Brave Spaces: Familias Unidas Launches!

Familias Unidas Launches (A Lilly Endowment Initiative!)

This past weekend, we officially launched Familias Unidas (United Families) — a Lilly Endowment funded initiative — and we couldn’t be more excited! For the next five years, we’ll be partnering with local Latino/a communities to curate spaces for parents and children to have meaningful connections and engage in brave conversations around faith, family, and what it means to follow Dios en familia (God in family).

We gathered in Portland, Oregon with a robust group of Latino/a pastors, leaders, and parents to discuss the challenges and hardships that Latino/a families face in the United States. We also explored the unique assets and values that these communities embody, and how they already foster unity, respect, and connection among family members in a transformational manner. Together, we aim to create theologically-robust and culturally-attuned resources to help parents support their children in their formational journey in Christ.

We at Missio Alliance believe that creating models and resources designed not only for, but by minority communities themselves, is a step in the right direction to expand and contextualize the conversation on what it means to cultivate holistic theology and practice in the United States and beyond.

We look forward to sharing with you updates, discoveries, and resources in future newsletters and article posts!

- Gaby Viesca
Director of Programs

Join Us for the Fall 2024 'Why Stay' Retreat - Registration Opens Today

Join us this Autumn in Oceanside, CA for our next Why Stay Retreat. A Why Stay Retreat is a safe space to examine the joys and difficulties you’ve encountered throughout your ministry journey thus far while discovering new energy for your current season, your next call, or your next move. Register now to take advantage of our Early Bird Pricing ($50 in savings!)

Apply Now for Cohort 2 of the Sustaining Women in Ministry Program!

Championing women to fulfill their calling is central to Missio Alliance’s ethos; therefore, we are thrilled to launch a second 6-month cohort in September 2024 to come alongside, equip, and encourage women in the church and ministry. Any woman who is leading in a full or part-time role in Christian ministry is eligible and encouraged to apply. This learning cohort is specifically geared towards women who find themselves alone in ministry and could benefit from professional skills training as well as a supportive network of women leaders. Applications are now open, and are due by July 10th. Spots are limited! For more information, and to apply, visit www.missioalliance.org/womenscohort.

Apply Today!

Formation / Mission / Witness

Assimilation Displaces, and the Church is Complicit | Eun Strawser

"It is not lost on me that my Korean American story has such a keen affinity to my beloved Hawaiian community’s story. It is not lost on me that both of our long-lined and heritage-rich families have endured occupation, loss of language and cultural identity, and a participation as the “other.” I often wonder what the American (and perhaps the extended Western) Church can learn from the stories of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI), whose stories are not separate from the Church but are a part of the history of the American story."

Culture / Justice / Theology / Witness

Standing in the Middle of the World: A Bicultural Story of Finding Belonging | Prasanta Verma

"My sense of not belonging was both outward and inward. Yes, there were some who clearly saw me as someone they couldn’t have community with. And I also had some internal work to do – to feel welcome in my own skin, to accept my ethnicity – something I had wanted to reject for much of my life. A sense of belonging goes both ways, I have since learned."

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Full Partners: Women & Men Serving Together in the Church (Webinar) | Dr. Rob Dixon with Rev. April Fiet and Host Lisa Rodriguez-Watson: $1.99

How do churches ensure they aren’t just talking about women and men together in ministry but are actually cultivating spaces where women and men can flourish in leadership together? Join Rev. April Fiet, Dr. Rob Dixon, and Host Lisa Rodriguez-Watson as they provide a roadmap for making the shift towards full partnership as women and men serve together in the church. They will introduce a five-step process that churches can use as they shift their theology and practice to one that fully empowers women in ministry.

Download Now!

Empty Nest: How a Ritual Helps Us Process the Losses and Gains of Our Kids Leaving Home

In my book Meaning in the Moment, I include a ritual for ‘After An Important Person Leaves.’ It is a great one to use for marking the empty nest. In fact, I wish I did something like it when my kids started full-time public school. It’s not only for kids leaving, but also for a friend moving across the country. I remember a quote from a book I read years ago while I was living in Paraguay: “Leaving a friend is like a death; it calls for grieving.” I wish I knew who wrote it because my life experience has proved its truth.

Here are three things that an Empty Nest Ritual requires:

An Empty Nest Ritual requires community. Enacted with friends, it invites others into the joy and grief so they can journey with us well in our new family season.
An Empty Nest Ritual requires thoughtful reflection. There are benefits of the relationship with our children that continue in spite of their newfound distance apart from us, and those that are lost due to the distance. Spending time distinguishing the two will be critical for your family to enter into a new season.
An Empty Nest Ritual requires symbols. Things like a treasured family photo of all of us together, and candles to symbolize the light of the life of the person(s) who left help us remember the benefits that continue, and those that are lost.

We want to release our kids to journey bravely into the world, to become fully themselves in maturing into whomever God wants them to be. An ‘Empty Nest Ritual’ helps us empower them to do just that. It also helps us process the myriad of emotions parents experience as their beloved children leave the safety of the family nest.

~Amy Davis Abdallah, excerpted from “Empty Nest: How a Ritual Helps Us Process the Losses and Gains of Our Kids Leaving Home,”