jason's blog

By jason on

Every year we give our c-groups 200 bucks and ask them to get creative in simply blessing their neighbors and the city.  The impetus for the "Good Neighbor Fund" came from Jesus' parable of the good Samaritan where his followers are told to follow the example of the Samaritan in extending mercy, funds, and effort to anyone they come across who is in need.  From the Tukwila c-group comes a project to spend some time in an urban garden, as documented by LaVerne:

On a beautiful sunny Saturday, our Cgroup grabbed shovels and working gloves, and headed over to the Danny Woo Garden, a 1.5 acre, terraced, urban park in the International District of Seattle. Over 100 community plots are tended by both elderly Asian immigrants, as well as younger generations of gardeners who live within the Chinatown community. Karen’s friend Jon, the lead managing director of the garden, gave us a brief history of the garden, and then quickly put us to work on a variety of tasks. He also told us that our Good Neighbor Fund would be used to buy some new rasberry bushes, supplement materials for the chicken coop, and make some additions to the new Children’s Garden within the park.

Gryffin and Sophia start the first chapter of the FFTC- Future Farmers of the Tukwila Cgroup.

The Paes and the Rusts take on worm duty in the compost bin.

Then, Sophia heads up the wheelbarrow team, moving dirt from one end of the garden to another.

Jordan and Lee follow her lead.

Belinda and Brianna are on the “Search and Rescue” squad- they had to dig up struggling herbs and veggie plants from the tangles of weeds and bramble, and transplant them to cleared plots of fertile land.

Nicole takes a break and enjoys the sunshine with Nance and Gryffin.

Nicole and I show off the trellis that we made for future pea vines. Took us way longer than it should have, but we were pretty proud of ourselves!

Karen explains the project that she’s working on with Arree and Kelly in this video…

Belinda and Brianna clear out the morning glory and dandelion invasions from some neglected plots, and get their rescued veggies ready for transplant.

Shane, Jack and Jon had the super macho task of chopping up plant matter for compost with 2 foot long machetes.

It was wonderful to be working alongside some of the elderly gardeners, a few of whom were watering their vegetables, walking the stone pathways, or sitting on a bench and soaking in the view. Several neighborhood families also strolled through, admiring the lush landscaping, and offering friendly greetings to the volunteers.

At the end of our day, we left with a renewed sense of the importance of a place like the Danny Woo Garden in fostering community, particularly in elderly, Asian immigrants, many of whom are accustomed to farming for their food in their native countries. It offers a safe place for them to continue doing an activity that they’ve done their entire lives, while giving them the space to partner with their neighbors in a productive and enjoyable way.

But more than anything, projects like this reinforce the bonds within our own community group, building relationships through a day of working towards a common goal, intertwining our lives for this brief moment, and creating shared experiences that will be remembered for a lifetime.

The Tukwila Cgroup at the Danny Woo Garden, May 8, 2010.

By jason on

Dorothy Sayers once observed that "there was never anything so perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy, nothing so sane and so thrilling."  I would guess, however, that most folks would beg to disagree with Sayers.  Heresy is the thing that's exciting, edgy, interesting, and perilous.  Just the word "orthodoxy," meaning right belief, seems a heavy-handed word that entails dullness, boredom, and exclusion.  Or perhaps all this talk about belief and orthodoxy and heresy just seems antiquated.  Instead we should focus on action and let beliefs be a private matter.  Relativism, that giving up of thinking truth can be found, is certainly en vogue.

By jason on

Howdy Quest!  For those not living under a rock you know that another great Seattle summer is in full swing. With summer comes a chance to enjoy not only the outdoors, but also enjoy each other as we start up our annual C-Plays. Most regular community groups will be taking a break for the summer, though a few like the Newcomer's group will continue. In their place we'll have a number of groups starting up on June 28th that are more informal and oriented around an activity. Among the groups we have cycling, basketball, ultimate frisbee, badminton & BBQ, hiking, photography, and even just getting to know one another over food. Groups are open, so its ok to drop in even if you've missed a week or two.

By jason on

For the past couple of years we have been running an experiment with our community groups with the goal of equipping them to be missional.  We want our c-groups to grow both down and out, meaning that we hope there will bbe a depth of relationships and faith, but also that they will resist the temptation to turn inward and insular.  We want them to be challenged to creatively experiment making present the Kingdom of God in their neighborhoods and cities.

By jason on

Community groups at Quest have a simple goal: "a place to belong, believe, and become."  We want c-groups to be a place where people feel valued and heard, where their spiritual roots grow deeper through study and conversation, and where they become doers of justice, mercy, and compassion.  That last aspect, become, may well be the hardest to do because it requires change and stepping out to serve our neighbors.  So, along those lines we are launching a c-group in Jan. specifically aimed at becoming as well as doing our second annual Good Neighbor Fund.  The Good Neighbor Fund is our attempt to spark the imaginations of our c-groups and give them just a bit of a push to be the hands and feet of Jesus to their neighbors.  We give each group $200 and ask them to creatively use it to simply serve their fellow Seattlites.  Last year we had everything from dinners being made and relationships formed with a small Karen church to a speed dating fundraiser.  Below is a letter from a case manager at Elder Health that greatly encouraged me about what can happen when our imaginations are put to the service of the Kingdom of God:

Dear Quest Church,

I am writing to say thank you for a generous donation given over the past summer to ElderHealth Northwest.  It has meant so much to us, more than we can put into words or cards, or photos.  It was a gift of $1000.  It was a gift of time spent.

Our church gave each C-group money to use last year.  Last spring, Mark To’s community group set forth to raise money for non-profits through a speed dating event.  I nominated ElderHealth Northwest, an adult day health care center where I am a case manager and the activities and Alzheimer’s coordinator.  I nominated this non-profit for our C-group to do a service project and spend the $200 that each c-group was given by the church.  We voted it in.  In the meantime, we also decided to support another non-profit and do a huge speed dating event to raise more money. 

By jason on

Growing up, evolution was a huge issue for me.  I was convinced that my faith rested on evolution being a myth which made biology class almost as scary as prom.  Every time I cracked open the text book I was on the lookout for some new way that science would take one more strut out of the foundation of my faith.  It wasn't until after college that I began to feel that maybe, just maybe, God was actually big enough to handle being Creator and Sustainer, regardless of whether I ended up being young earth or old earth, creationist, evolutionist, or intelligent designist.

By jason on

One of Quest's core values is community because we believe that not only do we need to be meeting as smaller groups in order to be church during the rest of the week, but also because God has wired us to be in relationships with others.  C-Groups encompass worship, prayer, study, and service but at their root, they are about forming deep relationships between each other and God.  This year we have a range of great topics being studied, everything from book studies about Christian discipleship to looking at food and theology to Bible studies.  September 28th is the launch date when we'll publish the brochure of various c-groups (which will also be online) and when you can jump in.

By jason on

Worship is the love, praise, and honor that we express to God.  From icons to incesnse to chants, the church through the ages has practiced a myriad of ways to worship.  Yet, despite our rich history, the church today often equates worship only with, and then usually only one genre.  In this deptch class we'll look how can worship extend to every one of our senses.  Can we sense God's presence with sight, touch, smell, and sound?

By jason on

Quest's annual "learning conference" will be focused on having some good discussions on issues surrounding faith, sexuality, and gender issues. Lauren Winner, author of Girl Meets God and Real Sex, will be speaking on Friday night and Saturday morning.

Quest has always affirmed women in ministry, but it has been a while since we have had a sustained discussion on why that is and how we can take the discussion further to issues of what it means to be men and what it means to be women "in Christ" and how we can construct our ideas of gender from a Biblical perspective rather than solely from the messages our culture bombards us with.

On Friday, Oct. 10th at 7pm Lauren will speak on Lessons from the Church Mothers and on Saturday, Oct. 11th at 11am her talk will be Male & Female He Made Them: Gender & the Triune God. The cost of the conference is $15 ($10 for students).

Register for the Conference »