Recent Episode Recap

Mainline decline, church buildings as thin places, voting morally, talking to Trumpers, theological humility.

Happy Easter! It’s hard to believe April is here already. If you work in the church then you were probably pretty busy over the last few weeks and might have not had time to listen to some recent episodes. So below are links to some of those episodes to catch up on.

An experiment: I’ve started an experiment on the podcast where I’m doing bonus episodes of clips from recent episodes. The first one was a clip from a December 2023 interview with Paul Moore, a pastor of a Presbyterian Church in the suburban Twin Cities in Minnesota. In this clip, he talks about why mainline Protestant churches haven’t made growing congregations a priority.

Church Buildings as Thin Places: The other clip I have is from my colleague Loren Richmond, Jr. This clip comes from a January 2024 interview where we talked about the importance of physical church spaces. In this clip you can hear the passion in his voice about the importance of brick and mortar worship spaces can provide access to those “thin places;” places where the wall between the holy and mundane is not so thick.

Voting Morally: Are you planning to vote for President in the fall? If so, why? How will you vote? That last question, how we vote is an important one. You can vote strategically, meaning most likely that you are voting against the other candidate instead of in favor of a candidate. Many will say this is probably necessary, but how beneficial is that to our society? How beneficial is it to our consciences?

I had the opportunity to talk to Bryan McGraw a political science professor at Wheaton College. Along with another fellow Wheaton professor, he wrote a provocative article titled “How to Think About Voting.” We talked about voting strategically and the method he proposes, called voting sincerely. As we head into this important election, you will want to listen to this episode to learn about what it means to vote not just to win, but to vote for our true values.

Talking to Trump Supporters? In our interview, Bryan brought up the notion of how we act after the election. How do we treat those who might have voted differently? I’ve been wondering how best should we engage those who might support Donald Trump. Does shaming work? Should we just ignore them and consider them a lost cause? Or, is it still possible to persuade? In this solo episode, I make the case that we should try to listen to Trump supporters. Is it worth our time to do so? Listen to the episode and decide.

Theological Humility: Coming back full circle, I chatted in mid-March with David Emery, the pastor of Harvard Avenue Christian Church in Tulsa, OK. I wanted to talk to David because he leads a growing mainline congregation. What was his secret? There isn’t one thing, but David did share that one of the values that matter to him and maybe should matter in other congregations is theological humility, which is lacking in many mainline churches. There isn’t a formula for a successful mainline Protestant church, but there are the right conditions and he talks about them in this interview.

I have a few episodes coming up soon on new ways of funding churches and Christian Nationalism. Stay tuned. Check out past episodes at the Church and Main Podcast Page.