The Bishop Bruce Ough Innovation Center renovation is complete! Thanks to the generous financial investment of multiple individual supporters, the remodel of the office space that houses the activities and ministry of United’s new Innovation Center has Bishop Bruce Ough now been accomplished. If you’re on the United campus, be sure to stop by for a tour and enjoy the inspiring professional art pieces created by Maria Bellini (Bellini Artworks) displayed throughout. True to the historic foundation upon which the Innovation Center was created, a newly dedicated prayer room in the remodeled space named “The Powerhouse” is now available for use by students, staff, faculty, and visitors. The Innovation Center has already launched its monthly “Leading Voices” live online webinars featuring national frontline ministry practitioners speaking on cutting-edge new aspects of innovative church renewal. In January 2022, the Innovation Center is scheduled to begin the first cohort of churches registering for United’s distinctive new “Floodgates Collective” congregational renewal coaching and training initiative.
discern God’s next exciting steps and new possibilities. Once developed and field-tested, training to utilize these two new resources will be continually offered via the Innovation Center with the intent to equip God’s Church for forward movement. The design and creation of United’s Innovation Center was birthed via prayer, broad support, and the ongoing collaborative and creative input from church leaders and innovators across the country, all of which will continue to shape the relevance and unique focus of the Center’s work. Dialogue with other seminaries and entities expressing interest in becoming satellite locations or partners of United’s Innovation Center continues to develop. Author: Rev. Sue Nilson Kibbey, Director
In July, the new Innovation Center was awarded a $15,000 grant provided by the In Trust Center for Theological Schools to underwrite the proposed creation and development of two brand-new resources for leaders, churches, and Christian nonprofit organizations. Bold Conversations will be a strategic structure to guide and facilitate teams or groups as they prayerfully clarify synergistic paths forward when indecision or stalemate has occurred. DreamTables will likewise provide a strategic structure useful for teams or groups seeking to
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
In the 1880s, United was known as a “spiritual power-house.” People from all over would mail prayer requests to the seminary, and faculty and students would intercede for each one. According to the Pageant of Progress produced in 1946 for the seminary’s 75th anniversary, “Frequently, a few days later the mails brought thrilling reports of the gracious manifestation of the Spirit of God.” The Innovation Center continues this legacy with “The Powerhouse” prayer room.
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Rev. Sue Nilson Kibbey, Director of the Innovation Center, and President Kent Millard at the entrance of the new space on campus.
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Bishop Bruce Ough Innovation Center Update
