2023 Ministry Innovators Invitation

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Apply for the 2023 Ministry Innovators Cohort and join an incredible group of people like Rev. Karri Meyer (pictured above) who founded Good Courage Farm in Minnesota! Read on to learn about what to expect and how to apply.

If you are already underway, and find yourself looking for companions on the journey, or if you are just getting started and facing what seem like insurmountable challenges, we want to connect you to others and help smooth your path. The Rev. Nurya Love Parish will be leading this group. To learn more and apply, click here.

Audience: Clergy and leaders working with new ministry initiatives/organizations tending community belonging, care for Creation, and climate resilience, especially related to food and agriculture. You don’t have to have started anything yet, if you are ready to begin now.

Purpose: Provide mutual support and resourcing along with a practical process to make progress toward goals. We’ll include attention to fund development to provide you support to grow this aspect of your ministry.

Method: Video presentations plus monthly group gatherings, each centered around specific themes. 1 on 1 calls available for an additional fee.

Group Meeting Time/Date: The fourth Tuesday of each month from 4 to 5:15 pm Eastern time, February through November 2023.

Program Details & Fee: If accepted, participants must commit to participating in the entire program year. The cohort will include a maximum of 9 people to ensure sufficient time and attention for all participants. Group sessions will be recorded and made available for participants who are unable to participate for unexpected reasons. Participants may either pay $50 per month of program (our default) or, by request, $500 at the beginning of the year. (This program is not subsidized by donors.) For scholarship inquiries, email hello@plainsongfarm.com. 

Application Deadline: Tuesday, January 31, 2023 

Session Flow: Before each session, watch the video and do the homework assignment. Each video is approximately 30 minutes; each homework assignment is intended to take approximately 30 minutes. 

During each session: “Around the Zoom” updates and prayer requests from all participants, opening prayer, presentations and discussion based on homework.

Monthly Session Plan

February - Where are you?

Focus: Clarifying your outcomes & case for funding support. 

Question for all: Present your context, your mission, your vision as best you currently understand them. 

March - Look backward 

Focus: Finding lessons in failures and setting appropriate expectations with donors and funders.

Question for all: What was 2022 like for you? 

April - Look forward

Focus: Your 2023 calendar - programs and fundraising. 

Question for all: What is your prayer for 2023? How is that prayer embodied in a budget and calendar? 

May - Look within

Focus: Creating structures for recording gifts and sending thank you’s.

Question for all: What is arising within you and between you and God as you do this work? Focus: creating structures for recording gifts and sending thank yous. 

June - Look at your systems

Focus: Growing repeat participation and regular donors.

Question for all: What routines and processes do you have in place? What do you need? 

July - Look at the data 

Focus: Creating your reporting systems.

Question for all: What are you tracking and measuring? What metrics matter in this work? 

August - Look at this year’s harvest

Focus: Identifying your audience & making a fall appeal.

Question for all: What are you learning this season about your hopes for next year? 

September - Look Around

Focus: Managing your partner, donor, and participant relationships.

Question for all: Who is with you? Challenges and blessings of entrepreneurial leadership: putting on your sorting hat. 

October - Look to next year

Focus: Creating co-ownership and investment, developing new leaders and funders.

Question for all: What is your budget process for 2024? What are your fundraising goals and plans in this season?

November - Look again, with gratitude 

Focus: The importance of celebrating, with the cohort and with others in our ministries.

Question for all: Where are you now? What has this process taught you? What will you be carrying forward into the winter season?

To apply, click here.

Optional Add Ons

Ministry Innovator Visit

Visit Plainsong Farm to experience Nourish Your Neighbor and Sabbath at the Farm, then reflect on how the experience relates to your vocation. Email hello@plainsongfarm.com to find out more.

Ministry Innovator Consulting

A limited number of one on one consulting hours are available on a per hour basis at $125/hr. In 2023, the only staff member regularly available for consulting is the Rev. Nurya Love Parish.

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