What's the Faith+Lead Learning Lab?

A place to LISTEN.

Have you ever been so focused on the thing you were waiting to say that you didn't hear the important words someone else was sharing?

It's happened to all of us.

In fact, if we're honest, we kind of think the entire church has been caught up in talking more than we've listened over past few generations...and we're seeing it in declining commitment to faith, involvement in church communities, and lackluster Christian spirituality in western cultures.

We understand that faithful innovation begins when we adopt a posture of openness and connectedness—toward God, toward each other, toward our neighbors.

The Learning Lab creates the space necessary for sitting with questions, ideas, and new ways of living.

It's how we allow the Holy Spirit to breathe new life into our churches and communities.

An opportunity to ACT.

While the beakers and microscopes may be missing, we're called a "lab" for a reason.

What good is a laboratory if we can't experiment, collaborate, and reflect—all in one place?

We focus on real issues inside the Learning Lab, not hypotheticals. We get to the grassroots, real-world gifts, challenges, and discoveries of anyone involved in ministry in the 21st century.

We try stuff out. Some of it works. Some of it doesn't. But together, we find space and grace to grow.

A chance to SHARE.

No one has all the answers.

But you have some...and a congregation across the country has another...and a lay leader two states over has another.

We want to be a hub where Christian leaders come to get ideas, share what's working, and help each other through what's not.

We need one another.

Frequently it's our painful lessons and personal struggles that—when shared—allow us to learn, grow, and connect more deeply with one another.

The Learning Lab is a community where knowledge expands as relationships form.

Who Should Join?

One of the first things people wonder about the Learning Lab is Do I need to be an ordained minister to join?

To be clear: no, not at all.

The Learning Lab is for lay and ordained leaders from across the Christian landscape, including:

• Congregational pastors
• Church planters
• Lay leaders
• Bivocational ministers
• Creative ministry practitioners
• Seminarians or discerning leaders
• Chaplains
• Spiritual directors
• Judicatory leaders
• Youth workers
• Everyday disciples looking to grow in their capacity to live out a gospel witness in today's cultures

The Learning Lab is an intentionally ecumenical space because we know the work of the Holy Spirit isn't confined to any single tradition.

What's Waiting for Me?

We're so glad you asked! Learning Lab members can count on conversations, courses, and resources geared around five key practices—what we call "the core work" of faithful innovation:

• Connect with God. Christian communities need a Christ-centered identity, grounded in theology, scripture, and spiritual practice, that empowers them to live as disciples of Jesus Christ in everyday life.
• Tell the Story. All baptized Christians need to be equipped to tell the story of Jesus and to invite others into Jesus' way of life and love in words secular neighbors can recognize.
• Cultivate community. Christian communities need to be centers of deep listening, where God's presence is named and life-giving relationships are formed across all dimensions of diversity, both within and beyond the church.
• Practice Justice. Through mutual relationships with the neighbors among whom they're hosted, Christian communities need to join in acts of compassion, justice, and reconciliation as a witness to the ministry of Jesus—particularly in places of suffering and despair.
• Shift Ministry Models. Christian communities need to harness skills of agile leadership, stewardship, social entrepreneurism, and management to be nimble enough to respond to a changing cultural landscape.

Are You In?

We believe that the Triune God is actively creating, reconciling, healing, and restoring the world, and that we're being invited to join in.

If you want companions in discerning when, where, and how God is calling us to innovate faithfully, the Learning Lab is for you.