What Kind of God?: Reading the Bible with a Missional Church
by Bret Wells
What kind of God is God? If, as the Apostle Paul claims in Colossians 1:15, Jesus is the exact image of the unseen God, then what is that God like? And how might the revelation of God in Jesus—God’s will, God’s nature, God’s action, God’s plan revealed fully in Jesus—change how followers of Jesus read the Bible?
Embraced
The Missional Community as a Means of Grace, Week 9
by Andrea Lingle
It was a late summer Sunday morning. All my kids had been delivered to their Sunday school classes at the Methodist church we attend.
My oldest was given his third grade Bible at the morning service. I showed him mine before we left for church. I took his picture. My second wore a dazzling, jeweled dress. Her golden blonde hair isn’t combed. Third-child-second-son has just moved out of the nursery area. He is both proud and nervous. I assure him that he will be fine. Baby wails as I close the door of the nursery.
The Missional Family
The Missional Community as a Means of Grace, Week 8
by Adam White
We were created for one another.
I believe that God’s missional desire for us as followers of Christ and sacred children of this earth is to enter into deeper loving relationships with one another.
A Hermeneutic of Perfecting Love
The Missional Community as a Means of Grace, Week 7
by Adam White
"...Are you going on to perfection? …Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?”
These are a couple of the questions each clergy answers in the United Methodist Church before becoming ordained.
Read MoreReceiving and Offering Grace With One Another
The Missional Community as a Means of Grace, Week 6
by Adam White
Jesus Christ practiced radical hospitality.
What does it mean to practice “radical hospitality?”
For Christ and the disciples, it meant relying upon the hospitality of others to fulfill their service and missional life. Within three of the four Gospels, Christ givesauthority to the disciples and sends them out without means or resources, asking them to rely upon the hospitality of strangers to fulfill their mission (Matthew 10:6-16, Mark 6:6b-13, Luke 9:1-6).
Read MoreShowing Up
The Missional Community as a Means of Grace, Week 5
by Adam White
We should never underestimate the power of showing up.
I serve at a local United Methodist Church in East Dallas and have the humble opportunity to lead different classes, studies, and programs. Every week there is a Wednesday Bible study where a group of around ten to twelve older adults come and engage in discussion around scripture.
The Duty of Constant Communion
The Missional Community as a Means of Grace, Week 4
by Andrea Lingle
Whoever you are, wherever you are, and whenever you are will affect how you see the world. We live in a tribal world. We are white and black, gay and straight, male and female, religious and “none,” introvert and extrovert, “in a relationship” or single, coffee or tea, Instagram or Reddit. We are a diverse species and we all fear invisibility, so we draw lines around ourselves. This is me. These are mine. This is what I believe.
Read More Logical
The Missional Community as a Means of Grace, Week 3
by Andrea Lingle
Have you ever done a logic puzzle? You get a list of clues, make a grid, and figure out, through astounding feats of intellect and crossing off of boxes, who sat next to whom and what color shirt they had on and what they ate.
Read MoreWords
The Missional Community as a Means of Grace, Week 2
by Andrea Lingle
I am fascinated by words. Specifically names. If you have ever read a decent fantasy novel, you will have a firm grasp of how important names are. Names give you power over a thing. You should never tell anyone your true name, or they will have power over you. If you know a thing, you will know its name. Good stuff.
Read More What Does "Missional" Mean?
The Missional Community as a Means of Grace, Week 1
by Adam White
What does it mean to be "missional" as we live out our faith?
Read MoreA Living Image of Communion
Discipleship as a Three-Legged Stool, Week 12
by Adam White
Over the past three months we have been discerning what discipleship looks like from our perspective at Missional Wisdom by using the image of a stool. One leg of the stool represents community. One leg is the loving of our neighbors as ourselves. Another leg is the pouring and filling of grace that we experience in following Christ is the greatest commandment. The top of the stool and connecting factor is the missional life of faith.
Read MoreMetric
Discipleship as a Three-Legged Stool, Week 11
by Andrea Lingle
How many inches are there in a mile?
Well, there are twelve inches in a foot and five thousand two hundred and eighty feet in a mile, so…
Read MoreThe Infinity of Now
Discipleship as a Three-Legged Stool, Week 10
by Andrea Lingle
There is power in a circle.
There is tension in a circle: an infinite number of points presses out from a central point of unity. There is balance in a circle: each of the infinite points is equally distant from the center of the circle.
Read MoreWindblown
Discipleship as a Three-Legged Stool, Week 6
by Andrea Lingle
There is a churchyard in central North Carolina, roughly an hour east of Charlotte, where, in early spring, the lawn is sewn entirely in dandelions. I don’t know if these dandelions were cultivated intentionally, but one of my greatest regrets is that I never stopped my car, just for one minute, to run through the seed heads.
Read MorePierced
Discipleship as a Three-Legged Stool, Week 5
by Andrea Lingle
It was a large stone; about the size of a slightly flattened egg. There were a dozen pits covering its surface. I scooped it off the shore and held it up to the sunlight, squeezing one eye shut to focus on each hole. I sighed. Not one hole went clear through. It needed more time. I hurled it back in the water.
Read MoreThere is a moment almost every single day when I find that all of the training that I have ever done in my life isn't enough.
Not nearly enough.
I am a mother of several children.
Love is God's Meaning
Discipleship as a Three-Legged Stool, Week 3
by Adam White
I was frozen and numb. I had just realized my mother stopped breathing in hospice care at Arlington Memorial Hospital. She had breathed her last breath without any pain, which was a blessing considering the past eight years of her life had been a slow mental and physical deterioration due to dementia.
Read MoreSpotlight: Pilgrimage
We are excited to share that the Missional Wisdom Foundation’s 2016 Pilgrimage to Iona, Scotland is currently underway.
Read MoreWhy Your Jesus is Everyone's Jesus
Discipleship as a Three-Legged Stool,
Week 2
by Adam White
f only the New Testament could be prefaced by:
*pastes in bible* This message is not just for you. This message is not just for your particular culture, ethnicity, race, or any other dividing line that keeps you from being in a relationship with other people; especially people who are different from you.
Read MoreBalancing our Faith
Discipleship as a Three-Legged Stool, Week 1
by Adam White
When I was thirteen, I had to create a bridge out of balsa wood for a science class and test how much weight it could hold. As my dad and I were making the bridge I kept thinking how flimsy and weak the wood was. Thankfully, my dad is a structural engineer. Once we were done, the bridge held over 25 pounds! Our faith is similar to a well-built bridge: it requires careful precision and thoughtful detail.
Read More
