Which Future?

This Great Idea has been ruminating for a long time and has been offered in other Great Ideas in other forms. Here's today's iteration: Read Rev. Dr. Cameron Trimble's What If...? post. Indulge the world and God's prophetic voice with…

Drive-Up Worship

The Ministry Lab was honored to support this Great Idea from Litchfield United Methodist Church with a Hopeful Innovation Grant! Transform your worship opportunities with an FM Transmitter: What you'll need: An FM Transmitter and…

A More Mutually Beneficial Post-Covid

This Great Idea was inspired by the coalescence of the numerous resources mentioned in it, all arriving in The Ministry Lab's inbox within 24 hours of one another! Lead your congregation in re-imagining themselves, your community, and the…

Six New Things – Week of February 22, 2021

Blessing and belonging, empowerment and embrace fill out this week's highlights: One Nutrition expert Alexandra Mackillop confronts the culturally engineered hyper-criticism of women's bodies by examining how dieting harms both physical and…

Pretzel Prayer Party

Thanks to Rev. Elsa Cook for another fantastic Great Idea! You may not know this, but there are pretzel traditions from all over the world. AND pretzel traditions are sometimes linked with Lent and/or prayer. Rev. Cook combines the pretzel…

Six New Things – Week of February 15, 2021

One The cover is so gorgeous and the concept so compelling, we must start with Talitha Shipman's inaugural author/illustrator adventure, Finding Beauty (Beaming), which "[transforms] girls into beauty-seeking adventurers charging out into…

Pandemic Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

Thanks to Rev. Elsa Cook for yet another Great Idea! Rev. Cook reminds us that, "Worship is not the only thing that adds flavor to congregational life. We are nourished by times of fellowship and times of service." She therefore offers this…

Easter Affirmations

Thanks to Rev. Elsa Cook for sharing this Great Idea in her blog! Rev. Cook wrote An Advent Affirmation of Faith for 2020 in preparation for her Longest Night liturgy and found the exercise so helpful that she designed a way to engage the…

MN Month Food Share Campaign

Thanks to Lindy Zabel, Director of Community Development for the MN Annual Conference of the UMC for sharing this Great Idea in Lindy's Mission Minute! Join the state-wide effort to address food instability for thousands of families - and…

Love Notes

Thanks to our friend, Joan Davig, for posting this Great Idea! Joan's grandchildren sent her a little keepsake box full of little cut-out hearts with love notes written on them. She and her spouse are able to take out a single little note…