How does a missional mindset or perspective impact the way we read Scripture?
How does the Bible speak to and through a missional disciple?
And seriously, what kind of God is God?
It Is Time
by Bret Wells
Since the first cohort in 2011, Launch & Lead (formerly known as The Academy for Missional Wisdom) has been equipping people and teams from all over the US to launch and lead alternative forms of Christian community, and/or provide support to those who do.
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Missional Imagination
What Does Missional Mean?, Week 12
by Andrea Lingle and Bret Wells
The active work of the Missional Wisdom Foundation is lived out through ongoing missional experimentation. These experiments are developed through a conjunction of the contemplative stance and missional imagination.
Imagination is what we experience when a story takes root in our mind. As the tendrils of narrative spread, new regions of brain activity are ignited. Once our imagination is fully
engaged, we not only hear the story but we see the story; we can smell it, taste it, touch
it...experience it.
Model Trains and Tadpoles!
What Does Missional Mean?, Week 11
by Adam White
What do model trains and tadpoles have in common? This newsletter article!
This week we are looking at two stories of missional living from two different communities of faith, a local church and a neo-monastic community.
And We Act
by Bret Wells
Contextual awareness is one of the fundamental aspects of everything we do in the Missional Wisdom Foundation. It is why our training programs – especially Launch & Lead – focus heavily on processes for discernment, maintaining curiosity, asking good questions…and actually listening to people. It is a cornerstone for processes like asset-based community development and universal design. It is why we place a heavy emphasis on coaching, both as a resource we provide and as an essential leadership skill we help cultivate.
Advent
by Bret Wells
Our study of Shawn Small's The Via Advent is officially underway! Below is an excerpt from our online community discussion. It is not too late to join us - everyone is invited! See below for details on how to join the study.
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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?
What Do You Love About This Place?
by Bret Wells
The WNC3 cohort of Launch & Lead met at Haw Creek Commons this weekend for their 3rd training retreat (which means they’ve now completed about 75% of the 2-year program). This event, which focuses on principles and skills related to community development, also functions as a springboard into the practicum phase of Launch & Lead.
So much of what we do in Launch & Lead is designed to help our participants to develop a posture of curiosity, discovery, and expectation as we encounter the world around us. That isn’t to say that we turn a blind eye to, or adopt a naïve dismissal of pain, dysfunction, injustice. On the other hand, we also realize that constantly seeking out and highlighting everything that is wrong is not any more effective or beneficial.