about
In 2004, Mark and Amy Van Steenwyk gathered a handful of friends together and started a church on the West Bank of Minneapolis. It grew to about 50, but something wasn’t right: it was a commuter church. Most of the people lived in the burbs, hung out in the burbs, and only came to the neighborhood for a Sunday gathering. Frustrated, they went back to drawing board…a few times. And then, in the ashes of what once was, a new Missio Dei emerged–a community anchored in the West Bank and centered on Jesus’ way of peace, hospitality, simplicity, and prayer.
Missio Dei is a church–but not a conventional church. It is to most churches what a tangerine is to a regular orange: smaller, but more intense. Some folks might call us a “new monastic” community. And I guess those folks might be right.
What Missio Dei lacks in size (there’s about 20 of us–depending upon how you count), we make up in potency (again, like the humble little tangerine). Missio Dei has been featured in the Star Tribune several times. While we have a Sunday gathering, it is only one part of what we do. We have a hospitality house, host monthly Christarchy! gatherings, do outdoor hospitality, and have an urban garden. We meet regularly throughout the week to share a meal, pray, and bear one another’s burdens.
