Social innovation

Listening to people and investing in them as an act of radical service

Married pastors have transformed a vacant strip mall into a community development hub and base for needed services in a St. Louis suburb.

By Valerie Schremp Hahn Journalist

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‘Beautiful and Terrible Things’

In this excerpt from her new memoir, the Rev. Dr. Amy Butler writes about being “unemployed and disgraced” after leaving the Riverside Church in the City of New York — then finding joy in her new project, a fund to help closing churches invest their remaining assets.

By Amy Butler Founder, Invested Faith

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Majora Carter: Don’t leave! We can make low-status neighborhoods better

A real estate developer in the South Bronx works to build attractive spaces and create jobs in her home community and show people they can have beautiful, successful lives in their own neighborhoods.

Kimberly R. Daniel: Christian innovation must change the status quo to help the marginalized

Innovation isn’t Christian if it doesn’t focus on God’s priorities, says the co-author of a book from the Forum for Theological Exploration.

Brandon Dennison: ‘People, planet, profit, in that order’

A social enterprise in Huntington, West Virginia, focuses on the dignity of its workers while seeding the green economy and helping strengthen Appalachia.

By Zack Harold Journalist

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Yes in God’s Back Yard wants to build homes for those most in need of them

A faith-based initiative anchored in San Diego would use property owned by religious institutions to help address an affordable-housing crisis.

By Kate Morrissey Journalist

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The Gallatin hotel as an economic engine for ministry

A real estate developer who has transformed Nashville churches into boutique hotels has created the Rooms for Rooms program, which donates a portion of hotel profits to organizations working with people experiencing homelessness.

By Fiona Soltes Journalist

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A new relationship with time

Reconsidering workplace norms is one way to help dismantle racism and seed transformation in a post-pandemic world, writes the director of the Thriving in Ministry Coordination Program at Leadership Education at Duke Divinity.

By Alaina Kleinbeck Associate Executive Director, Coordination Programs

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Wendy Puffer: Design thinking can reveal problems and re-imagine solutions

Using the principles of design thinking can push Christian leaders to listen more closely to their surrounding communities and be more creative in addressing their needs, says the co-founder of Marion Design Co.

Leadership lessons from "The Crown"

As the Netflix series makes clear, traditioned innovation benefits from history, not from nostalgia, writes a managing director of Leadership Education at Duke Divinity.

By Nathan Kirkpatrick Principal, Saison Consulting, LLC

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'Here for you, not because of you' -- Nashville nonprofit serves up coffee, soap and empowerment

Building on strengths and taking the long view, a Christ-centered South Nashville nonprofit emerges as a catalyst for holistic community development.