In Spring 2018, author and speaker Dwight Zscheile presented information on the Agile Church for our diocesan Spring Conference. In the Fall of 2018, working with Luther Seminary and Zscheile, the diocese committed to a program of fostering faithful innovation in our congregations using the Faithful Innovation Learning Community process.
St. Matthias chose to become one of the first Learning Communities, committing a team of Lay Leaders to this process which offers congregations and clergy an opportunity to learn together about how to engage the challenges and changes of the 21st century. Our team entered into training with other congregations in the diocese to begin listening, and living into ways our congregation could develop deeper connections with God, each other, and our neighbors. We have, over the 2018-2019 year begun to learn and share practices of action and reflection involving listening, discernment, and small experiments.
After months of listening, and reflecting with the congregation, and in the neighborhoods around our church, our team was asked to develop an action experiment that would engage our congregation in going deeper. St. Matthias is a church very much committed to engaging with our surrounding community through Caritas and the Thrift Shop (see information about each on their respective pages on this site). One of the ways we give back to the world around us and beyond is through a quarterly tithe from the Thrift Shop, which we use for Outreach. The vestry receives the tithe and is entrusted by the parish to share those funds in ways that reflect the love of Jesus Christ in the world. The congregation as a whole, hears about how the monies are used but, historically, are not active participants in its distribution.
The faithful innovations team thought, "what if each person, who came to church one Sunday, was giving the opportunity to participate personally in the goodness, our tithe allows us to share?"
On two Sundays in 2019, envelopes containing $20 bills were given to each person who chose to participate in what the team called a "Generosity Experience." Each time we devoted time during coffee hour, a couple of Sundays later, to share how the funds were used, and what the experience of having the mission of being part of our Church's giving was like for those who participated.
Did you participate in the Generosity Experience? Please remember to turn in your Experience Survey!
Ways to share your Experience:
1] bring the surgery to the Office,
2] place the survey into the offering plate during Church, (extras will be available)
or 3] fill out our online survey about the experience here: Faithful Innovations, Generosity Experience
St. Matthias chose to become one of the first Learning Communities, committing a team of Lay Leaders to this process which offers congregations and clergy an opportunity to learn together about how to engage the challenges and changes of the 21st century. Our team entered into training with other congregations in the diocese to begin listening, and living into ways our congregation could develop deeper connections with God, each other, and our neighbors. We have, over the 2018-2019 year begun to learn and share practices of action and reflection involving listening, discernment, and small experiments.
After months of listening, and reflecting with the congregation, and in the neighborhoods around our church, our team was asked to develop an action experiment that would engage our congregation in going deeper. St. Matthias is a church very much committed to engaging with our surrounding community through Caritas and the Thrift Shop (see information about each on their respective pages on this site). One of the ways we give back to the world around us and beyond is through a quarterly tithe from the Thrift Shop, which we use for Outreach. The vestry receives the tithe and is entrusted by the parish to share those funds in ways that reflect the love of Jesus Christ in the world. The congregation as a whole, hears about how the monies are used but, historically, are not active participants in its distribution.
The faithful innovations team thought, "what if each person, who came to church one Sunday, was giving the opportunity to participate personally in the goodness, our tithe allows us to share?"
On two Sundays in 2019, envelopes containing $20 bills were given to each person who chose to participate in what the team called a "Generosity Experience." Each time we devoted time during coffee hour, a couple of Sundays later, to share how the funds were used, and what the experience of having the mission of being part of our Church's giving was like for those who participated.
Did you participate in the Generosity Experience? Please remember to turn in your Experience Survey!
Ways to share your Experience:
1] bring the surgery to the Office,
2] place the survey into the offering plate during Church, (extras will be available)
or 3] fill out our online survey about the experience here: Faithful Innovations, Generosity Experience
