Welcome to episode three of Pastor to Pioneer. This week we hear from John Marshall, a pastor who left a large, successful church in New Mexico to start a church plant in New England. John discusses how as he attempted to grow this new church, discontent was growing within him as he came to new realizations of what the Bible says about pastors and pastoring.

John shares how he became so disillusioned with the church plant and his role in it that he left—and started a small, simple house church that meets in his home. In this setting, John has found that he is better able to lead and shepherd our of who he is rather than out of external expectations, and he is enjoying the freedom that comes with leading in this way and the resulting growth and empowerment of the people he walks alongside.

This week on Pastor to Pioneer, the guys talk to Justin Roper, a former youth pastor of a large church on the East Coast. Justin talks about how he was quickly climbing the "corporate church ladder" and moving to bigger and bigger churches—a hotshot, surefire success of a youth leader. He was having an incredible amount of what most people would deem success, but no matter how big his youth group got, he struggled mightily whenever kids would leave—his identity was completely wrapped up in the number of kids attending the youth group.

Justin discusses how this hit him, the leap of faith that lead him to leave the big church setting and begin a simple house church, and the mistakes he made along the way as he and his family began to do church differently than they ever previously had—and how he still has great hope for the church as it moves forward.

In this new podcast, three pastors examine the ways in which the church has shifted, needs to shift, and could be made better. With insights from weekly guests of various backgrounds, they dive into a subject that is a true passion for each of them—the church.

As Pastor to Pioneer kicks off in this first episode, meet the hosts. Each of them shares a bit of their respective story as they moved from the role of a traditional pastor into a more exploratory, pioneer role. Britton, Matt, and Neal explore a combination of Scripture, statistics, and their own experiences that point to the ways in which the church seems to be broken. This comes not out of a sense of criticism but rather recognizing that there are ways in which it might and could be different going forward.

The trailer for the Pastor to Pioneer podcast. The podcast is an honest conversation with pastors and former pastors who are exhausted from existing church structures and are seeking a simpler way of being the church and making disciples like we see in scripture.