Bishop’s Appeal for 2025 is for Innovate Outreach

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In their book A Way Out of No Way: An Approach to Christian Innovation, Stephen Lewis and Kimberly Daniel explore how Christians can innovate using practices rooted in our faith. They write, “A playful ‘what if?’ approach to imagining and refining ideas is necessary to develop, support, and amplify solutions that matter to everyday people given that the stakes are high.”

We are in a time where “what if?” kinds of questions are more important than ever and our congregations and communities must begin to imagine, innovate, and foster creative ways of nurture, outreach and witness. To encourage this kind of innovation and experimentation, this year’s Bishop’s Appeal Offering will be used to as the foundation for grants to be awarded to churches and leaders that take risks and try new ways to share the Gospel and care for their communities.

 

 

 

The 2024 Bishop’s Appeal benefited the United Voices for Children, a coalition of congregations, agencies, and individuals in the Northern Illinois Conference, speaks and acts on behalf of children, youth, and families in need.

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The three primary affiliated organizations are Kids Above All (provides early childhood safe housing, trauma-informed counseling programs for children & families in Cook, DuPage, Kane & Lake counties), MYSI (provides shelter care for “at risk” youth, adults, & families with no or limited housing resources) and Rosecrance (drug, alcohol, and mental health rehabilitation for teens and adults),

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