Who We Are...

Who We Are and Who We Represent

What Does Missional Mean?, Week 10

“Remember, who you are…” These words awaited us every time we as the youth group at New World United Methodist Church traveled anywhere.

The words came from our Youth Director, Sherry Womack. Sherry would always turn and look at us, sometimes just me directly, and, before we could get off the bus, say “Remember, who you are!” and then we’d respond with a glib symphony of pubescence and reluctance, “and who you represent.”

Spotlight, DevotionalAdam WhiteJuly 26, 2017Theme V, missional, What Does Missional Mean?, hospitality, authorityComment

From Pity to Compassion

From Pity to Compassion
Author: Andrea Lingle

Being missional or sent out is tricksy. It is tempting to go out in one’s strength toward those considered needy. We, here in the safety and security of privilege, come to you, there in the lowness and dislocation of your need. If the people of God move out, missionally, from a place of certainty, then a missional way of life just becomes another, hip crusade. It is the way of pity, and no one wants to be pitied.

Together

Together

What Does Missional Mean?, Week 8

by Larry Duggins

This week’s meditation is taken from Together: Community as a Means of Grace by Larry Duggins.

I believe that community itself is a prudential means of grace. Our Creator lives in a constant state of life-giving community, thriving through an inseparable bond between Father, Son, and Spirit. Our Creator made us in the Creator’s image, so we, ourselves, long for the same kind of community connection, and it is the prayer of the Redeemer that we experience that kind of community with each other and with the Creator. Through learning to love each other in communities, we live into our nature as the reflection of the image of God, fulfilling the desire of God, which draws us closer to God.

Choose "C"

Choose "C"

What Does Missional Mean?, Week 7

by Andrea Lingle

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly. Matthew 11:28-30 The Message

The surveys are in. The numbers are down. Church is changing.

Within church walls the conversations center on what to do. How do we hang on? What has changed? Why do we gather for an hour one day a week to sing and listen to someone else talk?

Divine Synergy

Divine Synergy:
What Does Missional Mean?, Week 6

by Adam White

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Most of us probably understand the concept of synergy and how it helps to have complementary parts of something working together for a desired outcome rather than separate parts attempting a goal. Last week we discussed how segmented we can be and how living missionally, in light of scripture, calls us to un-segment ourselves. The next step, after un-segmenting, is to missionally bind together. This step involves entering a divine synergy with one another through the Holy Spirit.

Wisdom for the Way, DevotionalAdam WhiteJune 28, 2017missional, What Does Missional Mean?, Theme V, Adam White, Simple HarmonyComment

Un-Segmenting Mission

Un-Segmenting Mission:
What Does Missional Mean?, Week 5

by Adam White

We lead segmented lives.

We divide our time, presence, and energy depending on where we are, who is in front of us, and how much time we allot to a given situation.

Whether it is segmenting our home life from our work life; how we interact socially between family, friends, and acquaintances; or even what mode of communication we invest in, be that in person or through social media—our lives have become and continue to be segmented.

Freedom to Fail

Freedom to Fail:
What Does Missional Mean?, Week 4

by Andrea Lingle

Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.

How often have we read those words of Jesus with a bit of a self-righteous—I would never?

How often have we examined our lives for ways we deny Jesus?

How often have we crowed in accusation, demanding that a betrayal, denial, disappointment be brought to light?

Reordering Normal

Reordering Normal:
What Does Missional Mean?, Week 3

by Adam White

“It’s not normal!”

I usually hear this phrase when I confide to people that growing up I not only liked to dip french fries into a Wendy’s chocolate frosty…but also proceeded to let chicken nuggets join the party. I know, you are probably thinking,

“It’s not normal!”

God's Missional Initiation

God's Missional Initiation:
What Does Missional Mean?, Week 2

by Adam White

What Does Missional Mean?

What comes to mind when you hear the word “initiation”?

For me, I can not help but think of people being initiated into a Greek collegiate society or social club. It seems like persons being initiated are willing to go to great lengths so that they might be accepted into whatever group they are wanting to become members of.

What is Missional?

by Andrea Lingle

What is Missional?

Missional is...

Well, missional is…

Exactly.

So, we hope to spend the next several months talking about what mission means, to us, and to you.

Coming to the Table

by Justin Hancock with Lisa Hancock

Growing up in a medium-sized, almost rural, West Texas town, the kitchen table played a prominent role. It doesn’t matter if it was sitting down for Sunday dinner at my great-grandparents’ house, with what felt like a billion relatives to my 5-year-old sensibilities, or rolling up to the table as the smell of homemade Chex Mix that my mother had just taken out of the oven filtered through the house during the Christmas holidays. The kitchen, and more specifically the kitchen table, has exerted an almost primal hold on the most tender part of my heart for as long as I can remember.

The Dance of Community

The Dance of Community

by Wendy Miller

As we prepare to begin a new series of devotional thoughts in a couple of weeks, we have asked some Missional Wisdom Foundation staff members to share some thoughts with us.

Living in intentional community is a dance. I took ballroom dance lessons when I was thirteen. My older brother did just fine. I fretted over what step my partner planned next and felt tight—anxious. Not fun.

Conclusion - One Year

Conclusion - One Year:
The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 10

by Andrea Lingle

This journey into the life of the Spirit has been both revealing and cursory. I could sit and type for years and never nail down the proper metaphor. There is no book to study, no theology to memorize, no sage to question that could reveal the truth of the Spirit. We could never meditate or contemplate long enough or well enough to truly see what the Spirit is.

Receiving the Spirit with Humility

Receiving the Spirit with Humility:
The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 9

by Adam White

Which do you prefer, giving or receiving?

For me, I would much rather give than receive. I have gotten better with this over the years, but my preference to giving and my aversion to receiving are two issues I still wrestle with every so often. It is not that receiving something from others, be it help, complements, or a gift, is above me. I get that we all need help, remember?

Freedom from Failure

Freedom from Failure:
The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 8

by Adam White

Nobody likes to fail.

Even just reflecting on the words “fail” or “failure” bring back memories from school assignments, sports performances, and life moments that still find ways to linger in my mind. You have heard of a cloud of witnesses; I think of this as a cloud of failures. I think we each have our own cloud of failures that arise and follow us around during certain periods of time. This cloud can stay with us for quite a while if we let it hover over us and pour down things like doubt, insecurity, and fear.

One in the Spirit

One in the Spirit:
The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 7

by Adam White
It may be hard to admit, but I have not always paid the closest of attention to the lyrics and meanings behind the hymns and songs that are sung in church. However, in the last year discovering their meaning has been a practice I have attempted to grow as a form of prayer. Regarding our missional relationship with God’s Spirit, I don’t think there is a song that better captures that dynamic than the hymn “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love.”1

It has everything! Within the hymn text we find the unity of our identity within the Spirit and a prayer that our worldly divisions might be restored...

Living In, Guided By...

Living In, Guided By, and Bearing Fruit of the Spirit:

The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 6

by Adam White

We all need help.

I do not know specific predicaments you may face, but needing help is a truth for all of us. I don’t think I truly embraced the reality that I needed help, holistically, until I met, and committed my life in sacred union with my partner, Blair.

Hear me out—I knew I needed help before that time and sought support from others for certain issues that surfaced throughout my life. For instance, I desperately needed help with math during high school and sought out a tutor—Thanks, Mrs. Pyle, for making sense out of Algebra for an ADHD teenager, no easy task! Or when I struggled with the pain of my mother’s suffering due to dementia, I needed support from friends, family, and ultimately a counselor.

Joining the Dance

Joining the Dance:
The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 5

by Andrea Lingle

How, then, shall we live?

For me this is the central question of all theology. If we spend ten breaths talking about what the Spirit of God is, we should spend ten hundred talking about how that understanding should shape our behavior and ten thousand walking, along with Christ, doing whatever it is that our theology calls forth from us.

Truly, how, then, shall we live?

The Holy Spirit is like the breath.

The Holy Spirit is like the womb.

The Holy Spirit is in the swirl of the Trinity's dance.

The Womb

The Womb
The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 4
by Andrea Lingle

When I was a kid, I could beat seminarians in Bible trivia. It depended on the version, but most of the time, I could win against a team. This was not the social boon you might imagine. I read through the entire Bible, including the genealogies, before I was twelve. I memorized piles of Bible verses. Incidentally, many of them focused on obedience and kindness; well played, Mom, well played. I had the answers. I could recite creeds, prayers, and doctrines, and I knew they would keep me safe.

The Breath

The Breath
The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 3

By Andrea Lingle

Do you know what I find frustrating? When people tell me to try something without a great deal of explanation. I want to know what I should be looking for. I want to know what I am in for. I want to know.

But that is not how we learn to breathe is it? When you emerged into the world, covered in the paraphernalia of birth, you had one task: to breathe. You coughed, snorted, and wolfed down lungs full of the one thing your body cannot go an hour without. Air.