Church for the Rest of Us Podcast

CFTROU 0186: Keeping Vision & Mission Aligned In this episode, we discuss how to align the vision and mission of your church. Our guests are Derek Simpson, Campus Pastor of Family Church Downtown, Todd Thomas, Campus Pastor of Family Church Sherbrooke, and Scott Crawford, Business Administrator and CFO of Family Church. We unpack multiple aspects aligning our vision and mission, building common la...

CFTROU 0185: How Family Church Does Multisite In this episode, we discuss a trend among churches – moving from a megachurch model to a multisite model. We delve into why, at Family Church, we are committed to the multisite strategy. Our guests include Todd Gaston, Campus Pastor of Family Church North Stuart, Scott Crawford, Family Church Business Administrator and CFO, and Todd Thomas, Campus Past...

CFTROU 0184: How Family Church Does Mergers This episode covers a topic that generates many questions and is the topic of many conversations – church mergers. We are guided by teachings in the New Testament, that advocate stronger churches supporting other churches that are new or may be facing challenges. We call these strategic partnerships.  Our guests include Pastor Todd Gaston, Campus Pastor...

CFTROU 0183: Why We’re More Committed to Multisite In this episode, we discuss a trend among churches, abandoning the multisite strategy. We delve into why, at Family Church, we continuing with our commitment to the multisite approach. Our guests include Scott Crawford, Family Church Business Administrator; Todd Gaston, Campus Pastor of Family Church North Stuart; and Todd Thomas, Campus Pastor of...

CFTROU 0182: Adding Neighborhood Schools In this episode, we take a look at schools and the way they have operated alongside churches. In the past, schools and churches operated harmoniously serving the one another. However, cultural institutions in the present day are actively resisting Biblical principles and values, which has created a divide between church and school. At Family Church, we beli...

CFTROU 0181: Neighborhood Church, Building, Pastor & Language In our last episode, we discussed the transition from the megachurch model to the neighborhood church model. In this episode we will continue to get to know Pastor Todd Gaston, Pastor Kevin Smith, and Pastor Jose DaSilva and get to know more about the expression of our neighborhood churches. You will learn how the neighborhood church dr...

CFTROU 0180: We are Abandoning the Regional Megachurch Model In this episode of the Church for the Rest of Us Podcast, in addition to our Lead Pastor, Jimmy Scroggins, and Communications and Executive Staff Director, Leslee Bennett, we are joined by pastors Todd Gaston, Kevin Smith, and Jose DaSilva to discuss our experience with abandoning the megachurch model in favor of the neighborhood church....

CFTROU 0179B: Bonus Episode – Salvation Has Come: 25 Christmas Devotions in Luke In this episode, Pastor Gregg Matte, Lead Pastor of Houston's First Baptist Church, joins the podcast to discuss his new book called Salvation Has Come: 25 Christmas Devotions in Luke. You will hear about what sparked the idea for his book and how Pastor Gregg approaches preaching during Christmas. To hear more about...

CFTROU 0178B: Bonus Episode – You Are A Theologian: An Invitation to Know and Love God Well Theology reorients us to what is true, which is that God is the ultimate source of all things. It also has practical and daily applications that help us live life the way God intended and designed it. In this episode, we are happy to welcome Pastor J.T. English and renowned Bible teacher, Jen Wilkin. In add...

CFTROU 0177: Building an Internship Program In this episode, we are exploring the topic of developing an internship program, specifically geared towards college students. At Family Church, we believe that college students are a vital part of God’s design for our neighborhood churches and want to give them an opportunity to do real ministry work with real ministry responsibility. Joining our conver...

CFTROU 0176: Building a Healthy Multisite Worship Ministry In this episode, we are joined by Pastor Christian Ramos and Pastor John Stepp to discuss all things related to leading a worship ministry in a multisite environment. You will hear what multisite ministry is, multisite worship ministry goals, the importance of a family environment. They also talk about creating lifelong memories as a worsh...

CFTROU 0175: Developing Theologically Grounded Leaders In this episode, Dr. Mark Warnock, Family Church's Residency Director, and Angel Turbeville, Family Church Village's Campus Director, talk about developing leaders. Theological grounding is more important than ever. In this episode, we examine how people’s beliefs can be formed by social media and how delving into theology in isolation can do...

CFTROU 0174: Caring Well for Kids & Students In this episode, we discuss how Family Church has taken initiative in protecting our students and kids in our ministry environments. Jake Kimbrell, Minister to Students and Families at Family Church Sherbrooke, and Wendi Serna, Director of Family Ministry at Family Church Jupiter, join the conversation to talk about the importance of safeguarding our st...

CFTROU 0173: Engagement–The Fuel that Drives Membership & Mission In this episode, we dive into church engagement, and the culture, systems, and processes that drive it. Our guest hosts are Bev Bonner, Director of Connections and Groups, Jimmy Muir, Pastor of Family Church Sherbrooke, and Jose DaSilva, Pastor of Iglesia Familiar Greenacres. They discuss how Family Church builds culture using tools...

CFTROU 0172: Preparing Your Church for a Recession With peaked inflation, mortgage rates, insurance costs, and other economic strains, churches have to make challenging financial decisions. In this episode, our guest hosts from the Family Church Network include Pastor Scott Crawford, Business Administrator, and John Fix, Director of Finance. Pastor Scott and John discuss how critically important i...

CFTROU 0171: Becoming a Culture Carrier On this episode, our guest hosts discuss how you can become and develop culture carriers within your staff teams and congregations. Pastor Winner Olmann and Pastor Tyler Core, talk about what culture is, the Family Church culture, and how culture is caught, as well as taught. They share stories of how culture is infused through their congregations and the ch...

CFTROU 0170: Creating a Healthy Staff Culture The conversation in this episode is focused on building a healthy staff culture. Our guest hosts are Pastor Scott Crawford, Business Administrator of the Family Church Network, and Pastor Todd Thomas, Campus Pastor of Family Church Sherbrooke. They begin with defining culture as it relates to our context and move on to discuss why culture matters. Past...

CFTROU 0169: Hospitality: Culture, Systems, & Shepherding As we continue with the greatest hits from our recent Church for the Rest of Us Conference, we discuss how to prioritize a hospitality culture without sacrificing your systems and shepherding practices. Karen Brooks and Josiah Kish walk us through what this looks like in our context. Karen serves as the Director of Church Ministries at Fami...

CFTROU 0168: Gender Identity & Youth Trips We are bringing you the greatest hits of this year's Church for the Rest of Us Conference. On this episode, we are joined by Tyler Core, Campus Pastor of Family Church Gardens, and Victoria Rodriguez, Student Ministry Assistant. Before Pastor Tyler transitioned to his current role, he previously led our student ministry team across our family of neighborh...

CFTROU 0167: The Power Of The Neighborhood Church: Finale with J.T. English   We are wrapping up our season of exploring the power of the neighborhood church and here with us today to tie it off in a perfect bow is Author and Lead Pastor, J.T. English. After telling us about his spiritual awakening in college and the providential meeting of his wife, J.T. explains how Storyline Church reaches out...

CFTROU 0166: The Power Of The Neighborhood Church: Impacting Neighborhoods by Making Disciples with Vance Pitman Welcome back to the Church for the Rest of Us podcast, it’s 2023 and our conference is getting closer. Don’t forget to register for the conference at churchfortherestofus.com! Today, we want to welcome a very special guest, Vance Pitman. Vance is the president of The Send Network and fo...

CFTROU 0165: The Power Of The Neighborhood Church: Multi-site Neighborhood Churches with Jim Tomberlin    How do you start a church? You start a small group. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed the series of conversations around the neighborhood church, and our guest on this episode, Pastor Jim Tomberlin, is not only a subject matter expert but an expert in multi-site church and church leadership. Jim helps...

CFTROU 0164: Engaging Neighbors as the Neighborhood Church with Dr. Ed Stetzer Neighborhood churches can be an outpost to the neighborhood, through geographical proximity, investment in a group of people, and being intentional neighbors. Our guest today is Dr. Ed Stetzer, a friend, author, speaker, professor, dean, and executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. Join us in ou...

CFTROU 0159: The Power Of The Neighborhood Church: A Conversation With Pastor Freddy T. Wyatt When essential foundational blocks in local neighborhood churches are in place, churches get healthy and things flourish! Welcome back as we continue with our series on the Power of the Neighborhood Church, today, with our guest, Pastor Jay Strother. He is the pastor at The Church at Station Hill and a pa...

CFTROU 0162: Faithful Neighborhood Mission-Based Presence with Brandon Shields Contrary to what is believed, there is immense power in preaching less, deepened listening, holding space, and hosting critical conversations. Brandon Shields, an author and passionate Man of God is here to discuss his family’s journey of taking a leap of faith, moving to Indianapolis, planting their roots, and seeing t...