The Next Step Community

The Next Step Community is a group of people, like you, who need other people to help them take a next step following Jesus. You won’t find any preconceived notions or quick fixes here; just real people trying to follow Jesus in real life. You are welcome to join in!

About

As The Next Step Community, we are sold out on helping each other delight in taking a next step following Jesus. Not everyone is going to resonate with our values or our basic vibe, and that’s OK; we believe having a variety of options is the best way to sustain…Continue reading “About”

Discipleship Tools…

Noticing Your Emotions, with Jesus

By Justin Rossow Emotions are simply part of who we are as human beings; which means our emotions are "beautifully and wonderfully made," and part of a fallen creation, both…

God at Work, in My Kids

By Katie Helmreich The past month has been an intense struggle for us. My youngest started kindergarten this year, and turns out she wasn't quite ready for it emotionally. Every…

Cultural Studies

Great (and Not-So-Great) Expectations

By Ted Hopkins Expectations are a funny beast. On vacation this summer, we ate at a restaurant that was a bit sketchy when we first walked in. They had open…

Cultural Studies…

Mary and Martha, GPA or GPS?

By Justin Rossow (with Valerie Matyas) A couple of weeks ago, I got to lead a Next Step workshop at a congregation outside Buffalo, New York. As part of the…

Discipleship Tools…

Your Cloud of Witnesses

By Katie Helmreich Basketball, an afternoon at the beach, and a Rubber Band Boat Race Tournament bracket with a group of third cousins makes for a stand out great day.…

Peace in the Process

By Kim Longden A few days ago, I was sitting in the optometrist’s office with nine-year-old Jonah listening to the hushed tones of the eye exam in progress: “What is…

The Day After Perfect

By Katie Helmreich Ah, summer... Sunshine and a more laid back routine. The kids are home doing their childhood thing. The Suburban has been packed, unpacked, and repacked for trips…

Faith Experiment…

RAIN-ing with Jesus

By Naomi Rossow I have been seeing my current therapist for about six months now. She is amazing, and we have been able to work through a lot together as…

ADVENTURE!

22 Jun 202223 Jun 2022

By Katie Helmreich My daughter, Elise, just turned 13. It’s a big deal. So we decided to celebrate with a big adventure! Elise and I headed North for a two-day canoe…

Exegetical Study

The god in My Pocket

15 Jun 202214 Jun 2022

By Justin Rossow A friend of mine has a collection of artifacts from the Holy Land in his office, including a woven basket full of household gods. These crude figurines…

Our Next (Hard) Project

By Katie Helmreich Ben and I are project people. We've been building things together since our early dating days (some twenty years ago) and haven't really stopped since! Our next project…

Cultural Studies…

Take My Moments and My Days

8 Jun 20228 Jun 2022

By Katie Helmreich My alarm went off at 5:50 this morning. I hit snooze a few times, but then I remembered today's the day I'd arranged to swap kid-free hours…

Exegetical Study…

Money, in a Fish

7 Jun 20228 Jun 2022

By Kim Longden When my oldest son was little, we read from the Beginner’s Bible each night at bedtime. One night we opened up to a story entitled “Money in…

Exegetical Study

Faithful Change

By Ted Hopkins In my last post, I ended by saying faithfulness to Jesus leads us to faithful change, despite our deep and abiding reluctance to do so. In that…

Authentic Imitators

Created to Create, Part 3 By Visual Faith® Coach Valerie Matyas for the 2022 Creative Haven Retreat Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as…

Courage for a Small Step

By Katie Helmreich My 5-year-old, Jane, has been looking forward to the end of year Preschool field trip for ages! "We get to go do gymnastics, Mom! Gymnastics!!" So we carefully counted…

Concrete or Abstract?

Created to Create, Part 2 By Visual Faith® Coach Valerie Matyas for the 2022 Creative Haven Retreat Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have…

Cultural Studies…

Helpless Waiting

2 May 20222 May 2022

By Justin Rossow This Easter I was struck by a detail I don’t remember seeing before. In fact, I didn’t even see it this year until my second or third…