About Us

Within the boundaries of parish ministry, we want to witness the transformative power of reclaiming spaces marred by sin and neglect and turning them into places for gospel flourishing. It is a calling that extends beyond mere physical boundaries, encompassing a spiritual mission of reconciliation with a holistic view of the people and place among whom God has sent the church. The church approaches the people in their parish not only as spiritually lost souls needing a spiritual passport to eternity, but as people disconnected from their own place despite whatever sense of belonging they may have. As one theologian so poignantly said, “Strangers are people without place” and as Christian ambassadors, the church sees all of their neighbors as strangers in their own land. They may be indigenous natives of the land, but sin has made them foreigners. Therefore, a new or renewing church wants to cultivate a place where individuals can tangibly encounter the presence of God and finally be at home.

Place-making in parish ministry mirrors the overarching theme of the Bible: the defining of, and restoration of, a place and its people through Divine Presence. The earth is a place made out of the vacuous meaninglessness of space by the creative Word of God. It is a place made for fellowship with God and enjoyment of all his Creation. It serves as a setting for humanity’s divine rendezvous with God in all his holiness and beauty. Though it has been marred by sin and death, in horrific ugliness compared to its original beauty, it is going to be restored to glory and inhabited by glorified people. Parish churches become the stage where this encounter unfolds as the prelude to the final consummation.

Place-making is physical, spiritual, and social work in neighborhoods where tangible and recognizable gospel-beautification is taking place in the eyes of the world in a way that not only calls them to repentance but blesses them with the presence of Divine Goodness, the fragrance of Christ.

Place-making within the context of parish ministry emerges as a beacon of hope, a platform on which God’s presence is magnified and acknowledged in a specific location. It serves as a prelude to the inevitable restoration promised in the Redemption narrative, offering a foretaste of the ultimate reconciliation between God and humanity. And, there is no better way to do this than through dynamic neighborhood churches!

Plurality of leadership and team ministry is modeled throughout the New Testament and especially in the example of the Apostle Paul. Paul never served alone. There were four types of people that point to a plurality of leadership and team ministry wherever God sent him with the gospel. The Peter & James leadership types were co-equals and mentors to whom he was accountable. The Timothy & Titus leadership types were the co-workers who also served as pastoral leaders on the mission field. The Pricilla & Aquila types were the professionals who uprooted themselves from one place and planted themselves in another place for the sake of helping to establish local churches as financially independent ministry team members under Paul’s leadership. The Phoebe & Lydia types were the deeper pockets that shared wealth and homes for the advancement of the cause. We strongly believe that our partnered churches should seek to assemble teams with a similar makeup of diversity and gifting.

However, in addition to a church plant/revitalization team, we believe that the church should be led by elders who are co-equal in authority and cooperative in mutual submission. Parity is, therefore, much more than plurality. It is a concentrated self-denial and mutual submission of strong leaders to each other for the sake of spiritual growth, the advancement of their shared mission, and the spiritual and pastoral care of both their personal lives and the lives of the churches they lead.

Therefore, we are committed to supporting pastoral leaders along with an identifiable team of Christian servants who combine a variety of gifts and strengths that fill out the various tasks necessary to plant and revitalize flourishing churches.

Ultimately, we humbly acknowledge that such kingdom endeavors necessitate long-term partnership. We are a collective in the sense that we are committed to facilitating the mutually life-giving relationships between leaders and churches that are necessary for saturating the Bay Area with the gospel. It takes a great degree of support and shared resources to begin a church plant or revitalization work in this mission field and we believe that what it takes to get things started is what it will take to thrive for the long-haul. Therefore, Bayseed Collective values regular and intentional cooperation between leaders and churches.