Cultivating Creativity at Spirit Garage:

Spirit Garage fosters creativity in members and out in community.

Because creativity and spirituality are so deeply intertwined, we provide opportunities for people to explore their creative side, even if they don’t know they have one. Here is what it looks like:

• Occasional “Live painting” during worship

• Creative nights when people are invited into a space with writing/creating prompts around a certain theme

• Once-a-month Poetry, Lit and Song worship, that wraps poetry, literature, and music around a sacred theme in a contemplative way

• Bands and musicians that use their creativity to write new songs and repurpose other songs to uphold a theme and create space.

• Occasional group art projects during worship

• Open space worship services with stations to explore

• Creativity expressed through meals prepared and tables set at “meal church”

• In our presence in larger community, (Mayday, Farmer’s Markets, Open Streets) Create spaces for people to be creative.
  

Creating space for Quirky:

All kinds of people exist in the world, and all kinds of people go to Spirit Garage. We’re here for it.

Spirit Garage has always been a community open to a wide range of humanity. We create space for quirky because we are all a little quirky, and Jesus loves us and calls us because of our quirkiness. And because we all need a little practice being in this quirky world together, we practice community at church. Here is what it looks like:

• Once-a-month meal-church, where we sit at table with a group of people and get to know one another better than you do over the minutes before and after worship.

• Spaces for all kinds of people to offer leadership in various ways, each according to their ability.

• No dress code, spoken or unspoken

• Enneagram workshops (where you get to learn about how everyone, including you, views the world a little differently)

• Groups providing service will look for opportunities for justice work, or doing charity work in as justice-oriented ways as possible, being in community with all kinds of people just as they are at church.

• The larger goal is that each person is better equipped to relate across differences with everyone they encounter in the world because of how that is lived out at Spirit Garage.
  

Fostering Curiosity:

There is so much in this world and beyond to explore…and God created it all.

People who show up at Spirit Garage tend to be ready to explore God and faith and the world and how they are all connected; we’ll keep encouraging that curiosity, knowing it leads to thoughtful Christians ready to engage the world. Here is what it will look like:

• “Different Lens” sermon series once a month that lifts up the voice of BIPOC and/or queer faith leaders, talking about biblical text in a different way.

• Messages/sermons that don’t ask you to check your brain at the door, and do explore hard questions without promising answers.

• Being active in mutual aid in the community

• Book discussions

• Participating in community events that encourage curiosity (speakers, movies, actions, etc.)

• Discussion nights like “theology pub” that encourage people to engage around a life topic from a faith perspective.

The three characteristics of the community we are growing relate to one another and flow out of one another, like our Triune God.

And maybe the Triune God could also be described as creative (made the world), quirky (sometimes described as wind? Fire? A Bird? and curious (came down to check it out).

What we believe:

You can find a variety of beliefs and doubts at Spirit Garage, but our leadership and rootedness come from a Lutheran and Christian place. This means the ways we talk and sing about faith will include these things:

• We believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

• Through Christ we are given grace, and we share that grace in the world to become part of the healing of the world.

• We celebrate Holy Communion, which is simple bread and wine that Christ instituted as a meal of God’s grace. All are welcome. All means all. God says yes to children, criminals, doubters, people with different understandings, people who have been rejected by other religious authorities, people of all kinds of genders and sexualities. If God said this was for all people, why would we turn anyone away?

• We welcome the community of faith through baptism.

• We recognize that God’s work in our lives and hearts is often a lifelong process rather than an instant decision.

Who we are:

• The people of Spirit Garage come from all kinds of religious and not-so-religious backgrounds.

• Our pastor is ordained in the ELCA (Lutheran).

• We were birthed out of from and remain a ministry of Bethlehem Lutheran Church Twin Cities, an ELCA congregation in Minneapolis and Minnetonka.

• What we do at Spirit Garage may or may not be what many people would call Lutheran. Nevertheless, we find that the connection to a larger church community is helpful.

• We are a Reconciling in Christ Community;