I (Jonny) remember sitting in my friend's dorm room, eating pop-tarts (he LOVED pop-tarts) and talking about the future. I was in law school at the time and I was FOR SURE cutting class to talk to a friend who was still an undergrad, but something was wrong and I had to figure it out.
And then I realized: I wasn't meant to be a lawyer. And once I knew that, there was no going back and pretending I didn't. I didn't know what the future held, but I knew it wasn't THAT. Today on the podcast, we talk to Brian Zahnd about his own "moment of no return" and how he knew that it was time to change... even if that meant losing the "status" of a mega-and-growing church. Brian speaks plainly and openly about his journey and provides encouragement to pastors who are on journeys of their own. If you enjoyed our conversation with Brian, check him out on Scot McKnight's "Kingdom Roots" podcast as well or follow him on Twitter or find his book, "Water to Wine" on Amazon. Brian has an amazing story and even if you disagree with him on some points, we know that you will grow in your own faith by wrestling with what he shares on our podcast and in his writings. Brian Zahnd is the pastor of Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, MO. He is the author of A Farewell to Mars: An Evangelical Pastor's Journey Toward the Biblical Gospel of Peace, and Beauty Will Save the World: Rediscovering the Allure and Mystery of Christianity Until next week, God bless you as you lead your 200church! A great message by Brian...
Recently, I (Jonny) purchased some new insurance (auto, home, life, the works) and as painful as the whole process was--literally, there were needles involved--at the end I had a little peace of mind. In case of something bad happening, I"m covered and ready to go!
Now, imagine if instead of paying for insurance to cover some particular eventualities like my house burning down, my insurance man had told me that instead of insurance, when I signed up with him my home could actually be relocated to a brand new community. A community where people baked pies for each other and took care of each other and where I'd be taken care of completely. I think I'd take the second option. Today we're talking to Ray Hollenbach on the podcast about what it means to be part of the Kingdom of God. As small church pastors, we can peddle a "fire-insurance" view of salvation, or we can invite people into the adventure of living as though God's Kingdom really has come down to earth. In his winsome manner, Ray outlines how our ministries and lives can be impacted by that truth and gives helpful advice for how to introduce others to that reality as well. If you're looking for more content about how the Kingdom of God affects our lives, check out Scot McKnight's book "Kingdom Conspiracy" and listen toSeason 2, Episode 7 of the Theology on Mission Podcast with our friend David Fitch. To hear more Ray Hollenbach, we would encourage you to go back and listen to episode 195 where he gets a fuller introduction and don't forget to grab your copy of Ray's Christmas devotional for FREE! We hope you have a great week living and loving in the Kingdom of God! Jonny (and Jeff) 
Ray Hollenbach!!
This is an amazing conversation with NT scholar N.T. Wright, author of Surprised By Hope, The Day the Revolution Began, and dozens of other theological works. Tom Wright speaks at length on pastoral ministry in the small church - huge encouragement!
He also talks about NTWrightOnline.org. There is a special offer for you as a 200churches Podcast listener at NTWrightOnline.org/200churches.
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Jeannine has done great work with Steven Sandage in the area of Relational Integration between Theology and Psychology. Jeannine says that "disciplines don't integrate, people integrate, so we call it relational integration."
We talk, among many other things, about Differentiation of Self. If you've never heard of it, welcome to the party - I (Jeff) never heard the phrase until I was 47 years old. It refers to relating to others without reacting to others, experiencing conflict without losing the relationship. These are things that we deal with every day we serve as pastors.
Here are some links we referred to in this episode. The first is a YouTube video you should watch before you listen to Episode 199.
Dr. Jeannine Brown
Steven J. Sandage (Ph.D., Virginia Commonwealth and Jessie Danielsen Professor of Pastoral Psychology and Theology at Boston University and director of the Danielsen Research Center at the Danielsen Institute. He coauthored To Forgive Is Human.
Matthew - Teach the Text Commentary Series
I don't know about you, but sometimes I struggle with the word "discipline." Maybe it's because I lack discipline. Or maybe because I've been on the receiving end (no pun intended) of quite a bit of discipline. But whatever the reason, when I hear "discipline" I usually start to look frantically for the exits.
This is... not a great quality.
The truth is, we all need disciplines in our lives and churches if we want to continue toward health and move forward. It's not always comfortable, but without discipline, we're going to be pretty helpless and hapless when difficulty strikes our lives and ministries.
On today's podcast, David Fitch returns to talk about the 7 Disciplines that Shape the Church for Mission. David is a seminary professor and Missiologist (yeah, that's a thing) but most importantly, he's a small church pastor and he speaks from that experience on this episode. No matter your denomination or church style, these 7 disciplines will challenge you to think about your church differently and press you toward mission.
This episode is based on David's book Faithful Presence.
To catch more with David, check out our Seminary Series page at 200churches.com and also give hisfirst episode on this topic a listen as well. For a little context regarding how David understands spiritual disciplines, our conversation with Scot McKnight is very helpful. If you're looking for even more insight into this topic, check out season 2, episode 8 of the "Theology on Mission" podcast episode on this same topic, and you can always find David writing at MissioAlliance.com.
We know you will be challenged and encouraged this week and we'll be back next week with another fresh episode!
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