Dinner Church Podcast

Dan had a plan for planting in an exciting city, but through a series of nudges, they ended up in a small town with a significant drug problem. In this fascinating interview, you’ll hear how they attracted one-sixth of their town to their Dinner Church. You’ll also hear about why they stayed after the COVID pandemic shut down their congregation, and what their ministry looks like today.

“Meals were the main venue for the arrival of God's kingdom,” says Tim Mackie, describing the work of Jesus in the books of Luke and Acts.

In this unique bonus episode, host Verlon Fosner and producer Chris Morton welcome BibleProject’s Tim Mackie (Bible scholar) and Jon Collins (Explainer and Visual Storyteller) to help us understand why Jesus’ ministry focused so much on meals.

BibleProject’s enormously popular animated explainer videos, in-depth podcast, and ever-expanding free library of resources have helped Christians around the world grow in their understanding of Scripture. This episode will help you understand how the Dinner Church movement is a natural outgrowth of Jesus' own ministry approach. You will also gain useful insight into how to better teach the stories of Jesus at your tables.

Explore BibleProject resources at bibleproject.com, subscribe to their YouTube channel at youtube.com/bibleproject, and listen to their podcast at bibleproject.com/podcasts/the-bible-project-podcast.

You can learn more about the Dinner Church Collective at dinnerchurch.com and explore our in-depth graduate-level training at dinnerchurch.com/graduate-course. 

Is there a “right” time to plant a Dinner Church? Probably not, according to David Kidd, a Dinner Church leader in Ohio. David’s congregation was in the midst of major transitions when he and his team started a new table-centered ministry. While it was a chaotic time, they now have a thriving community alongside their established congregation, and an initiative to start more across the state.

(This episode is a corrected version of "Episode 4: Starting a Dinner Church in the Midst of Chaos with David Kidd" that was originally released July 15.)

What if your church is thriving, but not in the way you want it to? In this discussion, you’ll hear from Josh Gering, who oversees five dinner churches in a County that is exactly between Seattle, WA and Portland, OR. Josh’s church was doing great, but they wanted to reach more people outside of the reach of their church. This interview highlights the unique ways Dinner Churches can work alongside existing congregations to do what they cannot.

Who starts a Dinner Church? In this episode, Verlon reconnects with Jeremy Veninga, who leads two Dinner Churches in St. Louis. Jeremy describes his sense of calling, and how he overcame his lack of formal education. Listen and learn how God is using everyday people to do extraordinary things.

Dinner Church is a simple, Biblical, and transformative approach to starting new expressions of Church.

In Season 2, Dinner Church Collective founder and director Verlon Fosner is checking in with some of our exciting and committed leaders, each of whom has graduated from the Dinner Church School of Leadership. Because of their passion to start and multiply Dinner Churches, they have each completed in-depth, seminary-level training to equip them to lead a movement.

In today's special preview episode, Verlon sits down with Jon Davis to discuss what happens in the Dinner Church School of Leadership. You'll hear about the ins and outs of this unique approach to Church leadership training and how you can be a part.

Learn how to join the Dinner Church School of Leadership at https://www.freshexpressions.com/dcsl

Join Verlon Fosner, Jon Davis, and Heather Evans for a special bonus episode discussing our first-ever Dinner Church Summit! You will learn why they are excited about the event and the future of the Dinner Church Collective.

Listen today—and then go and register!

Host JD Larson returns with his wife ChristianAnn to tell their own story. You'll hear how a COVID-era shift to Dinner Church allowed them to reimagine their Church Plant and how it has transformed their ministry and family.

You can get to know the Dinner Church Collective at dinnerchurch.com and join us live in person for the inaugural Dinner Church Summit, November 9th-11th in Orlando, Fl. Details at dinnerchurch.com/summit.

If you've benefited from the Dinner Church Podcast, please take a moment to share about it with your friends and give us a review on iTunes.

How does a 100-year-old, traditional, declining church reinvent itself? In this special episode from the Fresh Expressions archive, you'll hear from Dr. Verlon Fosner about the journey and process that led his congregation to transition into a network of Dinner Churches. You will learn about the particular and sometimes tricky and painful steps they took along the way. If you are struggling in a declining Church, or you are overwhelmed by the process of change, this podcast will help you.

You can get to know the Dinner Church Collective at dinnerchurch.com and join us live in person for the inaugural Dinner Church Summit, November 9th-11th in Orlando, Fl. Details at dinnerchurch.com/summit.

Verlon alongside his wife Melodee Fosner have been in church leadership for 35 years. They are founders of Community Dinners, a network of Dinner Churches in Seattle and Dinner Church Collective, a movement of Dinner Church practitioners across North America. Verlon is the author of books like Welcome to Dinner, Church and A Trowel and a Sword. When not traveling to train dinner church leaders, Verlon and Melodee can be found with their grandkids in Seattle and Nashville.

If you've benefited from the Dinner Church Podcast, please take a moment to share about it with your friends and give us a review on iTunes.

Any congregation can start a Dinner Church, but what can a whole network of Churches do? Al and Carl are on staff with the Ohio Ministry Network, a group of churches with a passion for multiplication and church planting. In this episode, they'll share how they partnered with Fresh Expressions North America to launch more than 20 dinner churches in one year.

You'll hear about the thinking behind this initiative, how they selected and resourced particular congregations, and the fruit that has come from this work.

You can get to know the Dinner Church Collective at dinnerchurch.com and join us live in person for the inaugural Dinner Church Summit, November 9th-11th in Orlando, Fl. Details at dinnerchurch.com/summit.

If you've benefited from the Dinner Church Podcast, please take a moment to share about it with your friends and give us a review on iTunes.