Rahel Mwitula Williams serves as the Director of Innovation and Ideas within the ELCA churchwide organization.

This year marks two years in my role as the ELCA Director of Innovation and Ideas. While I’d love to say I’ve stopped getting this question, the most persistent question remains: What do you do again? The question persists no matter how many conversations I have with partners, colleagues, and friends. So, I’ve decided to reflect on it in this blog post.

When people hear “innovation,” most think of tech startups, Silicon Valley, or the latest app. Rarely does the term conjure up images of church pews, liturgy, “churpreneurs” (church entrepreneurs), or communion wafers (seriously, who decided we should use those?). Yet, here we are, talking about innovation in the ELCA.

Don’t worry—no one’s in a lab tinkering with prototypes for “God 2.0.” The ELCA isn’t trying to “upgrade” Jesus. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Instead, at the ELCA Innovation Lab, we focus on how we experience, communicate, and share the unchanging message of God’s love in ways that adapt to who we are, where we live, and how we see the world.

For centuries, the Christian church has communicated the Gospel in ways that reflect the times and cultures of its people—because that’s what humans do. Luther’s 95 Theses? It was the printing press that made it possible for people to access the Bible in their own language—an innovation that brought both tears of joy and torches of outrage.

People encounter God in deeply personal ways, shaped by their cultural contexts, identities, and experiences. The ELCA understands that innovation doesn’t mean changing God; it means rethinking how we connect with God and one another in an ever-evolving world.

We know that the Gospel doesn’t change. The message remains one of grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love. However, we also know that how we communicate that message must be as dynamic as the people we are called to serve.

Our approach to innovation isn’t about marketing gimmicks or trendy buzzwords. It’s about recognizing that God meets us where we are—whether that’s in a small rural congregation, a city coffee shop turned worship space, a barbershop, a community center, an ecumenical Christmas cantata, or even a neurodivergent choir.

It’s about asking the question: What does it mean to create spaces where God’s presence feels tangible, accessible, and life-changing?

Innovation isn’t about manufacturing cookie-cutter experiences of faith. It means truly listening to people’s stories, contexts, and needs. It means asking, How can we make room for God to meet you where you are? God isn’t confined to steeples and Sunday mornings; God is present in the messy, beautiful complexity of our lives.

Innovation isn’t about losing the sacred; it’s about making the sacred relevant. It’s about embracing creativity and laughter because a joyful God delights in our joy.

The Bottom Line: Jesus Doesn’t Need Rebranding. The message of love, sacrifice, and redemption is timeless. How we carry that message into a world searching for hope, connection, and belonging does need rethinking.

The ELCA’s unique ability to innovate lies in its commitment to remaining rooted in tradition while staying agile enough to adapt to the world as it is. God is not a distant relic but a living, present reality, and the work of innovation in the church is to help people realize that.

So, no, we’re not prototyping a new God. But we are reimagining what it means to encounter the God who has always been here—in the beginning. And in a constantly evolving world, that’s an innovation worth celebrating.

Then, let’s reimagine the future of faith together! Contact the ELCA Innovation Lab to explore meaningful ways to collaborate, dream boldly, and shape new expressions of ministry.

Is your synod, church, or community ready and willing to try something new? Let’s connect (Lab@elca.org) and create something new!

This blog post “Communicating Shared Values” is part two of a series designed to spark conversation! To read the previous posts in the series, you can view all ELCA Innovation Blog posts here.

Research Insight: Young adult parents don’t consider religious faith or spiritual development important for their children.   

This chart from the study shows how respondents view what is most important to teach children.

Last week’s blog post shared a call to action from the U.S. Surgeon General for faith communities and religious leaders to play a part in responding to issues around parents’ mental health and well-being in today’s world.

Yet, in a recent research study, survey respondents rated “religious faith” as the least important thing to teach their children when presented with a list of options that included values and behaviors like empathy, helping others, tolerance, and responsibility, which may all feature prominently in Christian teaching designed for children.

With this disinterest in passing on religious faith, how might congregations engage parents and their children? Gallup has reported that religious people experience better well-being in various ways. We should not reduce our faith to being a device or vehicle for health and happiness. Instead, emphasizing the connection between a relationship with God and a life of purpose and vocation deserves an increased focus.

While trust in religious institutions may be waning, 27% of survey respondents still said they would trust religious leaders or texts for parenting advice. This compares to 63% who would trust their parents (by far the most trusted source of advice), 30% who would trust experts or academics, and only 15% who would trust blogs, influencers, or social media. This level of trust is hardly overwhelming, but it does signal an openness to hearing from faith communities about parenting – particularly if that advice helps a parent pass on values and ideals they care deeply about, like a sense of responsibility and empathy for others.

Next steps for congregations

What can faith communities do to support parents as they raise children to live a life of purpose? While there isn’t a singular solution, congregations seeking to promote the well-being of parents can listen intentionally to local families. What needs do parents have that a faith community might have the resources to meet? Where is there alignment between a congregation’s beliefs or practices and the values parents are striving to instill in their children? These are the types of wonderings that spark ideas for creative ministry.

Next week’s blog will focus on spiritual practices among parents and prospective parents. In the meantime, we invite you to reflect on the discussion questions below. If you have comments, questions, or reflections, please share them with us at Lab@elca.org!

Discussion Questions

• Does our congregation or community offer any ministry specifically designed for parents? If not, when was the last time our congregation/community intentionally engaged with parents?
• How might our congregation play a role in connecting caregivers and parents to foster social connection?
• How could we learn more about the biggest challenges facing parents in our community?
• What other non-profits, faith communities, organizations, etc., are providing support for parents in our community? Have we made any connections with them recently?

Further Reading

1. Recommended Practices for Lifelong Faith Formation: This ELCA handbook gives concrete, easily accessible touchpoints for faith formation for different age groups.
2. 4D Formation: Exploring Vocation in Community: This book by Drew Tucker, an ELCA pastor, explores the definition of Vocation and invites the reader “to examine, clarify, and affirm their purpose and identity, and ultimately to experience God’s presence in and purpose for their lives.”
3. Young Adult Parents Research: We’re basing this blog series on this report! The linked report provides analysis and survey results in full.

This blog post is part of a series designed to spark conversation! To read future posts in the series, you can view all ELCA Innovation Blog posts here.

Parents under pressure

This past summer, the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released an advisory on the mental health and well-being of parents. A Surgeon General’s Advisory is “a public statement that calls the American people’s attention to an urgent public health issue and provides recommendations for how it should be addressed. Advisories are reserved for significant public health challenges that require the nation’s immediate awareness and action.” In short, an advisory is serious.

The advisory paints a picture of an interconnected web of issues that contribute to parental and caregiver stress, loneliness, and mental health conditions. Some of the stand-out figures include:

• Nearly 3-in-4 parents are extremely or somewhat worried that their child will struggle with anxiety or depression.
• School shootings, or the possibility of one, are a significant source of stress for 74% of parents.
• Approximately 65% of parents and guardians, and 77% of single parents in particular, experienced loneliness, compared to 55% of non-parents.
• In the last decade, childcare prices have grown by approximately 26% in the U.S.

How can the church respond?

In his foreword to the advisory, the surgeon general states, “Raising children is sacred work. It should matter to all of us.” The advisory makes it clear that the church can take action to respond to this challenge with faith leaders and communities being called out specifically to:

1. Foster open dialogue about parental stress, mental health, and well-being in culturally appropriate ways.
2. Create opportunities to cultivate supportive social connections among parents and caregivers.

But how might the church and other faith communities respond to this call for action? Last year, the ELCA Innovation Lab partnered with Try Tank Research Institute and the Presbyterian Church (USA) to conduct a national research study that sought to understand shifting trends in the faith lives of young adults, with a particular focus on young adult parents or prospective parents (those hoping to have children).

This study revealed more about shifting spiritual and religious practices, identities, and affiliations. It also dug into parents’ worries and priorities. Over the next few weeks, we’ll post brief insights and reflections based on this research that we hope will spark conversation, ideas, and action in your community. You can read the full report any time and direct your questions, comments, and reflections to Lab@elca.org!

Further Reading

1. The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Mental Health & Well-Being of Parents.
2. An opinion column from Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General, featured in the New York Times.
3. Resources from UNICEF that explore and provide tips for talking about mental health with young people and tips for caregivers and parents as they care for themselves.
4. The ELCA’s social message on The Body of Christ and Mental Illness which was adopted in 2012 by the ELC Church Council.

Congregations Lead Initiative

People are lonely. A January 2020 survey from Cigna found that three in five US Americans are lonely, and we know loneliness only got exponentially worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education analyzed data from an October 2020 online survey of 950 Americans and “reported substantial increases in loneliness since the outbreak of the pandemic.” Loneliness can seem like a taboo topic, but this survey shows that our neighbors are crying out for connection. So, what does that mean for a church that believes in a relational God? The ELCA is called to respond to the needs of our world by nurturing our relationships with our global and local communities as well as building stronger ties with our neighbors. 

At its November 2020 meeting, the ELCA Church Council affirmed the Future Church design, which focuses on a “renewed purpose to activate the entire church so that more people may know the way of Jesus and discover community, justice and love.” In doing so, it identified three priorities for the church moving forward:

• a welcoming church that engages new, young and diverse people
• a thriving church rooted in tradition and radically relevant
• a connected, sustainable church that shares in a common purpose and direction

These are big priorities that can be lived out in a variety of ways. One way to live into this renewed purpose is a program that evolved out of this refocused purpose statement: the Congregations Lead Initiative, made possible by a generous grant from the Lilly Endowment. As our world and local contexts grow more complex, the ELCA is called to respond to the needs of our community. This program seeks to equip and inspire congregations with innovation and design-thinking tools to spark the next chapter of congregational ministry. At a time when many congregations feel like they’re struggling to survive, this initiative seeks to provide the tools to thrive. In addition, we hope this program will spark greater change across the whole ELCA, where thriving congregations will inspire a thriving church, so that all “may have life, and have it abundantly,” (John 10:10). We are looking for new and creative ways to invite people to know the love of Jesus.

God demonstrates time and again that we are meant to be in community; in one Body of Christ. “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it,” (1 Corinthians 12:26). When loneliness is an epidemic, we are called to listen to our neighbors, be present in community, and to be a safe space where people can experience the love of God. If this call to activate the entire church so that more people may know the way of Jesus and discover community, justice and love excites you, then your congregation might be a great candidate for the Congregations Lead Initiative! To learn more, you can visit elca.org/congregationslead; applications are open now! If you have any questions, feel free to email CongregationsLead@elca.org. 

Rebecca Payne (she/her)

Program Manager, Congregations Lead Initiative

Open Doors supports ELCA congregations interested in meeting new people in this time of re-gathering in physical spaces

Over the past 18 months, faith communities have gathered to worship and share the faith in new and different ways. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, worship has moved online, in-person events have been reimagined, and new questions have arisen. Yet, faith communities around the world have served their communities with profound compassion and creativity. As vaccine availability in the United States increased and outbreaks of Covid-19 lessened in severity, communities across the ELCA have begun considering what might be next. Additionally, as the ELCA sets out to share the story of Jesus and the ELCA with one million new, younger, and more diverse people, the opportunity became clear. But without a set list of “best practices” for emerging from a global pandemic, the ELCA set out to learn – together.

The Open Doors initiative was launched to support ELCA congregations interested in meeting new people during this time of transition and re-gathering in physical spaces. ELCA congregations were invited to share their concrete, actionable ideas for meeting new people during this critical time.

To see a map of Open Doors recipients click here.

Over 1,000 ELCA congregations – nearly 12 percent – responded with their ideas. The ideas ranged from responding to the immediate needs of communities to sparking moments of joy through a traveling ice cream cart with a cool, sweet treat and warm welcome. Other congregations are imaging outdoor public space for reflection and tranquility through a garden or prayer labyrinth or celebratory block parties and concerts. Many are planning to continue virtual worship and community in addition to returning to physical gathering, and still others will accompany neighbors in community prayer gatherings through grief support and intentional time to remember the many lives lost during the past year.

In total, 134 grant applicants from across the ELCA were selected through a random selection process and received a $1,500 grant to put towards their idea. Grant applicants and recipients are implementing their ideas and will be invited to share their learnings toward the end of 2021. If you would like to share your idea for meeting new people in this time of re-gathering, you can do so using the Open Doors “bulletin board.”

Though the future may be yet unknown, the opportunity to learn and grow together continues. If you’d like to follow along, please subscribe to the ELCA Innovation Lab blog, and you can email us at lab@elca.org.