The Church Lobby

Is online church, real church? I used to say online church is real church, it’s just not enough church. But I’ve changed my mind.
Live streaming came into our lives in a big way in 2020, and now after living with it for six years, we can look at it with a little more wisdom and objectivity.
In this solo podcast I talk about how and why I changed his mind about church live streams, plus some better ways to approach it, including:
Why online church is not church, it’s content
How we may be sending a bad message about church with our online experience
How the presence of a live-stream camera affects the pastor and the people in the room
How it changes the way we structure our services
How to give everyone a better online experience without live streaming

And more.
Links:
Maybe You Shouldn’t Live-Stream Your Church Service, with Tim Fox (Ep 62)
We’re All Televangelists Now (11 Ways To Avoid The Pitfalls Of Live Stream)
Karl Vaters on the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast
Contact Page for Karl Vaters

Karl Vaters interviews pastor Ryan Lokkesmoe about a problem many pastors are facing in their churches, even if they haven’t been able to identify it yet. Many of our church members are accidental pagans.
Karl and Ryan talk about how so many ancient pagan practices have made their way into many of our lives today—without us knowing it, turning many good Christians into accidental pagans. This affects their lives, how they act in church, what they expect of it, and most importantly, how they view God and their relationship with him.
Ryan is the lead pastor of Community Church at Lake Wylie, a congregation in the Charlotte area, and is the author of several books, including his newest, Accidental Pagans: Untangling the Roots of Our Fears about God — and Discovering Who He Really Is.
Links:
Accidental Pagans: Untangling the Roots of Our Fears about God — and Discovering Who He Really Is
RyanLokkesmoe.com
Team Leadership: Lessons from the Apostle Paul, with Ryan Lokkesmoe (The Church Lobby, Ep 046)
NETBible.org

Karl Vaters talks with Nathan Meador and Heath R. Curtis about how to take a more Bible-based and holistic approach to stewardship in the church. It’s not a plea for finances, it’s a basis for a healthy church, life, and ministry.
Based on Nathan and Heath’s book, Stewardship: For the Care of Souls, this conversation focuses on tending well to everything God has entrusted to our care. Especially as pastors, this includes the congregation we’ve been entrusted to serve, and all the responsibilities, challenges and joys that go with this calling.
Their conversation includes several penetrating insights, including:
How stewardship and the care of souls are related to each other
How repentance plays a key role in stewardship
How a pragmatic theology of stewardship is not stewardship at all
How to change the culture so that stewardship focuses on more than the survival of the institution

Links:
Stewardship: For the Care of Souls
Bonus Content Summary
How to Preach on Stewardship, with Heath R. Curtis and Nathan Meador
In this subscribers-only bonus material, Karl Vaters talks with the co-authors of the book, Stewardship: For the Care of Souls about their three main approaches to preaching/teaching about stewardship in a fast-changing culture, where the annual tithing sermon just isn’t cutting it anymore.
Together, they discuss the approaches of:
The lectionary
The sermon series
Lectio continua

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How do you start a YouTube channel at the age of 81, and reach 25K subscribers in less than 6 months? That’s what pastor Mike Bayer did. Now he’s at over 44K subscribers, and it’s providing him with a second source of income in his later years of ministry.
Karl Vaters talks with Mike about how he made YouTube work for him, plus:
The importance of intentional ministry to senior adults
How to use your church’s YouTube channel for better engagement
Ideas for making an income outside the walls of the church
Ministry adjustments for the fourth quarter of life

And more.
Links:
Old Me Living Better: YouTube Channel
Old Me Living: Skool channel
Mike’s Facebook Page
SnugSafe.com
The Aging Pastorate: Sam Rainer on the Looming Pastoral Retirement Crunch (Ep 128)

There is no bonus content for this episode.
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Karl Vaters interviews Todd Wilson about some of the lessons that we need to learn when we look back at the Church Growth Movement.
Todd is the co-founder and founding CEO of Exponential, so he critiques the Church Growth Movement as one of its leaders. This gives him a unique perspective we need to hear.
Karl and Todd talk about the content of Todd’s new book, How Did We Get Here? Examining 70 Years of the Church Growth Movement.
They cover topics such as:
How the modern church has adopted a Consumer-Driven Operating System
How Donald McGavran’s Church Growth methods and language were co-opted
Where the “church as business” model came from
What must come next
And more.

Links:
How Did We Get Here? Examining 70 Years of the Church Growth Movement (Free e-book w registration)
How Did We Get Here? Examining 70 Years of the Church Growth Movement (On Amazon)
Multipliers: Leading Beyond Addition (Free e-book)
Email Todd at Todd@multipliers.org
Techsoup.org
The Unexpected Origins of the Church Growth Movement, with Dr. Gary McIntosh (The Church Lobby, Ep 027)
De-sizing the Church: How Church Growth Became a Science, Then an Obsession, and What's Next (by Karl Vaters)

Bonus Content Summary
12 Dilemmas Within the Church’s Prevailing Operating System, with Todd Wilson
In Todd Wilson’s book, How Did We Get Here? Looking Back to Look Forward, he refers to the current church systems as functioning under a faulty operating system, and he describes 12 dilemmas within that system.
In this subscriber-only content, Karl Vaters talks with Todd about several of these dilemmas.
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