Our Experiments
*8501-Alexa Skill: Creating a prayer leader out of Alexa to help people pray at home.
8502-Apple News Prayer Feed: Make it easier for people to engage with scripture during the week, during their daily life by creating a source that can supply content into their Apple Newsfeed.
*8503-Connected Congregation: Using texting for easy points of contact between the congregation and its members leading to more engagement with the church and higher attendance.
8504-Digital Collection Plate: Grow the collection plate amounts at congregations by making it as easy and fast as possible for people to give in forms other than cash.
8505-TryTank IdeasFestival: A festival of ideas for church growth and innovation. Seeking to create a '"primordial soup" where the right elements (folks) can bump (meet) and create new ideas beyond the “adjacent possible.”
*8506-Latino Ministry in a Box: Using multi-site technology to create a Spanish-speaking congregation taking small steps.
8507-Latino Music Project: Make it easier for the church to provide Spanish-language worship services by creating a music video library of the most used Spanish hymns.
8508-Latino Phonetic App: Make it easier for non-native speakers to be able to lead Spanish-language worship services by creating an app that teaches them the phonetic way to say the prayers from the Libro de Oración Común.
8509-Listening Project: Conversations with 100 leaders who have grown and maintained their congregational growth. Leading to the "Habits of Highly Effective Church Growers." Some will be basic, but we also hope to find surprises.
8510-Spin Church: Taking the basics of a regular "Soul Cycle" group fitness class and making it full-out about Jesus and then sharing a liturgical meal after.
8511-Facebook Masterclass: A social media expert will lead a one-day masterclass on how to use Facebook advertising to grow the church. The course comes with three months of subject matter coaching and accountability for the participants.
8512-Interactive Sunday: Using technology to have interactive sermons (quizzes, surveys, word clouds, etc.) leading to more engagement with the church and higher attendance.
8513-Theological Explainer Videos: Create a library of whiteboard videos that explain theological concepts in 2 minutes. The videos will be on YouTube, the 2nd largest search engine in the world.
8514- EpiscoPALS: To connect US high school students with Palestinian high school students with the goal of creating deep accompanying relationships among the faithful.
*8515-Home Sermons: Weekly 3 minute sermon videos to be used by Eucharistic ministers as they take communion to the homebound.
8516-Baptism Revival: Create a parish neighborhood baptism revival reaching those who have no church relationship.
*8517-HeartEdge USA: Helping to expand the HeartEdge network in the US. Building association, learning, development, and resource of congregations on the edge.
8518-Text Abbey: Create an SMS-based community that connects seniors to each other, to younger members of the congregations, and to the community.
*8519-Virtual Supply Priest: Creating a network of great Episcopal preachers who can provide recorded video sermons for congregations who do not have a Sunday clergy person and will instead offer Morning Prayer.
8520-Touring Gospel Choir: Organize a touring gospel choir who can go to various Episcopal communities to perform. In each community, the choir will lead a master class for local Episcopal choirs on how to best use the gospel music in our tradition.
8521-Modern Christian Radio: A streaming radio station that plays contemporary music but has Christian messages in between the music.
8522-Street Bible: Produce person on the street interview videos with a re-enactment (and correction!) that make learning Bible truths fun and provide a first step on the path to discipleship.
8523-Cleaning Monks: Create a low-barrier, low-investment, and replicable model of a social enterprise that can provide jobs (as a ministry) and where profits can support the mission of the sponsoring congregation.
8524-Millennial Travel Experience: Work with an experienced tour operator to create a trip that can fill the "spiritual experience" desires of millennials.
8525-Easy Invite Show: Organize a small tour for a theatrical show that can be performed in a church and thus make it easy for people to invite their friends to church and have a conversation about spirituality.
*8526-TryTank Podcast: A podcast about innovation in the church.
8527-Transformation Weekend: Similar to a self-improvement weekend but fully Christian and the goal is to transform the participants into committed followers of Jesus.
8528-Prayer Puppets: If Mr. Rogers were starting his show in 2019, what might it look like? How would it incorporate technology? And what if it was also a tool for Christian formation. We (cardigans in hand) aim to find out.
8529-Two Podcasts: Create two podcasts to reach new audiences where they are. One, aimed at the LGBTQ community with questions and answers to their spiritual and religious questions. The second one is called "A Priest and a Singer" and it will intersperse inspirational Christian messages with cover acoustic versions of contemporary hit music.
8530-Virtual Kitchen: There is a need right now for virtual restaurants that can deliver food later in the evening. And many churches have commercially graded kitchens. This experiment will explore how the kitchens can be rented out to local entrepreneurs or used by the church itself to raise funds for mission and ministry.
8531-Social Justice Action Alerts: Develop short "mini-documentaries" that can mobilize people to take action on social justice.
8532-Regenerative Gardens: Develop a replicable design for church gardens that follows the principles of healing gardens as developed for hospitals.
8533-Young Adult Didactic Novels: Develop a series of on-demand and digital books aimed at a young adult audience that teach the life of discipleship.
8534-Episcopal Prayer Skill in Spanish: Taking what we have learned from our Alexa Skill experiment to develop a Spanish-language version that will be available on the Android platform.
8535-Alexa Phase 2: To grow the current skill on Alexa to be on the Google Assistant.
8536-Digital Collection Plate Phase 2: Taking what we learned from the first phase and developing a kiosk solution for congregations to accept digital payments.
8537-Design Action Team: Build out a team trained in design thinking to research experiment opportunities.
8538-Latino Ministry Launch: Taking the success of the Latino Ministry in a Box experiment (8506) and helping to launch it as an ongoing ministry.
8539-Administrative Hubs: To eliminate redundancy by creating administrative hubs that can do work for multiple congregations at once.
8540-Comic Con: To have a presence at the international convention to meet younger audiences where they are. Also an opportunity to do research on the same audience.
8541- Growth Path: To create a path for congregations to assess where they are in order to ready themselves to implement church growth programs.
*8542- Spanish Missalette: To create a seasonal Spanish language missalette for use in congregations that have Spanish language services.
8543- Crossing the Threshold: How can we create a way for people to be helped/mentored into the church? This way, new people will not feel like outcasts.
8544 – YouTube Channel: To create a YouTube channel aimed at young adults that covers spirituality from the perspective of one young adult.
8545 – Mall Church: To create a pop-up store front church that can minister to workers and shoppers in a mall during a busy season.
8546 – VBS For Latino/a Ministry: To create a culturally Latino/a Vacation Bible School in English aimed at young Latinos/as.
8547 – Reimagined Youth Ministry - Using our Design Action Team to work with a congregation to reimagine their youth ministry.
8548 – English Language Latino Ministry: To create a culturally Latino/a Eucharistic service aimed at second+ generation Latinos/as. La Misa in English.
8549 - Eight Minutes Podcast: a podcast aimed at helping parents talk to their children about faith.
8550 - COVID-19 Response: Quick initiatives to respond to the pandemic.
8551 - Dial-a-Priest: Phone line connecting retired Episcopal clergy with those needing end of life prayers.
8552 - "OPENS" on Facebook: Creating a community on Facebook of people who are open to the message of the church but are unchurched. The FB DNA of the group can then be "mirrored" to connect with people in local contexts.
8553 - Crowdfunding in a Box (CFB): a complete easy-to-implement system for churches to follow to create a crowdfunding campaign.
8554 - Planting by Radio: To plant a Spanish-speaking congregation utilizing local radio airtime to build community as the first step.
8555 - Latino/a Stewardship: To develop an easy-to-implement system for envelope based Latino stewardship system.
8556 - Mission Clarity: To develop a simple method for congregations to find their true mission.
8557 - Digital Confirmation: To develop a digital gamified version of the confirmation journey culminating with their confirmation.
8558 - National Prayer Line: Creating a national prayer hotline staffed by Episcopal clergy volunteers that can be activated quickly in response to national events.
8559 - Church 2030: Where is the church headed so that we can best prepare? We are training two people in futures thinking and foresight practice (focusing on practical tools, processes, and methodologies). Their work will inform the work of TryTank and the church.
*8560 - Metaverse Church: Creating a prototype Episcopal digital community that is sacramental and is constantly inviting people to an in-person congregation as well.
8561 - Evaluating Church Impact: Creating easy-to-use tools for congregations and the church to measure the impact they are having.
8562 - Typewriter Poetry Evangelism: Teaching and using Typewriter Poetry as a form of person-to-person evangelism for congregations to use.
8563- Theology In Conversation: Exploring theological reflection of the work of innovation in the church. This includes the TryTank webinars, workshops, and classes.
*8564- Episcopal Pulse: An ongoing poll gathering at least 384 responses per day from registered Episcopalians gathering information from them about various subjects.
8565- Holding Space: A place on the Clubhouse social media app where we "hold space" for prayer and music.
8566- Blessing of the Animals: Utilizing the annual Blessing of the Animals event as an intentional evangelizing moment.
8567- Unconscious Bias: Using AI to spot unconscious bias by a congregation to combat systemic social justice issues.
8568- People with Disabilities: To create a cohort of congregations each creating a special service to engage people with disabilities.
8569- 1730 Cohorts: Giving clarity, momentum, and connection utilizing the Thriving in Ministry model to a cohort of the 1730 congregations with less than 29 people on an average Sunday.
8570 – 1730 Stewardship: Creating an on-demand simple fundraising program that the 1730 congregations with less than 29 people on an average Sunday can access and use.
8571- Christmas Evangelism: Utilizing the Christmas services as an intentional evangelizing moment.
8572- Digital Godly Play: Offering Godly Play small groups via Zoom to test the effectiveness of such groups in increasing conversations about God, religion, and spirituality within families.
8573- BIPOC BOP: Creating a Book or Prayers from BIPOC voices.
8574- Co-working spaces: To create other uses for congregational spaces that can engage the community and may help raise additional funds for ministry.
8575- Prayer School : Using technology to connect the formation offerings from better-resourced congregations to help smaller congregations that may not otherwise be able to offer the same.
8576- Former Catholics : To reach out to millions of former Catholics to introduce them to the Episcopal Church.
8577- Micro Church : To create a replicable model of micro church – which TryTank believes is the church of the future – that congregations can use to multiply and grow their church.
8578- Deep Dive YA: To conduct deep ethnographic research into the spiritual lives of Young Adults to discover where the church can meet them with our vast spiritual toolbox.
8579- Intensive course – To develop and conduct week-long intensive courses that can level-up church leaders to the church of tomorrow.
8580- TryTank consulting – To offer consulting and coaching services from TryTank to church leaders who want to challenge themselves and their organizations to go to the next level for the reign of God.
*8581- Digital Monk Retreat - To create a spatial audio retreat for those attending General Convention.
8582- 1730 Evangelism - To create various evangelism resources for smaller congregations to easily use.
*8583- Lifecycle Journals - To develop 30-day devotionals for different aspects of life: new to college, attending diocesan convention, etc.
*8584- Holy Week Experience - A text-based method for people to experience Holy Week as it happens with "breaking news" alerts.
8585- Episcopal Intervasity - Utilizing the "Being With" program as a way to launch student-led, low-cost college ministry.
8586- Dream Forum - To help those who only have a glimpse of an idea (a dream) for something new to nurture it toward something.
8587- Mountaintop Experiences - Utilizing the power of mountaintop experiences to kindle faith.
8588- Episcopal Spirituality - A web resource for anyone who is interested in exploring spirituality from an Episcopal perspective.
8589 - Project Phoenix - An ecumenical effort to develop an experimental prototype faith community for those in their 20s.
*8590 - Young Adult Ministry Trend Report - A newsletter providing topical news, reliable data, and actionable insights for ministry today.
8591- Cathy AI - Creating a chatbot for faith inquirers whose sole knowledge is books and writings from an Episcopal perspective.
8592 - Summer of Innovation - Encouraging innovation in the church by offering micro-grants for innovative prototypes.
8593 - TryTank Research - Know the Young Adult segment regarding attitudes toward religious institutions and spirituality. Specifically, lean into the Young Adult Families (YAF) segment to inform action research.
8594 - Cuba projects - To support and learn from innovative projects in the Diocese of Cuba.
8595 - Caleb Stream - To support the development of a Caleb Stream program similar to the one un the UK for the US. The CalebStream provides a framework for discernment, training, and deployment of those 50-70 who may feel a call to the diaconate.
8596 - TryTank Innovation Fellowship - This fellowship serves to develop church innovators by deepening their understanding of how innovation can happen and shape church life. It also helps develop skills related to innovation, change management, and foresight.
*Designates experiments which went on to become their own ministries.
8502-Apple News Prayer Feed: Make it easier for people to engage with scripture during the week, during their daily life by creating a source that can supply content into their Apple Newsfeed.
*8503-Connected Congregation: Using texting for easy points of contact between the congregation and its members leading to more engagement with the church and higher attendance.
8504-Digital Collection Plate: Grow the collection plate amounts at congregations by making it as easy and fast as possible for people to give in forms other than cash.
8505-TryTank IdeasFestival: A festival of ideas for church growth and innovation. Seeking to create a '"primordial soup" where the right elements (folks) can bump (meet) and create new ideas beyond the “adjacent possible.”
*8506-Latino Ministry in a Box: Using multi-site technology to create a Spanish-speaking congregation taking small steps.
8507-Latino Music Project: Make it easier for the church to provide Spanish-language worship services by creating a music video library of the most used Spanish hymns.
8508-Latino Phonetic App: Make it easier for non-native speakers to be able to lead Spanish-language worship services by creating an app that teaches them the phonetic way to say the prayers from the Libro de Oración Común.
8509-Listening Project: Conversations with 100 leaders who have grown and maintained their congregational growth. Leading to the "Habits of Highly Effective Church Growers." Some will be basic, but we also hope to find surprises.
8510-Spin Church: Taking the basics of a regular "Soul Cycle" group fitness class and making it full-out about Jesus and then sharing a liturgical meal after.
8511-Facebook Masterclass: A social media expert will lead a one-day masterclass on how to use Facebook advertising to grow the church. The course comes with three months of subject matter coaching and accountability for the participants.
8512-Interactive Sunday: Using technology to have interactive sermons (quizzes, surveys, word clouds, etc.) leading to more engagement with the church and higher attendance.
8513-Theological Explainer Videos: Create a library of whiteboard videos that explain theological concepts in 2 minutes. The videos will be on YouTube, the 2nd largest search engine in the world.
8514- EpiscoPALS: To connect US high school students with Palestinian high school students with the goal of creating deep accompanying relationships among the faithful.
*8515-Home Sermons: Weekly 3 minute sermon videos to be used by Eucharistic ministers as they take communion to the homebound.
8516-Baptism Revival: Create a parish neighborhood baptism revival reaching those who have no church relationship.
*8517-HeartEdge USA: Helping to expand the HeartEdge network in the US. Building association, learning, development, and resource of congregations on the edge.
8518-Text Abbey: Create an SMS-based community that connects seniors to each other, to younger members of the congregations, and to the community.
*8519-Virtual Supply Priest: Creating a network of great Episcopal preachers who can provide recorded video sermons for congregations who do not have a Sunday clergy person and will instead offer Morning Prayer.
8520-Touring Gospel Choir: Organize a touring gospel choir who can go to various Episcopal communities to perform. In each community, the choir will lead a master class for local Episcopal choirs on how to best use the gospel music in our tradition.
8521-Modern Christian Radio: A streaming radio station that plays contemporary music but has Christian messages in between the music.
8522-Street Bible: Produce person on the street interview videos with a re-enactment (and correction!) that make learning Bible truths fun and provide a first step on the path to discipleship.
8523-Cleaning Monks: Create a low-barrier, low-investment, and replicable model of a social enterprise that can provide jobs (as a ministry) and where profits can support the mission of the sponsoring congregation.
8524-Millennial Travel Experience: Work with an experienced tour operator to create a trip that can fill the "spiritual experience" desires of millennials.
8525-Easy Invite Show: Organize a small tour for a theatrical show that can be performed in a church and thus make it easy for people to invite their friends to church and have a conversation about spirituality.
*8526-TryTank Podcast: A podcast about innovation in the church.
8527-Transformation Weekend: Similar to a self-improvement weekend but fully Christian and the goal is to transform the participants into committed followers of Jesus.
8528-Prayer Puppets: If Mr. Rogers were starting his show in 2019, what might it look like? How would it incorporate technology? And what if it was also a tool for Christian formation. We (cardigans in hand) aim to find out.
8529-Two Podcasts: Create two podcasts to reach new audiences where they are. One, aimed at the LGBTQ community with questions and answers to their spiritual and religious questions. The second one is called "A Priest and a Singer" and it will intersperse inspirational Christian messages with cover acoustic versions of contemporary hit music.
8530-Virtual Kitchen: There is a need right now for virtual restaurants that can deliver food later in the evening. And many churches have commercially graded kitchens. This experiment will explore how the kitchens can be rented out to local entrepreneurs or used by the church itself to raise funds for mission and ministry.
8531-Social Justice Action Alerts: Develop short "mini-documentaries" that can mobilize people to take action on social justice.
8532-Regenerative Gardens: Develop a replicable design for church gardens that follows the principles of healing gardens as developed for hospitals.
8533-Young Adult Didactic Novels: Develop a series of on-demand and digital books aimed at a young adult audience that teach the life of discipleship.
8534-Episcopal Prayer Skill in Spanish: Taking what we have learned from our Alexa Skill experiment to develop a Spanish-language version that will be available on the Android platform.
8535-Alexa Phase 2: To grow the current skill on Alexa to be on the Google Assistant.
8536-Digital Collection Plate Phase 2: Taking what we learned from the first phase and developing a kiosk solution for congregations to accept digital payments.
8537-Design Action Team: Build out a team trained in design thinking to research experiment opportunities.
8538-Latino Ministry Launch: Taking the success of the Latino Ministry in a Box experiment (8506) and helping to launch it as an ongoing ministry.
8539-Administrative Hubs: To eliminate redundancy by creating administrative hubs that can do work for multiple congregations at once.
8540-Comic Con: To have a presence at the international convention to meet younger audiences where they are. Also an opportunity to do research on the same audience.
8541- Growth Path: To create a path for congregations to assess where they are in order to ready themselves to implement church growth programs.
*8542- Spanish Missalette: To create a seasonal Spanish language missalette for use in congregations that have Spanish language services.
8543- Crossing the Threshold: How can we create a way for people to be helped/mentored into the church? This way, new people will not feel like outcasts.
8544 – YouTube Channel: To create a YouTube channel aimed at young adults that covers spirituality from the perspective of one young adult.
8545 – Mall Church: To create a pop-up store front church that can minister to workers and shoppers in a mall during a busy season.
8546 – VBS For Latino/a Ministry: To create a culturally Latino/a Vacation Bible School in English aimed at young Latinos/as.
8547 – Reimagined Youth Ministry - Using our Design Action Team to work with a congregation to reimagine their youth ministry.
8548 – English Language Latino Ministry: To create a culturally Latino/a Eucharistic service aimed at second+ generation Latinos/as. La Misa in English.
8549 - Eight Minutes Podcast: a podcast aimed at helping parents talk to their children about faith.
8550 - COVID-19 Response: Quick initiatives to respond to the pandemic.
8551 - Dial-a-Priest: Phone line connecting retired Episcopal clergy with those needing end of life prayers.
8552 - "OPENS" on Facebook: Creating a community on Facebook of people who are open to the message of the church but are unchurched. The FB DNA of the group can then be "mirrored" to connect with people in local contexts.
8553 - Crowdfunding in a Box (CFB): a complete easy-to-implement system for churches to follow to create a crowdfunding campaign.
8554 - Planting by Radio: To plant a Spanish-speaking congregation utilizing local radio airtime to build community as the first step.
8555 - Latino/a Stewardship: To develop an easy-to-implement system for envelope based Latino stewardship system.
8556 - Mission Clarity: To develop a simple method for congregations to find their true mission.
8557 - Digital Confirmation: To develop a digital gamified version of the confirmation journey culminating with their confirmation.
8558 - National Prayer Line: Creating a national prayer hotline staffed by Episcopal clergy volunteers that can be activated quickly in response to national events.
8559 - Church 2030: Where is the church headed so that we can best prepare? We are training two people in futures thinking and foresight practice (focusing on practical tools, processes, and methodologies). Their work will inform the work of TryTank and the church.
*8560 - Metaverse Church: Creating a prototype Episcopal digital community that is sacramental and is constantly inviting people to an in-person congregation as well.
8561 - Evaluating Church Impact: Creating easy-to-use tools for congregations and the church to measure the impact they are having.
8562 - Typewriter Poetry Evangelism: Teaching and using Typewriter Poetry as a form of person-to-person evangelism for congregations to use.
8563- Theology In Conversation: Exploring theological reflection of the work of innovation in the church. This includes the TryTank webinars, workshops, and classes.
*8564- Episcopal Pulse: An ongoing poll gathering at least 384 responses per day from registered Episcopalians gathering information from them about various subjects.
8565- Holding Space: A place on the Clubhouse social media app where we "hold space" for prayer and music.
8566- Blessing of the Animals: Utilizing the annual Blessing of the Animals event as an intentional evangelizing moment.
8567- Unconscious Bias: Using AI to spot unconscious bias by a congregation to combat systemic social justice issues.
8568- People with Disabilities: To create a cohort of congregations each creating a special service to engage people with disabilities.
8569- 1730 Cohorts: Giving clarity, momentum, and connection utilizing the Thriving in Ministry model to a cohort of the 1730 congregations with less than 29 people on an average Sunday.
8570 – 1730 Stewardship: Creating an on-demand simple fundraising program that the 1730 congregations with less than 29 people on an average Sunday can access and use.
8571- Christmas Evangelism: Utilizing the Christmas services as an intentional evangelizing moment.
8572- Digital Godly Play: Offering Godly Play small groups via Zoom to test the effectiveness of such groups in increasing conversations about God, religion, and spirituality within families.
8573- BIPOC BOP: Creating a Book or Prayers from BIPOC voices.
8574- Co-working spaces: To create other uses for congregational spaces that can engage the community and may help raise additional funds for ministry.
8575- Prayer School : Using technology to connect the formation offerings from better-resourced congregations to help smaller congregations that may not otherwise be able to offer the same.
8576- Former Catholics : To reach out to millions of former Catholics to introduce them to the Episcopal Church.
8577- Micro Church : To create a replicable model of micro church – which TryTank believes is the church of the future – that congregations can use to multiply and grow their church.
8578- Deep Dive YA: To conduct deep ethnographic research into the spiritual lives of Young Adults to discover where the church can meet them with our vast spiritual toolbox.
8579- Intensive course – To develop and conduct week-long intensive courses that can level-up church leaders to the church of tomorrow.
8580- TryTank consulting – To offer consulting and coaching services from TryTank to church leaders who want to challenge themselves and their organizations to go to the next level for the reign of God.
*8581- Digital Monk Retreat - To create a spatial audio retreat for those attending General Convention.
8582- 1730 Evangelism - To create various evangelism resources for smaller congregations to easily use.
*8583- Lifecycle Journals - To develop 30-day devotionals for different aspects of life: new to college, attending diocesan convention, etc.
*8584- Holy Week Experience - A text-based method for people to experience Holy Week as it happens with "breaking news" alerts.
8585- Episcopal Intervasity - Utilizing the "Being With" program as a way to launch student-led, low-cost college ministry.
8586- Dream Forum - To help those who only have a glimpse of an idea (a dream) for something new to nurture it toward something.
8587- Mountaintop Experiences - Utilizing the power of mountaintop experiences to kindle faith.
8588- Episcopal Spirituality - A web resource for anyone who is interested in exploring spirituality from an Episcopal perspective.
8589 - Project Phoenix - An ecumenical effort to develop an experimental prototype faith community for those in their 20s.
*8590 - Young Adult Ministry Trend Report - A newsletter providing topical news, reliable data, and actionable insights for ministry today.
8591- Cathy AI - Creating a chatbot for faith inquirers whose sole knowledge is books and writings from an Episcopal perspective.
8592 - Summer of Innovation - Encouraging innovation in the church by offering micro-grants for innovative prototypes.
8593 - TryTank Research - Know the Young Adult segment regarding attitudes toward religious institutions and spirituality. Specifically, lean into the Young Adult Families (YAF) segment to inform action research.
8594 - Cuba projects - To support and learn from innovative projects in the Diocese of Cuba.
8595 - Caleb Stream - To support the development of a Caleb Stream program similar to the one un the UK for the US. The CalebStream provides a framework for discernment, training, and deployment of those 50-70 who may feel a call to the diaconate.
8596 - TryTank Innovation Fellowship - This fellowship serves to develop church innovators by deepening their understanding of how innovation can happen and shape church life. It also helps develop skills related to innovation, change management, and foresight.
*Designates experiments which went on to become their own ministries.
