Have you ever found God through a cup of coffee? For Tracy Gingrass ’21 M.Div., a friendly café and some freshly ground beans provided the spark she needed to do a new thing.

Before discovering her call to ministry, Gingrass was a frequent customer of coffee shops in the Milwaukee area. During her years of intensive study through MDivX, Luther Seminary’s experimental accelerated Master of Divinity program, the need for caffeine intensified—along with the need for a space that radiated stillness, safety, and community.

From this necessity arose a second home at Mama D’s in Wales, Wisconsin. The smalltown coffee shop was unlike any other she had visited, and faith seemed to already have a strong presence within its walls.

“People are gathering here. People are doing stuff here,” Gingrass recalled thinking. “There were Bible studies. There were pastors who would come and work on their sermons. It’s just weird because it’s a coffee shop in a very small town. People come from all over to congregate in this place.”

Nearing the end of seminary, Gingrass felt a pull towards facilitating something new in her community. “I really felt very strongly that I did not want to be a pastor in the traditional ministry,” she reflected. “I always felt like something was happening in the world and outside of the church, and I wanted to be a part of it.”

Seminary had been a leap of faith for Gingrass. After graduation, she made another jump—this time, to a part-time barista role at the small-town coffee shop she had grown to love. There, she saw the opportunity to bring a formalized new ministry into the space for those seeking something more structured. She calls this ministry Be Still, with a mission of “creating spaces where minds find peace, bodies find rest, and souls are cared for.”

It starts with listening.

“You’re not assuming what they need. You’re not assuming what they’re looking for. By listening with the intent to learn, you create this sense of knowing someone. [People want] to be known—not told who to be,” explained Gingrass. “The world tells you who to be all the time. I learn about people not for an ulterior motive but for really understanding them. I know how good it feels to be known, and I want other people to feel that.”

In Gingrass’s experience, community often starts with something as simple as knowing a person’s name and their drink order. Listening intentionally to people opens up space for friendliness, genuineness, and togetherness to sustain a sense of community. And truly understanding through listening leads to knowing on a whole new level.

Through two years of leading Be Still, Gingrass has enabled “a solid community of people” to explore their individual journeys in faith, no matter where they may have started. From self-reflection to nature exploration, from journaling to meditation, from art to live music—the space is what the group creates it to be when they are gathered together. Sometimes quiet and contemplative while other times bustling with conversation and laughter, Be Still grants people the space for what they need in the moment.

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Half a world away in Pematang Siantar, Indonesia, Pimpinan Sijabat ’23 M.A. said he first felt called to church planting in 2016. Inspired by Matthew 9:37— “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few”— a challenge from a church elder to Sijabat and his team resulted in the planting of 22 churches in just five years. Getting more people to come to Jesus was an ultimate goal seemingly achieved. Little did he know, his missional work was only just beginning.

“I never expected to study in the States—or rather I expected to study in Asia,” Sijabat said with a chuckle. “However, my church leader offered me to continue to study in the States because there was no pastor in our synod who had ever graduated from the United States. They wanted me to bring new color, new insight, from the States background.”

Sijabat’s experience at Luther Seminary is the foundation on which his missional appreciation stands. “The classes enlightened me to work on God’s mission instead of the church organization mission. Because God is the one who has the mission, and the church is the instrument of the mission,” he said.

With renewed vision, Sijabat returned to Indonesia in July 2023 to start The Missional Church HKI. The church began small, with seven members worshiping regularly out of his home. They quickly outgrew the space, growing to 45 members in just three months. His ministry recently celebrated one year in their new building, but Sijabat insists that the structure is secondary to the neighborhood it serves.

“We love the space that we currently use. We have many programs in that space, such as English club for the neighborhood, medical treatment, Bible study, serving meals, and clothes donation. But we found that God wants us to find the DNA of the missional church first.”

Sijabat explained that new ministries bring with them powerful opportunities for outreach. Without established organizational traditions or institutional pressures, the focus can shift to welcoming in those from outside its walls. Once in, members can have their voices heard in capacities that aren’t as common in a more established church.

“We need new churches not because they are trendy or places to try all the cutting-edge techniques,” Sijabat said. “Instead we need new churches that are the best expression of the unchanging gospel. The church is for the neighbors, not for the members. The church mission is for the neighbors, so the church members are our partners.”

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If there’s one thing Sawyer Vanden Heuvel ’23 M.Div. is passionate about in his Sioux Falls, South Dakota community, it’s building longer tables. Outside of his role as associate pastor at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Vanden Heuvel also serves as the mission developer and pastor of Shepherd’s Table, a new ministry that aims to provide a space of belonging for all—especially those who identify within the LGBTQIA+ community. The ministry gathers once per month for dinner church at the Prism Community Center.

“It’s authentic,” he reflected. “A way to build relationships is over a meal. Think about how many memories you have that happen over a meal and who you shared that meal with, whether it’s a family member or a friend. It’s those kinds of connections that happen while eating together that draw people in to be willing to be vulnerable through conversation and to share what’s going on in their lives.”

 

As one of South Dakota’s first ministries that focuses on LGBTQIA+ inclusion, Vanden Heuvel admitted that there was some fear and nervousness that accompanied the launch of Shepherd’s Table. But the overwhelming sense of freedom to try new things and invite others into the creative process is what motivated him to move past any fears of the unknown. Leaving space open to adapt was key—knowing that, if all else failed, he could always try something different.

Leading this new ministry means operating under the assumption that not everyone has heard the gospel in a way that creates a spirit of hospitality, inclusivity, belonging, and love. Vanden Heuvel prioritizes leaving room for curiosity, welcoming all with coffee and conversation whenever possible. His motive isn’t membership. “It’s long work, and it’s hard work, because it requires lots of one-on-one time with people. But that’s where I get to know people and get to know their stories,” he said.

Another essential part of leading a new ministry is being willing to learn from the experiences of others, which is what led Vanden Heuvel to apply to be a Seeds Project fellow through Faith+Lead. Through this 10-month, fully funded fellowship, he found new ideas and processes that will inform his work with Shepherd’s Table, along with some financial support to implement them. Most importantly, he became part of a supportive cohort of ministry leaders.

“A lot of times I’ve found, with mission development work or new-start work, it can be kind of isolating,” he said. “But to be able to come to a group that you start to build trust with and share things … that’s really important.”

Vanden Heuvel credits much of the success of Shepherd’s Table to community partnerships. He said that, when the idea for this new ministry was starting to form, church leaders excitedly offered up advice and connections in their own networks as a starting point. The community center and its associated nonprofit, the Transformation Project, have provided mutual trust and a shared space to worship. And St. Mark’s, Vanden Heuvel’s own church—along with many others across denominational lines—have provided the meals and financial support needed to keep dinner church flourishing.

“We can really start Shepherd’s Table with a good, solid foundation. This foundation will lead to a path for more sustainable ways of doing ministry,” he said.

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From its earliest days, Luther Seminary has been known for its rigorous biblical tradition and theological education. But more recently, people have begun to take notice of the ways in which the seminary has modified its focus to better serve a wide array of Christian communities around the world.

Few individuals have experienced those changes firsthand in the way Dean of Academic Affairs Terri Elton ’98 M.A., ’07 Ph.D. has. Her ties to Luther first formed in the 1970s, when her father began as a professor. Her own pursuit of two degrees and two decades of teaching have kept her finger on the pulse that drives the institution forward.

Through all of her years with the institution, Elton said there has never been a better time for innovation at Luther Seminary—especially as it relates to the conceptualization of new ministries.

“Students are engaging in the cultural questions and contextualizing this with great rigor,” Elton said. “I think that’s the biggest move I’ve seen. And for a seminary to make that kind of a pivot to be adaptive to the rapidly changing world is amazing.”

The Cultivating New Christian Communities Fellowship is built from the foundation and success of the Seeds Project, with a goal of nurturing six key competencies: missional imagination, evangelism for discipleship, funding new forms of ministry, worship and proclamation, community development, and organizational structure and governance. It serves as

a space to unite students, across all degree programs, who strive to discover new forms of ministry outside the bounds of traditional church models.

Elton explained that the seminary’s mission calls Luther to steward the Christian witness across generations and contexts. While some existing inherited expressions of church require specific credentials, non- degree options have also proven effective in equipping individuals with the tools needed to be successful in facilitating new ministries. Alongside traditional ministry models, Elton sees the prevalence of fresh expressions as a golden opportunity.

“What are we concerned about? We need to be as innovative and refreshing and generative within traditional ministry expressions as we need to experiment outside of them. I think God is saying there’s life here. Don’t miss it.”

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Do you have any advice for those wanting to start new ministries in their own communities?

	Tracy’s advice I would say, above all, really have fun with it. Look at what you’re doing as experimenting. That’s it: Set your bar there. Some things don’t work out, and you learn from them, and you try again.
	Sawyer’s advice It goes back to trust and faith and taking big risks. Because personally, I think the gospel is worth taking risks for. Taking that leap of faith and trusting that, in the downfalls and the high points and the valleys and the peaks, God is there in the midst working alongside you.
	Terri’s advice With anything in innovation, the first idea is usually not the best one. The first thing may just get you out the door. Listen, test it, refine it, adapt— and then that creates the momentum for where you end up.
	Pimpinan’s advice Many church leaders start from a problem to fix. I say that we do not want to fix the church, but we should [be] discerning of what the Spirit asks us, because [the Spirit] is a leader on this mission. The problems are not always about the technical problems. Sometimes it’s adaptive challenges.