Thriving Congregations Initiative

Reimagining Church

New Models for the 21st Century

Reflections

We Have a Lot of Work To Do

We need to challenge the status quo. We can’t fall back and continue to do what we’ve been doing, just because we’ve been doing it that way.

by Joe
“It was a seriously lonely time”

Each of us—those in the working group, in the congregation, and throughout our society—has experienced a tremendous degree of change. In a peculiar way, the pandemic has provided us with a common experience.

by David Potter
Embracing Possibility

This is a moment of possibility not just because we are collectively primed for change, but because it is a Kairos moment. We are in a time of transformation because Spirit is working through disruption and uncertainty; from chaos (or at least what often feels like chaos) we are being drawn further into beloved community.

by David Potter
Hope in the Midst of Dissonance

Reflections on getting to know Simsbury United Methodist Church and the Reimagining Church program

by Natalie Benson
God’s Church

The Black church- an enduring community, in a white world; full of fear, doubt and uncertainty. A church born from slavery- an alternative narrative, speaking to what Christianity should be in these yet United States of America. The Black church- not only is it the people’s church, but God’s church.

by Jyrekis Collins
Flocking Power

Starlings flock in unique patterns, undulating over the fields, thousands of little wings and heartbeats, never smashing into one another. Leaderless, they actively sense the movement of those next to them, lifting, turning, creating patterns together that would be impossible on their own or even to replicate en masse.

by Molli Mitchell
Reimagining Church: What Better Time Than Now?

Part of the privilege of working with the First Congregational Church of Branford is stepping into an ecclesial environment steeped in history.

by Zak Carroll
Reimagining A Way Forward

I am what some people might call a “cradle Christian”, but perhaps not in the way you think.

by Jonathan Lee
Spaces of Challenge and Hope

As a facilitator who is unattached to any particular Reimagining Church congregation, I have the fortune to reflect on the project from an involved yet mobile perspective.

by Jake Cunliffe
Why Reimagining Church?

The church at its best is an intergenerational, multi-identity community with a central Gospel narrative that reminds us of our past and urges us to continually envision a world beyond sound bytes, financial quarters, and catastrophic thinking.

by Leah Wise