Church is Changing

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 notions of church.

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 a very secular culture such as Germany? There are things to learn here for Americans and others who may think that planting is impossible in current cultural conditions.

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.

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 Phoenix, Arizona where she continues to form faith communities as well as serve as the Director of New Faith and Vital Faith Communities. In this high energy episode, she offers an overview of what she is seeing in the changing church today and how she is adapting to her changing context.

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 who want nothing to do with the existing church paradigms and vice versa this podcast is for you. To find out more about the Kairos Movement go to kairosmovement.org.uk.

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.

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 conversation is rooted in an article Paul Nixon published, which can be accessed here: https://paulnixonepicentergroup.blogspot.com/2022/07/ministry-in-season-of-perpetual-crisis.html

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!

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 reoriented her leadership from top-down to community informed, from knowing it all to deep listening with a curious heart. Through the depth of people's nature-based spirituality, Corey says, "I am learning about the future of the church."

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 that worship can engage and come alive for people the way live theater still does. The West End theaters are packed post-Omicron and the churches are still mostly empty. What’s up with that and what can we learn?