Stability and Creativity - you need them both

I came across an interesting article from a helpful organization - Alban Institute.  The article is titled: "The Pastor and the Healthy Church".  What I found most interesting was the tension between the need for stability in a congregation - 'we've been here before and we can handle this situation' - that needs to be balanced with creativity - 'a willingness to risk failure in order to move forward'.

Those two can seem to be at cross purposes but both are necessary. Stability allows for creativity and creativity keeps the stable from becoming stagnant.

Wheat Ridge Ministries works with congregations who are stable risk-takers!  Check out some of the grants we've given to see the creative work happening around the country and the world. And then check out the grants that might help you fund the new venture your congregation is thinking about.

Sloppy Kisses!

I love this devotion from Wheat Ridge Ministries - dogs haven't changed much in 2000+ years.  Great story and great message about the faith.

Wheat Ridge has supported a project involving dogs in the past - and you may have seen them in the news recently.

Check out other info about grants from Wheat Ridge.

Different every time...

I came across this video from OK GO - a testament to creativity.  Each video this band does is different than their last one and different from everything else out there. 

Current technology provides them a wide variety of possibilities for expression.  Not so many back in the 1st Century. That is one of the many things I'm enjoying here.

Inside people's hearts

I came across this video about seeing what other people are experiencing - seeing life from their perspective.  Very interesting and moving.  Reminds me a bit of the scene in the Bruce Almighty movie I saw with all the voices he hears in his head that are the prayers of the people.

A very daunting task - really seeing what others are experiencing. Overwhelming to be sure.  Good news is we don't have to be God - God is God and we are not.  God deals with everyone - we just need to do our best with the people around us in our sphere of influence. In this global economy that sphere of influence may include people far away from us - but the decisions are carried out locally as we use our gifts and talents on God's behalf.

Empathy to action... led by the Spirit; Christ at work in us - Colossians 1:28-29.

That's what the Wheat Ridge grants support in many congregations around this country and the world.  People see a need and respond.

There's an app for that...

 David Ellingson and Mark Jackson, both from Trinity College in Everett, WA, have developed an excellent experiential learning process called SALLT - and now an app to go along with it. 

You learn best by experience.  But you learn best of all when you are intentional about the learning experience.  This process and the app are useful for all kinds of situations of experiential learning.  Check it out!



Wheat Ridge is involved with Dave and Trinity College in a project called "Rooftop Garden". Very cool.

Community Garden project...

The good people of Prince of Peace Lutheran in Portland, OR are on the first year of their community garden project.  Parish Nurse, Karina Wehrspann, initiated the idea and applied for and received a Congregational Health Ministry grant from Wheat Ridge to help make it happen.  They have 22 single layer 4X8 garden plots and 3 handicapped (raised) 4X8 plots available for use by the community.  It was a welcomed addition to the neighborhood for the folks living right across the fence in a condo unit - with no room for growing anything.
Goals for the project:
- outreach project so the church property would be a place for the community to gather;
- a place to grow produce / healthy food;
- 10% of produce of each plot (plus all the produce from unclaimed plots) goes to Care to Share Food Boxes program for Washington County.

Garden plots are well on their way.  15 plots are claimed by individuals (half from the congregation and half from the community) and the other plots will be planted by volunteers so all of that produce can be shared with the community.

Banana keyboard...

This is what blows the mind of a 1st Century Doctor.  I can hardly believe what your scientists and many creative minds are able to come up with.

A tiny glimpse into the Creator's mind to see all these people come up with cool spin-offs... "Let there be..."