The Church Lab’s mission is exploring innovative paths to spiritual maturity, helping the Church find her future. This statement accurately reflects all we do and gives those of us internally the point of light upon which to keep our ideas centered. Those new to the idea of TCL regularly ask what that means, exactly. What are the specific activities we create and engage in to further spiritual development in all people and God’s work in the Church itself?
Dash Kees, in their capacity as our 2020-21 intern, created a quick visual site that answers those questions for those of you new to our organization, as well as those of you who have been around a while but may not realize the breadth of our reach or the ways we have grown. The last three years have shown not only the need for our work, but the capacity our organization has to adapt and innovate when conditions both demand and allow. In response to the pandemic, an ice storm, numerous natural and world disasters, the burdens placed on our collective spiritual psyches, and all of our financial supporters, The Church Lab has had many invitations to rise to the needs of the occasion. We are poised and ready to respond in new and creative ways as we all move into 2022 and beyond.
Please peruse Dash’s cool online cards. Read the testimonials below. And get ready to join TCL in creating spiritual lives and faith communities equipped to meet all that awaits us.
TCL Testimonials
Rev. Rob Mueller, Divine Redeemer Presbyterian Church:
“The Church Lab brings to my life as a pastor an incredible richness in understanding how to converse with people of varying viewpoints, how to create the kind of space within which I can be honest and straightforward, I can be vulnerable, and I can take risks. I can take risks in ideas; I can take risks in sharing my own vulnerabilities with colleagues in ways that are just not simply possible in the normal day-to-day operations as a pastor. The Church Lab has created a brave space for me and has helped me learn how to create a brave space for my congregants and for my friends and colleagues in ministry. Without brave space we cannot completely unfold ourselves into the people that God calls us to be.”
Bedxeli Amaya, atheist dialoguer from Puebla City, Mexico:
“When [Carrie and I ] met we started talking about atheism. When [she] said atheists were also welcome, I said, “Really? So, I need to be there.” When we spoke on the subject of faith and spirituality, I felt [Carrie] could understand. It was the first time a person of faith was so open to hear me, to accept and try to understand all of what I thought about religion.”
Rev. Amy Meyer, First Presbyterian Church, Elgin:
“I’ve had opportunities to be in dialogue with people who I would otherwise have never met, to have even deeper relationships with people who I would otherwise have never known. This has been a time over the past years that I have been able to plug in creatively, to brainstorm with other creative people, and to come up with ideas that I would have never thought of on my own. The Church Lab has had a tremendous impact on me as a leader and as an individual.”
Eileen Drake, conservative Christian and long-term dialoguer:
“I have truly benefited from interfaith dialogue and Carrie's facilitation. I used to be debative when I talked with people about things I felt strongly about. Now, because of my interfaith dialogue experience, I am able to listen with compassion and share with others without a "me against them" mentality. It has been refreshing to be in a space where everyone respects each other and cares for one another. This speaks to the "honoring and respecting each individual" culture Carrie creates. My fellow dialoguers have become my friends and it is awesome to be part of each other's lives. ❤”
Qamar Zafar, Ahmadiyya Muslim dialogue participant:
“I keep coming back because I feel there is still more learning to be done. There have been changes in my communication at work, with my family, and with strangers. I appreciate the moments in dialogue when I express a thought or feeling and the follow-up questions from others indicate that what I said was heard and made an impact. Those are my favorite dialogue moments.”
Jonathan Freeman of 1st Presbyterian Church Austin, Reimagining Service participant and Pastoral Resident:
I have nothing but deep appreciation and admiration for what The Church Lab is doing. As someone who happens to have death and resurrection at the crux of my faith, I believe that constant discernment around entirely new paths for discipleship is a vital and undervalued aspect of our calling. In many undeniable and even necessary ways, the Church is indeed dying right now. But luckily, The Church Lab is engaged in the loving and faithful work of resurrection.
Curtis Doss, a practitioner of the Baha’i tradition and participant in dialogues:
“We’re all learning and we’re sharing with each other on the common issue of being human…which isn’t easy, especially if we’re angry at each other! In Church Lab there’s a lot of good fellowship, laughter, and an understanding that we’re here together sharing our [personal] experience, rather than trying to represent the millions of other people who practice our tradition.”