event, ideas, inspiration
Danielle Goldstone
Beyond Teaching Kids to Give, Entrusting Them ...

innoFaith recently facilitated and supported a collaboration that modeled a different approach, one in which the community recognizes, honors, and supports children as important civic contributors and teaches giving not as sacrifice or something nice to do, but as a core aspect of children's participation in their community. In this approach, instilling the values of community, compassion, and gift become less about the fortunate and less fortunate and more about understanding the varied experiences of people and the varied ways that children can and already do help. This approach also requires adults to entrust kids with real decisions about engagement in their community rather than telling them what to do.

Beyond Teaching Kids to Give, Entrusting Them as Civic Actors
Meet an innoFaither, inspiration
Danielle Goldstone
Meet an innoFaither: Rayce Lamb

Meet Rayce Lamb, Founder of Faithonomics and Baptist pastor seeking to inspire wild imagination. Rayce, who is also a certified financial education instructor, is passionate about supporting faith-rooted leaders to flourish spiritually and financially while pursuing creative ideas for good. He has just launched the Doers Creative, a digital community for faith-inspired creators, and also leads the Wild Imagination Fund, which seeks to eradicate poverty in his home city of Winston-Salem, NC.

Meet an innoFaither: Rayce Lamb
research, ideas, inspiration, theology, report
Danielle Goldstone
Faith to confront society's biggest challenges: ...

In January, the World Economic Forum released a report, Faith in Action: Religion and Spirituality in the Polycrisis, arguing for the relevance of religion and spirituality in a time of complex, intersecting, global social challenges. It features several examples of collaboration between business and faith-based organizations to address some of these challenges, as well as important insights and lessons for faith, business, and other leaders. It is an invitation to forge more multi-sector collaborations that leverage the wisdom and assets of faith to drive impact at scale.

Faith to confront society's biggest challenges: A report from the World Economic Forum
Meet an innoFaither, inspiration
Danielle Goldstone
Meet an innoFaither: Marcia Dinkins

Meet Marcia Dinkins, Founder and Executive Director of Black Women Rising and creator of the Black Appalachian Coalition. Based in Ottawa Hills, OH, Marcia is elevating Black voices to help drive positive change. In Appalachia, where Black stories are particularly invisible in the narrative of poverty in the region, Marcia is engaging the Black community to tell their stories and advocate for solutions to regional issues like air pollution and healthcare access.

Meet an innoFaither: Marcia Dinkins
book, ideas, inspiration, theology
Danielle Goldstone
Insights for Change: Liberate leadership from ...

Like every institution in the 21st century, religion today confronts existential questions about its future, uncertain of its place in an era where trust in institutions has eroded and traditional hierarchical organizational structures have started to flatten. The formerly reliable foundations of our religious life feel insecure–for no one more than clergy, who are largely trained to be solo, prophetic leaders of congregations. But in this uncertainty lies possibility. A new book by two religious leaders, Rev. Kathleen McShane and Rabbi Elan Babchuck, will help clergy, and all faith-rooted leaders, embrace the liberating opportunity this current moment provides. It’s time to adopt a new form of leadership, free of the burdens of pyramid-shaped empire that have shaped our past. 

Insights for Change: Liberate leadership from the pyramid

pluralism

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Meet an innoFaither: Ambereen Khan

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Meet an innoFaither: Ambereen Khan

Meet Ambereen Khan, executive producer and host of Inspired, a production of Interfaith Voices, an award-winning independent public radio show that fosters interfaith understanding through exploring how faith intersects with news, politics, and culture. Ambereen is a beautiful interviewer and also a longtime interfaith advocate and innovator. Among many other things, she was co-founder of Muslim Advocates and the first Muslim to chair the Interfaith Alliance Foundation. We are honored to count her as an ally and advisor to innoFaith.

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Insights for Change: Our purpose matters more than our form

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Insights for Change: Our purpose matters more than our form

I had the pleasure of being part of Spencer Burke’s Next Sunday Summit last month. Check out my conversation with Spencer on how our purpose as faith communities matters more than our form and how we need to expand our horizons and imagination about our spiritual, community, and change power.

Was January 6 a last gasp or a first spark? It's up to us to decide

Was January 6 a last gasp or a first spark? It's up to us to decide

As predictable as the events of January 6 should have been, they have forced us to make a choice. And we should all take a deep breath and a hard look at ourselves, as a society and as individuals, before proceeding. …Our institutions remain strong. But what about us? Depending on how we direct it, that fury we feel can drive us either to real change or to civil war. Stepping out of the emotions of the last week (or years) and into a creativity or innovation mindset can help us choose the former. Specifically, if we activate our empathy, loosen our grip on our ideologies, and leverage our assets, we have a real chance at forging new horizons for our democracy in changing times.

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Our great creative project: Pope Francis helps us turn the page to a post-2020 world

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Our great creative project: Pope Francis helps us turn the page to a post-2020 world

In October, Pope Francis published his third encyclical, Fratelli Tutti (Brothers and Sisters All). For those not versed in papal encyclicals, they're significant communications from the Pope on particular aspects of Catholic doctrine, though they may speak to a broader audience than just Catholics. This Pope’s previous encyclical, Laudato si’, is a widely-read, profound, and pioneering statement on the ravages of climate change and our need to act, which has inspired numerous new initiatives and collaborations.

But an encyclical about brotherhood honestly sounded a little mundane to me. I sat back and started skimming, expecting a prophetic but predictable exhortation to love and neighborliness. By the end, I was quite literally at the edge of my seat, reading and re-reading portions. This wasn't prophetic, it was something better: real, relevant and actionable.