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** Year-End Reflection: Holy Disruption
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As the year draws to a close, and we round out a season of thanks, we invite you to join us in pausing to reflect on the holy disruption we cultivated in 2023 as Missio Alliance. After a pandemic hiatus from our biennial Awakenings Gathering ([link removed]) , we reconvened in the Chicagoland area to explore the timely theme of “Disruption in the Life of the Church. ([link removed]) ” Nearly 400 of you attended this gathering in late April, where we offered 26 workshops and 5 plenary sessions diving deep into our central pillars of formation, justice, and mission. Together we sat under the spell-binding teaching of 48 (!) speakers from a wide range of backgrounds who helped us live into our mission ([link removed]) of inviting Christian leaders to a generative, expansive, intercultural network that cultivates a holistic theology and practice. The brave spaces
we fostered together resulted in generative conversations that sparked imagination for how the Church can be a holy disrupter and truer witness in our world.

Building on our legacy of championing women in ministry leadership, we launched our first-ever Sustaining Women in Ministry Leadership cohort ([link removed]) in August. This cohort is a holy disruption to the narratives and systems that undermine women’s callings, and the beauty of God’s design for women and men in mutual leadership in the church. This inaugural cohort includes 10 women from a variety of denominations, ministry backgrounds, and ethnicities who are journeying together for 6 months, and who are receiving vital training, encouragement, community, and mentorship to sustain them in their work.

We stirred the waters of holy disruption with 8 Christian leaders at the Why Stay Retreat ([link removed]) in Malibu in October. These leaders meaningfully and courageously examined the joys and difficulties they encountered throughout their ministry journey in order to rediscover God’s fresh invitation to co-labor with him. In doing so, they disrupted the “grind mentality” so consistently venerated by American culture – sadly, often embedded deeply within American Christian culture - and instead experienced Jesus’ “unforced rhythms of grace” (Matthew 11:28-30, MSG).

All this to say – Thank you for helping us make this a year of holy disruption. In the coming weeks, we will be inviting you to give financially to the ongoing work of Missio Alliance in 2024 and beyond. We will provide specific initiatives to support, but if you’d like to give today, you can do so at this link right now! ([link removed])

Grateful for your partnership,

Lisa Rodriguez-Watson

National Director, Missio Alliance
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** Info Session for Writing Fellows Cohort - Dec. 7th, 2pm ET
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Anchored by a diverse group of Leading Voices and a featured Writing Team, Missio Alliance is excited to announce the launch of our second Writing Fellows Cohort in Winter '24. This expansion will bring our Writing Collective back to three integrated writing teams.

Do you desire to hone your voice through the communal craft of writing within a small cohort of like-minded people? Register here ([link removed]) for our upcoming information session on Tuesday, December 7th at 2pm.
Register Here ([link removed])
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** Formation / Mission / Witness
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** Embodied Spiritual Formation for the Mothering Pastor ([link removed])
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Pastor and Mother Alyssa Bell asks a critical question in this piece – Namely, how does a pastor mother her children? Said another way, how does a mother pastor her congregation? Wrestle alongside Alyssa in your own seemingly conflicting roles as you seek to integrate your vocational and familial callings with fidelity before God.

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** Culture / Witness
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** Single in the Church: How Church Practices Are Including or Excluding Single Adults ([link removed])
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Rev. Dr. Jen Ashby writes compellingly about the inherent value single people within the Church bring to the health of our faith communities. Being single is living as a 'threshold person,' to quote Danielle Treweek's recent work. What can the Church do to pursue radical inclusion of single people in a culture that elevates marriage above most anything else?

Browse All Our Articles ([link removed])
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** Managing Leadership Anxiety | Steve Cuss ([link removed])
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Ep. 190 - Self-Care for the Holidays
Many leaders and people in caregiving vocations are notorious for focusing on others to the detriment of well-being. Steve Cuss is joined by his wife, Lisa, as they discuss core self-care tools as we approach the holiday season. Self-care, in our field, is fundamentally about relaxing into God’s presence, not about self-nurture or self-improvement.

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** Everyday Mission | Gina Mueller ([link removed])
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Episode 42: WORSHIP
Co-host Grace Maconochie joins Gina Mueller to talk about the intersection of worship and discipleship with Sol and Kali Grimes. Sol and Kali oversee The Gospel House in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, which is a prayer and worship ministry that primarily works with the emerging generation of young adults in the Midwest dedicated to ministering to the Lord.
Browse All Our Podcasts ([link removed])
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The State of the Church in America” (Awakenings ’23 Plenary Video) - $4.99 ([link removed])

Featuring Tracey Mathews on “Contemplation,” David Fitch on “Postmodernity,” Oneya Okuwobi on “Race and Equity,” J.R. Woodward on “Church Planting,” and Charles Self with a “Historical Retrospective.”

Awakenings 2023: “Disruption in the Life of the Church” (Awakenings ‘23 Conference Bundle)- $49.99 ([link removed])

Featuring 16 plenary speakers on video, including Dr. Soong-Chan Rah on “Prophetic Lament,” Dr. Natasha Sistrunk Robinson on “Lament and Joy,” and Dr. Alan Hirsch on “Metanoia: Wholehearted Change,” among others; and 18 workshops on audio, including Ben Sternke and Matt Tebbe on “Deconstruction” and a panel on “The Future of the Global Church: Voices from the Global South.”
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“Hungry People and Full People” (Dr. Oneya Okuwobi): Article excerpt from “The State of the Church in America” - FREE ([link removed])

A recent article excerpt of Dr. Oneya Okuwobi’s mini-plenary at Awakenings ‘23.
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Why Stay Retreat: April/May 2024 ([link removed])

Holding space and giving Christian leaders permission to ask brave and hard questions of God and themselves is an important part of our work. The Why Stay Retreat will give you a safe space to examine the joys and difficulties you’ve encountered throughout your ministry journey and discover new energy for your next season, call, or move. The retreat schedule is thoughtfully designed to incorporate moments of rest and enjoyment. Additionally, it includes invitations for deep engagement with topics like disruption, awareness, awakening, integration, and incarnation.

Fill out the interest form ([link removed]) to receive information on our next retreat.
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Table Talks: Spring 2024 ([link removed])

Table Talks are regional gatherings to facilitate meaningful connections and courageous conversations among local leaders. At Missio Alliance, our desire is not only to provide theologically-robust and culturally relevant content and resources for the church, but also to come alongside local communities as they contextualize and implement these resources, and cultivate an imagination for holistic witness in their local settings. We believe that a great place to start is at the table.


** Year-End Examen
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Adele Calhoun writes, “The Prayer of Examen provides a way of noticing where God shows up in our day. It is a practice that attends to what we might otherwise miss in the press of duties and busyness. The questions of the examen open our attention to how God’s internal movement is present in our external comings and goings. They lead us to listen deeply to the data of our lives. Once these things are known, they become part of our ongoing interaction with God in prayer.” (Calhoun, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, p. 53).

As 2023 draws to a close, creating intentional space in prayer to attend to God’s internal movement in our lives and your own heart’s responsiveness to God’s loving presence is critical. The Prayer of Examen can look as simple as time spent in quiet contemplation of the following questions:

* For what experience this year am I most grateful? Least grateful?
* When did I feel the most alive this past year? The most life draining out of me?
* When did I have the greatest sense of belonging to God, myself, and others? The least sense of belonging?
* What is God speaking to me about this past year? What do I need to hear as I approach 2024?

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