The Joshua Centre Podcast

About Rev. Jack Shepherd

 

Rev. Jack Shepherd is currently in his fourth year working as a Curate at St Paul’s church in Skelmersdale. He was recently appointed for a new role as Missional Priest for the Upholland and Dalton Parish. Alongside his work, Jack is also studying for a PhD, which looks into the Holy Spirit and church growth. He is particularly interested in church planting and the theology behind this.

 

Jack, what inspired you to come up with the idea of doing a Joshua Centre Podcast?

At the Annual Peer Review meeting last March, we were looking into various aspects of the Joshua Centre Project. One of the questions that came up was around a commitment for the project to have a ‘Resource Hub’ and we talked about what that would look like.

In general, I think podcasts are a really good way of making a resource available. When you listen to a podcast, they often inspire you to read something that was mentioned and they can point people towards other things.

How is your podcast relevant to New Congregations which receive seed funding and coaching from the Joshua Centre?

The Leaders of these New Congregations are the primary target audience for these podcasts, but they’re also open to a wider audience. We talk about practical things for leading and developing New Congregations. We’re focussed on the vision of the Joshua Centre and how the Joshua Centre sees New Congregations. We want to use these podcasts as an opportunity to provide leadership development and strategy.

In the future, we hope that other people will suggest ideas for us to discuss and we’d welcome stories from New Congregation leaders and from further afield as well.

 

Image credit: Will Francis. (@willfrancis)

 

Which topics will you be looking at and why have you decided to focus on these topics?

Last week we looked at the topic of ‘Pointing people to Jesus’, which had come up on other Joshua Centre leadership days. We’ve also looked at ‘How to build a leadership team’. The next podcast we’re doing is about ‘The problem of participation and the challenge of collaboration’. For this, we’ll be looking at how to have Jesus’ attitude of serving others and leading in a humble way. We’re also planning to look at the Human Resources tool Myers Briggs and the pros and cons of this personality profiling tool.

What have you most enjoyed so far about doing the Podcast?

The podcast is co-hosted by Dan Rogers, the Director of the Joshua Centre, so I’ve enjoyed regular meet ups with Dan and having good conversations. When we have chats about these kinds of things, it feels like we learn as we talk. I hope that through the podcast, this can benefit others.

Will you have any guest speakers or interview anyone?

Yes, I’m really open to having guest speakers on the podcast, including the leaders of the New Congregations that are seed funded by the Joshua Centre. We’re planning to match our contacts with specific topics for each podcast, depending on their strengths. I am excited about people hearing Sharon Collin’s story in the podcast about starting the Pop Up Church at a library in Blackburn. We will also be interviewing Duncan Petty about his work with Oaks, which is a community of people focused on the transforming love of Jesus in Tanhouse estate in Skelmersdale.

Where can we find the podcast online?

These can be found through the Joshua Centre Facebook Group, at Anchor.fm, on Overcast, Spotify, Google Podcast and as Apple Podcasts on iTunes.

Joshua Centre podcasts are released weekly on Fridays at 9am and can be accessed from: https://anchor.fm/joshuacentre?fbclid=IwAR19lcNo4-rxzWP1lc3Pyr91tiSNzK_C6vsl2F1ihO-b9hi23dgebBDOhi4