A Plain Account

The Jasons introduce the LASTS Method - Language, Actors/Actions, Space, Time, and Symbols - of participant observation and critically reflect on each other's church cultures.----In this two-part podcast series, the Jasons tackle the LASTS method of participant observation. What is participant observation? It is an immersive ethnographic methodology where you observe a community of people as an active participant with the community. Doing this allows you to get a more hands-on understanding of the culture of a community, like a church, and help you better reflect on it’s embedded theologies and embodied liturgies.Over the next two episodes, the Jasons will watch a selected church worship service from the other’s church, take field notes on what we experience while watching using the LASTS parameters of language, actors/actions, space, time, and symbols, and then reflecting on our experience to try to describe the culture of the church.This is something that any pastor can do in their own context to better understand the values that you express as a church.

Leading people in a church can be an act of mutual submission, discipleship, and pastoral care. Episode Rundown: * A theology of mutual submission. * Leadership in the church. * The volunteer problem in small churches. * Our approach to volunteer management

Church buildings. They're a major investment, a time-suck, and also a place of transformational ministry. Let's talk about facility management! Episode rundown: * Facility maintenance as a percentage of the church’s budget * Current facility issues that we are dealing with * Our approach to facility management * Major renovations & capital campaigns * Dealing with insurance

The Advent and Christmas seasons are over. Tis the season for some reflective criticism on what went well, where the Spirit worked, and what we could change next year. Episode Rundown: * Our Advent themes * Christmas Eve stories * Looking ahead to 2025

Retired Nazarene District Superintendent Kim Smith talks through a lifetime of pastoral lessons learned, both good and bad. --- In our final episode with retired District Superintendent Kim Smith, we talk lessons in pastoral ministry! Kim shares his decades of experience and both positive and negative lessons learned. Episode Rundown: Listening to the Spirit Leading people with relationships instead of pushing them to do what you want Pastoring as an introvert Developing leaders and starting new ministries Inspiring cultural change

Rev. Kim Smith retired as the District Superintendent of Iowa District of the Church of the Nazarene. He's now returning to the pastorate in a small church restart. He shares his story & his approach to intentional missional relationships. --- We’re pleased to have Rev. Kim Smith join with the Jasons for the next two episodes of the Sacred and Small podcast. Kim was a retired District Superintendent in the Church of the Nazarene who has now returned to pastoring, to help a church that was on the verge of closing recover it’s missional vitality. Kim brings decades of pastoral experience and a heart for intentional missional relationships to the conversation. We discuss Kim’s story, missional relationships, and the distinction and necessity of both “attractional” and “missional” outreach in a small church.

Jason & Jason continue their two part series on liminality in the church by talking about the liminal relationship between a church and the community.

Jason & Jason start a two part series on liminality in the church by talking about the way small church pastors can speak prophetically to their congregations.