Learning Labs: London to San Antonio

Early on in the formation of Mission City Renewal, June 2015 to be exact, two of our leaders, Sarah Woolsey and Elizabeth Biedrzycki, traveled to London as a part of Matryoshka Haus’s Learning Lab. The Learning Lab is an immersive learning experience designed to expose a group of Christian leaders to a creative array of how church, community, hospitality, business, food and faith come together — Inspiring a new imagination for what might be possible back home and new friends to take the journey alongside.

Bringing the Learning (Lab) to San Antonio

In the Fall of 2018, things came full circle and Mission City Renewal partnered with Matryoshka Haus to host the first US-based Learning Lab at the Impact Guild. Our community of chef’s, writers, real estate experts, mindfulness coaches and artists came together and welcomed an inspiring group of 7 church leaders from New York, Baltimore and Washington DC as a part of the Baltimore/Washington United Methodist Conference’s Changemakers Program into their spaces and their crafts. 

Matt Valler created a City Hack — sharing layers of stories around the Alamo and challenging us to consider the untold narratives around us — Overlaying scripture from Matthew’s gospel.

Josh Schwenke of Gastronomy Live launched the Taco Hop — a taco-centric tour of the city where we tasted the evolution of the taco complete with mangonada palette cleansers between stops. Meeting the chefs behind each taqueria was a celebration of the distinctiveness of each family-run business and yet the cultural cohesion.

We learned more about the history of San Antonio through the San Fernando Cathedral Light Show and an architectural dive by Amigo Walking Tours.

We heard stories of social innovators such as Ramiro Gonzales of Urban Lazarus who is spearheading two interesting new ventures around the creative use of real estate to address problems around the issues of urban density and affordable housing.

The Hausmann family invited us into Hausmann Millworks: A creative Community and shared stories of the 10 year transformation of their lumber/millworks property into an eclectic community of artists with prayer and following God’s calling at the very center.

We met an ecosystem of farmers, growers, chefs and bakers as we literally tasted their hospitality and faith through thoughtfully breaking bread together.

On Sunday morning, everyone chose how they wanted to rest, renew and worship. Some attended the Park Community Church who have been integral in launching The Impact Guild and others joined Julia Bates —Mello{be} founder, RN and mindfulness coach — for a morning of listening.

Reflections: Postcards Home

Melissa Lauber, a member of the Learning Lab cohort captured these Postcard Reflections. Give them a read for more insight.

“Drop six people who don’t know each other into BWI airport and send them to San Antonio for a week. Promise them an opportunity to imagine new ideas about the church and bring to life that thing, that wild idea, God has placed on their hearts. Give them the tools to become “change makers.”

The adventure begins…”