Innovation

Is your organization’s base strong enough to answer God’s call?

A painting must be created on canvas sturdy enough to support it. Likewise, congregations and organizations need a solid foundation if their ministries are to flourish, writes a director of programs and grants for Leadership Education at Duke Divinity

By Mycal X. Brickhouse Director of programs and grants, Leadership Education at Duke Divinity

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Street Psalms trains and connects leaders around the globe to build communities of peace

An international religious order uses a teaching framework based on abundance, practice and peacemaking. Street Psalms offers a seminary, design studio and resources to its partners.

By Cheston Knapp Writer

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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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Composting the church offers flourishing in the shadow of decline

As with a garden, so with the church — the remnants at the end of one season enrich growth for new opportunities in the next, writes a Presbyterian pastor.

By McKenna Wallen Pastor, Maryland Presbyterian Church

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Five years after the start of the COVID pandemic, here are three ways congregations continue to be affected

The emergence of COVID changed our lives. Professor and researcher Scott Thumma highlights how congregations have changed.

By Leslie Quander Wooldridge Journalist

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Failure as faithfulness

The parable of the sower and modern-day design thinkers challenge us to take risks rather than fear failure, writes an associate director for Leadership Education at Duke Divinity’s Thriving Congregations Coordination Program.

By Sarah E. Forsyth Associate Director, Thriving Congregations Coordination Program

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Podcast: ‘Tod Bolsinger: Navigating Change’

Leading through change is a unique and crucial skill

It’s time to reclaim creativity

Christians should embrace creativity as a way to make space for God and to imagine things beyond their own capabilities, writes a pastor and denominational leader.

By Chris Aho Director, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Thriving Congregations Initiative

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When songs become sermons — a different way of preaching

No longer able to sustain a choral program and facing clergy overload, members of a Maryland congregation now tell the old, old story by leaning into music, their pastor writes.

By McKenna Wallen Pastor, Maryland Presbyterian Church

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Don’t miss the significance of congregational toads in your church’s ecosystem

If we pay attention, the presence or absence of certain indicators can help us assess the vitality of our faith communities, writes a director of grants for Leadership Education at Duke Divinity.