200churches Podcast: Ministry Encouragement for Pastors of Small Churches

This episode is with Andy Dykhouse, the Executive Director for Camp Rivercrest in Nebraska. If you are not involved in the summer camp world, this episode is for YOU! Enjoy it, and then get your kids involved in something that will be absolutely life changing!

Check out Camp Rivercrest below, or a great Christian Camp in your neck of the woods.

Camp Rivercrest

Jeff and Jonny are LIVE together on this episode, catching up after a long summer, reminiscing over the last 400 episodes, and recalling some of the very memorable guests over the years, with cameo appearances by John Lynch, Kay Warren, Vinny Provenzano, and N.T. Wright.

This was a blast to record, and you will enjoy this CLASSIC episode!

Here are the links to the full episodes we reference in Episode 400:
John Lynch - Episode 61
Kay Warren - Episode 226
Vinny Provenzano - Episode 286
N.T. Wright - Episode 200
Vinny's Website - We Chose Love.com

He is a church communications and branding episode, who is actually the REAL DEAL. He has the heart of an evangelist, and has a craving for churches to reach people for Jesus. Sometimes us pastors can't get out of our own way - my words (Jeff) not his!

But Mark MacDonald helps us say less so our community will listen more. As a corporate communications and marketing guy - who was also a Christian - Mark realized that church leaders did not understand how to, in a ministerially and spiritually appropriate way, market their ministries. He wondered how he could help them get more of what people need (the Gospel) to the actual people who need it (the community).

Mark's organization is called, BE KNOWN FOR SOMETHING.

Mark did not seek me out, I found him online, and realizing he was the real deal, asked him to join me on the podcast. 

You are going to LOVE this!

You can check out Mark's book, Be Known For Something, right HERE!

Dave Jacobs and I talk about some things that pastors might want to reconsider. They come from his book, Second Thoughts - 100 things small church pastors need to reconsider.

Dave recommends we

• reconsider the length of our sermons
• reconsider the value of wasting time
• reconsider our bias (ouch!)

The standard for this podcast is twofold: 1) helpful, and 2) encouraging. I think we hit both targets squarely! 

Enjoy!

The church was waist deep into a Capital Campaign for a major church renovation, and mere weeks from engaging all the construction work... and then the pandemic hit. Ugh.

They had over a million dollars already contributed with millions more pledged. The vision had been cast, all the hard work of strategic planning finished - they had waded into the pool.

Shutdown.

What to do? "God!!?? What do we do?!"

Here's what the lead pastor did of this multisite church...

(Suzanne was also on Episode 242, if you want to hear some real back story exactly five years ago to the week!)

Andrew Root, Ph.D. is a professor of youth and family ministry at Luther Seminary in St. Paul MN, and an author who writes about pastors and churches in the secular age for Baker Academic Publishing.

Jeff and Andy talk about his passion and message - that churches don't really have a relevance or resource problem, it's a very different challenge they are up against. Andy lays it out - you WILL enjoy this and grow from it!

Find Andrew here!  And Check Out His Podcast Here!

Jeff talks with Paul Golden, on staff at Clarks Summit University, founder of Post Game with Paul Golden - A Sports + Faith Podcast and owner of PaulGolden.org.

Paul grew up in a pastor's home, attended Bible College and Seminary, has an M.Div., is the Chaplain of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Hockey Team, and has literally spent his entire life in and around ministry.

Paul talks about the coaches and athletes he's interviewed on his podcast, training pastors and Christian workers in the 21st century, and so much more. You're going to enjoy this conversation!

Thom Rainer, from the Rainer On Leadership Podcast, and ChurchAnswers.com joins Jeff to talk about issues that pastors face today.

Thom is a research guy, a data guy, or as he says, "a data nerd", and shares a lot from the perspective of actual research data and not just anecdotal evidence.

Thom works with pastors almost every day, and is a wealth of information and coaching on this episode - which you will... enjoy! And, check out the links below! You're welcome.

Rainer On Leadership Podcast
Church Answers.com
Thom's book: I Am A Christian 
Become a Church Answers Member!

Jonny Craig talks with Pam Dykstra about Crucial Conversations.

Pam is an Experienced Master Trainer working in the professional training & coaching industry. Skilled in Customer Service, Coaching, Organizational Development, Team Building, and Public Speaking, she is on the team at VitalSmarts.com.

Take your free Style Under Stress Assessment here!

Don't listen to this episode with taking a few minutes after it to jot down some critical next steps you need to take in applying what you've learned!

Chuck Fenwick is the lead pastor of the New Haven United Methodist Church in New Haven IN. Chuck talks with Jeff about his approach to:

• staffing
• sermon prep
• message delivery
• digital ministry
• and more!

You can find Chuck's church here: https://www.newhavenumc.com. 

This is an interesting and thought provoking episode - enjoy!