Breaking Thru the Noise

Today’s episode features another conversation with an old friend of our hosts. Rev. Paul Seay is the Senior Pastor at First UMC of Abingdon, VA and also serves Charles Wesley UMC. Paul was recently awarded the Denman Evangelism Award at the 2024 Holston Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church for his work over the past year in growing his church. Our conversation was so chock full we had...

Where do you start building and embedding a discipleship culture in your church? A good place to begin is with your small groups. Mark and Charla talk about how small groups are a fertile ground for finding new disciples that want to be more proactive about their faith and for Proactive Guides that will help them. They discuss how to build on the next step people take to join a group into becoming...

On today’s episode we welcome back our friend Rev. Daniel Ogle of the Westside Table, a satellite campus of Peachtree Road UMC in Atlanta. Daniel will recount the Table’s humble beginnings launching online in the midst of the Pandemic to a thriving congregation receiving over 200 in worship a mere 3 years later. He gives us a glimpse into their true success, building an impactful community of Jesu...

Our special guest on the podcast this episode is Father Chris Salamy, an Antiochian Orthodox Priest in Scottsdale, Arizona. Fr. Chris and I share a passion for making disciples and particularly helping people to unlock the Word of God for people to apply to their own lives. We look at the differences in worship experiences but the commonality of our shared commitment to the Great Commission. I als...

A disciple focused church focuses on the next step of the church and the individual to connect with Jesus and serve others. We see that lived out in the explosion of growth in the early church told in Acts 2: 41 -47. The first disciples devoted themselves to worship, prayer, sharing meals, study and to the community. As church leaders, we must also drive the next steps of the church and the next s...

In this episode, we talk with Rev. Anna Lee, the Executive Pastor at Cokesbury UMC in Knoxville, TN. Anna shows us how Cokesbury is living out the Great Commission by inviting people to take their next step because everyone has one! Next steps look different for everybody and are not limited to individuals, churches have next steps too. Anna shares how Cokesbury Church over the past decade has mad...

A few episodes back when we were talking with our friend Pastor Kristin about her journey embedding a Discipleship Pathway culture in her church over the past 7 years, she mentioned speaking to “spectators” in the congregation. We all have different labels for this group, but every preacher out there is picturing people in their congregation right now. When pastors and the leadership team seek to...

In Episode 47, we continue our conversation with Dr. Leonard Sweet about his most recent book, Designer Jesus. Len shares with us his thoughts on how we are designed to be like Jesus. Our human identity comes from Jesus as he shows us how we are to be “fully human.” As followers of Jesus we have to be like trackers looking for fresh footprints to follow because Jesus is alive and in the world. We...

In this episode, we are privileged to talk with one of the great Christian minds of our generation, Dr. Leonard Sweet. Len’s two most recent books, Jesus Human and Designer Jesus combine to paint a picture for Christians how we are to be faithful humans and disciples. Jesus Human - Primer for a Common Humanity, explores how Jesus, in showing us the way to God, shows us the way to ourselves and the...

We are continuing my conversation with Rev. Kristin Clark-Banks and her work embedding a discipleship culture at her church. In this episode, we are going to talk about how we keep bridging the discipleship communication and perception gap in the congregation, 7 years into the process. Plus, we know the saying “what gets measured, get’s done.'' How does Forest Hills measure their effectiveness in...

I am so excited about our guest today, Rev. Kristin Clark-Banks, Sr. Pastor of Forest Hills UMC in Brentwood, TN. Soon after Kristin was appointed to Forest Hills 7 years ago, she began implementing a new discipleship culture called the Discipleship Pathway. In this episode, we are going to discuss how that culture has grown and how she has bridged the perception gap about discipleship in the cong...

In our last couple of episodes, we talked about what discipleship looks like from the pew, or from the perspective of members, attenders, and visitors. In today’s episode, we will look at 4 ways that we can embed a discipleship culture in the local church and not only bridge the perception gap, but get people walking over the bridge! ChurchCMO.com Proactive Strategy Accelerator Course: https://dis...

Today, I would like to build on the conversation we started in Episode 40 and talk about ways to bridge the perception gap between the laity and the church about what is discipleship. We roughly estimate 10-20 per cent have a clear view of discipleship and are actively engaged in discipleship. It would be an interesting exercise for a pastor or lay leader in the church to ask people of all ages in...

Starting in this episode, Charla and I want to spend the next few episodes looking at discipleship from the pew, so to speak, from the perspectives of the member, attender, and even a visitor. It’s a fuzzy view. It’s a concept more than a Jesus directive that impacts our daily lives in what we say and do. It’s not like we don’t want to engage in discipleship. It’s that most church attenders don’t...

Today we are going to talk about why we as church congregants should be investing in our own, proactive discipleship journey. The Church is full of people who came to know Jesus as Savior, yet were never taught what it means to actually follow Him. So I think we should start with what Jesus tells us about how we benefit from following in his path.

In today's episode we continue talking about how Jesus used his encounters with people to make disciples and those outcomes. And we segue to the Apostle Paul's conversion and his process for making disciples on his journeys. What was Paul's strategy that helped the Gospel message spread throughout the world? Charla and I will talk about the key parts of what made Paul an effective disciple maker....

In today's episode, Charla and I want to explore Jesus’ disciple making process which was very proactive. We will look at the how, where, and when of Jesus' disciple making as well as the outcomes. Some examples we will discuss are Jesus calling Simon Peter, interacting with the Samaritan woman at the well, and with the Pharisee Nicodemus.

In today's episode, Charla and I discuss the obstacles that pastors and churches face when it comes to making more disciples. Charla shares her perspective as a retired UMC Pastor as well as a new perspective on two familiar New Testament stories.

In today's episode we talk to retired UMC Pastor Charla Shebakoff about life/career transitions. We extrapolate her experience to the challenges our congregants face in traversing their own transitions. We discuss the questions: what are the challenges you face? Where do I belong? Has my purpose that gives meaning to life changed or am I supposed to live it out differently? Transitions are a reali...

Today’s episode is a little different from our normal show. I had the honor and privilege of sharing a message with a client church, Second United Methodist in Knoxville. The pastor, a dear friend, was retiring and asked me to fill in a Sunday before the new pastor started. So, I spoke on what I know best, football, err no, discipleship in the church. In the show notes, I have included a link to g...

In today’s episode we will meet a new colleague and friend of mine, Jessie Cruickshank. Jessie is a Harvard educated, neuroscientist, theologian, and outdoor adventurist. Our paths have crossed because she has spent two decades applying neuroeducation research to discipleship, ministry training, experiential education, and organization development. Jessie is respected globally as a leader in missi...

So, we have talked about what Proactive Disciple Making is, and we have discussed the three components of the strategy - connecting, engaging, and guiding. In today’s episode, we are going to talk about how we begin to implement this strategy in real life. In the show notes, I have included a link to get one of our free resources. It’s called the Checklist and its a guide to help you start impleme...

The third component of the Proactive Disciple Making strategy is Guiding. I feel it is the most important part of the process. Because let’s face it, when faced with a little adversity or difficulty, we humans are wired to quit and go in another direction, usually backwards. Disciple Making Guides in the proactive strategy are relationship builders, first and foremost. That is why I so confidently...

In this episode, we are talking about the second phase of our Proactive Disciple Making Strategy. The Engaging phase has two primary objectives. First, it is identifying how best to help the newly connected disciples formulate their growth and fulfillment plan and take their logical, first step on that journey. The second objective of our Engaging phase is to build personal relationships with disc...

How do we connect with people inside and outside our churches to develop a deeper relationship? The answer goes back to the myth the church has been telling its people for years that we discussed last episode - we will meet you where you are? How do I know this is a myth, you ask... Go to BreakingThrutheNoise.com/episodes for show notes and links!