Building Vibrant Community Connections in Digital and Physical Spaces

By Jordana Wright And Doug Powe

How can your congregation connect with new people in both physical and digital spaces? Lewis Center Director F. Douglas Powe Jr. interviews Jordana Wright on strategies for transforming congregations into vibrant community hubs.

Listen to this interview, watch the interview video on YouTube, or read it here.

A Civic Virus? New Study Explores People’s Struggles to Find Belonging And Hope

By Rev. Dr. Anna Hall

Reimagining Church Buildings

By Dave Harder 

How can your church building be an asset rather than a liability? Dave Harder says we must interrogate the dominant narrative that says church is what happens in the building for a few hours on a Sunday and let a new narrative emerge — one that focuses on God’s hopes and dreams for the neighborhood.

Innovating to Reach More People

How can innovation help congregations reach new and younger people? Lewis Center Director F. Douglas Powe Jr. interviews Mikka McCracken about innovation, building relationships, and creating person-focused ministries so more people know the way of Jesus and discover community, justice, and love.

“Building Thriving Rural Congregations” featuring Allen Stanton

How can rural churches break free from false narratives and unrealistic metrics? Allen Stanton lays out a new vision for healthy rural congregations as valued stakeholders and potent agents of change within their communities.

Read an introductory interview here; listen to that interview here; watch it here.

Reimagining Our Common Ground for the Collective Good

The church - every church - faces new challenges, imagining what church looks like moving forward from 2020. The Courageous Church Online Summit, dives into leading questions on vision, identity, leadership, and hope, hearing from leading voices and provocative thought leaders on the next best steps for a vital progressive faith movement. 

Let people know who you are, engage in civic discourse, and identify as networked within your community: get inspired by leaders from Alexandria, MN here.

Church Anew's 3-Session Interview Series with Rev. Ingrid Rasmussen, Lead Pastor at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, South Minneapolis (a key center for community care during protests) interviewed by Dr. Deanna Thompson, St Olaf College's Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community. View Now

4 Keys to Moving from Online Worship to Online Ministry

Nicole Reilley says posting worship services online is just the first step in developing a holistic online ministry. She enumerates four keys to developing a digital ministry that engages people and moves them toward Christ and his church.

A Civic Virus? New Study Explores People’s Struggles to Find Belonging And Hope

In CPR Connects by annagolladay

March 10, 2022

By Rev. Dr. Anna Hall

The Small Churches Big Impact Collective shares best practices, ministry innovations, compensation concerns and more through their Facebook page, website and blog, and podcast.

Small Church Q&A with Tanna Muse

Most church leaders find themselves serving a small(er) church. In this conversation, we talk about the unique opportunities and challenges of small church ministry. 

View Here

CONVERGENCE offers numerous leadership and community development webinars on-demand or in a cohort:

• 1.5 Day Teach-In with Diana Butler Bass

• Spiritual and Theological Evolution with Sue Monk Kidd

• Courageous Church Summit: Reimagining Our Common Ground for the Collective Good

• The Great Spiritual Migration: Online Book Study

• How to Use Your Church Campus As a Tool for Neighborhood Revitalization

• What Will Happen to Our Churches? A Conversation with National Faith Leaders

• Courageous Faith Summit - a virtual gathering of people of faith and moral conscience

• Your Congregation As a School of Love (with Brian McLaron)

• Radical Welcome: Help Your Church Fully Embrace the Other

• Church Impact: From Organized Religion to Organizing Religion with Brian McLaren

• Clarifying Your Church's Identity: Convening around a Strong Center (with Brian McLaren):

• Curating Change in Your Church (with Brian McLaren)

The ELCA's Growing Younger page includes stories, resources, and tools to assist you and your congregation in connecting with new people so that our world may experience the difference God’s grace and love in Christ makes for all people and creation; including:

                                                                            

Download The 6 Core Commitments of Churches Growing Younger pdf here.

Register for the ELCA Growing Younger Train the Trainer Event here.

Simply Christian addresses the question of the reasonableness of the Christian faith in the modern world.

Materials are available as a complete study package or individually.