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We bring you stories of hope and resilience from leaders around the world who are engaging the gospel message in new ways. We interview thought leaders who bring wisdom about the changing cultural landscape and its implications for faith formation. If you are a church leader looking for practical ideas and new ways of approaching church in the 21st century, this podcast is for you. About the Hosts: Beth Estock After serving as a United Methodist pastor in a variety of settings in Georgia and ...
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In this episode, Paul Nixon interviews Rev. Claire McNulty Drewes of Longmont, Colorado on how her church rebounded so significantly after the pandemic, more than doubling in the last two years. Her analysis defies many old instincts and assumptions. In the conversation, Claire references the book "The Adept Church" by Doug Powe Jr.…
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How did an aging suburban church in decline become a community hub of resilience and new life? Listen to this interview with Keren Rodriguez, pastor of Aloha United Methodist Church located less than 15 miles from downtown Portland, Oregon.Rodriguez is on the front line of providing housing for the houseless in the parking lot of the church called …
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How did an Olympic paddler end up starting a worldwide ministry on the banks of the Nantahala River? Wayner Dickert worked for 30 years at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina before asking his boss if he could start a little worship service on the bank of the river. Now 18 years later, Wayner will be retiring as the pastor of River of Li…
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In this episode, host Paul Nixon interviews Dr. Andrea Smith, planter pastor of West UMC in Lake Norman, North Carolina, a church that has morphed with nimbleness ever since it was planted. A focus of the conversation is related to a digital children's ministry that grew out of the pandemic and has continued to develop, as they seek to engage an ev…
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In this episode, Paul Nixon interviews Northwest Texas DS Felicia Hopkins on her experience through disaffiliation of 80 percent of her churches. Hopkins also discusses moving onto a season of planting and creativity in West Texas.由Church is Changing
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If you refuse to lead a dying church, this conversation is for you! Paul Nixon has recently revised his best-selling book "I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church" for the new cultural context in which we find ourselves.In this episode, he offers six choices that churches and church leaders need to make in order to thrive in our post-Covid world. They incl…
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Bring your notebook to this conversation with Nigel Pimlott as he shares some of his reflections from over 40 years in cutting edge ministry in the UK. Pimlott also offers some pithy and subversive one-liners that could be pondered for years. He is the former learning, development, and leadership trainer and coach for the Methodist Church of Great …
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What do coffee roasting, Howard Thurman, and people with criminal records have in common? Listen to our conversation with Dustin Mailman, who leads Deep Time, a new ministry anchored at Trinity UMC in West Asheville, North Carolina.To find out more or purchase some coffee go to deeptimeavl.org. To contact Dustin Mailman directly, email dustin@trini…
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In this episode, host Paul Nixon interviews Dr. Candace Lewis, who leads Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta. Candace has served as a church planter, led the Path 1 team resourcing United Methodist church planters globally, worked as a district superintendent, and now leads an institution preparing pastors for the twenty-first century. Paul asks…
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In this episode of Church is Changing, host Paul Nixon interviews Patricia Peña of the Path 1 team. Patricia focuses on diversity in new ministry development in the UMC. Paul and Patricia discuss the future of ethnic ministries in the UMC, after so many churches disaffiliated.由Church is Changing
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In this episode, Paul Nixon and Beth Estock explore the concept of Edgewalking. Edgewalking church leaders have one foot firmly within the church, typically with strong core convictions and Christology, even as they engage with people beyond the church, gaining wisdom of perspective that helps the church in its mission. Beth and Paul are convinced …
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In this episode, Paul Nixon interviews Rodrigo Cruz and Nora Colmeneras of NETT Church near Atlanta. They discuss what they are learning about multicultural church and about church recovery from the pandemic season.由Church is Changing
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Does your church space sit empty during most of the week? Do you dream about it being used for the common good but don’t know how to begin? Listen to Beth Estock’s conversation with Cindy Thompson, Executive Director of Boundless Impact – a nonprofit that equips faith communities to build bridges into their community through creating pathways for e…
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In this episode of Church is Changing, Texas Conference church developer Melissa Maher visits with Paul Nixon about why addiction recovery groups were so resilient during the pandemic, even as churches struggled. It is a conversation full of surprises. But if you know much about twelve-step rooms, you will not be surprised that they are more profic…
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What if you got eight people together to give four hours a week and donate $50 a month to a new kind of ministry in your community? This is how INSPIRE began – that and a lot of listening to the neighborhood and God.If you have a great idea but not enough time or resources to make it happen, listen to this conversation with Barry Sloan, pastor at I…
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What does a peace corps volunteer with a culinary degree do when she is called into ministry? If you are a foodie with a heart for food justice, you won’t want to miss this conversation with Alyssa Densham, pastor of Provision Church Nova – a new Methodist Faith Community in Northern Virginia. In this episode, we talk about how a ministry can devel…
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In this episode, Paul Nixon interviews Kevin Johnson, Director of Children's Ministries at Discipleship Ministries. Kevin has a bigger picture of the emerging face of children's ministry than perhaps any other person in the UMC. Paul wanted to learn from Kevin how churches who have lost so many of their young families can take action to reengage wi…
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How well does your congregation know your community? And why is this important in a post-Christendom culture?Luke Edwards, a United Methodist minister with a background in social work, is a cultivator of new forms of church in Western North Carolina as the associate director of Church Development. He is the author of “Becoming Church: A Trail Guide…
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What do you do when your church building is falling down and you have no money for repairs? Pierceton UMC in Indiana just put their building up for auction!In this episode of Church is Changing, we explore some funky spirit-lead things happening in Warsaw, Indiana with Carolyn Kern – a passionate, innovative pastor in a two-point charge. She offers…
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In this episode, host Paul Nixon interviews Michael Beck, the director of FXUM (Fresh Expressions United Methodist). Paul and Michael explore the changing face of church and look at why and how Fresh Expressions are reaching so many Americans who would seldom wander into a church building.由Church is Changing
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Suzanne and Michael Katschke lead Heritage UMC in Madison, Alabama, a relatively young church that was hit hard by the pandemic, losing about half their weekly participants. Yet, they have built back, in large part due to a community sports ministry, with many games played on open fields on their church property. This episode explores how to build …
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In this episode, hosts Paul Nixon and Beth Estock reflect on trends that have set in with churches post-pandemic, and look at ways that churches are adapting to a very different era of ministry.由Church is Changing
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In this episode of the Church is Changing podcast, host Paul Nixon takes us to Lexington, Nebraska to meet three United Methodists: a pastor, a high school principal, and an HR director at a meat processing plant. This is an amazing conversation on loving our newest neighbors in the USA, as about eighty percent of the plant workers are immigrants f…
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In this episode, Paul Nixon interviews retired clergywoman Margie McNier, who at the age of 83, just planted Amarillo United Methodist Church. This is a story of a woman who saw every United Methodist church in her community disaffiliate, including a place where she had served on staff. This story should inspire us all about what is possible when d…
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Rebecca Anderson co-pastors two churches with Vince Amlin – an inherited church in the morning and a new start church on Sunday afternoons. She offers a unique perspective on the changing landscape of church – its structures, communities, and worship. Gilead Chicago got its start before COVID-19 as a community that tells true stories that saves liv…
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In this episode of Church is Changing, host Paul Nixon interviews Justin Cason, pastor of an online church based in Indiana. Justin has been working with Paul and with Mission Insite in the creation of a heat map website (www.heatmap.church) where folks can upload information about new and innovative ministries they are a part of, and where they ca…
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In this episode, Paul Nixon interviews Pastor Donna Sokol of Washington, D.C., about ever-changing ministry in a downtown context, working with eclectic people in an environment where organized religion is increasingly seen as suspect. Donna is co-author with Roger Owens of A New Day in the City: Urban Church Revival.…
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This Easter season, Paul Nixon gathered four pastors from four western conferences in The United Methodist Church whose churches shared some powerful things in common. These churches live a different narrative than so many in this season where church sanctuaries are mostly emptier than pre-Covid and where disaffiliation troubles are distracting fro…
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In this episode, Paul Nixon visits with Salina, Kansas pastors Nick Talbott and Eric Meyer, who are partnering two churches with Kansas Wesleyan University to totally revision their church’s ministries. Their work offers an example of a twenty-first century paradigm shift that is breathing new life into United Methodism in Salina and far beyond.…
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What do we have to unlearn in order to show up to the movement of the Holy Spirit in our midst? How does leadership shift when moving into a "new wineskin" church? How can we use the art of discernment to inform ministry engagement? These questions animate this conversation with Ray Altman. Ray is from North Central San Antonio in the Rio Texas Ann…
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How do ministries with Native Americans reveal how traditional evangelism and new church starts orient out of a colonial approach to ministry? And what does that call into question about how we "do" church or even if church really matters?Listen in on this engaging conversation with Rev. Dr. Allen Buck, pastor of Great Spirit United Methodist Churc…
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Nicole Reilley has done all sorts of things in ministry over the decades, with one continuous theme: everything she has touched has tended to thrive, including her suburban Los Angeles congregation during the pandemic. In this episode of Church is Changing, Paul Nixon interviews Nicole on what she is seeing and learning in the 2020s.…
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In this episode of Church is Changing, host Paul Nixon interviews Andy Fishburne, the Discipleship and Spiritual Formation Officer for the Methodist Church in Britain. We explore some new models for making discipleship tangible and practical for modern people. For more information on Fishburne's work: www.methodist.org.uk/discipleship.…
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In this New Year's episode of Church is Changing, hosts Paul Nixon and Beth Estock explore the big picture of the changes they saw globally in church life in 2022.由Church is Changing
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In this episode of Church is Changing, host Beth Estock interviews Bishop Cedrick Bridgeforth, recently elected bishop in the Western Jurisdiction of the UMC and appointed to serve the Greater Northwest Area that includes the states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. In this podcast we move from the complexities of 21st century living to the…
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In this episode of Church is Changing, host Beth Estock talks with Brittany Isaac, the superintendent of the Lake North District in the Northern Illinois Conference of The United Methodist Church. Brittany cut her ministry teeth as a scrappy church planter for the third site of Urban Village in Chicago twelve years ago. Now into her last full year …
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On this episode of Church is Changing, host Paul Nixon converses with both Kenda Dean of Princeton Theological Seminary and Michael Beck, Executive Director of Fresh Expressions United Methodist (FXUM). In this far-ranging conversation, Paul explores emerging trends in the Christian faith community with two leaders who work on the innovative front …
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In this episode of Church is Changing, host Paul Nixon interviews Mike Baughman, who works with innovation related to United Methodist Higher Education and Ministry. Paul asks Mike to reflect on his years as founding pastor of Union Coffee in Dallas. He reflects on the opportunity for the UMC to partner with emerging leaders who have out-of-the-box…
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In this episode of the Church is Changing podcast, host Paul Nixon interviews a German United Methodist pastor, Bernd Schwenkschuster. Bernd planted a new church in Metzingen, Germany a decade ago - one of about 15 planted in by United Methodists in the Southern Germany Conference in recent times. Why are United Methodists planting successfully in …
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In this episode of Church is Changing, host Paul Nixon interviews Elaine Heath, former dean of Duke Divinity school, author/expert on neo-monasticism and Abbess of Spring Forest Farm in North Carolina. This conversation offers great insight into the contours of the emerging 21st century church.由Church is Changing
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Rachel Gilmore is one of those high capacity leaders that has been there and done that. She seems to bring life to everything she touches.She started out as a church planter in Virginia then moved on to the Path 1 staff where, among other things, she birthed The Field Preachers podcast that has now morphed into this podcast.She currently lives in P…
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In this episode of Church is Changing, we cross over the pond to Hull, England in the Yorkshire area to hear about the Kairos movement with Liane Kensett. Liane is a Contemplative at heart who offers an organic life-giving approach to starting new faith communities. If you are interested in learning about how to form faith communities with folks wh…
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In this episode of the Church is Changing podcast, Pastorista Christine Potter in Wichita, Kansas, describes to host Paul Nixon the life of a church based in a coffee shop.由Church is Changing
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In many respects, we have moved into a season of perpetual crises, unlike any time in recent history for much of the world's people. In this episode of the Church is Changing podcast, hosts Paul Nixon and Beth Estock discuss the challenge of new ministry paradigms and strategies to match the changing life conditions in which people live.This conver…
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In this episode of the Church is Changing podcast, host Paul Nixon interviews Justin Cason of Indiana Conference, who has planted a digital campus of Monticello UMC with over 600 participants accumulating in two years. Listen to find out how one church is moving far beyond live-streaming to community building and discipling online!…
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What would it be like to start a church in the wild, literally? In this episode of Church is Changing, listen to Beth Estock's inspiring conversation with Corey Turnpenny, pastor of Church in the Wild in Windsor, New York. Their church gathers outside at a camp and retreat center with a mission to care for the earth. Corey has intuitively reoriente…
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In this episode, Paul Nixon visits with Dawn Canham, who leads the Lantern Methodist Church in Raynes Park, a suburb of London, England. Lantern Church has developed a community arts program touching hundreds of people, and in so doing, has created a rich neighborhood in which the church can find root. We spend much of the time pondering the ways t…
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Could British Central Halls be a ministry model whose time has come again? What would it be like to be the hub of activity in city and town centers out of which ministry flowed in all directions? How can we reclaim the gifts of being “friars” in community?In this episode of the Church is Changing podcast, listen to Rev. Ian Rutherford, pastor at Ma…
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In this episode of the Church is Changing podcast, host Paul Nixon interviews Mike Whang, a church planter near Houston, Texas. Mike is pastor of Oikon UMC, a church that is focused on small group engagement and discipleship. For more about Oikon, visit www.oikonhtx.org.由Church is Changing
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On this episode of the Church is Changing podcast, Bo Sanders, pastor of Vermont Hills UMC in Portland, Oregon, shares his worship experiments of decentering the broadcast, one-to-many form of 20th century worship and reconfiguring the worship space to support that. Sanders is also passionate about creating a seamless hybrid worship experience. Fin…
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