Kingdom Placemakers: Becoming Attached to the Place You Help Create

Placemaking is a bottom up approach to shaping a public space.

According to Project for Public Spaces, "Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the planning, design and management of public spaces. Put simply, it involves looking at, listening to, and asking questions of the people who live, work and play in a particular space, to discover their needs and aspirations. This information is then used to create a common vision for that place. The vision can evolve quickly into an implementation strategy, beginning with small-scale, do-able improvements that can immediately bring benefits to public spaces and the people who use them" (http://www.pps.org/reference/what_is_placemaking/).

There are 11 steps guiding the PLACEMAKING strategy (building a better community):

1. The community (the people of the place) are the experts.

2. Create a place, not a design.

3. Look for partners

4. You can see a lot by just observing.

5. Have a vision.

6. Start with the Petunias: Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper

7. Triangulate

8. They Always Say “It Can’t Be Done”

9. Form supports function

10. Money is not an issue

11. You are never finished.

Read more here on the 11 steps: http://www.pps.org/reference/11steps/

The result is community ownership and excitement. See the quotes below....

"If you’re not building social capital in the community where you’re working, you’re not Placemaking; you’re just reorganizing the furniture."

“Human capital and creative talent increasingly goes where it likes; talent increasingly goes to great places; but talented people become most attached to places that they help create.”

 

As you think about making disciples who make disciples and form a church in a local place, community or neighborhood, how might these steps help along the way?

As followers of Jesus into the neighborhood, we alert people to the reign and rule of God's Kingdom through Jesus. We enter into these public places proclaiming the good news both with our words/stories and by our ACTS (the acts of Jesus followers), demonstrating a kingdom place worth entering into!

Let's be Kingdom Placemakers!

 

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