In November 2018, Boundless Impact Executive Director Cindy Thompson received the fantastic news that she was selected as one of 20 national recipients of the Duke Reflective Leadership Grant. The grant provides up to $15,000 of funding for time and expenses to attend conferences, professional development, site visits and conduct research on an emerging area of ministry leadership opportunity. For Boundless Impact, after facilitating InnovateUMC teams across western NC for the past 4 years, this became a period of listening, learning and discerning what our next phase of missional innovation might look like? Our big question was "how might we create spaces for innovation and entrepreneurship that serve our churches, but even more importantly, serve our communities as well? 

These past 9 months have been incredibly valuable - giving us the opportunity to explore, investigate, learn from experts, connect to networks and visit examples of how churches are reimagining their spaces as community innovation and creativity hubs. Along the way, Cindy has traveled and visited with family and friends in some of America's best cities: Austin, Denver, Chicago, New Orleans, Atlanta, Nashville and Tampa. The culminating experience was a 5-day silent retreat at St. Benedict's Monastery in Snowmass, CO last week to reflect on all that we've learned and experienced, and begin planning for this new thing emerging called "ImagineHub". Be on the lookout for more information as we get rolling with ImagineHub, and trust that the concept of "Balcony Time" is a priceless gift to yourself and to your organization!