"Nostalgic Scarcity" with Rachel Billups & Matt Rawle

Show Notes:

United Methodist pastors Matt Rawle and Rachel Billups — co-founders of the Hub for Innovation and co-authors of Dream, Dare, Disrupt — join Chris and Eddie to talk about what ministry looks like on the other side of COVID. Matt traces how something as basic as a funeral changed (Saturday mornings became Thursday afternoons, live-streamed on Facebook), and the two walk through the four-movement framework from their book: curiosity, leadership, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Along the way: a metaverse prayer experiment that outlived its Oculus headsets, Matt's idea of "prevenient technology," what happens when you actually ask kids how they'd rather light the acolyte candle, and why Rachel and Matt both insist that endings — not just beginnings — are a feature of healthy ministry, not a bug. They close on their working definition of innovation: not gadgets, but creativity meeting utility — illustrated by a community garden that grew its ministry by simply adding chairs.

Resources & Links:

Dream, Dare, Disrupt: How Experiments, Risk, and Embracing Failure Can Build Life-Giving Ministry — Matt Rawle & Rachel Billups (Friendship Press): https://www.friendshippress.org/products/dream-dare-disrupt-how-experiments-risk-and-embracing-failure-can-build-world-changing-ministry

The Sandbox: Playing Toward What's Next in Your Ministry — companion workbook, Rawle & Billups

Hub for Innovation: https://www.hub4innovation.org

Matt Rawle: https://www.mattrawle.com

Rachel Billups: https://www.rachelbillups.com