Choosing Presence Over Self-Optimization in 2026

Missionalmaxxing Kills God's Work in Our Lives

We live in an age of self-optimization and efficiency thinking. As we swim in these waters, it's easy for us to bathe God's work in the thinking of societal forces. Yet, if we're learning anything at Renaissance, it is that often the way of Jesus isn't achieved through the same thinking as Fortune 500 companies or self-improvement gurus. In this episode, we wrestle with the complexity of this issue and discuss its implications. Other Links: Video Podcast - https://www.youtube.com/@renaissancemicrochurches Website - wearerenaissance.org Sign-Up For The Practitioner Pathway Cohort - wearerenaissance.org/training

Women Leading Missional Work & Neighborhood Planting

What does it look like to start something in a neighborhood for the first time? How do we design environments that help develop people in faith? How do we activate more women to lead missional work? We talk about all this and more in an interview with Ericka Henry from The Holy District in Allentown, PA. Ericka is a pastor, church planter, and missional practitioner with over fifteen years of ministry leadership experience. After co-planting her first church at nineteen, she has gone on to lead discipleship development and organizational change in contexts spanning mega-church teams to place-based faith communities and more.She holds a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership from Greenville University and a Master of Arts in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. Ericka is also the founder of Holy District, a grassroots network of neighborhood-based faith communities focused on local transformation. Based in Allentown, PA, Ericka lives with her husband, son, and beloved Saint Bernard. There, she engages in Jesus-centered community building through Holy District and co-leads Somos CDC, an asset-based, anti-poverty community development corporation. Other Links: Video Podcast - https://www.youtube.com/@renaissancemicrochurches Website - wearerenaissance.org Sign-Up For The Practitioner Pathway Cohort - wearerenaissance.org/training Welcoming Prayer - https://open.spotify.com/track/1S7kaRXQNoMYnFve7u2Kez "Wouldn't it Be Like You" - https://open.spotify.com/track/1j6nXKmCyESFpA0tkMPmbP

The Gritty Side of Missional Living

Spoiler alert - missional living is more than Instagrammable house parties and cool service project days. In fact, often living missionally and loving your neighborhood involves doing things you’d never imagine. It can be anything but glorious. It’s caring about lights on sidewalks, showing up to boring meetings, and collaborating with people you weren’t planning on. In this episode we interview Beth Wolff about her story, and the important (and hard) work of living missionally. Beth was born the youngest of 4 in a military family but considers Fairfax, VA home. She attended Anderson University [https://anderson.edu/] , where she majored in Studio Arts and Bible & Religion. Later, she earned her Masters of Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary [https://www.fuller.edu/]. In 2009, after a stint as a Public Educator in Indianapolis, IN, Beth went to serve as the Pastor of Student Ministry at Mountain Park Church [https://mountainpark.org/] in Phoenix, AZ and eventually lead all ministries from birth through college and parenting. In 2016, Beth moved with her husband and two children to Clarksburg, MD to become the Lead Pastor at Clarksburg Church. Beth is passionate about developing and empowering people to love the things God loves, which means to love all the people, to seek justice and peace for the city, and to watch and wait for hope in the middle of despair Other Links: Video Podcast - https://www.youtube.com/@renaissancemicrochurches Website - wearerenaissance.org Sign-Up For The Practitioner Pathway Cohort - wearerenaissance.org/training

Why Spiritual Direction Matters for Practitioners

What is spiritual direction? Why should everyday practitioners consider having a spiritual director? Why does Renaissance place such a huge emphasis on spiritual direction? In this episode, we interview Dr. Neal Windham and Dan Lee about these questions and much more. Other Links: Urban Mystics - https://urbanmystics.org/ Video Podcast - https://www.youtube.com/@renaissancemicrochurches Website - wearerenaissance.org Sign-Up For The Practitioner Pathway Cohort - wearerenaissance.org/training

Missional Practitionership in the Age of AI

Not a day goes by that the headlines don't involve a story about artificial intelligence. For some, this means an exciting future. For others, it means the end of civilization as we know it. What are Christians supposed to think? How does this impact our missional practitionership and microchurch communities? In this episode, we wrestle with the complexity of this issue and talk about the implications. Other Links: The Last Invention Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-last-invention/id1839942885 "Hope in AI Despair" - https://ajswoboda.substack.com/p/hope-in-ai-despair "The Perfect Mirror" - https://comment.org/the-perfect-mirror/ Video Podcast - https://www.youtube.com/@renaissancemicrochurches Website - wearerenaissance.org Sign-Up For The Practitioner Pathway Cohort - wearerenaissance.org/training