One of my favorite TED Talks was given by social psychologist Amy Cuddy in 2012. In it, she talks about the power of postures. Cuddy says the way we hold ourselves not only affects how others see us, it also shapes how we see ourselves.
Lately, much of the work of the 1001 NWC movement has been around helping the church form not just policies, patterns and practices that support a thriving and diverse ecosystem of ministry, but also in assuming the postures that best help us engage our neighbors. These postures help us not just to be seen as welcoming, they help us to feel that hospitality in our bones.
This month’s New Church New Way Newsletter shines a spotlight on some NWC leaders who hold themselves in hope and humility as they engage the people around them, particularly ones who have experienced trauma even at the hands of the church. Through a series in the Presbyterians Today blog and interviews on our New Way podcast, New Worshiping Community leaders express in their own words what it looks like to assume postures of welcome and curiosity in a hurting world.
I’m also sharing stories about what happens when partners come together to create places where new ministry can flourish. Read what happened in one presbytery whose posture of leaning into risk and experimentation has enabled them to start 55 NWCs in 55 years. Watch a video about a partnership among 1001 NWC, UKirk and the United Methodists in New Orleans.
Your prayerful support of the 1001 movement is helping the PC(USA) grow in our understanding of ourselves as people engaged with the Spirit of God in the world!
