The Town Square Collaborative is part of the Thriving Congregations Initiative of the Lilly Endowment, made up of multiple grants given to the University of the Ozarks. (Read the press release here). The Town Square Collaborative seeks to strengthen, support, equip and engage with small-towns and rural communities.  We do this by encouraging and supporting civic collaboration, collaboration between communities, collaboration between churches and their communities, and collaboration between churches within communities.  

Right now my work is focused on overseeing funds which we will provide to judicatories (Presbyteries, Annual Conferences, Synods, etc) of church denominations, who want to invest in churches collaborating with each other. This can be done in a variety of ways, including by hiring a staff person whose role is to facilitate those collaborations, or by creating your own rubric and application for churches overseen by your judicatory for the purpose of collaborating ecumenically with another congregation (or more!)

I am happy to share more about this initiative and hear your pitches for funds for ecumenical church collaboration efforts.

If you are interested, or have questions, please don't hesitate to contact me:

Rev. Sara Anne Berger

revsaberger@gmail.com or sberger@ozarks.edu