About Vital and Thriving: Where the Church meets the World
A bi-monthly podcast supporting congregations as they emerge from the pandemic; inspiring leaders in discernment and experimentation; and encouraging creative collaboration.
Because God is God: A Joyful Conversation with the Rev. Dr. Justin Crisp
In a world full of so much pain, what is the hope of joy? How do we hold God's goodness and the brokenness of our world in a faithful tension? What kind of future does joy want? In our final episode of the season, Scot and Claire bring these profound and poignant questions to the Rev. Dr. Justin Crisp, Priest in Charge of Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church in Greenwich, CT, lecturer in Anglican Studies at Yale Divinity School, and co-editor of Joy and Human Flourishing: Essays on Theology, Culture, and the Good Life. With a rare mix of theological insight and pastoral sensitivity, Justin explores such vast concepts as the problem of evil right alongside more ordinary experiences of grief, change, and loss to illuminate a God who is radically present with us while remaining a mystery beyond our comprehension. Don't miss this deep and delightful conversation as we head into the summer months grounded in the joy that meet us here and now because, as Justin says, "God is God, and now is where we are."
4 Apr 2024
Between Human and Divine Agency: A Conversation with the Rev. Beth Horsch
How do we trust and stay with a process when our destination is unclear? Today we explore the daunting and delightful space in between — be that between certainty and trust, control and acceptance, or us and God — with ELCA pastor and spiritual leader the Rev. Beth Horsch. As the newest member of the Vital+Thriving Congregations Leadership Team, Rev. Beth offers listeners hope and perspective as someone who moved through this process over ten years ago in her own congregation and continues to see it bear fruit in the life of the community. Reflecting on how difficult it is for people trained to identify a goal and then benchmark progress toward it to give themselves over to a genuine process of spiritual discernment, Rev. Beth peppers this episode with helpful reframes, good humor, and generous companionship. Don't miss this encouraging reminder of the abundant life that God longs for us all to enjoy, here and now.
11 Mar 2024
From Crisis To Opportunity: A Conversation with the Rt. Rev. Dr. Susan Brown Snook
We are thrilled to welcome to the show yet another Episcopal Bishop, this time from our home state of California! The Rt. Rev. Dr. Susan Brown Snook is a national leader in evangelism, church growth, and church planting currently serving as the fifth Bishop of the Diocese of San Diego. After serving established congregations early in her ordained ministry, she planted a church in Scottsdale, Arizona, which went on to become a thriving congregation. In this deeply hopeful and imminently practical conversation, Bishop Susan reflects on the spiritual practices that make for vital Christian communities, whether new or longstanding, such as connecting with our neighbors, deepening authentic relationship within and beyond our community, engaging in spiritual practices that center God, and looking for God already at work in our world. We also explore insights and frameworks from her wonderful book God Gave the Growth: Church Planting in the Episcopal Church. Bishop Susan proclaims the hope of the resurrection with her words and her witness, reminding us that there is no situation through which God cannot bring new life. Don't miss this truly inspiring episode with one our church's most visionary leaders.
12 Feb 2024
On Being With: A Conversation with the Rev. Dr. Sam Wells
In our latest episode, Scot and Claire are joined by the Rev. Dr. Sam Wells, Vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, former Dean of Duke University Chapel, and the author of forty-six books on Christian ethics, mission, and more. This deep and wide-ranging conversation invites us to rethink almost everything we know about being church. What if God doesn't want, need or expect us to have answers to the world's most pressing problems but rather longs for us to be with ourselves, one another, and creation after the example of Jesus? What if the most urgent challenges of our times aren't crises of limitation but crises of isolation? What if church were a place of mutual enjoyment for all who gather? What if we moved from a narrative of scarcity to an experience of God's abundance? Get ready to look again at the most familiar aspects of your congregation, and your life, and see them anew. Don't miss this inspiring conversation with one today's most visionary leaders on Christian mission.
8 Jan 2024
Eat What Is Set Before You: A Conversation with Dr. Scott Hagley
Our first episode of 2024 invites us to move deeper into the daunting and delightful wisdom of Luke 10, the text within which our congregations have been dwelling for many months now. Joining us on the way is Dr. Scott Hagley, associate professor of world evangelism and missiology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and author of the book, Eat What is Set Before You: A Missiology of the Congregation in Context, a beautifully written invitation to take seriously what it means to participate in God’s mission in our own unique time and place. In this honest and wide-ranging discussion, we explore why it is so hard for many American Christians to move from host to guest, to find our place at God's table in our neighborhood, and to shift from seeing ourselves as experts and change-agents to simply being bearers of God's love and light in our particular neighborhoods. Don't miss this humbling and ultimately hopeful conversation!
11 Dec 2023
To Be Brave: A Conversation with the Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde
Our new season kicks off with an honest and courageous conversation with the Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde, ninth bishop of the Diocese of Washington (D.C.). The author of several books, among them the 2023 release How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith, Bishop Mariann occupies a unique role in our church as a spiritual leader in our nation's capital. She is refreshingly visionary and humble in her writing and leadership, reflecting with a welcome vulnerability on her own experiences of disappointment and discernment, as well as the gifts and costs that come with following Jesus. In this season of anticipation and new beginnings, as we draw nearer to the joy of Christmas and move toward welcoming our bishop-elect, her words are an encouragement to be braver in speech and action alike. Don't miss this compelling Advent offering!
26 Jun 2023
We've Barely Begun: Imagining a More Just Future with Rob Hopkins
In our final episode of the season, we're thrilled to welcome organizer and environmentalist Rob Hopkins, co-founder of Transition Town Totnes and author of several books, including From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want. In this broad ranging conversation, we explore the power of imagination, the importance of play, the cultivation of hope, and how our longing for a more beautiful future can bring us together and move us into action. Traversing a wide variety of topics, rooted in research and personal experience, this discussion manages to be both profoundly grounded and relentlessly inspiring all at once. Don't miss this uplifting close to our second season.
25 Apr 2023
Stand Still and Listen: A Conversation with Dr. Catherine Meeks
In our tenth episode, we explore dismantling racism not simply as political or social action but as something central to our spiritual formation as followers of Jesus, who was radical and disruptive in his life and teaching. Guiding us into this compelling perspective is Dr. Catherine Meeks, a prophetic voice in our Church currently serving as the Executive Director of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing. With stunning clarity and conviction, Dr. Meeks highlights the urgency of racial healing for our world, our churches, and our own lives, and how addressing systemic change is central to living a life of integrity and faith. Throughout the conversations she inspires us to see not only the challenge but also the promise of seeking the truth where it is to be found, even if that means walking courageously into the darkness and trusting God to show us the way forward from there.
23 Feb 2023
The Gospel Fully Alive: A Conversation with the Rev. Lina Thompson
We're delighted to welcome yet another transformational leader to the Vital + Thriving Podcast, someone who has not only helped her congregation grow but also to grow more diverse, more dynamic, and younger. The Rev. Lina Thompson is Pastor of Lake Burien Presbyterian Church just outside Seattle, a community of faith "willing to take risks, engaging tough conversations, giving lots of grace, growing in our love for God through worship and service, and making sure that we are centering God’s heart for those who are most marginalized." Throughout this conversation, Rev. Lina shares out of her lived experience as a woman of color leading a largely white congregation doing the hard and holy work of revitalization, while constantly pointing to the delightful and surprising ways the Spirit works with whatever we have to offer, no matter how humble. Don't miss this inspiring and encouraging conversation with someone nurturing a vital and thriving community already bearing fruit for the world.
18 Jan 2023
God Is Forever Implicated: A (Wonderfully) Messy Conversation with Debie Thomas
The daughter and granddaughter of evangelical pastors, Christianity has been the starting point, the destination, and the path in between for this episode's guest, Debie Thomas, though she has traversed a lot of ground to find her way to the Episcopal tradition. In our first episode of 2023, we talk with the celebrated author and Minister of Lifelong Formation at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Palo Alto about her first book, Into the Mess and Other Jesus Stories: Reflections on the Life of Christ, which came out in 2022. Debie's delight in scripture, and her trust in the God who meets us in the complex stories of the bible and and our own lives alike, shine through this conversation. This episode is especially timely for Epiphany, when we celebrate the light that has come into our world and seek to see ourselves, our communities, and Jesus himself anew.
17 Nov 2022
God is Not Elsewhere: A Conversation with the Revs. Phil Brochard and Alissa Newton
In our seventh episode, we welcome two guests for the first time, co-authors of the newly released Vital Christian Community: Twelve Characteristics of Healthy Congregations. Sharing out of their experiences as parish leaders and trainers in The College for Congregational Development, the Revs. Phil and Alissa offer wisdom and insight from their many years working closely with congregations discerning their purpose and listening for God's call. This episode explores several questions essential to congregational development - We love our Churches, but why do we love our Churches? If health isn't about "nickles and noses," how do we know when a congregation is vital and thriving? How are we in relationship with our wider communities? What opportunities and invitations have become apparent as a result of the disruption of the pandemic? At every turn, Revs. Phil and Alissa draw our attention back to the God who is not out there but active, moving, right here, right now.
2 Nov 2022
Laughter, Tears, and Transformation: A Conversation with the Rev. Molly Baskette
Before moving to the Bay Area to lead First Church Berkeley, which she lovingly describes as a "motley pew," UCC pastor the Rev. Molly Baskette served as senior minister of First Church Somerville in Massachusetts. The author of six books, Rev. Molly tells the story of First Church Somerville's dramatic transformation in Real Good Church: How Our Church Came Back from the Dead, and Yours Can, Too. This episode is full of practical insights wrought from her lived experience of congregational revival, as well as rich reflections on how God continues to move in our midst, drawing us into ever deeper relationship with God and one another. Rev. Molly's love of Jesus and delightful sense of humor shine through this hopeful conversation about how the Church changes, and what we might yet become.
21 Sept 2022
Letting Go and Letting God: A Conversation with the Rev. Rachel Stout
Our fall season of the Vital+Thriving podcast kicks off with a thrilling conversation with the Rev. Rachel Stout, who serves not only as a clergy coach for leaders in Vital+Thriving Congregations but also as a reflective practitioner at the Center for Church Innovation and a Lutheran pastor in Minnesota. As a parish leader who has guided congregations through the Partnership for the Missional Church process before, she is able to speak about the journey we've all embarked upon out of her own experience. Don't miss this inspiring discussion of the surprising movements of the Spirit, the energy and excitement to be discovered along the way, and, naturally, the merits (or lack thereof) of the jello mold desserts that show up at Church potlucks.
16 Jun 2022
In Celebration of Liberation: A Conversation with the Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers
In the final episode of our first season, Scot and Claire speak with one of the Episcopal Church’s leading thinkers around 21st-century ministry and mission, the Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers. The author of several books, including most recently The Church Cracked Open: Disruption, Decline, and New Hope for Beloved Community, Canon Stephanie speaks about our Church's history around race, justice, and invitation with devastating clarity, courageous honesty, and prophetic hope. Join us for this timely and timeless conversation, full of a fierce and grounded trust in God's movements in our midst (but, unfortunately for Scot, not full of the background noise of New York City). We'll be back in August with new episodes of the V+T Podcast!
13 May 2022
Learning to Listen for God: A Conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Liebert, SNJM
Scot and Claire speak with Catholic Sister, former seminary professor, and author Dr. Elizabeth Liebert about discernment and the spiritual practices that help us to listen deeply for God's call in and for our lives. Sister Beth reflects on both individual and collective discernment, pointing us toward forms of prayer and disciplines of life that can allow us not only to recognize when God is speaking but actually understand what God is saying. We also explore some important common ground between Catholic and Protestant spirituality (spoiler alert: the venn diagram includes homemade lasagna and apple pie). Don't miss this thoughtful conversation, full of practical guidance and timeless wisdom alike.
26 Apr 2022
The Beloved Community Has Come Near: A Conversation with Bishop Marc Handley Andrus
Up next, Scot and Claire speak with their Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Marc Handley Andrus, about the vitality practices that make building - or repairing - Beloved Community in each of our particular contexts possible: invitation, community embeddedness, diversity, collaboration, and sustainability. This inspiring conversation moves organically in many directions, and may or may not involve Scot almost singing a song from Frozen. This second episode deepens our introduction to Vital+Thriving Congregations and is full of both theoretical and practical insight for everyone interested in building a Church that, in the words of Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, "looks and acts like Jesus."
8 Apr 2022
Imagining The Thriving Church: A Conversation with Patrick Keifert
In our first episode, Scot and Claire introduce Vital and Thriving in conversation with the Rev. Dr. Patrick Keifert. Together, they discuss everything from what it means to be Church in a "missional era" to the unique challenges posed by the pandemic to the joys of eating hotdish. Don't miss this imminently hopeful invitation to notice what God is already doing in our communities and our world.
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