Justin Hancock: The Julian Way

Welcome back to The Neighbor Next Door, friends! For today's episode, hosts Adam and Matt sit down on the virtual front porch with one of our dear friends, and co-founder of The Julian Way, Justin Hancock.

Among so much more, Justin is an extremely compassionate person, a passionate leader, a deep thinker, and a gifted speaker and writer. We are so incredibly honored that he was willing to do an episode with us! Justin and his wife, Lisa, founded The Julian Way, a ministry of community, advocacy, and empowerment for those with diverse embodiments. It's an incredible ministry with the goal of developing an empowered community of discipleship in which disability is not viewed as a hindrance or something to be overcome. We brought Justin on today because we think the work of The Julian Way has a powerful connection to asset-based community development, and we're just so excited to share this episode with you all!

As has been the case with some of our other episodes, this episode mentions spiritual and religious topics. Because The Julian Way is centered around concepts of intentional Christian community, Christian spirituality is referenced in this conversation. As always, we want to reiterate that we do not present these episodes to promote any one spirituality or religion, Christianity included, but instead because we think they are helpful and encouraging for all neighbors, regardless of their relationships to spirituality or religion.

In the episode, Justin begins by introducing The Julian Way before then sharing some of his own story. We then move into exploring the connection with asset-based community development and talking more about what Lisa and Justin's work looks like today. It's so fantastic!

You will definitely want to learn more about The Julian Way, and you can do so by visiting this website: http://thejulianway.org. As Justin mentions in the episode, this website is still in progress, so you will also want to check back in soon in order to learn even more!

As is mentioned in the episode, Justin also wrote a book that you should all read! It's called The Julian Way: A Theology of Fullness for All of God’s People, and you can buy it on Amazon by clicking here!

The Gappers, Our Coronavirus Response (Part 3)

Hey friends! Two weeks ago, we had the first of the gapper calls, and it was so fantastic! So today, hosts Adam and Matt sit down with Kristopher, who helps facilitate the calls, to talk more about how it went. Tune in to hear what the call was like and learn more about the gappers!

We have a couple previous episodes on the gappers, and they are titled "The Gappers, Our Coronavirus Response (Parts 1 and 2)". You are welcome to go back and listen to those episodes first, but we hope this episode gives a good basic introduction to the gappers, as well!

Basically, at the Neighboring Movement, we don't want to go back to pre-coronavirus normal. Because we can do so much better than that! We believe a new normal is coming and that everyone on the planet has the opportunity to work together in order to create this new normal. So, we started the gappers! The gappers is an experimental community of people who are simply longing for a new normal and willing to work towards that new normal. This community gathers and shares stories and tips around this gapping work in order to encourage one another and learn from one another. Are you a gapper, and would you like to take part in this community? If so, that's awesome, and you can click here in order to learn more about the gappers and sign up! We also have a gappers Facebook page that you can join by clicking here.

Go forth and continue to stand in the gap between what is coming and what has been!

The Gappers, Our Coronavirus Response (Part 2)

We're back with another episode on the gappers! Our newest project is taking off, so this week, hosts Adam and Matt sit down to discuss the project a bit more. Tune in to learn more!

Two weeks ago, we introduced this new project on our podcast with an episode titled "The Gappers, Our Coronavirus Response". If you have not yet had a chance to listen to that episode, we would highly recommend doing so before listening to this one! In this episode, Adam and Matt expand more upon the project and use a metaphor in order to describe what we mean by "the gap".

Basically, at the Neighboring Movement, we don't want to go back to pre-coronavirus normal. Because we can do so much better than that! We believe a new normal is coming and that everyone on the planet has the opportunity to work together in order to create this new normal. So, we started the gappers! The gappers is an experimental community of people who are simply longing for a new normal and willing to work towards that new normal. This community gathers and shares stories and tips around this gapping work in order to encourage one another and learn from one another. Are you a gapper, and would you like to take part in this community? If so, that's awesome, and you can click here in order to learn more about the gappers and sign up! We also have a gappers Facebook page that you can join by clicking here.

Go forth and stand in the gap between what is coming and what has been!

The Gappers, Our Coronavirus Response

Happy May, friends! This week on the podcast, Adam, Matt, and Kristopher sit down on their virtual front porches in order to talk about the Neighboring Movement's coronavirus response: an experimental community called "the gappers". 

Throughout this coronavirus pandemic, we have noticed the temptation to say things like, “I just wish we could go back”, or “I just wish things would be back to normal.” These are tempting thoughts, right? Well, we have discovered something about ourselves: We don’t want to go back. We don’t want to just go back to pre-coronavirus normal; we can do so much better than that!

Before the pandemic started, we, as an organization, had been feeling an invitation to expand the way that we think about our work. Really, we had been feeling an invitation to expand the way that we think about ourselves. Then, coronavirus arrived, and those invitations escalated tenfold. But, here’s the thing: we believe that all of humanity has been given the opportunity to re-think some important things, to re-think “normal”. Because if normal means continuing to bow to ideas that pit human against human, and destroy our planetary home in the process, then we don’t want things to be normal any longer. We believe a new normal is coming and that the opportunity is upon us. Let’s be thankful for what’s come before and continue moving towards what’s ahead; let’s stand in the gap between what has been and what is coming! And that’s where the gappers come in…

We don't want to spoil what this experimental community is all about, so you'll have to tune in to learn more! We hope you enjoy this episode, and we hope you will take part in this gapping work! After listening, if you would like to learn more about all of this, or sign up to be a part of the gapper calls, please visit www.neighboringmovement.org/gappers. Talk soon!