For Phil and Christine Jensen, coming to the United States from the United Kingdom to pursue graduate degrees at 晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023s was a huge gamble. It meant relocating their family, including children Sam, 8, and Eve, 4, leaving a successful career at Proctor & Gamble and a lovely Victorian house in Newcastle, England, and hoping that three years of seminary education in Southern California would be worth it.

Now in their second year at Talbot, the Jensens have some uncertainty about the future, but they do know a couple things about the present: 1) they are passionate about fostering community in the body of Christ, and 2) their house has a big living room.

Though they were eager to put their spacious new living room to good use when they moved to La Mirada in 2007, the Jensens found that it was like pulling teeth to get Americans to come over for a meal.

In England, if you invite a person for lunch, thats it, said Phil. Barring a missing leg, you are going to turn up. Here, it seems like, Well, if I have a better offer

Last year, they invited all of Talbots first-year M.Div. students (around 110 people) to a lunch party, but only three showed up.

But the three that turned up had a good time, said Christine, and I think thats what weve learned: Just go with the goers, and if people have a need, then we can do something with that.

Its certainly been a cultural learning process, with a few missteps along the way, but things are looking up these days.

The Jensens currently serve as 晩晩当際際夊消消夊2023 campus coaches for the small groups ministry at Rock Harbor Church. They host students at their house once a week, putting their living room to good use.

If youre not known, and you dont know people, then you arent really doing church, said Christine.

For the Jensens, doing church like moving across the Atlantic to attend seminary requires risk. But risk, they say, is part of what it means to be a Christian.