On the Move

Individualism is rising around the world — and the United States is leading the charge. But is that how the Christian life was meant to be lived? In this episode, Jared and Leanne continue their deep dive into what we can learn from the majority world church, this time focusing on community: what it looks like, why Scripture demands it, and how to actually build it in your own life. The conversati...

Across the majority world, pastors walk for miles, sleep on roadsides, and give up entire days just to sit with God’s Word. Meanwhile, many of us with Bibles on every shelf and apps on every device struggle to open it consistently. In this episode, Jared and Leanne explore where that hunger for Scripture comes from, why it matters, and what it looks like to build it as a discipline in our own live...

The church in places like Kenya, Uganda, South Asia, and Latin America is doing some things that the American church can learn from. In this episode, Jared and Leanne share stories from the field and dig into three qualities we've seen again and again in the majority world church: a deep hunger for God's Word, a commitment to genuine community, and an urgency to live on mission. What God Is Doing...

Russ and Sharon have been married for thirty-seven years, traveled the world together since college, adopted internationally, and even own a home in Morocco. Now they're stepping into a new kind of adventure — becoming ambassadors with 21C International, potentially opening a brand-new field in Liberia. In this conversation, recorded right after a week-long ambassador retreat, they share the journ...

Atkelt Simon grew up in an impoverished community in Ethiopia. As a child, he was sponsored through Compassion International — and that experiencechanged the trajectory of his life. Today, he serves with Children's Hopechest, anorganization that partners communities together to break the cycle of poverty and ignitehope in children and families around the world. In this episode, Atkelt shares his p...

The Great Commission is one of the most well-known passages in the Bible — but are we actually living it out? In this episode, Jared and Leanne walk through Matthew 28:18–20 and wrestle with what it looks like to take these words seriously, not just as a concept we admire, but as a daily calling that applies to every believer. The conversation moves from the personal to the global — covering every...

The global church is growing at an extraordinary pace — especially across Africa, Asia, and Latin America — but pastoral training hasn't kept up. In this episode, Dr. Michael Ortiz gives us a front-row seat to the challenge and the opportunity. He shares what he's seeing from his dual vantage point at Dallas Theological Seminary and ICETE, a global network connecting formal and non-formal theologi...

Steve just got back from the Philippines, and he came home with stories. In this episode, he and Leanne unpack the global pastor training crisis—why 95% of pastors in the majority world have no formal training, and why traditional Western education isn’t going to fix it on its own. Then they get into what actually happened on the ground: a Bible college partnership that came together over a cup of...

This is one of those episodes where you’ll want to sit down and just listen. Pastor Oscar from Bread of Life Church in Kabwe, Zambia has one of the most extraordinary stories we’ve heard on the podcast—from skipping high school classes to read his New Testament in a tree, to walking away from a telecom engineering career the day he was promoted, to watching his infant son declared dead by two doct...

This week, Leanne sits down with Jonathan Tshimwang—21C International’s very first intern. Jonathan grew up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, watched his mom hold the family together through incredible hardship after his parents’ divorce, and eventually followed God’s call from church planting in Tanzania all the way to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago—selling his house to make it happen. H...

In this episode, Leanne sits down with Andrew Underwood of Nexus International to explore what it really means to make disciples—and why programs alone aren’t cutting it. Andrew shares his own story of being shaped by an intentional youth pastor, his journey through camp ministry and missions in Central Asia, and how he landed at Nexus, an organization committed to starting and sustaining movement...

In this episode, Leanne is joined by Stephen and Preslie, 21C International’s ambassadors in the Philippines. This newlywed couple shares their faith journeys and paint a vivid picture of the spiritual landscape in the Philippines and the need for training pastors. ________________________________ Connect with Leanne on LinkedIn or via email at leanne@21cinternational.org . On the Move is created...

In this episode, Leanne is joined by Steve White, president of 21C International, to share the powerful story of Pastor Moses, a South Sudanese refugee who discovered 21C through Facebook and is now taking biblical training back to one of the most dangerous countries in the world. They also reflect on their experience attending the ACTEA General Assembly in Ethiopia and what the African church is...

What does it really mean to surrender to Jesus? And what does surrender have to do with missions? In this special teaching episode of On the Move, host Leanne White steps away from the interview format to walk us through John chapter 12—one of the most vivid and emotionally rich chapters in the Gospels. Through every scene, Leanne traces a single, powerful theme: the call to live with open hands....

In Iran, the church doesn't just survive - it thrives. In this episode, Leanne White sits down with Lana Silk, CEO of Transform Iran, to explore the remarkable spiritual awakening happening inside one of the world's most restrictive nations. Born into a Christian family in Iran, Lana shares her parents' dramatic story of being called to leave Iran in 1988, only to discover God's plan to use them t...

In this compelling episode, host Leanne White speaks with Daniel Henderson and Craig Stoll of Christian Book International Outreach about their mission to place essential theological resources in the hands of pastors and church leaders worldwide. Craig shares how a visit to a poorly-stocked Bible college library in India inspired him to begin donating books—an effort that has grown into a global n...

In the span of roughly a century, Christianity in Africa has grown from about 10 million believers to 700 million—arguably the largest expansion of the faith in church history. By 2060, an estimated 40 percent of the world's Christians will be African. But rapid growth raises an urgent question that Dr. Matthew Elliott of Oasis International puts plainly: we know Africa will be a Christian contine...

Ninety-five percent of the world’s pastors are untrained. In the majority world, there is just one trained pastor for every 450,000 people. These staggering numbers form the backdrop for this warm, story-rich conversation recorded live at the Moody Bible Institute Missions Conference in Chicago. The 21C International team—Steve and Leanne White and Carl and Kimberly Barko—shares how the ministry h...

What does it take to start a church multiplication movement in one of the most unreached, hostile environments in the world? In this powerful episode of On the Move, host Leanne White sits down with Emanuel Prinz—missionary, consultant, and author of What Actually Starts Movements—to hear his extraordinary story of how God used him to start a church multiplication movement in Sudan. As a young man...

What does it really mean to be a disciple of Jesus? In this episode of On the Move, host Leanne White sits down with Pastor Josh Robinson from the Bridge Church in Venice, Florida, to explore the biblical foundation of discipleship and the Great Commission. Josh unpacks a simple but profound definition: A disciple is a follower of Jesus who is being changed by Jesus and is committed to the mission...

"In the context of community, when believers gather to read and discuss God's Word, they discover how the truths in Scripture can be applied to their lives. We've seen this happen in our Timothy groups studying Ephesians." In our final episode of season 1, our host Leanne White discusses the need for pastoral training in the majority world and shares how groups-based training is bringing unity and...

"Every child needs connection. It's through secure, loving relationships that we can help children heal and thrive. Trauma-informed care is about seeing beyond the behavior to the child's needs and meeting them with compassion and understanding." In this episode of On the Move, host Leanne White talks with Robin Sweitzer about her experiences with Kids Alive International, focusing on trauma-infor...

This week, our host Leanne welcomes her husband and 21C International co-founder, Steve White. Steve has visited East African countries at least four times per year since the launch of 21C International, providing training and coaching to pastors and church leaders in the region. In this episode, he and Leanne talk about the state of the church in East Africa, including the opportunities and chall...

In this episode of On the Move, host Leanne White sits down with Jan and Debbie Gossner to explore their 35-year journey as Bible translators for the Edolo people in Papua New Guinea.  They share profound stories of how translating the Bible into the native language has impacted the Edolo community, the unique challenges they faced, and the personal experiences that have shaped their faith and mis...

In this episode of On the Move, host Leanne White speaks with Dan and Beth Sonnenberg from Timothy Two Project International. They share their experiences and insights into the critical need for theological training in majority world countries, particularly in Latin America.  The Sonnenbergs discuss the challenges and successes in training pastors and children's ministry leaders, highlighting how...