Innovation Hub

The "Creative Callings" Innovation Hub supports the launching, testing, and refining of innovative ministries designed to support lives of meaning and purpose. A collaborative effort involving faculty across several disciplines, it focuses on both communal and personal dimensions of calling.

The innovation hub will connect congregations and Boston University School of Theology faculty for mutual learning, support, and accountability over time, with the following objectives:

• To foster theological reflection, articulation, contextual exploration, and study of Christian calling within and among congregations, with attention to individual and congregational calling;

• To develop effective means of naming the pressing vocational questions, challenges, and aspirations in particular congregational contexts and analyzing those in light of related social, cultural, political, and economic forces/structures;

• To create a generative, contemplative, and collaborative space for envisioning new and creative ministries that support vocational discernment and living, individually and communally;

• To support the launching, testing, and refining of such ministries and to maximize the learning gained from such initiatives for the benefit of other congregations;

• To integrate the work of the innovation hub in faculty research and publications, thereby increasing the practical impact of the work and making a scholarly practical theological contribution to existing literature on vocation, congregational studies, and church renewal;

• To inform the teaching and formation of new pastoral leaders and theological educators through curricular innovation and mentoring shaped by the emerging wisdom of the innovation hub.

The resulting research of the innovation hub will be concurrently integrated in BUSTH faculty research and publications, thereby increasing the distribution of the work and making a defined scholarly contribution to existing literature on vocation, spirituality, congregational studies, and church renewal.

Annual Learning Hub Events

Twice annually, the partner congregations will be invited to the Campus of Boston University School of Theology for a day-long Hub Events. There the leadership teams (pastor, staff member, and lay leader) from our partner congregations will join faculty and students from the School of Theology for a day of learning, collaboration, and fellowship. 

At these Hub Events, there will be opportunities to discuss projects, successes, and challenges in a mutually supportive setting. School of Theology faculty will offer presentations on their own research as it intersects we the ongoing theological exploration of vocation and congregational life. 

Monthly Cluster Meetings

The leadership teams from our partner congregations will also be invited to monthly cluster meetings. These will be held either online in a webinar format, or hosted locally at one of our partner congregations. 

These cluster events will provide space for congregations to discuss their ongoing project work. Additionally, faculty led sessions will provide resources, research, and methods for furthering their exploration the call to lives of meaning and purpose in their particular contexts. 

Online Resources

Partner congregations will also have access to a curated collection of resources related to calling, vocation, and congregational life.

Additionally, Members of the leadership teams from our partner congregations will have opportunities to contribute to the production of new material. They may contribute to our e-newsletter and our blog. 

At different points durning the project we will feature our partner congregations on our blog, in our e-newsletter, and throughout our social media presence.