Six New Things – Week of April 27, 2026

We can heal relationships across divides (identities, urban/rural, socio-economic, etc.) responding to one urgent call: share the Good News. Heal the sick, feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, free the imprisoned, restore the planet (Matt. 25) via individual, daily lives and as the body politic.

ONE

‘Due to the cuts in the Big Bad Bill passed by Congress, HCMC (Hennepin County Medical Center) is on the verge of financial collapse, and it will close in June without additional financial support from the Minnesota legislature.’

“This would be catastrophic for patients in Minnesota.”

‘HCMC is there for the people of Minnesota 24 hours a day, so we are going to pray – for 24 hours straight – that the state legislature step up to save HCMC.’

Faithful Minnesotans are invited to support any of three prayer vigils:

Thursday, April 30 to Friday, May 1

  • Twin Cities: 24-Hour Prayer Vigil at Hennepin County Medical Center RSVP (10:00 AM Thursday to 10:00 AM Friday)
  • Rochester: Vigil to Heal the Sick RSVP
  • St Peter: 12-Hour Vigil to Heal the Sick RSVP

Dig a little deeper:

TWO

Support multi-generational bonding and healing, encouraging young and old alike to venture out-of-doors.

  • You’ll Always Be My Chickadee (Chronicle), weaves together ‘the wonders of nature and a parent’s devotion in one glorious day of outdoor exploration’.
  • Respond to God’s call, to deepen relationships with all our relatives through, ‘earth-bound spiritual practices and daily awareness’, in, Live Each Season as It Passes (Pilgrim).
  • When a girl, ‘disheartened by the way we treat the earth, crosses paths with a mysterious wolf in the woods’, in The Dream (Clarion), they discover, ‘how to make our world better for all …who live in it’.

Together, we can ‘make our world better for all’ by ensuring that billionaires and corporate polluters help pay for healing what they’re destroying: ISAIAH is part of MN vs. Big Oil, ‘a statewide campaign to create a Climate Superfund in Minnesota – legislation that would require fossil fuel companies to pay for climate damage and reinvest those dollars back into our communities…’ We can repair and restore creation as we, ‘weatherize homes, repair roads and mitigate flooding. We just need Big Oil to pitch in like the rest of us.’

THREE

From oligarchs to fascism and authoritarianism:

Shadows of the Republic: The Rebirth of Fascism in America and How to Defeat It for Good (Broadleaf) ‘offers the definitive story of American fascism – and what we can do to salvage democracy for years to come’.

In Chain of Ideas: The Origins of our Authoritarian Age (One World), author Ibram X. Kendi offers an unsettling but indispensable global history of how the ‘great replacement theory’ brought humanity into this authoritarian age – and how we can free ourselves from it.

FOUR

Freedom from these status quos is a precursor to repair and healing.

Getting to Reparations: How Building a Different America Requires a Reckoning with Our Past (Crown) argues ‘that there is a clear precedent for paying reparations to atone for America’s original sin of slavery, offering a compelling legal strategy to achieve this goal’.

Back to our shared basics (i.e., decent housing, food, health care, work…) and reminding us, ‘we haven’t got a chance – unless we organize’, is Song for a Hard-Hit People: A Memoir of Antiracist Solidarity from a Coal Miner’s Daughter (Haymarket Books), a story/song to heal amidst ‘divisive rhetoric, violent repression, and grifters writing elegies’.

FIVE

All of the above can cause ‘big feelings‘. We can all learn to:

Set My Feelings Free (Beaming) – with ‘breathing exercises, grounding techniques, visualization, and movement – to work through emotions like anger, frustration, fear, and disappointment.’

AND

‘Understand that even when we don’t have the words to express how we feel, we don’t need to get stuck there’, doodling along as Squirrel Draws Big Feelings (Beaming).

  • Adults can process big feelings with Rachel Svanoe Moynihan’s, Embodied Spiritual Practices for Uncertain Times (Rachel Joy Somatics), which include:
    • an accessible 6-module video series
    • introduces the role our nervous systems are playing
    • illuminates practices and pathways back to presence, connection and agency
    • a great summer, Advent, or Lenten small group resource!

SIX

Some already have their summer plans in place, but if you’re still searching:

  • BuildFaith Editors shared their annual VBS and Summer Camp Curriculum Top Picks for 2026 a while back (sorry!);
  • Which includes Snowball Mountain Challenge (Cokesbury), teaching children that God is the Source of their strength (a good lesson for us all; see above…)
  • Which is the curriculum upon which Eden Prairie UMC has based this year’s Adaptive VBS. LMK if you’d like support in creating your own Adaptive VBS – or join EPUMC!

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Thanks for being part of The Ministry Lab’s network of congregations, leaders, and organizations.

I am glad to (finally) share our 2025 Year-in-Review to let folx know what we’ve been up to. Maybe it’ll spark a transformational ministry idea, interest you in an innovation tool, or draw you into our Toolkits. I hope it deepens your awareness of what’s possible through The Ministry Lab!

The Ministry Lab exists to resource faith formation among all ages through all areas of congregational life. As contexts, cultures, and political realities continuously evolve, The Ministry Lab’s functionality also shifts.

I have added specific tools to support congregational and leader innovations:

I am developing Toolkits that encourage intergenerational study, worship, spiritual practice, conversation, and community action.

I am more intentionally inviting congregations into civic engagement and public presence.

Yet, in many contexts, innovation and/or even talking about today’s political realities can be not only challenging, but threatening. This is an extraordinary burden.

I strive to support leaders and affirm you in the ministry to which you were called: to preach the Good News of Christ, including its clear call to feed the hungry, free the imprisoned, heal the sick, welcome the stranger, and care for creation.

I wonder daily: How can we encourage and embolden all leaders in this work?

I want to ground The Ministry Lab’s offerings in your input.

To that end, I’ll be reaching out across the state inviting folx into one-on-one conversations to help me better resource emerging needs in diverse contexts. Please watch for an email from me, Emily Meyer – ministrylab@uccmn.org. I hope to have a conversation with you sometime soon!