What People are Saying About the Missional Wisdom Foundation

"I am deeply appreciative of the work Elaine Heath and the Missional Wisdom Foundation are providing to our mainline denominations.  It is a vibrant and vital outlet of evangelism in the Wesleyan tradition and the opportunity to move from the attractional church model to the missional model.  It just may be one of the experiments that brings salvation to our UMC denomination."

Bishop Grant Hagiya
Oregon-Idaho Conference, Pacific Northwest Conference,  Alaska Conference
United Methodist Church

"The work of the Missional Wisdom Foundation captures my imagination because the initiative to establish missional communities speak to this moment in the life of the church that is so ripe for opportunity, so open to resurrections and so full of longing. As a historian of this crazy, huge family called Christianity, I know that the whole communion of saints stands with us, to accompany us with wisdom as we seek the way forward for God’s life in the world. The work of the Missional Wisdom Foundation is marked by this ancient-future family, and draws me to participate. As I hear about exploring monastic forms for intentional community, about deep worship and justice practices that emerge from community, about pilgrimage as a way for leadership, and about learning for practical holiness, my heart leaps."

Amy G. Oden
Professor of History of Christianity
Wesley Theological Seminary

"New Day Communities offer an opportunity for Christian worship and relationships that are rare in larger institutional church structures. The radical inclusion of New Day congregations and their location in places of greatest need help us see Scripture in ways that are less encumbered by the cultural captivity of any one perspective. The highly participatory worship of these communities offers a safe space for relationships among cultures, socio-ecoomic groups, and generations and brings the communal meal of our faith, the Eucharist, back to the center of our common life together. In a culture that seeks for solutions among the largest and most visible institutions, New Day Communities remind us that truth and authenticity may also be found where tiny mustard seeds are just beginning to sprout."

C. Michael Hawn, D.M.A.
University Distinguished Professor of Church Music
Director, Sacred Music Program
Perkins School of Theology  |  Southern Methodist University

"The Missional Wisdom Foundation is a gift from God partnering with our conference in leadership development for a new church in a dramatically transforming culture.  Among its many strengths in the ability to weld spiritual formation in its fullest aspects of personal and social holiness with deep theological reflection and integrity."

Bishop Mike Lowry
Central Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church

"Elaine Heath and the Missional Wisdom Foundation have caught the spirit of the early Methodist movement.  They have taken to heart John Wesley’s challenge – 'to reform the nation, particularly the Church; and to spread scriptural holiness over the land.' (Question 3, The Large Minutes, 1872). Anyone who longs for a reformed and renewed church, can find hope in the vision of Elaine Heath and Missional Wisdom Foundation."

Rebekah Miles
Professor of Ethics and Practical Theology
Perkins School of Theology|  Southern Methodist University

"Elaine Heath is one of the visible signs of God's grace in the United Methodist Church.  She has reflected on the possibilities for renewal in our movement, and has tapped into the missional and monastic currents that flow deeply within us, when we are at our best.  She also has a powerful testimony that resonates with many who have almost given up on the institutional church, and she is calling all of us to a different, a more hopeful and a more faithful future."

Bishop Ken Carter
Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church

"The new monastic communities of the Epworth Project and New Day are a very fruitful answer to the most urgent and essential challenge to be dealt with by all churches in this new century: rediscovering the beauty of a contemplative, common prayer and of a simple, joyful, and merciful common life.  These kinds of communities support the blossoming of a loving relationship with God from which we draw the inner strength to make life more beautiful for those who live around us."

Brother Emmanuel
Taize, France

What People are Saying About MWF Programs:

"I just want to say that the courses and the things you all have put together is really good and far exceeds any other program or ministry like it. Annual conferences would be stupid not to take what you guys have done and fully apply it in their geographical context. Thank you."

David Byers-Dent
Launch & Lead student

“It is imperative that Haw Creek Commons is a field education placement next summer. The lessons I learned there, the experiences I had, and the people I met have truly changed my life and the life of my families in a beneficial way. My understanding of ministry and outreach is forever changed for the better, and I cannot stress enough the importance of this place as an educational hub for seminary students going through field education.”

Patrick Neitzey
Duke University M.Div.'18 (via Duke Divinity Magazine Fall '17, pg 9)