Coming to the Table

by Justin Hancock with Lisa Hancock

Growing up in a medium-sized, almost rural, West Texas town, the kitchen table played a prominent role. It doesn’t matter if it was sitting down for Sunday dinner at my great-grandparents’ house, with what felt like a billion relatives to my 5-year-old sensibilities, or rolling up to the table as the smell of homemade Chex Mix that my mother had just taken out of the oven filtered through the house during the Christmas holidays. The kitchen, and more specifically the kitchen table, has exerted an almost primal hold on the most tender part of my heart for as long as I can remember.

The Dance of Community

The Dance of Community

by Wendy Miller

As we prepare to begin a new series of devotional thoughts in a couple of weeks, we have asked some Missional Wisdom Foundation staff members to share some thoughts with us.

Living in intentional community is a dance. I took ballroom dance lessons when I was thirteen. My older brother did just fine. I fretted over what step my partner planned next and felt tight—anxious. Not fun.

Conclusion - One Year

Conclusion - One Year:
The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 10

by Andrea Lingle

This journey into the life of the Spirit has been both revealing and cursory. I could sit and type for years and never nail down the proper metaphor. There is no book to study, no theology to memorize, no sage to question that could reveal the truth of the Spirit. We could never meditate or contemplate long enough or well enough to truly see what the Spirit is.

Receiving the Spirit with Humility

Receiving the Spirit with Humility:
The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 9

by Adam White

Which do you prefer, giving or receiving?

For me, I would much rather give than receive. I have gotten better with this over the years, but my preference to giving and my aversion to receiving are two issues I still wrestle with every so often. It is not that receiving something from others, be it help, complements, or a gift, is above me. I get that we all need help, remember?

Freedom from Failure

Freedom from Failure:
The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 8

by Adam White

Nobody likes to fail.

Even just reflecting on the words “fail” or “failure” bring back memories from school assignments, sports performances, and life moments that still find ways to linger in my mind. You have heard of a cloud of witnesses; I think of this as a cloud of failures. I think we each have our own cloud of failures that arise and follow us around during certain periods of time. This cloud can stay with us for quite a while if we let it hover over us and pour down things like doubt, insecurity, and fear.

One in the Spirit

One in the Spirit:
The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 7

by Adam White
It may be hard to admit, but I have not always paid the closest of attention to the lyrics and meanings behind the hymns and songs that are sung in church. However, in the last year discovering their meaning has been a practice I have attempted to grow as a form of prayer. Regarding our missional relationship with God’s Spirit, I don’t think there is a song that better captures that dynamic than the hymn “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love.”1

It has everything! Within the hymn text we find the unity of our identity within the Spirit and a prayer that our worldly divisions might be restored...

Living In, Guided By...

Living In, Guided By, and Bearing Fruit of the Spirit:

The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 6

by Adam White

We all need help.

I do not know specific predicaments you may face, but needing help is a truth for all of us. I don’t think I truly embraced the reality that I needed help, holistically, until I met, and committed my life in sacred union with my partner, Blair.

Hear me out—I knew I needed help before that time and sought support from others for certain issues that surfaced throughout my life. For instance, I desperately needed help with math during high school and sought out a tutor—Thanks, Mrs. Pyle, for making sense out of Algebra for an ADHD teenager, no easy task! Or when I struggled with the pain of my mother’s suffering due to dementia, I needed support from friends, family, and ultimately a counselor.

Joining the Dance

Joining the Dance:
The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 5

by Andrea Lingle

How, then, shall we live?

For me this is the central question of all theology. If we spend ten breaths talking about what the Spirit of God is, we should spend ten hundred talking about how that understanding should shape our behavior and ten thousand walking, along with Christ, doing whatever it is that our theology calls forth from us.

Truly, how, then, shall we live?

The Holy Spirit is like the breath.

The Holy Spirit is like the womb.

The Holy Spirit is in the swirl of the Trinity's dance.

The Womb

The Womb
The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 4
by Andrea Lingle

When I was a kid, I could beat seminarians in Bible trivia. It depended on the version, but most of the time, I could win against a team. This was not the social boon you might imagine. I read through the entire Bible, including the genealogies, before I was twelve. I memorized piles of Bible verses. Incidentally, many of them focused on obedience and kindness; well played, Mom, well played. I had the answers. I could recite creeds, prayers, and doctrines, and I knew they would keep me safe.

The Breath

The Breath
The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 3

By Andrea Lingle

Do you know what I find frustrating? When people tell me to try something without a great deal of explanation. I want to know what I should be looking for. I want to know what I am in for. I want to know.

But that is not how we learn to breathe is it? When you emerged into the world, covered in the paraphernalia of birth, you had one task: to breathe. You coughed, snorted, and wolfed down lungs full of the one thing your body cannot go an hour without. Air.

The Dance

The Dance
The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 2
By Andrea Lingle

You know those moments in life that expose you for the faker you are?

I have no clear understanding of the Trinity.

There. I said it.

I have an understanding of God as an unknowable entity to whose operations we apply different names.

God is...

A Life and Death Matter...

A Life and Death Matter of the Holy Spirit

The Active Presence of the Holy Spirit, Week 1

By Adam White

“Theology is truly a matter of life and death.”

This is what my then-professor, Dr. Joerg Rieger, said to all of us students on the first day of our Systematic Theology class at Perkins School of Theology in the fall of 2012. My immediate reaction was thinking – “I don’t think I signed up for the right course…I wonder if there is enough time to still swap classes. I hear Prayer and Spirituality is being offered this semester.”

Journey

Journey
by Robert Bishop

We at the Missional Wisdom Foundation have struggled with our elevator pitch almost since the beginning.

How does one describe all of Missional Wisdom’s various projects?

Our work touches a lot of people in a lot of ways and in a lot of places, and it can be hard to connect all of the pieces without a whole lot of explanation. We tried various metaphors to describe our mission in general terms, but never quite hit on a summative image.

Recently, we settled on a single, simple sentence:

Devotional, Wisdom for the WayMissional Wisdom FoundationFebruary 22, 2017journey, experiment, learning, Launch & Lead, Robert BishopComment

A Practice of Photography

A Practice of Photography
by Ryan Klinck

As we prepare to begin a new series of devotional thoughts in a couple of weeks, we are taking this time to spotlight some new work of several Missional Wisdom Foundation staff members.

This past semester at Perkins School of Theology, I led groups of students through a spiritual practice that I designed for a final project in my Spiritual Practices and Pathways class. This spiritual practice interwove aspects of lectio divina, silence, iconography, and film photography into prayer space. Many students were moved by the experience, especially during a time when they were overwhelmed with finals.

Retrospective

Retrospective
The Rule of Life, Week 16
By Andrea Lingle

I commit to this rule of life and to the well-being of this community, out of gratitude to God who forgives, heals, and makes all things new. May my life be a blessing within and beyond God’s church, for the transformation of the world.
-From the MWF Rule of Life

So, we did it. We talked about a Rule of Life for sixteen consecutive weeks.

And I think it has changed my life.

Devotional, Wisdom for the WayAndrea LingleFebruary 8, 2017Rule of Life, Theme III, Andrea Lingle, spiritual practiceComment

The Importance of Witness

The Importance of Witness
The Rule of Life, Week 15
by Adam White

We will share the redeeming, healing, creative love of God in word, deed and presence as an invitation to others to experience the transforming love of God
-From the MWF Rule of Life

You are a witness.

Really, you are! For instance, you are currently giving witness by way of reading a weekly devotional, for which we are very appreciative.

Devotional, Wisdom for the WayAdam WhiteFebruary 1, 2017Adam White, Theme III, Rule of Life, witness, Simple HarmonyComment

Pursuing Justice

Pursuing Justice
The Rule of Life, Week 14
By Adam White

We will pursue peace with justice
-From the MWF Rule of Life

If you could live at anytime in history, when and where would it be? Who would you want to see? What would you do? Why?

As a once-student-of-history, these are the questions I still find time to dream about. Me? What period of time and location in history would I want to visit? Be careful asking that--this newsletter is supposed to be short!

Devotional, Wisdom for the WayAdam WhiteJanuary 25, 2017Adam White, justice, Rule of Life, Theme III, peace, Simple Harmony, WesleyComment

Reflecting the Light Inside

Reflecting the Light Inside
The Rule of Life, Week 13
By Adam White

We will practice racial, gender, and other forms of reconciliation wherever we find sinful and destructive walls of division between people
-From the MWF Rule of Life

The first toy I ever remember playing with as a child was a glass triangular prism. I used to lie on the ground by the window on sunny days and play with the prism, refracting the light that was coming through the sun onto different surfaces. Sometimes, I’ll admit, I would shine the light into the eyes of my older siblings and parents. What captivated me most about this tiny, seemingly insignificant glass object was how the light could be refracted and present an array of colors that could change shape.

Devotional, Wisdom for the WayAdam WhiteJanuary 18, 2017Adam White, Rule of Life, Theme III, reconciliationComment

Enough

Enough
The Rule of Life, Week 12
by Andrea Lingle

We will practice regular Sabbath as a means of renewal so that we can lovingly serve God and neighbor
-From the MWF Rule of Life

Sabbath is a word that, for me, used to sound a lot like restriction. It might be a strange pronunciation, but it was not until I found myself practicing Sabbath in the context of community that Sabbath manifested itself into the practices of rest and freedom that truly reflect this ancient directive.

Wisdom for the Way, DevotionalAndrea LingleJanuary 11, 2017Rule of Life, Theme III, Andrea Lingle, SabbathComment

Ring-aRound-the-Rosies

Ring-aRound-the-Rosies
The Rule of Life, Week 11
by Andrea Lingle

We will practice mutual accountability with a covenant group within the community, for how we serve God and neighbor
-From the MWF Rule of Life

Ring around the rosies,

I resemble my parents and my children resemble me. The writers of the creation accounts included in the Torah made it clear that human-kind resembles its Creator.

Devotional, Wisdom for the WayAndrea LingleJanuary 4, 2017Rule of Life, Andrea Lingle, Theme IIIComment