practice accompaniment and the Public Church Framework resists prescribing best practices. It is the work of God’s people to learn how to put accompaniment into practice in ways that match their context, their neighbors’ needs, and their own assets. That said, here are a few ways to get started.

• Neighborhood Prayer Walk —Learn to practice the Ignatian Awareness Examen, a contemplative prayer exercise that guides you through an examination of your day as you prayerfully seek moments of desolation and moments of consolation. Moments of desolation are times of sorrow, brokenness, fear, anxiety, etc. Moments of consolation are times of hope, healing, courage, peace, etc. Then use this same method as you walk through the neighborhood in which your faith community is situated, asking God to show you the places of desolation and consolation in that neighborhood. Practice this with other members of your faith community and your neighborhood. Together, map the locations of those places of consolation and desolation.

• One-to-Ones — Learn to practice one-to-ones. These are intentional listening meetings between two people with the sole purpose of getting to know the other person, their desires, passions, interests, and heartaches. Here is a from the Episcopal Church that explains the one-to-one relational meeting and offers some great questions. Their questions to be used “with neighbors and people not in your church” are particularly rich questions for accompaniment. 

• Listening Posts — Identify places in your faith community’s neighborhood where people gather. Places where you need to be present to meet these neighbors and hear their stories. Find ways to be in the places more often. These are great places to meet people for one-to-ones.

• Neighborhood Storytellers — Identify the storytellers in the neighborhood. These are the people with long institutional memory about the history, events, and dynamics of the neighborhood. Take time to meet them. Schedule a one-to-one with them. Learn from them. Remember to actively seek out the storytellers in your neighborhoods who are marginalized — people of color, the poor, immigrants, etc. These folks are storytellers as well and have important perspectives of life lived in the neighborhood.

• Demographics — has a free tool available called the Community Profiler Builder. It enables you to build a profile of your faith community’s neighborhood.

• Show Up — Find out when important gathers are happening in your faith community’s neighborhood and show up at those gatherings. These might be festivals, neighborhood association meetings, school board meetings, election debates, etc. Show up and listen.

• Visit — Pick some of the questions for neighbors and people not in your church from the one-to-one guide and then boldly start knocking on doors in the neighborhood around your faith community. Kindly ask if them might have a few minutes to answer a couple questions – no strings attached. If they participate, then make the most of that opportunity as a segue into a relationship with that neighbor.

• Gather — Find reasons and ways to gather people from the surrounding community either in your faith community’s space or in other spaces in the neighborhood. For example, host a debate for local candidates during election season. If there is a tragedy, gather the community together in a public space to lament and mourn. Learn more about Friendraising then partner with a local non-profit and see if they might let your faith community host a Friendraiser for their non-profit.

• Environmental Audit — Learn what the environmental issues might be in your neighborhood. What watershed is your faith community located in? What does it mean to be in an accompaniment relationship with creation in your neighborhood?

Best questions?

Again, we resist prescribing best practices for accompaniment or any of the artforms in the Public Church Framework.

Although the ones listed above are a pretty good place to start, it is vital that your faith community discovers how it can do this work in a way that matches the assets and needs present in your context. We are willing to share what we consider to be the best questions of accompaniment. What are the practices your faith community will develop in order to be able to chase after and answer these questions? These questions can also be found in an earlier blog on Best Questions in the Public Church Framework.

• What is our neighborhood or parish (geographical location)?

• Where are our listening posts?

• What are the places and spaces in our context we are in relationship with and have a history with?

• What are the places and spaces in our neighborhood we are curious to learn more about?

• Who are the neighborhood historians — people who know the history of this place?

• Who is our neighbor? What are the demographics of our neighborhood (race, socioeconomic, single family/rental units, age)? How do these compare to the demographics of our faith community?

• How are our neighbors experiencing hope & joy?

• How are our neighbors experiencing anxiety, fear and heartache?

• What are our neighbors’ hopes, dreams and desires for our shared neighborhood?

• Who cares about the things and people our faith community cares about?

Commit to Action

1. The most important thing is to get out there and start doing this work!
2. You do not need to perfect it before you start doing it! 
3. Move out into the neighborhood, ask good questions, and listen!

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