Holy Imagination is Theme of Fall Worship Series
Holy Imagination: Prophecy, Creativity, and the Futures We Dare to See
Fall Worship Series
September 13 – November 22, 2026
What if imagination is not an escape from the world as it is, but one of the ways we become capable of changing it?
Throughout scripture, prophets, poets, dreamers, artists, and communities imagine realities that do not yet exist. They expose the lie that the present is inevitable. They remember what others would have us forget. They give us language, images, stories, and practices that help us see beyond the limits of what we have been told is possible.
This fall, our preaching series Holy Imagination will explore imagination as a spiritual and communal practice. We will draw on the prophetic imagination of the biblical tradition, the moral imagination of peacebuilding, creativity and the arts, the human capacity to envision possible futures, and insights from Afrofuturisms and Native Futurisms—traditions that insist upon futures beyond the stories of domination, disappearance, and inevitability imposed by the present. Because the future is always contested. Nations, political movements, churches, corporations, and cultures all tell stories about where we have come from, who belongs, what threatens us, and what kind of future is possible. Holy imagination asks us to pay attention to those stories—and to ask: Who gets to tell us what futures are possible?
In an election season, we will practice imagining beyond the horizons of winning and losing. As we begin a capital appeal, we will consider what it means to inherit a church, a building, a faith, and a world from those who came before us—and to repair, reshape, and pass them on to people we cannot yet imagine. In a bridging time, we will open our minds to possibility.
We are descendants of people who imagined futures they would never see. And we are becoming ancestors of people whose world we cannot know. We do not imagine the future because we believe we can control it. We practice holy imagination because refusing the inevitability of the present is part of how God makes another world possible through us.
Scriptures we will explore include the prophets Isaiah, Joel, and Haggai; Psalms 1 and 129; gospel texts from Luke and Mark; and, finally, Revelation.
—Rev. Susie Hayward and Rev. Emily Goldthwaite
Holy Imagination: Adult Education Series and Field Trip
Our Holy Imagination preaching series will extend beyond worship through Sunday morning adult education opportunities exploring how we remember, imagine, and help create possible futures, and a field trip to see an Afro-futurist play.
- On September 27, join Jessica Intermill, a land history consultant and community organizer, for “Remembering the Future,” an interactive and creative workshop exploring the future we dream of. Drawing from Afrofuturism, neuroscience, and the ways humans experience “stacked time,” Jessica will invite us to consider a provocative idea: now is always. Together, we’ll practice building memories of the future we hope to inhabit.
- On October 11, University of Minnesota PhD candidate Addison Cox will introduce us to the literary and artistic traditions of Afro-futurisms, exploring how Black communities have used imagination to envision futures beyond oppression in which Black life flourishes. We’ll consider what we can learn from how systematically oppressed communities have practiced creative holy imagination in our own context.
Across all sessions, we’ll ask a question at the heart of Holy Imagination: How might imagining the future differently change the way we live together now?
Finally, we invite Creeksiders to join Revs. Emily and Susie in attending Mothership, an Afro-Futurist play at Penumbra theater written by Resmaa Menakem (author of My Grandmother’s Hands). All of the group tickets available for the October 3 at 2 pm performance have been claimed, but we invite you to purchase a ticket separately here and join us!
