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An incubator program and consulting group for early-stage impact entrepreneurs.

How Faith and Gaming Help Us Survive the Worst of Times

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If you have a couple of minutes, check out this article by one of our innovators, Rev. David Petty with Crossfire:faith+gaming! David was one of our Hatchletes in 2020 in the Mountain Sky Conference.

For decades, people have talked about churches “meeting people where they are.” Getting out of the building and into community requires speaking the language of the people, being where the people are, and engaging deeper than a pre-church coffee and cookie. In 2017, David asked the question, “Could church exist as a group of gamers with a shared purpose, faith, and community?” The answer has become a resounding “YES!”

Since 2017, Crossfire:faith+gaming has actively created a faith-based community of gamers who engage in life-changing fellowship and share practical tools for resilience in a challenging world, aiming to break down the barriers many gamers face: social isolation, disconnection, and stigma. Crossfire does outreach and builds community with their Twitch stream, Facebook group and page, and podcast.

In 2020, the long-standing debates about whether online church was “valid” ended. With this shift, Crossfire:faith+gaming was in a unique position to showcase the resilience of gamers and be a model for how to do ministry. Read the article to learn more!

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Rev. Petty also currently serves as the pastor of Meeker UMC.

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God Plays Indoor Soccer

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Check out this article by Rev. Meg Gaston about Konnoak Hills UMC (with Pastor Chris Smith) in Winston-Salem integrating into the community, offering their largely unused gym for kids’ indoor soccer! It’s an outcome of our process at Western North Carolina Conference and an example of the kind of work we’re midwifing there.

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COVID-19 Creativity: A Virtual Co-Working Empower Hour

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JAMAICA QUEENS, NY—FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

The 20-30 Dream Hub’s Virtual Co-Working “Empower Hour”

Okay, so when they designed it, it was supposed to be a co-working space…but, you know, COVID-19.

We love what Zoe Project and Ministry Incubators Start Up Clinic alums from First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens did instead. Undaunted, they took their innovation—a co-working space and young adult resource center called The 20-30 Dream Hub—and transformed it into a virtual co-working meet-up for young adults.  Check it out here —or join in!

Congrats, 20-30 Dream Hub, on your fearless holy imagination!  (Thanks to Rev. Chris de la Cruz for tipping us off!)

If you have a creative COVID-19 adaptation we can share, please let us know—we’d love to share the good news!

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Online Storytelling Festival

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We’re excited, and we hope you are too! Today’s the day the Zoe Project’s Online Storytelling Festival website goes live! Over the last three years, more than 100 Zoe Fellows worked to “flip the script” of young adult ministry, listening for how God is working with young adults in our communities, in order to understand how churches might come alongside them (instead of simply expecting young adults to come to churches). These experiments taught us a lot about befriending young adults in our communities, and supporting their lives and their faith.

This website shares the stories of twelve congregations, and others who joined this experimental work, who for three years formed an “innovation hub” through Princeton Theological Seminary and the Lilly Endowment that explored new ways churches and young adults might find God and one another.  

Will you join us as we present the innovations of these churches, and many others, through these stories? Here’s what you’ll find in our little “online festival”:  visual poetry through film, mini-documentaries, story slams, podcasts, and yes, even a visual summary of a research paper (available later this summer by request). If we could have conjured up a campfire to put at the center of it all, we would have.
 
While we are saddened that the coronavirus prevented us from gathering in person, we are thankful to share these stories with you online as the culmination of our three-year journey together. We invite you to celebrate the remarkable youth adults and ministry leaders who took part in the Zoe Project, in hopes their boldness inspires others. If you see a story that resonates with you, be sure to share it with others!
 
With gratitude and joy,
 
Kenda Creasy Dean, Senior Strategist and Project Director
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