Adjusting to a new normal
One significant trend within church life is the changing nature of congregating. That makes it increasingly important for congregations to experiment with new models and share what they are learning.
Congregational innovation
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Drive is a social club where people can gather to play table tennis, eat, drink and meet people. Photo courtesy of Drive
Perfect match
Diallo and Jameel Smith have used their entrepreneurial talent in Detroit to both plant Awakenings Movement -- a nondenominational church -- and open a table tennis social club called Drive.
The Darkwood Brew set evokes a coffeehouse and jazz club. Photos courtesy of Darkwood Brew
Online with Darkwood Brew
An interactive Web television program features meditation, jazz, chat-room conversations and weekly communion.
Mike Baughman: The wetlands where church and social ventures meet
The head of a Dallas coffeehouse/church urges the church to reclaim its role as an agent of social change, joining with social entrepreneurs to give new life to the world.
Worshippers gather for Cathedral in the Night, one of the alternative ministries of the Clearstory Collective. Photo courtesy of Clearstory Collective
Innovative and ancient, the ministry of Clearstory Collective
In western Massachusetts, a network of ministries is drawing on ancient and modern traditions to attract young people who might not otherwise be interested in church.
Innovation in an unlikely place
Mike and Jane Lyon, Antioch Baptist Church and “the Brotherhood” show why innovation isn’t only the domain of urbanites.
Keith Anderson: Digital ministry and bearing witness to the holy
Social media gives pastors a new ability to point out the presence of God in the day-to-day of people’s lives, says the co-author of a new book on digital ministry.
Jason Byassee: A weathered presence in a new place
A church burns, but its treasures endure.
Carol Howard Merritt: From challenge to opportunity
To become more diverse, younger, sustainable and innovative, denominations need to nurture the creative communities that spring up within the larger church.
Elizabeth Drescher: Digital ministry, made for the mainline
Networked, relational and incarnational, digital ministry is a good fit for the mainline, a chance to make the privatized practice of faith public and visible in the world again, says the author and scholar.