Welcome to innoFaith

There’s a legendary story in international development circles about a campaign to get mosquito nets to millions of people in countries being ravaged by malaria, a disease that kills more than 600,000 people a year. Mosquito nets are a proven strategy to prevent this deadly disease. A lot of effort and resources went into the research and then into designing a way to distribute nets to hard-to-reach communities. Millions of nets were distributed, a seemingly huge success. Until researchers visited some of the communities to follow up.

Meet Kevin Singer, innoFaith’s new Communications and Engagement Director and faith-rooted social innovator. An evangelical Christian deeply committed to pluralism, Kevin founded Neighborly Faith to support young evangelicals to dialogue with people of other faith traditions. Kevin, who is also an Aspen Institute Religion Fellow, loves living in a religiously and politically diverse part of the country in Raleigh, NC. We’re thrilled to have him join the innoFaith team!

Francesca Reznik, our outgoing Communications and Engagement Manager, had the opportunity last month to participate in Faith For Our Planet’s inaugural Faith in Her: Women of Faith Climate Leaders fellowship at Harvard Divinity School as an instructor. Read about her experience.

Meet Sarah Hansman, a doctoral student in theological ethics at Boston College, hospital chaplain at Boston Medical Center-Brighton, and a prison minister. Sarah is passionate about bringing together the worlds of theology, ministry, and community organizing. Her interests include the role of imagination in shaping moral agency and lay authority especially as it pertains to sex and gender, immigration, politics, and carceral justice.  

There's a moment from my theoretically successful but short-lived piano-playing phase in my youth that I will never forget.  At a lesson one day, my piano teacher, Mrs. K, took away the music sheets and told me to just play something of my own. I can't remember if she articulated it quite this way, but in my memory, she effectively told me to compose something on the spot. I held my hands over the keyboard for what felt like an eternity of silence. I froze. I was terrified to play even a single note. Mrs. K finally relieved me of the embarrassment, and we went back to our usual lessons.

Meet Dr. Sherry Molock, creator of HAVEN-Connect, an initiative to engage Black churches to help prevent suicide among Black youth. As a pastor and a psychologist, Dr. Molock understands both the challenges and potential of the church as a player in the mental health arena. She decided to help churches overcome stigma around mental health to become part of the solution to the crisis. Dr. Molock lives in the Washington, DC, area where she teaches at George Washington University, and her pilot initiative with Black churches is currently running with twelve churches in the state of New York.

Something quietly powerful is happening at the intersection of two forces that have long been kept in separate rooms: mental health care and faith. For decades, the relationship between clergy and clinicians was marked more by suspicion than collaboration — the pulpit on one side, the therapist's office on the other. But that wall is coming down.

Meet Jonathan Walton, poet, writer, speaker, and facilitator who is not afraid to say hard things and to challenge people, while also supporting them to be their best selves. Jonathan, who lives in Queens, NY, with his wife and daughters, is a generative creator in pursuit of a more just world. Among other things, he is the co-founder of the Center for Beauty and Resistance, which supports the wholeness of leaders and activists, and author of six books, including Twelve Lies that Hold America Captive, and Beauty and Resistance: Spiritual Rhythms for Formation and Repair.

As congregations and social impact organizations, we often sell ourselves short by describing our impact only in terms of easily quantifiable metrics, such as the number of people we reach or events we host. We should take pride in those numbers, but then we should ask, “so, what?” It’s great that people show up, but what does that actually mean? A congregation's value to the community isn’t measured by worship attendance, and a social impact organization's value isn’t just how many people its services reach. We create real value for our communities, and learning to articulate why our work matters helps grow support. 

Meet Sara Luria, rabbi, community builder, and Executive Director of Beloved, a fiscal sponsorship and community hub for spiritual innovators. Sara, who is based in Western Massachusetts, brings to her work a deep appreciation of her Jewish identity and community, and a conviction that we are living in a generative in-between time that calls for experimentation.