We are a community on a mission to train the heads, the hearts, and the hands of leaders in their local contexts to love their cities and seek their peace. At the 2021 Institute, we talked about how we keep doing this work in this moment in history that we find ourselves in.
It's been a tradition at past Institutes to do a vision trip of whatever context we find ourselves gathered in. It's a simple methodology that assumes God is at work in all things, even and especially the hardest things. Together, we used this methodology of mapping the hurt, the hope, and the heart, and applied it to our network, which is held together by our shared vocation and call.
To learn more about conducting a Vision Trip in your context, visit the course A Guide for Leading a Vision Trip.
One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?" Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." Then the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that 'he is one, and besides him there is no other'; and 'to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,' and 'to love one's neighbor as oneself,' --this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that no one dared to ask him any question.
“We do not, on the map of hurt, walk in a linear fashion. But if we allow the incarnation of Christ to lead us in our vocational call, as I believe Christ was trying to do with his disciples throughout the entire Gospel of Mark, then love leads into hurt but hurt draws strength from love and brings us back to the source of all love and it keeps on going and keeps on going. [...] But if love thy neighbor is to be read as a circle with hurt on its diameter, then we intuitively acknowledge that suffering and mapping the hurt is part of our vocational journey of love.”
-Jenna Smith, Senior Fellow (Listen to the full reflection)
What wounds, doubts, or failures have we sustained in the call to form leaders for this moment in history?
- Doubts about vocation
- Increasing polarization and division
- Loneliness, isolation, physical separation
- Burnout of leaders
- Death, loss
- Fear, anxiety
- Voicelessness, powerlessness
- Power, privilege, inequality
- Labeled a traitor, broken relationship
- Theological wounds
How is this good news? Where is the Spirit at work?
- Bringing people together, common humanity
- Creativity, new opportunity, revelation
- The spirit at work among us, third-way solutions
- Gifts of the desert
- Wounds wake us up
- Christ is with us in our suffering
Small Groups: Mapping the Hurt
“How do I move where the compassionate reaction of that is wrought of my discipleship in Jesus, and following this great commandment to love my neighbor as myself, even if I don't like my neighbor? Even if my neighbor is doing the worst things to not only me but to other people, how do I proceed in a world where compassion and love are normalized instead of anger and contempt?”
-Ojii Baba Madi, Ordained (Listen to the full reflection)
What Signs of Hope have we seen in our shared call to form leaders for this moment in history?
- Sharing of resources
- Young people/the next generation of leaders
- Hope is mingled with darkness
- Increasing creativity & new forms of church
- Living out our shared vocation and commitment to this vocation
- Change is happening and slow change is real
- Gratitude for a community, this one and others
- Increasing solidarity, unity, and connection
- Anger to empathy, unplug from outrage
- Increasing inclusion
Small Groups: Mapping the Hope
Ordination Service
“Gracious God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of Life, have mercy on us. Reveal yourself in all things, to all things, and through all things. Grant us the gift of becoming a community of the Incarnation—mystery of Word made flesh—who sees and celebrates Good News in hard places. Give us the tongue of a teacher to sustain the weary with a word, and mobilize leaders from all walks of life to love their city and seek its peace with the Gospel of Jesus.”
-From Street Psalms’ Prayer of Vocation
Watch the rest of the Ordination Service
Congratulations to the new ordinands:
- Irene Wanjiru, Nairobi
- Susan Hudacek, Tacoma
- Patricia Thompson, White Center
- Jacynthe Vaillancourt, Montreal
- Jenna Smith, Montreal
- Annette Aguilar, Guatemala City
- Lana Rocke, Tacoma
- Jessica Louwerse, Anchorage
- Joel Aguilar, Guatemala City
- Paul Patu, Seattle
- Josh Louwerse, Anchorage
- Chris Williams, Phoenix
- Fred Laceda, Manila
- DJ Vincent, Salem
- Hultner Estrada, Managua
- Esau Oreso, Nairobi
Want to see a whole list of all those who have been Ordained? Go Here ...
“Can we move from self-preservation to life-giving? Can we create a community that has shared in their ability to move beyond that? Experience compassion. Love without the rivalry. [...] But perhaps that’s the point of the incarnation, God will be in the midst, at the center of that relationship, that we see God in the other. [...] That perhaps is our call.”
-Fred Laceda, Hub Director (Listen to the full reflection)
What is being called forth in your heart, as it relates to our shared vocation and call, through this moment in history? What are your deepest desires?
- Figuring out what it means to form community in our time and context
- Deconstructing and reconstructing our theology
- Embracing our humanity to form community
- Loving our neighbor, increasing who is our neighbor, and increasing proximity to each other
- Communion with God
- Serving and caring for each other, community formed in service
- Forming leaders
- Seeking diversity, equity, and inclusion in our vocation
- Seeing the oppressor through the eyes of Jesus, humanizing our enemies
Small Group: Mapping the Heart
Commissioning
How is this community in mission calling forth your heart in this time?
Benediction
The Spirit of the Lord is upon us because she has anointed us to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
We pray all of this in the name of the Father who is for us, the Son who is with us, and the Spirit who unites us all in the never-ending dance of Love.
Amen.
