This week on the text.soul.culture podcast, co-host Dr. Derek McNeil, Senior Vice President of Academics, is joined by Dr. Dwight Friesen, Associate Professor of Practical Theology, to talk about working at 天美视频, a more holistic form of education, and Dwight鈥檚 deep passion for the ongoing movement of God in the particularity of place.

Dwight shares about how he first came to 天美视频 and discovered a deep alignment between the mission of this institution and his own personal calling. As he reflects on what he dreams about personally and collectively, he reflects on the parish theology that compels his ministry, teaching, and writing.

Dwight: 鈥淥n a personal level, I think the dream of my life is to learn what it is to love: to love others, to love God, to love myself, to love place, to love what it is to be a creature. There are a lot of things that compete for my affections other than loving relationship. To actually throw myself into the gift of love鈥攖hat, on a personal level, feels like the dare of my life.鈥�

As Derek and Dwight talk about teaching at 天美视频, they reflect on the unique challenges of education when transformation is the goal, not merely a checklist of correct answers. Dwight shares how, motivated by a relational, trinitarian theology that is grounded in the parish, he no longer sees his professorial role as primarily about imparting knowledge.

Dwight: 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not a Christian endeavor. I don鈥檛 think I鈥檓 in the knowledge business. […] Anything that collapses into theory is just not adequate.鈥�

Derek: 鈥淵ou鈥檙e talking about something that is beyond words, that is much more holistic.鈥�

Dwight: 鈥淚 increasingly believe that I am less a professor professing truth as I am a witness, bearing witness to what is real as to what I鈥檝e known and experienced of the living God.鈥�

鈥淎nything that collapses into theory is just not adequate.鈥�

The conversation turns to local expressions of church, and Derek and Dwight talk about the complexities of living these concepts in real, messy, day-to-day life. The emotion in Dwight鈥檚 voice is clear as he speaks of his deep love for the Church and his hope that local churches will not drift into abstraction or ideology but will grow into vibrant expressions of the tangible movement of God in their communities. That鈥檚 the hope that informs Dwight鈥檚 work, whether it鈥檚 teaching in the classroom, co-facilitating the Leadership in the New Parish certificate program or the , or just walking around his neighborhood.

Dwight: 鈥淕od is doing what God does and renewing God鈥檚 people, not for the sake of the church but for the sake of the world. […] Somehow proximity dares me, woos me to figure out how do I actually live rightly with my neighbors, in such a way that it calls us both into a better way of being.鈥�

Resources to Go Deeper

Here are a few of the voices that emerged during this conversation. These texts help expand the way of listening to the triune God in the particularity of place that Dwight is so passionate about. And if you鈥檙e interested in joining with hundreds of others who are passionate about the place-based theology and practice Dwight discusses here, we hope you鈥檒l join us for the Inhabit, April 27-28 in Seattle.