Innovation Offerings
Innovation Offerings
I wouldn’t be surprised if you were confused by the different ECMN innovation offerings. What are they, and how are they related to each other? I thought it might be helpful to do a short writeup about each one, and how they work together to foster a culture of faithful innovation.
Faithful Innovation is an eight-month process in which teams from at least three different churches form a learning community dedicated to listening using three different practices. Teams listen to God speaking through scripture (using Dwelling in the Word), they listen to church members’ stories of a time they felt spiritually alive, and they “listen” to their church’s neighborhood as well as their own neighborhoods: who do they see and not see? What do they notice? What might God’s Holy Spirit be up to in a particular neighborhood? After three to four months of listening and meeting monthly with a trained coach, each team tries at least one and hopefully multiple small, low-cost experiments to learn what the Holy Spirit might be up to in the lives of their neighbors. What are their neighbors hopes, joys, and longings? At the end of eight months the teams share what they heard, tried, and learned. Failure is normed as a way to learn. Ecologically speaking, Faithful Innovation prepares the soil for a church to grow spiritually and move from trying to fix endless challenges to being curious about what God might be up to in a particular neighborhood and ministry context. Faithful Innovation has played a critical role in preparing Minnesota Episcopalians for Mustard Seed and other innovative ways of sharing the Gospel. So far nineteen ECMN churches have gone through this process, and surveys have documented an increase in hope and spiritual maturity among participants.
Mustard Seed is for Episcopalians who want to learn how to share Jesus with spiritually curious neighbors. Participants meet quarterly and receive coaching as they travel the Missional Journey: listening, loving, forming community, and sharing Jesus. Sometimes a church forms “in life” at a school, in nature, in a coffee shop, or in a dog park. Sometimes it doesn’t, but listening and loving others, and responding to their spiritual questions and concerns are good in and of themselves. Mustard Seed participants are currently doing everything from hosting a Bible Club in a secular high school, to getting to know neighbors who frequent Loaves and Fishes, to offering Messy Church for children and their parents, to “Jesus and a Bible Story” at a library requested by unsheltered guests met at a local laundromat.
New Christian Communities are small, agile faith communities, usually centered around a common passion like knitting, canoeing, photography, and hiking that take place outside the church walls at a time other than Sunday morning, and are focused on sharing Jesus with people who don’t go to church. Gatherings often include Bible studies, reflections and conversation, and prayer. They often begin simply when people in an interest group are invited to gather around a candle after the meeting for silence or spoken prayer.
New Christian Communities (hereafter NCCs) have a life-giving reciprocal relationship with inherited churches. They interpret the treasures of our Episcopal Christian faith for new generations and can share with the inherited church what people are looking for and the language they are using. Inherited churches can offer members of NCCs more- in-depth services, retreat days, discipleship, and outreach opportunities than they are able to provide.
The Innovator Retreat is a two-day retreat each summer for lay and ordained leaders participating in a variety of types of faith-based innovation in their churches and in their surrounding communities. Participants are learning how to share their faith in new and creative ways with neighbors and friends who are spiritually curious. Those just starting out have the opportunity to hear and learn from Episcopalians who have been engaged in innovative ministries for a long time.
The Innovation Summit is a showcase held yearly in early November, open to anyone interested, in which church teams and individuals can hear and learn from the ECMN’s most creative innovators. Presentations are given by faithful innovation teams, Mustard Seed participants, and the leaders of New Christian Communities.