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One this episode of the podcastAfter watching the Mike Will Made it vs Hit-Boy Verzuz battle. Future may have better music catalog than Drake, Kendrick Lamar and J Cole!! Also, it proved what Hip-hop nerds online like is not what people want to hear in club atmosphere!!TikTok Shop Is Ending Independent Shipping and Forcing Sellers into Its Own System!! a shift that starts rolling out February 25Sexyy Red hit the stage during the wedding of President Trump advisor Alex Bruesewitz and Carolina Urrea!Doechii has secured her second Grammy after winning the 2026 GRAMMY Award for (Best Music Video) with "Anxiety"Kendrick Lamar cleans up at the GRAMMY 5+ awards for the second year in a rowAmazon Confirms 16,000 Job Cuts Worldwide While Pouring Billions into AIPaid to Watch? Craigslist Ad Offers $50 to Anyone Willing to Sit Through Melania Trump Documentary Amazon's $40 million "icon" project is seeing ghost towns in theaters, while the internet trolls the empty seats.Why are podcasts fans mad at Andrew Schulz for having Trump on his podcast but not mad at Joe Budden for never having No politician on his podcast at all??Michael "5000" Watts, the producer who founded Swishahouse and helped propel Houston's "chopped and screwed" sound to international heights, has died at 52“Home Alone” Star Catherine O'Hara Passes Away at 71Shaunie Henderson Announces, “Basketball Wives” Is Officially Ending After 12 SeasonsKehlani calls out ICE at the GRAMMY"Sanford and Son" star Demond Wilson, who played Lamont Sanford on the '70s sitcom, has passed away at 79Bow Wow says today's artists aren't making good music: "Nobody is making no timeless music,"Former G-League / pro guard Zaire Wade is looking to make the jump to college basketball.Woman says her boyfriend nursed her for over a year after brain surgery, even cleaning her waste, but now she wants to leave him, feeling unappreciated for not being taken on a date!!Khaby Lame sold his likeness to China for $975 million, and now they basically own him digitally. They can create any AI video of him and use it to promote anything they want to generate money. Was this a good move?Don Lemon speaks outside of the courtroom after release: "I have spent my entire life covering the news. I will not stop now ... I will not be silenced."Former CNN anchor Don Lemon was arrested by federal authorities onThursday nightin connection with a protest at a Minnesota church service earlier this month. Don Lemon, was taken into custody by federal agents in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy Awards, his attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement. Georgia Fort, an independent journalist and vice president of the Minnesota NABJ chapter, was also arrested by federal agents this morningUnrivaled had their NBA YoungBoy Tour Moment Insane: The average demand for Unrivaled ($165) is nearly double the price to watch a 76ers game ($85) in the same arena. Attendance tonight 21,490 Unrivaled sets attendance record.Kai Cenat fans got scammed after a fake website—claiming to be his clothing brand—got hundreds of people to spend over $200 on goods they'll never receive.Gervonta Davis is expected to be released today on an $8,500 bond after his arrestSome women aren't happy with Bad Bunny performing at the NFL Super Bowl halftime show claiming he's “not American.” They're saying he's taking the spotlight from country music artistsRapper/streamer Aspen Kartier has been arrested on animal cruelty charges after a viral video sparked outrage. She says the dog was just overreacting and that she's innocent
Michael and I talk news! A final kidney update before my surgery, and the two topics mentioned in the title. For the attendance interview, we go through all the questions in an investigative interview template that has been circulating on social media, to be used against carriers who use their earned benefit of sick leave. We have suggestions on how to answer these awful questions.
Maryland loses 93-63 to Purdue strong performances from Darius Adams and Andre Mills. Class of 2027 Obinna Ekezie Jr. was in attendance and likely saw there's plenty of opportunity for him to contribute to the Terps frontcourt next season should he decide to reclassify. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mike Matthews investigates the fascinating news from the end of the week and Mike answers what is happening in the odd world of movie attendance. Join Mike as he podcasts live from Café Anyway in podCastro Valley with Chely Shoehart, Floyd the Floorman, and John Deer the Engineer. Next show Mike Talks to Benita, the Disgruntled Fiddle Player, and the Brewmaster.
There are lots of things that might prevent kids from making it to school, distractions at home, lack of adequate resources, even snow! Dr. Kim Carter, Superintendent at Battle Creek Public School, talks to Community Matters about what they're doing to try to solve for those issues and talks about a new program designed to help kids from cradle to college. Episode ResourcesBattle Creek Public Schools WebsiteABOUT COMMUNITY MATTERS Former WBCK Morning Show host Richard Piet (2014-2017) returns to host Community Matters, an interview program focused on community leaders and newsmakers in and around Battle Creek. Community Matters is heard Saturdays, 8:00 AM Eastern on WBCK-FM (95.3) and anytime at battlecreekpodcast.com.Community Matters is sponsored by Lakeview Ford Lincoln and produced by Livemic Communications.Do you have a non-profit you'd like to hear highlighted on Community Matters? Go to our website and let us know!
Today's episode comes directly from a listener's question, and I love these because they tell me people are thinking about their futures. The listener didn't share a name, just their email address. Anyway, their question was what are the three best jobs in the distribution field? Now, before I answer that, I want to say, and it's the truth, in my opinion anyway, there are no bad jobs in distribution. We've learned that every role matters. Every position contributes to the movement of product, safety, productivity, and ultimately the success of the team and operation. But if you're asking me, and I'm familiar with most all of them, from loading trucks to executive leadership, the three positions that consistently stand out as strong, long-term career roles, my answer is the putaway forklift operator, the order selector, and the front-line lead and supervisor positions. I'll share some thoughts about all three, and then I want to share a bit about something just as important. Three of my go to entry level positions, or my favorite get your foot in the door tasks. Unloaders, loaders, and sanitation, because those are often the doors that open other opportunities in this industry. Ok, we'll start with the putaway forklift operator. This is the person responsible for taking inbound product and placing them into their correct warehouse location, often at height, at quite the pace, and always with safety and accuracy in mind. Put-away operators are trusted with the inventory, operating expensive equipment, they may be working in narrow aisles, with tall vertical storage, and the accuracy of the entire picking operation downstream. If the put-away goes wrong, everything past that step goes wrong. A mis-slotted pallet can cause lost inventory, missed orders, wasted man hours, and indirect time that can never be recovered. That's why experienced put-away operators are respected and valued. This role hones our forklift skills, teaches us system disciplines, and the importance of inventory accuracy, focus and patience. It's also a position that often leads to an Inventory control future, replenishment roles, lead operator positions and a track to Supervisor and front line management. And here's something people don't always realize, put-away operators are usually among the highest paid hourly associates in a facility, especially when experience, certifications, and productivity are factored in. It's not flashy. But it's an important position. And it's absolutely a career role. And If distribution has a heartbeat, the order selector is it. Order selectors are the engine that drives outbound operations. They take the orders, pick the product, build the pallets, and prepare shipments for delivery. This role teaches discipline and accountability in a way few others do. Order selectors live in a world of measured productivity, accuracy expectations, time standards and quality checks. And it's not for everyone, people sometimes look down on order selecting because it's so physically demanding. But in reality, it's one of the best training grounds in distribution. Selectors learn product knowledge, slotting logic, warehouse flow, time management, and personal accountability. They also learn how operations truly work, because when something upstream fails or gets messed up, selectors feel it immediately. The great selectors often become, lead selectors, trainers, safety champions, and Supervisors. I've seen countless leaders start as selectors, and the reason is simple, they understand the operation at ground level. And that experience cannot be taught in a classroom. Now let's talk about leadership. Front-line leads and supervisors are where experience turns into influence. This role is not just about numbers. It's about people. Supervisors are responsible for Safety, Productivity, Attendance, Training, Conflict resolution, Coaching, and Communication. They bridge the gap between Management expectations, and front-line realities. It's one of the most challenging roles in any warehouse, and, I believe, one of the most rewarding. Great supervisors, know the work, respect the team, always lead by example, hold everyone to the same standards, and I hope Coach instead of just correct their teams. This role opens doors to Operations management, Safety leadership, Training and development, Inventory and planning, and Executive leadership. In my humble opinion the best supervisors usually come from the floor. They've unloaded trucks. They've selected orders. They've operated equipment. And because of that, they lead with credibility. Ok, there's a little on three positions in the distribution field that many aspire to master. Now I want to talk about 3 positions that can help get us to them. When I'm asked how to break into warehousing I share some thoughts on the Unloader, Loader, and Sanitation positions. These jobs don't always get the respect they deserve, but they are not dead end jobs. They're great entry points and they are how many careers begin. First up is the Unloader. Unloaders are the first link in the inbound chain. They break down freight, handle every inbound piece, and set the tone for accuracy and safety on the dock. Unloaders learn product handling, teamwork, how to handle a quick pace and the Warehouse layout and inbound systems. I've seen many unloaders move into forklift roles, Receiving, Inventory and Lead positions. The flip side of the unloader is the loader. Loaders are responsible for the final step before product leaves the building. This position carries with it a lot of pressure. They must understand Weight distribution, Load integrity, Accuracy and Timing or dispatching, when the drivers will be leaving. Loaders develop attention to detail, physical discipline, and accountability. Many loaders become Drivers, Dispatchers leads and Supervisors, even Safety leaders. And then we have the sanitation position. Sanitation teams keep facilities Clean, Safe, compliant and audit ready. Without sanitation Slips and falls increase, Equipment breaks down from running over debris and Product quality can suffer. Sanitation can offer us Steady work, Consistent hours, and a foot in the door to our industry. And I've seen sanitation associates move into building maintenance, Equipment operation, Safety roles, and Supervisory tracks. Here's the truth about distribution careers. Very few people start at the top. Most start where opportunities or positions are open. I believe what separates those who grow into other positions from those who stay stuck in one isn't the starting job. It's showing up, being on time, Learning the operation, saying yes to or accepting training, maintaining a positive attitude, and always Following safety and procedures as instructed. I'm going to say it again, this industry rewards consistency. If you prove you can be trusted with Time management, Equipment, Safety, and People, more doors open for us. So, when someone asks me, what are the best jobs in distribution? I struggle with my answer. Yes, put-away forklift operator, order selector, and front-line lead or supervisor are outstanding career roles. But every career usually starts somewhere else. Unloaders. Loaders. Sanitation. Those aren't just jobs. They're starting points. And in distribution, if you're willing to learn, work, and grow, there's no ceiling on where you can go. So honestly, I think the best job in the distribution industry is the one you love doing. Thanks again for the question and thank you for spending a few minutes of your day with me. Always be planning your next step, and remember the safety of you and your team always comes first!
This week's speakers are:Sheila Jeffreys UK/AustraliaNews on Womanface from USA and the Mardi Gras in Sydney, AustraliaBio: Radical lesbian feminist author and activistBatya Weinbaum & Sue Gittins USA & UKWhatever happened to the incest survivors movement?Bio: Batya - Activist, writer, artist, Editor, educator, theorist based in the US and a radical feminist since the 1970s, published many articles and books, poetry and fictionTatyana Sukhareva RussiaRadical Feminism in Russia and GeorgiaBio: My name is Tatyana Sukhareva, and I am one of the leaders of the Russian-speaking feminist movement. I am a citizen of Russia, but I live in Georgia now. I am a radical feminist, a lesbian, and childfree. I actively advocate for increasing women's representation in positions of power, against heteronormativity and the stigmatization of lesbians and asexual women, and for full reproductive freedom for women, including the unconditional right to voluntary sterilization. I am an active feminist blogger: I run two Telegram channels and an active Facebook blog with more than 7,500 followers. I am the Chair of the Interregional Public Organization “Women's Voice.”♀♀♀♀♀♀♀♀♀Enjoying our webinars? If you are a position to make a one-off or recurring donation to support our work, you can find out how to do so (and see our financial reports) at https://www.womensdeclaration.com/en/donate/ - thank-you!♀♀♀♀♀♀♀♀♀Women's Declaration International (#WDI) Feminist Question Time is a weekly online webinar (Saturdays 3-4.30pm UK time). It is attended by a global feminist and activist audience of between 200-300. The main focus is how gender ideology is harming the rights of women and girls. See upcoming speakers and register to attend at https://bit.ly/registerFQT. There is also a monthly AUS/NZ FQT, on the last Saturday of the month at 7pm (Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney)/9pm (NZ). Register to attend at https://bit.ly/registerFQTAUSNZ.On Sundays (10am UK time), our webinar series, Radical Feminist Perspectives, offers a chance to hear leading feminists discuss radical feminist theory and politics. Register at https://bit.ly/registerRFP.Attendance of our live webinars is women-only; men are welcome to watch/share recordings here on YouTube. WDI is the leading global organisation defending women's sex-based rights against the threats posed by gender identity ideology. Find out more at https://womensdeclaration.com, where you can join more than 30,000 people and 418 organisations from 157 countries in signing our Declaration on Women's Sex-based Rights. The Declaration reaffirms the sex-based rights of women which are set out in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 1979 (#CEDAW).Disclaimer: Women's Declaration International hosts a range of women from all over the world on Feminist Question Time (FQT), on Radical Feminist Perspectives (RFP) and on webinars hosted by country chapters – all have signed our Declaration or have known histories of feminist activism - but beyond that, we do not know their exact views or activism. WDI does not know in detail what they will say on webinars. The views expressed by speakers in these videos are not necessarily those of WDI and we do not necessarily support views or actions that speakers have expressed or engaged in at other times. As well as the position stated in our Declaration on Women's Sex-based Rights, WDI opposes sexism, racism and anti-semitism. For more information, see our Frequently Asked Questions (https://womensdeclaration.com/en/about/faqs/) or email info@womensdeclaration.com.#feminism #radicalfeminism #womensrights
We have lots of news today: Gold broke the $5,000 barrier. Allied Gold is being acquired by Zijin Mining for C$5.5 billion. The Vancouver Resource Investment Confernence kicked off on Sunday. Attendance was heavy. Scorpio Gold and Great Pacific Golld announced drill intercepts. Heliostar Metals has filed a Prefeasibility Study Technical Report for its Cerro del Gallo Project. Koryx Copper announced a total financing of C$51 million. Today's Morning Briefing was brought to you by Integra Resources. Integra is a growing precious metals producer in the Great Basin of the Western United States. Integra is focused on demonstrating profitability and operational excellence at its principal operating asset, the Florida Canyon Mine, located in Nevada. In addition, Integra is committed to advancing its flagship development-stage heap leach projects: the past producing DeLamar Project located in southwestern Idaho, and the Nevada North Project located in western Nevada. Learn more about the business and their high industry standards over at integraresources.com
Don't get to the end of this year wishing you had taken action to change your business and your life.Click here to schedule a free discovery call for your business: https://geni.us/IFORABEDon't miss an upcoming event with The Institute: https://geni.us/InstituteEvents2026Shop-Ware gives you the tools to provide your shop with everything needed to become optimally profitable.Click here to schedule a free demo: https://info.shop-ware.com/profitabilityTransform your shop's marketing with the best in the automotive industry, Shop Marketing Pros!Get a free audit of your shop's current marketing by clicking here: https://geni.us/ShopMarketingProsShop owners, are you ready to simplify your business operations? Meet 360 Payments, your one-stop solution for effortless payment processing.Imagine this—no more juggling receipts, staplers, or endless paperwork. With 360 Payments, you get everything integrated into a single, sleek digital platform.Simplify payments. Streamline operations. Check out 360payments.com today!In this episode, Lucas and David are joined by John Presnell, a shop owner from North Carolina, who shares his journey in taking over the family business. John discusses overcoming personal and professional resentments as he transitioned from working under his parents to owning the shop. Key topics include the challenges of shop growth and efficiency, strategies for training and developing a younger team, and the importance of personal growth through forgiveness and mentorship.00:00 "Florida Drivers in Mountains"04:44 "Slow, Stressful 27-Mile Drive"08:23 Frustration Over Van Repairs12:17 "Engine Coolant Leak Fail"13:43 Flatlands Pickup Talk19:18 "Overcoming Negativity and Growing"21:26 "Parables as Framework for Success"24:34 "Career Choices and Challenges"28:52 "Family Dynamics and Influence"33:02 "Accident Leads to Lasting Injury"34:52 "From Porta Potty to Upgraded Space"39:05 "Reflections on Growth and Work"42:51 "Start at the Beginning"44:59 "Keeping Business Decisions Private"48:35 "Community Action and Attendance"50:15 "Over a Barrel Moment"55:24 "Sense Trade-off in Marriage"56:09 "Affirmative Response"
This week, Pastor John is delivering the annual State of the Church message, which he has been doing each year since he became the pastor of Covenant Life. This service invites us to look back at 2025 financial and attendance numbers, various spiritual growth metrics and other intangible things we sense God doing. Don’t worry — we’re not only talking about numbers and figures, and we’re not focused solely on the previous year. We’ll spend some time talking about the future. It’s also not a business meeting for members of the church. As a matter of fact, if you’re looking for a church home, this is a great first message to watch.
RFP - 'Barbie Meets A Very Poor Thing' by Jocelynne Scutt, discussed by Jocelynne Scutt and Marian Rutigliano.A live webinar recorded on 25th January at 10am UK time.On Sundays (10am UK time), our webinar series Radical Feminist Perspectives offers a chance to hear leading feminists discuss radical feminist theory and politics.Attendance of our live webinars is women-only, register at https://bit.ly/registerRFP
Study the daily lesson of Sefer HaMitzvos for day 331 with Rabbi Mendel Kaplan, where he teaches the mitzvah in-depth with added insight and detail.
Mike Stephen learns about Borderless Magazine's work of telling the immigrant story in Chicago from co-founder and executive director Nissa Rhee and then chats with Meril Antony, senior research analyst at the UChicago Consortium on School Research, about a new report looking at the link between school attendance and successful students.
-Are Husker fans concerned with Nebraska's ability to supplement a roster next season? -When is the right time to have the "resources" discussion? Our Sponsors:* Check out Aura.com: https://aura.com/remove* Check out BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.com* Check out Progressive: https://www.progressive.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
This week, the boys talk about the letter Chris Drury put out to the Rangers fans and the world, DC showing up for the PWHL, and thinking of trades. Lyle Richardson of Spector's Hockey joins to talk about the Artemi Panarin rumors, the trades for the Golden Knights and Sharks, and more!!
January is often when attendance challenges start to feel impossible (for students and for counselors). In this episode, I break down why attendance dips during the winter months, how to reframe attendance as a support issue rather than a compliance issue, and what counselors can realistically do to help students re-engage with school.This episode focuses on compassion, collaboration, and practical strategies that honor what students are really experiencing.You'll Learn:Common reasons attendance declines in January (illness, anxiety, routine changes, weather, and more)Why framing attendance as a symptom changes how students respondLanguage counselors can use to talk about attendance without blameLayered counseling supports for students with chronic absencesHow small wins (fewer tardies, staying longer, asking for help) matter more than perfect dataEngagement strategies that increase motivation and belongingQuote from the Episode“Students don't avoid school because they don't care. They avoid school because something feels really hard.”Resources Mentioned:Attendance Small GroupMiddle School Attendance Lesson (grades 6-7)Barriers To Attendance Lesson (grades K-1)Academic Success Attendance Lesson (grades 2-3)Barriers to Attendance (grades 4-5)Chronic Attendance Intervention Lesson (grade 8)Grab the Show Notes: Counselingessentials.org/podcastJoin Perks Counseling Club Membership and get the lessons, small group and individual counseling materials you need. Join now and get your first month free when you sign up for 3 months!Connect with Carol:TpT StoreCounseling Essentials Website
This week's speakers are:Sheila Jeffreys UK/Australia - The Campaign for the Sexual Abuse of Children in 70s UKTamarack Verrall Canada - Why I signed the Declaration on Women's Sex-Based RightsKara Dansky USA - Two US Supreme Court cases involving male athletes demanding to compete in women's sportsApril Chainey USA - Why I signed the Declaration on Women's Sex-Based Rights♀♀♀♀♀♀♀♀♀Enjoying our webinars? If you are a position to make a one-off or recurring donation to support our work, you can find out how to do so (and see our financial reports) at https://www.womensdeclaration.com/en/donate/ - thank-you!♀♀♀♀♀♀♀♀♀Women's Declaration International (#WDI) Feminist Question Time is a weekly online webinar (Saturdays 3-4.30pm UK time). It is attended by a global feminist and activist audience of between 200-300. The main focus is how gender ideology is harming the rights of women and girls. See upcoming speakers and register to attend at https://bit.ly/registerFQT. There is also a monthly AUS/NZ FQT, on the last Saturday of the month at 7pm (Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney)/9pm (NZ). Register to attend at https://bit.ly/registerFQTAUSNZ.On Sundays (10am UK time), our webinar series, Radical Feminist Perspectives, offers a chance to hear leading feminists discuss radical feminist theory and politics. Register at https://bit.ly/registerRFP.Attendance of our live webinars is women-only; men are welcome to watch/share recordings here on YouTube. WDI is the leading global organisation defending women's sex-based rights against the threats posed by gender identity ideology. Find out more at https://womensdeclaration.com, where you can join more than 30,000 people and 418 organisations from 157 countries in signing our Declaration on Women's Sex-based Rights. The Declaration reaffirms the sex-based rights of women which are set out in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 1979 (#CEDAW).Disclaimer: Women's Declaration International hosts a range of women from all over the world on Feminist Question Time (FQT), on Radical Feminist Perspectives (RFP) and on webinars hosted by country chapters – all have signed our Declaration or have known histories of feminist activism - but beyond that, we do not know their exact views or activism. WDI does not know in detail what they will say on webinars. The views expressed by speakers in these videos are not necessarily those of WDI and we do not necessarily support views or actions that speakers have expressed or engaged in at other times. As well as the position stated in our Declaration on Women's Sex-based Rights, WDI opposes sexism, racism and anti-semitism. For more information, see our Frequently Asked Questions (https://womensdeclaration.com/en/about/faqs/) or email info@womensdeclaration.com.#feminism #radicalfeminism #womensrights
By: Liam Shannon: "College coaches at the Division I level spend a lot of time on the recruiting trail, talking to the top high school recruits, their agents and their families, trying to convince athletes that their school and athletic programs are the best choice. But entering the 2026 Panini Hoophall Classic, six of ESPN's top-10 boys high school basketball players in the class of 2026 are still unsigned and uncommitted to a school."
RFP - 'Backlash' by Susan Faludi, discussed by Anna Kerr and Bronwyn Williams.A live webinar recorded on 18th January 2026 at 10am UK time.On Sundays (10am UK time), our webinar series Radical Feminist Perspectives offers a chance to hear leading feminists discuss radical feminist theory and politics.Attendance of our live webinars is women-only, register at https://bit.ly/registerRFP
send us a text via Fan Mail!Today I welcome Lisa Marie Fletcher founder of The Canadian Homeschooler to discuss the upcoming Canadian Online Homeschool Conference (Feb. 2-6th 2026). We discuss what inspired the conference, what Lisa Marie is looking forward to the most and a look at this year's lineup including yours truly (Note: the Conference is open to everyone, even if you're not in Canada!) 1:09 - About Lisa Marie and The Canadian Homeschooler 3:31 - Structure and daily themes of the conference 11:43 - Attendance cost and resources for homeschoolers 14:32 - Watch party idea and kid specific sessions 17:43 - Lisa Marie's highlights for this year's conference 20:35 - Wrap up party23:09 - Open to everyone, not just CanadiansThe Canadian Online Homeschool Conference (Registration opens this coming week)The Canadian Homeschooler: Homeschooling Resources for Families an implausability of gnus (blog post) Contact On Instagram at @make.joy.normal By email at makejoynormal@gmail.com Search podcast episodes by topic www.bonnielandry.ca Shop my recommended resources Thanks for listening to Make Joy Normal Podcast!
More than a thousand people are attending this year's Pick Tennessee Conference. The three-day event moved from Franklin to Lebanon and is focused on promoting Tennessee-made products while giving attendees the chance to learn how to grow and create new things.
Southwest Michigan's Morning News podcast is prepared and delivered by the WSJM Newsroom. For these stories and more, visit https://www.wsjm.com and follow us for updates on Facebook. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Attendance at the Ontario Certified Crop Advisor Association (CCA) annual meeting this week topped 250 CCAs and industry representatives — that's a crowd executive director Susan Fitzgerald hasn't seen since pre-COVID. Fitzgerald says a large turnout for an organization with total membership of 650 signals a resurgence in in-person engagement this winter. “It’s a good... Read More
Are you the only one showing up while others treat cheer like an option? What should parents really expect from their gym, and each other? In this episode, Jason and Gina dive deep into the reality of prep team practice culture, the pressure of comp season, and how parents can navigate frustration when other athletes don't show up. Whether you're a cheer coach or a committed parent, this conversation hits hard and gives voice to what many are quietly thinking. Learn how to reframe your athlete's experience so their effort feels seen, even when others aren't showing up. Get insider tips on how coaches can reset team culture without losing sight of values. Discover the mindset shift every parent and athlete needs to make competition season less stressful and more rewarding. Hit play to hear the raw, real talk that every dedicated cheer parent and coach needs this season. Buy the Jason's Book, Upside Down and Back Again Jason's On-Demand Coaches Training Videos Code of Points Cheatsheet FREE Next Gen Coaches Conference Promo Code - https://nextgenowners.com/cheer-biz-accelerator/ AIA Global Qualifier- ca.themis.events Brittany's Comp Cheer Checklist- instagram.com/stories/highlights/18356656174188077 Jason's Book Recommendations- Amazon Affiliate Link Follow Let's Talk Cheer on Instagram Submit a Question of the Week You can support this podcast by making donations here Other great cheerleading podcast to check out- The Cheer Biz Podcast, The Cheer Mom Podcast, Spill the Cheer, Mat Talk Table Talk, Cheer Chats Podcast, MotUS Edge Podcast, The Cheer Dad Podcast and the Here 4 Cheer Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Leading Into 2026: Executive Pastor Insights Momentum is real. So is the pressure. This free report draws from the largest dedicated survey of Executive Pastors ever, revealing what leaders are actually facing as they prepare for 2026. Why staff health is the #1 pressure point Where churches feel hopeful — and stretched thin What worked in 2025 and is worth repeating Clear decision filters for the year ahead Download the Full Report Free PDF • Built for Executive Pastors • Instant access Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. Today we’re sitting down with an executive pastor from a prevailing church to unpack what leaders like you shared in the National Executive Pastor Survey so you can lead forward with clarity. In today’s episode, we’re joined by Kayra Montañez, Executive Pastor at Liquid Church in New Jersey. Liquid is a fast-growing multisite church with six campuses stretching from Princeton to communities just outside New York City. In this conversation, Kayra helps unpack one of the biggest concerns surfaced in the National Executive Pastor Survey: the growing gap between attendance and engagement. While many churches are seeing people return, far fewer leaders feel confident that those people are truly connected, discipled, and serving. Is your church seeing full rooms but thin volunteer pipelines? Are you unsure how engaged people really are beyond weekend services? Kayra offers practical insight into why that gap exists—and what churches can do to close it. Attendance is up, engagement is unclear. // Kayra begins with encouragement. Across the country, churches are seeing renewed spiritual openness. People are coming with expectancy, ready to encounter God. At the same time, many leaders sense a disconnect between attendance and belonging. Kayra identifies several common gaps: people attending without joining “people systems” like groups or teams; online attenders remaining anonymous without a clear bridge to community; seasonal attenders who show up for Christmas and Easter but never return; and potential volunteers who are open to helping but hesitant to commit long-term. These patterns aren't unique to Liquid—they're widespread across the church landscape. From prescribed paths to personalized journeys. // One of Liquid's biggest shifts has been moving away from a rigid, one-size-fits-all connection pathway. Kayra compares the old model to the video game Mario Brothers, where everyone must follow the same prescribed path or “die.” Instead, Liquid now operates more like Zelda: a choose-your-own-adventure approach that honors people's seasons, needs, and interests. Rather than telling people where they must plug in, the church focuses on learning what people actually want and helping them find a meaningful next step. Connect and Conversation. // This shift comes to life through a monthly experience called Connect and Conversation, hosted at every campus after the final service. New and not-yet-connected attendees are invited to a meal where they sit at tables with others like them and facilitators. The event begins with relational icebreakers to help people connect naturally, then moves into guided conversation around what attendees are looking for—community, care, serving, support groups, or spiritual growth. Facilitators take detailed notes, which drive personalized follow-up in the weeks ahead. Kayra describes it as “high-touch, concierge-style ministry,” and the results have been significant movement from attendance into engagement. Measuring what matters. // Liquid tracks what happens after people attend Connect and Conversation—not to claim direct causation, but to see correlation. They monitor whether participants join groups, teams, or discipleship environments in the following months. That data has helped the church refine pathways and remove unnecessary friction. Kayra encourages leaders to examine two key metrics: how many first-time guests take any next step within 30 days, and what percentage move into a people system within 60–90 days. These numbers often reveal where engagement breaks down. Reimagining discipleship. // One surprising insight at Liquid came from surveying the congregation about small groups. While relational connection mattered, the top desire was biblical literacy. In response, Liquid “blew up” its traditional small-group model and launched a new midweek Bible study format called Deep Dive. Rather than prioritizing relationships first, these environments put Scripture front and center, with connection as a natural byproduct. The pilot—an in-depth study of Revelation—drew hundreds of participants and revealed a deep hunger for understanding God's Word. Rebuilding volunteer momentum. // Like many churches, Liquid faced a volunteer crisis as growth outpaced serving capacity—especially in kids' environments. In response, the church launched a short-term campaign called For the One, built around a “try before you buy” serving model. New volunteers could serve a few times with a shortened onboarding process (without compromising safety) and then decide whether to commit long-term, scoring exclusive team swag. More than 400 people stepped in to serve, helping stabilize teams and reignite volunteer culture. Short-term fixes and long-term culture. // Kayra emphasizes that engagement is both a systems problem and a culture challenge. Churches need short-term solutions to address immediate gaps, but long-term health comes from storytelling, celebration, appreciation, and consistently casting vision for why serving and community matter. Engagement doesn't happen accidentally—it's cultivated intentionally over time. To learn more about Liquid Church, visit liquidchurch.com, or connect with Kayra directly via email. Watch the full episode below: Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I'm grateful for that. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they're extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! Episode Transcript Rich Birch — Hey friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. We’ve got a special episode on today where we’re diving into some of the results from the National Executive Pastor Survey. And today we’re super excited to have Kayra Montañez with us from Liquid Church in New Jersey. Rich Birch — And today we’re talking all about engagement. One of the things that jumped out, well, one of the top tier results, kind of concerns that came out, 10% of executive pastors in the open questions, expressed fear around discipleship death depth and volunteer sustainability. At the same time, nearly 12% said they lacked really visibility into participation and involvement data. Another 6% pointed specifically to volunteer and team metrics really being an unmet need, not knowing where they are. Rich Birch — So what does that all that mean? Roughly one in five executive pastors are entering 2026 this year, wondering really how engaged their churches are. And Kayra is going to solve all that for us. So Kayra, welcome to the show. Tell us about Liquid. Tell us a little bit about the church. Kayra Montañez — Well I appreciate the vote of confidence but I’m not sure about that. But, Rich, it’s always so great to be with you and to be a guest on your podcast. Thank you so much for having me. So yes, we are in New Jersey. So our church is called Liquid. I get the incredible privilege of serving there as one of two executive pastors. And we are a multisite church. We have six campuses. If you and know anything about New Jersey, one of them is the furthest one is in Princeton, New Jersey – a lot of people know Princeton. Kayra Montañez — And then probably the closest one that we have up north is closest to New York City, about 30 minutes from the city. So that kind of gives you the breadth and width of how we’re trying to saturate the state of New Jersey with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is our mission. Rich Birch — So good. And Kayra, I really appreciate you jumping in on on today’s conversation, particularly in this area, because I think, man, have so much to offer. You know, so many of our churches, we feel like the volunteer pipelines are thin. How are we getting? It’s like people are underutilized. Maybe are our follow-up process are like overly complex. And you’ve done a great job on on this area. So let’s just jump right in. Rich Birch — Where do you see some of the biggest gaps today in churches, whether it’s Liquid or other churches you interact, between, you know, getting people to attend church attendance and actual engagement. There’s a gap there. what What’s driving that? What do what do you think drives that gap in our churches? Kayra Montañez — Yeah. So I see a couple of things. But before I get to that, you know, I just really wanted to start with something really encouraging because it’s not in my nature to be discouraging. So one of the things that I have noticed, in fact, I was actually spending some time with other pastors from other states in the U.S. And we were talking about like, hey, what is the Lord doing in the in the Big C Church? What are you experiencing in your context? Rich Birch — So good. Kayra Montañez — And one of the things I think that was a theme for all of us is it feels like we don’t have to work as hard to get people to come and be ready for what the Lord has for them. And that feels very exciting. Rich Birch — Yep. Kayra Montañez — And that’s like a theme that I’m seeing repeated across the entire nation with all of my pastor friends from different locations. Having said that, there are still things that we have to do to get people from going to just attending to engaging, like you were saying. I think there’s a couple of things that I saw. Kayra Montañez — One of them is a big one, I would say, is like this idea of, attending versus belonging, right. So like first people actually want to come, but they don’t actually join people systems. So they come in person, they come online, but they don’t actually join any kind of people system. So when I say people system I’m thinking about groups, or dream teams, a support group, a class. That’s actually something that we started seeing a lot post-pandemic, and I would say it’s still here. So that’s one gap that I see. Kayra Montañez — The second gap that I see is digital versus relational. So obviously, we at Liquid have spent a lot of, we’ve invested a lot in our digital ministry, and we really believe online and in-person can both thrive at the same time, and we’re seeing that. Kayra Montañez — However, online services, while they can remove barriers, which is good, it also helps people stay anonymous unless there’s a clear bridge for those people to actually join in-person community. And so churches that haven’t figured out well how to do that will continue to see a gap between people who are attending, whether it’s in person or online, but not actually engaging. Kayra Montañez — There’s also the people who just come for big events, right? Rich Birch — Yep. Kayra Montañez — We’re approaching one of them, even as we film this podcast, next week is Christmas Eve. So we joke at Liquid, we have the CEOs, they come for Christmas, Easter, and other big events, but they don’t actually have a weekly rhythm of attending and engaging. Kayra Montañez — And then there’s people who I would say are curious about serving and for the most part are open to helping, but are not really ready to make a serving commitment and actually take on a very consistent role. So I would say across the breadth and width of churches, that’s probably something that would hit most people, no matter where you are. Rich Birch — Yeah, for sure. Kayra Montañez — Definitely we experience all of them at Liquid. Rich Birch — Yeah, I there was a lot there, in which I appreciate. and i appreciate the way you’ve kind of diagnosed. I think there’s multiple ways to kind of um diagnose or kind of pick apart – Hey, here are different aspects here, or different ways that we’re seeing this kind of attendance versus engagement question. So maybe, you know, pick apart those attending versus belonging. What has Liquid done? What are you doing to try to help move people from just attending, actually getting into those people systems? What does that? What are you learning on that front? Kayra Montañez — Yeah. You know, we’ve had a major shift at Liquid, I would say, in the past two years. The best way that I can explain this is with a gaming analogy, because I have teenagers and they love gaming. Rich Birch — I love it. Kayra Montañez — So if you um go back to when we used to play Mario Brothers, you remember Mario Brothers? Rich Birch — Sure, yeah. Kayra Montañez — Mario Brothers has prescribed path where if you did not follow the path, at some point Mario would die. Like if you stayed behind and the camera kept moving, the character would die. You remember that? Rich Birch — Yes, yes. Kayra Montañez — And that’s the way that a lot of churches, even today, approach helping people connect. There is a prescribed path for you, and we’re going to tell you what you need to do and what you have to do. Then Zelda came into the scene and Zelda is like, hey, choose your own adventure. You can start your adventure anywhere you want. Rich Birch — Right. Kayra Montañez — And so I feel like Liquid, we’ve shifted in that. We used to be Mario Brothers, like, hey, here’s a prescribed path for you. Here’s all the things that you have to do to connect. Whereas now we’ve shifted over the past two years into like, hey, we have a lot of things that we can offer you. And there are many different things depending on your season of life, on your felt needs, on what you’re looking for, on what you’re interested in, on what makes your heart beat. Tell us what you want to do and we’re going to help you. Kayra Montañez — And so in order for us to understand what is it that people want, we created an event that we do every month called Connect and Conversation. And the whole idea and the way that we market it is if you’re new to Liquid, or if you are not new, but you haven’t connected yet, you haven’t found your people, you haven’t found something that you want to be a part of, come to this event. Kayra Montañez — We feed you. We get to know you. And then we follow up personally with you. It’s very high level concierge, kind of a follow up system, where after we connect with you, we ask you, hey, what are you actually interested in? What are you looking for? Because your needs as an empty nester who’s been married for over 25 years, you’re parenting adult children who are already married are very different than mine who have two team have two teenagers. Rich Birch — Yep. Kayra Montañez — One of them is about to go to college, right? Rich Birch — Yep, yep. Kayra Montañez — And so that has actually produced incredible fruit from getting people who are attending. Rich Birch — Yep. Kayra Montañez — Now I’ve actually offered them something they’re interested in, which is making connections with people. And then from there, we follow up to offer, what do you need? Rich Birch — That’s so cool. Kayra Montañez — And everybody has different needs. Some people just wanna join teams because they’re just like, I just wanna serve. Some people, they really just need a lot of care. And so maybe they need a support group and we’re gonna offer that to you. Kayra Montañez — Some people may need marriage mentoring. We’re gonna offer that to you. So it really depends. And what we’ve seen is people taking significant next steps once they go out of that event. And that has really changed the past. In the past, we would only be marketing teams and groups, role and relationship, join, ah you know, get into a role and connect with a relationship. And while that’s still good, I’m not saying that’s not good or not needed. Rich Birch — Right. Kayra Montañez — It’s not the only thing that people are looking for. Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s interesting. Can we, I’d love to dive just a little deeper on on that because I think there’s ah a really key learning there for lots of us. This idea, and you didn’t say it this way, but where my brain went to, you know, I think we have, we have for sure in the past done the thing where it’s like we have these giant funnels that we’re pushing everyone through. Rich Birch — And and the only question we’re really asking is where do you fit in our funnel? Kayra Montañez — Correct. Rich Birch — Like where, You know, and we and we push and literally, and this is no, you know, kind of slam on other systems, but it’s like, this is the, you know, step one, step two, step three, everyone do step one first, then you do step two, then you do step three. Rich Birch — So the the connecting conversation, that feels like highly, like it’s volunteer intensive. You got to get a lot of volunteers in there because it sounds like you’re having one-on-one conversations or something close to one-on-one. Unpack what that looks like. Maybe as a guest, if I arrive at that, what do I actually experience when I show up there? Kayra Montañez — So you you can register up until the time that we have the event. Rich Birch — Yep, that’s great. Kayra Montañez — So we do math you know magical math with the food and and the preparation so that we can just accept people who are going to come on the day of. Because we promote it, obviously, every week. And then the day of, we actually promote it. We get most people to show up the day of the event. Rich Birch — Right, okay. Kayra Montañez — So people will come. There’s going to be a lunch. And then they’re going to sit at a table with about five other people who have a facilitator at that table. Rich Birch — Okay. Kayra Montañez — And that facilitator is actually going to lead them through a series of relational icebreakers because the event is designed for you to first connect. You want to meet other people who are just like you. Maybe they’re new or they’re not new, but they haven’t connected yet with somebody. Rich Birch — That’s good. Kayra Montañez — And so there’s going to be a lot of relational icebreakers you know during the first part of the event. And then after that, we get into like, hey, what are you looking for? What are you hoping to get out of? What do you need? What are you interested in? We make notes. Rich Birch — How can we help? All that kind of stuff. Kayra Montañez — That facilitator takes really good notes based on what people are saying. And then the follow-up begins. Rich Birch — That’s so cool. I love that. That’s what a great learning. You know, I think so many times we’ve seen that step and for sure that echoes what I’ve seen in in a number of churches. There’s really a trend away from the class being the first step. Rich Birch — It’s like the stand that we used to do that thing where it was like, okay, someone stands up at the front and they’re going to talk for 50 minutes about why we’re such a great church. And, ah you know, that really has gone away. I would I would echo that, that we’ve seen that as ah as a best practice for sure. So let’s talk… Kayra Montañez — When we do measure… Rich Birch — Sorry, go ahead. No. Kayra Montañez — …oh sorry, as I was to say, we measure the activity of everyone who goes to Connect in Conversation and what they do. Rich Birch — Oh, that, tell me about that. Kayra Montañez — And so there’s, or ah how we say it at Liquid is it’s correlation, not causation. Like I can’t prove that if you go to this event, your next steps were a direct result of this event… Rich Birch — Yes. Yes. Kayra Montañez — …but we can correlate that because you came to the event you actually took these next steps, if that makes sense. Rich Birch — Yeah. Kayra Montañez — So we’ve seen tremendous, tremendous engagement grow because of that. Rich Birch — And that’s on Sundays. You do it on on campus after the last service, that sort of thing. Kayra Montañez — Every month. Yes, every month at every campus after the last service, we promote it up to the day of the event… Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. Kayra Montañez — …and we do it rain or shine. Whether it’s five people or 10 or 50, obviously at our largest location, sometimes we have about 100 people show up every month to these events. Rich Birch — That’s great. I love that. That’s a great. You’re coming in hot, Kayra. Great learnings, even you know, with friends, we’ve got through the first question. Rich Birch — So yeah, and we’re, you know, it’s fantastic. So one of the one of the things I’d love to hear a little bit about, um you know, that when we look in the data, people’s anxiety, there’s there seems to be some anxiety around or concern around discipling people. We offer these discipleship pathways or engagement pathways. And it’s like, we do this stuff, but then people don’t actually take advantage of it. It’s like, we do, we offer small groups, but people don’t do them. Or people we offer classes and people don’t actually engage on them. Rich Birch —What are you doing to try to move to, to ensure people are actually engaging with the various pathways that you’re developing at Liquid to actually get them to use them? Kayra Montañez — So this is a very interesting question in this particular time because at Liquid we’re just about getting ready to or just ready to ah blow up small groups basically. Rich Birch — Oh, nice. Okay. I’d love to hear more. Kayra Montañez — Yeah, so I would say that small groups was the one metric that did not recover for our church post-pandemic. So even though our volunteer pipelines at times felt thin, we were able to have incredible momentum around that. We can talk more about that later. How did we do that? We recovered in attendance and giving, baptism, but we were not able to crack the code on small groups. We were at an all-time low, about 20% our church… Rich Birch — Oh, wow. Yeah. Kayra Montañez — …was engaged in small groups, pretty low. And so we started surveying people. Rich Birch — Yep. We’re like, what is it that people actually want from the small groups? Like, what is it that we’re not offering that they’re looking for? And the one, it was shocking to us that the number one thing, I mean, it shouldn’t be shocking because we are a church. Kayra Montañez — The number one thing that people wanted was to understand the Bible. So for the first time ever, we have uncoupled relational connection from biblical literacy. In the past, our small groups, the thing that was in the driver’s seat, I would say, was the relational connection. We wanted people to connect, to join a group so that they could make friends, do life together. We used to um promote it that way, if you remember. Do life together. Where are the people that you’re doing life together? Rich Birch — Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Kayra Montañez — For the first time ever, we’re actually putting biblical literacy in the front seat and relational connection on the passenger seat. So you will actually make connections, but that’s not the goal of this process right now. The process is for you to actually understand and read and study the word of God. In fact, our new tagline is to know the word of God so that you can love the God of the word. Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great. And is that so if you change the the container that that fits in or are you changing the like, like… Kayra Montañez — We did. We changed the container. Rich Birch — So what’s that look like? Kayra Montañez — So right now we’re offering people different levels of biblical literacy. Kayra Montañez — The biggest vehicle that we’re that we just piloted this fall through the book of Revelations, if you can believe it. So we’re like, why not start with the hardest book of the Bible? Rich Birch — Yes. Kayra Montañez — And what we did was we created a Bible study midweek on a Wednesday night where people would go in person and study the word of God in tables with other people. Now, obviously there’s facilitators who have been trained and vetted. And once you join a table, that was kind of like the table that you were going to go on this journey with, but it’s not a small group. It’s a, it’s a short term. It was 10 weeks. We went through the entire book of Revelations, 22 chapters. We would do homework in order to get ready for this midweek study, we would come, we would have a conversation around what did you put in question 10? Rich Birch — Yep. Kayra Montañez — What did I write? This was hard, I don’t understand. And then there was teaching. Kayra Montañez — And we also piloted doing that same thing with our high school students so that parents could actually come with their kids on the same day, drop their high school kiddos in their own cohort, and then they would go to their own biblical midweek you know Bible study. Kayra Montañez — And that was, too, a great success. So we are trying to figure out like what are the appropriate levels of biblical literacy that we can offer a congregation… Rich Birch — That’s so good. Kayra Montañez — …that is increasingly illiterate in biblic in in the Bible. Rich Birch — Yep. Kayra Montañez — And deep dive, make no mistake, is the highest level. So that’s not for everyone. And we understand that. And so the parts that we’re trying to figure out is what’s like the appropriate next level to that for somebody who’s not willing to come in person 10 weeks to do homework and study, you know, the actual Bible. Kayra Montañez — But, it was fascinating to just uncouple those two things for the first time. And I would say it’s in the right frame of, in the right approach. You’re still making friends. Rich Birch — Yes. Kayra Montañez — You’re just not, that’s just not being the driver. Rich Birch — Right. Yeah, I do wonder. So we for sure have seen that. I’ve seen this conversation. I don’t claim to be a small groups expert. I never have. Kayra Montañez — Me neither. Rich Birch — Like for 20, 30 years, it’s always been a mystery to me. I’m like, it’s like hard. It’s a hard system to run and to to build. And, but for sure, post COVID it it is, I would say that’s a universal concern that it’s like, whatever we used to do, I see this all over the place, whatever we used to do to try to get people into groups, we don’t do that anymore. We’re doing something completely different. I happen to be at Liquid this fall. I think you were speaking at a conference when I was there. Bummer… Kayra Montañez — I was, I missed you. Yeah. Rich Birch — And I saw the deep dive. I think that’s what it was called. Kayra Montañez — Yes. Rich Birch — Deep dive that night. And I remember, i remember thinking, I was like, Whoa, this is like, ah this is incredible. Like, you know, I don’t know how many people were there that night. There was a ton of people all lined up and ready to go. I’m like, that’s, That’s cool. I love that. Rich Birch — Well, let’s pivot. You kind of flagged it there, the volunteer piece. Kayra Montañez — Yes. Rich Birch — I’d love to know what you’re learning on this front, you know, to rebuild volunteer culture. We had this kind of, I don’t know when we’ll stop saying post-COVID. I don’t know whether we’ll be like that generation that was like after the like war or like after the depression where like for 40 years we’re going to be talking about it. Rich Birch — But it does still feel like we’re post-COVID. I don’t know when that is. But what have you done to kind of restart? How what’s going well on that front externally? Liquid feels like a incredibly volunteer you know robust culture – help us understand what’s that looking like what are you learning these days? Kayra Montañez — Sure. Yeah. I mean everything you said is still very much a factor. I mean, we are constantly having to work at this. This is never going to be a problem that I feel we’re ever going to solve. It’s really a tension that we’re managing. And sometimes tension feels better and sometimes it doesn’t feel good. Rich Birch — Right. Kayra Montañez — In fact, this year, I would say in March, we probably had like our biggest crisis in the broadcast campus where our church growth so far outpaced the amount of people that were serving that we were finding ourselves having to close rooms for Liquid family… Rich Birch — Ooh. Kayra Montañez — …not because we we hit ratios, but because we didn’t have enough volunteers. And that doesn’t feel great… Rich Birch — No. Kayra Montañez — …especially if you’re a new here family, right? Rich Birch — Yes. Kayra Montañez — And so we were like, all right, we need to do something really aggressive. And the best way that I can explain it is we did like a try before you buy. Rich Birch — Okay. Kayra Montañez — Very low approach… Rich Birch — Yep. Kayra Montañez — …low hanging fruit. We said, hey, we we casted a vision, right? It’s never about we need volunteers, but we actually told a really significant story of where’s all the fruit that the Lord is bringing to this church, all the spiritual fruit that we’re seeing, like people are getting saved, people are getting baptized, they’re coming to get to know Jesus, they’re studying the Bible. Kayra Montañez — It was incredible. Kayra Montañez — But we need people to use their spiritual gifts. And so we came up with a campaign called For the One. And everything was geared for that one person. Like, who’s who are you going to go serve? Who’s the one that you’re going to go serve? Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. Kayra Montañez — And the try before you buy was, we’re going to give you a hoodie. We designed a hoodie. It was called, it was, you know, at the tagline For the One. And the key is you only get it after you serve a couple of times. Rich Birch — Okay, that’s cool. Kayra Montañez — So this is the try before you buy. You know, you’re going to try it out. Rich Birch — Yes. You’re not going to go through the whole background, pipeline, covenant process because we need people now and we need them quick. Rich Birch — Yeah. Yeah. Kayra Montañez — So you’re trying before you’re buying. But if you like it and we’re going to make sure that first serve experience is incredible for you, then we want you to buy it. Rich Birch — That’s so good. Kayra Montañez — And we’re going to reward you by giving you swag that’s limited, exclusive. Not everybody’s going to get it. Rich, you would be surprised. Like I’m still to this day, i have been at Liquid, it’ll be 13 years in April. And I am still shocked by how much people, the gamification of playing to people’s particular interests… Rich Birch — Yes. Yes. Kayra Montañez — …whether it’s FOMO, they don’t want to miss out, whether it’s the idea of collecting exclusive apparel. Rich Birch — Yeah. Yeah. Kayra Montañez — There’s something here for everyone that just draws people out. Rich Birch — It’s true. It’s true. Kayra Montañez — We had over 400 people sign up for the one. Rich Birch — Wow. That’s amazing. That’s great. Kayra Montañez — It was incredible. And we were able to tell amazing stories of people who were coming and showing up and serving, whether it was our special needs kiddos or high school whatever you want to call it. We had it. And and I would say the appeal of a try before you buy, how can you shortchange without? So this is key. You don’t want to reduce the quality. But you do want to shorten your pipeline so that you can get people quicker to try it. And then once they actually feel like, hey, I really enjoy this, now we’re going to get you through the whole, you know, rest of the process, right? But you can still serve while we do that. Kayra Montañez — So that was a huge thing. And then obviously, you know, like the free apparel swag, that always is a nice incentive to give to people. So that was huge. Rich Birch — It’s true. Kayra Montañez — It was very successful. And that’s what I would recommend is like, hey, can you run, try before you buy little events with like swag, and like you you get you have people serve for a limited amount of time. Like you don’t give them the swag immediately. You make them work for it. Rich Birch — Right. Yes. Kayra Montañez — They got to serve three, four times before you give it to them. Rich Birch — Yeah, we did a similar thing last summer. Our kids ministry team did a similar thing last summer where we did the summer serve, which we hadn’t done in in actually a number of years. And they they pulled that out and did summer serve. And it was the same thing. If you signed up, you got a t-shirt, a specific t-shirt for that. Rich Birch — And then you, there was, they basically were asking you to serve once in June, once in July, once in August, like once a month, just for the summertime. And if you served, um I forget exactly what the ratio was, but it was, you got entered in a draw for however many times. And basically, so if you served all three, you got like 10 times the number of draw things to win. And it was all this stuff that you, you could win. And it was like really great gifts. Kayra Montañez — Yes. Rich Birch — And you would think that that should not motivate people. Kayra Montañez — But it does. Rich Birch — But it does. Kayra Montañez — It does. Rich Birch — And and you know and it was and, you know, they did it in really fun, you know, hey this is going to be a fun thing to be a part of. Talk to me about the, because there’s a friction thing there to learn around trying to reduce the friction the kind of onboarding friction, I think over time that stuff can become, you know, it’s, it’s the, we actually are like our, we can become just too hard for our people. Kayra Montañez — Yeah. Rich Birch — What did you learn through that process in, in trying to find that balance of like, we want to make it easier to onboard people, but we still want to, is there any kind of lessons from that when you look back on that? Kayra Montañez — To me, the the lesson really is, again, there is a tension between you can’t shortchange, especially when it comes to kids. I can’t emphasize this enough. Rich Birch — No, yeah, absolutely. Yep. Kayra Montañez — Like I oversee all of these ministries and it would be not on my watch will will this happen, right? Rich Birch — No, yeah, yeah. Kayra Montañez — So we have to make be very sure that we’re not shortchanging the safety procedures. Rich Birch — Yeah. Yep. Kayra Montañez — At the same time recognizing these things can take some time, right? Like we ask people to get a background check, they have to be interviewed, they have to sign a covenant, they have to have a reference. I mean, these things this is a lengthy process. Rich Birch — Yes. Kayra Montañez — And I stand by it. We have to do that. Rich Birch — Yep. Kayra Montañez — At the same time, can we actually live in a world where we are marrying our need to have someone in the room while also still doing all of these things simultaneously, not actually waiting for all of this to happen so that then they can come. Kayra Montañez — And that’s kind of how we figured it out. Our Liquid family pastor came up with a process where she’s like, okay, we can shorten it this time. They’re only going to do these three things, not four, not six. But while they’re in the room trying it, we’re going to continue to do the other remaining four. Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great. Kayra Montañez — It’s messy. It’s not always the best thing to do in an ideal world. You are not doing that. But when you’re faced with crisis, then you need to come up with, you know, resourceful ideas. Kayra Montañez — And so what I would say about the volunteer pipeline is this. There are short-term problems that you have to solve while you’re still working on this very long-term. Like this is a culture that you have to create. Rich Birch — Yeah. Kayra Montañez — And in order for you to create a culture, you have to tell stories. You have to celebrate what you want to be repeated. have to make people feel thanked, encouraged, appreciated, seen. You those are all long-term things that you have to be doing all the time. This is like nonstop. Rich Birch — Yes. Yes. Can’t take the, you can’t take the gas off that pedal for sure. Pedal off that gas. Kayra Montañez — Correct. You cannot take your foot off the the pedal. But at the same time, there are things that are short term that you really do have to also do. And sometimes that will require teaching from the stage where you’re actually envisioning people about why this matters so much. Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. Kayra Montañez — And this is what we did in March with the For the One. So I would say it’s it’s both/and; it’s not either/or. And so if that’s helpful, that’s how I would approach it. Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s super good. That’s good. If there was a church that was, if you were sitting across the table from an executive pastor, maybe you’re at a conference or someone drops in your office and they’re, they’re feeling really stuck on this engagement issue. They feel low. Like it’s people were, maybe it’s groups, it’s teams, it’s all of it. Like it’s, we’re not moving people through any kind of pipeline. Rich Birch — What would be some of those first steps or first recommendations, first things you’d have them look at, maybe like a diagnostic or a first couple of things that you’d have them think about in this area? Kayra Montañez — Well, I would say if there’s a way for them to know of the people who are attending and maybe they figure this out with new here, how many of those people take one next step within the first month? Rich Birch — That’s good. Kayra Montañez — That would be one diagnostic that I would first see if I can do with the data that I have and the data that they collect and they actually figured that out. Rich Birch — Yep. Yeah, that’s good. Kayra Montañez — If they’re able to do that, then the next diagnostic would be what percent actually move into a people system… Rich Birch — Yep. Kayra Montañez — …whether it’s a group, a deep dive experience, a dream team within 60 to 90 days, right? Rich Birch — Yep. Kayra Montañez — Because if you do that, you’re going to find the blockage. You’re actually going to discover Maybe our attendance is fine. We don’t have an invest and invite problem, but maybe what we have a problem with is our conversion rate. And so then you can start to identify what is it about our conversion that we need to fix? Kayra Montañez — Is it that we have ah unclear on-ramps? Or is it that our processes are too high friction? It’s too hard people to get involved. If you actually find like, no, actually people are taking next steps. Great. But they’re not sticking to it. Then you have a different problem. Then you can actually diagnose… Rich Birch — Yes, yes. Kayra Montañez — …oh, maybe the first serve experience actually wasn’t sticky enough. It wasn’t welcoming. Maybe there were issues with scheduling. Maybe we didn’t give clear information. So you can kind of figure out what the problem is based on how you’re measuring it and what you’re discovering. That’s how I would start if I didn’t know what the problem was. Does that make sense? Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s so good. That makes total sense. And, you know, it it definitely aligns with one of my bugaboos that I constantly driving with executive pastors. When you look at the actual numbers—I and I have not run into a church yet that this is not the case—most churches actually have a front door problem. They don’t have a back door problem. They their actual problem that we think we feel like, oh, like people aren’t sticking and staying in groups, they’re not staying and volunteering. But statistically, that’s actually not true. When most of the time, if you look at, okay, all the people that end up in a group, what is the kind of churn rate on that? Whatever that number is, I’ve never seen a church where it’s higher than the people we’re missing on the front end with exactly with what you said is how many people are removing from new here to taking the first step in the first month? Rich Birch — Because that you lose a ton of people in that door right there. That is a, you know, by a multiple of 10 or 20, like it’s a lot more that we’re missing out. And, you know, generally in most churches… Kayra Montañez — And can I just [inaudible] to that? Rich Birch — Yeah. Kayra Montañez — Because I just want encourage people, like, figure out a way to target your new here audience. Rich Birch — Yes. Yes. Kayra Montañez — So at Liquid, for example, if you come for the first time, not only do we encourage, highly encourage you to tell us that you’re here for the first time because we give you an awesome gift. Rich Birch — Yes. Kayra Montañez — Lots of churches do this, but then we survey people who came for the first time. Rich Birch — Yeah. Kayra Montañez — And based on what they answer, they receive a custom follow-up process for the first 30 days. Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great. Yeah. Kayra Montañez — We don’t, so in that regard, like it is worth to look at that. Rich Birch — Yes. Kayra Montañez — Because you’re going to find out a lot of information and a lot of data about what people are choosing to do, where are they going, why they’re not sticking to it or why they’re not even going in the first place. Rich Birch — Yeah. Kayra Montañez — Like I’m shocked that I’ve been to churches sometimes to speak and they don’t actually really do like a new here call out. Like they don’t. Rich Birch — Yeah, I was going to say that. You said, oh, churches do this. Kayra Montañez — Maybe not. Rich Birch — And I’d be like, Kayra, I’ve been to way too many churches where they don’t do any of that. And they’re like, well, we’re not really sure. And I’m like, this is a solvable problem. We can fix this. Kayra Montañez — Yes. Yes. Rich Birch — There’s like real things you can do here. Actually, I worked with a church last year, a fairly large church in 2024, where they were experiencing some of these issues and so and I was like I basically said the same thing I just said, I’m like you’re losing people on the front end. And they’re like they’re like well we do a gift. And I’m like no you don’t. And I said there’s a and there’s a few things to fix around that. In 2025 the year we just ended, they received we made a few changes it’s not about me there’s about them they made a bunch of changes, they ended up receiving 5,000 more first-time guest contacts than they did 2024. Kayra Montañez — Wow. Just like we’ve always told it to do. Rich Birch — Now they did not grow by people but it’s just by focusing on that, right? Kayra Montañez — Amazing. Rich Birch — It’s just by like saying, hey, how are we what are we going to do to ensure that that step goes well with folks? So anyways, there’s huge opportunity there and in lots of churches. Kayra, you’ve been incredibly generous to give us your time at this time of year. As you’re thinking, kind of last question, as we’re thinking about 2026, what are some of those questions that are floating around in your head as you think about Liquid, as you think about the future? What are some things that you’re wrestling with that you’re wondering about that you’re contemplating as we go into this year? Kayra Montañez — Oh my gosh, Rich, so many. After this conversation, you know, I really am interested to see what’s going to happen with our discipleship model since we just blew it up. Rich Birch — Yes, yep. Kayra Montañez — I’m helping all of that and changing the way that we even onboard leaders. Like I’m really invested in seeing this through. Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great. Kayra Montañez — I also totally unrelated to this, but we just launched, I think in the survey, one of the questions that was asked was what’s the best idea that you had in 2025? Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah, right. Kayra Montañez — And I was like, well, I feel like one of our best ideas was to use AI to launch a Spanish service. And I am really invested in that in seeing like, how do we continue to grow that service? How do we continue to grow that ministry? We’re launching new ministries in 2025, or 2026. So that always feels exciting and daunting. Kayra Montañez — So there’s just the work never ends. And there’s always it is an exciting and fascinating time to be in the church. I’ll say that. Rich Birch — I would agree. I totally would agree. Yeah, it’s the best. I would think, literally, I think this is the best season that I’ve been involved in ministry for sure. Rich Birch — For folks that don’t know what you’re doing with Spanish ministry, give us the 60 second, explain that again. Because I think I keep pointing churches to you saying, have you heard what Liquid’s doing? You go talk to them. So tell us about that. Kayra Montañez — So basically we have a Spanish service. We do have live hosting in Español. We have live worship in Español. But then we take our English message and we pass it through an AI service called Heygen, which actually uses the communicator’s voice and matches the words to their lips and they’re just preaching, they preach it in Spanish. Even if they’re not bilingual, they will preach it in Spanish. And it’s like you, Rich, are speaking in Spanish. Your words match to your voice. Rich Birch — Yes. Yeah, it’s it’s amazing. Kayra Montañez — People get to hear the the gospel and the message in their language. So it’s been fascinating to learn who we’re reaching, who’s coming, who likes that kind of a thing. You know, as a Spanish speaker myself, I’m like, would I go to a service where the message wasn’t actually authentic Spanish and it’s an AI generated? Kayra Montañez — I believe in the quality of our communication so much that I actually have to say, yes, I would. Because like last year, this year, we took our entire church through the book of Revelation. Tim spent 25 weeks teaching us the hardest book of the Bible. Kayra Montañez — The fruit that that endeavor produced is incredible. And so when I think about what we’re doing, I’m like, I believe in that so much that I do think this is a this is a thing that’s actually good to do. Even if people would who would think like, why would they go to that and not like an authentic Spanish speaker? Rich Birch — Yeah, interesting. And that, and you’re, you’ve been a year, that’s been basically almost a year you’ve been doing that now. Kayra Montañez — A year. A year. Rich Birch — And, and you’re be continuing to do it. So obviously something’s working. There’s some sort of version of like, Hey, we’re, we feel. Kayra Montañez — We’re continuing to do it. we’re seeing We’re seeing the fruit. We’re seeing baptisms, people giving their life to Christ, getting baptized, showing up and joining teams, um reaching families. We’re reaching multigenerational families where the parents go to the Spanish service, the kids go to the English service because it’s simultaneous, right? Well, the English is going on, the Spanish is going on. So families get to decide. It’s just really interesting to watch. Obviously, it’s been challenging in the U.S. to grow a Spanish service because of everything that’s been happening. Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah… Kayra Montañez — But it’s just been really fascinating to see like the dynamics of who we’re reaching, who’s is sharing like who’s excited about it, and then using technology to further the gospel. It’s always exciting. Rich Birch — Yeah, it’s fantastic. I know I was goofing around with Heygen a little bit. And the part that actually, this was you know almost a year ago when you guys started doing that that, one of the tests I ran that actually convinced me was, so I was like taking videos of me and I would send them to like a friend who speaks Spanish. And I sent to a friend who speaks, you know, a couple of languages that it was doing, but then I did the reverse. There’s a great church, Nouvelle Vie. It’s a French speaking church, large church, be very similar to Liquid, but they’re French speaking. And so I took one of the, the lead pastors from that. I took a clip of his message and translated into English. And I was blown away. I was like, Oh my word. Like, Kayra Montañez — It is getting better and better every day. Rich Birch — I was I was shocked. I was like, oh, that that is, yeah, could I tell? Yeah, but this guy’s an incredible communicator. And you know similar to you and Tim and the team at at Liquid, I’m like, I could see that work anyway. Rich Birch — So that’s exciting. Kayra, it’s so great to see you. Kayra Montañez — Thank you, Rich. Rich Birch — Thanks so much for having time with us today. If people want to connect with you or with Liquid, where do we want to send them online? Kayra Montañez — Sure. So my name Kayra, K-A-Y-R-A at liquidchurch.com. Happy to connect with anybody have questions. Rich Birch — Thanks so much. Thanks for being here today.
Matt Pauley talks with Cardinals beat write Rob Rains to discuss the Ryne Stanek deal the Cardinals have reportedly made, as well as what it means for the 2026 bullpen. Plus, Matt replays audio from a conversation Tom Ackerman had with Chaim Bloom previewing the future of the offseason and spring training.
RFP - 'Unveiled' by Yasmine Mohammed, discussed by Sara Ghorbani and Lierre Keith.A pre-recorded webinar first shown on 11th Jan 2026 at 10am UK time.On Sundays (10am UK time), our webinar series Radical Feminist Perspectives offers a chance to hear leading feminists discuss radical feminist theory and politics.Attendance of our live webinars is women-only, register at https://bit.ly/registerRFP
What do you do when everything you planned falls apart?In this special 5-year celebration message, we look back at the story of Oasis Church. A story that was never supposed to work. A church plant launched during a global pandemic. Big dreams met impossible odds. Attendance dropped. Resources dried up. The future looked bleak.Humanly speaking, it was over.But God had other plans.This message is for anyone staring at an impossible situation. A diagnosis. A financial wall. A broken relationship. A calling that feels dead. Through the words of Jesus in Matthew 19:26 and powerful moments throughout Scripture, we're reminded of this truth: what looks impossible to us is never impossible for God.If you've ever done the math and realized it does not add up, this message is for you. If you need faith to believe again, this message is for you. If you need a reminder that God is still writing the story, this message is for you.Humanly speaking, it may look impossible.But with God, all things are possible.
Top Stories for January 10th Publish Date: January 10th PRE-ROLL: Kia Mall of Georgia From the BG AD Group Studio Welcome to the Gwinnett Daily Post Podcast. Today is Saturday, January 10th and Happy Birthday to Rod Stewart I’m Peyton Spurlock and here are your top stories presented by Gwinnett KIA Mall of Georgia. Affordability a top concern as lawmakers prepare for Georgia legislative session Srim Academy to host series of free seminars for young parents Christkindl Market drove 77% increase in downtown Lawrenceville visitors All of this and more is coming up on the Gwinnett Daily Post podcast, and if you are looking for community news, we encourage you to listen daily and subscribe! Break 1: EAGLE THEATRE STORY 1: Affordability a top concern as lawmakers prepare for Georgia legislative session When Georgia lawmakers head back to the Capitol next week, it’s all about affordability—or at least that’s the plan. House Speaker Jon Burns isn’t mincing words: “We’re laser-focused on making life affordable,” he said Wednesday, pointing a finger at property taxes for crushing the dream of homeownership. “For too many families, it’s slipping out of reach. We’ve got to fix that.” Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are eyeing income taxes. A committee led by Sen. Blake Tillery wants to nix the 5.19% tax for individuals earning under $50,000 (or $100,000 for couples) and eventually scrap it altogether by 2032. But affordability isn’t just about taxes. Rising medical costs? A mess. The end of federal health insurance subsidies? A looming crisis. Burns says the House will tackle health care, focusing on keeping doctors in Georgia by expanding residency programs. STORY 2: Srim Academy to host series of free seminars for young parents Srim Academy, a Montessori school in Norcross, is kicking off a series of free seminars for young parents—because, let’s face it, parenting is hard. Topics? Everything from potty training and screen time battles to fostering independence and getting kids to actually move their bodies. The first session, “Fostering Your Child’s Independence: Lemonade, Ladybugs and Learning,” happens Saturday, Jan. 31, at 10:30 a.m. at 5511 Williams Road. Expect 90 minutes of practical advice, hands-on activities (think crafts and cooking), and maybe even a few lightbulb moments. Led by Srim’s seasoned faculty and guests from Gwinnett Building Babies’ Brains, it’s all about building confidence—for kids and parents. Bonus: giveaways! Details? Visit www.srimacademy.com or call 678-808-9813. STORY 3: Christkindl Market drove 77% increase in downtown Lawrenceville visitors Lawrenceville’s first year hosting the Atlanta Christkindl Market? A total game-changer. Nearly 371,000 people visited the market during its debut season downtown—more than double the attendance from its Buckhead days, even with fewer open days. And here’s the kicker: 159,500 of those visitors wandered over to the Lawrenceville Square, boosting local restaurants and shops by 77% compared to 2024. Free parking, shuttles, and a glowing Winterlight Walk helped draw crowds, with visitors from 48 states. Downtown businesses saw sales jump 5–30%, and vendors reported 20–30% higher sales than the previous year. The collaboration between the city and Gwinnett County was key, with County Chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson adding, “This event showed what’s possible when partnerships thrive.” Lawrenceville’s officially on the holiday map. We have opportunities for sponsors to get great engagement on these shows. Call 770.874.3200 for more info. We’ll be right back Break 2: Ingles Markets STORY 4: 2026 Beer Chaser 5K Registration is open Whether you’re a speed demon or a beer-loving stroller, the Beer Chaser 5K is calling your name. On March 7, Suwanee Town Center Park transforms into a St. Paddy’s Day celebration with a twist—running, sipping, and plenty of green. This isn’t your average 5K. Sure, it’s a Peachtree Road Race qualifier, but it’s also a beer lover’s dream. Choose your adventure: run straight through or stop at five beer stations along the scenic Suwanee Creek Greenway. Each station features a different Georgia brewery, so your taste buds get a workout too. Not into mid-run sips? No worries. Every runner (21+) gets a full beer at the finish line. And the party doesn’t stop there—StillFire Brewing is hosting an after-party with live music, food trucks, and 25 beers on tap. Registration starts at $55 for the straight-through option or $65 if you want those beer stops. Prices go up Feb. 1, so don’t wait. Oh, and don’t forget your festive St. Paddy’s Day gear—there are prizes for best costume, best group, and best kilt. Proceeds benefit Kiwanis Charity, supporting local causes like the North Gwinnett Co-Op and Children’s Healthcare. Details? Head to SuwaneeBeerFest.com/beer-chaser-5k/. STORY 5: Lanier Islands Resort looks back at 2025, forward to an exciting 2026 Lanier Islands Resort just wrapped up a big year—its 50th anniversary—and it’s clear they’re not slowing down anytime soon. Recognized as one of Georgia’s Best Vacation Destinations, the resort is leaning into its legacy while planning some exciting upgrades for 2026. Last year was packed: a new chapel and garden for weddings, a free summer concert series, the return of Magical Nights of Lights, and even a lantern festival that drew 4,500 people. Oh, and they snagged awards from The Knot, WeddingWire, and GolfPass, among others. Looking ahead? A $3 million refresh for Legacy Lodge, a revamped golf clubhouse, and Georgia’s first lighted Par-3 course. Plus, new events like a Fall Songwriter Series. Big things are coming. We’ll be right back. Break 3: GCPL Passport STORY 6: Rep. Andrew Clyde announces 2026 Congressional Art Competition Hey, high school artists in Georgia’s Ninth District—Congressman Andrew Clyde wants *you* to show off your talent in the 2026 Congressional Art Competition. Got a creative spark? Here’s your chance to have your work displayed in the U.S. Capitol for a whole year. Submissions are due Feb. 20, and the process is simple: send a digital image of your piece first, and if you’re a finalist, drop off the physical artwork by March 13. The theme? Anything that reflects North Georgia—think landmarks, industries, or even your school. Accepted mediums include paintings, drawings, mixed media, photography, and more. Just keep it two-dimensional, under 26x26 inches framed, and under 15 pounds. Oh, and no copying or controversial content—this is about originality. Questions? Call Clyde’s Gainesville office at 470-768-6520. Let’s see what you’ve got! STORY 7: Gwinnett Chamber introduces Elevate Business series The Gwinnett Chamber is shaking things up with the launch of the Elevate Business Series (EBS)—a fresh, expanded take on their long-running Small Business Series. Starting in 2026, this revamped program is all about helping small and medium-sized businesses level up with sharper insights, practical strategies, and tools to thrive. Why the change? Simple: demand. Attendance has been climbing, industries are diversifying, and businesses are hungry for deeper, more advanced content. “Elevate reflects how far we’ve come—and where we’re going,” said Megan Lesko, the Chamber’s Senior VP of Membership. The first event? Feb. 24, featuring Media Frenzy CEO Sarah Tourville on strategic communications. We’ll have closing comments after this Break 4: Sugar Hill Ice Skating Rink Signoff – Thanks again for hanging out with us on today’s Gwinnett Daily Post Podcast. If you enjoy these shows, we encourage you to check out our other offerings, like the Cherokee Tribune Ledger podcast, the Marietta Daily Journal, or the Community Podcast for Rockdale Newton and Morgan Counties. Read more about all our stories and get other great content at www.gwinnettdailypost.com Did you know over 50% of Americans listen to podcasts weekly? Giving you important news about our community and telling great stories are what we do. Make sure you join us for our next episode and be sure to share this podcast on social media with your friends and family. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home Briefing and be sure to like, follow, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Produced by the BG Podcast Network Show Sponsors: www.ingles-markets.com www.kiamallofga.com Ice Rink – Downtown Sugar Hill NewsPodcast, CurrentEvents, TopHeadlines, BreakingNews, PodcastDiscussion, PodcastNews, InDepthAnalysis, NewsAnalysis, PodcastTrending, WorldNews, LocalNews, GlobalNews, PodcastInsights, NewsBrief, PodcastUpdate, NewsRoundup, WeeklyNews, DailyNews, PodcastInterviews, HotTopics, PodcastOpinions, InvestigativeJournalism, BehindTheHeadlines, PodcastMedia, NewsStories, PodcastReports, JournalismMatters, PodcastPerspectives, NewsCommentary, PodcastListeners, NewsPodcastCommunity, NewsSource, PodcastCuration, WorldAffairs, PodcastUpdates, AudioNews, PodcastJournalism, EmergingStories, NewsFlash, PodcastConversations See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Tom opens the first livestream of 2026 with New Year wishes and important updates:- New Biology Clinic welcomed a record 176 new members in December 2025. Tom thanks the community for their continued support and patience as new members are matched with wellness specialists.New Biology Clinic Connection Session Sign up here.-Registration is now open for the New Biology Experience at Polyface Farm (June 2026), a 2–3 day gathering of talks, music, food, and fellowship. Attendance is limited, and Tom encourages early sign-up.New Biology Experience Link.Ongoing support for Dr. Cowan's Garden and DrTomCowan.com is deeply appreciated.Highlights from this session include:-A critical breakdown of a "landmark" Duke study claiming to visualize a virus entering intestinal cells. Tom walks through the actual methods and shows how the study relied on unproven cell cultures and imaging of labeled debris—not isolated viruses.-Commentary on a humorous and questionable paper linking hydrogen sulfide (flatulence) to reduced Alzheimer's risk, published in a major U.S. journal. Tom uses this to critique the state of institutional science.A thoughtful Q&A on:-Kidneys & Vortexing: Are kidneys really filters? If so, how do they clean themselves? And does this have anything to do with vortexing?-Is the government always wrong or is everything that the scientists tell us, is it wrong?-Is raw goat's milk safe for a 5 month old, otherwise breastfed baby as a kind of transition?-Do vitamins exist?-How do EMFs make us sick, and how do they mimic viruses?-Can we restart the thyroid after radioactive iodine treatment?-Is cloning real?-What is a staph infection?-What is the SARS-CoV-2 genome composed of?Tom closes the session by reiterating his gratitude and excitement for what lies ahead in 2026.Support the showWebsites:https://drtomcowan.com/https://www.drcowansgarden.com/https://newbiologyclinic.com/https://newbiologycurriculum.com/Instagram: @TalkinTurkeywithTomFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrTomCowan/Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/CivTSuEjw6Qp/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzxdc2o0Q_XZIPwo07XCrNg
In the final hour, Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris were joined by FS1 host Danny Parkins to preview the Bears-Packers showdown Saturday in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs. After that, Score reporter Chris Emma joined the show to share a Bears report live from Halas Hall.
In the second hour, DVD discussed how they would grade Cam Ward's rookie season and got a lot of reactions from the text line. How would you grade Cam's rookie year? They also talked about the Titans' tanking attendance numbers as well.
what a beautiful thing to witness: not once but twice visited by New Orlean's finest Krystle Cameron (she/her) :D she took a chance on our very first public retreat of 2025 and closed it out with us as Official Alumni at BOTH offerings geared towards BIPOC land stewards--I can't make this shit up! as Cazimi takes shape, nothing's more exciting than the gesture of collaboration, the YES of attending more than once as a sign of self commitment. we held this convo the last night of her visit to make note of all of what's brought her back for seconds~cover art: Rachel Abe, @rayrayrugsjingle: Ty Sorrell, @Ty_Sorrell
Thousands prepared for the big stretch of hockey in the Twin Cities for the IIHF World Juniors Championships - but the attendance numbers are mostly in and it is not what many expected but it also has to do with tariffs internationally - we discuss!
The first 100 days of church planting get the attention. The next 100 days determine sustainability.In this episode, Dr. Skinner speaks directly to pastors and church planters who launched strong and now find themselves in the trenches. As adrenaline fades and reality sets in, leaders face fatigue, vision drift, relational strain, and hidden fragility.This conversation reframes the early season of church planting, not as arrival, but as orientation. It explores what truly sustains a church after momentum slows and why faithfulness, presence, and formation matter more than speed and scale.Key Themes & Takeaways• Why most church plants struggle after the first 100 days, not during them• The danger of mistaking momentum for maturity• How adrenaline masks fragility in early ministry• Why mission sustains when vision alone cannot• The difference between gathering crowds and forming community• How emotional safety shapes discipleship and trust• Why proximity matters more than strategy in a new context• The importance of leadership depth and intentional equipping• What vision drift really reveals about trust and formation• Why the next season is not failure, but formationNotable Insights• “The first 100 days don't prove sustainability. They reveal potential.”• “Attendance can rise while depth stays shallow.”• “You cannot program belonging. You have to model it.”• “Trust forms through repetition, not charisma.”• “Grace creates the space where truth can grow.”Scripture Referenced• John 1:14 – “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”Grace before truth. Presence before proclamation.Referenced Voices & Stories• Kevin Myers – Founder of 12Stone Church• DCPI (Dynamic Church Planting International)• Exponential Church Planting Network• Insights on community formation and leadership developmentWho This Episode Is For• Church planters beyond launch Sunday• Pastors navigating post-launch fatigue• Leaders facing vision drift or emotional exhaustion• District leaders and coaches supporting planters• Anyone asking, “What comes after the adrenaline?”The first 100 days of church planting get the attention. The next 100 days determine sustainability.In this episode, Dr. Skinner speaks directly to pastors and church planters who launched strong and now find themselves in the trenches. As adrenaline fades and reality sets in, leaders face fatigue, vision drift, relational strain, and hidden fragility.This conversation reframes the early season of church planting, not as arrival, but as orientation. It explores what truly sustains a church after momentum slows and why faithfulness, presence, and formation matter more than speed and scale.Key Themes & Takeaways• Why most church plants struggle after the first 100 days, not during them• The danger of mistaking momentum for maturity• How adrenaline masks fragility in early ministry• Why mission sustains when vision alone cannot• The difference between gathering crowds and forming community• How emotional safety shapes discipleship and trust• Why proximity matters more than strategy in a new context• The importance of leadership depth and intentional equipping• What vision drift really reveals about trust and formation• Why the next season is not failure, but formationNotable Insights• “The first 100 days don't prove sustainability. They reveal potential.”• “Attendance can rise while depth stays shallow.”• “You cannot program belonging. You have to model it.”• “Trust forms...
Church attendance is both a helpful tool and a potential trap. Numbers can reveal momentum, but they can also distort priorities if leaders focus on counting heads instead of making disciples. In this episode, Thom and Sam unpack the healthy and unhealthy ways to measure worship attendance, and how pastors can move from chasing growth to cultivating spiritual health. The post Does Counting Church Worship Attendance Still Make Sense? appeared first on Church Answers.
Are attendances set to bounce back at the Cheltenham Festival? That is just one of the questions examined in this week's edition of The Front Page. Hopes are high that falling crowd numbers at the sport's biggest meeting could become a thing of the past after Cheltenham's New Year's Day fixture was a sellout for the first time in its history. With attendances having also risen at Kempton, Ascot, Leopardstown and elsewhere across the Christmas and new year period, the sport is enjoying a positive start to 2026. Lee Mottershead, Lewis Porteous and Scott Burton look at that recent development and also discuss Betfred's decision to so far reject a new media rights deal with a collection of British racecourses. The team debate what that means and consider a move by campaigners to persuade government that gambling advertising should be banned. In another packed edition, Lee, Lewis and Scott also salute Billy Loughnane after the young riding sensation set a major new record.
Hour 4: Dan Kingerski joins the show to break down the Penguins' recent trade. Why is Pens attendance at PPG Paints Arena down right now? And is Hines Ward a Hall of Famer?
College bowl season has been underway for over two weeks...and attendance has drastically declined compared to last year. With 24 bowl games completed as of December 30th...most of these games were played in half-empty stadiums. We reveal and react to attendance for college bowl games. We discuss the oversaturation of bowl games...which led to rising levels of disinterest with college football fans. We also explain why players and coaches are no longer interested in bowl games...and question why bowl season continues with minimal interest. USE PROMO CODE BTL30 TO SAVE 30% WITH FLUFFERNOGGIN: https://fluffernoggin.com
DECEMBER 27, 2025 HOUR 3: Peter Boyles asks "Why Don't You Go To Church (Anymore)?" and "Why Did You Stop Going?". Many Churches will be Closing Their Doors in 2026 due to low Attendance. Peter takes Listener Calls! LINK TO VIDEO: https://youtube.com/live/w-KXcGzC3IgSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this episode, host Sloan Simmons is joined by Lozano Smith attorneys Sarah Garcia and Karina Demirchyan to discuss why student attendance has become a critical issue for local educational agencies and how attendance concerns can evolve into legal and special education obligations. Drawing on recent legislative updates and real-world experience, the conversation highlights funding considerations, attendance terminology, notification requirements, and when chronic absenteeism may trigger child find duties and further intervention. Show Notes & References 1:21 – Why attendance is a critical issue for Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) 1:57 – School funding and average daily membership (Senate Bill (SB) 98) 2:05 – Optional attendance recovery program (SB 153) 2:19 – New excused absences (SB 1138) (See Client News Brief 45 – October 2024) 2:51 – Truancy (AB 461) (See Client News Brief 58 – December 2025) 3:09 – Lozano Smith Podcast Episode 99: New Laws Impacting Students Heading into 2026 3:49 – Heightened attention on attendance from California Department of Education (CDE) and supporting data 6:18 – Correlation between attendance and discipline 7:51 – Legal requirements for LEAs regarding attendance 9:16 – Terminology (chronic absenteeism, truancy, habitual truancy, and chronic truancy) 14:51 – Notification requirements for truancy letters (SB 691) (See Client News Brief 45 – October 2024) 16:56 – When attendance issues become a special education issue 21:44 – Child find and evaluating absent students for special education 22:34 – Factors that LEAs should be looking for with attendance when considering referring a student for assessment 25:18 – School Attendance Review Board (SARB) 27:11 – Effective attendance and behavior interventions 28:44 – Parent training 30:56 – Cautionary tales and anecdotes from the field For more information on the topics discussed in this podcast, please visit our website at: www.lozanosmith.com/podcast
Join us for a special holiday episode as we rewind to 1980s Saskatchewan, when the hair was big, accountability was apparently optional, and one parent decided to challenge truancy laws because their child was attending an illegal school. Festive. We unpack what the court actually said about compulsory attendance, because "we tried our best," personal beliefs, and creative loopholes don't override The Education Act. Attendance isn't a suggestion, and it doesn't become optional just because enforcement was inconsistent or oversight was asleep at the wheel. We translate the legal jargon into plain English, explain why this decision matters for parents, schools, and ministries, and show how this case exposes the awkward gap between what education laws say on paper and what's been quietly tolerated in practice. If you've ever wondered how courts handle truancy, parental responsibility, or what happens when someone decides the law doesn't apply to them, pour some eggnog and hit play.
Notes Matthew 2:13-23 Isaiah 63:7-9 Hebrews 2:10-18 Summary In this episode of the Pulpit Fiction Podcast, hosts Robb McCoy and Eric Fistler discuss the lectionary readings for the first Sunday of Christmas, focusing on Matthew 2:13-23, the flight to Egypt, and the implications of Herod's tyranny. They explore themes of hospitality, the significance of the Old Testament connections, and the faithfulness of God as highlighted in Isaiah 63. The conversation also delves into the humanity of Christ as presented in Hebrews 2, emphasizing the ongoing relevance of the incarnation in today's context. Takeaways The podcast discusses the lectionary readings for the first Sunday of Christmas. Attendance challenges during the holiday season are common for many churches. The flight to Egypt is a significant and often overlooked part of the Christmas story. Herod's actions reflect the tyranny and fear of oppressive regimes. The theme of hospitality is crucial in the context of the Holy Family's journey. Connections between the Old Testament and New Testament are explored. Isaiah 63 highlights God's faithfulness amidst human struggles. Hebrews 2 emphasizes the humanity of Christ and his understanding of human suffering. The ongoing relevance of the incarnation is discussed in relation to modern issues. The podcast encourages reflection on the themes of hope and redemption. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to the Pulpit Fiction Podcast 02:47 Reflections on Christmas and Attendance Challenges 06:00 Exploring the Gospel Reading: Matthew 2:13-23 12:09 The Significance of the Flight to Egypt 18:01 Herod's Tyranny and the Theme of Refugees 23:50 The Role of Hospitality in the Holy Family's Journey 30:11 Connecting the Old Testament and New Testament Themes 35:46 Isaiah 63: God's Faithfulness Amidst Human Struggles 42:03 Understanding Hebrews 2: The Humanity of Christ 47:50 The Ongoing Relevance of the Incarnation 54:09 Conclusion and Reflections on the Podcast
Despite hosting a major international tournament and having the best player of all time in the top-flight domestic league, attendance across American soccer — especially the USMNT — dropped in 2025. In this episode, Bart and Thomas chat with Lawrence Dockery, author of "2025 American Club Soccer Attendance Super Table" for Beyond the 90.Hear the reasons why attendance may have dipped, and what it means for the leagues and U.S. Soccer going forward. Read the articles:https://beyondthe90.substack.com/p/2025-american-club-soccer-attendancehttps://beyondthe90.substack.com/p/top-25-largest-american-soccer-crowds-2f5https://beyondthe90.substack.com/p/usmnt-attendance-down-26-in-2025https://beyondthe90.substack.com/p/uswnt-attendance-takes-slight-3-dipSupport the show: buymeacoffee.com/soccerforuspod
Things happen, and your team will be late or absent. But when does it become a problem, and what can you do about it? In this episode, Kirk Behrendt brings back Alan Twigg, president of Bent Ericksen & Associates, to help you navigate and address chronic attendance issues that are happening in your practice. To learn how to get your team to show up for you and your patients, listen to Episode 984 of The Best Practices Show!Learn More About Alan:Give Alan a call: (800) 679-2760Send Alan an email: alan@bentericksen.com Join Bent Ericksen on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BentEricksenAssociatesLearn more about Bent Ericksen: https://bentericksen.comMore Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:Subscribe to The Best Practices Show: https://the-best-practices-show.captivate.fm/listenJoin The Best Practices Association: https://www.actdental.com/bpaDownload ACT's BPA app on the Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/best-practices-association/id6738960360Download ACT's BPA app on the Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.actdental.join&hl=en_USJoin ACT's To The Top Study Club: https://www.actdental.com/tttGet The Best Practices Magazine for free: https://www.actdental.com/magazinePlease leave us a review on the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-best-practices-show-with-kirk-behrendt/id1223838218Episode Resources:Watch the video version of Episode 984: https://www.youtube.com/@actdental/videosMain Takeaways:Understand your state, county, and city rules around attendance, sick leave, and PTO.When you don't address chronic attendance issues, your good employees will leave.Avoid creating policies that are too strict or rigid. They will come back to bite you.Know the requirements, limitations, and nuances around getting doctor's notes.Always document your employees' reasons for tardies and absences.Snippets:0:00 Introduction.1:38 Alan's background.2:26 Why this is an important topic.3:55 Mandatory sick leave, explained.6:16 Document the reason for an absence.9:46 Things to know about requiring doctor's notes.13:00 Attendance, sick leave, and PTO policies.15:22 Categorize the reasons for absences and tardies.17:52 Let them use their time.20:34 Don't solve your team members' problems.23:50 Your employee says they're sick, but . . .27:02 Leave of absence, explained.28:02 Being chronically late versus...
Henry was crowned by the Bishop of Paris, as the Archbishop of Reims was aligned with the French crown. Attendance was limited, and the event failed to generate significant support among the French ...
In this episode, the hosts welcome Greg from Indiana, who shares his unique experiences as a UPS driver and union steward. The conversation covers Greg's background, his career path from concrete work to UPS, and the differences in union contracts between locals. They discuss the importance of union representation, the challenges faced by workers, and the need for better safety measures and benefits in the workplace. The episode also highlights the upcoming Christmas live episode and the vibrant community of listeners and supporters. In this conversation, the participants discuss various aspects of workplace policies, including reporting work violations, sick days, vacation policies, and the implications of FMLA. They share personal experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and reflect on union negotiations and community engagement efforts. The dialogue highlights the challenges faced by employees in navigating complex labor relations and the importance of solidarity among workers. Want to help support our show? Come join our Discord! Takeaways The importance of community support through platforms like Patreon. The significance of live events for engaging with listeners. Greg's unique perspective as a union steward in Indiana. The impact of family history on career choices and values. The challenges of transitioning from manual labor to a corporate job. Understanding the differences in union contracts and benefits. The need for better safety protocols in the workplace. The role of union representation in negotiating worker rights. The importance of solidarity among workers in different locals. The ongoing evolution of labor rights and union dynamics. Ours is a rolling five days for reporting violations. Sick days are not provided, only optional days by seniority. FMLA requires at least three days off to qualify. Attendance policies can lead to severe consequences for employees. COVID-19 regulations provided temporary protections for workers. Community engagement is crucial for union strength. Union negotiations often lack transparency for members. Solidarity among workers can lead to powerful collective actions. Personal experiences during COVID highlight the challenges faced by delivery workers. Understanding different workplace policies can empower employees. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Patreon Shoutout 02:05 Christmas Live Episode Announcement 03:29 Guest Introduction: Greg from Indiana 09:12 Greg's Background and Family History 12:04 Career Path: From Concrete to UPS 26:00 UPS Experience and Union Involvement 28:34 Differences in Union Contracts 39:28 Comparing National and Local Union Benefits 39:44 Understanding Work Violations and Reporting 41:56 Sick Days and Vacation Policies 46:04 Navigating FMLA and Attendance Policies 49:58 Experiences During COVID-19 53:58 Union Negotiations and Community Engagement THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED OR VIEWS EXPRESSED ON THIS PODCAST ARE THOSE OF THE HOSTS AND GUESTS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT ANY DELIVERY COMPANY
Terry Mattingly of Rational Sheep Rational Sheep Pop Goes Religion: Faith in Popular Culture GetReligion.orgThe post Media Coverage of Two Pew Research Center Surveys on Religious Attendance – Terry Mattingly, 12/10/25 (3441) first appeared on Issues, Etc..
Today our guest is Leandra Torra, Social Emotional Learning and Trauma Informed Care Manager at Jefferson County Public Schools. We talk with Leandra about an innovative approach to Tier 2 support that solves capacity issues by partnering elementary schools with neighboring high school student mentors. She shares how this student-led model helped younger students "graduate" from support groups while significantly improving attendance and belonging. She highlights the necessity of a strong Tier 1 foundation and why leaders must prioritize connection before students are truly ready to learn. Learn More About CharacterStrong: Access FREE MTSS Curriculum Samples Request a Quote Today! Learn more about CharacterStrong Implementation Support Visit the CharacterStrong Website
Memphis won easily on Tuesday night against New Orleans but hardly anybody was there. Why has Tiger Basketball attendance fallen this much??? Is there a way to fix it???? (3:00) + Ryan Silverfield is winning over Arkansas fans one day at a time. We'll talk about how he fired up fans on Tuesday night at the Arkansas/Louisville basketball game (35:00) + the latest of the Memphis Football Head Coaching Search w/ thoughts on Charles Huff, Jerry Mack, Tyson Helton, Dan Mullen + what's going on at Penn State (42:13) + Ole Miss AD Keith Carter gave an interview to Richard Cross on Supertalk Mississippi (57:33) + Jessica Benson joins the show in-studio to give us her games of the week including Indiana/Ohio State, Duke/Virginia, Texas Tech/BYU, Alabama/Georgia and Kennesaw St/Jacksonville St (1:16:50).Host: Chris VernonCo-Hosts/Contributors: Jon Roser, Devin WalkerGuest: Jessica BensonTechnical Director: Jacob StopcotteAssociate Producer: Jena Broyles