Cyclical NW nurtures new ministries

 

"Love in action is what I'm about," said Johnny Edmondson, co-director of the Cyclical Inland Northwest ministry with the Presbytery of the Inland Northwest (PIN), a coach helping leaders discern their journey and director of Growing Neighbors (GN).

Cyclical is a local expression of Cyclical, Inc., which was founded in the Presbytery of San Fernando, Calif., to help people discern and start new expressions of the church to show God's love for the world by inspiring faithful innovation.

From 2005 to 2024, while he was youth and family minister for Shadle Park Presbyterian Church, Johnny began that work when he launched Growing Neighbors as an innovative, ecumenical ministry before the PIN started the Cyclical ministry program.

GN collaborates with diverse communities and organizations to equip neighbors to grow and share healthy food and relationships. It expresses his belief that God cares about and is actively involved with the world.

"God asks us to engage and embody love and promises to go with us," he commented.

"At Shadle Park, I felt something different needed to happen and the church needed to be more involved in the community," said Johnny, an ordained Presbyterian minister. "My call to church planting led to growing healthy relationships by planting community gardens and increasing food access, waste reduction, environmental care and community development.

"God speaks to us through creation, loves all of creation and reconciles all to Godself, so we need to care for creation. We can do that by reducing waste and building healthy communities, using regenerative gardening practices, localizing the food system, generously sharing our food and gifts, and treating all of creation like family," said Johnny.

To further his ministry, he earned a master of divinity degree with a creation care specialization in 2021 at Portland Seminary and worked in an apprenticeship with the Washington State University Extension Master Gardener Program for practical ministry experiences, tying together biblical theology, pastoral leadership, eco-theology and indigenous studies.

Now Growing Neighbors is a non-religious nonprofit that partners with community organizations and churches. It hosts communal meals, Little Free Pantry boxes, farmers market booths, workshops and programs such as Growing Artists and Growing Chefs to help people learn to cook what they grow. It continues to start hyperlocal gardens in the county.

On Saturdays from Aug. 8 to Sept. 26, Growing Chefs held events at churches, libraries and other spaces with community gardens and cooking facilities, so people could enjoy a garden-to-table experience in different areas. Better Health Together, a social care network, sponsored the series.

Growing Neighbors celebrated its 10th anniversary at its annual Hoedown Oct. 27, around the free community meal every Tuesday at Shadle Park Presbyterian, 5508 N. Alberta. The celebration included music, dinner, dancing, a garden tour, games and stories from the growing season.

GN is developing decentralized hubs around neighborhood churches, community centers, libraries and nonprofits to connect local folks with tools, supplies, training and activities to foster resilience.

With GN and Cyclical ministries, Johnny is "cultivating an ecosystem" in which many new expressions of church can grow and thrive.

"We are promoting love that inspires faithful innovation, doing new things with and for God," he said, describing the ministry as "doing accompaniment," walking alongside others, eating together and inviting people to share stories, present ideas, use their imaginations, pay attention to what the Spirit is already up to in their neighborhoods and join those efforts.

"If an experiment doesn't work out, we learn from it and try something else," he said of his model as coach.

With Cyclical, Johnny meets with two groups on a regular basis, a Discerners Group and a Starters Group.

The Discerners Group participants might come with an idea to develop. They engage in discernment practices, including experiments to see if it grows into a new expression of church.

Starters Group members have already started something and are looking for support. They enter at different stages. It's not a linear process, he said.

"We accompany, so people don't feel alone when they discern and start something. We share joys and challenges, study scripture, pray and listen to what's up in their contexts," Johnny said. "Both groups meet around meals, because good things happen when people are sharing a meal."

The Presbytery funds the dinners and a spiritual director or coach for each group. Discerners dinners are once a month on Mondays. Starters meet for lunch every other month in homes and restaurants in neighborhoods.

There are about 10 discerners and about that many starters.

Some ministries are started in a local church and some at a neutral site to be welcoming to people hurt by churches.

Cyclical is ecumenically minded even though it is hosted by the Inland Northwest Presbytery. It's just for anyone who wants to start something.

The team of Cyclical Inland Northwest identifies and supports those who are "discerning starters, church starters and existing churches" as they join God's mission through the natural lifecycle of starting new churches.

The leaders are innovators who share a common culture and practices created to thoughtfully start new churches across the Inland Northwest.

Johnny listed some of Cyclical starters. The first four have been featured in stories in The Fig Tree.

• Brandon Comella saw a community need while working at Millwood Presbyterian Church and started Millwood Impact as a non-religious nonprofit to partner with several community organizations. It is described at millwoodimpact.org and June25/060125millwoodimpact.html

• Ross Carper, co-founder of Feast World Kitchen, said the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural organization includes people of many faiths who prepare and serve meals from their cultures.

"Cyclical helps us creatively build community among leaders motivated by the Christian call to 'welcome the stranger' by providing practical care and supportive friendship, without proselytizing," Ross said, inviting people to visit feastworldkitchen.org and /sept21/090121feastworld.html.

• David Sittser's ministry, Side by Side, helps people of all abilities do life together, connecting people with developmental disabilities to build friendships by engaging in activities such as art, cooking, soccer and worship. They meet at Neighborhub, 2705 W. Boone, co-using the space with a church called The Garden. Details are at sidebysidespokane.org and /oct23/100123sidebyside.html.

• Emily Kuenker started Grace Commons Spokane to connect young adults with faith formation in public life and advocacy. Details are at gracecommonsspokane.org or /dec25/120125kuenkercommons.html.

• Emily Lazuhrcatt started a spiritual direction practice to accompany people on their life journeys. She discusses her effort at soulformation.org.

• Mark Onginjo, an immigrant from Africa, started Amani—meaning "peace" in Swahili—a new worshiping community for African immigrants who speak Swahili. They meet at Opportunity Presbyterian Church.

• Gabe Shippam started Healing Villages, a story-driven movement that makes churches better healing communities by helping Christians and their leaders be known for emotional, spiritual, relational and missional health. Information is at healingvillages.care.

• Jon Shuler founded the Cloud of Witnesses project to help Christians tell their faith stories through guided storytelling and visual mapping at cloudofwitnesses.co.

• George Fricks began the R House student center at the University of Idaho with the Ecumenical Campus Ministries Association to walk alongside college students. More is at ecmausa.org

Johnny partners with other ministries, schools, libraries, businesses and nonprofits, including for Black Earth Day, Seed to Soul and Thrive International.

"These ministries are the tip of the iceberg," he said, inviting others to "get ready to discern to start something new to work with God, who is already at work, actively and creatively."

For information, email johnny@presbyinw.org, or visit presbyinw.org/cyclical.org or cyclicalinc.com.