Blog Archive

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 […]

Don’t Miss Out – Upcoming Events

We have a number of events coming up in the next few months, and we want to make sure you know before they fill up! On January 20th we have another Taste and See event with the Baltimore Washington Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. If you missed out on the last one, it […]

Tags: Events, Hatch-a-thon

Must Read – Seth Godin on Starting a Business with $1,000 and 90 Days

While definitely a click-baity title, this article and podcast by Louis Grenier featuring Seth Godin is a must read or listen for missional entrepreneurs at any stage. In it, he covers 5 fundamental principles that we would all do well to take to heart: Market with people, not to people Sarah Turner already did a great […]

Tags: How to Start, Missional, Seth Godin

Reimagining Young Adult Ministry

I knew this student who planted a church, almost on accident. He had gotten so connected at our church that, when he left to go back to school after a semester at home, he was sad to leave us behind. “There just aren’t any churches near campus that fit well for us college students,” he […]

Tags: Young Adult

Matt Overton: Should your social enterprise be for-profit, nonprofit or a hybrid?

This article was first published in Faith & Leadership on September 5th. You can find the original article here. This week’s post comes from our friend Matt Overton, associate pastor for youth and family ministry at Columbia Presbyterian Church in Vancouver, Washington and founder of Mowtown Teen Lawn Care and Columbia Teen Enterprises. In this article, he talks about why […]

Processing Harvey

This week’s blog post is from Meredith Mills, a 2015 Hatch-a-thon participant who started a great ministry called gastrochurch based in Houston, Texas. She was kind enough to write a post that talks about her experience with a non-traditional ministry in the midst of Hurricane Harvey. Gastrochurch is not a normal church. We don’t have a building. […]

Tags: Hatch-a-thon

Matt Overton: Why I started a social enterprise at my church

This article was first published in Faith & Leadership on April 18th. You can find the original article here. This week’s post comes from our friend Matt Overton, associate pastor for youth and family ministry at Columbia Presbyterian Church in Vancouver, Washington and founder of Mowtown Teen Lawn Care and Columbia Teen Enterprises. In this article, […]

Tags: Church, entrepreneurship, Ministry, motivation, social enterprise, youth ministry

Project Funding Within the United Methodist Church

For the last couple of weeks, we have been talking quite a bit about finding funding for your project. If you missed those posts, we talked about a couple different sources of funding. You can find those posts here and here. If you weren’t already aware, Ministry Incubators’ cofounder and Permissionary Kenda Creasy Dean, is […]

Tags: Church, Funding, Ministry, United Methodist

Need Help Finding Funding?

Finding funding for your project isn’t always easy, but we’re here to help! We absolutely love working with people at our Hatchathons and other events, but we particularly treasure the opportunity to take that relationship further. When we establish a coaching relationship with an individual or organization, one of the topics that we often discuss is […]

Tags: Funding, Ministry

Funding Your Project

So you have an idea. You have prayerfully considered the needs of those you plan on serving. You have gathered a great team to engage in your new venture. Now you need to work on funding. All too often projects get stuck in this phase. If you do not have a church or other ministry […]

Tags: Funding, Ministry, Missional

New Partnership with Indiana Wesleyan University

At Ministry Incubators, we are always excited to go beyond one-off interactions with ministry leaders. We have formed numerous partnerships with organizations around the world that allow us to engage with these leaders in ways that create lasting innovation. In that spirit of lasting innovation, we are excited to announce a new partnership with Indiana […]

Tags: Ministry, Partnerships

New Ministry Incubators YouTube Channel

We are excited to announce that you can now connect with Ministry Incubators on our YouTube channel! We are just starting to put up content, but check it out now to see a video about our Hatch-a-thons and to see two of Kenda’s lectures on missional entrepreneurship from the Payton Lecture series at Fuller. You […]

Tags: Hatch-a-thon, Ministry, Missional

The Three Phases of Launching a Church-based Social Enterprise

Starting a Christian social enterprise is difficult and passion-filled work. It comes with a ton of setbacks and self-doubt. And a ton of excitement. I believe that social enterprise — a business with a social good in mind — can offer a new way forward for the church.

Tags: Church, Ministry, social enterprise