Pivot

#68: Exploring Pastoral Leadership Models: Collaborative Leadership

Discover sustainable church growth and collaborative leadership with Pastor Stephanie Williams O'Brien.

Do you find yourself wanting more people in your congregation to feel ownership of your church? Or do you want to be freed up more throughout your week to help people make spiritual meaning of their everyday life? In this episode, we will dive into how you can create a more sustainable and communal way forward for you and your faith community.

Do you wonder how to engage collaborative leadership instead of leading solo? A lot of clergy we talk to know that leading a church by themselves is unsustainable. Here’s a case study of a congregation that has experimented creatively with empowering small communities of members to love their neighbors in the name of Jesus. Today’s guest is pastor Stephanie Williams O’Brien of Mill City Church in Northeast Minneapolis. She also teaches at Bethel Seminary and is the co-host of Lead Stories podcast with Jo Saxton. You’ll want to watch this episode to learn how to equip your church to live and love in the way of Jesus.

Show Notes:

Shift Ministry Models
Faithful Innovation

Featuring

Stephanie Williams O-Brien

Stephanie Williams O'Brien

Pastor Stephanie Williams O'Brien is the Co-Lead Pastor of Mill City Church in Minneapolis. Mill City is a neighborhood-based, missional church focused on loving the city. Stephanie is also an adjunct professor of Preaching and Communication at Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is Producer and Co-host of Lead Stories Podcast with fellow pastor and author, Jo Saxton. Steph is married to filmmaker JD O'Brien who shares her love for telling stories that matter. For fun, Pastor Steph enjoys paddle boarding, boxing and graphic design. She keeps herself on the move with a steady stream of cold press coffee flowing through her veins - even on the coldest of Minnesota winter days!

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.