Shifting Culture

In this episode we have a conversation with Lisa Rodriguez-Watson around issues of justice, the Kingdom of God, and embodying Jesus.

Lisa Rodriguez-Watson, for nearly two decades, has served as an urban church planter, collegiate minister, seminary professor, international missionary and community development practitioner. Her heart to see people reconciled to God and to one another has led her to invest her life, family and ministry in places and people that have often been looked over by the world.

Lisa served as co-founder of a grassroots organization in Memphis, TN that was committed to mobilizing Christians to love their undocumented neighbors, and consider an appropriate Christian response to our nation’s immigration crisis. In addition to her role as National Director of Missio Alliance, she serves as Associate Pastor of Discipleship and Equipping at Christ City Church.

Educated at Florida International University and Golden Gate Seminary, she now lives in Washington, DC where she is a mom to 3 fantastic children, Nathan, Elias, and Annelies, and a wife to her best friend Matthew, who serves as Pastor of Teaching and Outreach at Christ City Church.

Lisa's Recommendations
Subversive Witness by Dominique Dubois Gilliard
Ted Lasso
The Making of Biblical Womanhood by Beth Allison Barr
A World of Difference by Lori Adams-Brown
Seminary Dropout by Shane Blackshear
Managing Leadership Anxiety by Steve Cuss

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

Follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcast

Listen to The Good, The True, and The Cinema anywhere you get podcasts.

Support the show

In this episode we have a conversation with Liam Byrnes about fruitfulness versus productivity and the long slow process of being formed into the likeness of Jesus.

Liam and Rachel Byrnes joined All Nations and did CPx in 2010 in Cape Town. They've lived there ever since working in the township of Masiphumelele encouraging and mentoring young people and local leaders. In the past few years, alongside a local team, help lead Isithembiso (http://childrenofpromiseafrica.com) which is a ministry of All Nations. They also serve the Centre for Christian Formation and Discipleship (http://christianformation.org) which is a part of YWAM's University of the Nations, teaching, training, mentoring, and coaching other mission and ministry leaders. Liam writes a fortnightly newsletter called the Lectio Letter (http://lectioletter.com) with an article on discipleship, book suggestions, and other miscellanies. You can find out more about Liam and Rachel at http://liamandrachel.com/about

Liam's Recommendations:
Faith Formation in a Secular Age by Andrew Root
The Divine Embrace by Robert Webber
The Apostles' Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism by Ben Myers

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

Follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcast

Listen to The Good, The True, and The Cinema anywhere you get podcasts.

Support the show

In this episode we have a conversation with Bryan Sims around getting buy in from everyone around values and mission, adaptive leadership, and abiding with Christ. 

Bryan has worked since 2001 as a Leadership and Organizational Change Coach with SLI where he has trained and coached leaders, teams, churches, and organizations over extended periods of time to bring spiritual awakening and missional effectiveness. He has coached in Anglican, Methodist, Free Methodist, Wesleyan, Baptist, Presbyterian, and non-denominational settings.

Bryan has also been a professor of Leadership and Lay Equipping at Asbury Theological Seminary since 2011. His teaching expertise relates to team leadership, equipping, leading change, adaptive spiritual leadership, and the link between leadership and discipleship.

Bryan is a graduate of West Texas A&M University (1998) and Asbury Theological Seminary (M.Div., 2003) and has a Ph. D. in Organizational Leadership from Regent University (2009). He is author of Leading Together: Embodying Kenosis through our Greatest Challenges (100M Publishing, 2021) and has a authored a chapter in Leadership the Wesleyan Way (Emeth Press, 2016).

He and his wife MyLinda have been happily married since 1997 and have four children: Isaiah, Luke, Silas, and Lydia.

Bryan's Recommendations
Tempered Resilience by Tod Bolsinger
Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership by Ruth Haley Barton
The Deeply Formed Life by Rich Villodas

Connect with Bryan
bryandsims.com
[email protected]

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

Follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcast

Listen to The Good, The True, and The Cinema anywhere you get podcasts.

Support the show

In this episode, Jon Ritner talks about his new book Positively Irritating, embodying the good news for the city, and he gives us a new paradigm for church.

Jon has twenty years of pastoral leadership experience, from growing an American megachurch to planting microchurches in Brussels, Belgium. He currently serves in Los Angeles as lead pastor of Ecclesia Hollywood and is on the board of directors for Communitas International, a global church planting movement. Jon trains pastors and church planters from across the country with Forge America, Fuller Theological Seminary, the V3 Movement, and 100 Movements. Jon and his wife, Kristyn, have two children, Addy and Jax.

Jon's book:
Positively Irritating

Jon's Recommendation:
Unclean by Richard Beck

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

Follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcast

Listen to The Good, The True, and The Cinema anywhere you get podcasts.

Support the show

We have a great conversation with Nicole Smithee around women in leadership, making Gospel centered decisions, trust and vulnerability, worldview, and more. It's one you won't want to miss.

Nicole lives in Manhattan with the love of her life, her husband Ben. Nicole is the CEO and Co-Founder of Iridescent Women, a digital media company committed to awakening and championing the brilliance of every woman through honest conversations and authentic connections. She also serves as the Executive Director of Ministries & Teaching at Liberty Church. She enjoys quality time with friends and family, getting lost in a good book, being active and exploring, and Netflix-binging. To learn more, check out iridescentwomen.com and follow @iridescentwomen and @nicolesmithee on Instagram.

Nicole's Recommendations:
The Making of Biblical Womanhood by Beth Allison Barr
Necessary Endings by Dr. Henry Cloud

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

Follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcast

Listen to The Good, The True, and The Cinema anywhere you get podcasts.

Support the show

In this episode we have a conversation with Michael Cooper about the Ephesian movement and the structures it took for all of Asia to hear the word of the Lord. We dig into different leadership models, cultural identity, and the importance of everyone playing their part.

Michael T. Cooper – Dr. Cooper earned a PhD in Intercultural Studies with a focus on religious movements and a minor in theology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He currently serves as a missiologist for East West where he focuses on missiological research and equipping missionaries for effective cultural engagement. Additionally, he is professor of missiological theology and program director of the Master of Arts Missiology of Movements at Mission India Theological Seminary. He has more than thirty years of missions experience, including ten years as a pioneer church planter in Romania after the fall of communism as well as six years in international development. He has helped equip church planters and leaders in Africa, Europe, North America, South America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. He has written and contributed to more than 30 books and academic articles and has presented conference lectures at the London School of Economics, University Bordeaux Montaigne, Loyola University, Baylor University, and many others. His book, Ephesiology: The Study of the Ephesian Movement received the Catalyst Services 2020 Reader's Choice award as the best book in missiology.

Michael's Books

Ephesiology.com

Michael's Recommendation
The 1st Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

Follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcast

Listen to The Good, The True, and The Cinema anywhere you get podcasts.

Support the show

In this conversation with Curtis Sergeant, we talk about elements of movemental disicple making, hear about movements from around the world, and get into Curtis' story of his time working cross-culturally.

Dr. Curtis Sergeant served with the International Mission Board (IMB) among an unreached people group (UPG) in China. After a movement started there, he began training for the house-church networks in China and others around the world in how to do the same. Later he served as a VP for Global Strategy with the IMB. Then he went to Saddleback Church over Church Planting and helped catalyze some extremely large-scale church planting projects, especially in India, and engaged nearly a hundred UUPGs. He then served at e3 Partners as the International VP. Now he runs a disciple-making and missions training center called MetaCamp in Dadeville, Alabama (metacamp.org). He is also a co-facilitator of the 24:14 coalition (2414now.net) and founded Zúme (zume.training).

Curtis' book:
The Only One

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

Follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcast

Listen to The Good, The True, and The Cinema anywhere you get podcasts.

Support the show

In this episode, we have a conversation with John Arndt about the posture we take in our interaction with others, attending to the presence of Jesus, and asking questions before we jump in with our answers.

John and Bethany Arndt worked in Cape Town, South Africa for almost a decade. They have a witty and vivacious son and live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. John trained leaders in spiritual formation and church-planting, and provided pastoral care for missionaries around the world for years. He is an Executive CliftonStrengths coach and has a Masters in Christian Formation and Discipleship. John sees the integration of coaching, spiritual direction and friendship as the vehicle for healing and growth, and values unity-in-diversity, strategic focus, and holistic growth.

John's Recommendations
The Wounded Healer by Henri Nouwen
Faithful Presence by David Fitch
With by Skye Jethani
Into the Silent Land by Martin Laird
Redeeming Sex by Debra Hirsch
Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman
Defiant by Kelley Nikondeha
Abuelita Faith by Kat Armas

Find more of John's work at Flourish Direction

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

Follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcast

Listen to The Good, The True, and The Cinema anywhere you get podcasts.

Support the show

In this episode, we have a conversation with Amy L. Sherman around bringing the Kingdom of God to earth and seeing holistic transformation happen within the people and places in which we work. It touches on issues of justice, economic reform, power, and much more.

Dr. Amy L. Sherman is a Senior Fellow at the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research, where she directs the Center on Faith in Communities. She likes to describe the work of the Center as that of being “a minister to ministries.” She provides training and consulting to churches and nonprofits seeking to transform their communities for the common good.

Dr. Sherman is the author of six books and some 75+ published articles in such diverse periodicals as Christianity Today, First Things, The Public Interest, Policy Review, Prism, The Christian Century, and Books & Culture.

Sherman is the founder and former Executive Director of Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries, an Evangelical nonprofit assisting low-income, inner-city families. She has served on the Advisory Board of the Christian Community Development Association for several years.

A passionate participant in the fight against violent injustice around the world, Sherman serves as a Senior Fellow at the International Justice Mission’s IJM Institute. IJM is the leading Christian human rights agency engaged in the fight against modern-day slavery and human trafficking.

Her undergraduate degree is from Messiah College and her graduate degrees are from the University of Virginia.

Sherman is a long-time member of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, VA. Her life verse is Micah 6:8 (“He has shown you, O Man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”).

Amy's Recommendation:
Arrabon
Playing God by Andy Crouch

Find more of Amy's work:
Vocational Stewardship
Made to Flourish

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

Follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcast

Listen to The Good, The True, and The Cinema anywhere you get podcasts.

Support the show

In this episode, Ted Esler talks about the lack of innovation in ministries today and why the church should be at the forefront of innovation in this ever changing world we live in. 

Ted worked in the computer industry before joining Pioneers in 1990. He served in Bosnia and in various leadership roles with Pioneers until 2015 when he was appointed the president of Missio Nexus. The author of The Innovation Crisis, he holds a PhD in Intercultural Studies (Fuller Theological Seminary, 2012).

Ted’s Recommendations

Noise by Daniel Kahneman
The CEO Next Door
The Chosen

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

Follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/shiftingculturepodcast

Listen to The Good, The True, and The Cinema anywhere you get podcasts.

Support the show