Reimagining Church: Reorienting

Five Themes LeaderWise Hears 

And Why They Are the Death of the Church

by Rev. Cindy Halvorson, MDiv, DMin  //  October 28, 2024

A Conversation with Gretta Vosper: “Falling in Love with Being Together: 
The Church’s Role Beyond Being Church”

Gretta Vosper is passionate about the work of capturing the “off-label benefits” of religion for individuals and communities for which religious belief or practice is no longer meaningful. She has served West Hill United Church for over twenty-five years, supporting its transition to a theologically non-exclusive community, the first of its kind within traditional Christianity.

A best-selling author, Gretta has written three books: With or Without God: Why the Way We Live is More Important than What We Believe, Amen: What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief, and Time or Too Late: Chasing the Dream of a Progressive Christian Faith. Gretta’s blog, A Whole Lot of Broken, is on Substack.

WATCH NOW

5 Faulty Assumptions About The Future Church

by CAREY NIEUWHOF

Making the Best Use of Church Space

by Jim Patterson
Dec. 5, 2022

Key Points:

• Mixed-use developments that replace or upgrade aging church properties might offer economic and spiritual answers for declining congregations.
• Unused space translates to an opportunity to do social good.
• Wesley Community Development, in North Carolina, specializes in helping churches making decisions about their property.

“Church on the Move” featuring Travis Norvell— Episode 106

How can your church reorient its posture toward its neighbors and neighborhood? Minnesota Pastor Travis Norvell decided to conduct his ministry by bike, on foot, and on public transportation. He shares how this revealed new people, new partners, and new possibilities for ministry. Listen now. | Read in-depth interview. | Watch podcast video on YouTube.

Fresh Expressions is a movement; a band of misfits, visionaries, prophets, evangelists and creative entrepreneurs from across all church traditions who can see what isn’t there and have the grit and faith to go out, listen, love, serve, tell people about Jesus and work with new communities to create a new and authentic expression of church that makes sense to its participants.

Visit the website to learn what a Fresh Expression Church is, and to get equipped, connected, and inspired.

Find books, curricula, prayer, music, and worship elements (including a full sermon), and community organizations and businesses grouped to help congregations take next steps in antiracism work, creation care, and addressing intergenerational mental health and well-being in the WaterThreads - Woven Together: Water, Community, Well-Being. Available online and via requested download for member congregations - who should email: ministrylab@unitedseminary.edu - for access.

Flourish Placemaking Collective is committed to the good and needed work of placemaking—of reimagining and repurposing space in our neighborhoods and how we inhabit them for the flourishing of us all.

They work with community organizations and have a special focus on 'For Church and other underutilized spaces'.