Getting to Nimble

We're back! Bill and I share updates on our lives (new baby! co-first-grade-teacher!) and then drive into what we're all experiencing these days: Covid fatigue.

Our Reads of the Week

Your ‘Surge Capacity’ Is Depleted — It’s Why You Feel Awful - Tara Haelle

About Getting to Nimble

For 50 years between them, Pastor Bill Smutz and musician Sarah Bereza have survived and thrived in churches big and small, urban and rural, good and not so good. With generous hearts and healthy boundaries, they share practical advice for church staff about working smart, cutting out the bs, and embracing the good in ministry. New episodes on 1st and 3rd Tuesdays.

Check out all the Getting to Nimble podcast episodes here, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

We don't know what the future is bringing, but we can be active right now to imagine the New that we're heading toward.

A note for listeners: this is our last episode for a few months while Sarah is on maternity leave. Stay nimble!

Resources We Mentioned

Salisbury Cathedral - "Our Purpose and Values"The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why - Phyllis Tickle

About Getting to Nimble

For 50 years between them, Pastor Bill Smutz and musician Sarah Bereza have survived and thrived in churches big and small, urban and rural, good and not so good. With generous hearts and healthy boundaries, they share practical advice for church staff about working smart, cutting out the bs, and embracing the good in ministry. New episodes on 1st and 3rd Tuesdays.

Check out all the Getting to Nimble podcast episodes here, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Here's how we're planning for the fall - with curiosity and a focus on the big "whys" of the ministries we lead. Joining us is Christine V. Hides, Director of Christian Education at Kenilworth Union Church.

Resources We Mentioned

Must- Have Online Ministry ToolsFaith Formation PlaylistsIt's Flowchart Time

About Getting to Nimble

For 50 years between them, Pastor Bill Smutz and musician Sarah Bereza have survived and thrived in churches big and small, urban and rural, good and not so good. With generous hearts and healthy boundaries, they share practical advice for church staff about working smart, cutting out the bs, and embracing the good in ministry. New episodes on 1st and 3rd Tuesdays.

Check out all the Getting to Nimble podcast episodes here, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Freedom to move, to eat, to coffee. This and other ways we see in-person worship changing because of our extended time at home. (Spoiler alert: Sarah's keeping the comfy pants.)

Our Reads of the Week

Flow: The Ancient Way to Do Contemporary Worship - Lester Ruth

About Getting to Nimble

For 50 years between them, Pastor Bill Smutz and musician Sarah Bereza have survived and thrived in churches big and small, urban and rural, good and not so good. With generous hearts and healthy boundaries, they share practical advice for church staff about working smart, cutting out the bs, and embracing the good in ministry. New episodes on 1st and 3rd Tuesdays.

Check out all the Getting to Nimble podcast episodes here, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

It's often easier to change while we're already in the midst of change because our old habits and systems are in flux. Bill and Sarah talk about using this changing season to think through our systems at church.

Resources We Mentioned on This Episode

Change Your Life When You're Changing Your Life - Happier with Gretchen Rubin

About Getting to Nimble

For 50 years between them, Pastor Bill Smutz and musician Sarah Bereza have survived and thrived in churches big and small, urban and rural, good and not so good. With generous hearts and healthy boundaries, they share practical advice for church staff about working smart, cutting out the bs, and embracing the good in ministry. New episodes on 1st and 3rd Tuesdays.

Check out all the Getting to Nimble podcast episodes here, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

A snapshot of where we are in terms of emotions and how we're planning/not-planning, then a longer conversation about starting (or hopefully, continuing) anti-racist work in our churches starting with one-on-one relationships.

About Getting to Nimble

For 50 years between them, Pastor Bill Smutz and musician Sarah Bereza have survived and thrived in churches big and small, urban and rural, good and not so good. With generous hearts and healthy boundaries, they share practical advice for church staff about working smart, cutting out the bs, and embracing the good in ministry. New episodes on 1st and 3rd Tuesdays.

Check out all the Getting to Nimble podcast episodes here, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Online worship, nimbly opening (while expecting future closures), and planning in a season of flux.

About Getting to Nimble

For 50 years between them, Pastor Bill Smutz and musician Sarah Bereza have survived and thrived in churches big and small, urban and rural, good and not so good. With generous hearts and healthy boundaries, they share practical advice for church staff about working smart, cutting out the bs, and embracing the good in ministry. New episodes on 1st and 3rd Tuesdays.

Check out all the Getting to Nimble podcast episodes here, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Last summer, my colleagues and I at First Congregational of St. Louis developed a creative, intergenerational worship series. Then, the four of us - Hannah Rice and Emily Stokes, plus Bill and I - turned the series into a 14-week curriculum for other congregations to use.

In this episode, the four of us talk about our collaborative process, surprises along the way, and the opportunities for healthy vulnerability that our summer worship gave us.

On This Episode We Mentioned:

A Neighborhood Summer: A 14-Week Intergenerational Worship PlanPotBangerz

About Getting to Nimble

For 50 years between them, Pastor Bill Smutz and musician Sarah Bereza have survived and thrived in churches big and small, urban and rural, good and not so good. With generous hearts and healthy boundaries, they share practical advice for church staff about working smart, cutting out the bs, and embracing the good in ministry. New episodes on 1st and 3rd Tuesdays.

Check out all the Getting to Nimble podcast episodes here, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Changing our musical habits is hard (and oddly enough right now, maybe both easier and harder than ever). In this episode, we talk with Paul Vasile about being open to musical change and helping others embrace the new, even when they're sure they only want what they already know.

Find Paul Vasile online here.

About Getting to Nimble

For 50 years between them, Pastor Bill Smutz and musician Sarah Bereza have survived and thrived in churches big and small, urban and rural, good and not so good. With generous hearts and healthy boundaries, they share practical advice for church staff about working smart, cutting out the bs, and embracing the good in ministry. New episodes on 1st and 3rd Tuesdays.

Check out all the Getting to Nimble podcast episodes here, or wherever you listen to podcasts.