Engagement

Denominational Leaders in Innovation Gathering

The Board of World Mission was blessed to be part of an ecumenical gathering held January 6-8, 2025 in Dallas, Texas. The reflection below comes from the Rt. Rev. Dr. Amy Gohdes-Luhman, BWM Director of Mission Engagement.

Late in 2024, the Moravian Church received an invitation to be part of a gathering around the theme of innovation for mainline denominations. This gathering was sponsored by the ELCA Lutheran Church, Wesleyan Impact Partners and generous donors. After some discernment, we accepted the invitation.  The Board of World Mission recognized that it would be beneficial to have a variety of Moravian voices present. On January 6th, Rev. Rebecca Craver, Director of Congregational Development in the Southern Province, Rev. Greg Behrend, Founder and Operations Director of You Belong in Green Bay and part-time pastor of Freedom Moravian Church in Wisconsin, Jami Vandock, Director of Faith Formation at Raleigh Moravian Church in the Southern Province and Bishop Amy Gohdes-Luhman flew to Dallas, Texas. Dallas was experiencing an unusual cold snap. The fountain at the hotel and conference center of Texican Court was frozen. Greg arrived in shorts.

The frigid outside temperatures did not deter the warmth that was experienced in this gathering of leaders from the Presbyterian Church USA, the ELCA Lutheran Church, the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church and our lone leaders from the Christian Missionary Alliance Church and the Future of Faith Research Group. The gathering was ably facilitated by Kris Stache, the Vice President of Leadership Formation at Wartburg Theological Seminary and Alicia Forde, Director of Formation at the Texas Methodist Foundation.

The objectives of the gathering were:

  • Form creative relationships
  • Celebrate success stories
  • Diagnose the decline of the mainline church and offer responses
  • Generate imagination around encouraging innovation in our denominations

All of these things were explored, the most tangible were the relationships formed. For instance, we are now in contact with Derrick Scott, who is the creative producer of Studio Wesley, a ministry that’s exploring how to serve college-aged young adults in the digital space. There were agency leaders of missions and emerging ministries with whom we can collaborate and share resources. Over the two and a half days of information sharing and creative relationship building, we realized it was not enough. We are hopeful that we can meet again and develop even deeper ways to collaborate across denominational lines. We are grateful to the BWM who provided the travel resources to attend this important forward-thinking gathering of leaders.