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Pivot Podcast

About Pivot Podcast

Over the past few years, church leaders have been forced to respond to several global crises in the blink of an eye. In a moment with little information and lots of uncertainty, churches reinvented nearly every aspect of church.

Season 5 of the Pivot podcast explores the changing landscape of the church. Our co-hosts will dig into difficult questions that faith leaders are asking now, and provide an understanding of the deeper cultural shifts that account for the unraveling of inherited models of church.  What are the four key pivots that today's church must make? New episodes post weekly on Thursdays.

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Podcast Season Sort

#169: Christian Community in Crisis: How the Church Showed Up When the Twin Cities Needed It Most

March 19, 2026

Dwight Zscheile and Alicia Granholm bring you inside the last eight months in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.

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#168: Ryan Burge on Religious Nones and What They Mean for Your Church

March 12, 2026

What do the growing numbers of religious nones reveal about the Americans sitting just outside your church doors?

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#167: Faith and Political Identity: The Church Beyond Polarization with Ryan Burge

March 5, 2026

When politics overtakes faith: Dr. Ryan Burge unpacks what the data say about polarization, identity, and the vanishing American church.

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#166: Setting the Table: How Missional Church Happens at Dinner

February 26, 2026

Verlon Fosner shares how dinner church creates a fundamentally different entry point for faith by recovering the ancient practice of gathering around Jesus' table.

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#165: From Ashes to Action: Lenten Practices for Church Leaders

February 17, 2026

In this special Pivot Podcast Lenten reflection, the Rev. Dr. F. Willis Johnson invites us into four transformative Lenten practices for church leaders.

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#164: Learning to Let Go in Ministry: Beyond Church Growth Pressure

February 12, 2026

Dr. Andrew Root and Rev. Kara Root share what they learned about letting go.

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#163: What Does Lay-Led Ministry Actually Look Like? (Your Questions Answered)

February 5, 2026

In this special Q&A episode, Dwight Zscheile and Alicia Granholm answer your real questions about the shift from clergy-led to lay-led ministry.

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#162: How to Recognize Church Planters Already in Your Congregation

January 29, 2026

John McGinley shares how they're equipping everyday disciples to plant new worshiping communities in gyms, schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces.

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#161: Why Being Protestant Still Matters Today with Beth Felker Jones

January 22, 2026

Beth Felker Jones explores why Protestant faith still matters in a moment when many are converting to Catholicism, embracing Orthodoxy, or deconstructing entirely.

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#160: Financial Parables of Jesus: Reading Money Stories with Fresh Eyes

January 15, 2026

Keith Bodner shares how a moment of panic in the pulpit led him to rediscover the confrontational power of Jesus' money parables.

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#159: Discovering Church Unity When Two Congregations Merge

January 8, 2026

Pastor Brian Brown shares what it actually takes to build church unity across racial and cultural lines.

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#158: Pastoral Care for Pastors: A Christmas Blessing for Weary Church Leaders

December 17, 2025

Rev. Dr. Steve Thomason offers church leaders something they rarely receive: a heartfelt thank you, permission to breathe, and a blessing that releases the burden of making everything perfect.

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Meet Your Hosts

  • Faith+Lead Headshot of The Rev. Dr. Dwight Zscheile, VP of Innovation, Luther Seminary.

    The Rev. Dr. Dwight Zscheile is 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), editor of Cultivating Sent Communities: Missional Spiritual Formation (Eerdmans, 2012), and co-editor (with Ed Olsworth-Peter) of The Starter's Way: Leading New Contextual Christian Communities (Church Publishing, 2025).

    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.

  • The Rev. Dr. Terri Martinson Elton began teaching at Luther Seminary as an adjunct instructor in 2004 before becoming the director of the Center for Children, Youth and Family Ministry in 2008. In addition to her continued work with the Center, Elton accepted the position of associate professor of Children, Youth and Family Ministry in 2010 and associate professor of Leadership in 2014.

    Prior to her call to Luther Seminary, Elton served as an associate to the bishop in the Saint Paul Area Synod where her responsibilities included working with congregations, leadership development, First Call theological education and youth and family ministry.

    Before her work in the synod, she served at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Burnsville, Minn. for 16 years. While at Prince of Peace she worked in various roles within children, youth and family ministries, as well as served as the director of Changing Church Forum, an outreach ministry of Prince of Peace. She also authored To Know, To Live, To Grow, a confirmation curriculum, and co-authored What Really Matters, a book for congregational leaders, with the Rev. Mike Foss.

    Elton holds a B.A. degree in communications from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn. (1986). She earned both her M.A. (1998) and Ph.D. (2007) degrees in Congregational Mission and Leadership from Luther Seminary.

    Elton’s research and teaching interests include: congregational leadership, leading in the midst of change and conflict, helping ministry leaders craft a missional ecclesiology with an eye toward the First Third of Life, awakening a vibrant theology of baptism and vocation and reimagining faith and mission practices for children, youth, young adults and their families.

    Elton is a member of the Academy of Religious Leadership, the Association of Youth Ministry Educators, the ELCA Youth Ministry Network and the American Society of Missiology and is on the board for Real Resources. Elton spends much of her time working with congregations and congregational leaders and seeks out opportunities for enhancing ministry with those in the First Third of Life within the ELCA.

  • Faith+Lead Headshot of Dr. Alicia Granholm, Senior Director of Faith+Lead.

    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).