Leading Ideas Talks

How can a congregation be more effective in developing a missional presence? In this episode we speak with Tom Berlin, lead pastor at Floris United Methodist Church in Herndon, Virginia, about how being adaptive can help churches live into a more fruitful missional sensibility.

How have the holiness and Pentecostal movements influenced American culture? In this episode we speak with Cheryl Sanders about why these movements grew so rapidly, how they influenced our culture, and the challenges they face in our modern world.

What are the latest trends in how churches receive, manage, and use funds? And what do they mean for your congregation? In this episode we speak with David King, director of the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving, about new research on the economic practices of churches.

Are you longing to connect with youth in relevant and faithful ways? In this episode we speak with Jen Bradbury about fresh approaches to youth ministry and how to conduct youth mission trips with integrity and purpose.

Transcript

Announcer: Leading Ideas Talks is brought to you by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter at churchleadership.com/leadingideas.

Leading Ideas Talks is also brought to you by the Doing Good Well Video Tool Kit. Explore the fruitfulness of mission efforts and learn practical strategies to help ensure your church’s mission hits the mark. Doing Good Well is available on download and DVD at churchleadership.com/doinggoodwell.

Are you longing to connect with youth in relevant and faithful ways? In this episode we speak with Jen Bradbury about fresh approaches to youth ministry and how to conduct youth mission trips with integrity and purpose.

Ann Michel: I’m Ann Michel, Associate Director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary and I’m pleased to be hosting this episode of Leading Ideas Talks. I’m talking today with Jen Bradbury, who I have come to know by reading her latest book, A Mission That Matters: How to Do Short-Term Mission Trips Without Long-Term Harm. Jen is a career youth worker in the Chicago area and she’s written widely on the subject of youth ministry. So, to kick things off, Jen, I wondered if you could say a bit more to introduce yourself to me and our listeners and tell us a bit about your ministry and your work.

Jen Bradbury: Absolutely, thanks for having me on the show today, Ann, I really appreciate that. So, like Ann said, my name is Jen Bradbury and I have been in youth ministry for the last 18 years at four different congregations in the Chicago suburbs. I kind of got into youth ministry accidentally. But I have absolutely loved it. It uses all of my gifts. I think it’s such an important ministry of the church. And because I think the youth are the leaders of now, not tomorrow, but now. And so pouring into and discipling and investing in them is super important and something that I think every church needs to focus on, whether or not you have a paid youth worker. So I have largely been in mainline congregations. So I’ve spent the bulk of my career in the ELCA at three of the four churches that I’ve served. And then was also, for five years, at a multi-site, multi-ethnic non-denominational congregation. So I’ve been around for a while in a variety of different settings.

Ann Michel: Yeah, I’m really happy to hear your enthusiasm for youth ministry because, I think as I look around the church, broadly, youth ministry really is a tremendous need and concern. There are so many churches that no longer have enough families or youth to sustain a viable youth group or, in a lot of churches where they still do have a youth group, their approach to youth ministry hasn’t changed very much from the way people were doing youth ministry many decades ago when I was in high school — they got the kids together in the church basement on Sunday afternoon or Sunday evening. And so, where do you see new hope and new possibilities for how churches can be in ministry with youth?

Jen Bradbury: Oh, what a great question, Ann! So I see a ton of hope and possibilities for youth ministry ranging from the idea that I don’t think youth ministries have to be big in order to be effective.  I think you need to have adults who care deeply about youth and who love God and want to follow Jesus and are willing to invest in teens in creative ways. And so, I don’t think that’s necessarily coming together in playing an hour of games and then talking about scripture for 15 minutes. I think it can be much more of a small group format where scripture and discipleship really is the center of what you’re doing. I

How can your congregation bridge tradition with new ideas for ministry? In this episode we speak with Ronald Slaughter, pastor of St. James AME church, who shares how he maintains important traditions while still innovating.

Transcript

Announcer: Leading Ideas Talks is brought to you by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter at churchleadership.com/leadingideas.

Leading Ideas Talks is also brought to you by the Doctor of Ministry in Church Leadership Excellence from Wesley Theological Seminary and the Lewis Center. The next cohort begins May 2020 in Washington, DC. Apply now and learn more at churchleadership.com/dmin.

How can your congregation bridge tradition with new ideas for ministry? In this episode we speak with Ronald Slaughter, pastor of St. James AME church, who shares how he maintains important traditions while still innovating.

Doug Powe: Welcome to Leading Ideas Talks, a podcast featuring thought leaders and innovative practitioners. I’m Douglas Powe, the director of the Lewis Center and your host for this talk. Joining me is Rev. Dr. Ronald Slaughter, senior pastor of St. James AME church in Newark, NJ. Our focus for this podcast is balancing tradition and innovation. Ron, we’re happy you’re going to be joining us today. I want to start by having you share with us a brief history of St. James AME church.

Ronald Slaughter: Well thank you so much Dr. Powe. Thank you for this opportunity to be a part of this podcast. St. James was birthed 179 years ago. It was actually, originally, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church led by Rev. C. Birch. But then, later on, Bethel was disbanded. A few years after that and St. James was birthed at that time. St. James has been in the city of Newark. It was started on Green Street and then it moved to 94 Union St. But what’s significant about our history is that in 1945, St. James moved to its present location here in the central ward, the heart of the city of Newark, NJ. It moved here by purchasing, in 1945 get this, a group of African Americans — it was a nice-sized church, even back then — under the leadership of Dr. Mansfield Jackson, purchased this present building which was known as the Gothic Cathedral. It was owned, at that time, by First Presbyterian Church, or the Presbyterian denomination who sold the building for $35,000. A group of blacks purchased the building for cash in 1945. We’re talking about economics back then, was able to purchase this building for cash back in 1945. And so, we purchased the Gothic Cathedral back then. I have now become, and I am the 50th pastor of St. James church in 179 years. I am also the youngest pastor to lead St. James AME church. What a beautiful family that God has allowed me to be the under-shepherd of these past 9 years.

Doug Powe: Thank you for that brief history of the church. Let’s jump into our conversation. Under you, you’ve been working hard to, you’ve been talking about tradition. So, can you share a little bit about how you have determined what traditions were important to maintain at the church and then what traditions were important to change. The basis of the question, of course, is, many of our congregations struggle because they want to maintain tradition, but those traditions often lead to them declining. But at the same time, we don’t want to throw out the baby with the bath water, because tradition, of course, is important. So how have you figured out how to maintain some traditions but also then, how to change others so the church can move forward?

Ronald Slaughter: I think, Dr. Powe, I must first give credit to my predecessor. My predecessor who, of course, is 30 years older than me, had pastored this church, the longest serving pastor with 27 years, Dr. William D. Watley, in doing that 27 years, he was able to do some things that I don’t think a you

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

Announcer: Leading Ideas Talks is brought to you by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter at churchleadership.com/leadingideas.

Leading Ideas Talks is also brought to you by Discovering God’s Future for Your Church. This turn-key video tool kit helps your congregation discern and implement God’s vision for your church’s next faithful steps. Discovering God’s Future for Your Church is available on download and DVD at churchleadership.com/shop.

How can leaders think outside of the box? In this episode we discuss innovation, entrepreneurial ministry, and leadership with Kenda Creasy Dean, the Mary D. Synnott Professor of Youth, Church, and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary.

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

How can pastors be on the frontlines of community activism while also being faithful to their call? In this episode we speak with Heber Brown, III, pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church and founder of the Black Church Food Security Network, about his work for racial justice in Baltimore and beyond.

Transcript

Announcer: Leading Ideas Talks is brought to you by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter at www.churchleadership.com/leadingideas.

Leading Ideas Talks is also brought to you by Take the Next Step: Leading Lasting Change in the Church by Lovett H. Weems, Jr. This book offers congregational leaders essential insights into how they can work with and through their churches’ ministries to bring about authentic and faithful growth. Take the Next Step is available at churchleadership.com/books.

How can pastors be on the frontlines of community activism while also being faithful to their call? In this episode we speak with Heber Brown III, pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church and founder of the Black Church Food Security Network, about his work for racial justice in Baltimore and beyond.

Ann Michel: I’m Ann Michel, Associate Director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary and I’m editor of Leading Ideas E-newsletter. I’m pleased to be the host of this episode of Leading Ideas Talks podcast. I’m talking today with Rev. Dr. Heber Brown III who’s the pastor of Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Baltimore city. He’s a community activist on issues of racial justice and he’s also the founder and executive director of an organization called the Black Church Food Security Network. So happy to have you talking with us today Heber!

Heber Brown III: Well thank you for the opportunity. 

Ann: Yeah, so since I have last seen you, Heber, you’ve gotten to be a pretty famous guy. I come home from work and I turn on the TV and there you are with Ari Melber on MSNBC. And I’m driving my car and I’m hearing you on WTOP. And then I open up Christian Century and you’re there, too. You recently won an award, I believe, from the Claneil Foundation, from their emerging leader fund.

Heber: That’s correct.

Ann: Wow Heber! There’s really something up with the work that you’re doing. So can you tell our listeners something about the work that you’re doing in the community?

Heber: Yeah. So, I am blessed to, as you’ve said, pastor the Pleasant Hope Baptist Church here in Baltimore. I just celebrated 11 years as pastor of this glorious church. And it is a church that’s in North Baltimore City. And so, a lot of what I do is just pastor people, a lot of your listeners will identify with that. And during the course of my pastoring though, I noticed an opportunity to minister to people in a deeper way. When I learned, during the course of hospital visits to members, that many of them were there because of diet-related issues. I wanted to do more, I wanted to do something more than pray and just provide spiritual counsel. Though prayer and spiritual counsel is so very important, I just felt an urging, and a nudging, a divine nudging maybe, to do something more than that. And that’s when the idea came, eventually for us to start growing food on a part of the front yard of our church. And now we’ve been growing food for about eight years, right on the front yard to provide fresh, healthy produce to the members of our congregation and the community as well. Our church garden was going so well that, after about 5 or 6 years, I really was inspired to scale up and systematize the idea. And it really just started with a question. “What if? What if more churches that own land, used that land to grow food for their congregations and their community? And in what ways could food become a more pronounced ministry through our churches?

How can you better engage young adults today? In this episode we speak with Emily Peck-McClain, Visiting Professor of Christian Formation and Young Adult Ministry at Wesley Theological Seminary, about ways congregations can connect with young adults more effectively.

Transcript

Announcer: Leading Ideas Talks is brought to you by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter at www.churchleadership.com/leadingideas.

Leading Ideas Talks is also brought to you by “Lead Like Nehemiah: Rebuilding Together,” a new video-based adult Christian study coming this summer from the Lewis Center. Browse our other studies, including Women Speak of God and Simply Christian, at churchleadership.com/shop.

How can you better engage young adults today? In this episode we speak with Emily Peck-McClain, Visiting Professor of Christian Formation and Young Adult Ministry at Wesley Theological Seminary, about ways congregations can connect with young adults more effectively.

Intro: How can you better engage young adults today? In this episode Lewis Center Director F. Douglas Powe, Jr., speaks with Rev. Dr. Emily Peck-McClain, Visiting Professor of Christian Formation and Young Adult Ministry at Wesley Theological Seminary, about young adult ministry. They discuss how congregations can effectively connect with young adults.

Doug Powe: Welcome to Leading Ideas Talks, a podcast featuring thought leaders and innovative practitioners. I am Doug Powe, the director of the Lewis Center and your host for this talk. Joining me is Reverend Dr. Peck-McClain, visiting professor of Christian formation and young adult ministry. Our focus for this podcast is young adult ministry. I just want to start off by asking you a question that I know many of our listeners struggle with. So how do you define young adult ministry?

Emily Peck-McClain: Well, I guess that begins with how you define young adults. And then how you define ministry. So you’ve got two different terms that you’re working with. Young adults can be anything. The young adult literature is what the church calls youth. So that terminology can be confusing.

Doug: So, I could be a young adult even though I’m over the age of 40, we won’t give my actual age.

Emily: Right. Sure. Yeah. It can’t really be anything. But the point is that the term is a little bit nebulous. So, churches define it in different ways. The United Methodist Church defines it as 35 and under. I am a part of a young clergy women’s group and that defines it as under 40. I think, probably, if you’re under 40, you can qualify. If you’re over 40, sorry Doug, you might not be a young adult. Though in your church you could be because a lot of our churches have a lot of older folks in them and it’s the “if you’re under 60, you’re considered young.” So there you go, nebulous.

Doug: Yes. So, using what you just said, do you think we probably should be thinking probably under 35? Under 40 for young adults? And if that’s the case, why do you think those parameters are helpful?

Emily: Generally, if we’re talking generational theory, young adults tend to be millennials. So these are folks who are graduating from college, and the oldest are me. I’m the oldest millennial that there is. But, that’s also a wide range of ages. So a lot happens in life from early 20s to late 30s. Again, I won’t give my actual age. But that’s a challenge for churches. Because if you’re trying to fulfil the needs of and welcome the gift of young adults, you’re talking about people who are just out of college and they’re on their own for the first time. And they’re getting their first jobs. Or they’re in internships that might not even pay. And you’re talking about people who might be ready to start families and who might be married. So even that age

What can we learn from the example of women leaders in the Bible? In this episode we speak with Carla Works, associate professor in New Testament at Wesley Theological Seminary, about leadership lessons from biblical women.

Transcript

Announcer: Leading Ideas Talks is brought to you by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter at www.churchleadership.com/leadingideas.

Leading Ideas Talks is also brought to you by Lead Like Nehemiah: Rebuilding Together, a new video-based adult Christian study coming this summer from the Lewis Center. Browse our other studies, including Women Speak of God and Simply Christian, at churchleadership.com/shop.

What can we learn from the example of women leaders in the Bible? In this episode we speak with Carla Works, associate professor in New Testament at Wesley Theological Seminary, about leadership lessons from biblical women.

Ann Michel: I’m Ann Michel host of this Leading Ideas Talks Podcast. And I’m really delighted to be talking today with Dr. Carla Works who’s an associate professor in New Testament here at Wesley Theological Seminary. And her area of interest is Paul’s letters. And she has a new book on Paul coming out. It’s entitled The Least of These: Paul and the Marginalized. I’m really pleased that Carla has agreed to chat with me today on the subject of women leaders in the Bible. So welcome Carla.

Carla Works: Thank you so much for having me.

Ann: Here at the Lewis Center we pay pretty close attention to the literature of church leadership. And it occurred to us recently that we have seen all kinds of books and article on leadership lessons from Moses, and David, and Nehemiah, and Paul, and Jesus. But it’s pretty rare to find people writing on the issue of leadership looking to women figures in the Bible for leadership lessons. So, I wanted to ask you, in your opinion, Is that oversight? Is that bias? Or is there really nothing that we can learn from women in the Bible?

Carla: If anything, it is oversight that is an ancient one considering that the Bible is formed and preserved in cultures that are patriarchal. And so, we do have actually a lot to learn in the Biblical texts about women and women in leadership. But we know very little about them. And so, we have to learn something about the culture in which these texts are written and preserved. We have to understand something about how women functioned in the early church before we can harvest those leadership insights. And that requires a lot of work on our part. And so, it may be easier to gravitate toward Jesus or Paul because we have so much information in the Biblical text about them.

Ann: Right. So, if you were thinking of the women characters in the Bible, is there one particular woman that you look to as an example of biblical leadership?

Carla: It’s an interesting question. I wouldn’t say that there is one that I look to so much for leadership. But there are a few that if I could go back and have a conversation with these women … The first one would actually be Phoebe. I’m a Paul scholar. And Phoebe — whom my students sometimes have heard of, and for the most part, haven’t — she is mentioned in Romans 16. And Paul gives her the letter that we call Romans. And she delivers that letter to all the churches in Rome. And as the deliverer of that letter she would have been the reader of the letter and the first interpreter of that letter. So, when you think about how important Romans is in many of our churches and especially our Protestant doctrine — oh, I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to talk to Phoebe and say, “What is it that Paul asked you to emphasize when you are reading this letter?” — which is quite a lengthy letter by first century standards.

And then another woman, whom we do not even know her name, but in Mark 14, there is a woman who anoints Jesus’s body — anoints his head in the Gospel of Mark. And in Mark 14, when the disciples get al

How can a congregation make an impact no matter its size? In this episode we speak with Joe Daniels, the pastor of Emory Fellowship in Washington, DC, and co-author of the new book Connecting for a Change: How to Engage People, Churches, and Partners to Inspire Hope in Your Community.

Transcript

Announcer: Leading Ideas Talks is brought to you by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter at www.churchleadership.com/leadingideas.

Leading Ideas Talks is also brought to you by Discovering God’s Future for Your Church. This turn-key video tool kit helps your congregation discern and implement God’s vision for your church’s next faithful steps. Discovering God’s Future for Your Church is available on download and DVD at churchleadership.com/shop.

How can a congregation make an impact, no matter its size? In this episode, we speak with Joe Daniels, the pastor of Emory Fellowship in Washington, DC and co-author of the new book Connecting for a Change: How to Engage People, Churches, and Partners to Inspire Hope in Your Community.

Doug Powe:  Welcome to Leading Ideas Talks, a podcast featuring thought leaders and innovative practitioners. I’m Douglas Powe, the director of the Lewis Center and your host for this talk. Joining me is Rev. Dr. Joe Daniels, the pastor of Emory Fellowship in Washington, DC. He is the co-author of the new book Connecting for a Change: How to Engage People, Churches, and Partners to Inspire Hope in Your Community. Our focus for this podcast is “Think Big.” Joe, welcome to our podcast.

Joe Daniels: Thanks for having me, Doug. It’s good to see you.

Doug: It’s good to see you. I want to begin, Joe, with having you tell a little bit of the story of Emory Fellowship. Many have heard your story, but some have not. But Emory Fellowship has always been one to “think big.” So can you share just a little bit, briefly about Emory Fellowship and your time there over the past 20 years.

Joe: Sure, sure. Well, I came to Emory at a time when Emory was really struggling to stay alive. In its history, it was a very, very strong, white congregation. But it began to lose members in the 60’s, during the time of white flight that took place during the time of the 14th Street Riots, when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. By the time Emory received its first black pastor in 1976, the church had dwindled to 30 members. It never got above 85 members between 1976 and the time I arrived. When I arrived there, I think we had, maybe, 50 people in worship, on average. And so, I inherited a church that had been threatened with closure on three occasions. It was almost sold on two occasions. So we were literally a rebuilding project. Yet, I found a remnant within the congregation that wanted to grow, that wanted to see this church be strong. I’ll never forget Mrs. Norma Vincent, who’s still with us in a profound way, saying to me at my first SPRC meeting, “I want to see my church revived. I want to see my church revived.” And so, we’ve been thinking big from that point. We started spending a lot of time with spiritual formation. There were no Bible studies when I arrived. We had one worship service for one hour and no one saw each other for the whole week until the next Sunday. So we literally had to build pieces. So we started with Bible study. We started with spiritual formation. We then went to worship, along with the Bible study pieces. And then we got to a point where we began to go out into the community.

Doug: And let me pause there for a second and interrupt you in going out to the community because I hear you talk about this all the time. That you’re the pastor of the community.

Joe: Yes.

Doug: And that’s an important phrase for you. You also say, “Claim your zip code.” So as you talk about the community, share a little bit about, what it means to be the pastor