Shows / Pivot Podcast
Pivot Podcast
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…
Episodes
- Pivot Podcast
A 500-Year Old Resource for Forming Faith
When Luther and his colleagues visited rural parishes in Saxony, they were horrified by what they found. One congregation refused to memorize the Lord’s Prayer…
- Pivot Podcast
How Do You Disciple Others While You’re Still Growing?
What does discipleship look like when the pastor is still growing too? Pastor Edrin Williams leads Sanctuary Covenant Church in North Minneapolis, a…
- Pivot Podcast
What Kept a Bilingual Church Together Through a Hard Winter
How does discipleship take root when a church walks through crisis together? In Pivot’s first bilingual episode, Dwight Zscheile is joined by Pastor Henry…
- Pivot Podcast
Why Is It So Hard to Make Disciples Today?
What is discipleship? Everyone is a disciple of something, and whatever we follow shapes what we believe about ourselves, other people, and the meaning of…
- Pivot Podcast
What We Learned Looking Back on Season 7
Season 7 of Pivot has come to a close, and in this finale, hosts Dwight Zscheile and Alicia Granholm look back over eleven weeks of conversations about…
- Pivot Podcast
The Church Has Survived Worse Than This
Warren Smith, professor of historical theology at Duke Divinity School, joins Dwight Zscheile and Terri Elton to talk about his new book, Early Christian…
- Pivot Podcast
Contemplative, Charismatic, and Centuries Old, All in One Church
Rachael Wooldridge is Associate Vicar at St Paul's Church Hammersmith, a Church of England parish in London dating back to 1631, where hundreds of young adults…
- Pivot Podcast
A Solo Reflection on Prayer, Longing, and an Australian Movie from the 90s
This week's episode breaks from the usual format. Pivot producer Joey Goodall steps in for a solo reflection on what prayer practices are actually for, and…
- Pivot Podcast
Leadership for a Diverse Church
Eastminster Church has been in Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood since 1856, and for most of that history it worshiped and looked like a fairly typical…
- Pivot Podcast
What Sunday Morning Teaches People About Monday
Katie Roelofs has spent years thinking about the space between Sunday morning and the rest of the week. A pastor in the Reformed Church in America and managing…
- Pivot Podcast
Ministry That Doesn't Rush Toward Results
For twenty years, Johnny Sertin has practiced a kind of place-based ministry built on staying put. He and four other families started the Earlsfield Friary in…
- Pivot Podcast
Augustine Was a Pastor First
For most of his afterlife in the Christian imagination, Augustine has been a theologian first, a philosopher second, and everything else a distant third. What…
- Pivot Podcast
A Different Kind of Strength
Second Corinthians is one of the strangest letters in the New Testament: a leader defending himself, a community in open doubt, and in the middle of it, some…
- Pivot Podcast
The People in Your Church Don't Belong to You
"The church as we know it is calibrated for a world that no longer exists." That's how Dr. Scott Cormode opens his book, and it's the starting point for this…
- Pivot Podcast
The Church With No Budget, No Staff, and No Sunday Service
Ten years ago, JR and Amy Rozko planted a two-hundred-year-old congregation in Canton, Ohio, only to discover that what their city needed wasn't another…
- Pivot Podcast
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…
- Pivot Podcast
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…
- Pivot Podcast
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…
- Pivot Podcast
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…
- Pivot Podcast
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…
- Pivot Podcast
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…
- Pivot Podcast
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…
- Pivot Podcast
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…
- Pivot Podcast
What to Say (and Not to Say) to People Who Are Suffering
Why does God allow suffering? It's one of the oldest and most urgent questions in human experience, and Dr. Rolf Jacobson has lived inside it. Diagnosed with…
- Pivot Podcast
A Crowd Is Not a Community
What does real church community cultivation require? The Rev. Dr. Eun Strawser, physician, author, and pastor of Ma Ke Alo'o, a network of multiplying…
- Pivot Podcast
The Two Things That Have Always Renewed the Church
Why is Christian community so hard to cultivate in contemporary culture? In this episode of Pivot Podcast, host Dwight Zscheile continues his conversation with…
- Pivot Podcast
The Easter Word That Doesn't Expire feat. Jennifer Vija Pietz
"Your labor is not in vain." It's one of Paul's most direct declarations in 1 Corinthians 15, and Dr. Jennifer Pietz, Assistant Professor of New Testament at…
- Pivot Podcast
The Roots of the Crisis of Community in the West
Cultivating Christian community can feel really hard today, but the reasons run deeper than most church leaders realize. In part one of this two-part…
- Pivot Podcast
When Fear Became Normal, the Church Got Real
What does Christian community look like when a city is in crisis? In this first episode of Season 6 of the Pivot Podcast, Faith+Lead scholars Dwight Zscheile…
- Pivot Podcast
Most Americans Still Believe in God. So Why Aren't They in Your Church?
What does Ryan Burge's research on religious nones reveal about the Americans sitting just outside your church doors? In part two of this two-part…
- Pivot Podcast
When Did Politics Become More Powerful Than Faith?
What happens when political identity becomes stronger than faith identity? Dr. Ryan Burge is a data scientist, professor, and pastor who watched his own…
- Pivot Podcast
Setting the Table: When Dinner Church Filled Rooms with the Unchurched
Dr. Verlon Fosner's Seattle congregation was declining 14% every year despite doing everything right—improved worship, new programs, upgraded tech. So Verlon…
- Pivot Podcast
What If Lent Wasn't About Giving Up, But Showing Up?
Church leaders often approach Lent with a familiar script: add a devotional practice, give something up, host a midweek service. But what if this season called…
- Pivot Podcast
The Problem With Trying to Make God Show Up
Many church leaders feel crushing church growth pressure—the constant anxiety that if you don't reverse decline or manage outcomes perfectly, you've failed…
- Pivot Podcast
What If You Stopped Doing Everything? A Q&A on Lay-Led Ministry
Many church leaders love the idea of lay ministry in theory, but struggle to understand what it actually looks like in practice. In this special Q&A episode…
- Pivot Podcast
The Church Planters Hiding in Your Congregation
What if the church planters God is calling are already in your congregation? John McGinley, executive director of Myriad in the UK, shares how they're…
- Pivot Podcast
Why Stay Protestant?
What does Protestant identity in Christ mean for today's church leaders? In this conversation, theologian Beth Felker Jones explores why Protestant faith still…
- Pivot Podcast
What Happens When Familiarity Wears Off the Edge
Discover how to read the financial parables of Jesus Christ with fresh eyes in this conversation with Dr. Keith Bodner, author of "Exploring the Financial…
- Pivot Podcast
Two Pastors, One Vision, and a Merger That Changed Everything
In November 2020, amid a pandemic and national racial reckoning, two congregations in Des Moines made a bold decision to merge. Hope Des Moines, a primarily…
- Pivot Podcast
Pastoral Care for Pastors: What That Stable Teaches Us
Pastoral care for pastors takes center stage in this special Christmas reflection as Steve Thomason offers church leaders a rare gift during the busiest season…
- Pivot Podcast
What Does AI Mean for the Church? A Conversation with Dr. Paul Hoffman
AI and church leadership are colliding in ways that demand theological clarity. Dr. Paul Hoffman, author of AI Shepherds and Electric Sheep, joins hosts Terri…
- Pivot Podcast
The Pain You Don't Name, You Transmit to Others
Ministry burnout prevention isn't just about better time management or clearer boundaries. In this episode, Wes Granberg-Michaelson shares what he learned from…
- Pivot Podcast
What Blessing Actually Means (And Why It Matters This Thanksgiving)
In this special Thanksgiving episode, Luther Seminary professor Dr. Lois Malcolm offers a seven-minute blessing that reclaims what gratitude and thanksgiving…
- Pivot Podcast
Church Planting Without a Template: The Starter's Way
When established churches struggle to connect with their communities, leaders typically reach for one of two solutions: work harder at the inherited model, or…
- Pivot Podcast
Why Young Adults Aren't Necessarily Leaving Faith (And What They're Actually Looking For)
Many church leaders notice fewer young adults in the pews and wonder what strategy to try next. But Kristina Frugé, who leads the Riverside Innovation Hub at…
- Pivot Podcast
When Mental Health Ministry Becomes Everyone's Work
Our congregations are filled with people wrestling with anxiety, depression, and struggles they don't always name out loud. Many church leaders feel the weight…
- Pivot Podcast
A Regional Church System Cultivates Faithful Innovation
What does it take to become a missional church in today's changing landscape? Bishop Scott Johnson and Deacon Timothy Siburg of the Nebraska Synod ELCA are…
- Pivot Podcast
The Gap Between Sunday Sermons and Monday Struggles
Integrating faith and work is one of the biggest gaps in church ministry today. Most Christians spend the majority of their waking hours at work, navigating…
- Pivot Podcast
The Sacred Listening Revolution in Youth Ministry
Gen Z and Gen Alpha have grown up in a world where institutional trust has deeply eroded—and that changes everything about youth ministry. In this episode…
- Pivot Podcast
What Happens When Church Leaders Stop Trying to Be Perfect
Are you exhausted from trying to be the perfect church leader who has all the answers? Nicole Massie Martin, COO of Christianity Today and author of "Nailing…
- Pivot Podcast
Why You Were Never Meant to Lead Alone
Many church leaders today feel trapped in unsustainable patterns of solo ministry, carrying everything from sermon prep to pastoral care to vision casting on…
- Pivot Podcast
Why Smaller Churches Have a Secret Advantage Right Now
The 90% of American congregations with fewer than 200 weekly attendees are gifted communities of faith. They are strategically positioned ministries with…
- Pivot Podcast
Why 70% of Church Change Efforts Fail (And How to Beat Those Odds)
In part two of our conversation with Dr. Kara Powell, Dr. Jake Mulder, and Ray Chang from Fuller Seminary, we dive deep into the practical aspects of…
- Pivot Podcast
Why Your Church's Best Days Are Ahead (Even If Attendance Is Down)
Is your church organizational culture stuck in patterns that no longer serve younger generations? After working with over 1,000 congregations through their…
- Pivot Podcast
Why Authentic Christian Leadership Has Nothing to Do With Perfect Methods
What does authentic Christian leadership actually look like in today's cultural moment? Jason Jensen, Vice President of Spiritual Foundations for InterVarsity…
- Pivot Podcast
The Lost Art That Formed Deep Disciples for 300 Years (And Why Churches Are Rediscovering It)
What if the struggle many churches face with forming deep, lasting disciples is an invitation to rediscover catechesis, the ancient practice that transformed…
- Pivot Podcast
The Question that Left Stewardship Leaders Speechless
Most churches have fallen into the trap of only discussing money during budget season or stewardship campaigns, focusing solely on what people give rather than…
- Pivot Podcast
What If Your Church's Problems Aren't Meant to Be Fixed?
Church leadership challenges seem to multiply daily in today's uncertain ministry landscape. Declining attendance, budget shortfalls, aging facilities, and…
- Pivot Podcast
What if Your "Empty" Church Building is Actually Your Greatest Ministry Asset?
Many congregations today find themselves wrestling with inherited buildings that no longer fit their present reality—spaces that are underutilized, expensive…
- Pivot Podcast
Why We're "The Ancients Again" (And What That Means for Your Church)
How do you maintain Christian identity in a culture where Christianity is "merely one option among many"? Church historian Dr. Stephen Presley argues that…