Missional Incubator
National Capital Presbytery is Missional, Pastoral and Prophetic! We have directed our resources to help our congregations GROW. We will highlight the churches that creatively use initiatives that reach and impact their communities in a new way. . .“So That Our Churches Can Grow!” One of these initiatives is the Missional Incubator!
The Incubator’s goal is to develop contextually informed, thoughtfully integrated, mission-hearted new expressions of the one Church. The National Capital Presbytery perceives a need for a more proactive, intentional approach to establishing new worshiping communities and new expressions of existing churches. The decline in church membership, the increasing pace of church closures, and the growing disconnect between current ministries and a postmodern culture create an urgency for a different strategy. This strategy will need to include projects that incorporate a mixed economy ministry which can provide income streams to the mission while, at the same time, increasing opportunities to engage with individuals who would not be attracted to a more traditional church.
What is a mixed economy ministry? One way to look at mixed economy in ministry is to consider the many small towns across the United States that were once factory towns. When the dominant business closes, the entire town suffers. Restaurants, grocery stores, hardware stores, schools, and churches all suffer because the town was dependent on a single economic stream. Towns that have multiple employers can usually survive the loss of one business. Churches that have only one way to be church suffer when that approach does not resonate with new emerging culture and people. Mixed economy ministry is not that you stop being church as you know it. Rather, it is adding a new way of being church alongside existing church, creating a diversity of ways to engage the ever-changing landscape of the local community. We have established a Missional Incubator that will empower and equip missional leaders and entrepreneurs to create and sustain such mixed-economy worshiping communities. Brian Clark, previously pastor of Riverside, will serve as our director. The Incubator’s goal is to develop contextually informed, thoughtfully integrated, mission-hearted new expressions of the one Church. The Incubator will give missional entrepreneurs nine to 12 months and resources to:
- Develop mission plans, including business plans that identify funding and investors.
- Draw on outside experts partnered with the Missional Incubator.
- Create a steady source of contacts and introductions in a local community.
- Develop funding sources for a new expression of church paired with a compelling business.
For inquiries, contact
Brian Clark
Director of the Missional Incubator
bclark@theprebytery.org
240-514-5341