Gifts for the Common Good of the Spirit
The Rule of Life, Week 9
by Adam White
We will use our spiritual gifts, talents and abilities to serve God within and beyond this community
-From the MWF Rule of Life
There are natural gifts and then there are learned gifts. If you ever wanted to find a way to understand what your natural gifts are and what gifts you can develop, then intentional monastic community is the place for you!
Caring Together for God's Gift of Creation
The Rule of Life, Week 8
by Adam White
We will honor and care for the gift of the earth and its resources, practicing ecologically responsible living, striving for simplicity rather than excessive consumption.
-From the MWF Rule of Life
“Debt” is a word that often makes me cringe. I think it is because throughout my life, and probably yours, there have been numerous warnings to stay away from debt. For instance, to have financial debt is to be in a lower position, having to owe money to someone or something.
Reclaiming Wonder
by Rachel Wells
Though I was raised in a devout Christian home, our faith tradition did not really practice or observe Advent. Which is why, as a child - and even into adulthood - I did not understand much about this season of anticipation. My exposure was pretty much limited to the calendar that hung in our living room, with a cookie for each of us kids nestled in the numbered pocket for each day of December.
Read MoreFamily Dinnner
The Rule of Life, Week 7
by Andrea Lingle
We will be hospitable to our faith community through participation in our worship, fellowship and mission.
-From the MWF Rule of Life
In my past I have thought of the word hospitable as something that you did that was larger than life. Hospitality was having a perfectly decorated Christmas tree. Hospitality was a clean house and a perfect meal. Hospitality emanated from the same ethos as glossy magazines and could be offered as soon as the pillows on your couch were in order.
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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.
Read MoreNot Alone
The Rule of Life, Week 6
by Andrea Lingle
We will be hospitable to our neighbors in our families, neighborhoods and workplaces.
-From the MWF Rule of Life
Being hospitable is something that is absurdly simple and yet overwhelmingly hard. Where is the line between hospitality and recklessness?
Harvest Time
by Maria Bergh, former resident of the Epworth project
As fall finally settles in and the harvest slows, I find myself grateful. My summer months were spent on Mustard Seed Community Farm, a part of the Catholic Worker Movement. This began during the Great Depression when a journalist named Dorothy Day met a teacher named Peter Maurin and they started talking and publishing their vision.
Read MoreThe Contemplative Stance
The Rule of Life, Week 5
by Andrea Lingle
We will practice a contemplative stance in order to be present to the world and ourselves.
-From the MWF Rule of Life
How are you here? How are you absent? Do you believe that contemplation is a good use of time?
When a pilot is learning to fly in low visibility conditions, he or she is instructed to disregard the sensation of being upright and rely on the gyroscope. Without visual reference, a person cannot tell which way is up. That is why divers tell you to follow your bubbles.
The Paloma House, a part of the Epworth Project
By House Steward and Resident, Lauren Roepken
At The Paloma house in Arlington, TX we outreach directly to the women at The Wesley at The University of Texas at Arlington. Every Monday evening we have a group of about 20 women (yes you read that right - 20 college women in one house) over for dinner, dessert, games, and a beautiful time of fellowship.
Read MoreThe Struggle and Grace of Mutual Accountability
The Rule of Life, Week 4
by Adam White
We live in a world that struggles with accountability. The kind of accountability being addressed here can be defined as the sacred thread of mutual support that pierces through our individual self, others, and God. Our struggle with accountability though, really shouldn’t come as a surprise or shock us.
Read MoreU9TED
by Lindsay Simmons, owner of Clear Media Design
[We have] a choice to make. I’m not talking about [yesterday,] election day, I’m talking about [today], the day after, November 9th.
We will have to choose how we react and move forward. No matter the outcome, our nation will be divided. Some will be bitter and negative, some will be arrogant and condescending, and some will be disgusted with the whole thing.
Read MorePraying in a Variety of Forms
The Rule of Life, Week 3
by Adam White
We will use a variety of forms of prayer
- From the MWF Rule of Life
The wonderful thing about prayer is that every person will bring to it her or his own unique emphasis, style, and rhythm. Bringing these individual practices into a house or group of persons who come together in prayer offers an intriguing and, at the same time, challenging space to embrace. Questions begin to arise like, “How do I personally and passionately connect to God while sharing with others?”
New MWF Leader, Heidi Miller
I remember helping my mother bake thumb-print cookies at our kitchen table when I was four years old. We would form a ball of dough, place it on the baking sheet and press our thumb into the center. It required lots of practice to my untrained hands as my little thumb would press a hole in the dough just far enough to form a small round bowl so that a bit of strawberry jam could be spooned in. Eagerly, I awaited the warm cookies to emerge from the oven so that I could share them. We made a lot of thumb-print cookies when I was little. Lots. You see, those were the cookies through which I could enter into the baking process at four years old, being a part of a community of baking and cooking in our family and extending that to others.
Read MorePrayer, God's Daily Multivitamin of the Holy Spirit
The Rule of Life, Week 2
by Adam White
What expectations and intentions are you bringing into prayer?
Be honest now! Prayer can be a difficult subject to approach because of the weight of the expectations and intentions we carry with us.
Read MoreNew MWF Leader, Denise Crane
I am Denise Crane, one of the new leaders of the Missional Wisdom Foundation. I should probably start by explaining that I hate being in the spotlight. It’s just not my cup of tea. That said, after I got over the knot in my stomach at being asked to write about myself for this week’s spotlight, I realized that it gives me an amazing opportunity to talk about how wonderful it is to get to walk with these people who make up the Missional Wisdom Foundation and all the other people who journey alongside us. That is worth talking about!
Read MoreWill I? Will You?
The Rule of Life, Week 1
by Andrea Lingle
For the next several months, we will be looking at our Rule of Life. A Rule of Life is a set of intentional practices that an individual or group adopts as a guide for living.
Missional Wisdom Foundation has a lovely Rule of Life.
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?
As we prepare to begin a new series of devotional thoughts in a couple of weeks, we are going to do sometime a little different. For the next two issues we will be telling you about some books by our Missional Wisdom leaders that will be published soon.
Together: Community as a Means of Grace
by Larry Duggins
Over the past several months, I have had the opportunity to travel to a number of cities to meet with people who are interested in repurposing a church building to be used to connect with the neighborhood in new ways.
Bonhoeffer House
by Ryan Klinck
Bonhoeffer House, an Epworth House in East Dallas, has been going through a transformation this past summer. One of the original members and the house steward of the house, Adam White, transitioned out of the house to be married (hooray!) at the beginning of the summer. The remaining members began to pay attention and pray together about this new season the house found itself in.
Read MoreEmbraced
The Missional Community as a Means of Grace, Week 9
by Andrea Lingle
It was a late summer Sunday morning. All my kids had been delivered to their Sunday school classes at the Methodist church we attend.
My oldest was given his third grade Bible at the morning service. I showed him mine before we left for church. I took his picture. My second wore a dazzling, jeweled dress. Her golden blonde hair isn’t combed. Third-child-second-son has just moved out of the nursery area. He is both proud and nervous. I assure him that he will be fine. Baby wails as I close the door of the nursery.
