Nomad Podcast

John Polkinghorne has spent more years than we've been alive inhabiting the world of science and faith. He's a theoretical physicist, theologian and Anglican priest. He's been Knighted by the Queen and has received the coveted Templeton Prize for his exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual dimension. So who better to ask a few questions about life, the universe and everything?!  “I...

Matt Russell planted Mercy Street about 15 years ago in the US. Starting from scratch it quickly grew to around a 1000, many of whom were recovering addicts. The church developed a culture of gritty authenticity and honesty. Needless to say, he's got a very interesting story to tell and much wisodm to share!  “Anytime you draw a line in the sand and say, ‘All the Christians on this side of the lin...

Andrew Marin grew up in a conservative church, and much to his surprise developed a calling and passion to build bridges between the Church and the LGBTQ community. So he moved into a gay part of town, and spent all his time getting to know people in gay bars. Ss you can imagine, there's plenty for us to learn from the remarkable journey he's been on.  “Christians love to hang out with other Chris...

John Hayes is founder and director of the mission order InnerChange . InnerChange supports missional communities who are living incarnationally in the poorest areas of cities around the world. So brace yourself for a challenging and inspiring interview! “Be content to be an ordinary bush burning with extraordinary fire. Christians get in danger when they try to be an extraordinary bush and then al...

Inspired by a glorious summer of sport, Nomad thought we'd bring you a story that seamlessly links mission and sport. So we met up with the Amos Trust's Chris Rose. Chris has got an amazing story to tell of gathering together street child from around the world for a football World Cup! Hard to believe I know, but it happened! Tune in to find out more. “One of the boys in South Africa said, ‘When p...

Mike Sares is a fairly normal, middle-aged, middle class type of guy. But he somehow managed to connect with a group of young artists and skater punks and planted and pastors the Denver based church Scum of the Earth . It's an inspiring story of cross-cultural mission, community and new forms of church.  “I have never in my life felt more alive in Christ, more used by him, more in tune with what h...

Ian Adams co-founded mayBe, a fresh expression of church in Oxford. He also works for the Church Mission Society as a missional community developer. So we thought he'd be the right chap to talk about how to start new forms of church.  “For me, one of the great theological recoveries or rediscoveries of the last few decades has been this idea of ‘Missio Dei’ – the mission is God’s. We used to think...

Liz Babbs is an author, speaker and evangelist and one who has been deeply influenced by celtic spirituality. So we chat with Liz about celtic spirituality and its potential as a tool for mission. “Values such as hospitality, the sense of celebration, honouring the saints and actually admiring the saints and looking at how they’ve walked their lives as a form of inspiration rather than just ignori...

Chris Wright is an Old Testament scholar who reckons the biblical narrative only makes sense if mission is seen as its overarching theme. So we test this theory with him and ask him to explain some of the trickier Old Testament stories! Books, quotes, links → The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful and wonderful listeners. By supporting us,...

Andrea Campanale is a Church Mission Society  'Mission Partner'. Andrea does some really interesting work among people involved in the new spiritualties. This has caused her to reflect deeply on mission and what it means to be church.   “A lot of the time we try and impose what we think or what we expect people to experience rather than just creating an environment where they can experience God fo...

A couple of decades ago Tony and Felicity Dale felt called to move from the UK to the US to plant a church. As you can imagine, it's been quite a journey (in all senses of the word!) and they've learnt stacks about what it means to be church. One of the big lessons they've learnt is that we need to radically simplfy church.  “Jesus talked a lot about making disciples and very little about building...

It's hard to measure the impact Nicky Gumbel has had on the worldwide church. He pioneered the Alpha Course as an evangelistic introduction to the Christian life. It is estimated that over 15 million people have now attended a course. So we thought it was high time we had a chat with Mr Alpha, and find out what the future of this course might be in our rapidly changing culture.  “Some people are r...

Phil Togwell is part of the 24/7 Prayer , an internatinal, interdenominational movement of prayer, mission and justice. Over the last few years Phil's been involved in setting up spaces in schools for children to honestly and naturally begin to connect with God. It's an inspiring story! “I think so often in most of our church lives, everything is done for us. But as soon as we behave like a New Te...

Pete Ward is senior lecturer in youth ministry and theological education at King's College, London. About 10 years ago now Pete wrote Liquid Church , and it turned out to be rather influential. Pete's theories have stuck around and shaped the views of many people interested in new forms of church. So Nomad thought they'd better find out a bit more. “There’s been a centripetal movement in church li...

Tim and Dave were in Leeds recently and so thought they'd catch up with Simon Hall of the Revive community. So tune in to hear the story of Simon's journey into new forms of mission and Christian community (it's a rich tapestry!), and the various manifestations of Revive .   “I found that we don’t talk about what a whole human being is…In technical terms, we don’t have a theological anthropology....

Tim's leaving Dave at home for this episode and heading north with Hannah to Loyola Hall for a 5-day silent retreat. We know what you're thinking, a 5-day silent retreat might not make the most engaging podcast! But Tim will be recording a daily reflection on his experiences and then at the end of the retreat will interview Ruth Holgate, the director of the centre, about the spirituality of silenc...

Chris Sunderland is involved in all manner of Jesus-inspired community stuff, but we're particularly interested in his Earth Abbey  project. Earth Abbey is a movement of people helping each other live more in tune with the earth. So dust off you wellies and prepare to get muddy, Jesus style!  “These problems that are bearing down on the earth are not just climate change, not just big oil; they’re...

Mark Powley is founder of Breathe , a Christian network that encourages and resources simpler living. Mark is all about simple living and resisting the lure of our consumer culture (or as Breathe puts it, 'less stuff, more life'), so we talk to Mark about how we can go about a Consumer Detox. Prepare to be challenged! “Consumer culture isolates and fragments us into individual consuming units. It...

New Testament scholar extraordinaire, Tom Wright (how does he write so many books?!) is back on the show. This time Tom's helping us get our heads round the connection between academics and the local church and what exactly our Christian hope is (we might go to heaven when we die, but we're certainly not going to stay there!). “The whole notion of the Kingdom of God is not about God being king ove...

Nomad is back (I know, you didn't even notice we'd gone)! The old team has stood down, but new boy Dave Ward (along with founding Nomad Podcaster, Tim Nash) has bravely stepped into the fray! This episode is an introduction to Dave and his journey from youth worker to farrier and from traditional church to new forms of mission and church. Books, quotes, links → The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful,...

After two and a half years, the stresses and strains of massive global success (if only!) have taken their toll and the original Nomad team have decided to call it a day. So tune in for some final reflections on their online and offline journey. But fear not, the journey will continue (is that a gas forge I hear...) Books, quotes, links → The creation of Nomad’s thoughtful, ad-free content is enti...

Pete Greig is one of the founders of the hugely influential 24/7 Prayer , an international, interdenominational movement of prayer, mission and justice. He's also Directer of Prayer for Holy Trinity, Brompton (you know, the church where Alpha came from). We talk to Pete about the phenomenal success of this innovative prayer movement, and how it relates to mission and new forms of church. Books, qu...

Back in 2011 we interviewed Mike Pilavachi, the co-founder and leader of the Soul Survivor charity and Soul Survivor festival. In 2023 stories about his abusive behaviour began to emerge. After an investigation the allegations were substantiated with the report concluding "that he used his spiritual authority to control people and that his coercive and controlling behaviour led to inappropriate re...

Steve Hollinghurst works for the Church Army's Research Unit as their 'Researcher in Evangelism to Post-Christian Culture' and has extensive experience in working with people involved in the new spiritualities. Steve chats to us about some of the issues he raises in his new book Mission-Shaped Evangelism: The Gospel in Contemporary Culture . Books, quotes, links → The creation of Nomad’s thoughtfu...

Cathy Ross is lecturer in contextual theology and pioneer leadership and is the General Secretary for the International Association for Mission Studies. So Cathy seemed like a pretty good person to talk to about how women have been overlooked in mission, both overseas and at home. She explores how this came about and what can be done about it. She also recommends some resources to help us dig deep...