Church is Changing Church is Changing

How did an aging suburban church in decline become a community hub of resilience and new life? Listen to this interview with Keren Rodriguez, pastor of Aloha United Methodist Church located less than 15 miles from downtown Portland, Oregon.

Rodriguez is on the front line of providing housing for the houseless in the parking lot of the church called Safe Rest Village. And that is only the beginning! Listen to how she has built trusting partnerships with government, non-profits, churches, and diverse communities in her neighborhood. She shares the courageous conversations she has had with the church and surrounding neighborhood about fear, death, and new life.

You can contact Keren Rodriguez at alohaumcpastor@gmail.com. Click here to learn more about Safe Rest Village: https://youtu.be/rI11vnGG94U?si=elmpt3JucEFgcrY1.

How did an Olympic paddler end up starting a worldwide ministry on the banks of the Nantahala River? Wayner Dickert worked for 30 years at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina before asking his boss if he could start a little worship service on the bank of the river. Now 18 years later, Wayner will be retiring as the pastor of River of Life Ministry. If you are interested in the cross section of outdoor adventuring and faith community development, this podcast is for you!

To find out more go to nantahalariveroflife.org. You can also find them on Facebook at River of Life: https://www.facebook.com/groups/122781707743338.

In this episode, host Paul Nixon interviews Dr. Andrea Smith, planter pastor of West UMC in Lake Norman, North Carolina, a church that has morphed with nimbleness ever since it was planted. A focus of the conversation is related to a digital children's ministry that grew out of the pandemic and has continued to develop, as they seek to engage an ever-changing population of American children.

Click the link to learn more about Amped online children’s ministry: https://www.youtube.com/@amped.online

In this episode, Paul Nixon interviews Northwest Texas DS Felicia Hopkins on her experience through disaffiliation of 80 percent of her churches. Hopkins also discusses moving onto a season of planting and creativity in West Texas.

If you refuse to lead a dying church, this conversation is for you! Paul Nixon has recently revised his best-selling book "I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church" for the new cultural context in which we find ourselves.

In this episode, he offers six choices that churches and church leaders need to make in order to thrive in our post-Covid world. They include the following: choosing life over death; choosing community over isolation; choosing fun over drudgery; choosing bold over mild; choosing frontier over fortress; and choosing now rather than later.

The book will be available on May 15. You can also host a book party in person or online by contacting Paul at paulnixon@me.com. Learn more at epicentergroup.org.

Bring your notebook to this conversation with Nigel Pimlott as he shares some of his reflections from over 40 years in cutting edge ministry in the UK. Pimlott also offers some pithy and subversive one-liners that could be pondered for years. He is the former learning, development, and leadership trainer and coach for the Methodist Church of Great Britain. Pimlott is a man of deep faith, a trail blazer and mentor, and a holy agitator for new forms of faith community. In this conversation, he talks about the patterns and trends of faith formation and offers some ideas for its future. You will be amazed at how his experience tracks with what is unfolding in mainline churches in the United States. You can reach him through Facebook at facebook.com/nigel.pimlott.5.