April Update – Jamie Martin Currie, Board President
April 27, 2017 Update from the president
By Jamie Martin-Currie
April 20 – 22nd, Bill Campbell and I attended the Missional Voices conference at VTS along with several Forma members including Andrea McKellar, Lisa Kimball, Sarah Stonesifer, Jay Sidebotham, Alex Harrelson, Lisa Brown, Katie Churchwell and Kim Glenn. One of our members, Alan Bentrup is a co-founder of this gathering which was keynoted by Becca Stevens and Andy Doyle. Both of their individual plenaries were quite inspiring, but it was their panel discussion at the closing that brought many of us to tears. Their passion for missional ministry is deep as well as their love of the Episcopal Church. Missional Voices is a great conference for people who are interested in Missional Communities and how we form disciples within them. Let us know if you want to come next year, we would love to get create a small Forma gathering in Indianapolis to talk about Formation in Missional contexts.
On Saturday, after the closing Eucharist, Bill and I were invited to gather with innovators from across the Church to discuss a training program for “Leaders of the Jesus Movement.” This meeting was lead by The Rev. Stephanie Spellers, Cannon to the Presiding Bishop for Evangelism and Reconciliation, and Courtney Cowart, the newly tapped Executive Director of the Society for the Increase of Ministry (SIM). The meeting included colleagues from Episcopal Relief and Development, Invite Welcome Connect, Episcopal Church Foundation, The Diocese of Atlanta, The Center for the Ministry of Teaching at VTS, Missional Voices, Renewal Works, Sewanee School of Theology, and The Beecken Center. It was a great meeting and we managed to put some idea of a framework down for how me might create an army of leaders for the Jesus Movement. This was a first step and you will hear much more soon!