Pastor John Cummings received his M.Div. from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. He is the Pastor of Grace in Action Church, “a Lutheran church in Southwest Detroit started by him and his wife Meghan Sobocienski. He counts his congregation at around 200—a much bigger number than the average Sunday service. "Most people think of church as a building people go to once a week to pray," Cummings says. "But we don't believe Sunday is the only day that counts."

There's a lot going on at Grace in Action the rest of the week. Much of the time, space, and energy of the church is dedicated to incubating a number of business collectives. It all started, as with Church of the Messiah, when a group of young adults went to Cummings and Sobocienski with an interest in technology and wanting to make extra money. Radical Productions, which specializes in web and graphic design, was born soon after. All 12 of the members are local teenagers.

The story is similar to I AM Productions in another way: everyone involved dove headfirst into the process. "We got a $5,000 grant for a computer and then realized there was a lot we didn't know," Sobocienski says. "Five years later, we're still asking big questions about how to be a part of creating what the tech industry looks like in Detroit, with residents not as observers, but actively shaping it."

The success of Radical Productions led another teenager to ask about starting a screen printing business. Stitching Up Detroit followed. The all-teen collective owns two four-station presses, which the members can use for independent commissions after a training period of several months. It may soon become a fully-independent cooperative business.

Then, when several local women wanted to utilize their existing skills to make extra money, they founded Cleaning in Action, a house cleaning cooperative, with the help of the church. The founders, who had previously worked for temp agencies and were scraping by, now make livable wages and hope to have 20 employees in the next five years.

Grace in Action helps the businesses in three main areas: strategy (feasibility work, marketing, business planning), back office services (accounting, legal, invoicing), and skills training (classes in coding, graphic design, cooperative incubation, and more). It also acts as an office and workplace until the businesses are able to branch out. In everything but name, the church is a business incubator.

All of the businesses at Grace in Action started when a community member approached church leadership with an idea. That's one of the founding principles of Grace in Action—the shape of church would arise from the community itself. "We're built around the concept of 'church,' a place that's true to the original meaning of that word: democratic assembly," Cummings says.””

From: “Churches as business incubators? In some Detroit neighborhoods, absolutely”

By Aaron Mondry, 10/16/17 https://www.modeldmedia.com/features/churches-business-incubators-101617.aspx

More about his approach to theology HERE.