Blog Archive

The Hard Truth about Innovative Cultures (Harvard Business Review)

We recently read this abstract from an article by Gary Pisano in the Harvard Business Review, and it makes some excellent points about the realities of the behaviors that produce great innovative performance! We think you’ll find it helpful. You can read the full article here. Innovative cultures are generally depicted as pretty fun. They’re characterized […]

Tags: innovation, innovation behaviors, innovative cultures, missional innovation

WonderSpace: A Journey of “Finding,” Not “Founding”

We’re excited to introduce you to Stephanie Freemyer, whose team incubated the idea of an indoor play space called WonderSpace as participants in one of our 2018 Hatch-a-thons! Stephanie hails from Marion, IN and also serves as Children’s Ministry Director at College Wesleyan Church. For more info on WonderSpace, visit its Facebook page or read this […]

Tags: Design Thinking, Hatch-a-thon, indoor play space, innovation, missional entrepreneurs, missional innovation, play, strategy

A Walk Through Rat Park, Part 2

This is Part 2 of a 2 part series by Ministry Incubators’ own Shari Oosting. You can find Part 1 here. Claudio Oliver, a Brazilian pastor and farmer, reflects on poverty and the nature of short-term mission trips. In reflecting on years spent working with homeless people, he points out that friendship is often a […]

Tags: community, creativity, missional innovation, wicked problems

A Walk Through Rat Park

This is Part 1 of a 2 part series by Ministry Incubators’ own Shari Oosting. One of the great things about missional enterprise is how it provides an approach to wicked problems. By that, I simply refer to problems that are complex in nature, enduring over time, and resistant to simple solutions. Wicked problems include […]

Tags: community, creativity, missional innovation, wicked problems

Entrepreneur? 5 (Unconventional) Tips You’ll Never Learn at Business School

A cultural tsunami is currently storming through the church—and for the best! The name is Missional Entrepreneurship or Missional Innovation: a fancy name to describe what the church has been doing for centuries (think of the monks in European monastery who were selling craft beer!), creating innovative, self-sustainable economic models to better serve the local community! […]

Tags: coaching, creativity, entrepreneurship, entreprenuer coaching, innovation, Missional, missional entrepreneurs, missional innovation, social capital

Discipleship and Missional Innovation: What’s It Called?

I spent so long groping for the right words to describe “missional innovation” (I still don’t like the phrase) that it’s easy to feel like no one else in the church “speaks” this language. It goes by many handles: Christian social innovation, faith-based enterprise, redemptive entrepreneurship, spiritual entrepreneurship. As the church’s unofficial R&D department, youth ministers […]

Tags: Church, innovation, Missional, social enterprise

Spiritual Entrepreneurship: It’s a Full-Blown Movement Now

Christian social innovation, redemptive entrepreneurship, missional innovation, spiritual entrepreneurship – pick your handle – is no longer niche. It’s a full-blown, interfaith movement—and if you’re a Christian social innovator who is curious about learning with social innovators from other faith backgrounds, here’s your chance.

Tags: education, entrepreneurship, multi-faith

Where Are They Now: Jenifer Meyer and In A Pinch

A month ago at one of our Hatchathons, Jenifer Meyer hatched the idea to provide emergency kits for families taking in foster children–a gap that often goes unfilled, leaving foster families scrambling to provide for the children’s immediate basic needs. Today, just a month later, her nonprofit is called In A Pinch, and it’s functioning […]

Three New Resources: Innovation

We’ve been highlighting useful resources available here on our website, and we’re excited to share this selection of three resources on innovation with you! The Wagon Wheel Excercise The Wagon Wheel Excercise, an innovation excercise for both youth and adults, is a great resource by our very own Kenda Creasy Dean and Mark DeVries. There’s […]

New Resource: The Marshmallow Challenge

Need to kickstart a meeting, get a team into a creative frame of mind, or simply encourage your organization to think about what it takes to dramatically increase innovation? Invest 45 minutes to run a marshmallow challenge! We’ve just added this great resource by Tom Wujec of Autodesk and Peter Skillman of Microsoft to our […]

Tags: creativity, customer needs, innovation, marshmallow challenge, missional entrepreneurs, teamwork

New Resource: Theology and Design–Design Synthesis

Here’s the third in our series of blog posts highlighting useful resources, also the third by our friend Bethany Stolle of Stolle Creative, titled “Theology and Design–Design Synthesis”! Bethany is an interaction designer, curriculum developer, and entrepreneur with a decade of experience creating physical and digital products for children, youth, and adults. Here’s a small excerpt: […]

Tags: design synthesis, Design Thinking, ministry design

New Resource: Theology and Design–Practicing Empathy in Design Thinking

Here’s the second in our series of blog posts highlighting useful resources, also the second by our friend Bethany Stolle of Stolle Creative, titled “Theology and Design–Practicing Empathy”! Bethany is an interaction designer, curriculum developer, and entrepreneur with a decade of experience creating physical and digital products for children, youth, and adults. Here’s a small […]

Tags: Design, Design Thinking, Empathy, Research Methods

New Resource: Theology and Design–What is Design Thinking?

We’re launching a series of useful resource posts in the coming weeks that we hope will help you in your entrepreneurial pursuits! This first post highlights a great handout by our friend Bethany Stolle of Stolle Creative, titled “Theology and Design–What is Design Thinking?” Bethany is an interaction designer, curriculum developer, and entrepreneur with a decade […]

Ever Wonder What a Hatchathon Actually Is?

If you have heard us talking about “Hatchathon” all over the place but don’t really know what it is, here is a presentation that Kenda made for the upcoming Hatchathon with the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church. It explains a little bit what you can expect if you are able to attend one […]

Tags: Events, Hatch-a-thon, Missional

Meet Anto Ficatier, Business Development Strategist

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Antonin Ficatier, our Ministry Incubators Business Development Strategist! In this role, Anto works alongside Permissionaries Kenda Dean and Mark DeVries to develop the activity of Ministry Incubators. He helps us run the organization by providing marketing, administrative, and development support, and he also works to make sure we remain […]