Everything Just Changed

The pandemic has significantly impacted the church, with pastors reaching their breaking point and considering leaving. Why? What exactly is happening to pastors? This week on Everything Just Changed we launch the first episode in our new series, Bait & Switch: The State of Pastors and How Ministry Just Changed. We hope to reflect on what's changed and how we can move forward, with guests such as Mark Sayers and John Medlock helping us along the way.

To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Twitter. You can connect with the EJC community in the Everything Just Changed Facebook Group and share with us what just changed for you. We’d love to hear from you!

 

Don’t forget to subscribe to the EJC Newsletter here.

Resources:

38% of U.S. Pastors Have Thought About Quitting Full-Time Ministry in the Past Year

The first Christmas as a layperson: Burned out by the pandemic, many clergy quit in the past year

Our Pulpits Are Full of Empty Preachers

Thanks for joining us as we've explored the topic of power over the last several months. We hope it’s been helpful for you, we’d love to hear your thoughts, feedback, further questions, let us know at our Facebook group!

We'll be back soon with a new series...It’s no secret that the church in north America has taken some serious blows over the past couple of years, and we want to try to understand why that is, what’s going on, and especially ask the question of what’s happening to and with pastors. So whether you are a pastor, or you care about pastors, or maybe you’ve got a real problem with the church and its leaders, you won’t want to miss this next series, that’ll be out in a couple of weeks.

How does power relate to our sexuality? How does our sexuality relate to our identity? In many ways, those questions are fundamental to how we think about and engage in the culture war in our time. As conscientious objectors to the culture wars, here at Everything Just Changed, we are trying to find an alternative to navigate and discuss these important and yet very contentious issues—a way that is generous, grounded in grace, and doesn’t involved condemning those we disagree with.

Today we’re talking with Jim Pocta about his own story and the way that sexuality has been central in both his life and his work. Jim is a counselor in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and the author of a forthcoming book on Christianity and sexuality. If you're interested in learning more about the PCA's study report on human sexuality that Jim mentions in our conversation, you can find that report, as well as a video summarizing it, here.

What changed for you after listening to this conversation? Let us know on our Facebook group.

Today we continue our series on power, talking with Abby Hutto about gender and the role of women in the church. Abby is the author of God for Us: Discovering the Heart of the Father through the Life of the Son and the director of spiritual formation at Story Presbyterian Church in Westerville, Ohio. Connect with Abby at her website.

What changed for you after listening to this conversation? Let us know on our Facebook group!

We thought we were wrapping up this series, but as Russia invaded Ukraine last week, we wanted to explore the power dynamics playing out in real time. So we’re talking again with our friend and former Department of Homeland Security official Elizabeth Neuman, about the way disinformation has been used as a weapon of power in the run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Join the conversation on our Facebook group and let us know what changed for you after listening to this episode.

We’ve been exploring the issue of power over our last several episodes, and we’re doing this because we want to help Christians and those interested in Christianity learn to steward power wisely, and that means learning to understand and distinguish between what is biblical and theologically driven, on the one hand, and what is merely a cultural assertion. 

One area where the church has struggled the most to understand and navigate that distinction, is when it comes to the topic of race. Today we're talking with Dr. Alex Jun about race and power, Dr. Jun is a professor of Higher Education at Azusa Pacific University, and former moderator of the Presbyterian Church in America.

After you've finished the episode, let us know what just changed for you? Head over to our Facebook group and leave us a comment.

With millions of downloads you’ve likely heard of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, a podcast about the abuse of power. But now that it’s over what does its creator, Mike Cosper, think about power? And how did he steward his own cultural power in the midst of telling the story about power’s abuse? This week we're talking with Mike Cosper about the podcast, some of the questions we've wondered about while listening to this story, and about what Mike learned from diving in to the power dynamics at Mars Hill.

We'd love to hear from you:

What changed for you after listening to this episode?

Did your perspective on The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill change after hearing this conversation?

And we get ready to wrap up this series on power, what questions are you asking about power, what have we missed?

Let us know in our Facebook group.

We’re living in a time where, for some people the concept of truth is merely a power play, while others seek to use truth to advance their own ends. We’re having a series of conversations about power as we seek to understand why power has become such an explosive topic in our time, and we’re hoping to understand what it would look like to recover a Christian approach to power. 

Today we’re talking with former Department of Homeland Security official Elizabeth Neumann about information and misinformation, and the way information has been marshaled in the service of power in our cultural moment.

Join the conversation on our Facebook group and let us know what changed for you after listening to this episode.

Often when we think about power, we think of it only in it’s negative connotations, we think about the misuse of power, and the ways that power is used to hurt others. But what does it looks like, not just to use power in good and life-giving ways, but to redeem power, to correct its misuse? 

Today Bryce and Brad talk with Dr. Diane Langberg about her new book, Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church. We talk with Dr. Langberg about her work in counseling those who have been the victims of abuse, and about how she maintains hope while walking with others through very difficult circumstance.

After you listen to the episode, let us know "what just changed for you?" Leave a comment in our Facebook group and let us know.

This week David French joins us again to help us understand power in a rapidly changing cultural context. And we really want to hear from you.... What changed for you after listening to our conversation with David French? Did you love it, or hate it? Let us know why at our new Facebook group.

This will be our last episode for the year, so make sure to subscribe if you haven't already. We'll be back on January 3rd, talking with author and psychologist Dr. Diane Langberg about power and abuse as we continue our series about power, the church, and the culture.