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  • 500 Volunteers in a Church of 1,300: How Community Did It with Lou Pizzichillo

    500 Volunteers in a Church of 1,300: How Community Did It with Lou Pizzichillo
    2026/11/12
    Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Lou Pizzichillo, Lead Pastor of Community Church in Babylon, New York. Today, Community Church welcomes roughly 1,200 to 1,300 people, with more than 500 actively serving on volunteer teams. Lou is also the founder of TeamFit, a volunteer placement tool that grew directly out of what Community Church has learned about helping people find meaningful places to serve. How do you create a volunteer culture where people genuinely want to serve? What if the key isn’t simply recruiting more people, but helping them feel known, appreciated, and connected to a shared mission? Tune in as Lou shares how Community Church builds strong volunteer teams, reinforces culture, and removes the mystery from serving. Unite people around a shared goal. // From the earliest days of Community Church, serving was part of the church’s DNA. Before launch, volunteers worked together to renovate an unexpected meeting space in just two weeks. After COVID, the church repeated the process while rebuilding its team. Lou discovered that working toward something meaningful together creates connection, ownership, and a sense that everyone is winning as one team.Define the win clearly. // Lou believes churches often assume volunteers understand what success looks like in their role. Community Church works hard to turn unspoken expectations into memorable language. Phrases such as “relational before spiritual” help volunteers understand how the church approaches people, while “black shirts stand shoulder to shoulder, not face to face” reminds guest services volunteers to remain open and attentive to newcomers.Repeat culture constantly. // Values are communicated through several rhythms. Lou sends monthly team updates that include church news and a featured value. Before every service, volunteers attend a 15-minute huddle where leaders reinforce values and tell stories. The church also uses Slack to share wins and celebrate examples of people living out the culture. Repetition turns values from slogans into everyday behavior.Celebrate what you want repeated. // Community Church intentionally highlights volunteer wins because what you celebrate, you’ll replicate. Stories are shared in huddles, online, and through fun recognition such as a rotating team member of the week award. Celebration gives volunteers concrete examples of what success looks like while reinforcing that their contribution matters.Lead with appreciation, not obligation. // One of Community Church’s strongest volunteer principles is to motivate through gratitude rather than guilt. Rather than using Scripture to pressure people into serving more, leaders focus on helping volunteers feel valued and genuinely wanted. If someone no longer wants to serve, the goal isn’t to push harder but to care for the person and protect the health of the team.Make the first serving day unforgettable. // New volunteers complete a “favorite things” form listing items such as their favorite snack, drink, and restaurant. When they arrive for their first day, they may find a personalized gift bag, favorite snack, team shirt, and name tag waiting for them. Lou compares it to walking into an NBA locker room and seeing your jersey already hanging. That intentional first impression communicates, “We’re glad you’re here.”Protect volunteers from burnout. // Community Church uses coaches to help leaders stay connected to individual volunteers and notice when someone is overextended. Lou would rather operate short-handed for a weekend than continually push someone toward burnout. The church also looks for opportunities to add encouragement and appreciation when energy begins to drop because investing in the team ultimately strengthens the entire church.Remove the mystery from volunteering. // TeamFit is a tool which Lou developed after repeatedly hearing volunteers say, “I wish I had signed up sooner. I just didn’t know what I was signing up for.” The tool uses a simple assessment to match people with potential serving roles while also giving them access to detailed descriptions of every available position. People can explore privately, understand expectations, and decide where they may thrive before making a commitment.Start with the person, not the church’s need. // Instead of asking, “Who can fill this empty role?” TeamFit asks, “Where will this person thrive?” That shift has helped Community Church uncover volunteers for roles it might never have promoted publicly—from sound engineers and photographers to painters and window cleaners. The philosophy is simple: serve the team well, and the team will serve the church well. To learn more about Community Church, visit communitychurch.net. To explore TeamFit and see how it can help people discover serving roles that fit them, visit myteamfit.net/unseminary. Lou is also offering unSeminary listeners the first three months free with...
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    1分未満
  • Everyone Says Young People Don’t Give. This Church Proves Otherwise with Brian Davis

    Everyone Says Young People Don’t Give. This Church Proves Otherwise with Brian Davis
    2026/11/05
    Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Brian Davis, lead pastor of Plaza Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Plaza was replanted in 2021 with about 40 people and has since grown to roughly 400, with an average congregation age of 28. The church’s mission is to make disciples who share and show the gospel. Why do some churches struggle to develop generous people, especially among younger generations? What if generosity isn’t primarily a funding issue but a discipleship issue? Tune in as Brian shares how Plaza Church teaches generosity, creates rhythms of gratitude, and helps young believers put their faith into practice in tangible ways. Focus on obedience-based discipleship. // Spiritual maturity isn’t measured simply by how much someone knows but by how faithfully they obey what they know. Biblical knowledge matters, but information alone doesn’t produce transformation. At Plaza, discipleship focuses on putting truth into practice. Generosity becomes one tangible way believers learn to trust God and bring another area of their lives under the lordship of Jesus.Connect generosity to spiritual formation. // Money touches security, priorities, control, and future plans, which makes giving a powerful discipleship practice. At Plaza Church they communicate that Christians aren’t only concerned about their standard of living; they should also consider their standard of giving. Learning to give can counter selfishness and help believers practically trust God alongside real concerns such as rent, debt, careers, and housing.Tell stories instead of only sharing numbers. // Brian has found that younger generations respond strongly to stories showing what generosity actually accomplishes. He shares the story of buying a study Bible for a newly baptized single mother and then telling the congregation that their giving made it possible. Connecting generosity to changed lives helps people see that their giving is participating directly in ministry rather than simply filling a budget.Make generosity part of the regular diet. // Plaza doesn’t wait until the church is behind budget to talk about money. Generosity appears naturally in preaching whenever the biblical text creates an opportunity. During the church’s membership experience Brian teaches a simple framework: give, save, live. Christians give first to honor God, save to be wise, and live on the rest with contentment.End every service with gratitude. // Plaza closes each worship service with a giving moment, but it isn’t primarily an appeal for money. Instead, leaders celebrate what generosity accomplished that week—feeding neighbors, providing childcare, supporting ministries, or helping people take spiritual next steps. Brian wants the final words people hear before leaving to communicate celebration and gratitude: thank you for helping make this ministry possible.Create systems for finding the stories. // Finding 52 generosity stories each year requires intentionality. Plaza’s staff begins Monday meetings by asking, “What did God do yesterday?” Those conversations surface stories from baptisms, kids ministry, membership classes, outreach, and other areas. The giving moment is then planned intentionally in the service run sheet so it feels thoughtful rather than improvised.Remember that clarity is kindness. // Pastors sometimes become frustrated that people don’t give while never clearly inviting them to do so. Brian encourages leaders to own their responsibility rather than blaming the congregation. If generosity is genuinely part of discipleship, leaders should talk about it confidently and plainly. The goal is to want something for people, not simply something from them.Thank people when they give. // Brian sends a personal card to every first-time giver and personally calls people who make unusually large gifts. Rather than simply thanking them, he asks what God is doing in their heart that prompted the gift. Those conversations often reveal meaningful stories that can later encourage the wider church and deepen pastoral relationships.Use ongoing communication to reinforce generosity. // Plaza sends quarterly giving statements with a letter celebrating what God has done and casting vision for the coming quarter. Every church member receives one, even if their giving total is zero. Combined with weekly giving moments, these rhythms keep generosity connected to discipleship, accountability, vision, and gratitude rather than reducing it to an annual tax receipt. To learn more about Brian Davis and Plaza Church, visit plazachurch.org or connect with Brian on Instagram at @bdavis421. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds ...
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    40 分
  • A Former Witch, an Ex-Muslim, and an Atheist Walk Into a Baptism Tank with Jon Thompson

    A Former Witch, an Ex-Muslim, and an Atheist Walk Into a Baptism Tank with Jon Thompson
    2026/09/17
    Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Jon Thompson, senior pastor of Sanctus Church, a multisite church on the east side of Toronto. Jon has served at Sanctus for 25 years and has helped lead the church through seasons of growth, renewal, revival, and cultural change. In this conversation, he shares insights from his latest book, Presence: Resilient Witness in Times of Retreat and Revival, and explores how churches can faithfully witness in an increasingly post-Christian—and even re-paganized—culture. Learn to minister in a re-paganized culture. // Jon believes Canada offers a glimpse of where many parts of the United States may be heading. Churches are increasingly engaging people with little or no Christian memory alongside Muslims, Hindus, atheists, New Agers, nominal Christians, and people shaped by contemporary cultural movements. The challenge is not simply to defend Christian truth, but to communicate the gospel thoughtfully and winsomely to radically different audiences at the same time.Open the three evangelistic doors. // Historically, love, word, and power describe three ways people encounter God. Love demonstrates God’s character through hospitality and care. Word clarifies truth through preaching, apologetics, and teaching. Power reveals God’s presence through experiences such as healing, deliverance, dreams, and other supernatural encounters. Jon argues that churches need all three doors open because different people encounter Jesus through different pathways.Admit your church’s bias. // Most churches naturally lean toward one or two of these categories. Conservative evangelical churches often emphasize word. Other churches may prioritize love through compassion and justice, while still others focus heavily on supernatural experiences. Jon encourages leaders to honestly identify their bias and intentionally elevate the areas they tend to neglect. A healthy church needs all three working together rather than allowing one to dominate.Don’t let fear quench what God is doing. // Jon tells the story of a woman who came to faith out of Hinduism after experiencing visions, spiritual conflict, and encounters with Jesus. When her church removed those elements from her baptism testimony because leaders were uncomfortable with them, she felt that an essential part of her story had been denied. Jon warns that fear, theological bias, and lack of experience can cause churches to suppress genuine ways God may be working in people’s lives.Choose encounter and systems. // Jon believes churches often falsely pit spiritual encounter against organizational structure. Healthy churches need both. Leaders should build systems that support what God is doing without attempting to control it. As spiritual activity increases, churches may need to adjust volunteer processes, pastoral care systems, staff expectations, and leadership structures. The goal is not to eliminate order but to make the organization flexible enough to respond when circumstances change.Understand renewal, revival, and awakening. // Jon distinguishes between renewal, revival, and awakening. Renewal is the recovery of first love in individual believers. Revival is a sovereign move of God that He initiates and ends where sin is revealed and there’s widespread healing. Awakening happens when revival leads to widespread conversion. Leaders should not assume revival is guaranteed, but they should remain faithful and responsive whether God brings extraordinary renewal or simply calls them to steady obedience in an ordinary season.Start by refusing to resist God. // Before changing structures or launching new ministries, Jon believes leaders should begin with a simple posture: “Lord, whatever you want to do, I won’t fight you.” Many pastors love God but still struggle to trust Him when ministry becomes unpredictable. Jon encourages leaders to confront their fear, relinquish control, and remain open to correction, repentance, and change. To learn more about Jon Thompson and his books, including Convergence, Perseverance, Presence, and the upcoming re-release of Deliverance, visit jonthompsonresources.com or Amazon.com. Other Conversations with Jon Thompson Reflections on Christian Ministry at the Halfway Point with Jon Thompson // February 8, 2024What if John Stott, John Wimber, Dallas Willard & Andy Stanley Planted a Church with Jon Thompson? // March 14, 2019 Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don...
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    47 分
  • The Myth That’s Quietly Stalling Your Disciple-Making with Vick Green

    The Myth That’s Quietly Stalling Your Disciple-Making with Vick Green
    2026/09/24
    Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Vick Green, CEO of Replicate Ministries and co-author of Movement Ready Church. Replicate helps churches across denominations and sizes strengthen their disciple-making culture, clarify their vision, and mobilize people to make disciples where they live, work, and play. Is your church busy but unsure whether people are actually being transformed? Do you have a clear pathway for discipleship but struggle to see multiplication happen outside your programs? Tune in as Vick challenges several common assumptions about disciple-making and offers practical ways to measure transformation, mobilize people, and create a culture where ministry extends beyond the walls of the church. Activity does not equal transformation. // One of the most common myths Vick sees is the belief that participation automatically produces spiritual growth. Attendance, serving, small groups, and classes are all easy to measure, but they only tell part of the story. A person can be highly engaged in church activity and still experience little personal transformation. Churches need to keep measuring participation while also asking whether people are actually becoming more like Jesus.Build a clearer scoreboard. // Vick compares church metrics to baseball. If you only measured hits, you would miss the point of the game: scoring runs. In the same way, churches can overvalue attendance and engagement because those numbers are easy to track. Vick encourages leaders to develop a transformation scoreboard that measures not only what people are doing but who they are becoming. Incomplete scoreboards tend to produce incomplete disciples.Define your dream disciple. // Every church should be able to describe the kind of disciple it hopes to develop. Vick calls this the “dream disciple.” Rather than relying only on pathway language that tells people what to do, churches should paint a vivid picture of what transformed lives look like. One church describes disciples as having a mind of truth, a voice of hope, a heart of compassion, hands of service, and feet of purpose. That language gives people something meaningful to pursue.Focus on what you want for people. // Churches can unintentionally communicate that they primarily want something from people: attendance, volunteering, giving, or participation. Vick challenges leaders to shift toward communicating what they want for people. A healthy discipleship strategy should help people become better spouses, parents, coworkers, neighbors, and followers of Jesus. When people understand why transformation matters, they become more motivated to engage with the pathway that supports it.Let your discipleship picture shape the culture. // A dream disciple should not live on a poster or disappear after a leadership retreat. It should show up in sermons, kids ministry, membership classes, assessments, volunteer training, and everyday language. Vick highlights churches that use their disciple profile to guide sermon planning, build personalized follow-up, equip parents, and help people identify specific areas where they want to grow.Help people name their kingdom circle. // Vick’s second major metric is whether people can identify the individuals God has placed within their sphere of influence. Every person has a “kingdom circle”—neighbors, coworkers, friends, and family members where they can bring the kingdom of God. The goal is not simply deeper program engagement but helping people take ownership of disciple-making in ordinary life.Equip people for ministry outside the church. // Vick shares the story of a man named Austin who began gathering non-Christian neighbors around a backyard firepit. The church provided simple questions, encouragement, and resources, but Austin led the ministry himself. Eventually those men began attending church, growing in faith, and multiplying into further discipleship relationships. The church’s role was not to replace Austin’s influence but to equip and support him in using it.Clarify leadership and partnership. // To measure ministry beyond church programs, leaders need clarity around three questions: What do we consider a disciple-making leader? How will we equip them? And how will we partner with them? Without shared definitions and a unified approach, every ministry ends up operating differently. Clear expectations make it easier for people to take responsibility for disciple-making in their own context.Challenge the myths beneath your ministry. // Replicate’s Ministry Myths resource helps churches identify faulty beliefs that quietly shape behavior. These myths can create a gap between good intentions and actual impact. By naming assumptions like the engagement myth, teams can begin honest conversations about why multiplication is not happening and what needs to change. Download the free resource Ministry Myths: The 5 Assumptions that Stall Disciple-Making Movements here. ...
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    38 分
  • You Can Be a Kind Boss and Still Wear Your Team Out with Adam Weber

    You Can Be a Kind Boss and Still Wear Your Team Out with Adam Weber
    2026/10/01
    Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Adam Weber, founder and lead pastor of Embrace Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. What began in 2006 with 32 people has grown into a multisite church reaching thousands each week. Along the way, Adam has experienced explosive growth, painful leadership setbacks, seasons of rebuilding, and renewed momentum. Has your church hit a plateau after years of growth? Are you carrying more than your team can sustain? Wondering how greater clarity and healthier leadership rhythms could help your church move forward? Tune in as Adam shares lessons from Embrace’s lowest season and explains how greater self-awareness, organizational focus, and the Traction framework helped reshape both his leadership and the church. Growth can expose unhealthy leadership. // Embrace experienced significant growth from 2009 through 2016, but Adam admits that his drive to keep moving forward eventually took a toll on his team. He wasn’t an angry or demanding leader in obvious ways, but he constantly pushed toward the next goal. Looking back, Adam realized that leaders can genuinely love people and still wear them out. Good intentions don’t automatically produce healthy leadership.Own your part in the problem. // A painful staff conflict eventually resulted in 10 of the 16 people closest to Adam leaving the church, along with hundreds of attendees. While it was easy initially to blame others, Adam gradually recognized how his own leadership contributed to the situation. He had to confront people-pleasing, his relentless pace, and the ways he had failed to care for his team. That willingness to take responsibility became foundational to Embrace’s recovery.Build a circle that can handle the truth. // Adam leaned heavily on his wife, close friends, therapy, and trusted ministry relationships during his lowest season. These were people who allowed him to express grief, anger, and confusion without abandoning him. They also helped him see blind spots he couldn’t recognize on his own. Leaders need people who love them deeply but aren’t overly impressed by them—people who can offer both support and honest feedback.Learn to pause. // One of the clearest changes in Adam’s leadership today is his willingness to slow down. He pauses more in meetings, accepts when team members say no, and resists the urge to squeeze one more project into the schedule. Rather than automatically pushing for what is possible, he now asks whether pursuing another opportunity will unnecessarily burden the team. Slowing down has helped him become both healthier and more sustainable as a leader.Protect your own soul. // Adam also changed the way he approaches personal health and his relationship with God. Instead of allowing busyness to crowd out time with Jesus, he now increases that time when ministry becomes more demanding. He intentionally creates margin, eats lunch, steps away, and takes breaks that once would have felt unproductive.Use clarity to create focus. // After COVID, Embrace implemented the Traction framework based on the EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) model. The process helped the leadership team revisit its vision, identify its distinctives, define its target audience, and establish a long-term goal. Embrace clarified its mission as “relentlessly reaching the next person for Jesus” and identified relatability as one of its key distinctives. That clarity has helped the church say no to distractions and concentrate energy around its primary mission.Break big vision into smaller steps. // Traction helped Embrace move from a 10-year vision to three-year, one-year, and 90-day priorities. Every 90 days, leaders identify five or six major “rocks” that deserve focused attention. Each rock has a clear owner, measurable milestones, and weekly accountability. Rather than chasing whatever feels urgent or exciting, the team continually returns to the handful of priorities it has already agreed matter most.Let accountability replace micromanagement. // The system has also helped Adam release control. Team members own specific priorities and report whether each one is on track or off track. That accountability means Adam doesn’t have to constantly monitor every detail. The process has increased ownership across the staff while allowing him to function more effectively as the visionary instead of becoming the bottleneck.Listen to the people you serve. // Embrace also uses an annual survey to gather candid feedback from attendees. Open-ended questions reveal recurring patterns that leaders might otherwise miss. One example was parking, an issue Adam barely noticed because he wasn’t experiencing the church like a first-time guest. Listening carefully to people has helped the church identify practical problems and respond before they become barriers to growth. To learn more about Adam Weber or connect, visit adamweber.com or find him on Instagram at @...
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    46 分
  • The Communication Shift Your Church Made Without Deciding To with Jerod Walker

    The Communication Shift Your Church Made Without Deciding To with Jerod Walker
    2026/10/29
    Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Jerod Walker from Intulse, a church calling and texting platform designed to help ministry teams communicate with people without relying on personal phone numbers. Jerod spent 20 years serving in local church ministry as a children’s pastor, lead pastor, and church planter before joining Intulse, where he now helps churches strengthen communication, follow-up, and accountability. Are your staff members using personal cell numbers for ministry? Are important conversations living on individual devices where no one else can see or access them? Tune in as Jerod identifies communication blind spots that can quietly hinder church growth and explains how churches can serve people more personally while protecting staff, families, and ministry. Personal phones became ministry tools by accident. // Over the last 20 years, church communication shifted dramatically. Smartphones and COVID accelerated the move away from office phones and email toward personal mobile devices. But most churches never intentionally decided that staff members’ personal phones should become their primary ministry communication system. Convenience drove the change, and many churches are now discovering the unintended consequences of that decision.Protect your staff’s personal boundaries. // Once a staff member gives out a personal number, it can’t be taken back. Messages begin arriving at night, on weekends, during vacations, and even in important moments with family. Even if someone chooses not to respond immediately, a difficult text can still change their emotional state. Jerod encourages churches to remember that healthy communication systems should help ministry leaders remain available without making them accessible every hour of every day.Make sure follow-up actually happens. // As churches grow, leaders can no longer personally know whether every guest, volunteer, or attendee received the promised follow-up. Assuming someone owns the process isn’t enough. Churches need a way to verify that calls and messages actually happened. This is especially important with first-time guests, where missed communication can create gaps in assimilation and cause people to quietly disappear before they ever become connected.Create continuity between ministry teams. // Communication often breaks down when one staff member hands a person off to another department. A guest may express interest in kids ministry, Alpha, a small group, or another next step, but the new staff member may have no context for the previous conversation. When communication history is documented and accessible, people don’t have to repeatedly explain their story every time they interact with someone new.Separate ministry communication from personal communication. // Intulse allows staff members to call and text through a work-assigned number using the smartphone they already carry. Staff can control notifications, turn them off during personal time, and even allow another team member to monitor the number while they are away. This helps leaders maintain healthy boundaries while ensuring people still receive a timely response.Connect conversations to your church database. // Intulse integrates with church management systems including Planning Center, Rock, CCB, and Breeze. Calls and text messages can be automatically logged in a person’s record, and staff can add notes during a conversation. Instead of relying on memory or requiring another manual database step, important ministry interactions become part of the church’s shared information.Build a communication policy before you need one. // Jerod encourages churches to create clear guidelines for one-to-one ministry communication, not just mass emails and announcements. A shared system provides accountability and helps protect both staff members and the church. Rather than viewing these safeguards as distrust, leaders can frame them as protection: when communication is visible within the approved system, the church is better equipped to defend staff against misunderstandings or accusations.Keep ministry history with the church. // When conversations happen only on a staff member’s personal phone, that communication history leaves when the employee leaves. The church may lose important context, relationships, and follow-up information. Keeping ministry communication within a church-owned system allows those conversations to remain accessible and ensures another leader can continue caring for people without starting from scratch.Use technology to become more human. // Larger churches often struggle to maintain the personal feel people experience in smaller churches. Jerod believes technology should make genuine human connection easier, not replace it. Bulk messages can become individual two-way conversations, and staff can quickly call or text people without unnecessary friction. The goal is to use technology to reduce ...
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    37 分
  • Making Scripture Come Alive for People Who Think They’ve Heard It All with Jason Hildebrand

    Making Scripture Come Alive for People Who Think They’ve Heard It All with Jason Hildebrand
    2026/09/10
    Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Jason Hildebrand, founder of Presence Creative Arts. For nearly 30 years, Jason has used acting, storytelling, film, and coaching to help people encounter scripture in fresh ways while creating space to listen for the voice of God. How can churches use art and storytelling to help people slow down and engage with God more deeply? What happens when creativity becomes less about delivering a message and more about creating space for transformation? Tune in as Jason shares the journey behind The Shepherd and the Sound, a contemplative film exploring the life of David, and the lessons he has learned about creativity, obedience, presence, and storytelling. Create space for people to slow down. // We are living in an age of distraction and disconnection. Rather than creating another piece of content people consume quickly, The Shepherd and the Sound intentionally slows viewers down. The pacing, landscape, music, and storytelling create space for people to become present to what is happening inside themselves and to listen for God. Jason has seen viewers reach instinctively for their phones before realizing they are being invited to remain present in the experience.Help people find themselves in the story. // One of Jason’s biggest discoveries during the project was that powerful storytelling gives people room to recognize their own experiences within a biblical narrative. Instead of simply explaining David’s life, the film invites viewers to encounter themes like failure, loss, lament, family, identity, and grace. As people see pieces of their own stories reflected in David’s journey, the biblical story becomes personal rather than distant.Tell stories that reveal real people. // Jason’s work has consistently focused on embodying scripture rather than simply presenting information about it. Whether performing the life of Jesus, Job, Abraham, or David, he wants audiences to experience biblical characters as real human beings with emotions, struggles, failures, and desires. For Jason, faithful storytelling does not require removing the humanity from scripture. Rather, bringing that humanity forward can actually help people encounter the truth of the story more deeply.Obedience often comes before clarity. // The journey to produce The Shepherd and the Sound required Jason to move forward without having every answer. After sensing that God was calling the team to film in Scotland, Jason received confirmation from trusted prayer partners and advisors and stepped out financially before the resources were available. Shortly afterward, donors began providing what the project needed. The process reinforced Jason’s conviction that listening carefully and responding obediently sometimes means moving before the entire path is visible.Let God handle the transformation. // Early in his career, Jason wrestled with whether Christian art needed to be more overtly evangelistic. He eventually sensed God reminding him that transformation was God’s responsibility, not his. Jason’s role was to faithfully create excellent art while carrying the presence of Christ into the work. That realization released him from forcing a message into every project and allowed him to focus on creating truthful, beautiful stories that invite people into deeper questions.Gather people for shared experiences. // Rather than immediately releasing The Shepherd and the Sound onto a streaming platform, Jason and his team have prioritized live screenings. People gather in theaters or creative spaces, are invited to slow down before the film begins, experience the story together, and then participate in conversation afterward. Jason believes transformation often happens differently when people experience something in community rather than consuming it alone.Extend the experience beyond the film. // The Shepherd and the Sound has grown into more than a movie. Presence Creative Arts has developed an immersive gallery with eight stations exploring themes from the film along with a small group resource incorporating scripture, reflection, sensory experiences, and action. These tools help churches move people beyond simply watching a story and toward personally engaging with what God may be stirring in them. To learn more about Jason Hildebrand and Presence Creative Arts, visit presencecreativearts.com. You can also explore The Shepherd and the Sound and learn about screenings and resources at theshepherdandthesoundfilm.com. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of ...
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    45 分
  • The Problem Your Church Can Feel but Can’t Name with Gavin Adams

    The Problem Your Church Can Feel but Can’t Name with Gavin Adams
    2026/10/08
    Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. We’re talking with Dr. Gavin Adams, author, ministry consultant, leadership coach, and founder of Accelerate Consulting Advisory. Gavin previously served for 13 years as lead pastor of Woodstock City Church, where attendance grew from 200 to 8,000. Today, he works with churches around leadership strategy, organizational health, and clarity. Has your church become more complex than it needs to be? Are you running good programs that may no longer be moving the mission forward? Tune in as Gavin shares practical ways to rethink your ministry model, simplify your church’s pathway, and make sure everything you do helps people take meaningful steps toward Jesus. Your problem may be design, not passion. // Gavin often works with churches that deeply care about reaching people but still feel stuck. In many cases, the issue isn’t a lack of vision, theology, or commitment. It’s organizational design. Churches can have the right mission and still struggle because their structures, systems, and ministry models are no longer helping them execute that mission effectively.Stay married to the mission, not the model. // Every ministry model is created for a specific moment. Even a model that once worked perfectly can become outdated as the community, culture, and church change. Gavin encourages leaders to “date the model, not marry the model.” The mission remains constant, but the strategies and structures used to accomplish it should remain flexible.Beware of accumulated complexity. // Most churches don’t intentionally become complicated. They simply keep adding good things to meet legitimate needs. Over time, those programs, events, and ministries stack on top of one another until the church becomes busy without necessarily becoming more effective. Gavin challenges leaders to recognize that good activities can still compete with better, more mission-critical priorities.Put the mission on the whiteboard. // A practical first step is to reduce your mission to about eight words or fewer and then list everything your church currently does. Evaluate each program, event, and ministry against that mission. Does it clearly move the mission forward? If not, leaders should honestly ask why they continue doing it rather than automatically carrying last year’s calendar into the next year.Build a moving sidewalk, not a buffet. // Gavin compares an effective discipleship pathway to a moving sidewalk. Once someone steps onto it, the next step should feel clear, logical, and increasingly move them toward spiritual growth. Churches often create too many disconnected options instead. The goal is not to offer everything possible but to design a clear pathway that helps people know what their next step should be.Become person-centric instead of church-centric. // Churches often begin with what they want to offer and then ask who it might serve. Gavin recommends reversing that process. Start with the person you are trying to reach, understand where they are spiritually, and then design ministry around helping them move forward. Discipleship is simply helping people take incremental steps toward becoming more like Jesus.Use the five rights. // Gavin’s framework asks whether the right person receives the right message at the right time, in the right way, leading to the right next step. Those questions help leaders evaluate both existing ministries and new ideas. Not everyone needs the same ministry experience. Someone exploring faith may need a low-commitment serving opportunity, while a mature believer may be ready for leadership or deeper responsibility. Gavin encourages churches to consider both the step they want someone to take and the best way for that individual to take it based on where they currently are spiritually.Start with fresh eyes. // Redesigning a ministry model can be difficult when leaders are immersed in the current system. Gavin recommends involving an outside facilitator, consultant, or strategic leader who can help the team ask hard questions objectively. Fresh perspective can reveal complexity and assumptions that insiders have learned to accept as normal. To learn more about Gavin Adams and his work with churches, visit gavinadams.com or follow him on Instagram. Download an excerpt of his book, RE:MODEL: Five Questions That Reshape How You See and Build Your Church. Or purchase the book on Amazon for a step-by-step framework for evaluating and rebuilding your ministry model around the mission. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I’m grateful for that. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they’re extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of ...
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    42 分