Pivot

#130: Being Church During Community Crisis

With Pastor Marcos Canales and Nina Lau Branson, discover how being church in a community crisis goes far beyond emergency preparedness.

When devastating wildfires swept through Pasadena in early 2025, La Fuente Ministries faced a test of what it means to be church in community crisis. Pastor Marcos Canales and Nina Lau Branson join us to share how their bilingual, intergenerational congregation discovered that being church in community crisis isn’t about having perfect emergency plans—it’s about cultivating spiritual practices and community connections that help people encounter God even in the midst of catastrophe. From grief stations during the pandemic to emotional vocabulary work and neighborhood-based “casitas” groups, their intentional approach to formation created a foundation that served them well when members lost homes and their entire community faced displacement and trauma.

This conversation reveals what authentic church in community crisis looks like beyond typical disaster response protocols. Marcos and Nina demonstrate how embracing the full spectrum of human emotions, creating liturgies that externalize trauma, and fostering distributed leadership can transform crisis from something that destroys community into a pathway for deeper discipleship. Whether your congregation is currently navigating challenges or you want to understand how to be church in community crisis when difficulties arise, their witness offers hope and concrete tools for any church leader committed to shepherding with authenticity and care.

Resources Mentioned:

Shift Ministry Models
Faithful InnovationMinistry Leadership

Featuring

Headshot of Rev. Marcos Canales

Marcos Canales

Rev. Marcos Canales serves as the pastor of La Fuente Ministries, a bilingual, intercultural church community in Pasadena, California. With experience within the areas of community-based development, immigration advocacy, leadership coaching, and theological education, Marcos has been instrumental in fostering a church that embraces justice and discipleship and responds to the needs of its neighborhood, especially during times of crisis like the recent Los Angeles fires of 2025.

Headshot of Nina Lau-Branson

Nina Lau-Branson

Nina Lau-Branson is a member of La Fuente Ministries and a spiritual director, leadership coach, and  teacher/facilitator creating learning spaces where people are enabled to listen to and connect with their whole self, God and others. During the Los Angeles fires of 2025, Nina took a leading role in developing and implementing spiritual practices that helped the congregation and surrounding community process trauma, find hope, and engage in mutual care.

Meet Your Hosts

  • Dr. Alicia Granholm

    Alicia Granholm is senior director of Faith+Lead and a leadership and church consultant based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. She helps pastors and leaders engage culture to make a lasting impact. For nearly two decades, she has trained, equipped, and empowered followers of Jesus to engage their local communities by contextualizing the Gospel and its application. Alicia compassionately crosses cultural boundaries having lived, studied, traveled, and served in 25 countries on six continents. Alicia has a Doctor of Strategic Leadership, Global Consulting (Regent University), MDiv (Bethel Seminary), and MA in Teaching (University of St. Thomas).

  • Dr. Dwight Zscheile

    Dwight Zscheile is vice president of innovation and professor of congregational mission and leadership at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.

    He is the author of Embracing the Mixed Ecology (with Blair Pogue, Seabury Books, 2025), Leading Faithful Innovation: Following God into a Hopeful Future (with Michael Binder and Tessa Pinkstaff, Fortress 2023), Participating in God’s Mission: A Theological Missiology for the U.S. (with Craig Van Gelder, Eerdmans 2018), The Agile Church: Spirit-Led Innovation in an Uncertain Age (Morehouse Publishing, 2014), People of the Way: Renewing Episcopal Identity (Morehouse Publishing, 2012) and The Missional Church in Perspective: Mapping Trends and Shaping the Conversation (with Craig Van Gelder, Baker Academic 2011) and editor of Cultivating Sent Communities: Missional Spiritual Formation (Eerdmans, 2012).

    A graduate of Stanford University (BA), Yale University (MDiv) and Luther Seminary (PhD, Congregational Mission and Leadership), Dwight previously served congregations in Minnesota, Virginia and Connecticut. Dwight’s experience growing up in a secular home in California has shaped his commitment to helping the church cultivate Christian community with neighbors in today’s changing world.