Safety within Reach
Peter Block: April 2024 “The impossible is the least that one can demand.” –James Baldwin...
Tag Archives: peter block
Confronting Our Freedom: Leading a Culture of Chosen Accountability and Belonging
Confronting Our Freedom is about reframing the common practices rising from traditional thinking about management and...
Power of Gifts Podcast
Bruce Anderson from the Core Gift Institute talks with John McKnight and Peter Block, authors of...
Departure for Another Way
Peter Block and John McKnight look at transformation as a process of departing from the consumer...
Meditating on a Neighborly Economy
Father Richard Rohr shared that a neighborly economy “sounds a lot like the Gospel to me”...
Jubilee is very simple.
by Peter Block 2019 is the 400th anniversary of slavery in America. Slavery is not a...
High School Student and Peter Block Discuss Life
What do you say to a sophomore in high school, who is interested in the illusion...
Organizing Residents to Solve an Impossible Challenge
If we want to end economic isolation and build wealth in the marginalized community, our thinking...
Faith and Church with No Bricks and Mortar: Conversation with Father Joseph Kovitch
Since their book The Abundant Community came out, John McKnight and Peter Block have sought out those social innovators who are bringing alive the ideas about how neighbors and local institutions can come together to create care, kindness, and welcome. One of those innovators is Father Joseph Kovitch. Peter and John talked with him in June of 2018. They are still in touch with him and what he describes here is still vibrant today.
Father Joe was a priest of Saint Matthew’s Episcopal Community in Westerville, Ohio, who worshiped in an Irish pub and is currently on a university campus; they are also serving out of a community house nearby. He has been ordained for 30 years and has served in many ministries and missional environments, some of which include serving as leader of a large traditional congregation, leading a redevelopment merger of three congregations into a new mission, and, at this moment, serving as Diocesan Missioner for New Episcopal Communities in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. Here is the conversation we had in 2018.
Listen to the Full Conversation:
The Parish in the Neighborhood
When we look at the Parish as a microcosm of all life’s dimensions, the conversation changes from traditional clergy talk of “butts, budgets and buildings,” to: What is God up to in our places, and how do we join in with that? Listen to Paul Sparks, Co-founding Director of the Parish Collective, discuss with Peter Block and John McKnight in this conversation:
Changing the Narrative for Community Leadership
With the old news business changing this is an exciting time of opportunity and threat, said...
Podcast: An Alternative Economy Today
Economist Mark Anielski welcomes Peter Block onto his podcast to discuss initiatives that are looking to overcome the economics of isolation to create an alternative economy. From the Old Testament story of the end of slavery to the reconstruction of land after the Civil War in the U.S., Peter and Mark reflect on lessons from the past and how they are relevant now. In Cincinnati, the Economics of Compassion Initiative and Jubilee projects are showing what can be done today to shift the narrative and start living into a neighborly or indigenous economy. Listen:
Restorative Practices for Turbulent Times
What can happen when we move justice out of the law system and into neighborhoods and communities? Restorative practices are being put into action beyond justice systems into schools and institutions, changing the conversation from fault and punishment to looking at who has been harmed, how they were harmed and whose obligation it is to repair that harm. In this conversation, community and organizational psychologist Thom Allena shares insight and experiences from his work with restorative justice. Listen:
Another Other Kingdom
Walter Brueggemann joins Peter Block and John McKnight in a continuance of the conversation from their...
Neighborly Economics: A Way Towards the Exchange of Gifts
By Peter Block In other times, our culture, our way of being with each other, the...
The Moment for Community Has Arrived
by Peter Block A World Divided Isolation is on the rise in our neighborhoods, institutions, cities,...
Creating Community: Podcast
What does community mean, and what creates a sense of belonging? What’s the entry point to...
Discuss Community with Peter Block
How is community built and what does it take for transformational shifts to happen? Join Peter...
Building Community in an Era of Isolation
The revised edition of Community: The Structure of Belonging was born out of a recognition that...
Common Good Fellowship pilot beginsFellowship program provides community for radical leaders
Last week 33 change makers in the Common Good Fellowship pilot program convened in Cincinnati for...
How Neighborhoods Engage with Local Governments
How are institutions and government most useful in supporting neighbor driven initiatives? What can we do with a little bit of outside assistance? And what do we need somebody from the outside to do? Ron Dwyer-Voss asks these three questions in his work engaging with community groups who want to have stronger relationships with local government.
Ron, owner and founder of Pacific Community Solutions, uses the Asset-Based Community Development process with community groups to help them identify how they can do something to create transformation. He shares with John McKnight and Peter Block stories and insights such as the importance of including reflection and learning conversations as part of the process.
Listen:
On Finding Freedom
What is the price we pay for freedom? What are the choices and consequences that come...
ABCD Workshop Coming to Cincinnati
You’re invited to participate in an engaging two-day Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach workshop led by...
Announcing Common Good
Walter Brueggemann, John McKnight and Peter Block are the curators and conversation partners for the first...
Podcast: Freeing Yourself from Consumer Culture
What is the free market consumer ideology? How does its assumptions affect our lives? In this “The One You Feed” podcast, guest Peter Block discusses concepts from his book, An Other Kingdom, including the pillars of the free market consumer ideology: Scarcity, Certainty, Perfection, and Privatization. As people search for meaning and freedom, Peter shares how neighborliness and covenant are part of an alternative narrative.
Listen:
Quotes:
“Questions bring us together. Answers alienate us.”
“The scarcity mindset is a lie. There is enough.”
“The ‘how’ question destroys our faith in each other, as if the only thing that matters is how long, how much, how predicable.”
Related Read:
Peter Block on the Shadow Side of Culture
We live in a consumer driven market driven culture. How does this impact our lives? What...
Engaging Neighbors Opens Thinking for Health Professionals
Lisa Gale Hadden, Michigan Area Health Education Center executive director, has learned that when medical and nursing students go to neighborhoods to talk with families about their health they discover untapped resources and assets.
“They really saw the value in connecting to the neighborhood health wisdom and used that to become better health care professionals. It changed their care planning for their patients.” Students asked appreciative, open-ended questions to discover how neighbors define their own health in their own terms. Twenty years later, the students have who are now practitioners are still talking about it.
In this conversation, Lisa – who acts as a bridge between medical and community knowledge in her work – shares more about this experience with John McKnight and Peter Block.
Listen:
Quotes:
“The more that there’s income equality in a community, or city, or town the healthier people are.” – Lisa Gale Hadden
“Our advice (to students) has always been . . . you’re there first and foremost to just be a neighbor. I think our students really began to see that as they developed relationships with our neighbors.” – Lisa Gale Hadden
