Planning for Mission Advance 2007

This week, D and I have been doing some thinking and planning for Mission Advance. Yes, that same project that last year seemed to invite total chaos and constant rain, yes that one there. But we feel good about it this year. Well, better about it this year. It is the right thing to do and we've made it an element of all summer teams for this year, starting from the time the trips have been made public.

We've also been talking a lot about reinvention, innovation and change for SPACE, not because we want to change it, but because it almost has to. And to that end, Mission Advance is going to be quite different this year. Changing something is difficult but we have to get to the point where we are willing to risk what we have already achieved. It was new last year and good. It might be better this year. Or not. But we will give it a go. I'm excited to tell you more soon.

Mission Advance is a weekend where we take all of our collective summer teams away for the weekend together. The weekend's primary goals are to focus teams on working together, getting to know one another, and going through some informal missions and cultural training. Of course, the bigger picture is that we are architecting an experience based on movement [because the Gospel moves], teams [we do it together] and risk [because we don't always know for sure].

[Related: September thoughts after last summer and Mission Advance 2006]