Innovation

An Innovation Lab is a dynamic space where individuals from different domains of ministry, the community, and backgrounds come together to explore, experiment, and cultivate fresh ideas. It's a sacred space where faith, creativity, and transformation intersect. Innovation labs empower the church to envision the future, embrace the change it will take to get there, and faithfully impact lives.

Generating New Possibilities - The primary purpose of an Innovation Lab is to ignite creativity. Participants collaborate to brainstorm innovative approaches to ministry, outreach, and community engagement. It’s a place where the conventional boundaries are pushed, and novel solutions emerge.

Exploring Uncharted Territory - An Innovation Lab encourages bold exploration. It invites people to step beyond their comfort zones, question assumptions, and envision new ways of serving God and the community. Whether it's reimagining worship experiences, digital outreach, or social justice initiatives, the lab provides a safe space for experimentation.   

Adapting to Changing Contexts - The world evolves, and so does the church’s mission. An Innovation Lab equips congregations, presbyteries, and mid councils to adapt. It helps them respond effectively to shifting cultural, technological, and social landscapes. By fostering adaptability, the lab ensures that the church remains relevant and impactful.   

Nurturing Collaborative Spirit - Innovation thrives in an environment of open dialogue. The lab encourages diverse voices—laypeople, clergy, youth, and seasoned leaders — to contribute. It’s a place where ideas collide, merge, and evolve. Collaboration becomes the catalyst for transformative ministry.  

Testing and Refining Ideas - Within the lab, ideas are not just conceptual; they're prototypes waiting to be tested. Participants experiment with new worship formats, community programs, or outreach strategies. They learn from both successes and failures, refining their approaches along the way.  

Inspiring Hope and Vision - Innovation Labs infuse hope amid challenges and uncertainties. It reminds us that God's work is ongoing, and fresh possibilities await. As participants catch a glimpse of what could be, they become ambassadors of hope within their context and beyond.

Examples

Bubble Up
“Bubble Up: Conversations to Carbonate Your Imagination” in the Lake Erie Presbytery.

Innovating beyond
Innovating beyond the solo pastor model with Presbyteries in Tennessee, Missouri, and Kansas.

Economic Model innovation
Congregation going from $40,000 in congregation sources in 2016 to $832,000 from diverse sources in 2023. 

Design Sprint
People from different domains and interests coming together in a common challenge creating something for the church.

Innovative partnerships between a mid council and a curated team from PCUSA national agencies inspire imagination and tackle challenges head-on. These partnerships are marked by negotiated objectives and key results to pursue. They are designed to help mid councils make specific and focused evolutions in their vision, mission, culture, and operations that they discern as important to their future — bringing together the best of that mid council’s self-knowledge and understanding of their context with resources and ideas from around the country and world.

EXAMPLES

Innovating Your Way into God’s New Vision for Grace Presbytery. 

Grace Presbytery in Texas was introducing a fresh vision, mission and direction during a transition period before calling a new presbytery leader.  As part of introducing the fresh direction they called on Corey to preach and teach about embracing an iterative process of living into a new direction, developing innovation habits, and letting go of habits that didn’t serve them well anymore.  

From Inspiration to Incarnation: Vision and the Presbytery of Western Reserve.  

Presbytery of Western Reserve was seeking to incarnate next steps in its freshly articulated vision and called on Corey for a “shot in the arm.” This zoomified engagement stimulated what it meant for the presbytery to become a 21^st Century church and cultivate a renewed understanding of themselves for a new day.   

COM/CPM Summit in Synod of Lincoln Trails (SOLT).  Multi-day learning events focused on “Innovation”  

Synod of Lincoln Trails (SOLT) coalesces presbytery leaders, COM and CPM leaders from all their presbyteries and neighboring presbyteries each year.  Synod leaders seeking to catalyze innovationand generate energy invited us to lead plenary sessions and help design these multi-day events to accomplish those objectives.  

In addition, The Office of Innovation of the PC(USA) has partnered with TryTank Experimental Lab (Virginia Theological Seminary), the ELCA Innovation Lab, and the United Methodist Church’s Discipleship Ministries to co-organize the upcoming summit, Faithful Futures: Guiding AI with Wisdom and Witness, taking place September 2–5, 2025, in Minneapolis and online. This gathering builds on the momentum of the 2024 AI and the Church summit, which brought together over 100 ecumenical leaders at Epiphany Parish in Seattle and Microsoft’s campus. That event—supported by Catholic ethicist and Vatican AI advisor Fr. Paolo Benanti—sparked urgent conversations around how generative AI intersects with justice, access, theology, and the future of the church. These partners are continuing the work by creating space for thoughtful, faith-rooted exploration of the ethical and spiritual implications of emerging technologies in Christian ministry.