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RUMORS OF DOING GOOD PODCAST

S05 E03

Counter | Presence

Creating Experimental Communities

S5 E3 Counter Presence - Creating Experimental Communities

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What does it look like to join in the mission of God — not through programs or blueprints, but through presence, listening, and local response? In this episode, Andrew Dungan joins me as we talk about creating experimental communities as a way of participating in the Missio Dei.

Rooted in the life of Jesus and shaped by Anabaptist values like simplicity, mutuality, and discernment, we explore how community can emerge through shared lived experience. These are communities that take risks, learn as they go, and stay close to the ground they’re planted in.

Many of us are living with a deep dissatisfaction — with organized religion as it’s been, with society as it is, and with the pace and patterns of life that leave us fragmented and exhausted.

Counter Presence: Dissatisfaction Rooted in Hope is a series of conversations born from that unrest, and from a longing to live more grounded, more human, and more faithful lives. It’s about cultivating a presence shaped by the life and teachings of Jesus, and formed through community, simplicity, mutuality, and hope — as exemplified by the Anabaptist tradition.

Not as an escape, but as a faithful way of being in the world, together.

Intro/Outro music by Skinfiltr8r.

About Andrew:

Dr. Andrew S Dungan serves as pastor of Summit Street Church, a Mennonite Church USA affiliated congregation, located in Beatrice, Nebraska. Summit Street Church is Jesus-centered, others-focused, neighborhood church located in the very same neighborhood that Andrew grew up in. Andrew earned a Masters Degree in Christian Education from Bethel Seminary (St. Paul, MN) and a Doctorate in Leadership from Creighton University. Directly out of seminary Andrew served as Pastor of Ministry Development for a non-denominational church in Omaha, NE. That work was short-lived, however, as he exited the ministry (and “church“)dissatisfied, discouraged, disgruntled and disenfranchised, vowing that he’d “never do that (ministry) again.” God had other plans and Andrew has a new appreciation and compassion for those who “dig Jesus, but not the church.”


After leaving the ministry, Andrew worked the next 10 years in the nonprofit sector finding his niche in developing organizational systems and engaging volunteers. Andrew enjoys working through sticky organizational problems and finding places for people to get involved. Back in the pastorate, Andrew is a voice for new church possibilities and for Neighborhood-Narrative Theology – for a fresh praxis of actively re-contextualizating scripture in embodied ways with others in local neighborhoods. Andrew has been characterized as “angsty productive,” living with a creative dissatisfaction that fuels his imagination and his urgency. His Substack, “Wired for Urgency,” is a space intended to confront cliché and explore Jesus-centered faith for the disillusioned, the restless, and the called. He has a wife, Alicyn, and two children: Beckett and Emberly. 

Dive Deeper

If today’s conversation stirred something in you, here are a few resources to help you explore what it means to participate in the Missio Dei through grounded, local, and experimental expressions of community. These readings and tools offer practical insight into discerning God’s movement and forming presence-centered communities in your context