How can the church be more receptive and open as neighborhoods become more complex and culture more multi-faceted? In this episode we speak with consultant Paul Nixon who works to help churches meet the demands of a rapidly changing age.

Transcript

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Ann Michel:  I’m Ann Michel. I’m Associate Director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership. And I’m the host of this Leading Ideas Talks Podcast.  I’m pleased to be talking today with Paul Nixon who is the director of Church Multiplication for the United Methodist Church and he’s also the head of the Epicenter Group where he and his colleagues have coached or consulted with about 1,000 churches in North America and Europe. They work a lot with mergers, and new church starts, and multi-site initiatives.  Paul is the author of several books, and his most recent book is “Multi: The Chemistry of Church Diversity.” So, I’m so glad to have you talking with us today, Paul.

Paul Nixon: I’m glad to be with you.

Ann: So, before we turn to the specifics of your book, I kind of wanted to put a broader frame around our conversation. Because I sense in this book, as well as some of your previous books, that because of your work with church planters and new church starts, and other leaders who are kind of at the green growing edges of the church, I think you really are a trend spotter.  And I wanted to know what you’re seeing today that’s different than maybe a few years ago, or what are you really paying attention to as you survey the landscape of churches.

Paul: In terms of what was driving into this book, the thing that I was noting was the increasing complexity of neighborhood that surrounds churches.  In the North American context — and certainly I work in the UK, it’s similar there – what we see is less homogeneity by zip code, by census block group. It used to be all the Italians lived over here, and the Irish over here, and the African American working class, and so forth. We were all sort of segregated. That really is mixing up more and more, especially with gentrification of cities, and so forth. What it means is that any church that has been around more than 40 years has seen massive changes in the neighborhood. They were once upon a time planted in a neighborhood they probably understood, and they designed ministry and message that made sense in that setting. That really has changed.

And so, we are sensing that there is a readiness on the part of many church leaders to really navigate a more “multi” approach to the way they do church. I think that’s one of the shifts that’s happening.  MLK Jr. said about 50 years ago, he said, “11:00 is still the most segregated hour of the week.”  Well, it probably still is.  And we can talk about that in a moment.  But that is definitely changing. And that is going to change, I believe radically, in the next quarter century.

Ann:  So, you do think that the churches will become more diverse than they are now?

Paul:  Oh, there is no doubt.  And I think it has something to do with the capacity of people and the other life experiences they bring.  People, especially the younger they get, the more so — but people, whether they have been in the military, or they have worked