RESOURCES:

 
In the chaos of overlapping challenges in the transition towards a post-pandemic world, we may find that we’ve hit a figurative brick wall in life and ministry that feels too overwhelming to overcome. In this webinar, we addressed the process that innovators like Steve Jobs (Apple) and social ministry entrepreneurs have used to help break down the walls and barriers to access, renew communal hope, and remain fresh in their mission to design towards a more just, loving, and impactful future. 
 
During this Webinar, participants:

• Learned about Empathy as a key principle of human-centered design thinking
• Explored rest and sabbath as a theological framework for empathy and transformational change
• Understood the principle of “prototyping over perfection” and the skill of  “holy pivoting”
• Gained tools for how to measure for impact beyond “success”
• Utilized empathy to workshop a current ministry or professional challenge

Presentation Summary: 

1. Loving others as Jesus loves us requires that we have an understanding of loving ourselves (John 13:34).
2. Love calls us to be inventors and innovators towards transformational change.
3. Christian Empathy is the Holy witness to one another of the holy "with-ness" of God. (Elijah on Mount Carmel 1 Kings 19)
4. Empathy allows us to be a witness to God's "with-ness."
   1. Sympathy says, "I feel for you," whereas empathy says, "I feel with you."
   2. Empathy provides a pathway to love others by deeply identifying with their lives as Christ identifies with ours. (Isaiah 7:14, Philippians 2:7, John 1:14)
   3. God's encounter with Elijah on Mount Carmel is an example of holy rest as an expression of "with-ness."
5. Empathy allows us to experience ourselves and other's whole persons worthy of care.
   1. We practice empathy by immersing ourselves in the experience of others.
   2. We practice empathy by observing the influences, dreams, and motivations within another person's story.
   3. We practice empathy by engaging in action that liberates and transform each other's story.
6. Empathy allows us to create and share stories that measure what matters.
   1. If we don't measure what matters, what we measure becomes what matters.
7. Alternative measurements of good ministry rooted in empathy can look like asking others:
   1. Do they report feeling liberated?
   2. Could they share with you about a time when they felt loved as a part of your ministry/experience/offering?
   3. Do they feel safe enough to offer their faith response?
   4. Does this offering resemble what those I serve would define as "community care"?

Resources
Maggy Barankitse: Love made me an inventor
PowerPoint Presentation


Guest Presenter: Carmelle Beaugelin
Carmelle Beaugelin serves as the Program Coordinator for the Institute for Youth Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary. She oversees the Log College Project and the Trenton Design Incubator, cohort experiences designed to foster a deeper understanding of faithful and innovative youth ministry alongside congregations as they design, test, and implement new forms of intergenerational youth ministry in their context. Carmelle uses her theological training and large-scale artistry to bridge gaps between pneumatology, spirituality, and the arts.




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