Sam Sprunger from Webster Groves Church of the Nazarene in St. Louis, MO shares his story and the story of his church.

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A big part of what we want to do here at Sacred & Small is tell small church stories! In this episode, Sam Sprunger, pastor at Webster Groves Church of the Nazarene in St. Louis, MO, joins us to share his path to ministry and the missional ministry of Webster.

Webster’s story is of particular interest to us because our own Jason Buckwalter was a youth pastor there before taking his current senior pastor position at Fulton Heartland. Sam and Jason are able to share the ways that Webster’s culture has changed over the years and how that’s played itself out liturgically and missionally.

Dr. Tiffany Ross and the talk about Lent and the formative place of means of grace during this season.

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Dr. Tiffany Ross, pastor at Gateway Church of the Nazarene, joined with the Jasons in the second of their two-part interview.

In this episode, the Jasons and Tiffany walk through their understanding of Lent, focusing on spiritual practices called, in Wesleyan circles, the means of grace. The means of grace are transformative in our lives, imparting God’s grace to us, inspiring us to act in faith, and result in grace for ourselves and others. They are the heart of spiritual formation, and the core of what the season of Lent is all about.

Episode rundown:

• What is Lent?
• Lent and the Means of Grace
• What are the means of grace?
• How are we practicing the means of grace this season?

Dr. Tiffany Ross from Gateway Church of the Nazarene in St. Louis, MO shares her story and the story of her church.

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This week the Jasons were glad to welcome Dr. Tiffany Ross, pastor at Gateway Church of the Nazarene onto the podcast!

We follow our ethnographic interviewing strategies to ask her “tell me about…” questions that get to the heart of her call from media production to full-time pastoral ministry. She recently felt called to come to Gateway Naz as their senior pastor, and she shares about that process of transition and what she learned about her people when she arrived.

Tiffany will join the podcast for a two-part series that will take us into the season of Lent.

Episode rundown:

• The season of Lent at Sacred and Small
• Meet Tiffany Ross
• Tiffany’s call to ministry
• An ethnographic narrative of Gateway Nazarene

The Jasons continue their exploration of the LASTS method - language, actors/actions, space, time, and symbols.----

In this two-part podcast series, the Jasons tackle the LASTS method of participant observation. What is participant observation? It is an immersive ethnographic methodology where you observe a community of people as an active participant within the community. Doing this allows a small church pastor or leader to get a hands-on experience of the culture of a community in action, and helps them better reflect on its embedded theologies and embodied liturgies.

In this second of two episodes, Jason Buckwalter observed a selected church worship service from Jason Hill’s church. This service was chosen because it was the first week that Cape Naz was implementing a new system to receive prayer requests.

Episode Rundown:

Re-introducing the LASTS method

Jason B reflects on a special service at Cape Church of the Nazarene

We both draw some conclusions about the culture at Cape Naz

We consider the LASTS method of participant observation

Listen to this sneak peak of Earth for Lent!

Everyone who orders a copy of Earth for Lent will get an audio version of the book read by none other than the author herself, Brit Bolerjack!

Order your copy of Earth for Lent today!

The Jasons introduce the LASTS Method - Language, Actors/Actions, Space, Time, and Symbols - of participant observation and critically reflect on each other's church cultures.

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In this two-part podcast series, the Jasons tackle the LASTS method of participant observation. What is participant observation? It is an immersive ethnographic methodology where you observe a community of people as an active participant with the community. Doing this allows you to get a more hands-on understanding of the culture of a community, like a church, and help you better reflect on it’s embedded theologies and embodied liturgies.

Over the next two episodes, the Jasons will watch a selected church worship service from the other’s church, take field notes on what we experience while watching using the LASTS parameters of language, actors/actions, space, time, and symbols, and then reflecting on our experience to try to describe the culture of the church.

This is something that any pastor can do in their own context to better understand the values that you express as a church.

Leading people in a church can be an act of mutual submission, discipleship, and pastoral care.

Episode Rundown:

Church buildings. They're a major investment, a time-suck, and also a place of transformational ministry. Let's talk about facility management!

* Current facility issues that we are dealing with

* Our approach to facility management

* Major renovations & capital campaigns

The Advent and Christmas seasons are over. Tis the season for some reflective criticism on what went well, where the Spirit worked, and what we could change next year.

Episode Rundown:

* Our Advent themes

* Christmas Eve stories

* Looking ahead to 2025

Retired Nazarene District Superintendent Kim Smith talks through a lifetime of pastoral lessons learned, both good and bad.

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Episode Rundown: