Though on the longer side, this episode is rich with hope for possibilities of our church structures, and ourselves, flourishing in the midst of chaos.

Between recording the opening context essay of the episode and now posting this episode (…please pray for me that future episodes take less time to complete…) the post Concerning Exegesis put words to something I couldn’t quite explain. Why are there natural ties between traditionally mission focused Presbyterians and presbymergents? As that post highlights, we share a desire do thoughtful exegesis of culture, and both gain from writers such as Lesslie Newbigin. This podcast and that posting providentially complement one another as we explore the mission before us.

Episode 02: Vera White, Pittsburgh Presbytery

Vera White is the Pittsburgh Presbytery Director of New Church Development, Stewardship, and the Committee on Ministry. This episode has two main themes that Vera develops in her sharing: presbymergent oriented leadership and presbytery-wide support of presbymergent NCDs. Vera’s role in Pittsburgh Presbytery provides a valuable collection of wisdom for any PC(USA) leader or governing body engaging with presbymergent.

Interspersed among this episode’s pictures are paintings from the walls of a tattoo parlor, created by an artist connected to one of the Presbytery’s NCDs. (BTW if you look with care at the picture that resembles ‘The Last Supper,’ you will realize why it is called ‘The Last Tattoo.’)

• Pittsburgh Presbytery
• Pittsburgh Presbytery’s NCD plan, core values and year one benchmarks

You can download the episode here. Or you can download the file in MP3 format here.

The next podcast will take us beyond Pittsburgh, all the way to the San Francisco Bay Area, for an interview with one of the first presbymergent NCD pastors Bruce Reyes-Chow, who is now also a candidate for moderator of the upcoming General Assembly.

As a one-year of presbymergent.org anniversary gift, I am overjoyed to share the launch of this new resource for the Church. Details on how to subscribe to the podcast feed can be found on the brand new Podcast page. Below is more of the story behind the creation of this podcast, and here are the show notes for our first of many introductions to PC(USA) ‘loyal radicals.’

Episode 01: BJ Woodworth, The Open Door

BJ Woodworth is the founding pastor of The Open Door NCD (New Church Development) in Pittsburgh, PA. This episode begins with a general introduction to the presbymergent podcast by Karen Sloan. It then follows BJ to traffic court, contains an interview with BJ at his local vegetarian diner, and shares a poem he wrote in systematic theology class.

• The Open Door
• BJ’s blog

You can download the episode here. Or you can download the file in MP3 format here.

Why a podcast?

In many ways this podcast is an extension of the in-person presbymergent events that have happened this past year. A primary purpose for the traveling I’ve been doing is to network presbymergents, to hear and share their stories. This led to a very full travel schedule for me, and a ton of stories about all manner of Emergent happenings throughout PC(USA). But what would often happen is I wished presbymergents I met at one event could meet, and learn more about, what presbymergents were doing whom I had met at another event. I found out that traveling and meeting with folks was a fairly inefficient means of spreading presbymergent stories.

To overcome this challenge when I started traveling last fall, I brought a recorder with me to capture, on digital storage, some of the stories I heard. Also, the one specifically presbymergent event this fall had several folks recording most of the sessions. Big thank yous to Brian Wallace for that resource! So upcoming episodes of the presbymergent podcast will have a mixture of recordings from the interviews I conducted and presentations from the presbymergent conference.

In summary, the subtitle for our podcast as it begins is - Presbyterian and Emergent conversations: mostly stories from PC(USA) ‘loyal radicals’ - enjoy!