annual REPORT 2025 THE CHURCH LAB
table of CONTENTS
Mission
Frequently Asked Questions
How to Give Connect
Our Story So Far
Metrics Report
TCL’s Geographic Reach
This Year
A Year in Photos
2025 Milestones
Dialogue
2025 Dialogue Topics
TCL’s Gone International
Our Work with Seminaries
Workshops & Trainings
Our Work with Churches and Pastors
Thankful for Our Pastors’ Cohort
Empowering Experiments Mini-Grants
Operational Highlights
Board of Directors
Budget Forecast
Thank You!
Please Pledge
MISSION
experimenting with innovative paths of spiritual growth for all, discovering the Church’s future and the future of faith practice.
As we see people sprinting away from religious institutions in the 21 Century, TCL works to make spiritual growth, existential questions, and curiosity about meaning accessible to anyone, regardless of religious background. We have many ways of pursuing this: our dialogue community, active support of faith leaders and innovators, as well as in serving our community in various ways throughout the year. st
Because this experience has given us many tools to do peacebuilding work in an age of dangerous degrees of polarization, it is a priority for us to serve our community by offering bridgebuilding tools we have learned from nearly 2 decades of dialogue work, regardless of peoples’ interest in spiritual growth.
Areweachurch?
It depends! Some people consider us their primary faith community, and others see it as a supplement to their own, if they have one.
Dowehaveaphysicalspace?
No, we do not have a dedicated Church Lab space. That said, we meet in-person and online. When in-person, we often meet in homes or spaces in faith buildings or public spaces, depending on the purpose of our event.
AreweaChristianorganization?
No, and yes! Some of our offerings are explicitly Christian, and all are motivated by our understanding of how Jesus cares for people. That said, our dialogues are powered by an interfaith community. Our workshops and trainings are not religion-centered; they’re for people of any background who want to become better peacebuilders.
Whoiswelcome?
Whoever you are, you are welcome. Protestants, Catholics, Latter-day Saints, Muslims, Jews, Pagans, agnostics, atheists, Buddhists, Native Americans, conservatives, liberals, seekers and more.
WhatisBridgeBuildersLab?
BridgeBuilders Lab is simply alternative nomenclature for our offerings that suit nonreligious purposes. This includes but is not limited to workshops and trainings like Navigating Divisive Conversations and Facilitators’ Training.
TCL NEEDS YOU
While our affordable consulting work helps us do ministry fulltime, our operational budget is exclusively powered by your generosity.
The most impactful way to
CONNECT
NEWSLETTER
We send an email to our community every Thursday. In addition to keeping our audience up-to-date with upcoming events at TCL, we spotlight interesting tools and resources from organizations around the world that serve a mission connected to ours.
*This is 34% higher than the industry standard! Rather than flood your inboxes, our newsletters are meant to inform and inspire. Thank you for your continued loyal engagement.
We use social media as an added resource for others to gain free
OURSTORY,SOFAR
Since our beginning in 2013, TCL has served as an experimentaition hub for an accessible, innovative future for faith practice. We quickly became a resource for pastors navigating change in a rapidly evolving religious landscape, and for non-religious folks interested in peacebuilding during divisive times. Our core practice has always been interfaith dialogue, which serves as a transformative spiritual practice that reconciles neighbors of difference.
Through all of our programs, TCL has become a sanctuary that addresses our very deepest existential questions: Why are we here? What does it mean to be human? And how do we live in this world?
“Foralongtime,IthoughtthemissionofThe ChurchLabwastoaddcolortotheworldby expandingourunderstandingofGod.Thisisstill true,butnowIseethatTheChurchLabrespondsto thequestion:Howdoweexistinthisworld?And
METRICSreport
This year, TCL board member Ashley Ekmay, Insights Analyst at Christianity Today, and our pastoral assistant, Jillian Shannon, teamed up to put together our most in-depth metrics analysis to date.
Faith and belief systems have been represented at TCL activities 16+
Average long-term engagement 4-5 yrs
Donor retention rate *compared to the national nonprofit average of 42% 81%
Our number of individual donors has consistently risen since 2019!
Our website has seen a major spike in page views in the last 2 years from demographics all over the nation and overseas.
TCL’s Geographic Reach
The Church Lab community is anchored in Austin, though we have beloved participants and supporters from other regions in Texas, as well as from Washington, D.C., Virginia, Pennsylvania, Utah, Georgia, California, Washington - even Mexico and South Korea!
TCL offerings are available for virtual attendance whenever possible, so no matter who you are or where you are, you are welcome here.
THISyear
2025 has been a milestone year in many ways!
Division continues to plague our communities. Some are struggling with feelings of hopelessness or helplessness when it comes to the state of our neighborhoods and our country. We desperately need bridges to one another, to the pursuit of collective care and wellbeing. We need accessible ways to be spiritually fed and to grow in a season that is tumultuous for so many. We need pathways to creativity, innovation, resourcefulness and resilience over fear and resignation.
Additionally, unexpected monetary cuts and economic hardships have left non-profits around the world hemorrhaging funding. TCL has not been immune to this struggle, even as we hit unprecedented milestones in effectively serving our mission. As of Nov 2025, we currently forecast 40% of our budget to be available to us in 2026.
Yet 2025 is a year of good news for TCL’s mission. How so?
All of these challenges have led us to sharpening and deepening our purpose. We were forced to lean on spiritual groundedness, open-heartedness, curiosity, flexibility, and a dependence on God’s guidance. Where fear might take the driver’s seat, we have been committed to surrendering to the most faithful, innovative work we can do, wherever service to our mission may take us. It has been a blessing and an adventure to serve our long-standing community, and to encounter incredible pathways to serve new communities, as you can see in this report. Check it out, and celebrate this good work with us!
With much uncertainty before us, we take Joy in our mission, as we help others to navigate unknowns with creativity, resilience, dynamic faithfulness, joy and the worthy work of loving all neighbors as ourselves.
a year in photos
MILESTONES our 2025
Presenting at the Build Peace International Conference in Spain
Navigating Divisive Conversations Workshop at Leadership Austin’s Annual Conference
An officially signed deal for a book on day-today dialogue
Taught a graduate level course on Innovative Ministries
Multi-generational church retreat on peacebuilding
Completed another 3-year pastors’ cohort.
DIALOGUE
Our central activity is and always has been a long-term, small group of inter-religious dialoguers building bridges together. Every 2 weeks, a group of diverse participants gather from the 4 corners. Among us may be mainline Protestant, Evangelical Christian, Catholic, Pagan, Ahmadiyya Muslim, Baha’i, Jewish, spiritual-but-notreligious, non-identifying/seekers and humanist perspectives, as well as conservative and liberal viewpoints.
We acknowledge one another’s dignity of experience. We laugh together, even as we approach issues where high-stakes disagreement exists. We are challenged in our own spiritual lives to reckon with the mutually exclusive angles of our friends’ beliefs with our own. Our prayer life may change, our perspectives may shift, our ability increases to hold neighbors in love that approach life so differently than us. We inevitably discover a more nuanced faith, and a capacity to extend love in a deeply meaningful way amidst the rifts in our current political, cultural and social climates.
“Ihadneverheardofsomeofthesereligionsbefore,let alonebeenintheroomwiththem.Iwouldhavenever beeninthespacetohavelearned.Soitwasn’tamatter ofmetryingtochangeanyone’sreligion,butnowIcan stepinthespaceandhaveabetterconversationwith thesepeoplethanIwouldhaveotherwise.”
Pastor Carrie shares stories about dialogue at the Dialogue Institute of Austin.
Us · Awe, Wonder & Play · Why Is There Suffering? · Processing What Comes In · Unsolved Mysteries & Our Faith · Dialogue & Activism, Government & Religion · God & A.I. · Interfaith Dialogues in 2025! 22
The Twins of Joy & Grief · Love of Neighbors, Even When They Don’t Love
The Geography of the Holy · Religion And/Versus Culture · What I Wrestle With · Immigration · The Spirit Realm · The Role of Movement in Faith · Spotlight · Mutual Exclusivity · Prophets & Prophetic Voices · Idols · All Dogs Go to Heaven · Why I’m X... Or Why I Left · Worship Show ‘ n Tell.
TCL’s Gone International!
Pastor Carrie is incredibly honored to speak at the Build Peace 2025 International Peace Conference hosted by Build Up! This opportunity allows TCL share our tools for navigating division, and to exchange valuable lessons from our onthe-ground work at a gathering of seasoned international peacebuilders, all at a crucial time for this work.
To further demonstrate the worldwide interest in dialogue and peacebuilding, this graphic shows the recent spike in TCL website visits from outside the United States: We are reaching folks in Germany, France, UK, China, Ukraine, Mexico, Spain, Canada, S. Korea and more!
SCHOOL tcl goes to
Class on Innovative Ministry at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Guest lecture series at Seminary of the Southwest
Guest lecture and student observers of TCL dialogues from Iliff School of Theology
2025 has been quite the year for meeting our mission in higher education settings! In our mission to discover the future of faith practice, TCL equips emerging innovative leaders. We are honored to partner with seminaries to give emerging faith leaders the tools to be faithfully innovative and devoted peacebuilders for those who are defining the future of faith practice in an historic time.
Special thanks:
WORKSHOPS & TRAININGS
Both throughout each year and by request, TCL offers trainings and workshops for bridgebuilders, whether interested in religion or not. Below are part of our primary programs.
Facilitators’ Training helps others start and facilitate dialogues of their own, or to enhance their own skills to hold space for diverse perspectives in daily life, in a classroom, in a small group, etc. In 2025, we held 2 day-long trainings.
Navigating Divisive Conversations (NDC) is a 2-hour workshop for anyone grappling with how to be a bridge-builder in any and all aspects of life. We held 2 workshops in 2025 and we were invited to adapt this workshop numerous times for larger audiences!
Special thanks:
Highlights in Partnership
TCL presented our workshop materials at Leadership Austin’s Annual Conference.
TCL led a workshop for a large group with The Frederick CUUPs, the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans.
TCL worked with staff of St. Edwards University on Navigating Divisive Conversations.
In addition to designing workshops to fit a particular groups ’ needs, we offer these workshops and trainings yearround at TCL. If you or a group of yours are interested in participating, let us know by emailing carrie@thechurchlab.org.
pastors & CHURCHES
An integral part of TCL’s mission is helping churches and leaders faithfully respond to the times, relate to their communities and flourish amid changes.
The Church Lab pastors’ cohorts create a sacred space for support, growth, discernment and faithful risk-taking. Together, our cohorts of faith leaders seek next steps for our churches in the rapidly evolving 21st century landscape. We completed our 3 long-term pastors’ cohort!
Pastor Carrie facilitated a churchwide retreat for Woodland Church.
“Manypeoplecameuptome andsaidthiswastheir favoriteretreatyet."
-Rev.GarrettVickrey,WoodlandChurch
Special thanks:
WEARETHANKFULFORANOTHER 3YEARSWITHANAMAZING PASTORS’COHORT!
Empowering experiments MINI-GRANTS
Empowering Experiments (EE) is our granting program in which we seek to empower established or aspiring innovative faith leaders in a ministry project with which they wish to experiment. We were so blown away by our applicants this year that we chose to reward 3 worthy projects!
Sowing the Seeds of Shalom: A Journey of Racial Healing and Spiritual Formation - This retreat experience creates room for deep healing through guided spiritual practices, storytelling, embodied reflection, and gentle presence with others across racial identities. It’s an invitation to slow down, listen, breathe, and encounter the possibility of restoration for ourselves, and for one another.
Loud Contemplatives - A podcast about contemplation from Metanoia Journey (Austin, TX). Contemplative practices are not only for monks in monasteries, but for everyday people. The podcast is an opportunity to reach people where they are. It will be honest, humorous, tearful, and sometimes loud, because that is life today.
In Good Company: Setting the Table for Interfaith
Beloved Community - An experimental series of monthly, meal-based (breakfast, lunch or dinner or tea/dessert) gatherings with Eden United Church of Christ (Chicago, IL) to create hospitality space for increasing interfaith literacy, wisdom and friendship building.
OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Rev. Carrie Graham, MDiv
Founding Pastor, Facilitator
Jillian Shannon, MDiv
Pastoral Assistant
Ashlyn Brown, Bookkeeper
As is evidenced by our Milestones page, 2025 has been a year full of expanded work at a crucial time in history for a) peacebuilding in the thick of polarization and b) providing highly accessible spaces for spiritual questions and growth while so many need the spiritual anchoring that innovative faith leaders offer in an historically tumultuous time.
This year we raised $10,000 more from individual donors than last year. This has allowed us something many non-profits have not had the blessing of claiming in 2025: stability.
We are honored for such loyalty and generosity among our supporters, and we have stewarded these resources with great care and passion for our cause.
Jillian Shannon, pastoral assistant, and Ashlyn Brown, bookkeeper, have done excellent work to serve TCL’s mission in 2025. TCL would not be what it is without them. I am thankful for such a predictably strong team in a time and environment of unknowns for nonprofits, as we prepare to be wise stewards and faithful innovators into 2026.
-Rev. Carrie Graham, founder, pastor and facilitator
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dash Kees, MDiv Alexandria, VA
Ashley Ekmay, MA Durham, NC
Dr. Jonathan D. Lawrence, PhD Buffalo, NY
Wendy Cooper, MFT, MSW Houston,
Donna Mills-Lambeth Burleson, TX
Dr. Julie Weeks, PT, DPT Port Neches, TX
This year, we welcomed 2 new board members: Donna Mills-Lambeth, and Dr. Julie Weeks, as our care chair and treasurer, respectively!
They join David Dashifen Kees (Chair), Wendy Cooper (secretary), Ashley Ekmay (metrics chair), Joanna Drake (fundraising chair), and Jonathan D. Lawrence (strategic plan chair).
In addition to our monthly meetings, the board met for a fruitful retreat in Dripping Springs this summer to strategically plan for the future of TCL. The weekend was full of laughter and bonding over everyone ’ s shared belief in the valuable mission of The Church Lab.
TX
Joanna Drake Austin, TX
We’re hoping to raise $94,044 by 12/31/25 for our growing 2026 operations. As of 11/12/25 we’ve raised $24,665.
BUDGET
THANK YOU!
Jillian Shannon and Ashlyn Brown, without whom TCL would not be remotely the same!
TCL Board of Directors and Advisory Councils of past and present, who keep us growing in multi-layered ways.
Dr. Carolyn Helsel of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, who took a chance on TCL when inviting us to be a part of the SpirEnt cohort project, including the trust for Pastor Carrie to teach an Innovative Ministries class.
Dr. Pam Eisenbaum of Illif School of Theology, who for the 2nd year in a row, invited Pastor Carrie to lecture in her dialogue class and then had her students use TCL dialogues as their own laboratory for learning about bridgebuilding.
The Baugh Foundation, The Ministry Collaborative and Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, whose partnership has truly been the wind at our back.
TCL donors, and all those who pray for us, share about us and root us on in various ways. Your support makes it possible to meet our mission each day.
Pastor Carrie’s support structure of family, friends, mentors, therapist, and her spiritual director, Lucinda Clark. This would be impossible without you, and with you, the mission is Joyful.
Last but not least: TCL’s dialogue community and other small groups of past and present, as well as anyone who feels a part of who we are and what we do. The collective of who you are makes TCL what it is. Your spiritual growth together is teaching the world how to bridge divides in a crucial, tender moment in our world. You embody the Hope we need in this world right now. Thank you deeply.
Special thanks:
