Un-Segmenting Mission

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

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.

The Equity Project

The Equity Project

by Todd Porter

Todd is a friend of the Missional Wisdom Foundation, who attends the Taize service led by Larry Duggins each week.

“Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” –

That being the case, it seems that our economic is perfectly designed to multiply wealth for those who have it, while holding the promise of wealth just beyond the reach of those without. I find this reality troubling and find myself under increasing compulsion to do something about it. I call that something “The Equity Project.”

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?

Teen Life

Teen Life

by Rachel Wells

Teen Life is a non-profit organization in Southlake, Texas, dedicated to encouraging and equipping teenagers with life skills and strategies to live life better. Our friends at Teen Life have created a curriculum that they use in facilitated support groups to serve middle school and high school students who are in crisis or are beginning to make choices that will lead to crisis. Staff members Chris Robey and Ricky Lewis received coach training from Missional Wisdom's own Bret Wells.

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!”

Parents United

Parents United

by Marshall Mosley

I recently met Denise and Larry

at a mutual friend’s house where we met to discuss what living in community can look like. My wife and I were excited to learn from their experiences, because we feel like we are moving in that direction as well. We also shared with them about the community-centered after school program we began in our neighborhood. They asked us to share a little about our program, called Parents United.

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.

Open to Grace

Open to Grace

by Melanie Dobson

Melanie Dobson is a pastor at Myers Park United Methodist Church in Charlotte, NC. She will be participating in the fall 2017 cohort of Launch & Lead.

Hebrews 4:16—Let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

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.

Photography as a Spiritual Practice

Photography as a Spiritual Practice

The Missional Wisdom Foundation is proud to announce the launch of Journey, our newest educational initiative.

As we experiment with alternate forms of Christian community in the Missional Wisdom Foundation, we also stop to share the lessons we've learned along the way. Journey is a hub for learning and engagement with standalone courses taught by our exceptional group of instructors. Earlier this week, subscribers to our Journey email list received a one-time code for 20% off a course. To get your code and receive notifications when new courses become available, sign up here.

One of the courses now open for registration, Photography as a Spiritual Practice: Reclaiming Our Encounter with God, is taught by Ryan Klinck:

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.

Building Community...

Building Community through Group Leadership

The Missional Wisdom Foundation is proud to announce the launch of Journey, our newest educational initiative.

As we experiment with alternative forms of Christian community in the Missional Wisdom Foundation, we also stop to share the lessons we've learned along the way. Journey is a hub for learning and engagement with standalone courses taught by our exceptional group of instructors. Earlier this week, subscribers to our Journey email list received a one-time code for 20% off a course. To get your code and receive notifications when new courses become available, sign up here.

One of the courses now open for registration, Building Community through Group Leadership, is taught by Karen Doucette.

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.

On the Horizon

On the Horizon

by Rachel Wells

As Andrea mentioned in the devotional above, today marks the one year anniversary of Missional Wisdom Foundation’s Wisdom for the Way publication. We have been working hard - alongside many of you - to continue our mission of experimenting with and teaching about alternative forms of Christian community, and we have a number of new programs nearing completion.

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.

Beautiful Future

Beautiful Future

by Matt Johnson

For many of us, the work that we do is slow, subtle and small, at least in the beginning. This reality presents many challenges, particularly since we are living in the age of “short-termism” (a phrase used by Ari Wallach in his TED Talk, “3 ways to plan for the (very) long term”). But occasionally we catch a glimpse of the fruit of our labors. I’m learning it is really important to cherish those moments, and remember them, for it is through remembering those moments that we sustain ourselves in the present, and prepare for a beautiful future.

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?

Easter Egg Hunt

Haw Creek Commons Easter Egg Hunt

by Karen Doucette and Holly Roach

Last Saturday, the day before Easter, we had a neighborhood Easter celebration with an egg hunt, and lots of activities for kids and families. We were fortunate with fabulous weather, had a nice turn out with about 90 people, and got to show off our latest additions to the Haw Creek Commons community - 4 rapidly growing baby chicks! Kids took turns bouncing wildly in the bouncy house, played games including a water balloon toss, and got their faces painted. It was good to meet so many families from the neighborhood!

Wisdom for the Way, SpotlightMissional Wisdom FoundationApril 21, 2017easter, community, Karen DoucetteComment

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.

52 Weeks of Neighboring

52 Weeks of Neighboring

by Matt Johnson

We were created in the image of the Triune God, designed to be in meaningful relationships that form community, and we are taught by Jesus to love our neighbors as ourselves. While these truths are good news, living into them is very concrete, sometimes difficult, and easily forgotten. We struggle to love our neighbors.

SoCe Life, a hub of the Missional Wisdom Foundation, is a non-profit organization located in the South-Central neighborhood of Wichita, KS. The founding belief of SoCe Life is that everyone is gifted, and as individuals share their gifts for the benefit of others, they experience wholeness and the community becomes stronger. This belief drives the daily work of SoCe Life, connecting neighbors based on gifts and interests.