April 2025

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Hi Friends,

I’m thrilled to announce that Rev. Beth Horsch has joined our team full time as Director of Church Innovation (CCI)! She first engaged with CCI as a reflective practitioner while still serving as a busy pastor of a thriving congregation in Minneapolis. It didn’t take us long to discern that she was the leader God was bringing to us.

Beth comes to CCI after serving as Lead Pastor at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church of Plymouth, Minnesota and has 17 years of ordained ministry experience. Prior to ordination she worked in mortgage banking for 12 years. She will continue to live in Minneapolis as we offer our services to congregations and leaders around the country.

Beth came to my attention through the recommendation of Dr. Pat Keifert, longtime Professor at Luther Seminary, key leader in congregational studies and our founding Director of Research at CCI. Pat noticed Beth’s leadership ability as they worked together in the Partnership for the Missional Church program at Mount Olivet. He mentioned her name to me when he and I first came together 3 years ago here at the newly formed CCI. “She’s the one,” he said.

CCI builds on the legacy of Pat Keifert and an impressive network of colleagues, consultants and practitioners, as well as my own work in church planting and congregational leadership. Pat and I formed CCI as a way to bring together our shared commitment to church development and critical theology. After a 40 year legacy of ministry, focused on finding a new leader for the next generation, he writes, “We found that leader in the Rev. Beth Horsch. She’s the embodiment of this legacy for the new generation. After years of hope and planning I am so delighted in her leading this work.”

And to that I give a hearty, “Amen”! Beth has immense talent, she’s joyful and wise. She’s uniquely able to lead people and communities as they seek to discern God’s preferred and promised future. I can’t think of a better leader to accompany us as we discern our next faithful steps.

Welcome, Beth!

The Rev. Scot Sherman, Ph.D. Executive Director Center for Church Innovation

As I begin this work at CCI I’m reminded that the Holy Spirit is as close as the ground we walk, the dirt in our fingernails, and the next breath. Church decline in attendance, dollars or relevance seems to be the headline these days. Even when we trust that resurrection comes only through death, the work of the church feels daunting. And yet, the Holy Spirit is given to be the author and giver of life. Bishop Matthew Heyd likes to say, “The Holy Spirit moves at ground level.” Over the last seventeen years I have walked the joys and challenges as an ELCA pastor–the daily dying and rising of congregational life. It was difficult to create space to harness the Holy Spirit through spiritual practices for myself while leading a congregation to do the same. But without fail, the Holy Spirit was close to the ground - disrupting, equipping, nudging, nourishing and recreating. The future was revealed one day at a time.

As I begin at the Center for Church Innovation, I am rooted in the call to accompany local churches as they make their way and find God’s promised future specifically in their context and story. We can’t do this vital work on our own; we need partners! It is hard to find time to look ahead when priorities demand or exhaustion persists. CCI’s vision is to strengthen and revitalize existing churches, and reimagine and support emerging churches.

I look forward to meeting you and engaging in this vital work of creating a future for the church from the ground up.

Rev. Beth Horsch Director of Church Innovation Center for Church Innovation