Being the Public Church

This past summer St. Barnabas started participating in a new initiative, Riverside Innovation Hub (RIH).  RIH is a two-year learning community offered through Augsburg University to help local churches become Public Churches who interact with the community they are in.  That means that we want to get to know people in our community - not necessarily to have them become members of St. Barnabas - but to have the community recognize that our church is here to be a loving presence for all people in our community.

Through meetings with the staff of RIH on the Augsburg campus, in Zoom meetings, and here at St. Barnabas, we are learning how to reach out into our community, start and share conversations with people we don’t know, and make connections.  Currently Margaret Wold, Christen Conrad, Bobbi Dering, Bonnie Welshons, Colleen Lutz, Pastor Stephanie are part of the group.  We would welcome others who are interested or curious to join our team.  Please contact any of us.

One way we are trying to meet our neighbors is to set up a listening post at the Discover Plymouth event which will be held in the Fieldhouse Dome at the Plymouth Community Center on Saturday March 23 from 9am to 2pm.  Feel free to stop by and talk with us.