Laura Hairston

Laura is a wife, mom & practitioner. She serves on the National Leadership team for Forge America Mission Training Network and is co-founder of Waken Ministries, both organizations helping with missionary formation & discipleship. She lives in Dallas.

4 Lessons Learned on the Missional Journey

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By Laura Hairston

About 4 years ago, my husband, Ryan and I heard the term ‘missional’ for the first time. For us, it was a completely new concept learning to live as missionaries in the places God had already placed us. Also, hearing of the 60% who would never walk through the doors of the church on our best Sunday where we were on staff. And, hey, I grew up a southern Baptist girl in Texas – all of this rocked my world, as I am sure you can imagine.

So, we made a huge paradigm shift and life change.

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Who Am I?

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Who am I?

Mom. Dad. Sister. Friend.

I could go on and on, but, I’m sure if you are old enough to be reading this, you’ve asked the question, “Who am I?” at some point in your life.

I think one of the biggest issues facing the American church today is that our church attendees do not have an understanding of who they are, and if they do, they have not been given full freedom to truly live it out. If that is you, let me tell you, as a child of God, you are a missionary, meaning “sent one.”

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If Jesus Came For The Sick, Why Does Everyone Look So Healthy?

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By Laura Hairston

Last month, my middle school girls neighborhood group wrapped up a series of 6 weeks watching The Bible. Over 13 million people viewed the first of the miniseries on The History Channel.  Of course, it’s a bit ‘Hollywood’, but that’s probably one reason for the number of viewers.  One of the beautiful things for me was watching my girls, many for the first time, hearing the stories of the Bible. After an episode, I asked the girls what they noticed about the people Jesus was surrounded by, and their response was

“the sick, the sinners, the prostitutes & tax collectors – not the ‘church people’ like you would think”.

This was interesting insight from these teenage girls.

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Hospitality

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This is a guest post by Laura Hairston. Laura is a wife, mom & practitioner. She serves on the National Leadership team for Forge America Mission Training Network and is co-founder of Waken Ministries,  both organizations helping with missionary formation & discipleship. Connect with her on  Twitter | Facebook

Flower arrangements. The smell of homemade bread. Martha Stewart. This is what used to come to mind when I heard the word “hospitality.”  If you know me at all, even the mention of ‘homemade’ or ‘Martha Stewart’ would have kicked me out of the running already.

Or, if you’ve grown up attending church or attend currently, you probably had a Hospitality Team or may even serve in that role now.  These individuals typically manage the coffee table, greet you with a smile, and were probably placed there because it was in the top 3 of their Gift Assessment. Turns out the church has a very SMALL view of hospitality and so did myself.

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Show & Tell

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By Beau Crosetto

It is alarming to me how much leaders do not model for the people below them. I see it especially apparent the higher I look up the leadership ladder. It seems that the more and more someone gets removed from the ground level, less and less modeling takes place.  It is bothering me. These are the most skilled and advanced leaders. They/we need to be showing people what to do, not just telling them!

It’s time to get back into the pond and show people how to swim instead of shouting from the shore.

The other day I was having a conversation with a person I really look up to as a leader. They asked me about how I was modeling for the guy I am raising up and I realized I wasn’t doing a very good job in one area specifically. Sorry Nick 🙂

I had fallen into the trap that most leaders fall into:

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Who Do You Think You Are?

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This is a guest post by Laura Hairston. Laura is a wife, mom & practitioner. She serves on the National Leadership team for Forge America Mission Training Network and is co-founder of Waken Ministries,  both organizations helping with missionary formation & discipleship. She lives in the North Dallas suburbs where she mentors teenage girls in her home as well as longs to see her neighborhood look more like the kingdom of God each day. Her heartbeat is for every follower of Jesus to see themselves as missionaries in their every day lives. Twitter | Facebook

“Who do you think you are?” is what I’d really like to say to those “Christians”—yes, those are air quotes—who think they are better than everyone else.  Just because we know Jesus and have decided to follow him doesn’t mean we turn inward and raise ourselves in status. On the contrary, we should be turning outward and becoming more gracious and humble.

I’ll preface the rest of this by saying I used to be one of those “Christians.” I only spent time with the people I worked around and attended church with, and most of them were all the same since I worked in a church. I never had time for my neighbors or really anyone else for that matter. I was constantly surrounded by people who believed and valued the same things I did.

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He is Here! (Two Great Videos)

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I want to share with you two great videos that help us celebrate the resurrection on this awesome Easter day.

This video is a spoken word that my wife Kristina shared today as she preached at our church, The Vineyard Underground

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This next video is Kristina sharing a story of disappointment and then breakthrough in healing a few years back. Really powerful and a total witness to the power of the resurrection.

I hope you enjoy these and have a great day remembering and welcoming the resurrection into your life more fully!