On Thursday, February 20, the Innovation, Adaptive, and Transformative Ministries Team for the first time, formed as a result of Highlands Presbytery’s Discernment Report. This strategic initiative is “designed to equip and prepare our faith committees for a new season of ministry,” and to be an “ incubator for the Presbytery and its congregations to engage in innovative thinking, bold experimentation, and future-focused thinking.”

This was the most of the team orientation, with several more to follow, as the Presbytery takes this new beginning seriously. As is our practice, the event opened with Dwelling in the Word, a practice of spiritual and biblical reflection. Focused on Isaiah 43:15-21, a number of participants heard God’s repeated promise to make a way, through mighty waters, wilderness, and desert. 

As a new team with a new mission, a new creative outlet was employed. After breaking bread and building Lego structures, this orientation was centered on painting. Following lunch, Presbytery Leader Jeanne Radak opened the session by explaining this approach: “Innovation begins with imagination. Painting allows us to see what we might not yet have words for.”