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** More Than the Miles - Finding Rest Along the Way
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This summer, as I was making plans to walk the Camino de Santiago with my daughter, I proudly shared my ambitious itinerary with a friend: six days, seventy miles, Compostela certificate in hand. She smiled and asked me a question I wasn’t prepared for: “When are you going to rest?” ([link removed])

That question has stayed with me. Like many leaders, I am prone to measure my life by outcomes and to forget that God’s way is different. Sabbath reminds us that rest is not laziness—it is resistance, delight, and trust. Without it, we lose not only our strength but our joy.

This fall (September–December), I will be taking a study leave to create space for reflection, reimagination, and realignment. It will be a season of listening to God, to our network, and to the wider church, discerning sustainable models that will deepen Missio Alliance’s mission in the years ahead.

I share this with you not simply as information but as invitation. Where might God be asking you the same question: When are you going to rest? May we become leaders who embody the rhythms of work and rest that make us whole.

With hope,

Lisa Rodriguez-Watson

National Director, Missio Alliance


** Reflective Leadership Grant Announcement
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This season of study leave is made possible in part by a Reflective Leadership Grant ([link removed]) from Leadership Education at Duke Divinity (funded by the Lilly Endowment). Each year, this program supports Christian leaders who are creating space for intentional reflection amid the challenges of ministry in today’s world.

I am deeply grateful for this support, which allows me to step back in order to return with greater clarity, strength, and vision for the work God has entrusted to Missio Alliance.

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Just us for a free webinar this month, entitled “Sharing Power: The Antidote to Domineering Leadership.” Power in the church is meant to be shared, not hoarded. In this conversation, author Eun.K. Strawser, Jonathan Brooks (Pastah J), and Kyuboem Lee explore how the way we lead shapes the way our communities flourish. Drawing from Eun Strawser’s upcoming book, You Were Never Meant to Lead Alone ([link removed]) , the panel will examine the early church’s model of shared leadership, where power was distributed among apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers for the sake of mission.

Participants of this webinar will:
* Recognize unhealthy patterns – identify signs of domineering leadership and how they hinder community flourishing.
* Recover biblical models – understand how the early church equitably distributed leadership.
* Learn practical steps – explore strategies for sharing leadership in their own contexts.
* Envision renewed communities – imagine how wholeness, belonging and mission in the context of shared leadership drives community flourishing.

A free recording will be sent to all who register.
Register Now ([link removed])

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There's a Different Way to Fight ([link removed]) | Dennis Edwards

“The best apologetic for the Christian faith is a loving community that strives to practice and not merely recite what Jesus taught.” Read More ([link removed])
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Wolves in Shepherd's Clothing (Catalysts for Faith Crisis, Pt. 1) ([link removed]) | Catherine McNiel and Jason Hague

"God makes clear he will rescue the sheep from the mouths of these wolves-in-shepherd’s clothing and care for them himself. In other words, God fights for the survivors." Read More ([link removed])
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An Invitation to Racial Healing as Spiritual Formation ([link removed]) | Afrika Afeni Mills

"The work of racial healing is not optional for Followers of the Way of Jesus. It is a way of being – a deeply raw, courageous, and redemptive process – that is essential to our formation into the likeness of Christ." Read More ([link removed])

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Brave Practice: A Global Prayer of Lament

“For When Rest Feels Like A Risk”

“Rested God,

We want more than a life lived exhausted. That you have woven healing rhythms of rest into our minds and bodies reminds us we are worthy of habitual restoration. Keep us from apologizing for our own healing, that we would know that when we pause or rest, we are restoring not only our own bodies but the very condition of a world held captive by greed and utility.

We grow weary of societies who view us as more machine than human, more product than soul. The fear that we won’t survive without overworking stalks our days. Liberate us from the depraved socioeconomic structures that require that the poor and vulnerable sacrifice their own rest at the altar of survival and opportunity.

Protect us from fear as we rest with you, breathe with you. Remind us that the beauty and paradox of our humanness is that we were made to close our eyes, that we might see.”

May it be so.

- Excerpted from Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies ([link removed])

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“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.” (Hebrews 4:9-10, NIV)

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