Why MWF? Wendi Bernau

By Wendi Bernau

I love the MWF words “alternative Christian community.”
    
I was not brought up going to church, but as a teenager I longed for community. I found Jesus and was baptized and formed in Christian living by a small congregation in a very conservative denomination. After graduate school, I took a job at a large church as director of the orchestra and married a pastor. Twelve years later when we divorced, I faced two intense and significant personal tasks: a massive reconsideration of all my embedded theology and a discernment of how to follow my call to ministry as a woman who had just been, for all practical purposes, excommunicated. I eventually began the ordination process myself in another denomination but found that even though I was thrilled to be actively developing an innovative spiritual arts program, conventional congregational ministry wasn’t for me. Honestly, I don’t even like church services. This is when I found the Missional Wisdom Foundation or Missional Wisdom found me—I suppose it depends on your point of view. I prefer to believe the Holy Spirit brought us together. When the time was right, it shimmered. 
    
With the Missional Wisdom Foundation, I’ve had the opportunity and the flexibility to follow my curiosity, and been given the freedom to continue to chase my favorite question: “what if we…?” I love that we work in complexity, embody collaborative leadership, and honor collective intelligence. I value the skills and fabulousness of my colleagues, knowing they are all committed to excellence, dignity, and sustainable practices for self and one another.
    
Through the Missional Wisdom Foundation, I am able to follow my calling, continue to envision all kinds of programs and possibilities, authentically live out my life’s work even when it takes a sharp turn, and retain the unconventional nature of my personal habits and spirituality. I am truly grateful for the opportunities to dream and develop new plans, offer high-participation programs and retreats, and create and co-create together with a diversity of people and faith.