Church and Main

Episode 118: Paul VanderKlay on LGBTQ Issues in the Christian Reformed Church

How the Christian Reformed Church is handling LGBTQ inclusion.Over the last 20 years or so most of the mainline Protestant denominations have ended their controversies on the role of LGBTQ people in the life of the church.  The arguments usually ended with the denominations voting in favor of clergy and allowing for marriages and conservatives in each denomination leaving to form their own denominations.  The two latest are the Reformed Church in America where conservative churches left to create the Alliance of Reformed Churches and the United Methodist Church where conservatives are creating the Global Methodist Church.  It’s easy to think that more conservative and evangelical churches aren’t dealing with LGBTQ issues, but that is not true. The Christian Reformed Church has also been dealing with LGBTQ issues and last summer’s Synod shows it is still not resolved.  Today, I talk with Paul VanderKlay about what’s going on the denomination and what it says really about the larger culture and how the church deals with such fraught issues.Paul’s Twitter PagePaul’s SubstackPaul’s YouTube Channel Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 117: Camp Ministry with Jared Rendell

Church Camp can mean more to their life of faith than just a "camp high."There is evidence out there that kids feel the impact of church camps long after the campfires go out.  According to the Effective Camp Research Project, a survey of 1000 campers and 300 parents showed that while there is a temporary “camp high” there are positive long-term effects as well including the relevance of faith in everyday life and increased interest in spiritual practices like Bible Study and church attendance.Today, I’m talking with Jared Rendell.  Jared is the Director of Communication and Innovation at Sacred Playgrounds a kind of “think-tank” and research and development organization geared towards camp ministry.  Jared is a communications and web consultant, a musician and also the host of the Sacred Playgrounds podcast.Thanks for reading Church and Main! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Sacred Playgrounds websiteSacred Playgrounds podcastThe Lasting Impact of Christian Church CampThe Boundless Power of Camps (Dakota and Minnesota Conferences UMC)Jared Rendell’s website Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

The Church Transforming with Alex Ruth

I first met our guest today out of the blue on Facebook about four years ago.  I was looking for some leadership coaching for the congregation I serve and he offered to help and help he surely did.  Alex Ruth has been a congregational leader for years.  In 2021 he was called to become the Associate Regional Minister for Transformation in the Illinois-Wisconsin Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) after years of serving in parish ministry, the most recent in Missouri.  Alex is also the Associate Director for Disciples Men and teaches with the Center for Ministry and Lay Training at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Oklahoma.In our time together we talk about his call to help clergy and congregations respond to a changing culture.  Surprisingly we also spend some time talking about neurodiversity and the church.  Neurodiversity is a topic that is near and dear to my heart since I am on the autism spectrum and I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD.  Thanks for reading Church and Main! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 115: The Once and Future United Methodist Church with Drew McIntyre and Ben Gosden

Today, we will talk about what’s going on United Methodist Church, how it got to this point that's it's splitting in two and what is the future of the church. I’m talking with not one, but two guests. Drew McIntryre is a frequent guest on Church and Main and is the pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. Ben Gosden is the Senior Pastor of Trinity United Methodist in Savannah, GA and this is his second time on the podcast. We had a great discussion that is actually broken up into two parts. The main part is about the United Methodists in General and a smaller part talks about the former Bishop and writer Will Willimon, his role in the UMC and what it means to be an institutionalist. One quick note; Ben had some technical issues, which I tried to fix, but if there are still glitches that’s what it is.I hope you enjoyed the episode. Just a reminder that it takes a lot to make great content like this available to you. Consider making donation by going to Church and Main’s website at churchandmain.org.  Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 114: The Digital Church with Jim Keat

In the wake of the 2020 COVID pandemic, churches were forced into the digital frontier whether they liked it or not. But now what? In this episode, I talk to Rev. Jim Keat the Digital Minister at Riverside Church in New York City about the importance of reaching out to those people living across town and across the country who might want to worship with your congregationI hope you enjoyed the episode. Just a reminder that it takes a lot to make great content like this available to you. Consider making donation by going to Church and Main’s website at churchandmain.org. Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 113: The Rise of Deacons with Nina Joygaard

In Methodist, Episcopal and Lutheran traditions the deacon is a specific ministry in the church. Their ministry is different than pastors, focused more on acts of service whereas pastors are focused more on preaching and the sacraments. The word deacon comes from the Greek word diakonos which means “service.” This understanding of the role of a deacon which adheres more to the original understanding found in the book of Acts and in the early church is not always easily understood by people in the pew who might wonder when deacons are going to be pastors. I talk to Deacon Nina Joygaard about the importance of deacons in the local church, what led her to her call as a deacon, the struggles deacons face and the future of the diaconate in the church. Nina the Deacon for Adult Ministry at Faith Lutheran Church in Forest Lake, MN. Show Notes:DOTAC -(Diakonia of the Americas & Caribbean)  https://dotac.diakonia-world.org/Deaconess Community of the ELCA - https://deaconesscommunity.org/Lutheran Diaconal Association - https://thelda.org/Diakonia World Federation - https://diakonia-world.org/churchandmain.org  Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 112: Sabbath-Keeping for Congregations with Kara Root

So the church where I serve is starting an experiment. For the next year, we will be taking sabbath. We won’t be doing some the regular things we used to do and we are focusing on our spiritual walk and then on walk together as a congregation and finally in the spring we focus on the world outside the church. The point of this is to stop, slow down and think about who we are as a congregation moving forward.Today, I chat with Kara Root, the pastor of Lake Nokomis Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis. She’s been pastor of the congregation for nearly 15 years. We talk about how a year into her call the church did something different. They decided to not worship every Sunday and take a sabbath on the Sundays they didn’t meet for worship. The story is a bit more complicated than that, but it’s a story about how a congregation redefined and renewed itself not through a new program, or a new mission, but by taking time off and not doing things. I had a great time talking with Kara about this concept of sabbath and I hope it will be as exciting for you as well.Besides being the pastor of Lake Nokomis she is also a certified Spiritual Director and Christian Educator in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She’s written for Christianity Today, Christian Century, Working Preacher and many other publications. She is also the author of The Deepest Belonging: A Story of Discovering How God Meets Us and blogs at In the Here and Now.Root Creative: Kara's webs ite that she shares with her husband theologian Andy Root.God and Whiskey Podcast churchandmain.org  Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 111: Part Time Clergy Is Plenty with Jeffrey MacDonald

Mainline Protestant churches and denominational bodies don’t know how to handle part-time clergy. The standard has been clergy working full time. But has that always been the standard? (The short answer is no.) What happens when churches can’t afford a full-time clergy? Does that mean the church is no longer viable? Mainline denominations assume that all calls to ministry should be full time and if a pastor is working part-time, this is because the congregation is on the downward slope towards closure.The thing is, the reality is far different and these denominations aren’t ready for the change. Today, I talk to G. Jeffrey MacDonald the author of Part Time is Plenty: Thriving Without Full-Time Clergy. Jeff is an ordained United Church of Christ minister and a freelance journalist whose writing credits include the Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, Religion News Service and others. He’s an interim minister of a UCC congregation and lives in New England. Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 110: The Church After COVID with Sean Chow

We all know what happened in March of 2020. COVID began to shut society down. We canceled the event and in fact we didn’t meet in person for 14 months. When we started worshipping in person again, things were different. People who were part of the community, moved on. Others watched mostly online. There were still things we couldn’t do. Even some of what we used to do became different. COVID changed the church where I served and nothing will ever be the same. But this wasn’t just the case in my case, Churches large and small have all had to deal with a changed world. Theologian Andy Crouch wrote that COVID was more like a blizzard or a mini ice age, meaning that it was an event that would shatter cultural assumptions within American congregations. What is mission and ministry like after COVID? How should the church rise to meet this challenge? Where are we failing?I spoke to Sean Chow about this. Chow is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church USA and is an associate in that denomination’s 1001 New Worshipping Communities movement. Sean resources and consults with regional denomination bodies, churches, and church plants as they launch new creative expressions of church. His aim is to prepare, equip, and sustain leaders to do the work to which God calls them. He works with many congregations as they seek to redefine their mission and ministry and if you are like me and trying to figure out what to do post COVID, then you will want to hear this interview.Visit the website at churchandmain.org.  Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 109: Social Entrepreneurship and Bi-vocational Ministry with Loren RichmondJr.

As churches become unable to fund full-time ministry mainline denominations are starting to notice and have begun offering ideas in how to pastors can find outside work. One idea is taking part in social entrepreneurship. What is social entrepreneurship? One way it’s been defined is from the Faith and Leadership website from Duke Seminary . They define it as “the process of pursuing innovative solutions to social problems. For Christian leaders, this blending of a business model with Christian mission can be a valuable tool to help sustain an organization while at the same time bearing witness to the reign of God.”That sounds exciting! But is it really? Loren Richmond Jr. doesn’t think so. Loren is a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and he has his own misgivings when it comes to using social entrepreneurship as a way to help fund bi-vocational ministry. Loren is also the host of the Future Christian podcast and he and I talk about this new endeavor and why it might not be the best way to supplement part time ministry. Stick around for the end of the podcast when Dennis remembers the actor Nichelle Nichols of Star Trek fame who died on July 30 at the age of 89.  ChurchandMain.org  Get full access to Church and Main at churchandmain.substack.com/subscribe