"I lost five council members when I tried to make changes."

This candid admission from a church leader captures the real challenges of leading congregations today. In this special Q&A episode, hosts Alicia Granholm, Dwight Zscheile, and Terri Elton tackle your most pressing questions about church leadership and change.

Drawing from questions submitted by listeners in the field, our hosts explore how to build motivation for change, ways to discern God's will as a community, practical approaches to neighborhood ministry for commuter churches, and strategies for building trust while leading through lament. Whether you're facing council resistance or seeking to guide your congregation into God's future, this episode offers both practical wisdom and spiritual encouragement for the journey. Featuring insights on the "five whys" exercise, storytelling practices for building trust, and scripture-based approaches to discernment from Acts 16.

Resources Mentioned:
“Grounded in God: Listening Hearts Discernment for Group Deliberations” Morehouse Publishing, 1996) by Suzanne G. Farnham et al.
“Pursuing God’s Will Together” by Ruth Haley Barton, D.D.
Acts 16 passage on discernment

"I lost five council members when I tried to make changes."
This candid admission from a church leader captures the real challenges of leading congregations today. In this special Q&amp;A episode, hosts Alicia Granholm, Dwight Zscheile, and Terri Elton tackle your most pressing questions about church leadership and change.
Drawing from questions submitted by listeners in the field, our hosts explore how to build motivation for change, ways to discern God's will as a community, practical approaches to neighborhood ministry for commuter churches, and strategies for building trust while leading through lament. Whether you're facing council resistance or seeking to guide your congregation into God's future, this episode offers both practical wisdom and spiritual encouragement for the journey. Featuring insights on the "five whys" exercise, storytelling practices for building trust, and scripture-based approaches to discernment from Acts 16.
Resources Mentioned:
<ul>
<li>&ldquo;<a href="https://www.churchpublishing.org/products/groundedingodrevisededition" data-uw-rm-brl="PR" data-uw-original-href="https://www.churchpublishing.org/products/groundedingodrevisededition">Grounded in God: Listening Hearts Discernment for Group Deliberations</a>&rdquo; Morehouse Publishing, 1996) by Suzanne G. Farnham et al.</li>
<li>&ldquo;<a href="https://pursuinggodswilltogether.com/" data-uw-rm-brl="PR" data-uw-original-href="https://pursuinggodswilltogether.com/">Pursuing God&rsquo;s Will Together</a>&rdquo; by Ruth Haley Barton, D.D.</li>
<li>Acts 16 passage on discernment</li>
</ul>

COVID-19 forced church leaders to respond to a global crisis in the blink of an eye. In a moment with little information and much uncertainty, churches reinvented nearly every aspect of church. This moment has ignited imagination, created collaborations, launched experiments, and dreamed of new possibilities as the heroic efforts of leaders continue to lead ministry. The response to these challenges has been great, but there comes a time when responding is no sufficient. If the church is going to live into a new reality, it will need to pivot.
Pivot invites church leaders to use the disruptive moment of COVID-19 to reimagine how they think about church, ministry, and leadership. Each week three veteran church leaders wrestle with making spiritual sense of this time, name how the Christian faith is a resource for navigating this moment in history, offer ideas on how church leaders can pivot toward the emerging future, and suggest practices for engaging others in this work.
Pivot is co-sponsored by LEAD and Faith+Lead.

COVID-19 forced church leaders to respond to a global crisis in the blink of an eye. In a moment with little information and much uncertainty, churches reinvented nearly every aspect of church. This moment has ignited imagination, created collaborations, launched experiments, and dreamed of new possibilities as the heroic efforts of leaders continue to lead ministry. The response to these challenges has been great, but there comes a time when responding is no sufficient. If the church is going to live into a new reality, it will need to pivot.
Pivot invites church leaders to use the disruptive moment of COVID-19 to reimagine how they think about church, ministry, and leadership. Each week three veteran church leaders wrestle with making spiritual sense of this time, name how the Christian faith is a resource for navigating this moment in history, offer ideas on how church leaders can pivot toward the emerging future, and suggest practices for engaging others in this work.
Pivot is co-sponsored by <a href="https://waytolead.org/">LEAD</a> and Faith+Lead.

Pivot

Welcome to the Pivot podcast, a production of Luther Seminary's Faith+Lead. Faith+Lead is an ecosystem of theological resources and training, designed to equip Christian disciples and leaders to follow God into a faithful future. Find out more at faithlead.org

Welcome to the Pivot podcast, a production of Luther Seminary's Faith+Lead. Faith+Lead is an ecosystem of theological resources and training, designed to equip Christian disciples and leaders to follow God into a faithful future. Find out more at faithlead.org

A church leader’s candid reflection—“I lost five council members when I tried to make changes”—sets the stage for a special Q&A episode where hosts Alicia Granholm, Dwight Zscheile, and Terri Elton address listener-submitted questions about navigating resistance, fostering trust, and discerning God's will in church leadership today

When Church Change Feels Hard: Your Questions Answered

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/28f01144-8775-4fb7-b93c-ad7c010bef79/clips/f660eb62-ec93-4a86-8c02-b24301761a7f/transcript

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