280. Empowering Leaders for Creative Mission, with Shannon Kiser, author of Opening Space

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What do you do when the tried-and-true ways of doing church just aren’t working anymore? When everything you once relied on—Sunday services, eye-catching signage, the best coffee in the foyer—still leaves your church feeling disconnected from your community?

In this episode, Shannon Kiser, author of Opening Space: A Vision for Fresh Expressions of Church and Creative Mission, shares about what “fresh expressions” of church means, why the old attractional models are no longer enough, and how ministry leaders can begin to reimagine church for a spiritually curious but institutionally wary world.

THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

• Markus Watson shares statistics that reveal most American churches are plateaued or declining, and the majority of major denominations are aging.
• Shannon Kiser urges church leaders to rethink how they engage with a spiritually curious culture that may be wary of traditional church settings.
• Many people possess spiritual curiosity even if they are hesitant or unwilling to attend church gatherings.
• Markus Watson describes how even the physical space of a church building can feel intimidating and unfamiliar to outsiders.
• Shannon Kiser explains that Fresh Expressions seeks to equip leaders to start new forms of Christian community tailored to their local context.
• Fresh Expressions focuses on innovative gatherings—like dinner churches, hiking groups, or park meetups—rather than just worship services.
• Markus Watson asks Shannon Kiser to define Fresh Expressions and how they originated from creative responses to declining church attendance in the UK.
• Shannon Kiser describes Fresh Expressions as new forms of church that often look very different from traditional Sunday morning gatherings.
• Healthy churches should diversify their ministry approaches and embrace what Shannon Kiser calls a "blended ecology."
• Focusing solely on Sunday attendance and budgets is unlikely to reverse church decline.
• Markus Watson highlights the impact stories from the church’s outreach—such as coffee shops and lunch ministries—can have on the congregation’s spiritual vitality.
• Congregations can raise their spiritual temperature and feel more alive by engaging in mission outside their traditional gatherings.
• Shannon Kiser recommends listening to the community and beginning with simple, small experiments that fit the church’s context and resources.
• Forming Fresh Expressions requires different types of people: pioneers who connect and lead, permission givers who open doors, and supporters who help behind the scenes.

RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:

• Fresh Expressions website
• Books mentioned:
  • Opening Space, by Shannon Kiser
• Related episodes:
  • 177. Exploring New Forms of Church, with Shannon Kiser
  • 264. Building a Future-Focused church, with Kara Powell, Jake Mulder, and Raymond Chang
  • 272. Beyond Church Revitalization, with Josh Hayden

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