At the beginning of 2020, shortly before the COVID pandemic unexpectedly arrived, United Theological Seminary in Dayton Ohio reached a crossroads and decided to schedule a strategic planning retreat to identify new steps for future growth. The facilitator enlisted was Rev. Sue Nilson Kibbey, a good friend and colleague of Rev. Dr. Roz Picardo, a faculty member at United Theological Seminary. With a passion for prayer, Sue suggested that United’s retreat attendees embrace a short breakthrough prayer practice each day for the six weeks prior to the retreat asking God to reveal new possibilities. What might happen if they all prayed together daily, asking to be shown God’s next ideas rather than just their own? As they all engaged in the daily prayer for six weeks prior to the retreat, they were collectively asking God to break through with new ideas and possibilities for the seminary they loved. And
as difficult as this might be to believe, this prayer practice led to more than 500 different new ideas being named for the seminary’s future – all fueled by God’s dynamic power that is always at work in the world, breathing new life into all things.
Are you ready to experience God’s dynamic power in your life and world?
Sue Nilson Kibbey
Rev. Sue Nilson Kibbey serves as Director of the Bishop Bruce Ough Innovation Center at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. Sue’s local church ministry appointments have included a variety of roles, including executive pastor of Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in Tipp City, Ohio—partnering with senior pastor Mike Slaughter for a decade of dramatic growth, including both local and global missional fruitfulness. Sue also served on the executive staff of the United Methodist West Ohio Conference as the creator and director of the Missional Church Consultation Initiative (MCCI)—which eventually spread across multiple states and has engaged nearly 200 churches of all sizes and settings in creative revitalization for a fresh season of impact. Sue now leads the Innovation Center’s new prayer-fueled “Floodgates Collective,” which offers customized training and practical implementation guidance for congregations longing to shift from plateau or decline into vibrant, prayer-saturated, Spirit-guided steps forward.
Rosario Picardo
During his senior year of college, Roz entered the ministry as a military chaplain, serving four years in the Marine Reserves and five years in the Navy Reserves. While attending seminary, he recognized a call to serve the local church and has experience in all facets of church life, through roles ranging from church custodian to associate pastor to church planter and executive pastor of church planting at Ginghamsburg Church. Roz was also one of the founding pastors at Mosaic, a multicultural church in Dayton, Ohio (www.wearemosaic.org). More recently, Roz works bi-vocational at United Theological Seminary. He serves as Director of the Seminary's Pohly Center for Supervision and Leadership Formation, a faculty consultant in United's Doctor of Ministry program and an affiliate faculty member, and Director of United's Houses of Study. In addition to his work in the church, Roz leads a consulting group for church planters/pastors called Picardo Coaching LLC and is the author of 7 books.
