“Leadership is disappointing your own people at a rate they can absorb.” Tod Bolsinger, PhD, used this quote from adaptive leadership guru Ronald Heifetz to summarize the balancing act of leading in uncharted territory for more than 200 clergy and lay leaders gathered for a learning day with the author of “Canoeing the Mountains.” As...
Category: Innovating
March 4, 2019
Leadership in Uncharted Territory
“Leadership is disappointing your own people at a rate they can absorb.” Tod Bolsinger, PhD, used this quote from adaptive leadership guru Ronald Heifetz to summarize the balancing act of leading in uncharted territory for more than 200 clergy and lay leaders gathered for a learning day with the author of “Canoeing the Mountains.” As...
August 1, 2017
Row House Offers Women Serenity
By the time it was to close for the spring, The Well — a microshelter for women experiencing homelessness in Philadelphia — was down to just a handful of residents. Since opening in November, about 20 women had been sheltered evenings at The Well, and “most had found permanent housing,” said the Rev. Violet Little,...
June 12, 2017
The Well Helps Women Find Housing
Philadelphia’s large-scale homeless shelters are not always a good fit for single women. This past winter, The Welcome Church and a number of partners opened “The Well,” a new-concept micro-shelter, to provide a warm and safe place for a dozen women. The concept worked better than expected, with The Well able to serve a total...
July 28, 2016
Living Gospel Finds New Home
Living Gospel’s LIFE ministry with men and women with criminal convictions in their past will expand when it moves to new quarters at Trinity Lutheran in Germantown this fall. The move to the historic Sauer House – where Christopher Sauer printed the first Lutheran bible’s in the US – is made possible by a $10,000...
May 26, 2016
Living Gospel: A Firm Foundation
Pastor Linda Manson and Living Gospel Ministries, our newest faith community, are giving people newly returned from incarceration a sense of self-worth and help re-integrating with society. “It’s important to me that the people who come to be in ministry with us feel loved and cared for,” Pastor Manson says. Building up self-worth undergirds the work Living...
September 22, 2015
Collaborating Through God’s Grace
Three Northeast Philadelphia congregations have agreed to share clergy and some ministries in a collaboration known as God’s Grace Lutheran Community. St. John (Mayfair), Redemption and St. Petri-Hope congregations voted by large margins Sept. 13 to enter into the new collaboration. The move is not a merger – congregations retain their own councils and buildings....
August 27, 2015
Cultivating Cross-Generational Learning
Lutheran Settlement House’s Settlement Project paid teens to work this summer alongside folks from the Senior Center in its Urban Farm. This first-of-its-kind project also had youth lead games and activities with seniors. Zion, Tristian and Henry cultivated kale, tomatoes and sunflowers and built vibrant relationships with a number of elders.
