What does it take to turn a declining church into a thriving center of love, justice, and belonging? In this episode, host Beth Estock sits down with Rev. Jane Voigts, pastor of United Methodist Church of Palm Springs. Since 2018, Jane has guided her congregation through a remarkable season of renewal – launching life-giving ministries like weekly hot meals, an affordable housing project, and vibrant small groups that deepen connection and spiritual growth. Jane shares how she has cultivated a c...
Jun 25, 2025•42 min
This week on Church is Changing, we talk with Amber Baker – a pastor, spiritual director, and Dinner Church pioneer in Morgantown, West Virginia. Amber has started five dinner churches around Morgantown, each unique but all are LGBTQIA+-affirming communities of seekers. This collective includes firefighters, people in recovery, strippers, and folks carrying church hurt – all around the simple power of shared meals and Jesus’ stories. She’s reimagining faith in bold and hopeful ways. Don’t miss t...
Jun 11, 2025•39 min
In this episode, Paul Nixon interviews Rodrigo Cruz, executive assistant to the bishop in the Georgia Episcopal Area. Our topic is ministry with immigrants in America in a time of deportation without due process. This is a powerful conversation.
May 28, 2025•33 min
What if the unraveling we see in the institutional church isn’t a problem to fix — but a sacred invitation to a new way of being? In this deeply honest and hopeful episode, host Beth Estock is joined by three extraordinary women — Elaine Heath, Angie Wolle, and Rebecca Przybylski — for a soulful conversation about the shifting landscape of Christian leadership and the emergence of the Divine Feminine in this time of disintegration, grief, and profound transformation.
May 14, 2025•35 min
In this episode, Paul Nixon interviews Joe Graves, pastor and planter of Cityview Church in Columbus, Ohio about the new face of urban church planting and the adventure of merger with a host church in its last stage of life.
Apr 03, 2025•43 min
In this episode, Paul Nixon interviews the church development directors of Baltimore Washington and Western North Carolina Conferences of the UMC: Bill Brown and Rob Hutchinson. The topic: the changing signs of church vitality in the 2020s and what should we now measure?
Mar 19, 2025•37 min
In this episode, Paul Nixon interviews Anne Borsage of South Georgia about how the Spirit is moving in Methodism in the Deep South, after half the churches in the area disaffiliated. The surprise in her answer is a wave of new house churches!
Mar 17, 2025•41 min
In a time of deep division, the unraveling of our national institutions, and the undeniable uncertainty within our congregations, how do we, as Christian leaders, stay rooted in the way of Jesus – and hold fast to our prophetic witness? Today, we’re honored to be joined by Rev. Donna Claycomb Sokol – a wise, courageous, and deeply spiritual pastoral leader serving at Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church in the heart of Washington, D.C. From the shadow of the Capitol, she brings us stories ...
Feb 28, 2025•42 min
In this episode of Church is Changing, Paul Nixon explores the ways that AI is rapidly changing the way we go about ministry. He interviews Pastor Tom Arthur of Sycamore Creek UMC in Lansing, Michigan, along with Tom's friend and tech resource David Smith. This is one of Paul's favorite conversations. So amazing are the potential applications for helping us with our work, from preaching to ministry design.
Feb 16, 2025•44 min
Are you feeling stuck? Are the things that used to work no longer working? Are you questioning the future of the church as we know it? Then this conversation is for you! Listen in on this conversation from Portland, Oregon – a post-Christendom area of the United States that is a harbinger for the rest of the country in terms of the changing landscape of the church. Erin Martin left her role as a DS in the Portland Metro area to serve a local church during Covid lockdown. She shares how immersing...
Jan 22, 2025•31 min
In this episode of Church is Changing, Paul Nixon interviews the Rev. Katie Philips of The Vine UMC in northern Virginia. The Vine is host of a monthly gathering called Improv Church, using improv comedy as a vehicle for celebrating Gospel. Beyond this particular program of the Vine, the larger focus of this conversation is about Ministry as improv – or what Katie calls improv theology. For more about the topics explored, check out Katie's website improvtheology.com.
Jan 03, 2025•35 min
What is possible with twelve elderly people in an old church building? Listen to this conversation with Wayne Grewcock, who led this group of bright-eyed people to reimagine sacred community online. Listen to Shoreline’s origin story and the impact this ministry is having as it ripples out on multiple platforms. Click here to learn more about Shoreline Methodist Community: https://www.facebook.com/shorelinemethodistcommunity
Jan 03, 2025•31 min
Dan Pezet is district superintendent in Charlotte, North Carolina, with urban, suburban, and rural churches. Paul Nixon considers this district a microcosm of American Methodism east of the Rockies. In this episode, Paul poses many of the same questions to Dan that he and Beth Estock explored in the year end episode of 2024. This is a conversation about emerging trends in American congregational life.
Jan 03, 2025•42 min
In this final episode of 2024, Church is Changing hosts Paul Nixon and Beth Estock reflect on trends and issues of parish ministry that marked the year now ending.
Dec 04, 2024•32 min
In this episode, host Paul Nixon interviews two young German United Methodists, Samuel Lacher and Moritz Mosebach. Samuel and Moritz reflect on shifts happening in German Methodism that are leading to more success in engaging young adults. The key is a re-emphasis on encounter – an idea as old as the Gospels and prominent in evangelism theory across the ages.
Dec 02, 2024•36 min
How does transformation happen? Anna Hoesly and Stori Long would say – one story at a time, especially when you believe that everything that is needed can be unearthed and nurtured through listening deeply to our sacred stories in community. If you are interested in the inherent simplicity in building beloved community through story, you won’t want to miss this conversation! Click here for more information on Storyline Community PDX: https://www.storylinecommunitypdx.org
Nov 11, 2024•43 min
In this episode, host Paul Nixon interviews two pastors who have helped birth new, vital UMC congregations after predecessor churches disaffiliated from the denomination. David Teel of North Alabama and Karen Jones of South Carolina share what they have learned on their planting journeys!
Oct 23, 2024•31 min
What would you do if you had five grieving people and an entire church campus as your canvas for starting something new? Listen to my hope-filled and energizing conversation with Rev. Dr. Elizabeth LeMaster, pastor at Sedona United Methodist Church in Arizona. The church has a beautiful campus set against the red rocks, but ended up with five members after the season of disaffiliations. Elizabeth talks about the importance of prayer and deep listening as the foundation for flourishing in ministr...
Sep 18, 2024•34 min
In this episode, Paul Nixon interviews Jessica Taylor, Associate Director of Fresh Expressions United Methodist (FXUM). Paul and Jessica explore the basics of the FX movement, ponder the difference (or lack of difference) between Fresh Expressions and new churches. Jessica comes to ministry as a laywoman, a 20-something, a young mom, and a person who came to faith as a young adult. She has a lot to teach those of us who have been at ministry for a good while.
Sep 04, 2024•34 min
In this episode of Church is Changing, host Paul Nixon interviews Rev. Sam Parkes, the new pastor of FUMC Mesa, Arizona, about the challenges of getting started in a new pastoral appointment in the 2020s.
Aug 21, 2024•33 min
Who doesn’t like Asian food? Why not gather Asian American and Pacific island second generation young adults to eat spicy Asian food as a way to create communities of radical acceptance, solidarity, and hospitality? Meet Danielle Buwon Kim, an ordained elder in the North Texas Conference who leads a AAPI focused dinner church in the Dallas/Fort Worth area called KA:LL. Listen in as she shares the importance of this bi-weekly gathering that enjoys Asian food, exposes and heals AAPI invisibility, ...
Jul 24, 2024•28 min
In this episode of Church is Changing, Paul Nixon interviews co-host Beth Estock about a new ministry of her church: community dinners. Why would a church throw a community-wide dinner where there is absolutely no recruiting for church participation? Among the many reasons, it is making Joseph United Methodist Church in northeastern Oregon a legend on the community grapevine!
Jul 10, 2024•37 min
In this episode, Paul Nixon interviews Rev. Claire McNulty Drewes of Longmont, Colorado on how her church rebounded so significantly after the pandemic, more than doubling in the last two years. Her analysis defies many old instincts and assumptions. In the conversation, Claire references the book "The Adept Church" by Doug Powe Jr.
Jun 26, 2024•30 min
How did an aging suburban church in decline become a community hub of resilience and new life? Listen to this interview with Keren Rodriguez, pastor of Aloha United Methodist Church located less than 15 miles from downtown Portland, Oregon. Rodriguez is on the front line of providing housing for the houseless in the parking lot of the church called Safe Rest Village. And that is only the beginning! Listen to how she has built trusting partnerships with government, non-profits, churches, and dive...
May 29, 2024•37 min
How did an Olympic paddler end up starting a worldwide ministry on the banks of the Nantahala River? Wayner Dickert worked for 30 years at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina before asking his boss if he could start a little worship service on the bank of the river. Now 18 years later, Wayner will be retiring as the pastor of River of Life Ministry. If you are interested in the cross section of outdoor adventuring and faith community development, this podcast is for you! To find out m...
May 15, 2024•27 min
In this episode, host Paul Nixon interviews Dr. Andrea Smith, planter pastor of West UMC in Lake Norman, North Carolina, a church that has morphed with nimbleness ever since it was planted. A focus of the conversation is related to a digital children's ministry that grew out of the pandemic and has continued to develop, as they seek to engage an ever-changing population of American children. Click the link to learn more about Amped online children’s ministry: https://www.youtube.com/@amped.onlin...
May 01, 2024•35 min
In this episode, Paul Nixon interviews Northwest Texas DS Felicia Hopkins on her experience through disaffiliation of 80 percent of her churches. Hopkins also discusses moving onto a season of planting and creativity in West Texas.
Apr 17, 2024•30 min
If you refuse to lead a dying church, this conversation is for you! Paul Nixon has recently revised his best-selling book "I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church" for the new cultural context in which we find ourselves. In this episode, he offers six choices that churches and church leaders need to make in order to thrive in our post-Covid world. They include the following: choosing life over death; choosing community over isolation; choosing fun over drudgery; choosing bold over mild; choosing frontie...
Apr 03, 2024•35 min
Bring your notebook to this conversation with Nigel Pimlott as he shares some of his reflections from over 40 years in cutting edge ministry in the UK. Pimlott also offers some pithy and subversive one-liners that could be pondered for years. He is the former learning, development, and leadership trainer and coach for the Methodist Church of Great Britain. Pimlott is a man of deep faith, a trail blazer and mentor, and a holy agitator for new forms of faith community. In this conversation, he tal...
Mar 20, 2024•35 min
What do coffee roasting, Howard Thurman, and people with criminal records have in common? Listen to our conversation with Dustin Mailman, who leads Deep Time, a new ministry anchored at Trinity UMC in West Asheville, North Carolina. To find out more or purchase some coffee go to deeptimeavl.org. To contact Dustin Mailman directly, email dustin@trinitywavl.org.
Mar 06, 2024•34 min
