Every Church Flourishing by the Great Commission Association

Chase Thompson
  • 5.0 (29)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Weekly

The Every Church Flourishing podcast is all about helping churches, leaders, and pastors find health, encouragement, practical advice, soul care, and resources that work together to build up your local fellowship and the broader Kingdom of God. Join hosts Pastor Chris Cole and Dr. Chase Thompson from the Great Commission Association, led by Dr. Mike Stewart, as they explore the frontiers of ministry and aim to make every church flourish! Broadcasting from the North-Central Coast of California and the beautiful redwoods, We will focus on church growth, pastoral health, church leadership, evangelism, discipleship, denominational news, West Coast church news, California Baptists, apologetics, prayer, and other facets of church health and flourishing. In addition to church health, every show features a semi-rare and interesting soda review, choosing soft drinks from all around the world.

  1. 6d ago

    Church Replanting, Church Revitalization, and Help For Struggling Churches with Bob Bickford. Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast. + Dangers of Soda Racism.

    Every Church Flourishing 38 With Bob Bickford. Title: Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast. Church Replanting, Church Revitalization, and Help For Struggling Churches with Bob Bickford.   FIND YOUR DOTTIES. The Dangers of Soda Racism.  If you don't deal with your church's problems because you don't want people to leave, the truth is that people will leave BECAUSE you aren't dealing with your church's problems.  Put a gifted pastor in the wrong culture and that culture will eat him alive.  Culture is the hidden assumptions about the way things are.  Diagnosis is hard - how can churches know their health when they are scared to know their health? Why should church leaders embrace church diagnostics and health checks? Revitalization is largely good old pastoring.  Preach, pray, love, stay.  Help the congregation find the joy of the Lord again, and great things will happen.  How to move forward into revitalization when there is NOT unanimity. Building trust and gaining trust before big changes are crucial for pastors and leaders.  It's not one single issue that leads to decline in churches, it's multiple things. There are older people in church replants that might start out a little bit sour, but if you befriend them, love them and pastor them well, they may turn into fruitful DOTTIES - (listen to Bob's story at the end of this episode)  What are some neglected essentials to church revitalization?  Are there backward corners of Heaven? Is soda racism allowable? How Pastor Christopher's soda prejudice has led to stomach and indigestion problems.  The aftertaste is a little discouraging…

  2. Sep 28

    WHY leads to WHAT: Pastoring Change in Churches That Want Change But Resist It. HELP! My Church Isn't Growing…What Should We Do?! With Bob Bickford

    Episode 37: WHY leads to WHAT: Pastoring Change in Churches That Want Change But Resist It. HELP! My Church Isn't Growing…What Should We Do?!  With Bob Bickford of the Nashville Baptist Association.  Notes:  We think if we deal with our problems, people will leave, but the truth is that if we DON'T deal with our problems, people will leave.  How attendance fluctuates in church replants and church revitalizations. Sometimes you will have a double dip when people leave because the church has changed TOO much, and other people leave because the church has NOT changed enough.  Don't shepherd not to get hurt, but embrace the suffering and embrace the conflict, because it is often a sign that a church is heading in the right direction in a church revitalization situation.  When Discipleship is deficient, it leads to focusing on the wrong things, like the administration of the church and other details.  TOYOTA FIVE WHYS PRINCIPLE.  HELP DEVELOP A CULTURE OF JOY BY CELEBRATING SMALL VICTORIES AND POSITIVE THINGS. REVITALIZATION IS LARGELY GOOD OLD PASTORING.  Applying the principle of the nudge to church leadership and church revitalization.  Before we decide what we need to do about a declining church, we need to understand WHY the church is declining. The most important question to ask at the beginning of church revitalization is: WHY are we declining? The WHY is the most important issue of church decline.  Soda Review: Everybody's favorite coffee flavor: Orange. TASCO Coffee Soda Orange Flavor review.  If not toilet paper, what do Indonesians use instead of toilet paper? YOUR LEFT HAND?! Barring a clear calling from God, I would like to avoid that particular toilet adventure for now.  All about Bob Bickford:  Bob Bickford has studied and taught on church renewal for years, and also lived it out in the trenches, one church at a time. In 2012, Bob left a staff position at a large multisite church to become pastor of Sherwood Baptist Church in suburban St. Louis. Through a careful process of renewal and replanting, Sherwood gave birth to a new congregation called The Groves in 2014, where Bob served for nine years.  That experience opened the door for Bob to help struggling churches on a much larger scale. As Associate Director of Replant for the North American Mission Board, he developed a national church-renewal strategy for Southern Baptist associations. He also helped create Missouri's Resound Network and has written several practical resources, including Am I a Replanter?, Pathways to Partnership, and The Associational Replanting Guide.   Today, Bob serves as Executive Director of the Nashville Baptist Association, helping churches and pastors pursue greater health, gospel faithfulness, and missional effectiveness. He and his wife live in Nashville and have three adult children and five grandchildren. Bob brings together the heart of a pastor, the experience of a replanter, and the strategic insight of someone who has walked alongside many churches at critical crossroads. Nashville Baptist Association: (https://nashvillebaptists.com/about/)

  3. Sep 21

    If You Don't Develop Young Leaders, Your Church Will Die. ALWAYS Be Thinking about Four Generations Worth of Leaders in Your Church. + Review of Romantic Peach Cola

    Cody Bryan and Christian Challenge Santa Cruz: https://challengeucsc.com/affiliations/ Brandon O'Sullivan at Gospel Community: https://www.gospelcommunitysc.org/leadership  How can young ministers and leaders in the church avoid controversy and offense so that they can be fruitful and flourish?  How can churches have deeper and more fruitful partnerships with parachurch ministries?  How simply making disciples creates opportunities in ministry.  "A peach is an orange sort of thing, but this bottle is a blue sort of thing…what gives?"  Episode 35 How Can Parachurch and Church Ministries Work Together??  The Kingdom of God is Not Competitive, But Cooperative.  How Can Churches Make Room for Young Leaders and Not Stifle Them? Why is it CRUCIAL for churches to make room for young leaders??  How a Bible-Believing Church Can Make Disciples and Thrive in one of the most liberal Cities in America.  College Ministry at U.C. Santa Cruz  All about Christian Challenge College Ministry

  4. Sep 14

    Churches: Make Room for Young Leaders! The Kingdom of God is Not Competitive, But Cooperative. Santa Cruz College Discipleship.

    Today's episode features Pastor Brandon O'Sullivan from Gospel Community Church in Santa Cruz, California: https://www.gospelcommunitysc.org/leadership And Cody Bryan, from Christian Challenge at U.C. Santa Cruz.  Episode 35: How Can Parachurch and Church Ministries Work Together??  The Kingdom of God is Not Competitive, But Cooperative.  How Can Churches Make Room for Young Leaders and Not Stifle Them? Why is it CRUCIAL for churches to make room for young leaders??  How a Bible-Believing Church Can Make Disciples and Thrive in one of the most liberal Cities in America.  College Ministry at U.C. Santa Cruz  All about Christian Challenge College Ministry  Gospel Community Church and Christian Challenge UCSC are deeply integrated at the level of discipleship, leadership development, church membership, and ministry multiplication. Cody serves as a deacon at GCC; Brittany is active in women's discipleship; another Challenge staff member, Josh Simmons, is also a GCC deacon; and Henry Kaufman came to faith at UCSC, became part of Christian Challenge's core team, and is now a missions resident at GCC preparing for further ministry. GCC also explicitly lists Christian Challenge among the missionaries it supports financially and prayerfully.  What happens when a local church and a campus ministry genuinely see themselves as part of the same disciple-making mission?  Brandon O'Sullivan is the lead pastor and an elder of Gospel Community Church in Santa Cruz, where he oversees the church's teaching and vision. He has served in full-time ministry since 2010 and has a particular passion for developing younger leaders who can reach people far from God and eventually start new churches and ministries throughout Santa Cruz County. Brandon holds a B.A. from The Master's College, an M.A. from Reformed Theological Seminary, and a Doctor of Educational Ministry from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Laura, originally met in Santa Cruz while serving as summer youth interns and have continued serving in ministry together. Gospel Community Church itself began as a small church-planting group meeting in a Santa Cruz living room in May 2018.  Cody Bryan, together with his wife Brittany, directs Christian Challenge at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Cody and Brittany first encountered Christian Challenge as freshmen at Chico State, where they became friends, eventually began dating while serving together, and graduated in 2013. After marrying that summer, they immediately joined Christian Challenge full-time. They later became associate directors at Chico, helping train ten additional staff members before relocating to Santa Cruz to plant a new Christian Challenge ministry at UCSC beginning in fall 2021. At UCSC, Christian Challenge combines campus evangelism with small-group Bible studies, weekly gatherings, one-on-one discipleship, retreats, mission opportunities, and intentional leadership development. Cody is also recognized in Southern Baptist collegiate ministry records as the campus minister at UC Santa Cruz.

  5. Sep 7

    It's Healthy To Need Help! Counseling is Intensive Discipleship for Wounded Believers. What are signs that you should talk to a counselor?

    How to get in touch with Jason Kovacs and Gospel Care Collective: https://www.gospelcarecollective.com/counseling/jason-kovacs/ How Jesus in the Garden models for us the need to share our burdens, pains, and needs with other believers rather than bottle them up.  What are signs and symptoms that your anxiety or stress has gone beyond the point where you can handle it on your own?  What are some signs in a leader's life that they are close to a breakdown? What are signs that you should talk to a counselor sooner rather than later?  We want to bring the whole Word of God applied with full care to the whole being in a way that is consistent and not oppositional to where we can find truth.  How can churches and pastors make the time to adequately counsel those in the congregation who need counseling help?  We do counseling in church because God cares for His church, and counseling the hurting is a reflection of God's heart.  Counseling the wounded and hurting is like intensive, focused discipleship.

  6. Aug 31

    Help For Pastors and Leaders That Are Struggling: The Mental and Emotional Health of American Pastors and Why It Matters. "Tired of Plain Old White Chase."

    Every Church Flourishing with Jason Kovacs, 33-34. Guest:  Jason Kovacs is not simply a biblical counselor who works with pastors, but even that is pretty special.  He has also been heavily involved in church planting, pastoral ministry, adoption/orphan-care advocacy, nonprofit leadership, counseling-center development, trauma-informed care, and ministry to burned-out pastors.    Jason Kovacs is the founder and Executive Director of the Gospel Care Collective, a ministry devoted to gospel-centered, clinically-informed counseling, equipping, and consulting for individuals, pastors, families, and churches. For more than twenty years, Jason has served across a remarkably broad range of ministry settings, including church planting, nonprofit leadership, orphan and adoption advocacy, pastoral care, and biblical counseling. He previously served as a Pastor of Counseling and also founded Redemption Counseling Centers in British Columbia. Jason earned his M.A. from Reformed Theological Seminary, is a Certified Biblical Counselor through the Association of Biblical Counselors, and has specialized training in trauma and foster/adoptive family care. He currently teaches biblical counseling as an adjunct professor. His counseling interests range from marriage, parenting, anxiety, and depression to trauma, addiction, leadership struggles, and the particular pressures faced by pastors and ministry leaders. Jason and his wife, Shawnda, have been married for more than 20 years and have five children; four of them were adopted. Today, much of his work focuses not merely on helping people survive crises, but on helping churches develop cultures of care and helping weary pastors recover a healthy identity and life rooted in Christ rather than simply pushing harder and working harder in ministry. Quote of the episode: "After 30 years, your wife may be tired of plain old white Chase; she may want blue Chase."  "I sometimes get tired of plain old white Chase too!"  Notes:  Beginning your day with the news is bad for your mental health.  How the never-finished task of pastoring is bad for your mental health in some ways.  Spurgeon's depression and physical issues and the "Minister's fainting fits," How Spurgeon taught the pastors under his care about the emotional turmoil of pastoring.  What kinds of counseling care belong in the local church and what kinds belong with professional counselors?  The Blue Fugates of Kentucky and a Blue Torpedo Beverage from China. This is a tea-flavored soda.  If I had to pick a cult, this would be on my list of cults to pick.  Creed Bratton famously stated on The Office that he has been involved in multiple cults as both a leader and a follower, noting that "you have more fun as a follower, but you make more money as a leader." According to one counselor, pastors and church leaders are the most threatened and spiritually vulnerable people in the world.  There's no other job that the Bible says you will be explicitly held accountable by God for other than pastoring.  Do pastors struggle more with anxiety and depression?  "We want to be real about the fact that Christians and need good counseling"  Just a few years ago, hardly anybody in the church was talking about mental health or anxiety. Now it is more common, thankfully.  The Current Mental and Emotional Health of American Pastors and Why it Matters.  Link to Gospel Care Collective.

  7. Aug 24

    Brady Bunch Sermon Illustrations + I Want to See Healthy Churches. Churches Helping Churches Outside of Their Denomination. I would love to be funny like Alistair Begg.

    Today, we continue talking with Pastor Ed Compean of Shoreline Calvary Chapel Church in Morro Bay about churches helping churches and interdenominational cooperation and unity.  Tango Mango Soda Review.  It's the most honorable thing you can do to have the humility to say, "I don't know it all, and I need help."  Resources:  David Jackson - Falling in Love with Jesus Again:  https://replantbootcamp.com/podcast/ep240/ Bob Bickford: Pathways to Partnership: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999418149?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback  If God wants the nations to be reached, He's got it - He will fund it. Can churches of different denominations work together for the Kingdom of God?  Laying aside non-essential denominational differences for the sake of building healthy, Gospel-centric churches.

  8. Aug 17

    Episode 31: Church Health Does Not Mean Sanctuary Size but Missional Mobilization. Why Should Churches Foster Other Churches? Calvary Chapel and SBC Partnership. Why Should Churches Help Other Churches? Plus a South African Soda BURSTING with Flavor.

    How can churches help other dying, declining, and plateauing churches, and WHY should they?  The Health of a Church is Not Found in its Sanctuary Size but in the Great Commissional Mobilization of its people. Why Should Churches Foster (Help) Other Churches?  Today we interview Pastor Ed Compean, a former missionary to Nairobi, Kenya, and a current Calvary Chapel pastor in Morro Bay, California, who is helping to foster an SBC church a few towns over. Why should a pastor from a different denomination invest time, resources, and care into a church that isn't local? What's the benefit?  How is pastoring in Kenya different than pastoring in the U.S., and how is it the same?  How Calvary Chapel and Southern Baptist Churches are partnering together for church health in California.  We, as the church, want the overall Kingdom win.  4000 churches are shutting down in the US every year, and much less than that are being planted, and church plants have a low rate of success, so churches should help foster and revitalize other churches for the overall benefit of the Kingdom.  The benefits of going to Replant Lab with Mark Clifton.  When you help foster another church, your church reaps some potent benefits, including building up more and more effective leaders.  A South African soda BURSTING with incredible flavor - like a rock concert turned up to 11. Rubicon Passion Fruit Soda is AMAZING.  Is malic acid bad for you?

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About

The Every Church Flourishing podcast is all about helping churches, leaders, and pastors find health, encouragement, practical advice, soul care, and resources that work together to build up your local fellowship and the broader Kingdom of God. Join hosts Pastor Chris Cole and Dr. Chase Thompson from the Great Commission Association, led by Dr. Mike Stewart, as they explore the frontiers of ministry and aim to make every church flourish! Broadcasting from the North-Central Coast of California and the beautiful redwoods, We will focus on church growth, pastoral health, church leadership, evangelism, discipleship, denominational news, West Coast church news, California Baptists, apologetics, prayer, and other facets of church health and flourishing. In addition to church health, every show features a semi-rare and interesting soda review, choosing soft drinks from all around the world.

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