SENT
Experimental
Initiative
A collaboration between
Columbia Theological Seminary, Forest Hills UMC,
Tennessee Western Kentucky Conference & Turnaround Collective
January-May 2025
Where is God Calling you into relationship with others in your community to share the Love of God?
SENT Experimental Initiative —a collaboration between Columbia Theological Seminary, Forest Hills United Methodist Church, Tennessee Western Kentucky Conference, and Turnaround Collective— focuses on walking alongside individuals as they intentionally discern where God may be sending them to SEE their neighbors, ENGAGE them through listening and loving, NOTICE where God is at work, and enter into God’s TRANSFORMATION in community and partnership beyond the walls of the local church.
Participants will engage in a discernment process so they understand their spiritual gifts, learn healthy relational approaches to engaging others, emerging as people sent into the world to bear witness to the ways God is already at work in the community and inviting others to follow Jesus.
WHY JOIN
SENT
EXPERIMENTAL?
10 GROUP LEARNING
Sessions with a
Cohort of
Fellow
Innovators
4 DAY (RE)CREATION
RETREAT
IN NEW MEXICO
ONE-TO-ONE
Experiment
Support & Direction
with Facilitators
$500
Grant
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Divine Nudge
The Spirit speaks and stokes a fire inside you, nudging you towards your call. What is God calling you to… or what’s your best guess right now? Share your nudge here.
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Spiritual Gifts Assessment
We know you’re stacking some gifts. What has God given you to work with? Let’s find out! Take this short assessment to begin the conversation.
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Grounded, Guided, & Gift
You are a wondrous creation! What ideas, experiences, and longings have and continue to shape you to be who you are becoming? Let’s find out here.
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RESOURCES
Along the way, we’ll need wisdom and nourishment from a variety of voices. Check out this list of readings and exercises that will help you take another step.
MEET your Sent Experimental
FACILITators
Brady Banks
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
@ TURNAROUND COLLECTIVE
Brady is the founder and director of Turnaround Collective. He’s guided multiple pilgrimages around the world over the years, facilitating spiritual spaces for pilgrims as they discover new spiritual territory. He also works as a professional fundraiser, coming alongside nonprofits and faith-based organizations to develop resources to achieve their missions.
Prior to Turnaround, Brady served over 15 years as a nonprofit executive management and development professional for multiple nonprofit organizations, as well as serving as an elected official locally in Nashville.
He’s a graduate of Mercer University, Harvard Divinity School, and a current doctoral student at Pacific School of Religion, part of the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley. Brady is an avid backcountry hiker, reader, and music aficionado. He enjoys life with his wife Kristin, their son Thaddeus, and dog Henri.
KRISTIN Clark-Banks
SENIOR PASTOR
@ FOREST HILLS UNITED METHODIST
Kristin is the senior pastor at Forest Hills United Methodist Church in the Harpeth River District, where she developed a discipleship pathway system that supports lay persons seeking an intentional space to grow in the characteristics of Christ-likeness and identify steps towards transformation.
She has served local congregations in the Tennessee Western Kentucky Conference for nearly 20 years as a lay person and as an ordained elder. She is part of the TWK UMC’s Faith & Innovation Thriving Congregations team. She has presented on intentional discipleship systems and spiritual formation at annual conferences, local churches, and universities.
She’s a graduate of Trevecca University and Duke Divinity School. She loves gardening, cooking, reading, and spending time with her dog, Henri, husband Brady, and son Thaddeus.