Where Is the Church Most Alive? We need 14 stories.

What if the next generation's understanding of Christianity wasn't shaped primarily by controversy, politics, or institutional decline—but by communities of extraordinary beauty, generosity, courage, and hope?

That is the question behind Show & Tell: Stories for the Nones, Dones, and Disconnected, a national storytelling initiative from Caffeinated Church.

Over the next five years, we'll be producing hundreds of digital stories that help spiritually curious people rediscover the richness of mainline Protestant Christianity through authentic, compelling storytelling.

But before we ever pick up a camera, we need your help.

We're looking for 14 congregations that embody some of the most compelling expressions of Christian life today. These won't necessarily be the largest, fastest-growing churches, or the churches with the biggest social media followings. In fact, we're especially interested in communities that quietly and faithfully witness to the Gospel in ways that challenge common assumptions about what Christianity is and what it has to offer.

Why These Stories Matter

Over the past several months, in partnership with Egg Strategy (Denver, CO), we've been listening carefully to Younger Millennials and Gen Z adults who describe themselves as spiritually curious—including many who identify as “none," "done," or "spiritual but not religious."

Again and again, we've heard something surprising: Many are not rejecting spirituality, or even Jesus per se. They're searching. Searching for meaning, belonging, purpose, beauty, justice, transcendence, and practices that help them become more fully human.

They remain deeply open to spiritual conversation, but assume church (or “organized religion”) has little to offer those longings.

That assumption is our challenge. Perhaps, together, we can offer a different perspective.

What We're Looking For

Our research suggests particular themes consistently resonate with spiritually curious young adults. Rather than beginning with institutional identity, denominational distinctives, or internal church programs, we need to tell stories about how church can address universal human questions.

We're looking for congregations that embody these kinds of stories:

• Awe and Wonder: communities that cultivate beauty, mystery, contemplation, creation care, or experiences of transcendence.

• Meaning and Purpose: congregations helping people discover vocation, identity, and lives of significance.

• Healing and Wholeness: ministries marked by recovery, reconciliation, grief, mental health, forgiveness, or restoration.

• Justice and the Common Good: churches deeply engaged in the flourishing of their neighborhoods through practical acts of mercy, advocacy, and service.

• Authentic Community: places where genuine belonging overcomes loneliness, isolation, and polarization.

• Ancient Practices for Modern Lives: communities reclaiming prayer, liturgy, silence, pilgrimage, Sabbath, or other historic Christian practices in accessible ways.

• Hope in an Anxious World: congregations offering resilience, joy, and durable hope amid uncertainty.

• Lives Changed by Grace: ordinary people whose encounters with Christ have quietly transformed everyday life.

More Than "Good Church Stories"

We're not looking for polished promotional videos or institutional success stories, we're looking for places where the Gospel has become visible.

Perhaps it's a congregation that has become known throughout its city for radical hospitality. A parish where artists, skeptics, immigrants, or recovering addicts have found unexpected belonging. A community quietly restoring a neighborhood through faithful presence. A church plant rediscovering ancient Christian practices in ways that speak powerfully to a digitally exhausted generation.

The denomination matters less than the witness. If someone unfamiliar with Christianity spent a weekend with this congregation, would they leave saying: "I didn't know Christianity could look like that."?

Those are the communities we're hoping to find.

An Ecumenical Invitation

This project is intentionally ecumenical.

We're inviting nominations from across the broad mainline Protestant family, including: Episcopal, Lutheran (ELCA), Presbyterian (PCUSA), United Methodist, United Church of Christ, American Baptist, Disciples of Christ, AME, and other traditions whose congregational life bears compelling witness to the Christian faith.

We believe remarkable stories are already being lived. Too often, they simply go untold.

Can You Help?

If a congregation immediately comes to mind—your own or someone else's—we'd love to hear about it.

Tell us:

Our hope is that these fourteen congregations become windows into something larger: a fresh imagination for what faithful Christian life can look like in the twenty-first century.

Jesus told stories because stories change imaginations before they change minds. We believe the Church still has extraordinary stories to tell. Now we're looking for the congregations already living them.

Questions? Please reach out to Project Coordinator, Ashley Graham-Wilcox.