The Embedded Church Podcast
Eric O Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe
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Top 10 The Embedded Church Podcast Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best The Embedded Church Podcast episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to The Embedded Church Podcast for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite The Embedded Church Podcast episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
A One-stop Shop for Flourishing: The Story of Revive Church
The Embedded Church Podcast
12/12/23 • 40 min
In this episode, we talk with Kyle Morris who is the Lead Pastor of Revive Church in Arvada, CO. We hear about his church's decision to stay where they were and seek the shalom of their neighborhood rather than move to a different (and wealthier) part of the city.
This decision forced the church to deal with a problem of too much space through the acquisition of a shopping center, and then radically re-thinking how they used all of the space. Rather than starting with needs within the church, they asked questions about needs within the neighborhood. And what they discovered was that their neighborhood needed 1) childcare, 2) workforce development, 3) affordable housing, and 4) new business incubation.
This process led the church to redevelop the shopping center into an exciting project called The Bridge where they partner with other local organizations to help meet some of the city's identified needs. Kyle talks about the challenges of leading a church while also leading a number of initiatives. He discusses finding a balance between investing in the neighborhood where you live and where your church is located. And, he talks about the challenge of adapting while staying mission focused with changing circumstances.
Episode Contributors
Kyle Morris, Lead Pastor of Revive Church
Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.
More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.
Related Resources
The Bridge - The shopping center owned by Revive Church that has been revived physically and is home to thriving for-profit and non-profit organizations that are collaborating and working to serve vulnerable families.
Beyond Home - A nonprofit whose mission is to provide a comprehensive approach for families to become self-sufficient for life
Marsh Collective - A team of consultants that works with leaders, companies, patrons, and developers to help clarify vision for their city, business, or team
Lionheart Children's Academy - A nonprofit Christian organization committed to excellence in early childhood education
CrossPurpose - A non-profit organization abolishing relational, economic, and spiritual poverty through career and community development
Colorado Foundation for Conductive Education - A nonprofit organization that offers an intensive, holistic alternative approach to traditional therapy for individuals with motor disabilities
"Churches Don’t Have to Be Lousy Stewards. Here’s Proof" Story of Revive Church by Amy Sherman and Jacob Baldwin in Common Good Magazine: Issue 11, May 2023
Canoeing in the Mountains by Tod Bolsinger
Art of Neighboring by Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon
Church Unleashed by Frank R. Tillapaugh
Proximity
Placemaking
Affordable Housing
Shalom
Show Credits
Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe
Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions
Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer
Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative
Moving From a 'Come and See' to a 'Go and Be' Posture
The Embedded Church Podcast
12/17/19 • 35 min
In this episode we talk with Karen Wilk who is the pastor of NEW (Neighbourhood Engagement Workers’) Community, a missional community in her neighborhood in Edmonton, Alberta. She shares with us about her transition from pastoring a large, traditional church to engaging a new paradigm of 'go and be' in the neighborhood. This has led to her work in developing practices and postures that encourage and equip churches to resource their members to develop intentional neighborhood networks within their home communities.
In particular she shares about the Abundant Community Initiative she has helped develop and lead in Edmonton. Based on The Abundant Community by Peter Block and John McKnight, the model raises up 'block connectors' who serve in three roles in the local neighborhood. These roles include being a point person, a party person, and a listener. Within these roles, block connectors work to connect neighbors with one another and rally together when neighbors have needs to support, as well as plan times of celebration and socialization for the neighborhood, and seek to listen to the conversations happening within the broader city and the opportunities that exist for neighbors to play active roles in the community.
Karen wears several hats in her work as a cultivator of missional communities. As a leader of workshops to guide churches in resourcing their members to adopt missional mindsets in their neighborhoods, she is a National Team Member for Forge Missional Training Network and a Go Local Catalyser with Resonate Global Mission of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. She has also authored a guidebook entitled, Don't Invite Them to Church: Moving from a Come and See to a Go and Be Church.
Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.
More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.
Related Resources
The Abundant Community by Peter Block and John McKnight
The Art of Neighboring by Jay Pathak, Dave Runyon, et al.
The Bees of Rainbow Falls: Finding Faith, Imagination, and Delight in Your Neighbourhood by Preston Pouteaux
The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating Apostolic Movements by Alan Hirsch
Joining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World by Alan J. Roxburgh
Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:
Hospitality
Missional Theology
Neighboring
Proximity
Show Credits
Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe
Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions
Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer
Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative
Learning the Neighborhood Vernacular
The Embedded Church Podcast
06/09/20 • 44 min
In this episode we interview Pastor Thurman Williams, who is the lead pastor of New City Fellowship: West End in St. Louis, MO. Growing up as a son of a Methodist pastor in the suburbs of Baltimore, he felt the call to explore leading ministry in urban Baltimore. Through his experiences in Baltimore, he was called to co-pastor a church in St. Louis to work towards racial integration within the church that is situated on the "Delmar Divide," a street of historic racial divide in the city. He has since led a church plant in the West End neighborhood comprised mostly by the African-American community north of this divide.
Thurman shares humbly about his own journey to overcome aspects of "Messiah" complex and learn the importance of listening to the story of the ways God is already at work in the neighborhood. He has come to recognize that often the neighborhood is the best teacher for him and the church as they seek to be ministers of the gospel. In particular, he notes the importance of recognizing the community vernacular in approach to ministry. For example, they discovered that for those living in the West End walkability to the church was crucial for attendance and identification with the church. Members wanted a church in the West End that felt like the West End neighborhood. This reality shows just how importance place is to identity and mission.
While this episode does not dive deeply into issues of racial injustice, there are references to historical divisions along racial lines in our cities. The built environment has played a distinct role in dividing communities, particularly along racial lines, and these divisions continue to be perpetuated with how our cities are designed and maintained. We share some resources here that expose these realities so that you can be better educated and call for reform in your spheres of influence. The built environment is not neutral and learning to read the community vernacular is a step in recognizing its power and calling for neighborhood infrastructure that promotes the flourishing of all.
Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.
More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.
Related Resources
Let Justice Roll Down by John Perkins
The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby
The Trouble I've Seen by Drew Hart
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
How the Government Segregated America's Cities by Design
Crossing a St Louis Street that Divides Communities, a short BBC film on Delmar Boulevard
Zoning Matters: How Land Use Policies Shape Our Lives, a short video by How Housing Matters
Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:
Belonging
Local Culture
Walkability
Show Credits
Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe
Edited by Adam Higgins |
Advancing Mission During Covid Crisis
The Embedded Church Podcast
05/26/20 • 27 min
In this episode, we bring Keith Case back to our show to talk about how his church Providencia WPB in West Palm Beach, FL, is pursuing their mission in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis. Their church includes a lot of young adults working in industries that have been hit hard by the pandemic, so the church has helped incubate a new ministry to aid people in finding jobs. Keith also talks about the grieving that both he and his community have gone through as they process not being able to gather physically and enjoy face to face community interaction. In spite of this, they have developed some new rhythms for interacting with one another and within the community that have been meaningful and life-giving. Additionally, Keith discusses how the pandemic has impacted his preaching style and the ways this has shaped the way that Providencia understands itself as a community.
Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.
More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.
Related Resources
Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:
- Embodiment
Show Credits
Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe
Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions
Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer
Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
The Embedded Church Podcast
12/01/20 • 51 min
In this episode Eric interviews Sara Joy about Jane Jacobs’ pioneering book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Written in 1961 this book represented a scathing critique of orthodox city planning from an unexpected source. Jane Jacobs was neither an architect nor a trained planner, but she was a keen observer of how cities and neighborhoods actually worked. She had the patience and instinct to look for the complex order at work within what appeared to be chaotic urban environments. And, she had the gumption not only to engage the ‘experts’ in a male dominated field, but to challenge some of their most sacred principles.
She writes in an engaging, disarming style and invites the reader to meet the people she knows and to love the places she loves as she describes the fundamental principles behind cities that are alive. As an added bonus, this episode includes a friendly battle between Eric and Sara Joy as they try to establish which one of them is truly the bigger fan of Jane Jacobs.
Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.
More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.
Related Resources
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City by Anthony Flynn
The Good City and the Good Life: Renewing the American Community by Daniel Kemmis
The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community by Ray Oldenburg
Desiring the Kingdom by James K.A. Smith
The City as Liturgy: An Orthodox Theologian Corresponds with Jane Jacobs About a Gentle Reconciliation of Science and Religion by Dr. Timothy Patitsas
Citizen Jane: Battle for the City - Documentary
Picture of Eric's Jane Jacobs Linocut Print by @PeterJacobsenArt
Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:
Ballet of Street Life
Density
Eyes on the Street
Third Place
Show Credits
Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe
Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions
Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer
Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative
Can you really make a place?
The Embedded Church Podcast
06/29/21 • 50 min
In this episode, Sara Joy and Eric continue their conversation about place with Chris Elisara at Ormond Center to consider the various ways we impact the places we live, work, play, and worship. Placemaking can sound like an abstract concept, but it is essentially helping our places become places worth caring about. Anyone or any church can engage in placemaking.
Some key questions addressed in this episode are:
1. Is placemaking possible? Place is not just given, we contribute to our places in ways that honor God and in ways that dishonor God every day.
2. Is placemaking Biblical? Part of our calling as humans and as followers of Christ is to bless others through activities like placemaking.
3. Is placemaking ecclesial? Not only is it appropriate for the church to be involved in placemaking. The church has a unique role and perspective on placemaking.
4. Is placemaking scalable? Placemaking can be as simple as putting a dog bowl with water in front of the church or as complex as helping to design a network of sidewalks for the community.
In addition to talking about placemaking itself, we also discover that Chris’s actual job title is ‘Studio Lead for and Senior Fellow for Placemaking’ at Ormond Center. That definitely gives The Embedded Church podcast some street cred.
Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.
More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.
Related Resources
Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life by Eric Klinenberg
Redemptive Placemaking Toolkit: Discerning your church's mission in the built environment by Sara Joy Proppe & Edward Dunar (Use discount code EmbeddedChurch at checkout to receive 15% off purchase price.)
Tactical Urbanism by Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia
Seaside City of Ideas - a documentary film about the making of Seaside, FL and the community design intentions behind this New Urbanist town
Parish Collective - an organization connecting people to be the church in the neighborhood
Placemakers - a group of planners, urban designers, form-based code wranglers, storytellers, advisors and advocates working on making places
Project for Public Spaces - an organization bringing public spaces to life by planning and designing them with the people who use them every day
Proximity Project - a consulting and education firm that helps churches align their mission with their property assets for the flourishing of their neighborhood
Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website
Place
Placemaking
Tactical Urbanism
Show Credits
Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe
Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions
Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer
Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative
The Missional Rhythms of an Embedded Church
The Embedded Church Podcast
12/03/19 • 50 min
In this episode, we talk with Renee and James B Notkin who are co-Pastors of Union Church in Seattle. Union Church is a church plant located in the South Lake Union Neighborhood in Seattle. In planting Union Church, the Notkins were looking to develop a missional church model that would provide weekly opportunities for three basic discipleship commitments:
· Remain in me
· Love one another
· Go into the world
This led them to a pattern of life together in which the format for their Sunday gathering followed a regular four week rotation of worship, small groups, and service.
In living into this vision, what Renee and James B didn’t expect was that the neighborhood would experience cataclysmic transformation. A decade ago, South Lake Union was an underdeveloped semi industrial stretch of land nestled between the Seattle Center and Lake Union. And then Amazon decided to locate their headquarters there. Seemingly overnight, their church was a few blocks away from the busiest intersection in Seattle.
In this conversation, we discuss how Renee and James B look for opportunities to find points of connection with their new neighbors, to care for those who might be overlooked in a time of economic growth, and to continue to provide vital programs for the congregation.
Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.
More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.
Related Resources
Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America by Daryl Gruder
Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:
Missional Theology
Third Place
Show Credits
Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe
Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions
Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer
Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative
Family Life and Ministry in the Neighborhood
The Embedded Church Podcast
11/05/19 • 38 min
In this episode, we talk with Andy Metzger who is a Pastor at The Summit Church in Denver, CO. What makes Summit’s story interesting is that Andy lives 975 steps from the church. And in fact, all of the Pastors on Staff at Summit live within a mile of the church. The Summit Church is located in the Five Points (or RiNo) neighborhood of Denver which is a fast growing, artsy, very walkable neighborhood (walk score 76).
Andy talks about the advantages of living and ministering in a walkable neighborhood. It’s easy to get the church community together spontaneously and inviting people to church can feel very natural and spontaneous. Andy also shares some of the challenges of living in the city as well. People still struggle with loneliness despite being surrounded by lots of people, crime is a concern, and parents don’t feel as free to let their children play outside unsupervised.
Despite the advantages or disadvantages of their context, the leadership of The Summit Church felt a strong call from God to plant in this particular neighborhood. They are committed to living and ministering within the neighborhood and are teaching their members to see themselves as missionaries wherever they live.
Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.
More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.
Related Resources
Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:
Neighboring
Orange Juice Test
Proximity
Rootedness
Show Credits
Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe
Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions
Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer
Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative
Ministering in Small Steps: The Neighborhood Pedestrian Shed
The Embedded Church Podcast
10/29/19 • 35 min
On this episode, Eric O. Jacobsen, Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church Tacoma and our very own co-host of The Embedded Church Podcast and author of Sidewalks in the Kingdom and The Space Between, shares with us about the small steps his church is taking in Tacoma, Washington, to care for their neighborhood. By identifying the 99 buildings and businesses that are situated within a 1/8-mile radius or the “pedestrian shed” of the church property, they have developed a weekly practice of highlighting a specific building and committing to pray for the flourishing of that particular site, owner, and business.
Drawing on his own experience of living in walkable places, Eric also talks about being a pastor who walks and the implications this has had on developing relationships, slowing down time, and opening up space for ministry in sometimes unexpected ways.
“We did a lot of work cultivating an attitude that we call ‘inside-out.’ We wanted to be a church that cares as much about what’s going on outside in our neighborhood as what’s going on inside our church.”
Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.
More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.
Related Resources
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler
Suburban Nation by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, & Jeff Speck
Walkable City by Jeff Speck
Find these key terms on The Embedded Church website:
· Pedestrian Shed
· Traditional Neighborhood Planning
· Walkability
· Zoning
Show Credits
Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe
Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions
Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer
Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative
Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg
The Embedded Church Podcast
12/15/20 • 42 min
In this episode, Eric takes the lead in expounding on the book Palaces for the People written by Eric Klinenberg in 2018. Klinenberg is a sociologist at NYU who coined the term "social infrastructure" to capture the idea that shared physical places shape the way people act and the relationships people develop. He has studied how the presence of social infrastructure or the lack thereof can have direct implications on the well-being and resiliency of our local communities. His early research discovered that during the Chicago heat wave in the 90s, when controlling for neighborhood demographics, communities with more thriving public spaces fared better than those without because neighbors knew one another and kept tabs on the health of each other.
Klinenberg contends that libraries, in particular, have played a valuable social infrastructure role in our local neighborhoods. Unfortunately, government budget cuts have discounted the value of these places and libraries are increasingly going by the wayside. He argues that we would be wise to invest in these places of social infrastructure, such as libraries, parks, schools, and churches because they are accessible to everyone and provide tangible resources to the community while encouraging the formation of social bonds. Investing in places like these presents an effective place-based solution for the crime, disconnection, and polarization we are experiencing in our current cultural climate.
Access more Show Notes with pictures and resources related to this episode.
More information about this podcast and helpful church and urbanism resources can be found on The Embedded Church website.
Related Resources
Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg
99% Invisible Podcast interview with Eric Klinenberg
Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America by Chris Arnade
The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community by Ray Oldenburg
"Learning Virtue Through Public Transit" by Sara Joy Proppe
Defensible Space Theory by Oscar Newman
Broken Windows Theory by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling
Andrew Carnegie - a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist who made his wealth by leading the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. He is one of the most prominent philanthropists in the history of U.S. and funded the building of numerous public libraries across the country.
John 4 - Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the well story
Find these Key Terms on The Embedded Church website:
Social capital
Social infrastructure
Third Place
Show Credits
Hosted and Produced by Eric O. Jacobsen and Sara Joy Proppe
Edited by Adam Higgins | Odd Dad Out Voice Productions
Theme Music by Jacob Shaffer
Artwork by Lance Kagey | Rotator Creative
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FAQ
How many episodes does The Embedded Church Podcast have?
The Embedded Church Podcast currently has 47 episodes available.
What topics does The Embedded Church Podcast cover?
The podcast is about Society & Culture, Evangelical, Community, Religion & Spirituality, Podcasts, Church and Christian.
What is the most popular episode on The Embedded Church Podcast?
The episode title 'Community Engagement in the Historically Black Church' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on The Embedded Church Podcast?
The average episode length on The Embedded Church Podcast is 43 minutes.
How often are episodes of The Embedded Church Podcast released?
Episodes of The Embedded Church Podcast are typically released every 14 days.
When was the first episode of The Embedded Church Podcast?
The first episode of The Embedded Church Podcast was released on Sep 30, 2019.
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