Pivot Podcast

Faith+Lead
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Over the past few years, church leaders have been forced to respond to several global crises in the blink of an eye. In a moment with little information and lots of uncertainty, churches reinvented nearly every aspect of church. Season 5 of the Pivot podcast explores the changing landscape of the church. Our co-hosts will dig into difficult questions that faith leaders are asking now, and provide an understanding of the deeper cultural shifts that account for the unraveling of inherited models of church. What are the four key pivots that today's church must make? New episodes post weekly on Thursdays.

  1. 14 hr ago

    Why the Ancient Church Might Have the Answer We're Missing

    Every generation inherits the same task: figuring out how to receive an ancient faith and pass it on in a language people can actually hear. In this episode, Dwight Zscheile and Alicia Granholm open a new season of the Pivot Podcast by asking what spiritual formation looks like when it draws on centuries of Christian practice, the Book of Common Prayer, the doctrine of the Trinity, the rhythms of liturgy, without losing people along the way. Drawing on Vincent Donovan's Christianity Rediscovered and the idea of incarnation as an ongoing act of translation, they trace the line between tradition, which stays alive because it keeps finding new expression, and traditionalism, which freezes a particular cultural moment and calls it sacred. Along the way, Dwight and Alicia talk honestly about what keeps churches from doing this work: the fear of getting it wrong, the pull of comfort and familiarity, and a habit of experimenting freely with children's and youth ministry while staying far more cautious with neighbors outside the church. They ask what it means to trust the Holy Spirit with something as fragile as change, and what's lost when a church becomes a museum rather than a living community. It's a thoughtful start to a season built around one question: how do we make the ancient new? The Parable of the TalentsAmerican Congregations by Mark ChavesThe Book — Practicing the WayThe Book of Common PrayerChristianity Rediscovered - Orbis Books

    35 min

  2. 11 Jun

    Why Is Cultivating Community in Church So Hard Right Now?

    Why is cultivating community in church so hard right now? In this Season 6 finale, hosts Dwight Zscheile and Alicia Granholm reflect on a full season of conversations with historians, theologians, pastors, and researchers who helped them understand the many layers underneath that question. From the formative power of late modern culture to the provisional nature of relationships today, they name what the church is genuinely up against — and why the tools the surrounding culture offers can't get us to the deep belonging the church is meant to provide. But this isn't a conversation that ends in resignation. Dwight and Alicia also talk about what leaders can actually do: casting a bigger vision, getting off the hamster wheel of programs that aren't forming disciples, and starting small where community is already gathering. And they point to real signs of hope — a cultural shift away from cynicism and toward longing, and a growing number of people finding their way into Christian community precisely because the culture is offering so little. The soil, as Dwight puts it, is being prepared.

    45 min

  3. 4 Jun

    Amen Means I Trust You

    The guilt most Christians carry about their prayer life, that it isn't deep enough, consistent enough, disciplined enough, may say less about them than about the world they're living in. In this episode, Dwight Zscheile talks with the Rev. Dr. Wesley Ellis, pastor of First Congregational Church in Ramona, California and author of Abiding in Amen: Prayer in a Secular Age, about what a culture of optimization has done to the Christian prayer life and what might be recovered when we stop treating prayer as one more project to manage. Wes argues that prayer is primarily something God does, and that we are less its practitioners than its recipients. Drawing on philosopher Charles Taylor's account of the secular age and sociologist Hartmut Rosa's work on social acceleration, he makes a case that the exhaustion so many church leaders feel is bound up with a way of thinking about prayer that puts all the weight on us. The conversation moves from personal guilt to pastoral practice to the deep grammar of grace: that the most important things have already been done, and that amen means something closer to "I trust you" than "we're finished." Following Jesus to Purpose and Meaning with Angela Williams Gorrell Taste and See: Connecting with God Through Spiritual Practices Overflow: An Introduction to Growing in Faith with Steve Thomason

    29 min

  4. 28 May

    Half of Christians Say Faith Is Private. Here's What We're Losing

    Church community building has never been more urgent or perhaps more difficult. In this episode of Pivot Podcast, Jeff Galley and Phil Smith, co-authors of The Way Back to One Another, join Dwight Zscheile and Alicia Granholm to talk honestly about the loneliness epidemic reshaping American life and what it means for the church. Drawing on years of experience in large church ministry and global relief work, Jeff and Phil bring both data and personal longing to this conversation. Since 2014, time Americans spend with other people has dropped by roughly 50%, and the church is not exempt. Jeff and Phil ground their vision in three biblical terms, ezair, allelon, and koinonia, and lay out five practical "one another" commitments that Scripture calls us to. But the heart of the conversation is about culture, not programs. Real church community building, they argue, starts with leaders who are willing to model vulnerability, go first, and trust that one relationship at a time can turn the ship. The Way Back to One Another - InterVarsity Press Missio Dei: The Church Sent with Edwin Ortiz-Rivera and Chris Steubing Listening and Serving: Community-Based Ministry with F. Willis Johnson Family Systems: Tool for Ministry with Jules Erickson

    32 min

  5. 21 May

    You Don't Own the Spirit: The Meaning of Pentecost

    What is the meaning of Pentecost? In this reflection episode of the Pivot Podcast, Luther Seminary theologian Dr. Lois Malcolm moves past the familiar imagery of wind and fire to ask what the Spirit was actually doing that day in Jerusalem. Her answer is both clarifying and unsettling: the Spirit arrived not so the disciples could possess it, but so it could send them out. Lois draws three claims from the Pentecost story that speak directly to the life of the church today. The Spirit belongs to no one. Speaking in other people's languages is a divine mandate for empathy, not a one-time miracle. And the power given at Pentecost was never for the church's self-advancement; it was given for the common good, for the dead places in our communities, and for the people most unlike us. A short, searching reflection for Pentecost Sunday and beyond.

    8 min

  6. 14 May

    The False Choice That's Been Costing the Church for a Hundred Years

    The debate over whether the church's primary calling is evangelism or justice has been running for over a century, and Dr. Al Tizon believes it has cost us more than we know. In this episode, the lead pastor of Grace Fellowship Community Church in San Francisco and affiliate professor of missional and global leadership at North Park Theological Seminary and Fuller Theological Seminary joins hosts Dwight Zscheile and Alicia Granholm to make the case for a missional church grounded in the whole gospel. Drawing on decades of ministry in the Philippines and the United States, Al offers reconciliation as the organizing framework for mission today, one that holds evangelism, peacemaking, compassion, and creation care together rather than forcing a choice between them. The conversation also gets at the heart of Season 6's central question: why is Christian community so hard to cultivate? Al's answer is direct. The church has largely failed at discipleship, forming individuals in private piety rather than communities that embody the values of the kingdom in every arena of life. He shares stories of congregations where holistic mission has genuinely taken root, names the false gospels most tempting to American churches right now, and closes with a candid account of where he is finding hope in a moment that makes despair feel like the easier option. Christ Among the Classes: The Rich, the Poor, and the Mission of the Church by Al TizonWhole and Reconciled – Baker Publishing Group Christian Witness in Smaller Membership Congregations with Jon Anderson Missio Dei: The Church Sent with Edwin Ortiz-Rivera and Chris Steubing Recruiting, Equipping, and Empowering Church Leaders with Clara King and Dwight Zscheile

    39 min

  7. 7 May

    The Early Church Was Figuring It Out Too

    What does first century Christianity have to teach the church about belonging today? In this episode of the Pivot Podcast, Dr. Kristofer Phan Coffman, Assistant Professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary, joins hosts Dwight Zscheile and Alicia Granholm to explore the early church as a community of genuinely unlike people navigating real social upheaval. From the chaos of the Roman Empire to Paul's fledgling congregations scattered across the Mediterranean, Kristofer helps us see that the early church was not a settled institution with established patterns. It was a community figuring out, often under pressure, what it meant to belong to one another across real difference. That history has direct implications for church leaders today. Kristofer challenges the assimilation patterns that quietly shape much of North American Christianity and invites leaders to ask hard questions about who feels at home in their communities and why. Drawing on Paul's letters and the witness of Acts, he points toward self-awareness and deep listening as the foundational practices for forming Christian community in a fragmented cultural moment. Genesis to Revelation: A Bible Overview with Kristofer Phan Coffman Walking the Narrow Road: Milestones in Church History with Jennifer Hornyak Wojciechowski Crash Course: Church with Stephanie Luedke

    24 min

  8. 30 Apr

    God Doesn't Say Follow Your Bliss

    What does it mean to find your identity in Christ, and what does the Old Testament have to say about it? In this episode of the Pivot Podcast, Dr. Kathryn Schifferdecker, professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary, walks hosts Dwight Zscheile and Alicia Granholm through the Bible's vision for human community, from the boundaries woven into creation in Genesis, to the covenant at Sinai, to the prophets calling Israel back to account. Along the way, she challenges the modern assumption that identity is something we construct from within, offering instead a picture of people called into being by God and sent into the world to be a blessing. From the call of Abraham to the Sabbath commandment to the words of Amos, Kathryn shows how scripture consistently orients us away from self-fulfillment and toward the flourishing of others, especially the most vulnerable. This is the first of a two-part series on biblical community at Pivot Podcast, and it offers church leaders a grounding and hopeful framework for navigating a culture that has largely forgotten what community is for.

    38 min
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About

Over the past few years, church leaders have been forced to respond to several global crises in the blink of an eye. In a moment with little information and lots of uncertainty, churches reinvented nearly every aspect of church. Season 5 of the Pivot podcast explores the changing landscape of the church. Our co-hosts will dig into difficult questions that faith leaders are asking now, and provide an understanding of the deeper cultural shifts that account for the unraveling of inherited models of church. What are the four key pivots that today's church must make? New episodes post weekly on Thursdays.

Information

  • Creator
    Faith+Lead
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    184
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Faith+Lead
  • Show Website
    Pivot Podcast

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