This Saturday, I spent the day with teams from three of our Conference Out West congregations who have chosen to engage in the Faithful Innovation process we learned recently with Luther Seminary. The process develops over the course of a year as team members practice the art of listening to God and their community to see where God may be leading them. Then it moves into a phase of “holy experimentation” to try some new things that come from the listening. Finally comes a phase to of reflection and learning to see how we might find new ways to be the church.

This first training day was focused on listening practices as the teams spent time Dwelling in the Word, learning how to Dwell in the World, and exercises for listening to grief & loss along with hopes & needs.

I’m so proud of the work they put into that day, culminating with the teams breaking down into their groups to make plans for next steps. Over the next few months they will put those listening skills into practice back home. We will meet again in January to learn the next set of skills.