Forming Church Podcast

We asked you (in our Forming Church Facebook group) to help choose the topics for the final episodes of season 2. We gave you a range of options to vote on and we're chatting through how these look in our context and having a conversation trying to explore them from our (limited) perspectives. We're also responding to the fantastic comments people provided in our Facebook page around these topics. No way we could cover all the good stuff that came up there - so take this as a spark, and continue to light the fire of good chats with your crew!  Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

We asked you (in our Forming Church Facebook group) to help choose the topics for the final episodes of season 2. We gave you a range of options to vote on and we're chatting through how these look in our context and having a conversation trying to explore them from our (limited) perspectives. We're also responding to the fantastic comments people provided in our Facebook page around these topics. No way we could cover all the good stuff that came up there - so take this as a spark, and continue to light the fire of good chats with your crew!  Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

We asked you (in our Forming Church Facebook group) to help choose the topics for the final episodes of season 2. We gave you a range of options to vote on and we're chatting through how these look in our context and having a conversation trying to explore them from our (limited) perspectives. We're also responding to the fantastic comments people provided in our Facebook page around these topics. No way we could cover all the good stuff that came up there - so take this as a spark, and continue to light the fire of good chats with your crew!  Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

We asked you (in our Forming Church Facebook group) to help choose the topics for the final episodes of season 2. We gave you a range of options to vote on and we're chatting through how these look in our context and having a conversation trying to explore them from our (limited) perspectives. We're also responding to the fantastic comments people provided in our Facebook page around these topics. No way we could cover all the good stuff that came up there - so take this as a spark, and continue to light the fire of good chats with your crew!  Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

Jamie Freeman sits down with Ainsley Freeman and Belinda Lakelin to unpack and flesh out all the goods from last week's episode with Melinda Dwight. (If you haven't listened to Melinda's episode go back and do that first, then come back here for the deep dive!)   Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

Melinda Dwight is the National Director for Alpha Australia. She joined us for a wide-ranging conversation about the state of the Australian church right now, the spirituality of non-churched Aussies, the role of digital technology in evangelism, and a whole range of other good stuff along the way. This conversation was warm, hopeful and full of great insights from Melinda's vantage point working in an organisation that equips all kinds of churches and denominations to help share the good news of Jesus.    Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

Jamie Freeman brings back the OGs from season 1 for this episode. Pip and Ken jump back in to unpack and flesh out all the goods from last week's episode with Louise Gosbell. (If you haven't listened to Louise's episode go back and do that first, then come back here for the deep dive!)   Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

Louise Gosbell is an Australian scholar interested in the intersection of disability and biblical studies. She is the Dean of Students and Lecturer in New Testament at Mary Andrews College, Sydney. She joined us for a fantastic, eye opening conversation about disability inclusion in our churches, and how we can become more mindful of creating accessible options for those with different needs. This episode could be a powerful conversation starter in ANY church.  Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

Jamie Freeman sits down with two people he has experience planting a church with - his wife and his best mate - to unpack and flesh out all the goods from last week's episode with Tod Bolsinger. (If you haven't listened to Tod's episode go back and do that first, then come back here for the deep dive!) Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

Andrew Sloane gives us an epic two for one conversation, first sharing his learnings from being on two church plant launch teams as a volunteer, and then painting us a vision of the integration of faith and work.    Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

Jamie Freeman sits down with Daz and Kelly to unpack and flesh out all the goods from last week's episode with Tod Bolsinger. (If you haven't listened to Tod's episode go back and do that first, then come back here for the deep dive!) Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

THIS episode is an absolute must listen. Tod Bolsinger, author of Canoeing the Mountains and Tempered Resilience joined us for a conversation about adaptive change in leadership - a topic that speaks directly to our rapidly changing times. Tod is  the Vice-President and Chief of Leadership Formation at Fuller Theological Seminary and honestly we're punching above our weight having a chat to him. He drops SO much wisdom in this conversation that could radically reframe how you look at your ministry context and your own health as a leader.  Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

Will and Benj make their debut appearance at the Roundtable. With John Cavanough giving us a birds eye view of different models and methods last week, Jamie thought it would be worth hearing some of the unique approaches Will and Benj have taken. We talk things like being BiVo/CoVo (and explain what that means), what metrics are worth measuring and Benj even introduces us to the term ‘collective effervescence'.  Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

John Cavanough is heading up the Marrickville Baptist church plant. He's also recently done some research for the denomination around the impact of different models and approaches to church planting. He gives us a really helpful overview of the difference between models like ‘neighbourhood' churches, ‘resource' churches and ‘simple' churches. This conversation is absolutely chock full of helpful insights and questions worth asking in your context. Get amongst it.   Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

Jamie Freeman sits down with Louise and Grae to unpack and flesh out all the goods from last week's episode with Megan Powell Du Toit. (If you haven't listened to Megan's episode go back and do that first, then come back here for the deep dive!) Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

Megan Powell Du Toit joined us for a conversation on a topic close to her heart. How do you hold a different view to someone and yet still respect each other - and maybe even be friends?? Megan is the Publishing Manager at the Australian College of Theology, and co-hosts the 'With All Due Respect' podcast. This was a great conversation and one we feel is particularly needed in our cultural climate of polarisation and division.  Megan's website: https://meganpowelldutoit.wordpress.com/  With All Due Respect podcast: https://www.eternitynews.com.au/topics/with-all-due-respect/  The WADR project here: https://thewadrproject.com/    Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

Jamie Freeman sits down with Jenny and Amy to unpack and flesh out all the goods from last week's episode with Ian Altman. (If you haven't listened to Ian's episode go back and do that first, then come back here for the deep dive!) Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

At the time when we recorded this episode Ian Altman was the team leader for Gen1K Health at the Baptist Association of NSW & ACT. He has since finished up in this role, but his legacy lives on through this episode! He shared with us about the life cycle of churches, the indicators of church health, and when it may in fact be time for a church to die. (Juicy, right?) Listen and learn how to keep things healthy before it's too late.  Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

Jamie Freeman sits down with Jono Ingram and Lee Palumbo from 'We Love Aintree' to unpack and flesh out all the goods from last week's episode with Nigel Cottle. (If you haven't listened to Nigel's episode go back and do that first, then come back here for the deep dive!) Learn more about We Love Aintree: https://www.weloveaintree.org/  Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

Nigel and his friends used to live in a 'non-neighbourhood', Morningside in New Zealand. They began to ask each other, what would it look like to create a neighbourhood people loved living in? The resulting story is some seriously good news. Along with a crew of like-minded friends Nigel leads Crave cafe, Mosaic Morningside and a bunch of other good in the 'hood. Listen here and get inspired about what you could do in your own neighbourhood.    Learn more at: https://www.cravecafe.co.nz/ http://www.mosaicmorningside.org/    Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

Jamie Freeman sits down with Christine Redwood (Senior Pastor, Seaforth Baptist Church) and Emma Pendleton (BYM) to unpack and flesh out all the goods from last week's episode with Jo Saxton. (If you haven't listened to Jo's episode go back and do that first, then come back here for the deep dive!) Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College (https://www.morling.edu.au/) BFS (https://www.bfs.org.au/) Baptist Care (https://baptistcare.org.au/) 

THE one and only Jo Saxton joins us for the first episode of Forming Church season 2. We talked about all kinds of things including gender, race, COVID, lament, leadership and discipleship. Lots of gold here. Enjoy! Engage with more of Jo's work at: https://www.josaxton.com/   Season 2 of Forming Church is brought to by our show partners: Morling College BFS  Baptist Care Join the Forming Church community through our facebook group. Follow us on instagram @formingchurch And if you get value out of this conversation, would you consider leaving us a rating/review on apple podcasts and sharing the episode with a friend?  Forming Church is created by Gen1K Mission in collaboration with Lead by Story. Original Music by Josh Corkill and editing by Sienna Corkill. 

Season 2 of Forming Church Podcast is coming at ya! Weekly episodes launching from Thursday 15th April. Get a sneak peak on what to expect, including an exciting new change to the format in this trailer.  Forming Church is brought to you by Gen1K and our vision to see a thousand healthy churches in a generation. Our show partners are Morling College, BFS and Baptist Care. Forming Church Podcast is produced by Lead by Story. 

Jamie, Will and Benj look back at the first season of Forming Church and break it all down. Roles are flipped as Jamie interviews the interviewers...and it all turns into its own roundtable anyway. What ideas stood out and what might the next steps be? Plus listen to the end and you'll get to hear a sneaky poem to wrap the season. We'll be back again soon! Stay in the loop by joining the Forming Church community through our facebook group and follow us on instagram @formingchurch. And if you got value out of this conversation, would you consider leaving us a rating/review on apple podcasts and sharing the episode with a friend? Forming Church is created by Gen1K Mission in collaboration with Lead by Story and sponsored by Baptist Financial Services. Original Music by Josh Corkill and editing by Sienna Corkill. 

Kim is the Lead Pastor of Casey City Life Church in Melbourne. He, along with his family, spent five years in America as the Director of Missional Imagination of Community Christian Church, a thirteen-site, mega-church in Chicago. He is the author of the book ‘Sentness: six postures of missional engagement’ and the Tribe Director of Forge Global.Kim holds a unique perspective on the broad diversity of church forms and expressions all the way from the multi-site mega-church to the missional community at the local pub. There's something in this episode for everyone.  Join the Forming Church community through our facebook group.Follow us on instagram @formingchurchAnd if you get value out of this conversation, would you consider leaving us a rating/review on apple podcasts and sharing the episode with a friend? Forming Church is created by Gen1K Mission in collaboration with Lead by Story and sponsored by Baptist Financial Services. Original Music by Josh Corkill and editing by Sienna Corkill. 

Joel Cave and his wife Ellen planted Glow Church in 2013 on the Gold Coast. In just 7 years they have grown to over 4000 people and have planted churches in Sydney and Melbourne.We had a conversation with Joel about the story of Glow Church and his own leadership and faith journey. Some of the themes in this conversation were taking big faith steps, trusting God and seeking to constantly build and refine good culture. We're grateful Joel took some time to add his perspectives to this conversation! We got plenty out of it, and we're sure you will too.  Join the Forming Church community through our facebook group.Follow us on instagram @formingchurchAnd if you get value out of this conversation, would you consider leaving us a rating/review on apple podcasts and sharing the episode with a friend? Forming Church is created by Gen1K Mission in collaboration with Lead by Story and sponsored by Baptist Financial Services. Original Music by Josh Corkill and editing by Sienna Corkill.  

How do you handle leadership development in your context? Is it normative? Or are you stuck? And do you collaborate with other churches? What could this look like?Ken Kamau brings powerful perspectives to this conversation integrating his background as a pastor at Nairobi Chapel in Kenya with his experiences in Australia both as the pastor of a local church and the Multiplication Facilitator at the Gen1K Mission Team. Yep, you guessed it - this is the same Ken who drops wisdom every week in the roundtable discussion. He's so good we needed to pick his brains a little further on a dedicated episode.  Join the Forming Church community through our facebook group.Follow us on instagram @formingchurchAnd if you get value out of this conversation, would you consider leaving us a rating/review on apple podcasts and sharing the episode with a friend? Forming Church is created by Gen1K Mission in collaboration with Lead by Story and sponsored by Baptist Financial Services. Original Music by Josh Corkill and editing by Sienna Corkill.  

Brooke Prentis is an Aboriginal Christian Leader from the Wakka Wakka peoples, and the CEO of Common Grace, a movement of people pursuing Jesus and Justice.We had a conversation with Brooke about the role of the Church in Australia when it comes to historical and ongoing issues of injustice for our First Nations Peoples on this land. We also spoke about recovering a sense of connection to place and story, and learning to walk gently and listen deeply. This episode is essential listening for any Australian church leader or planter who wants to take seriously what it means to lead and establish church communities in Australia, while nurturing genuine relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Learn more and connect with Common Grace here: https://www.commongrace.org.au/aboriginal_and_torres_strait_islander_justice Get the resources Brooke mentioned here: https://www.commongrace.org.au/aboriginal_justice_resources Join the Forming Church community through our facebook group.Follow us on instagram @formingchurchAnd if you get value out of this conversation, would you consider leaving us a rating/review on apple podcasts and sharing the episode with a friend? Forming Church is created by Gen1K Mission in collaboration with Lead by Story and sponsored by Baptist Financial Services. Original Music by Josh Corkill and editing by Sienna Corkill.  

Craig Corkill is the senior pastor of Narara Valley Baptist Church on the Central Coast - the sending church for both Benj and Will's church plants. Craig is passionate about discipleship, leadership development and multiplication. He is an incredible example of generous, authentic and humble leadership. In this conversation we spoke with Craig about the shift towards becoming a sending church and establishing a network, and the journey he has been on over the last few years.  Join the Forming Church community through our facebook group.Follow us on instagram @formingchurchAnd if you get value out of this conversation, would you consider leaving us a rating/review on apple podcasts and sharing the episode with a friend? Forming Church is created by Gen1K Mission in collaboration with Lead by Story and sponsored by Baptist Financial Services. Original Music by Josh Corkill and editing by Sienna Corkill. 

Tim Soerens is the co-founding director of the Parish Collective, a growing network and global movement of Christians reimagining what it means to be the Church in, with, and for the neighborhood. His latest book is called “Everywhere You Look: Discovering the Church, Right Where You Are”.  His co-authored first book “The New Parish: How Neighborhood Churches Transform Mission, Discipleship, and Community (Intervarsity Press, 2014) won multiple awards, including Christianity Today’s award of merit. He lives in Seattle, and he and his wife are helping to start South Park Neighborhood Church and are co-founding owners of Resistencia Coffee, a neighborhood coffee shop, as well as the South Park Idea Lab. Tim was such a delight to speak to and he breathed so much fresh life and energy into this conversation about the church, the neighbourhood and the things God is doing all around us. Also Tim recommended the work of Willie James Jennings. You can check him and his books out here: https://divinity.yale.edu/faculty-and-research/yds-faculty/willie-james-jennings Join the Forming Church community through our facebook group.Follow us on instagram @formingchurchAnd if you get value out of this conversation, would you consider leaving us a rating/review on apple podcasts and sharing the episode with a friend? Forming Church is created by Gen1K Mission in collaboration with Lead by Story and sponsored by Baptist Financial Services. Original Music by Josh Corkill and editing by Sienna Corkill. 

How often is our imagination about what church could be limited to thinking about the adults? How do we perceive the children and young people in our communities? Who are our environments and gatherings designed for? Are we unconsciously making some big mistakes here? This conversation with Louise Bartlett is a profound exploration of the potential for intergenerational community, and what we stand to lose if we don't have a holistic vision of discipleship in this area. This is one to listen to with your whole team (multiple times)!Join the Forming Church community through our facebook group.Follow us on instagram @formingchurchAnd if you get value out of this conversation, would you consider leaving us a rating/review on apple podcasts and sharing the episode with a friend? Forming Church is created by Gen1K Mission in collaboration with Lead by Story and sponsored by Baptist Financial Services. Original Music by Josh Corkill and editing by Sienna Corkill. 

Dale Stephenson has been the Senior Pastor of Crossway Baptist Church in Melbourne since 2008, the largest baptist church in Australia with 5,000 people attending weekly pre-COVID. He is also the Team Leader of Building A Discipling Culture - putting the mission of God into the hands of ordinary people. We spoke with Dale about how to create cultures of multiplication, in churches of all shapes and sizes. There is a lot of practical wisdom and insight in this conversation that can be applied in whatever context you find yourself in!BDC:Building a Discipling Culture is a process focused on training and equipping church leaders around Australia, to initiate cultural change and see disciples that know how to multiply. BDC is an immersive learning partnership available for Christian leadership teams for a two-year journey, engaging in a series of fortnightly interactive coaching clusters and a two day Intensive every 6 months. It is a simple, transferrable and repeatable discipleship process, putting the mission of God back in the hands of ordinary people (our congregations).To find out more information or to get involved, contact Tim Brosnan at info@bdc.org.au or check out www.bdc.org.auJoin the Forming Church community through our facebook group.Follow us on instagram @formingchurchAnd if you get value out of this conversation, would you consider leaving us a rating/review on apple podcasts and sharing the episode with a friend? Forming Church is created by Gen1K Mission in collaboration with Lead by Story and sponsored by Baptist Financial Services. Original Music by Josh Corkill and editing by Sienna Corkill. 

Mike Frost is one of the most influential and considered thinkers around missiology in Australia in the world today. So what does he think about how the pandemic has shaken things up for the church? What cracks has it revealed in the way we were operating pre-pandemic? What opportunities are there now and into the future? How should we be thinking about sermons, teaching and all that jazz? We had a great conversation with Mike about these and other questions. We hope you dig it!  Join the Forming Church community through our facebook group.Follow us on instagram @formingchurchAnd if you get value out of this conversation, would you consider leaving us a rating/review on apple podcasts and sharing the episode with a friend? Forming Church is created by Gen1K Mission in collaboration with Lead by Story and sponsored by Baptist Financial Services. Original Music by Josh Corkill and editing by Sienna Corkill. 

Steph O'Brien is the Lead Pastor at Mill City Church in Minneapolis, co-host of the Lead Stories Podcast with Jo Saxton, and author of Stay Curious. She has such a timely message for the church right now, encouraging leaders to develop a posture of curiosity and ask good questions. In this episode she shared with us about some of the key qualities leaders of the church will need as we look towards the future and navigate the current disruption. It was a great chat! Join the Forming Church community through our facebook group.Follow us on instagram @formingchurch And if you get value out of this conversation, would you consider leaving us a rating/review on apple podcasts and sharing the episode with a friend?  Forming Church is created by Gen1K Mission in collaboration with Lead by Story and sponsored by Baptist Financial Services. Original Music by Josh Corkill and editing by Sienna Corkill. 

Welcome to the Forming Church podcast! You can listen to the episodes in any order, but if you want to catch the backstory it's a good idea to start here. Benj Gould and Will Small are both church planters, taking diverse approaches to leading churches in the midst of the pandemic. Jamie Freeman is a former church planter and the team leader of the Gen1K Mission, helping others to plant churches. This episode is an introduction to Benj, Will and Jamie, as well as a conversation that outlines why we're making this podcast and what you can expect if you join us on the journey. Join the Forming Church community through our facebook group.Follow us on instagram @formingchurchAnd if you get value out of this conversation, would you consider leaving us a rating/review on apple podcasts and sharing the episode with a friend? Forming Church is created by Gen1K Mission in collaboration with Lead by Story and sponsored by Baptist Financial Services. Original Music by Josh Corkill and editing by Sienna Corkill. 

The Forming Church Podcast is launching in mid October. What is it all about, and why should you listen? Check out the teaser to find out.