Improv classes are a constant stream of new discovery and activity. A new warm up is taught to the group, we learn it and try it, we practice and stumble. Someone messes up in the warm-up exercise, a rhythm gets off, someone whooshes instead of pows, laughter ensues. After all, we are standing in a circle ready with playful, silly energy.
Read MoreOn July 8, 2018, a group of 22 people from different faith traditions gathered at FUMC Colleyville for a Peace Together theatrical improvisation workshop hosted by Wendi Bernau of the Missional Wisdom Foundation and facilitated by Kyle Austin of the Dallas Comedy House.
Read MoreListening is a key component to effective communication in improv, to the work of collaboratively making scenes up on the spot.
Read MoreCome see what is happening at Haw Creek Commons.
Read MoreIt scares me to go out on stage.
Read MoreI first went to The Dietrich Bonhoeffer House, an intentional Christian community of the Missional Wisdom Foundation's Epworth Project located in Old East Dallas, in December of 2016.
Read MoreYou already belong. Be who you are.
Read MoreLast week, I had the privilege of traveling with my wife and our friend, Ryan Klinck, to just outside of Philadelphia to participate in the opening worship service of the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference.
Read MoreImprovised comedy begins with “Yes, and.”
Yes.
I agree to the name you just gave me, the relationship you clarified, and to the situation you established.
And.
UMC LEAD is excited to announce that registration and the speaker application for the 8th annual LEAD Conference are now open. This year’s conference will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana from January 13th-16th, 2019. The host hotel will be The Troubadour and the host church will be St. Mark's UMC.
As a personal spiritual discipline of late, I have been taking improv comedy classes at the Dallas Comedy House. In improv class we begin with a few warm-ups. They move the body and get the blood flowing, they help lower our defenses and embrace the playfulness of the environment, they get us engaged. They help us practice saying yes, being present, and supporting one another.
Read MoreI thought of the many times I had puzzled over the ancient Sunday Gospel Reading Cycle. I had prayed the cycle for many years; I found it deeply meaningful and loved it profoundly.
Read MoreMatthew’s gospel was written to the Messianic Jews of Antioch two to five years after the destruction of the Great Temple of Jerusalem and the massacre of all its priests. The Temple, its rules and priests had represented the center of their lives, and now many were certain that God had abandoned them.
Read MoreEyes blinded by tears—more than that—blinded by fear, blinded by dreams crushed as fine as the dust under her feet as she walks.
Read MoreThe Ahadi Collective hosted a Meet the Makers event on Memorial Day weekend to engage with the community and share their work, products, and stories. Promotion began weeks before through multiple avenues and platforms.
Read MoreThe highest point on the island of Iona is a peak called Dùn I (I = “ee”). While this climb, and the accompanying 360 degree island view, is available to anyone, pilgrims climb it as part of their pilgrimage around the island. It serves as a celebration point, a mountaintop moment, for it can be difficult to scale, and even harder, sometimes, to then find your way back down.
Read MoreFor the space at the table
We celebrate and give thanks
For the stories that arrive
Important to be heard
For the bellies and hearts that come hungry
Hoping to be filled
To set the table is to commit to grace.
A set table implies a willingness to believe that our needs will be met.
At the table, the nutritional needs of the body will be supplied by the production of the earth.
Read MoreThe great promise of the table is that we are invited to join in holy community/communion with family.
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