In this month of awareness around Mental Health, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage – to name a few – compassion is a tool and a worldview that supports healthy communities, congregations, families, individual others, and selves. ONE We can all learn to be a little gentler with ourselves […]
Thanks to Rev. Rebel Hurd, assistant to the bishop in the Northwestern Minnesota Synod, ELCA, for sharing this pile of Great Ideas in the NWMN Northern Lights Newsletter! Rev. Hurd wonders, ‘What is your strategy for keeping people in your congregation/parish engaged this summer?’ Then immediately critiques the question by wondering how we define ‘engaged’ […]
Thanks to Doreen Gosmire, director of communications, Dakota UMC for sharing this Great Idea in the Dakotas Conference UMC newsletter. Doreen shares a beautiful narrative of the birth and growth of the South Dakota Toy Lending Library – and non-church nonprofit that began outside the church, but which has found a new home – large […]
Thanks to Elliott May for sharing these three Great Ideas in one in Building Faith’s post. Elliott May writes, “After a long stretch of constant pandemic adaptation, it’s clear that many church leaders are working to discern what comes next in our formation programs. Do we just return to our 2019 configurations, or do we […]
Thanks to Rev. Dr. Anna Hall from Convergence for sharing this Great Idea for re-envisioning ‘church choir’. Rev. Dr. Anna Hall outlines a number of challenges congregations are facing with regard to congregational singing – particularly those related to aging church. membership and smaller memberships: elder voices ‘struggle to hit the high notes’, lay musicians […]
Collaboration – working together – is energizing and renewing for individuals, our relationships, communities, and eventually, whole societies. Start with the immediate and see if expanding partnerships won’t transform the world. ONE Raccoon’s home burns down and his friends don’t know what to say or do. Then they learn that One Small Thing (Beaming) builds […]
We are creating a packet of resources to support congregations digging deeply into their local roots on behalf of water, well-being and relationship-building. It’s fitting we’ll be unveiling it on May 18: right in the middle of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Month. This Great Idea is a part of our packet of resources: We’ve […]
Thanks to Rev. Sheri Nelson at MN Conference UCC’s Outdoor Ministries for sharing this Great Idea! In her post, ‘Beatrice the Bumblebee Is Excited to See the Flowers Bloom’, Rev. Nelson writes, “No Mow May is back. Will you take the challenge of helping all the creatures who are getting a jump-start this Spring by […]
The world is in flux. The Church is in flux. People’s everyday lives are in flux. This Mental Health Awareness Month, ground in Love, read Love, be inspired by Love, share Love, and birth Love where you are planted. ONE As graduates walk across stages and out into their futures, steep them in the congregation’s […]
Thanks to Traci Smith for highlighting this Great Idea in her Treasure Box Tuesday post. Smith shared a reddit link to one community-minded response to growing anxiety: a giant chalkboard with a ready supply of chalk on which folx are invited to write down their fears, anxieties, worries, doubts, etc. Every night, the chalkboard is […]