Six New Things – Week of August 03, 2026
Democracy and belonging go hand in hand. Build relationships across divides as we hold one another in solidarity and accountability in service to the Gospel’s call to love our neighbors.
ONE
There’s Always Room (Petty Launch) promises to ‘wrap children in warmth, wonder, and belonging’ as it ‘invites young readers onto a magical couch that stretches and grows with every new guest’, showing ‘that everyone is welcome and that our differences make the world brighter’.
TWO
Welcome and belonging are hard to come by in a world filled with hate and injustice.
Adults find encouragement and empowerment to ‘grow a longer couch’ with, Weathering the Storm: Navigating the Anti-Social Justice Wave (Broadleaf), a guide ‘for anyone who has ever felt worn down by injustice, disillusioned by regression, or isolated in their advocacy’ which ‘offers validation, empowerment, and above all, the reminder that the fight for justice is a long arc that we will ultimately bend together’.
CYF leaders – lay and staff and clergy – are encouraged to join The Ministry Lab and our ecumenical partners for this year’s ConNext Summit / Beyond Belonging: Branch Out – Bring In – Build Together! David Scherer (AGAPE*) is our Plenary Leader and we’re thrilled to officially announce that Alsa Bruno from Brass Solidarity is our Music and Worship Leader. We’re finalizing workshops, but you can keep an eye out and register here. Join in at Clearwater Forest Camp & Retreat Center, October 11-13, 2026!!
THREE
The largest challenge to justice right now in the US is voter rights, election transparency, and seating duly elected leaders.
Digital Coup: The Conspiracy to Thwart Global Democracy (Broadleaf), explores ‘how AI-driven disinformation and social media echo chambers …erode democracy’ and how ‘AI’s power is being wielded to manipulate, polarize, and exploit’ in a world being shaped ‘both by those who engineer these systems and buy those who refuse to challenge them.’
It is a clear call to action.
United States of Oligarchy: How America’s Wealthiest Ally with Dictators, Weaken the U.S., and Destroy Democracy (St. Martin’s), ‘illuminates a story decades in the making’ revealing how ‘the oligarchs have risen, and are attempting to reign. The only question remaining is whether or not it’s too late to stop them.’
It is a clear call to action.
The ELCA’s Election Engagement Toolkit – ‘jam-packed with resources and links for living our your baptismal commitments and participating in democracy’ – includes the ELCA’s 2025 Social Statement, Faith and Civic Life: Seeking the Well-Being of All, and urges Christians to consider: Is the neighbor being served? At a July 7 press conference, Minneapolis Area Synod Bishop Jen Nagel said, ‘I pay attention and push back when questions arise about restricting mail-in voting, when districts are being gerrymandered in order to disenfranchise voters by race or class, or when intimidation threatens to keep citizens away from the polls.’
Join ‘faith leaders across the country’, ‘Grounded in Scripture. Called to Action.’, who are, ‘mobilizing to protect communities and defend democratic processes through coordinated, nonviolent action’ through Faith in US.
- Sign their letter here.
- Join a Regional Training (August 11 or 13), in preparation for Election Period National Mobilization.
FOUR
Our advocacy and justice work is healthiest when it includes lament and repentance.
In Western Christianity Got It Wrong: Replacing the God of Fear with a Spirituality of Healing (Broadleaf), Randy Woodley asserts, ‘Jesus never intended to start a religion that would justify stealing land, enslaving people, or destroying creation.’ Readers will ‘uncover what Jesus’ liberation message looks like when freed from imperial frameworks’.
The book includes a Discussion Guide.
It would be a great follow-up to our Multi-Generational Odyssey Great Idea, which explores the possibility of new interpretations and understanding of ancient texts and wonders who has the power and authority to share age-old stories.
FIVE
The importance of democracy is writ large in, In the Arms of Mountains: A Memoir of Land, Love, and Queer Resistance in Red America (Beacon), ‘the story rural America deserves to tell – and that the rest of the country needs to hear’. It tracks author Cole Nicole LeFavour’s ‘journey from their 2-mile walk to the school bus along a dirt road to their monumental election as Idaho’s first openly queer state senator’ and ‘shatters the carefully constructed ‘monolithic heartland’ myth and rewrites Hillbilly Elegy’s bleak epitaph.’
SIX
Together we can ALL rewrite the ‘monolithic heartland myth’ by sharing stories across divides.
During Metro Surge one small South Minneapolis received letters from across the country: letters of support, encouragement, solidarity. They were Pauline-like Epistles to and from the church. The receiving congregation read excerpts from them as their Epistle Reading (one of their Scripture readings) during worship and shared the originals in a folder that greeted people as they walked in the door of the building. They were bonding, encouraging, and so, so dear.
One member wondered: why don’t we write letters like these to one another all the time? We could be writing letters to rural congregations so they know that we see one another and support them in their good work.
From there, KinMN has come into being.
The Ministry Lab and ecumenical partners are thrilled to invite congregations and leaders into relationship across Minnesota’s diverse geographies. KinMN is an opportunity to write letters and/or visit with one another across the rural/urban divide. We’ll help interested leaders and congregations find one another, but hope relationships will blossom organically. Mostly, we hope congregations will find encouragement, friendship, new understandings and deeper awareness of one another’s lived realities.
But who knows where the Spirit will lead?
[The RSVP is not.]
But you don’t have to wait!
Contact The Ministry Lab for further information and to RSVP.
