Church is Changing

In this New Year's episode of Church is Changing, hosts Paul Nixon and Beth Estock explore the big picture of the changes they saw globally in church life in 2022.

In this episode of Church is Changing, host Beth Estock interviews Bishop Cedrick Bridgeforth, recently elected bishop in the Western Jurisdiction of the UMC and appointed to serve the Greater Northwest Area that includes the states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. In this podcast we move from the complexities of 21st century living to the simplicity of the core of the Gospel with the ide...

In this episode of Church is Changing, host Beth Estock talks with Brittany Isaac, the superintendent of the Lake North District in the Northern Illinois Conference of The United Methodist Church. Brittany cut her ministry teeth as a scrappy church planter for the third site of Urban Village in Chicago twelve years ago. Now into her last full year as a district superintendent, she shares her persp...

On this episode of Church is Changing, host Paul Nixon converses with both Kenda Dean of Princeton Theological Seminary and Michael Beck, Executive Director of Fresh Expressions United Methodist (FXUM). In this far-ranging conversation, Paul explores emerging trends in the Christian faith community with two leaders who work on the innovative front lines.

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...

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 fait...

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 para...

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 publish...

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 inform...

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 t...

Could British Central Halls be a ministry model whose time has come again? What would it be like to be the hub of activity in city and town centers out of which ministry flowed in all directions? How can we reclaim the gifts of being “friars” in community? In this episode of the Church is Changing podcast, listen to Rev. Ian Rutherford, pastor at Manchester Central Hall, share the beauty of this o...

In this episode of the Church is Changing podcast, host Paul Nixon interviews Mike Whang, a church planter near Houston, Texas. Mike is pastor of Oikon UMC, a church that is focused on small group engagement and discipleship. For more about Oikon, visit www.oikonhtx.org.

On this episode of the Church is Changing podcast, Bo Sanders, pastor of Vermont Hills UMC in Portland, Oregon, shares his worship experiments of decentering the broadcast, one-to-many form of 20th century worship and reconfiguring the worship space to support that. Sanders is also passionate about creating a seamless hybrid worship experience. Find out what he has discovered during these last thr...

On this episode of the Church is Changing podcast, we are joined by author Jason Moore. Moore is author of the book Both/And, which explores the new ways we gather people for worship in the 2020s. Moore lives near Dayton, Ohio and has worked for two decades resourcing churches in terms of worship design. To learn more about Jason, or to invite him to your judicatory or your church, visit midnighto...

The pandemic not only affected churches; it also impacted the recovery community. Out of a need for connection, Tracey Hume, a deacon in Newcastle upon Tyne in England, started an online twelve-step group that has become an online recovery church. In this episode of the Church is Changing podcast, Hume shares what she has learned as a leader and how this church movement continues to grow and adapt...

Welcome to the launch of the new Church is Changing podcast! (Formerly known as Field Preachers.) In this episode, hosts Paul Nixon and Beth Estock set the stage for this season’s episodes as well as begin to talk about that “nasty word” – metrics. In a rapidly changing culture when the old ways of measuring success no longer work, how do we begin to track ministry impact?

In this episode of the Field Preachers podcast, host Paul Nixon interviews Sean Davis, music director, and Isata Jalloh, children and youth worker, at Edmonton Methodist Church in the north suburbs of London. Davis and Jalloh discuss how the church is pivoting powerfully toward serving community in all of its ministries rather than just focusing on church members and families. This conversation is...

Hosts Paul Nixon and Beth Estock reflect on the ways that the pandemic has pushed Christian leaders to a burnout point, and talk about how they can care for themselves so that they will be ready to lead into 2022.

In this episode of the Field Preachers podcast, host Paul Nixon interviews Daryn DeZengotita of Dallas about the creation of community-building space, especially as we repurpose oversized church buildings in the wake of the pandemic.

As rural America continues to undergo massive economic and demographic shifts, rural churches are uniquely positioned to provide community leadership. Leading a rural congregation requires a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing these communities, as well as a strong theological and community-focused identity. Rev. Allen T. Stanton describes how in establishing this ident...

In this episode of the Field Preachers podcast, host Paul Nixon interviews Lexi Hernandez, church planter of a community in North Carolina called Serve Co; along with Rev. Mark Stennett of Leeds, United Kingdom. Mark, Lexi, and Paul explore ideas related to digital ministry and agree that it is only just warming up within the global church.