Igniting Imagination

Rev. Kathi McShane, a retired United Methodist pastor, and Rabbi Elan Babchuck, a millennial, experienced an immediate connection when they met, a Spirit connection that made them fast friends from the beginning. In this episode, they share how their friendship naturally manifested in Picking Up the Pieces: Leadership After Empire . They discuss the vision of the book, moving away from the pyramid...

The guests in this episode became friends through a common commitment to activism and social justice. Dr. Cleve V. Tinsley IV and Rev. Dr. Matt Russell became best friends both by cultivating their common ground and exploring the very real differences between their perspectives and experiences. They share how their friendship has profoundly shaped their work, their personal growth, and their lives...

The guests in this episode are ‘all in’ with the church; they are dear friends of our host, Rev. Lisa Greenwood, who also happen to be Bishops in the United Methodist Church, Bishop Laura Merrill, and Bishop Janice Huie. In their conversation the three of them explore what has been meaningful about their friendship and how their friendship has impacted their leadership for the better, throughout t...

This episode features two “besties” talking honestly and openly about their friendship of many years and how it has deeply nourished them, even though they’ve never even lived in the same state. They discuss being fully present in real friendship, giving each other accountability, compassion, love, and care. They engage with the challenges that all leaders face, especially clergy and lay leaders i...

One of God’s greatest gifts to us is friendships, especially what our guest Rev. Dr. Victoria White calls “holy friendships.” These are the friendships that not only make life more enjoyable and more creative, but they are also core to who we are and who we become. They are “mutual and sacred relationships formed in God’s love,” and they help us be who God designs us to be. She gives us permission...

In a world of surface-level connections, true friendship is a divine experience. Friendship forms us and allows us to show up as our true selves. Join us as this season as we delve into the power of sanctifying friendship.

Rev. Alisha Gordon wants black single mothers not just to survive but to thrive socially, economically, and emotionally. This vision, borne out of Alisha’s own experience as a single mother, led to the start of the Current Project, an advocacy and mission-driven organization focused on supporting the well-being of black single mothers by connecting them to the resources needed to attain and mainta...

When Rev. Tyler Sit set out to plant a church in Minneapolis in 2015, he began by listening. He walked every neighborhood in the city to listen for God’s dreams and discern where God wanted him to plant a church. He listened to neighbors over meals to hear what kind of church they would want to be a part of. What emerged was a church led by BIPOC leaders focused on eco-justice, community organizin...

“This place makes me feel human again” is a phrase often heard at Galveston Central Church from people at radically different ends of the socioeconomic spectrum. Being a part of the community grounds people in the truth that they belong to each other. It is not too much to say that this conversation with Rev. Michael Gienger will make you feel human again. We talk with Michael about the church’s t...

Expanding imagination for ministry can happen when you employ the FISHing differently framework developed by today’s inspired guest and 2023 Locke Innovative Leader , Rev. Dr. Sidney WIlliams. As the saying goes: “what got us here won’t get us there.” Instead of focusing purely on the financial capital needed to fund ministry, Sidney invites us to FISH differently than we ever have before, and har...

Why do we innovate? The goal is never innovation itself. As Rev. Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean says, “The goal is always loving people well.” This conversation is packed with insight and wisdom that gets to the heart of why innovation matters. We often feel pressure to innovate in big ways that make things bigger, faster, stronger but Kendra reminds us that the innovation present in the incarnation was sm...

The last episode of our season on formation begins with co-hosts Lisa Greenwood and Tim Soerens each sharing their top three takeaways from the season. Don’t miss this great season wrap up!  And then: We couldn’t imagine a better conversation partner to end this season with than Jonathan Brooks, or as he’s better known, Pastah J, who offers a hopeful vision and powerful challenge for the chur...

Rosa Lee Harden, Episcopal priest and serial entrepreneur, says that a conversation about generosity should bring about the best in us. This conversation certainly does just that! Each minute with Rosa Lee is inspired and inspiring. Rosa Lee shares her journey of faith that led her to bring together her desire to follow Jesus with her financial savvy and to start SOCAP (Social Capital Markets) and...

Mark DeYmaz, founder of Mosaix Church and the Mosaix Global Network, passionately articulates how the multi-ethnic church is the visible sign of the Gospel. In this wide-ranging conversation, Mark shares the origin story of Mosaix Church and his conviction that “if a people group or an individual is missing, then we’re actually missing part of the beauty of what God is revealing.” From a gripping...

Joe Park, CEO and Principal of Horizons Stewardship, invites us to think deeply about the connection between formation and generosity. He humbly says he is not an expert in generosity but his track record of incredible successes helping churches and faith-based not for profits build sustainable cultures of generosity, and the depth with which he approaches this topic sure makes us want to call him...

This is a first for us: we recorded this bonus episode on location at a gathering we hosted in Austin, Texas! You’ll hear from eleven amazing leaders and practitioners of physical and digital ministry, or “phygital” as we’ve now learned to say. These pioneers in digital ministry will share their experiences, questions, and ideas for what the digital space makes possible for formation. From designi...

Humans are equipped with an innate capacity for spirituality and our brains become more resilient and robust the more we engage with spirituality. This groundbreaking research from Dr. Lisa Miller has enormous implications for the church. Dr. Miller joins our podcast to make a case for why the church is desperately needed today, not just as an antidote to the “diseases of despair,” but also as a k...

Our podcast aims to “spark the Spirit within you” and what you will hear in this conversation with Anne Snyder is a person whose spirit is on fire for something bigger than herself. What an inspired and inspiring time we had with Anne Snyder–we can’t wait for you to listen! From her vulnerable sharing of her own formation story to her reflection on why institutions matter today and how we can beco...

We kick off Season 7 of the Igniting Imagination podcast in conversation with pastor and social entrepreneur Tim Soerens about the immense opportunity to reenergize the church today by daring to be “faithfully present” to what God imagines for us in our churches, our neighborhoods, and in our daily lives. The challenges the church faces today are very real, yet Tim shows us a path forward that ble...

This season on Igniting Imagination host Lisa Greenwood, co-host Tim Soerens, and special guests explore spiritual formation: what is formation and what is the church’s role in formation? Join our email, contact us, and find more resources from Leadership Ministry at tmf-fdn.org

We conclude our season on Jacob’s Bones (the core truths, values and practices to carry forward in the new church) in the wilderness where identity and purpose can become clear. Bishop Palmer reflects on the gifts of this wilderness time in the church and through his no-nonsense, compelling way, challenges the church to move beyond navel-gazing to face out to the world. This inspired and hope-fill...

Andy Crouch believes that one of the biggest challenges of pastoral ministry right now is not being seduced by the false vision of human flourishing that our culture offers and that technology optimizes. “You’re not going to get to the Kingdom of God by providing these religious goods and services that your system has been set up to provide and that technology can help you optimize,” Crouch says....

Grace Church is the perfect name for the now large, multi-site, United Methodist congregation in Southwest Florida that Jorge Acevedo started two decades ago. “Help us be the church for people that nobody sees” has been the church’s focus and that is exactly the church they have become. Grace Church is taking the healing ministry of Jesus seriously by bringing together people, places, and processe...

Gil Rendle says in the intro that this conversation with Father Greg Boyle is “one of the richest conversations I’ve ever been in.” How grateful we are to have recorded this beautiful and rich back and forth between Gil, Rev. Lisa Greenwood, Father Boyle and Rev. Justin Coleman! Father Boyle’s approach to gang intervention rehabilitation and re-entry at his organization Homeboy Industries is not r...

“America’s crisis of despair crashed into my life while I was getting paid to think about joy,” is how Dr. Angela Gorrell begins her book on joy and that is where we begin our conversation. What is authentic joy and how do you experience joy when there is so much to NOT be joyful about? One key, says Dr. Gorrell, is to recognize joy as a gift, like grace, and not something you can pursue like the...