Church Innovations' News Room

January 2010: Watch our homepage for current activities and updates. Our next issue of the CI Newsletter is scheduled for early March.

December 16, 2009: The latest edition (December 2009) of our newsletter, Partners In Innovation, is now available:

• CI: Consulting and Information by Patrick Keifert
• The Multiplication of Gifts by John Mueller Nowell
• How Do Congregations Learn New Habits by Pat Taylor Ellison
• Crossing the Bar XX - Tumbling by Jim Johnson
• Missional Church In Practice: PMC in Southern Africa at 5 Years! by Patrick Keifert
• Thanksgiving...Give Thanks! by Gary Pearce
• 2008 Audited Financial Report Available by Gary Pearce
• Dwelling In the Word: Chapter 6 by Pat Taylor Ellison
• News and Events by Caroline Hvidsten

October 5, 2009: The latest edition (September 2009) of our newsletter, Partners In Innovation, is now available:

• Mt. Rainier and ACMNP by Patrick Keifert
• Harvest Reflections by John Mueller Nowell
• Lay Leadership Habits for Thriving Churches by Pat Taylor Ellison
• Crossing the Bar XIX - Marvin's Gardens by Jim Johnson
• Missional Church In Practice: Update on PMC in the United Kingdom - The Journey to the First Cluster Event by Patrick Keifert
• PMC Trainings Held in August and October by Pat Taylor Ellison
• Why Support CI? by Gary Pearce
• Dwelling In the Word: Chapter 5 by Pat Taylor Ellison
• News and Events by Caroline Hvidsten

September 1, 2009: A Steering Team from Abilene Christian University has sponsored and guided a project of Organizational Discovery this spring and summer. Organization Discovery involves having people interview one another in each of several social locations inside the organization, using 8 questions they design and agree upon in advance, holding interviews, collecting answers, and turning those collected answers over to an outside reading team to read and report back on. All of this work produces a picture of the organization’s culture and purpose.

At ACU, students interviewed students, faculty interviewed faculty, board members interviewed board members, and administration and support staff interviewed administration and support staff. Those 4 interview collections were read by Church Innovations Reading Teams, and a report was sent back to each set of interviewers to be vetted for language and confidentiality. Two consultants from CI, Pat Keifert and Pat Taylor Ellison, took all the data and reports and fashioned an executive summary for ACU, and helped the ACU Steering Team process that report and derive next steps from what they were learning. To stay focused and keep the big picture in mind, the steering Team and consultants met to do this processing for three days in Yellowstone Park, where cell phones and internet are almost non-existent. They dwelled in the Word, dealt with the data, ate, sang, and worshiped together. SMART Plans of Action were built for the coming months.

August 20, 2009: Pat Taylor Ellison is attending the Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA this week in Minneapolis. She sits on a Task Force charged with the job of discovering communal discernment methods and practices for the ELCA. Pat and fellow task force member Hank Tkachuk (professor at Concordia College Moorhead) are collecting stories of spiritual discernment from delegates to the assembly and other attendees.

July 29, 2009: This year's retreat in Yellowstone was a success. Look for a full recap in the September newsletter. Click here to view a few photos from the event.

July 17, 2009: The latest edition (June 2009) of our newsletter, Partners In Innovation, is now available:

• Recession and Our Partners by Patrick Keifert
• Reflections on Dwelling In the Word by John Mueller Nowell
• Crossing the Bar XVIII - Milk for Free by Jim Johnson
• Missional Church In Practice: The PMC JSP: An Important Resource for the Sponsoring Judicatory by Bob Armstrong
• Missional Church In Practice: JSPs: Partners on Your PMC Journey by Caroline Hvidsten
• Staff Development for Church Innovations by Barbara Miller
• Dwelling In the Word: Chapter 4 by Pat Taylor Ellison
• News and Events by Caroline Hvidsten

May 14, 2009: The latest edition (March 2009) of our newsletter, Partners In Innovation, is now available:

• The Think Tank: A Time of Spiritual Discernment About a Movement by Patrick Keifert and Pat Taylor Ellison
• An Epiphanic Moment Think Tank on the Future of the Missional Church by Marie A. Failinger
• Missional Church In Practice: Congregation Envisions Community Garden for Growing – and Bearing Fruit by Benjamin Ries
• Church Innovations Receives 2nd Year Funding from Otto Bremer Foundation by Pat Taylor Ellison
• Dwelling In the Word: Chapter 3 by Pat Taylor Ellison
• News and Events by Caroline Hvidsten

December 23, 2008: The latest edition (December 2008) of our newsletter, Partners In Innovation, is now available:

• A Letter From the President by Patrick Keifert
• Dwelling In the Word: Chapter 2 by Pat Taylor Ellison
• Missional Church In Practice - PMC Phase 2: Bridge Communities by Bob Armstrong
• Crossing the Bar XVII - Tigger, Krissy, Jesus and James Dean by Jim Johnson
• Reflections on the 2008 Annual Conference by Kathryn Brown
• Regional Missional Conferences by John Mueller Nowell
• IRC and Church Innovations' Think Tank to Convene in March 2009 by Pat Taylor Ellison
• Church Innovations' 2007 Financial Report by Gary Pearce
• News and Events by Caroline Hvidsten

September 25, 2008: The latest edition (September 2008) of our newsletter, Partners In Innovation, is now available:

• A Letter From the President by Patrick Keifert
• Chapters of Dwelling In the Word: Free for You! by Pat Taylor Ellison and Patrick Keifert
• Missional Church In Practice - Risking Failure...Experimenting Explained by Bob Armstrong
• PMC - Evening Prayers by David Dawson
• Introduction to Lay Missional Retreats by Barbara Miller
• News and Events by Caroline Hvidsten

May 2, 2008: The latest edition (May 2008) of our newsletter, Partners In Innovation, is now available:

• A Letter From the President by Patrick Keifert
• Twenty Persons + Two Days with Time to Think = Energy by Pat Taylor Ellison
• Guided by Faith and Friends, Pat Taylor Ellison Readies Four Books for Publishing by Pat Taylor Ellison
• Bremer, Congregations, the Saga Continues! by Pat Taylor Ellison
• International Research Consortium Discusses Social Place and Calling of Congregations by Pat Taylor Ellison
• Crossing the Bar XVI - An Unnecessary God by Jim Johnson
• Missional Church In Practice - The Smell of a Missional Church by John Mueller Nowell
• Introduction to Lay Missional Retreats by Barbara Miller
• News and Events by Caroline Hvidsten

January 2 , 2008: Sign up now for our 2008 Spring Conference, Missional Church: Emerging Networks, Practical Resources.

December 17, 2007: The latest edition (December 2007) of our newsletter, Partners In Innovation, is now available:

• A Letter From Patrick Keifert, President and Barbara Miller, Chief Operating Officer
• Four Words on Singing by Patrick Keifert
• Writing Books Series Surprises and Delights by Pat Taylor Ellison
• Crossing the Bar XV - When Wisdom Bends Her Knee by Jim Johnson
• Missional Church In Practice - Experimenting on the Journey of Spiritual Discernment by Jannie Swart
• Dwelling In the Word - The Word of Luke 10 by Jerry Wolfe
• News and Events by Caroline Hvidsten

September 26 , 2007: The latest edition (September 2007) of our newsletter, Partners In Innovation, is now available:

• A Letter From the President by Patrick Keifert
• Sabbatical Presents Pat Taylor Ellison with Novel Experience by Pat Taylor Ellison
• Crossing the Bar XIV - The Church of the Penultimate by Jim Johnson
• Missional Church In Practice - Discovering Partners on the Journey of Spiritual Discernment by Jannie Swart
• Missional Church In Practice - Paying Attention to Space by John Mueller Nowell
• Missional Church In Practice - The True Costs of PMC by Patrick Keifert
• News and Events by Caroline Hvidsten

June 14 , 2007: The latest edition (June 2007) of our newsletter, Partners In Innovation, is now available:

• A Letter From the Editor by Daniel Lautenbach
• A Letter From the President by Patrick Keifert
• International Research Consortium Meeting Helps Missional Leaders Push Through the Pain by Pat Taylor Ellison
• Crossing the Bar XIII - The Attack of the Bible Thumpers by Jim Johnson
• Missional Church In Practice - What is Missional Church? by Jannie Swart
• Missional Church In Practice - Further Reading About Missional Church
• A Layperson's View of the Sustaining Missional Leadership conference by Amy Lewis
• Congregational Mission Reshapes Theological Education by Scott Hagley
• Boundary Crossing and Missional Transformation by Scott Hagley
• Inside the Sustaining Missional Leadership Conference by Kyle Schiefelbein
• News and Events by Caroline Hvidsten

March 25, 2007: The latest edition (March 2007) of our newsletter, Partners In Innovation, is now available:

• A Letter From the President by Patrick Keifert
• PMC From 50,000 Feet by Barbara Miller
• Missional Church In Practice - PMC Process Reveals Adaptive Challenges at Oxford Circle Mennonite Church by Tim Leaman
• Visit From Norway
• Ellison to Write Something Other Than a Grammar Book by Pat Taylor Ellison
• News and Events by Caroline Hvidsten, and
• An Announcement About the Allelon/Church Innovations Spring 2007 Conference, Sustaining Missional Leadership

January 29 , 2007: Church Innovations' 2006 annual report is available.

December 26, 2006: The latest edition (December 2006) of our newsletter, Partners In Innovation, is now available:

• A Letter From the President by Patrick Keifert
• Crossing the Bar XII - Details by Jim Johnson
• Missional Church In Practice - Diffusing the PMC Innovation by Harvey Kwiyani
• PMC Establishes Sound Missional Practises by Martin Robinson, and
• News and Events by Caroline Hvidsten

December 22, 2006: The Church Innovations/Allelon Spring 2007 Conference, Sustaining Missional Leadership, is open for registration. Please click here for more information or click here to register.

December 20, 2006: Patrick Keifert's new book, We Are Here Now, is here...now!

December 14, 2006: The Strauss family returns from their travels.

November 30, 2006: An update on PMC at the Lancaster Mennonite Conference.

November 16, 2006: Our friends the Strauss family from Namibia check in regarding their travels.

November 1, 2006: Church Innovations' Pat Taylor Ellison and Ben Cieslik vist St. Paul's Lutheran in Minnetonka.

October 19, 2006: Church Innovations announces a new managing director of Partnership for Missional Church (PMC), Jannie Swart.

October 16, 2006: Church Innovations' Pat Taylor Ellison and Barbara Miller report on their October visit to Bethesda Lutheran Church in Murcock, Minnesota.

October 11, 2006: The October 2006 edition of our newsletter, Partners In Innovation, is available:

• A Letter From the President by Patrick Keifert
• Missional Church In Practice - Relying on and Providing the Bread of Life by Jannie Swart
• Lancaster Mennonite Conference Forms Vision 2010 Through PMC Process by Alonna G. Sprunger
• Book Review - We Are Here Now, A New Missional Era by Patrick Keifert, reviewed by Mark Lau Branson
• News and Events by Caroline Hvidsten, and
• Sustaining Missional Transformation - the Spring 2007 conference sponsored by Church Innovations and Allelon

Previous editions of PII are also available:

• May 2006
• July 2006
• October 2006

Our new web site is a work in progress; we continue to add new content every day. If you are looking for something specific that is currently not available, you may find it on the old version of our site.

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