By Doug Hunt 
Lay leader at Faith Community Bible Church

Over the past 8 months, I’ve been part of a cohort of learners in an initiative called “Missio Madison” or Mission Madison.   

The goals of Missio Madison are to bring together pastors and church leaders from a variety of denominations to build kinship, learn from one another, and foster collaboration.  During our time together we’ve focused on discerning 3 questions:

“Where are we?”  
“What is God up to here?” 
“What might He be inviting us into?”  

When I think about my church, the answer to the “Where are we?” question is an area of Madison known as the Triangle.   This neighborhood is located south of Regent Street between Park Street and West Washington Avenue and is home to over 650 people who live in the culturally diverse Bayview community and city owned subsidized housing built in the 1970s.  

Average income of households in this area is only one quarter that of the average household in Madison.  But in spite of their economic disadvantages, community members possess a rich array of gifts, skills, and abilities.   They are incredibly creative and resilient and deeply care for one another.   

Pursuing answers to “What is God up to here?” is more of a challenge.  But my Mission Madison coaching circle (led by Jon Anderson of The Collaboration Project) provided the structure and support I needed to practice being present in the community, both to my neighbors and to God working in our midst.    

I think back to our recent Triangle Community Garden work day on May 1st.  The opportunity to help out came about, not by our suggestion or initiative, but in response to a need we heard about in the course of other conversations we were having with Triangle residents.   

As we learned more about the garden work day, we quickly realized that our small church would not have the resources to provide what was required.  So, in keeping with the Missio Madison priority of kinship and collaboration, we put out the call for help.  

Volunteers came from our own church and from New Culture Church which is led by my Missio Madison teammate, Pastor Abbie Sawczak. The Chi Alpha student group on campus participated as did residents of Alder District 13.  In the end, we had over 40 Triangle gardeners and volunteers working side by side to promote the flourishing of the neighborhood.   While we were cultivating the soil, God was helping us to cultivate relationships and along the way, to also cultivate hope.     

“What might God be inviting us into?”  I’m not entirely sure, but Missio Madison has given me the tools to continue on the journey and to find encouragement in the connections I’ve forged with other like-minded church leaders in our area, including Rev. Melesa Skoglund, Associate Rector at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, (and my Missio Madison teammate) who delivered the sermon at Faith Community Bible Church on Pentecost Sunday.    

God’s plans are for good and the good plans He has will be revealed as we together seek the prosperity of the city to which He’s called us.  (Jeremiah 29:  4-11)