About
DYNAMITE PRAYER
About the Bishop Bruce Ough Innovation Center
United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio has a history that reflects a longstanding legacy of commitment to prayer as the miraculous fuel of the spiritual movement of Jesus called the Church. United’s new Innovation Center is the outward-focused resourcing arm of the seminary, with its chief purpose to bring innovative assistance to pastors, leaders and churches of all denominations as they seek new fruitfulness, life giving discipleship and missional direction.
Now more than two years into its existence, the Innovation Center’s live online resourcing and trainings have already served more than two thousand constituents from many denominations both nationally and also globally.
Specifically, the Innovation Center has as a primary focus the equipping of pastors, leaders and congregations for the central, corporate spiritual practice of launching a simple “Breakthrough Prayer Initiative” (adding to current prayers an additional specific request that God would break through anew with divine direction illuminating new possibilities and next steps) to fuel prayer-saturated renewal. What has been unleashed through this congregation-wide simple prayer addition has been miraculous.
With the addition of this type of prayer practice woven into the collective spiritual life of a church’s membership—and then prayerfully looking up and out together spiritually to notice and recognize discernment of the Holy Spirit’s responsive guidance in order to courageously step out into a new future—the supernatural happens. A church transforms from an inward-focused organization its leaders are busily administrating, into a vibrant, hope-filled spiritual movement surging forward with the message and mission of Christ. The transformation is fueled by the simple prayer addition that this initiative calls “breakthrough prayer.” In addition, the congregational new spiritual practice of corporately looking “up and out” expectantly for God’s responsive guidance and new open doors brings hope, courage and fresh energy as a church moves ahead into a fresh next season of fruitfulness.
Since its inception, the Innovation Center has already platformed more than 15 Breakthrough Prayer Initiative training events (both via zoom and live) across the country, equipping and inspiring more than 2,500 additional laity and clergy to put breakthrough prayer at the center of congregational life, asking for God’s new possibilities to unfold.
The Breakthrough Prayer Initiative has shown itself repeatedly to be an additive prayer practice that congregations are eager to embrace as a spiritual venue by which to receive and follow God’s guidance for new hope-filled direction into the future. It has been the ideal route to re-centering a congregation (or an entire district, conference or judicatory) away from chiefly inward-focused administrative efforts or distractions of denominational disagreement, and onto the Church’s historic spiritual practice of prayer to welcome God’s creative, enabling guidance. God’s Spirit responds with unifying ideas and opportunities to foster new ministries with deep relevancy both within the congregation and also outward into the church’s surrounding community. Especially in the transitional season of God’s Church in our country right now, placing and practicing this type of additive prayer ongoing at the center of every congregation can set the stage for, in Paul’s words, “...more than we could ask for or imagine.” (Ephesians 3:20).
Dynamite Prayer: A 28 Day Experiment has become a crucial and useful new tool, to help both individuals, groups, classes and entire congregations establish a daily breakthrough prayer practice to the heart of their faith lives. (Read more below about the Dynamite Prayer 28 Day Experiment devotional/breakthrough prayer guidebook.)
The Bishop Bruce Ough Innovation Center provides additional learning opportunities to resource leaders and congregations with creative, practical, effective tools for unleashing God’s Church as the spiritual movement of Jesus Christ. One of its core offerings is the “Floodgates Collective,” 18-month congregational renewal cohorts for pastors and lay teams centered on breakthrough prayer and equipping possibilities. Pastors also have the opportunity to pursue a Doctor of Ministry degree at United with a project tied to the work their church is doing centered around breakthrough prayer as part of the Innovation Center’s own Dmin students focus group.
The Innovation Center’s goal is to go beyond the trends and share what innovative church leaders are actually doing about them, becoming a hub of prayer-inspired innovation on behalf of God’s Church everywhere.
About Dynamite Prayer: A 28 Day Experiment
In 2017, church planter Rev. Dr. Rosario Picardo and team dreamed and then launched a new multi-ethnic worshipping community named “Mosaic” in the greater Dayton, Ohio area beginning with the foundation of an ongoing, comprehensive Breakthrough Prayer Initiative. As the new congregation grew, annually Roz and leadership created a new congregation-wide breakthrough prayer to continue to fuel the miracle of Mosaic Church upon a feast of collective prayer continually asking for God’s next steps and open doors.
With a stream of newcomers making “Mosaic” their new spiritual home, Roz wondered what might happen if he introduced to the congregation a four-week daily breakthrough prayer practice through a daily scripture reading, short devotion and a unique daily breakthrough prayer. How might something like this help those new to breakthrough prayer learn to add it to their prayer habits, as well as help others deepen their existing prayer lives as well?
Dynamite Prayer: A 28-Day Experiment was born at the invitation of publisher Invite Press, asking Roz and Sue Nilson Kibbey to author just such a devotional/breakthrough prayer daily guidebook for publication. The intent was that Dynamite Prayer would be a daily process helping users of any faith level learn the powerful prayer habit of surrendering, asking, then spiritually listening and receiving God’s responses through divine direction, open doors and new breakthroughs of unimagined possibilities.
After its publication in August 2022, Dynamite Prayer quickly became a certified “Amazon Bestseller,” as well as Invite Press’s best-selling book to date. It is available both in print and electronic formats. As of September 2023, it is available on the publisher’s website as a downloadable Spanish language PDF that can be printed/replicated for a congregation’s own use.
The Bishop Bruce Ough Innovation Center, with its central focus upon the outplay of the Breakthrough Prayer Initiative resourcing as described above, is the recipient of all royalties (except copies purchased using major discount codes) from the sale of Dynamite Prayer: A 28 Day Experiment. This dynamiteprayer.com website is a ministry provided and maintained by the Innovation Center
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 several hundred 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. Her deepest passion is fueling the Breakthrough Prayer Initiative, a personal and congregation-wide prayer strategy inviting God's new hopes, dreams and possibilities for what's next. She is an adjunct instructor at United Theological Seminary, and a student in United’s doctor of ministry program.
Sue has authored 8 books, the most recent together with Rosario Picardo: Dynamite Prayer a 28 Day Experiment @2022, Invite Resources.
Sue’s additional books with resources to assist individuals and congregations as they establish an ongoing Breakthrough Prayer Initiative include:
Floodgates: Holy Momentum for a Fearless Church
Abingdon Press (find out more at floodgates.info)
Open Road: The Adventure of a Breakthrough Prayer Initiative
Market Square Books (find out more, and seek bulk discount codes, at openroadchurch.com)
Ultimate Reliance: Breakthrough Prayer Practices for Leaders
Abingdon Press — a five-session group study and discussion resource—find out more at www.snkibbey.com/ultimate-reliance/
To connect with Sue, email snkibbey@united.edu
REV. SUE NILSON KIBBEY
Roz grew up in western New York as a first-generation Sicilian-American. In 2003, he earned his Bachelor of Arts in Religion from Houghton College and in 2007 a Master of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary. He graduated with a Doctor of Ministry from United Theological Seminary in 2014 and an MBA in 2021 from Dakota Wesleyan University.
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 for five where they had three campuses and worshipped over 4,000. Also, Roz was one of the founding pastors at Mosaic, a new multicultural church in Dayton, Ohio (www.wearemosaic.org).
In addition to his work in the church, Roz is a national speaker and leads a consulting group for church planters/pastors called Picardo Coaching LLC and is the author of 8 books. And also serves as a faculty consultant in United's Doctor of Ministry program and and affiliate faculty member.