The Church Lab is proud to announce our inaugural mini-grant awards for our Empowering Experiments program! We had strong applicants whose calling, ideas and pursuits gave us reason to celebrate the great work and potential work for the future of faith practice out there. The following are the 2 leaders and the projects receiving this year's awards. We are excited to partner with them, connect them meaningfully with TCL's community, and lift up the great work they are doing!
If you applied and didn't get an award this year, we still hope to lift up your work and hope you will reach out so we can brainstorm just how to do that.
If you did not apply this year, but this sounds like a solid fit for you, we hope you'll apply next year!
Read on to learn about our rockstar mini-grant recipients and the fantastic work they're up to!
Roll for Spirituality: Spiritual Growth, Exploration, and Healing through Tabletop Role-playing Games
Grant Recipient: Ryan Cagle
Roll for Spirituality is an experiment that seeks to cultivate a space for self discovery and spiritual exploration outside the bounds of normative religious institutions and dogma. In this space individuals can safely explore new worlds, beliefs, ideas, face challenges, learn to solve problems, and explore deep truths about themselves, the world, and God through the medium of tabletop role playing games.
Anxiety about the church's future, faith practice, and spirituality abound in the US. However, Ryan Cagle doesn't believe the "death" of the church is a problem to be fixed but an invitation for us and our communities to dream new dreams and launch new experiments in cultivating space for self-discovery and spiritual exploration in our individual and communal lives. Ryan has spent the last decade working in church plants and ministry revitalization across various socioeconomic and political contexts within different church traditions. He has an intense passion for seeing people live into new ways of being and becoming beyond the boundaries of traditional religious institutions.
He found that role-playing games have the wonderful ability to help us explore theological ideas, worlds, and concepts that we may have never thought to explore or can't explore because we lack a safe and affirming environment to do so. "I believe that role-playing games, when done with intention, can leave us deeply transformed in the same way that prayer, meditation, participation in liturgy, and religious rituals can. Like these practices that help us on our journeys of spiritual growth, exploration, and healing, role-playing games can also be used to facilitate such outcomes."
Ryan notes that "quite often, we do not have supportive structures or safe spaces in our lives that allow us to explore our spirituality, beliefs, ideas, and life circumstances. It's difficult to wrestle with our doubts, questions, and curiosities when we feel alone, and this is the problem that Roll For Spirituality seeks to remedy. Regardless of the environment we find ourselves in, spiritual direction shows us that we do not have to go on this journey alone. By using role-playing games alongside the tools of spiritual direction, I hope to create an environment that enables individuals the freedom and safety to participate in deep reflective work and spiritual exploration in fresh ways." The Church Lab loves the creativity and experimental nature of Roll For Spirituality and we’re honored to play a role in supporting it!
Grant Recipient: Rev. Amy Meyer, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Elgin, Texas
Lane 8 Yoga combines yoga and swimming in a fun, team-like atmosphere. Participants will experience a mind-body-spirit approach to health and wellness as well as a creative mixture of cardiovascular exercise, deep stretching, mindfulness, and meditation.
After speaking with the principal of a local elementary school, Rev. Amy Meyer discovered an increasing need for mental health resources for children in the small Texas town of Elgin. Unfortunately, Elgin is limited in resources that are noticeable to the average person. While there are crisis numbers to call for mental health emergencies, there aren’t many options for families who need ongoing care or preventative tools and resources to practice a healthy lifestyle. Rev. Amy & her church believes that God desires for each of God’s children to live life to the full, and this includes access to programs that would benefit physical, spiritual, and mental health. While urgent care and emergency options are essential, it is equally important to offer teaching tools and practices that can help with long-term mental, physical, and spiritual needs.
First Presbyterian Church has incorporated mindfulness, meditation, and yoga into some of their Sunday morning church routines and has found it beneficial. They’re excited to experiment with incorporating similar practices with swimming and anticipate that it will be a successful combination for the participants physically, mentally, and spiritually. They wonder if some participants might be interested in learning more about First Presbyterian Church, the sponsoring church where the coach, Rev. Amy, happens to be the pastor. However, there won’t be any intentional evangelism. And if they find that participants aren’t curious about the church, they’re happy to keep their interactions limited to the pool. Rev. Amy Meyer and First Presbyterian feel this is an important experiment regardless of how it might affect their church.
Rev. Amy adds that “the combination of swimming, meditation, mindfulness, and yoga will be an especially interesting experiment, noting that while swimming, the brain’s blood flow increases. This can potentially enhance the usual benefits of mindfulness and meditation activities that are typically practiced on land.” In addition, Swim Yoga will provide a supportive team-like atmosphere with mindfulness and meditation practices that children can use at home and throughout the school year. It can even be helpful for those managing conditions such as depression and anxiety. The Church Lab is excited about this experiment and excited to help be the springboard for Swim Yoga becoming a yearly summer offering in Elgin!