Faith Inkubators

www.faithink.com 

Basic History
In 1993, Reverend Richard Melheim, an ordained Lutheran (ELCA) pastor, left 13 years of youth and family ministry to take a sabbatical. Melheim had spent a decade in parish ministry wondering why Bible Camp worked and confirmation didn't. He was fed up with traditional Christian education models that "graduated" 3/4 of the kids on confirmation day; he wanted to do something about it. In spring of 1993 Melheim wrote a series of articles entitled "Conformation (sic!) is Dead," challenging the church to rethink the adolescent ministry system that educated the head but not the heart. He hit a nerve. Within a couple of months 100 speaking invitations arrived from pastors and education committees wanting to dump their traditional confirmation programs and try something else. In fall of 1994 Rich went to his Bishop, Mark Hanson, and received a specialized ministry call from the St. Paul, MN Area Synod to teach the mode. By the fall of 1995, one thousand churches were involved. Rich gathered an ecumenical group of advisors and project mentors from across the church to help direct the vision of the movement, and Faith Inkubators was born.

Basic Beliefs
Faith Inkubators is dedicated to the health and welfare of all God's children and to the whole Christian church, its congregations, families and children. Its mission is to equip church leaders to effectively train their congregations in holistic, biblical, theological sound faith formation systems. It is also their goal to catalyze a revolution in home-based faith education and spawn a home devotional movement across the church. They strive to make the home the primary inkubator of faith for disciples of all ages by replacing classroom models of education with parent-involved small group models. 

Leadership
Executive Director - Reverend Rich Melheim
Business Manager - Arlyce Melheim
Production Manager - Ben Dolmar

Basic Facts
FINK currently has 1/4 of all teens in the Lutheran Church involved in a weekly small group model for confirmation and has expanded to include churches from 13 denominations. 1,800 congregations pay an annual membership fee to support the project and receive resources for a variety of Christian education programs. Thousand of other churches have taken FINK training and are using the systems to bring energy, joy and growth to kids, parents and pastors. FINK's Head to the Heart Confirmation and Total Family Sunday School resources now include skits, art galleries, Bible studies, Bible verse theme songs, 15,000 PowerPoint slides - approximately 150 per lesson theme - and ten nights of home devotions per theme, making it the most thorough and content-rich curriculum on the market. Expanding beyond adolescence, FINK now has five inkubators testing new systems. 

Location
Faith Inkubators
423 South Main Street
Stillwater, MN 55082
Phone (888) 55-FAITH
         (651) 430-0762
Fax (651) 430-2377