The Venture 12 Podcast

We talk to Jessie Cruickshank about her new book; Ordinary Discipleship. Jessie learned how to be a disciplemaker in the wilderness. When she connected her training in outdoor adventure ministry with her Harvard degree in neuroeducation, God showed her a pathway for ordinary disciples of Jesus to experience profound spiritual growth.

Pete Enns is an author, scholar and professor. This podcast takes some of those Christian ideas that usually scare, intimidate or worry us, and then make those very places a meeting place with a God who is bigger and more wonderful, mysterious and trustworthy than we ever could have guessed.

The Gathering Network - Micro churches in an European context In this episode we have a conversation with Charlotte and Adam Penketh, the leaders of the Gathering Network in Glasgow. They invite us into a conversation about small missional communities, activating the whole body of Christ and what’s it’s like leading a network in Europe with its unique opportunities and challenges.

In this episode we meet Alan Hirsch award winning author of numerous books on missional spirituality, leadership and organisation and Rob Kelly who serves as a catalyst for city networks that unite the church for the flourishing of cities. Together they have just co-authored and released a book titled 'Metanoia". In this conversation we talk about the profound gift embedded in these first...

Rev. René August is an Anglican Priest from South Africa who was mentored by and served alongside the great Bishop Desmond Tutu. A veteran of the anti-apartheid movement, René currently works for Tearfund and serves as a peacebuilding specialist walking alongside communities and churches as they seek to respond to the issues of poverty, injustice, and division.  This episode firstly calls us to in...

In this episode we talk to Brian Sanders founder of the Underground Network about his book The 6 seasons of Calling in which he invites us to see 'calling' as something dynamic and ongoing rather than something that is static or a one-time only experience.

This is 1 of 5 episodes of the Venture 12 podcast brought to you in collaboration with the Movement Leaders Collective featuring one contemporary apostolic woman sharing the story of a historic apostolic woman in this mini-series seeking to broaden our understanding of the apostolic gifting given to the Church.  In this episode Emma Cotterill speaks to Keri Ladouceur about Prisca. Find out more ab...

This is 1 of 5 episodes of the Venture 12 podcast brought to you in collaboration with the Movement Leaders Collective featuring one contemporary apostolic woman sharing the story of a historic apostolic woman in this mini-series seeking to broaden our understanding of the apostolic gifting given to the Church.  In this episode Emma Cotterill speaks to Tracy Mathews about Lydia. Find out more abou...

This is 1 of 5 episodes of the Venture 12 podcast brought to you in collaboration with the Movement Leaders Collective featuring one contemporary apostolic woman sharing the story of a historic apostolic woman in this mini-series seeking to broaden our understanding of the apostolic gifting given to the Church.  In this episode Emma Cotterill speaks to Christie Lothamer about Photini. Find out mor...

This is 1 of 5 episodes of the Venture 12 podcast brought to you in collaboration with the Movement Leaders Collective featuring one contemporary apostolic woman sharing the story of a historic apostolic woman in this mini-series seeking to broaden our understanding of the apostolic gifting given to the Church.  In this episode Emma Cotterill speaks to Ellen Rupp about Marcella. Find out more abou...

This is 1 of 5 episodes of the Venture 12 podcast brought to you in collaboration with the Movement Leaders Collective featuring one contemporary apostolic woman sharing the story of a historic apostolic woman in this mini-series seeking to broaden our understanding of the apostolic gifting given to the Church.  In this episode Emma Cotterill speaks to Jessie Cruickshank about Aimee Semple-McPears...

In this episode we talk Dr Michael Adam Beck, Pastor, Author and Director for Re-missioning Fresh Expressions U.S about the missional imperative to cultivate contextual intelligence that leads to appropriate forms of disciple-making and church. Reflection Questions Has this episode brought up anything that needs to change at the core of your community's cultural DNA? What is dwelling deeply in...

In this episode we chat to Sarah Bourns Crosby who writes both poetry and prose around themes of waiting, hope, mission, justice, lament, love, and most recently, motherhood. This is a reflective conversation, so get comfortable, sit back and join us as we explore how poetry can help awaken our often dry and rigid imaginations moving us to new places and new ways of seeing in our spiritual journey...

In this episode we talk to The Rev. Prof. Sarah Coakley about her book God, Sexuality and the Self. We explore human desire in light of ancient understandings of the Trinity and how reform is needed in the church not least for the sake of women. Reflection Questions What feelings surfaced for you during this interview? How does what you’ve heard impact your relationship with God and...

In this episode we talk to Ruth Hayley Barton about discernment. Ruth states that "discernment is what distinguishes spiritual leadership from any other kind of leadership". In this chat we dig deeper into what discernment is and what it could look like to pursue God's will as a team and community.   What is dwelling deeply in your mind, soul and spirit after today’s episode?  How does that you’ve...

In this episode we're back talking to Brad Brisco again. This time we delve deeper into co-vocational ministry, what it is, why it's important for the future of the church and we find out about some of the details of how it really works.  1)What from today's episode is particularly relevant for your culture right now? 2)How can I learn more/ is there anything that needs clarifying or I don't...

In this episode we talk to Brad Brisco about the importance of incorporating the fivefold ministry gifts into all of our efforts to plant and start new Kingdom initiatives. We also hear about the critical importance and potential for people and movements to embrace and create more opportunities for co-vocational ministry and mission. 1)Has this episode brought up anything that needs to change at t...

Kicking off season 3 is an interview with Jessie Cruickshank. God wired our brains for transformation! This adventurous neuroscientist shares her experience and research around discipleship and how our unique personalities and individual stories are the basis for our faith journeys rather than the knowledge we possess or the theology we gravitate towards.  yourbrainbyjess.com whoology.co

Emma, Chris and Mark take a look back at season 2, selecting highlights from the past year and revisiting the wisdom of some of the many guests that have appeared on the show; namely Shaine Claiborne, Dr Fran Porter and Rich Robinson. Thanks for your engagement and support, and we will see you again in August when we will kick off season 3!

Drawing on their experience being allies for and partnering with the LGBTQIA+ community, we talk to the founders of Kaleidoscope New York who, through their pioneering work are seeing the spirit move, hearts opened and lives transformed through relationships. Find out more here: https://www.kaleidoscopeusa.org/

V12. EP 2.13 -  Author, theologian and teaching pastor at Woodland Hills Community Church, Greg Boyd lays down some of the foundational ideas behind 'Openness Theology' and the implication and inspiration this has on personal calling and the mission of the body of Christ. Check out  Reknew. https://reknew.org/ - Resourcing the Revolution Seeking to inspire, educate and expand the Kingdom...

Tracy Mathews, pioneer, entrepreneur and shepherd of the spiritual journey joins us in this episode to take us on a journey towards greater spiritual attunement.  She founded the organisation Attune which offers tools and training to help people and teams slow down, listen deeply, and tap into more of God's wisdom and guidance for the decision making, problem-solving, wayfinding, risk-taking...

In this episode Rich Robinson shares some of his ideas, experience and understanding of what kind of leadership is needed today and paints a picture of how we get there. For more information and resources on this topic please visit: For organisations: https://movementleaderscollective.com/ For individuals/leaders: https://www.themxplatform.com/ For entrepreneurs: https://creoventures.co/

Shane Claiborne is a prominent speaker, activist, and best-selling author. Shane worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, and founded The Simple Way in Philadelphia. He heads up Red Letter Christians, a movement of folks who are committed to living "as if Jesus meant the things he said." Shane is a champion for grace which has led him to jail advocating for the homeless, and to places like Iraq and...

Over the last couple of years there has been lots of talk across the world about micro-churches and returning to more movemental forms of ecclesia. In todays podcast we explore this a little further as Tim Burr shares with us the lessons learnt along the road in Ivy Church's (Manchester) journey in promoting and establishing micro-churches. Tim Burr is Regional Director for New Thing Europe and is...