Faithful Innovation Learning Community for Judicatories

Join a community of ministry peers and learn to foster a culture of experimentation and transformation in your judicatory.

In-Person Retreats

Pre-Launch Coaching Sessions

1 Year

Coaching Membership

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Transform Your Judicatory for Ministry in the 21st Century

This special "train the trainer" learning community will teach you how to help congregations in your regional church system adapt to to the core challenges facing the church in the 21st century.

Through a dynamic peer-learning community of ecumenical leaders, you'll engage ancient spiritual practices and leading-edge innovation theory as you discover ways to join God in forming Christian faith in community.

Then, you'll learn how to facilitate the same type of experience for clergy, lay leaders, and everyday disciples in your judicatory system.

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The challenges facing the church are big and nebulous and it's really easy to feel overwhelmed or cynical. But this process has given us a basis for hope—even if we don't know all the answers.

-Pastor Brandy G., past participant

Since 2018, we've trained over 50 judicatory leaders to help congregations of all sizes in their systems become vital Christian communities.

If you're a leader in a judicatory system who...

Recognizes that your communities are rapidly changing;
Wants clear next steps for helping congregations faithfully respond in new and different ways; and
Needs to do it without adding to an already-packed schedule...

The Faithful Innovation Learning Community for Judicatory Leaders is for you.

What Will You Learn?

A concrete way to navigate our new reality that is rooted in Biblical practices and leading-edge innovation tools.
How to engage accessible practices and habits that any leader or congregation can learn to lead change.
Ways to adapt and experiment in order to re-introduce the treasures of the Christian tradition to contemporary people in a changing world.
A practice for identifying sources of hope and life-giving energy within your community and context.
A proven step-by-step process for trying new things in a way that is actionable and holy, while equipping congregations to do the same.
How to help congregations make deeper connections with God, each other, and their neighbors.
A compelling recruiting plan you can use to engage congregations throughout your judicatory system.

Most importantly...

Most importantly, you'll gain the confidence and concrete tools you need to know what to do and how to do it as you help the congregations in your judicatory system re-discover the hope of a vital faith in Jesus.

How Does It Work?

You'll start with two in-person trainings that walk you step-by-step through our faithful innovation curriculum and equip you to introduce it in your judicatory. Then you move into an implementation phase, where you get one-on-one and group coaching for feedback and on-the-ground guidance.

Training 1: The Faithful Innovation Process

April 8-10, 2024, Minneapolis

Learn the three-step faithful innovation process (Listen, Act, Share) so that you can engage Christian practices and leading-edge innovation theory to help congregations discover what God might already be up to in their communities and discern a faithful path forward.

Training 2: How to Introduce Faithful Innovation to Your Congregations

July 8-10, 2024, Minneapolis

This "train the trainer" retreat will equip you with everything you need to know in order to recruit and teach congregations in your judicatory system to practice faithful innovation—including videos, handouts, resources, and a compelling process for recruiting congregations that are ready to discover a new way forward.

Ongoing Access to Coaching and Support

Two 1:1 coaching calls and 12 months of monthly group coaching

After completing the two trainings, you'll have twelve months of full access to our ongoing support program — including:

Two one-on-one coaching calls with your cohort leaders to help you implement everything you learn
A private digital community with your cohort and other alumni so that you can stay in touch and bounce ideas off of each other
Regular office hours with our experienced leader-coaches
Instant access to the most up-to-date faithful innovation resources that get developed for as long as you're in the program

What's Included

Single Payment

Multiple Payments

$10,000

$2500 per quarter

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The Faithful Innovation Process

Get to know the transformative practices that will cultivate a spirit of faithful innovation.

Listen
Act
Share

Tracing God's Movement in our Lives and Neighborhoods

The way forward begins with listening: to God, each other, ourselves, and the world around us. Listening to God together through Dwelling in the Word and Dwelling in the World helps us name what God is up to in our midst. Listening to stories about what we long for and what we've lost (or are afraid to lose) as well as listening to our congregation, neighbors, and community leaders help our hearts align with what God cares about most.

Using Action Learning to Discover God's Leading

The way forward also involves congregations cultivating life together through spiritual practices. These practices aren't new; they are ancient ways through which followers of Christ experience connection with God's Spirit.

Alongside this, there are practices of experimenting, prototyping, and evaluating faithful new expressions of ministry.

Sharing Stories about What We've Learned

The way forward also involves making time for practice of reflection and sharing stories of discernment. Without the practice of reflection, the first two practices of "listen" and "act" will be little more than a moment of trying something before moving on to something else. Sharing stories of what we did and learned is where we begin to see transformation unfolding.

Frequently Asked Questions

Any size congregation will succeed in engaging in the faithful innovation framework and process. We have had small, medium, and large sized congregations engage in this work without a designated clergy person leading the congregation.

The cost for this train-the-trainer program is $10,000 per judicatory, which includes two in-person workshops (meals and training are covered for up to four participants), two prepare-to-launch coaching calls, the training material and resources, and an additional 12-month faithful innovation coaching membership, including monthly group coaching with a cohort of diverse judicatories engaged in this work from around the country.

Select up to four leaders from your judicatory to participate in the cohort. This can be a combination of judicatory executive, judicatory staff, local clergy and/or lay leaders.

You will be given access to all the videos, handouts, resources you need and have the ability to contextualize them and brand them for your system.

After completing the training and workshop portion of the process, you will have 2 group coaching sessions designed to help you launch the faithful innovation process in your judicatory. Then, you will have access for 12-months to the Alumni Coaching Cohort with other peers that has monthly coaching sessions facilitated by a coach.

Every system is unique. It is a customizable process that equips and empowers you to faithfully discern what God might be calling you to next with any challenge that you face. It includes a proven and tested set of practices that have been used in dozens of systems and hundreds of congregations with success.

Don’t see your question addressed?
Email us at faithlead@luthersem.edu for more information. We’ll be delighted to connect!

Meet Your Instructors

Dwight Zscheile

Dwight Zscheile is Vice President of Innovation and Professor of Congregational Mission and Leadership at Luther Seminary. He has authored or co-authored several books, including Leading Faithful Innovation: Following God into a Hopeful Future, The Agile Church: Spirit-Led Innovation in an Uncertain Age, and The Missional Church in Perspective: Mapping Trends and Shaping the Conversation.

A graduate of Stanford University (BA), Yale University (MDiv) and Luther Seminary (PhD, Congregational Mission and Leadership), Dwight previously served congregations in Minnesota, Virginia and Connecticut. Dwight’s experience growing up in a secular home in California has shaped his commitment to helping the church cultivate Christian community with neighbors in today’s changing world.

Faithful Innovation Learning Community for Judicatories

Transform Your Judicatory for Ministry in the 21st Century

If you're a leader in a judicatory system who...

What Will You Learn?

Most importantly...

How Does It Work?