Part of Season 4! In this episode, the Renaissance Team wraps up the ongoing discussion on the Dream. Create. Enjoy. Podcast of looking at the realities of microchurch community. What have we learned about the journey of creating spiritual families six years in? Why is it often so hard to imagine church beyond what we've experienced? How does this help formation? In this episode, we unpack these themes and get into the day-to-day realities of microchurches.

Part of Season 4! In this episode, the Renaissance Team continues the Dream. Create. Enjoy. Podcast by looking at the realities of microchurch community. What does it look like to live as a spiritual family? Why is often so hard to imagine church beyond events in our calendar? What does reimagining our spiritual formation communally mean? In this episode, we unpack these themes and get into the day-to-day realities of microchurches.

Part of Season 4! In this episode, we interview Lucas Pulley to talk about shared leadership and the implications of doing life in a microchurch community. We'll be looking at how we often get leadership wrong and what it looks like to practice polycentric or shared leadership.

Lucas Pulley is Executive Director of Underground Network, an experimental community made up of over 100 microchurches in Tampa Bay and serving dozens of similar decentralized and empowering movements around the world. Lucas has years of experience planting microchurches and leading decentralized networks of grassroots churches, and still leads a neighborhood house church in the projects of inner city Tampa to this day with his wife and 3 kids. He is driven to see cities transformed by the priesthood of all believers activated in the mission of God.

Part of Season 4! In this episode, we interview Damaris Taylor of The Bridge as we continue looking at the realities of microchurch community. How do we understand hospitality as a spiritual family? Where do we sometimes miss the mark on this issue? How can we become more inclusive with hospitality? What are the best practices for working through it? In this episode, we unpack these themes together.

Part of Season 4! In this episode, the Renaissance Team continues the Dream. Create. Enjoy. Podcast by looking at the realities of microchurch community. How do we navigate conflict in the midst of becoming a spiritual family? How can we shift our perception of conflict in the Christian life? What are the best practices for working through it? In this episode, they unpack these themes together.

Part of Season 4! In this episode, we interview Dr. Neal Windham to talk about life together in community and the realities of learning to walk together through difficulties. How should Christians understand pain? More importantly, how do learn to shoulder what others are going through? We answer these questions in this episode.

Dr. Windham is a retired professor/pastor living in the Midwest whose focus, particularly in the later stages of his career, has been on spiritual formation. He's also taught Greek language and New Testament, both in the states and abroad, and has served many churches in an interim capacity along the way. His principal ministry interests today are teaching in the local church and practicing spiritual direction with pastors and other church leaders who want to deepen their walk with God. He spends his days alongside his wife, Miriam, reading, making music, studying, practicing spiritual direction, fishing, and visiting their (grand)kids in Knoxville and Joliet.

Part of Season 4! In this episode, we interview Mark Nelson to talk about living truthfully and the implications of doing life in a microchurch community. We'll be looking at how we get truthfulness wrong and how we often truncate our faith in the process.

Mark Nelson is the Executive Director of the Three Rivers Collaborative, an initiative of learning communities for churches in Knoxville, TN. He has 36 years of vocational church ministry experience which includes youth ministry, campus ministry and church planting. He is the co-author (with Alan Hirsch) of the book Reframation and is currently working on a second book with Dr. Heather Gorman to be released early in 2024. He has been married for 36 years to Monica and together they have three grown children.

Part of Season 4! In this episode, the Renaissance Team continues the Dream. Create. Enjoy. Podcast by looking at the realities of microchurch community. How do promises play a part in the fabric of community building? Why is it so important that we keep our promises to each other? What trips us up in these endeavors? In this episode, they unpack these themes and get into the day-to-day realities of microchurches.

Resources referenced:

Living Into Community (Christine Pohl) - https://tinyurl.com/4eyhhean

Controlling the Unpredictable (Lewis B. Smeades) - https://tinyurl.com/5n94e9tw

Mission as Promise (Drew Thurman) - https://t.co/AZ3vTFwwXF

The kickoff of Season 4! In this episode, the Renaissance Team continues the Dream. Create. Enjoy. Podcast by looking at the realities of microchurch community. What does it look like to live as a spiritual family trying to live out the way of Jesus together? How to push past the facade of other forms of church we've experienced, to have true intimacy and growth? In this episode, they lay the groundwork for the entire season talking about community, discipleship, and the way of Jesus.

Bonus Episode - Why should Christians care about justice? How is justice work intertwined with the work of neighboring? How do we learn to do justice work from a Christ-like posture? 

In this episode we interview Dishon Mills about these questions and hear his story. Dishon works as a church planter and for his denomination, Grace Communion International (GCI). Outside of ministry, Dishon has 20 years of experience working for formal and informal education organizations, including: Boston Public School, South Boston Boys and Girls Club, The Computer Clubhouse, and the ArtScience Prize. Dishon received a Bachelor’s Degree from Harvard University, where he studied Sociology and African American Studies, and is close to finishing his Master’s of Pastoral Studies from Grace Communion Seminary. He lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife, two children, and dog.

Bonus Episode - Why should Christians care about place? How can we become integral characters in the story of our neighborhood? How do we accept small acts of neighborliness as important work? 

In this episode we interview Steve MacDouell about these questions and hear his story. When he's not pastoring with FreeChurch Toronto or teaching at Fanshawe College, Steve can be found working on place-based projects and inviting everyday citizens to leverage their time, their ideas, and their creativity for the sake of their neighbourhoods. He's the co-founder of Good City Co., a civic organization that creates projects, platforms, and activations to help citizens take a greater ownership over the places that they call home. He writes about the intersection of community, place, and praxis for Strong Towns.  Steve lives, dreams, and conspires in Little Portugal—a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario.

Bonus Episode - What does it look like to find joy and delight in loving your neighbor? What does it look like to reorient your life around place? How do we live as "holy fools?" 

In this episode we interview Dr. Preston Pouteaux about these questions and hear his story. He is a beekeeper, neighborhood enthusiast, and pastor at Lake Ridge Community Church. He is an engaging speaker, writer, and curator of conversations about faith and neighborhoods. Since 2015 his syndicated column, Into the Neighbourhood, has been printed over two million times in weekly newspapers and his latest book, "The Bees of Rainbow Falls" won a 2018 Word Guild Award. Preston lives in Chestermere, Alberta, with his wife Kelly, their daughters Scotia and Ivy, and a few thousand honeybees.

Part of Season 3 - In this episode, Drew Thurman, Fabricio Paes, and Christine Lee talk about the struggles of overcoming metrics from prevailing models of church. What does it look like to be faithful and patient in a microchurch? How do we not reduce God's work to nothing more than counting? We discuss together. 

Part of Season 3 - In this episode, Drew Thurman and Jace Rasche talk about the realities of living for the common good of the neighborhood. Jace shares the story of starting a business, and what redemptive entrepreneurship and pursuing your God dream looks like in reality. 

Part of Season 3 - In this episode, Drew Thurman and Christine Lee talk about the realities of living out diversity, equity, and inclusion in a microchurch. Christine shares parts of her story and wrestles with the where the church can grow in these areas. 

Part of Season 3 - In this episode, Jacob Vangen and Victoria Roberts talk about the realities of living out the way of Jesus in a microchurch. Victoria shares her story and peels back the curtain of her own microchurch so listeners can hear what it is really means to be the church in this expression. 

Part of Season 3 - In this episode, Jacob Vangen and Robert Meyer talk about the realities of joining God on mission in our everyday spaces and places. They wrestle with the sacrifice and difficulty of doing ministry in this manner, and how God shows up in the midst of it all. 

Part of Season 3 - In this episode, Drew Thurman and Jacob Vangen kickoff a brand new season of the Dream. Create. Enjoy. Podcast. In this episode, they interview Fabricio Paes, one of the microchurch leaders of Renaissance. He talks about the importance of being rooted in your neighborhood and discovering God where we already are. 

Part of Season 2 - "Essentials." In this episode, Drew Thurman, Jace Rasche, and Jacob Vangen continue to chat through the Renaissance essentials, a manifesto of sorts. This episode is all about a lifestyle grounded in listening/prayer - as Renaissance values humility, listening and praying first rather than always pushing an agenda. 

Part of Season 2 - "Essentials." In this episode, Drew Thurman, Jace Rasche, and Jacob Vangen continue to chat through the Renaissance essentials, a manifesto of sorts. This episode is all about a lifestyle of openhandedness - as Renaissance values generosity, helping people live simply and give freely rather than being slaves to materialism.