My daughter lives in Los Angeles with two dogs, which means whenever she visits Minnesota, she usually drives so they can come too. This fall, I decided to make things easier by flying out and driving back with her.

The trip was smooth until Colorado. After pulling off for gas, the car lurched. I pressed the accelerator—nothing but a rev. The check engine light glared at us. We still had 1,100 miles to go, with the mountains ahead. From then on, the car was unpredictable—sometimes fine, sometimes ready to quit. We learned if it ran too long, it wouldn’t even go in reverse. Every stop felt like a gamble.

So what does this have to do with design thinking? Everything.

Emily and I had a very real problem: get to Minnesota in a car with other ideas. Design thinking is exactly about tackling problems like this—with curiosity and creativity rather than panic. Harvard Business School defines design thinking as “a user-centered, solutions-focused framework for innovation. Rather than assuming what an ideal product should be, design thinking invites teams to understand customers’ wants, needs, and goals, and then design solutions to address them.”

There are five steps, but let’s look at the first three: empathize, define, and ideate.

Empathize means understanding the problem. For us, the car wasn’t working. In ministry, your “car trouble” might look like declining participation in Sunday school or families struggling with noisy children in worship. This step is all about curiosity—asking questions to see the challenge from different perspectives. What is it like for parents? For children? For the congregation? Approach it like a detective: listen, wonder, and take notes without rushing to solutions.

Define brings your detective work together. As a team, ask: out of all the insights, what are we being called to address? Maybe families feel disconnected during worship or children need more ways to engage. From here you can create a challenge statement: “Families need ________ because ________.” For example: “Families need a way to engage children during worship because one hour is too long for them to sit quietly.”

Ideate is about creativity. Go for quantity, not perfection. Give everyone sticky notes and a few minutes to write as many ideas as possible—one per note. No idea is too wild. When the group shares them, themes emerge, sparking even more possibilities. Energy builds as imagination flows.

Back to our road trip: our empathize step was naming the problem—the car wasn’t reliable. Define came when a mechanic diagnosed a “Clutch B Actuator Control Circuit Low” issue: not good, but safe enough to keep driving. Ideation came quickly: sell the car en route? Rent one and leave ours in Colorado? Fly home instead?

In the end, we prototyped a smaller solution: cut the second day short, check into a hotel, buy pajamas at Walmart, order takeout, and rest. The next morning, another mechanic suggested adding fuel additive because of Colorado’s gas blend. We tried it—and it worked. Twelve hours later, we pulled into Minnesota without much further trouble.

That’s design thinking in action. A messy, uncertain journey where empathy, definition, and ideation helped us move forward—not perfectly, but faithfully and creatively.

Trying Things Out: Spirit-Led Innovation Through Prototyping and Reflection

Last week, Kris shared her story about Design Thinking during road trip challenges and brainstorming ways to solve problems creatively in the midst of those challenges. This month, we move from imagination to action—with Prototype and Test/Reflect. These steps are where your new ideas meet real life. It’s where creativity, courage, and faith come together.

From Brainstorm to Blessing

Brainstorming is often the most joyful part of ministry planning. It’s that space where ideas flow freely, where “what ifs” and laughter mingle, and where no idea is too impractical to say out loud. Maybe your team imagined new ways to help families feel more at home in worship: a “Pray-Ground” space with activities for children, an intergenerational fellowship or service project, or a “Worship Buddies” idea pairing senior members with kids.

The next step isn’t to pick the perfect idea—it’s to try something small. That’s what prototyping is all about.

A prototype is a quick, low-risk version of an idea you can test before fully launching it. In church life, that might mean trying something one Sunday, for one group, or for one season.

You might:

• Create a “Family Faith Box” with take-home devotions and coloring pages.

• Try a short “Kid Moment” in worship with props or simple questions.

• Host a “Faith and Pancakes” breakfast with a 10-minute devotion.

• Experiment with an interactive prayer station during Advent or Lent.

Whatever you choose, keep it light and playful. Think mini experiment, not major overhaul.

Trying Small Experiments

When we prototype in ministry, we give ourselves permission to learn by doing. Sometimes we get bogged down in fear, in details, or in the “we’ve never done that” of church life. With Design Thinking, instead of waiting for perfect plans or guaranteed success, we step out in faith and see what happens. This approach invites creativity and flexibility—something families, especially those juggling busy schedules, truly appreciate.

A small experiment might last a single Sunday or run for a few weeks. The key is to keep it manageable and open-ended. And when you gather feedback, ask both children and adults! Their reflections can be profound in their simplicity:

•  “It felt easier to listen.”

•  “I liked when we got to draw.”

•  “It was nice to sit with my grandchild.”

Keep track of what you hear around you. Even a few comments can help shape your next steps and reveal where God might be stirring something new.

Learning from Failure (and Finding the Spirit There)

Let’s be honest—some prototypes will flop. The crayons spill, the media glitches, the kids get the giggles, or no one shows up.

That’s okay. In fact, that’s holy ground.

Failure in ministry isn’t a verdict—it’s an invitation to try again. It helps us see where God might be nudging us to adjust, simplify, or try differently. Some of our most beloved church traditions probably started as experiments. The Holy Spirit isn’t afraid of our messy attempts; sometimes that’s exactly where new life begins.

Reflect, Listen, and Try Again

After your experiment, gather your team and ask:

•  What did we notice?

•  What surprised us?

•  Where did we see joy, connection, or participation?

•  What might God be showing us through this experience?

Maybe your idea needs a small tweak. Maybe it’s time to try something completely different, or this isn’t what people were needing. Either way, you’re learning, growing, and becoming more responsive to the Spirit’s leading.

The Spirit in the Experiment

When churches approach ministry with a Design Thinking mindset, they become communities that are curious, courageous, and creative.

• We Empathize, listening and learning about our church family’s needs, wants, and experiences.

• We Define, identifying the patterns or challenges that are emerging and where we feel called to focus.

• We Ideate, brainstorming creative ideas with open minds and hearts.

• We Prototype, trying small experiments with hope.

• Finally, we Test, growing from failure to Spirit-led innovation.

That’s not just good design—it’s faithful discipleship.

So go ahead—pick one idea and give it a try. Trust that God will meet you in the messiness of the process—guiding, stretching, and thrilling you along the way. Because the Spirit loves to move through people who are willing to experiment.

Have you ever felt the weight of leadership—the pressure to have all the answers, to carry the mission on your own? In ministry, this feeling is all too common, especially when facing big changes like a tight budget that can no longer support a paid staff position. But what if you didn't have to do it alone? What if the answer wasn't to find a new expert, but instead to unlock the potential of the leaders you already have?

Last year, a congregation found itself at a crossroads. Facing a leadership transition in their children and youth ministry, they knew a paid position was no longer possible with their budget. As a solution, they aimed to establish a sustainable, volunteer-led model by building a team of passionate lay leaders (volunteers). My role as their Age-to-Age coach was to guide this process, not by simply providing answers, but by asking powerful, thought-provoking questions. Over the course of a year, we met monthly to focus on accountability; following through on set goals. We processed together to reflect on what was learned that month and planned forward-moving next steps; focus on strategy.

This process inspired a design thinking approach, leading to a new level of trust, communication, and confidence between team members. After a year of coaching, the team felt fully prepared and empowered to use these skills anywhere, having built a robust, sustainable leadership structure from within.

The transformation this congregation underwent highlights the incredible power of team-based ministry.

When a leader recognizes that they cannot carry the load alone and shifts their efforts in building a team & inviting a team coach, ministry life becomes much easier and way more fun! Instead of a congregation’s mission depending on just one person, a team-based approach ensures a wide range of experiences and insights from multiple perspectives. Accountability becomes a shared value within a congregation, creating an atmosphere that promotes mutual support and deeper

communication.

To me, coaching is a leadership approach grounded in trust, curiosity, and collaboration. When we embrace this coaching mindset in our jobs and in leadership roles, the pressure to have all the answers disappears!

For many of us, the way we experienced children’s ministry growing up feels familiar, even comforting. We went to Sunday School by age or grade. We sat in classrooms that looked a lot like our schools. We had teachers, lessons, and sometimes even report-card-style expectations about what we were supposed to “know” by the end of the year. For a long time, that model worked—or at least it worked well enough.

The truth is, that model didn’t come out of nowhere. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, during the rise of the church growth movement, churches intentionally borrowed from the public school system. Buildings were designed with classrooms, offices, and kitchens to support programming. Sunday School mirrored school structures with superintendents, principals, and carefully planned scope-and-sequence curricula. Kids were grouped by age, measured by intellectual outcomes, and surrounded by peers who often went to the same schools, played on the same teams, and lived in the same neighborhoods.

That approach made a lot of sense at the time. It was organized. It was efficient. And it fit the cultural moment. But over time, something important was lost. Children’s ministry slowly became more about learning information than forming faith. We became adept at teaching Bible stories, but less intentional about helping children live into the promises their families made at baptism—to pray, to trust God, to love their neighbor, and to grow into a faith that could carry them through real life.

Fast forward to today, and it’s clear that the world children are growing up in looks very different. Families don’t all share the same schedules, neighborhoods, or experiences. Kids are navigating social media, anxiety, and big questions at much younger ages. Simply organizing ministry by demographics and hoping faith “sticks” is no longer enough. Because the terms “family” and “church” have changed, so has the social contract with families. And the opportunity is ripe. What if traditional children’s ministry is reframed to reimagine children’s ministry through the lens of a competency-based model of formation. Instead of starting with age or grade, this approach starts with a different question: What kind of faith do we hope children will grow into? And just as important, what practices and skills will help them get there?

In a competency-based model, spiritual practices move to the center. Children don’t just learn about prayer—they practice it. They learn how to sit in silence, offer gratitude, name their fears, and wonder out loud. Scripture becomes something they engage with through storytelling, play, and curiosity, not just something they memorize. Worship becomes participatory and embodied, helping kids experience faith as something they do, not just something they hear about.

This model also takes social and emotional learning seriously—not as an add-on, but as a core part of faith formation. Kids learn how to name their emotions, show empathy, repair relationships, and care for one another. These are deeply spiritual skills. Loving God and loving neighbor requires emotional awareness, compassion, and the ability to live well in community.

Critical thinking is another key shift. Instead of rushing to give kids all the answers, competency-based ministry makes room for questions. Children are encouraged to wonder, to wrestle with stories, and to connect faith to their everyday lives—on the playground, at school, at home. Faith becomes something they explore and own, not something handed to them fully formed. All of this is grounded in the development of a theological language that grows with the child. Kids learn words for God, grace, forgiveness, hope, and justice in ways that make sense for their age and experience. Theology becomes practical and contextual—about making choices, caring for others, and trusting God when things feel hard.

This shift isn’t about abandoning structure or learning outcomes. It’s about reframing them. It’s about moving from a model that prioritizes information to one that prioritizes formation. At its heart, a competency-based approach brings children’s ministry back to baptism—where the church promises to walk alongside families, helping children grow into a faith that is lived, practiced, and resilient.

In a world that feels increasingly complex, this kind of children’s ministry isn’t just helpful—it’s essential. It invites children not only to know the stories of faith, but to live them, trusting that God is present in their real, everyday lives.