[00:00:00] Jim: Hey everybody, welcome to the EquipCast. So, I just had a really great conversation with Jed Mullenix. Jed is the executive director of the Within Reach Network, a network here in the metropolitan area of Omaha dedicated to reaching every man, woman, and child with the good news of Jesus Christ. It's a network of churches, Catholic, non-Catholic, all sorts of Christian denominations coming together under the mission of evangelization.
We have an amazing conversation about Reaching neighborhoods and what it means to love our neighbors again, the unique needs that the data shows about the Omaha metro area and so many other things. Beautiful, beautiful conversation. You're going to love it. Take a listen. 

[00:00:51] Intro: Hey everybody. Welcome to the EquipCast, a weekly podcast for the archdiocese of Omaha. I'm your host, Jim Jansen. Now let's dive into some encouragement and inspiration to equip you to live your faith and to be fruitful in your mission. Let's go.

[00:01:05] Jim: Jed Mullinex, welcome to the EquipCast. How are you doing? 

[00:01:12] Jed: So good to be here. Thrilled for the opportunity to have a conversation around how we work together for the good of our city, so thanks for the invitation. 

[00:01:18] Jim: Well, you're welcome, you're welcome. So, we have a little tradition here, we always like to start the conversations just by giving people the chance to introduce themselves, but you know, as interesting as like the trauma of the past and, Geography is, not that you, you can't talk about trauma or geography.
Tell us a little bit about your, your faith journey. What's your story? 

[00:01:37] Jed: Great question. My faith story, you know, starts very early on. Grew up in a family of followers of Jesus, so knew about Jesus from an early age. Unfortunately, my story includes one of pretty deep trauma and abuse early on in my life.
Age of six and onward, not from our family, but from others. And that sent me into a world of exploration and real brokenness all the way up through college into seminary. And unfortunately, what that played out in is kind of a dual life, a deeply rooted dual life. I say that I was a theology student by day addict by night, and that sort of just defined me until the Holy Spirit began to bring me to my knees.
You know, I had lived in a lot of shame, guilt, kind of brokenness, but never a true repentance, willing to come. To a place of confessing my need for him, not only to Jesus directly, but to others and to receive the help that I needed that began that journey began in my twenties and God used really over those next several years, a number of people, and then also the reality of his word and some people to bring some healing about in my life to where I could really begin to grow up in Jesus.
And really two unique players. I think of one time, um, when the gospel became real to my heart, my early twenties, I'm reading the book of Galatians. I'm reading a book called the reason for God by pastor Timothy Keller. And the second part of that just brings the gospel to life in a way that I'd never heard before.
And the Holy spirit did something new in my life. And for the first time, I felt free to love Jesus and allow him to love me as I was. And that began a whole new journey for me of healing. And, uh, renewal and then of me being able to serve him from an appropriate place of brokenness but confidence in what he did for me.

[00:03:31] Jim: Gosh. Thank you for sharing. I mean, you know, I didn't, we've, you know, sat down, we've had a number of conversations. I didn't know the background, but it, you know, I just kind of stumbled into the like trauma. And that's where Jesus was like, he came, and he met you right there. I want to give you just a moment before we move on, because I mean, thank you just for your honesty and your vulnerability.
Like that's, we're kind of in a sacred space. I'm sure there's somebody listening. Who's in that same space. And particularly what I'm thinking about is kind of like the man, there's stuff from the past and I left it, but it didn't leave me and I'm a little stuck in this double life thing. What would you say to them?

[00:04:10] Jed: Well, you know, the best I can describe it is to a very dark rut. You know, David described it as a valley, sort of a valley of death that you're walking through, but it's a one you, you feel like you're walking through alone. And I think that's kind of the most. Isolating, at times, probably desperate way of living.
My encouragement would be what, for me, became the, the scripture that defines my story, which is Psalm 40, where David said, you know, I waited on the Lord, and I called out to him, and he heard my cry. And he answered me. And I don't know how many times I cried out to Jesus. Definitely wasn't once. It was probably more than a hundred for rescue, but I kept crying out.
I kept calling out in his kindness. I think he was at work when I didn't see him, but I remember the moment and it's one of the handful of moments in my life that I really believe the Holy Spirit like stepped in and lifted me out. David says he lifted me out of the mud in the mire and set my feet on solid ground.
Yes. And then it goes on to say, and he gave me a new song to say, a song in my heart of his faithfulness, his goodness. And I believe what I would say to them is I believe that Jesus wants you to give you a song or a story of his goodness and faithfulness. I believe he wants you to not walk through this valley of death alone.
For me, you know, it was a valley, as I recalled a lot from my childhood of deep darkness and addiction and some abuse and. I remember in the moment in my early twenties when I invited a couple of friends into that. And I, and I feel like at that point it was like the Holy Spirit sort of pulled back the blinds and some light began to show in my life.
And so, my encouragement on the practical side would be, I believe Jesus wants to give you a story. I believe he wants you to walk through this valley with someone else or someone's else. Yes. And if you don't know who that is, ask Jesus to make that clear and to bring them into your life because while he can do it with you alone, oftentimes he uses others to aid you in that journey.
So, he is faithful. He will give you a song to sing. He's good and he does hear your cry. So, keep crying out to him. 

[00:06:16] Jim: I love that. I mean, the little rhymes. you know, in my own life, but it was, you know, it was the, the gift of fellowship that the stuff that I had to deal with, it got dealt with when I was in community.
When, when I had some, some people, particularly some brothers around me that were able to, able to help. So, Jed, this new song you've been singing, man, uh, the within reach network here has really grown. And I don't know if you would kind of call it a movement. I'd call it a movement. Um, I think that the Lord is doing something with it here in the Omaha Metro.
Give us a glimpse as like, how did, how did Within Reach get started? 

[00:06:53] Jed: Yeah. You know, it's a fun story to tell because Within Reach is like part three of a story that's been unfolding for the last three decades. If you go back 30 plus years and we can trail it all the way back to Jesus in the early church, right?
And before, but in our context... 

[00:07:11] Jim: Yeah, let's fast forward a little bit. Just the last 30 years would be fine. 

[00:07:14] Jed: It's like the whole story of church history. But, uh, Omaha history would be, we have some leaders in the Metro who have been working at church unity. For the last three decades. Yes. And they've been doing the hard gritty work.
That's not going to get published in a book. It's typically not going to be told from pulpits or, you know, uh, from stages, but it's just the hard face to face small group work of people saying as followers of Jesus, we can do more together than any of us can do on our own. There have been ebbs and flows of that movement known by different names.
You know, amongst local churches here in the city, but in 2016, there were a group of leaders. This is before I came to Omaha. There were a group of leaders who said, what if we launch a new unity movement around the mission of Jesus in the past? Different movements had been centered on different focus areas.
So, there had been unity movements focused on unity. And we love unity, but Jesus said, you know, may they be one that the world may know. So, there's a unity that leads to an outcome, which is people being alerted to the goodness of Jesus. 

[00:08:21] Jim: Okay. You're naming something because I was like, I wasn't sure if we were going to go here or not, but most of the unity movements have just felt kind of hokey.
And it's like, oh, these are great people and they're doing good things, but I just can't make time out of my day to be here. And I'm just not, you know, it's like, and it just, and it just kind of fizzles and within reach feels markedly different. And I was just telling someone, it's like, I think it's because Unity is a byproduct of mission.
There's a common mission. It's bigger than any of us. And then unity just kind of happened by, I mean, it's not by accident, but it's like, all of a sudden, it's like, Hey, this is like, wow, there's like real unity here because we started with mission rather than unity for the sake of unity. Yeah. Yeah. And you say, was that intentional or was that just kind of a gift of the Lord to, to redirect those who are pursuing unity to kind of redirect them?

[00:09:17] Jed: Well, I think it was both hands. I think it was, it was a gift from God to alert leaders to the need for something different. And isn't that how historically, whether you want to call it movements or fresh waves of God's presence. Kind of being poured out or provided as favor to, to leaders or, yeah. So, I think there's that.
And I think the other thing is there was an intentionality on the part of these leaders to say unity for the sake of unity, isn't going to reach and restore the city. And then they said prayer for the sake of prayer, isn't going to reach and restore the city. Other movements had risen up and centered on prayer.
And what they had found is that oftentimes prayer stopped with prayer, and it wasn't matched with prayer. A plan for action. What do we do in response to prayer? It's interesting. If you go to acts four, I think you see the clearest example of this, where the church is praying after the imprisonment, you know, brief imprisonment of Peter and John, and they, they come out of prison.
The early church is praying there and they're praying for boldness so that they may proclaim. Early church never just prayed for the sake of prayer. They were praying, waiting on the Holy Spirit's You know, in filling and dwelling, or they were praying for boldness that they could proclaim the goodness of Jesus.
And so, I think what we had found is historically sometimes, and of course, very few people who pray, pray just for the sake of praying. I don't mean to dismiss that, but it was centered on that. And, and these leaders said, no, we are going to be a praying movement, but we're going to pray for the sake of.
City reaching and renewal. And so, I, I credit those leaders just with the willingness to do that. And so, what happened in 2016 is that core group of leaders and it quickly grew said, we want to see our city reached every man, woman, and young person hearing the good news of who Jesus is with the opportunity to respond to him.
And that was the early seeds of a vision that became what we now know is Within Reach. 

[00:11:11] Jim: Now, when did you, because in all humility, the Lord used you, I mean, you're the executive director Within Reach, the Lord used you as a part of it, and I mean, you weren't living in Omaha, you weren't like one of those people of decades past, the Lord brought you in to play a role in this.
What was the Lord doing in you? Not in Omaha to bring you to Omaha, Nebraska. 

[00:11:35] Jed: Yeah, great question. I don't know if you know this, Jim, but what God's doing in us, we're living just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, right? At the time he's, I'm leading a young church. He's cultivating in us a love for culture, diversity, ecumenical movements, love for brothers and sisters across the denominational aisle, um, love for the beach, the mountains, everywhere in between.
We're raising our young family. It's beautiful. We love seafood. Our church is growing. We're moving toward a multi-site movement. And part of what I shared with my story, meanwhile, I'm in therapy. I'm growing as a follower of Jesus. My emotional wellbeing is catching up with my love for Jesus. And, you know, so I'm growing, and I had this moment of.
Like crisis where I realize I love the local church, but I don't want to lead it for the next 20 years. And I had no idea what that meant. 

[00:12:24] Jim: Yeah. That's, that's kind of terrifying. 

[00:12:26] Jed: Yeah. I've got five kids. Like you don't, most people don't quit their job and go work for Applebee's the next day. I had very few marketable skills outside of what I was doing in it.
I loved my local church. I mean, I would have served it for free if that were an option. I mean, it's just a beautiful community. All my wife's family back, back here in Omaha through a long story made short matter of some circumstances, we moved, made the move back to Omaha early on during our time here. I joined the board of within reach as a volunteer, the executive board.
Learn about city networks. I never knew what a city network was... 

[00:12:59] Jim: and for those who don't give a little thumbnail. So, what is a city network? 

[00:13:03] Jed: Yeah, city network is in short. Just I'd say this It's a bus full of people who are all moving in the same direction and they agree to do it together now you know, we would say a network is a collaborative movement of Jesus followers and leaders In community business in the church who within reach share commitment to city reaching and renewal, but, but we see it in churches, businesses, nonprofits, community services, followers of Jesus saying together, we can do more than any of us can do on our own.
Let's, let's see where our lanes can intersect and let's work together for the good of the city. That's what Within Reach is as a network.

[00:13:43] Jim: I want to pick up on the kind of the intersection. I wasn't maybe planning this, but my own story, you're talking about 2016. 2016 is this is kind of fermenting. At the same time, I'm doing campus ministry at the time.
I'm loving what I'm doing, but I'm also having this like, well, I mean, I'm happy, I'm fulfilled, it's working. And then there's just kind of new, vague desire calling that is starting to surface. And at the same time here in Omaha, Archbishop Lucas is. Entering into this deep listening process, and is eventually, you know, you get a group of twelve around him, gives birth to this beautiful vision, right, that we would be one church, encountering Jesus, equipping disciples, and living mercy.
And that darn thing, I mean I love it, but that vision wrecked me. I had a friend who was inviting me, he was like, you should really look at the evangelization job in Omaha. I'm like, no thanks. And then they sent me the vision and I was like, man, that's cool. I like that. And it just kind of grabbed a hold of me and you know, you get to the interview process, and you get to ask your question.
And my only question was, do you mean it? Because if you mean it, I want to do this. I want to be a part of this. And so, I came in a year later, 2017. I don't know. When did you show up in Omaha? Yeah. Late 2015. 2015. Okay. So similar time. All this stuff is coming together. I want to maybe go back to when we first met Joni Meyer, shout out for her.
Great, great friend, uh, who's serving at the time is the kind of alpha rep. She's like, you really need to meet Jed, you really need to meet Jed. And I had heard about you and within reach, I was like, okay, fine, fine, fine. So, we get together and it was so clear that you just had this beautiful, sincere desire to bring Christians together for this mission.
I mean, right, I think if people can hear this smirk, even Catholics, uh, and Jody was like, come on, we need, we need to get together. You need to meet this guy. Jed, talk a little bit about what God put on your heart, specifically, not just about unity, but unity with Catholics and other Christian believers.

[00:15:51] Jed: Yeah. Thank you for asking that. That story would go back to our time in Boston. And what I didn't realize at the time was in an, in an area of our country that people who are not from that part of the country would at times label as spiritually cold, or I've heard it dead or divided, or Lagging behind or secular, you know, all sorts of labels.

[00:16:20] Jim: None of which are particularly positive. 

[00:16:22] Jed: Yeah. I mean, I don't find any positive in that. What our experience was, was anything but those things really became home. Some of our best friends. People who are deeply spiritually hungry, they would apply that spiritual hunger like we do to a number of things to try to fill whatever they were searching for.
But at the end of the day, made by God, created for him on a pursuit to him. Many of us just don't know it. And what we realized there is that. Many of us leading local churches around that area from very different denominations, very different settings, needed, if we were going to be effective at sharing the good story of who Jesus is, needed to work together to get it done.
Now, I would have never translated that into seven or eight years later into city leadership. Network leadership. But now looking back, I see that God was planting those seeds of the need to respect but lay down labels, denominations, tribes, categories to link arms for the good of the city under the kingship of Jesus.
And it harkened me back toward just this beautiful love for the church that Jesus created and called us to be one body, one King, one Lord, one baptism, one faith. And he called us to this and, you know, as humans, we've sort of messed that up in more ways than we can count, but he is always calling us back to be one.
Yeah. And so, when I came here and I was introduced to this idea of a city network, it was almost like the Holy Spirit had prepared me for something I did not know existed. And once I found it. I found it to be so beautiful that it's where I knew I needed to lead and, you know, whereas I imagined I'd go work for Applebee's or Home Depot, God had actually been preparing my soul for, uh, leadership in more of a city network space.

[00:18:17] Jim: Yeah. That's great. I mean, I remember, I remember that, that breakfast. It was really, and you know, I'm kind of a people person. It's, I, I'm hard pressed to find a person I don't like or enjoy, but it was just, it was such a wonderful conversation. It was so, so joyful. And I think right away, again, there was this connection for mission.
You know, I mean, that again, I, I came out of a missionary background that was so much my, kind of like my adult faith. That shared heart, I think, gave us a connection right away. So, like, as the movement first got started here, there was this unity, there was this unity around mission, and pretty quickly, I think it gave birth to this conviction, uh, and I'll let you rename it if I don't summarize it right, but This conviction that like, you know, you can't love people if you don't know them.
And there is a handshaking and a listening kind of knowing, but there's also with the scope we're talking about with the city, there's kind of a demographical data knowing that we want to do. And so, you partnered with Barna, a beautiful study on the state. Well, maybe beautiful isn't the right word.
Impressive. Just assembly of conversations and data on the city of Omaha. Give people a little bit like this state of the city study on Omaha. What did it teach us about Omaha? 

[00:19:42] Jed: Yeah, that's a great question. And you're right. All of this was Kind of the result of a conversation where I'm sitting with leaders at a coffee shop, you know, in the heart of kind of university, you know, exurban and I realize our network is about city reaching and renewal.
And we have no idea who we're trying to reach, and we have no idea what we're trying to renew. And one of the leaders I was across the table with was gracious enough, and she's smart enough of a leader to say, I think there's a way we could go about. Answering those two questions and she planted a seed, get this in January of 2020.
So put on kind of your, you know, your hat in terms of history over the last four years and kind of world happenings. And, you know, the, of course then COVID happens a few months later and really changes kind of the world that we know it, but it gave us space to listen and reflect and for this vision to become a reality.
And so, what this state of the city project ultimately was, was our attempt to better know the city in which we live, the neighbors whom we live next to, next door to, and in doing so, to be able to more clearly and we hope. Effectively love them and care for them and ultimately in knowing them, introduce them to the person of Jesus.
And we say around city renewal to understand the areas of our city that are broken in regards to what Jesus created them to be, you know, creating the world to be goods and breaks and disrupts and soils and destroys. But Jesus came to restore that, and he calls us to be a part of that redemptive narrative.
And so, we get to be a part of that. And in this narrative, of course, the state and city project kind of follows this scope. It gives us first we start impersonal starts with data and demographics are. Very important, but highly impersonal, right? It's very difficult to know who we're talking about stories, narratives, backgrounds.
You know, you're not face to face. You're reading a list of numbers and data. All very important, but we wanted to go beyond that. So, we did demographics and then we actually met with neighbors over 500 neighbors around the metro door to door interviews. If you can imagine team of 100 volunteers. Some here from the archdiocese, you were a part of that initiative.
So much fun. I mean, if you can imagine 100 volunteers hosting 500 conversations with neighbors, we have some of those stories in the project. That's far more personal because then we're hearing what do our neighbors care about? What do they celebrate? What do they see as challenges in the city? What would they like the people of Jesus to be part of or a community to be a part of to address those challenges?
We, we report that. Then we partner up with Barna. This is one of the deepest joys of the project. Barna, you know, nationally recognized research firm on culture and faith and way beyond that, but especially those two things. And they look at. Human flourishing in the Metro. I mean, a lot of the work we did with Barna is around the concept of the notion of human flourishing that comes out of the Harvard human flourishing program, which looks at areas of a person's life that if they can experience good in those areas.
They can flourish or thrive the word flourish means to simply experience good in all areas And so we looked at human flourishing in the metro and then finally we looked at the faith realities we Commissioned a team we call them our evangelism team who interviewed 50 faith leaders around the metro just to say how is the local church?
doing when it comes to Engaging people with the story of Jesus. So really, this is more around our calling around the mission of Jesus and how the church is getting it done or not. And all of that went into, ultimately, and we'll talk about this, to form what we call our four strategic outcomes and what we're committed to for the decade ahead.

[00:23:32] Jim: You know, it's funny, as you were... As you were telling all this, like, this story, at first, I mean, just something that, like, kind of peaked, the idea of, like, going and asking members, Christian or not, certainly maybe not members of a particular congregation, you know, where the interviewer was, like, what do you need our church to be?
At one level, it seems kind of crazy. But as I, and this is, like, gross overgeneralization, but if I could summarize, like, I think what we heard was, Uh, we need you to be the church. We need you to be the best version of the church. And it's like this, like, oh, somehow the Lord uses these, again, many non, non-Christian, non-believers, not members of our denominations or congregations for the Lord to reecho the call to be who he has called us to be.
Is that, I mean, am I on target there? That's, that's like, I can't help but hear that as I look at this data, to hear that again, the Lord reminding me. To be who he's already asked us to be who he's already made us to be. 

[00:24:36] Jed: Yeah, you're right on I mean, especially and I would like ladder that down just a little bit and say in addition to saying will you be the church?
They're saying really will you be the body of Christ the person of Jesus? So, when Jesus says and he's asked the question, what's the most important commandment? I love the Lord your God with all your heart so my own strength and love your neighbor as yourself what we heard Were neighbors saying will you just be a great neighbor?
They may or may not have a faith framework to say, will you be the church? What they're wanting us to do is to be attentive, to care, to give, to share in the way that Jesus did and to actually live out, love your neighbor as yourself. And we would say if the church can, when I mean ladder down as like, get our feet on the ground in terms of practical action, if we can learn to live out that.
Loving my neighbor in the day to day, we believe that's the best space to bridge the gap between an unreached people in our city and the local church, which we believe is a gift and everyone who finds their way to Jesus finds their way into the local church. 

[00:25:40] Jim: I mean, not to get too nerdy, but let's dig in there a little bit, this like, what did we learn about, you're talking about like, okay, for the church to get their, uh, I love that phrase, kind of like our legs on the ground.
in our neighborhoods. What did we learn about the church's relationship with our neighbors? 

[00:25:57] Jed: Well, there's, there's a lot to learn. I'll give you a few different ways that we saw it. Let me start with our neighbors. Okay. So, if I were to ask you, what do your neighbors care about? I'd be curious, you know, even on this conversation, how people would answer.
What we found is they care primarily about three things and some a fourth. And we talk about this in the research project. They care about human connectivity. It should not surprise us as followers of Jesus because we're made for that. They want to be more connected. They care about kids. We say children, young people, they care deeply about that should not surprise us.
Jesus placed a high value on the lives of young people. And I think he hardwired that into who we are made in his image. They cared deeply about cleanliness. We would say that's order or just beauty. Wholeness. 

[00:26:45] Jim: They want their neighborhoods to be nice. 

[00:26:47] Jed: Yeah. Clean. Right. 

[00:26:49] Jim: Yeah. Yes. 

[00:26:50] Jed: Shouldn't surprise us. As far as...

[00:26:51] Jim: Crazy. Wow. 

[00:26:52] Jed: Go back to Genesis one. He created it and called it good. And lots of things happen and not make it good, which we hear about. Right. Right. It's the potholes dilapidated house across the street. I'm like the car speed through here. You know, my neighbor's grumpy, whatever it may be, but the reality is built into our beings made in the image of God as a desire for order, wholeness, beauty, and our neighbors want it.
And then finally, the fourth is, you know, there's this desire in certain parts of our city, and we can understand this for safety and security where crime is a reality and rampant, and it is more of a reality in certain parts of our city than others. And so, we heard that, so we talk about it. So that's one thing our neighbors are talking for.
What we heard on the other hand, especially when we looked at the Barna data, was that while in Omaha, there is a certain favorability to the local church. This is good for our listeners to know what we found overall is that people in and around the Omaha Metro do not dislike the local church or their local parish.
They don't look down their nose toward it. 

[00:27:54] Jim: Right, which is good news. And sometimes contrary to what we imagined, that's right. We imagine that people think, Oh, and it's like, no, they're like, I mean, they may not be members yet, but they're, they don't hate us. 

[00:28:07] Jed: They don't hate us. And they would even say that the local church does good.
Yeah. The local church offers hope to the world now, not a hundred percent, but oddly, a majority. Important to note that the younger a person gets, the less favorable they become. So, we do need to pay attention to that. It's a different conversation, but it's important to note because that would kind of, for us would be a projected trend that we need to be mindful of.
But what we found is there is a high degree of favorability toward the local church, but A majority of people are not looking to the local church for answers to life's most important questions, so they don't dislike the church, but they're not moving toward the church, so there's this big gap between and what we feel like that means is that this next season.
One of our biggest tasks is to activate the people of Jesus in the local church back into their neighborhoods with an understanding that they're sent by Jesus and then the practical tools to live out their lives as followers of Jesus to be a blessing to their neighborhood. 

[00:29:15] Jim: As you're, as you're sharing there, just realizing I think there's this kind of faulty assumption that like, well, okay, people will, they'll come to us.
When they need us that at some point people's lives, maybe it's just circumstantial or consequence of sin or whatever They'll get to a place of desperation and then they'll come to the church, but I have to say like, uh It's been a rough couple years right 20 20 on this is about as desperate as most of us in this generation Believers have seen the world and they're still not coming and that's important to notice it because again They don't they don't hate us.
But oh, we have to go to them. Yeah, What do we need to know? There were some special calls to conversion that I heard just about how engaged Christians are in their neighborhood. I mean, I think about, I don't know if you know the stat specifically, kind of put you on the spot here, but like the, how many like Christians actually know their neighbor's names?

[00:30:15] Jed: Yeah. Yeah. There's a great study. I'm glad you bring that up. Great study called the art of neighboring. I think it's worth. Every follower of Jesus is time to read and understand and, and to honestly wrestle with what does this tell me about the way that I'm reflecting Jesus in my neighborhood or my workplace or my sphere of influence.
So, here's the study. Dave Rangin, good friend, has done a survey around the Art of Neighboring with over 600, 000 followers of Jesus. So, there's some street cred to this. That's a good size sample. He would say that in that, um, time with followers of Jesus, we talk about it, you can read more about this in the book, but less than 8 percent of followers of Jesus, no, at least half, Of their neighbor’s names.
So, if you think of...

[00:31:04] Jim: Wait, I'm going to need to repeat the numbers. 

[00:31:06] Jed: Let me stop, set the context that when they talk in the art of neighboring, they always talk about your eight closest neighbors. There's actually a map. It's looks kind of like a tic tac toe board. If you're in the middle, You write out the names of your eight closest neighbors around you.
So put this, your hat on whether you're an apartment complex or, you know, a neighborhood like most of us are, or a rural setting, you're going to have to be a little bit more creative, a little bit more distant, but yeah, but what they would say is if they asked 600, 000 less than 10%. If there's 600,000, less than 60,000, or let's say we have a room of a hundred, less than 10 people can name at least half of their neighbors first names.
So, they're just, okay. Let's just break that down and say The majority of Christians, like the big majority of Christians, vast majority, do not know their neighbor's first names. Yeah. And Regan's gonna go on, so there's hope in this, but he's gonna go on and say, can we love our neighbors? As Jesus called us to, if we don't even know their names.
Yeah. And I would say most likely not because then they go on and they take that, that conversation further and they say, okay, so you know their first names. How many of you know at least one significant detail about their life? And then there's a third layer of the conversation where you're interacting with them in meaningful ways.
And as you can imagine, I mean this is a fraction of a fraction of the church that is interacting with their neighbors. Of course. in that way in a consistent fashion. The beautiful thing about the Arden neighboring is they provide some real helps and how you do this that within reach. One of the things we're doing this year is actually to build a whole model around.
How do we activate one of our goals? 36, 000 followers of Jesus over the next 10 years to seek the wellbeing of their neighborhood. And that's one of our dreams coming out of the state of the city. 

[00:32:53] Jim: Okay, talk more about those dreams because that's just one of them is, okay, activating Christians into the lives of their neighbors to share the story of Jesus.
What are, what are some of the other initiatives that came out of this, this kind of the data, the study, the listening, it gave birth to convictions and some strategic priorities. Neighboring is one. What's the other one? Or the others? 

[00:33:16] Jed: Yeah, I'll come back to flourishing neighborhoods. And I'll break that one down a little bit more.
One is mental health care and support very clear in the data that on a whole, and especially as people trend younger, there are increasing levels of things like anxiety, depression, stress, feelings of being overwhelmed, loneliness, isolation, and we think that's unacceptable. We imagine a city in which every person thrives, and no one hurts alone.
And so, we are committed to over the next 10 years seeing a resurgence of mental health care practitioners, mental health care advocates and hubs that provide access to mental care support within 15 minutes of where anyone in the city lives. And so, we're working toward that. The second is what we call village school partnerships, and this is our desire to see villages of support around local schools all across the metro.
We want to launch 100 villages over the next 10 years with a specific focus of at least 50 of those being with Title I or economically disadvantaged schools. The third we call flourishing neighborhoods. I hit on that. I mean, really, at the end of the day, this is three things. Activating the people of Jesus back into their neighborhoods to seek its well-being.
Number two, equipping 10, 000 followers of Jesus to share the story of Jesus or evangelism through their own story. Number three, radical generosity. We want to see the generous impulse of within reach and our partners multiply twofold in 10 years to invest 75 million back into the community, uh, to what we've called Jesus.
Jesus like causes or Jesus’ championing causes. And then, uh, number four, and finally is what we call flourishing churches and leaders, which is historically been the bread and butter of within reaches. We just want to help leaders thrive. It's built on a maxim that says our city is at its best when the church is at its best, the church is at its best when its leaders are at their best.
And so, we're committed to the leaders and our congregations and parishes here across the city. 

[00:35:09] Jim: There were a couple of things, you know, as you're sharing here. An investment in leaders, in neighborhoods, rallying around schools. Some of the data I don't think yesterday we talked about, let's say, mental health.
Um, that's, that's one I didn't mention. Nobody who's been paying any attention is surprised that mental health needs have been increasing. What I found surprising is that there's some unique needs in Omaha that were in many ways, again, I love the way you kind of spoke about maybe there's sometimes a little Midwestern snobbiness at the beginning that we look at the coasts and imagine, well, they're all secular out there, but we weren't doing well.
Omaha's mental health was there were some points of data that showed we were struggling compared to the national average, which is a fascinating conversation in and of itself as to why, but highlight a little some of the places where there's just some unique needs. within the Omaha metro area? 

[00:36:08] Jed: That's a great question.
I would say one of the things we found in the area of human flourishing and Harvard is going to look at this, what they call wellbeing. Wellbeing includes your mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. And there are specific questions asked in the research of the Omaha population that we can look at across the Omaha population.
We can look at across Christians. Or those who self-identify as Christians, and we can look at those who are churched or not. It's interesting. In the metro, um, 69% of the metro would self-identify as Christian. We have a significant number of people who would qualify as churched, which simply means they've gone to church at least once in the last six months.
So, it's not a really high bar, but they are in and around the church from time to time. And what we found is that amongst churched adults in the metro, there are higher degrees. Of, um, lack of mental emotional well-being compared to national norms, sometimes by upwards of 10%. So, meaning our mental health care or well-being is lagging as is.
And I think these two go hand in hand. Our relational connectivity. There were questions around how satisfied are you in your relationships? How connected are you to those who are closest to you? And while relationships certainly exist and people place a high value on those, we found there was this diminished quality or satisfaction that people.
Identify in terms of their relational wellbeing. I think those two are undoubtedly connected. There are other things that we discovered that we talk about. I'd be glad to go into, but yeah, I mean, we, we report on that and just say, this is something for us to pay attention to. It's real. And especially as people trend younger, the cases or the instances of a lack of mental wellbeing or emotional wellbeing trend higher.
That's an undeniable reality. 

[00:37:58] Jim: I mean, it makes sense. To me, just like if you're not feeling the connection that you desire that you are made for with friends, family, neighbors, that's going to affect your mental well-being. And I don't know. I mean, my own little kind of unprofessional theory on this is I think there's in, in many places in the Midwest, there's a memory of.
exceptional community connection. You think about kind of like small rural communities, uh, large families, where even if it wasn't your experience growing up, there's this kind of, uh, you know, Norman Rockwell esque, just like, I remember what it was like, like, I think I'm supposed to have friends. Yeah. You know, it's like, I've never really had friends.
I mean, I had a couple, but it's like, you know, we're like, we still know we're supposed to have friends. Yeah. And when they're not there. We miss it. And of course, everybody's made for it. I dunno, that's just my theory that there's, there's still this kind of memory and there's this expectation that our lies often fall short of.

[00:38:59] Jed: You're right on. And you know, we, we all have memory of the cornhuskers being good. Oh right. So that's painful. But we have far less block parties and 

[00:39:08] Jim: Yeah. But the younger you get the less memories that people have.

[00:39:11] Jed: But yes, my children don't even know the name of the Cornhuskers. 
But when you speak a memory, that's a good way of putting it. I'd say an echo. We all have this echo in our souls. of a desire for human connectivity. And of course, as followers of Jesus, we would say that's deeply connected to ours being made in the image of God, the triune God, who's deeply relationally connected and creates us and invites us into that family dance community.
And so, we were made for it, of course. Countless things disrupt that and yet God is beckoning us back and yet we live in a world deeply flawed that doesn't offer that in abundance. And so, we have a high population of people. I can feel the same thing on any given Monday morning who feel relationally isolated and are experiencing life with all that it offers.
on their own trying to navigate the challenges that they're facing, the lack of economic, you know, opportunities they're facing, dissatisfaction in their workplace, challenges with their children, difficulty perhaps in their marriage, or life is good and life is great and my work is great and, and I love my city but I don't have anyone to share that with.

[00:40:25] Jim: Right. It doesn't necessarily mean everything's bad. Yep. You can be just as lonely when everything's good and yeah, and there's no one to share it with. Yep. Jed, I want to shift gears a little bit, because I mean, the nerd in me, I, you know, we could go deep in any one of these, but, but I want to give, there's a lot of, there were a lot of really hopeful things that, that came out of the data.
There are also a lot of hopeful things that are particularly I would say encouraging for the church, everything from hints at the openness that are in, that's in people's hearts, the desire of what they want from us that just happens to line up with who we are at our best. I want to give you maybe a chance to speak because there are some church leaders, some church communities that are experiencing life and renewal and growth.
What are some of the patterns that you've seen of those, those individuals and communities kind of go whatever, wherever you want to go with it? You're right. 

[00:41:26] Jed: And I'm glad you say that. And we do a lot of celebration through the project and regularly as a network, there are many stories of communities, individuals who love Jesus deeply, are committed to his church, his body and embrace and then live out his mission on a day to day.
Basis, whether it be in the places they live, where they work, learn in their school settings, university settings, or where they play. And we celebrate that. Patterns, we talk about this toward the end, would be that they have developed the habit, or we say they've developed the muscle of pursuing proximity in their communities with people who have yet to respond to or know Jesus in a personal relationship with him.
So, they, they are regularly living in the community and amongst those neighbors. Who don't know Jesus and they're practicing and strengthening the muscle of neighboring like Jesus called us to. Yeah. For the local church, what that means is they are and have found a way to send their people out and they're not content with orienting the whole life of the community around the weekend service or mass or worship experience.
That, I believe, is one of the greatest challenges of the local church in the Omaha Metro, is to understand that we as followers of Jesus are sent, and so we gather, yes, but we send, we go. That's the flow or the rhythm of how we operate. So, one, there are, there's this pursuing of proximity, and we celebrate, that's happening all across the city, and as a result, people are experiencing a hope and freedom in Jesus.

[00:43:14] Jim: Can you give an example of that, like, pursuing proximity, getting it, like, what does it look like tangibly? 

[00:43:19] Jed: Absolutely. Yeah. 

[00:43:20] Jim: And feel free to give a few shout outs if you want. 

[00:43:21] Jed: Yeah. I mean, I'll tell you a beautiful story. There's a church called City Light Mosaic. Good friend, Jacob Richardson, I think are only bilingual.
True. They, they preach in English one week, Spanish the next, they translate in the context of the service. Wow. And they're down in kind of old town, little bohemia area of the city. And They just celebrated three years, but leading up to that, they encouraged their small community, each of their members or, you know, the community there, each person to actively practice hospitality and invite people into their homes or at their work around a table and share a meal.
Okay. So, imagine this as they come to their third anniversary, they encourage people to present a one inch by one inch mosaic tile for every act of hospitality they practiced in those months leading up to that. Wow. And they collected over 1500 tiles. Then a, a local artist built this into this beautiful mosaic piece of artwork.
I mean, just this beautiful image. Wow. It's a reminder to them of who they are. Mm-Hmm. as the people of Jesus, what they value as a community that belongs to Jesus. Yeah. And what they're committed to in the neighborhood. The reason I share that story is it's, it's a church of a couple hundred people. Yeah.

[00:44:45] Jim: It's not a small or not a large community at all. 

[00:44:47] Jed: No. In fact, we find the larger a church becomes, the more challenging it is to maintain that impulse of being sent. That's not by any means saying it's not happening. I'm by no means saying that, but there's a challenge. It's a challenge. Yes. It's much easier to institutionalize and program what I call program obedience.
So, um, that's a beautiful, that's a beautiful story. On the other hand, um, we have a local church who is larger, who realized they were trending in that direction. And many things were getting centered around the weekend worship experience, around the program. They said, no, we're actually going to take a step back and just begin equipping our people to neighbor well and share the story of Jesus well.
So next week we'll be hosting a train the trainer evangelism, uh, equipping experience and they'll host this, and they have just been training hundreds of people to be great neighbors and to be able to share the story of Jesus as the Holy Spirit opens opportunity. That's another one. And then I'll share one more experience we have.
Another community, um, out West who several years ago said that they are going to give specific focus to men who are walking through addiction and then addiction recovery. And so, they opened an actual home, and they provide an experience for people to step into rehabilitation services for six months and beyond.
And so, by doing so, they're actually. Practicing neighboring toward people who are really living in a place of darkness and brokenness and addiction, and they're helping them move toward healing in Christ. So, I give those three examples to say there are a variety of ways that this can be done. The pattern that we would suggest and we, we apply at the end is pursue proximity with your neighbors, cultivate empathy, and we use.
You know the story of the good Samaritan coming alongside the Jewish man who's lying in the middle of the road broken bleeding dying cultivate empathy come alongside and then commit to longevity and the idea of committing to longevity is wherever you live work or play be invested there stay there.
Learn the names of those you're around, learn their stories, ask the Holy Spirit to help you find ways to love and serve them well, practice hospitality, give generously. And we believe as you do, the Holy Spirit awakens people to the goodness of Jesus and uh, opportunities open for you to share the story of Jesus with them.
So that's our, our heart in the project. 

[00:47:11] Jim: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I find that so inspiring. I mean, and as you know, as we talk about this, I think about my neighbors. I think about my life and, you know, the times I don't linger when I'm getting the mail and I could just walk across the street and have a conversation, but I don't, I've got, you know, and so, I mean, this is, this is really tangible.
It's very practical. And then I'm like, I don't know how many, how many first names could I name? So, this is very convicting and inspiring. I want to set you up here, maybe as we, as we close, close the conversation here. We will link in the show notes to the Within Reach network, withinreach.com. There people can purchase The State of the City.
All you data nerds, and even if you're not a nerd, you want this, but like, uh, but especially if you're a nerd, this is your, this is your jive. Yeah. But like, you can purchase this. It's, uh, beautiful. The State of the City. It's so well done. So well laid out. There's a lot of articles and, uh, you kind of put yourself at the end here.
Near the very end, you've got a little section here, Jed, you know, a joyful call to action for our city. And you start with a quote by, uh, Reneiro Cantalamesa. That name will mean, uh, something to some, maybe not all, uh, we were joking before we turned the mics on. He's got a good resume. Uh, Father Cantal de Mesa was, yes, uh, uh, an academic and a professor, but he's been the preacher to the papal household for John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis.
Which isn't a bad gig. 

[00:48:38] Jed: No, I mean, you're, you're swimming in some deep waters there. 

[00:48:41] Jim: Yeah. It's like, what's your job? It's like, I preach to the Pope. It's like, okay, so do you wing it? Or do you be like prep a little bit? Like, cause like, man, that's a big job. You start with this beautiful quote that just like, as we talk about mental health and schools and community and neighborhood and hospitality, it can sound a little bit like, I don't know, just another NGO, churchy, or not even churchy, just a, we're gonna go help people.
And I love that you start with this quote. I don't do this very often, but I just have to read this. You quote again, father Canula Mesa. The world needs to believe in God's love. We must begin again to proclaim the gospel of God's love and Jesus Christ. If we fail to do so, we shall be like those who place their candles under a bushel.
We would be depriving the world of its deepest hunger. It's inner innermost expectations. There are many others besides Christians who preach social justice and respect for others, but there is no one, among philosophers or other religions, no one who tells us that God loves us and loved us first. Yet this truth is what sustains everything.
It is the motivating power behind everything. Even the cause of the poor and the oppressed is a lost cause if it isn't based on the unshakable truth that God loves us first. And that he loves the poor and the oppressed. If I were you, I wouldn't want to follow that. And, uh, it's moving. You can tell it's still, still very right at the heart.
You know, I'm, not everybody gets to see it, but I'm across the table. I can see the tears in your eyes. How do you want to see this come, come to life? 

[00:50:27] Jed: You know, I remember where I was sitting. I'm always in the same place every morning, you know, reading. And I remember where I was sitting when I first opened up that part, which is in the book, the power of the cross by Canto Mesa.
And as I was preparing for our conversation, uh, the verse came to mind that it's the kindness of God that leads to repentance. And I thought, what is the call to every follower of Jesus? It's to live lives that are deeply kind. And what I believe Kantakoumesis is saying there is that the world needs to know God's love.
Love can be a big word. It can mean a lot. And it does mean a lot. And it should. But once again, I think we need to ladder down from that and say, what's it look like in my life? And for me, I remember the kindness of Jesus demonstrated to me by a couple of friends. When I, going back to the beginning of our conversation, I was really at a crossroads in my life and either my brokenness and addiction would define me, or I would experience the freedom that Jesus came to give and I'm thankful for the kindness of those friends.
And that alerted me to Jesus's goodness. In the same way, I think what Contical Maze is saying is that as the people of Jesus, we are called to demonstrate the love and the kindness of Jesus. And as he opens opportunities to proclaim that kindness, that is the kindness of God that has been pursuing us from the day we breathe our first breath and will pursue us until the day we breathe our last.
It's the kindness that garners and gains the attention of the world that is in search of something, um, many of whom have found life in Christ and some who, of course, many who have yet not. And so, I believe that's the great call. It's the great call of the project. Um, if you could sum it up in a nutshell, as Kental Mesa did, it says the world needs to know they need to hear, they need to see, they need to feel experienced.
the love or the kindness of Jesus. And so, we call the church back to that place of rugged, beautiful, persistent kindness in their lives in Jesus’ name. I love it. 

[00:52:50] Jim: That's what they said about the early church. You can see their love, Jed. Thank you. Thanks for being with us. Thanks for everything you're doing.
We're going to link to within reach. com. There you can find the state of the city. You can find out more about being a part of the, the, the movement and the network. Thank you. Hey everybody, welcome to the EquipCast, a weekly podcast for the Archdiocese of Omaha. I'm your host, Jim Jansen. Now let's dive into some encouragement and inspiration to equip you to live your faith and to be fruitful in your mission.
Let's go.