Synod School convocation speaker offers up inspiring examples of innovative ministry
by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service
In May 2022, Wilmington Kitchen Collective in New Castle Presbytery held its grand opening. More than 200 people turned out to celebrate. (Photo by Cindy Kohlmann)
STORM LAKE, Iowa — Picking up on his Wednesday theme of faith communities and mid councils “seeing beyond the standalone model of being church,” on Thursday Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall told the 540 or so people attending Synod School he’s talked to several attendees about how they’re “creatively using God’s resources to be a blessing beyond themselves.”
One church is in the early stages of using its property to build housing needed in the community. Another church makes its commercial kitchen available for small businesses to bake items for sale.
One ministry Schlosser-Hall, Deputy Executive Director of Vision, Innovation and Rebuilding in the Presbyterian Mission Agency, has been following is the Wilmington Kitchen Collective in New Castle Presbytery. The collective began when a congregation partnered with a worshiping community who had connections with food vendors. The collective, which has a long waiting list of culinary entrepreneurs waiting to enter the program, has four goals:
- Provide low-cost shared kitchen facilities for growing food-based businesses
- Increase access to capital and startup grants for entrepreneurs
- Increase access to training and business development for entrepreneurs
- Build a community of culinary entrepreneurs to support and encourage one another on their journey.
“The business development and economic support is important to us because we have heard over and over again from our entrepreneurs that space is not enough,” the Rev. Chelsea Spyres, the collective’s executive director, said during a 2022 webinar. “To launch and do business well in the startup phase, they need more support and resources,” including micro grants and business development coaching.
“We are not business experts,” Spyres said of Wilmington Kitchen Collective. “But we have a lot of connections in the community. We are more than a kitchen space.”
Another example Schlosser-Hall held up was Rooted Good and its Good Futures Accelerator, which is available for purchase by congregations and mid councils at half price here. Learn more about the Good Futures Accelerator here.
In addition, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Innovation offers how-to guides for mid councils and congregations exploring innovative uses for land and property. “How to Rent Well,” “How to Develop Well” and “What About Taxes?!!!” can be downloaded free here.
“Existing ministries are growing more inventive,” Schlosser-Hall said. “The hope is that over time, they’ll become a broader influence in the church.”
He went over some of the statistics from the PC(USA)’s 1001 New Worshiping Communities that show of the 800 worshiping communities started over the past dozen years, 600 are still providing ministry. “That’s a much higher ratio than most innovation that happens,” he said.
New worshiping communities in the PC(USA) worship in 17 languages. Forty percent are multicultural. Seventy-eight percent of people involved with worshiping communities are under the age of 55.
“This is happening in your neighborhood,” Schlosser-Hall said. “You are providing the resources and encouragement and engagement.” He said his prayer is that “we keep learning from each other and the synergy becomes infectious.”
However, even with all that imagination and innovation going on, there are places that many of us are not paying attention to, he said: the places where relationships are broken.
“The Church has been a place that caused harm for others. People are at odds with one another, and reconciliation has to happen,” he said. “When shalom is not present, there is distrust and suspicion that often keeps us stuck.”
When Schlosser-Hall was a new presbytery executive, his mentor told him that in the last 10 years of his ministry, 10 nearby congregations had shut down. Each of the closed churches had an instance of sexual misconduct unresolved and unaddressed, Schlosser-Hall said. “The suspicion and mistrust led to the spiral of inability to relate well to the community,” he said, “and the church ended up closing.”
Yees Ku Oo Dancers presented a song of celebration at the conclusion of the service of apologies and responses Oct. 8, 2023, at Kunéix Hídi Northern Light United Church in Juneau, Alaska. (Photo by Rich Copley)
“In our past as a denomination, there have been many ways where our theology and missional practice has harmed others,” and Schlosser-Hall showed this video to help Synod Schoolers understand one such case. The video tells the story of the 225th General Assembly directing an official apology and reparations for the racist manner in which Memorial Presbyterian Church in Juneau, Alaska, was closed in 1963.
“As we were working with the congregation on what reparative actions they would take to seek to reconcile this, we had to listen closely to what the folks who were experiencing the harm needed from this relationship,” Schlosser-Hall said. “Out of that listening came pages of compelling future-oriented cooperation in ministry. It released imagination that had long been dormant about what we might do next.”
“It’s not about events,” Schlosser-Hall said of the October 2023 apology and reparations. “It’s about relationships.”
Synod School, which is held each summer at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa, concludes Friday. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the gathering, which is cherished by hundreds of people in the Synod of Lakes and Prairies.
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