New season launched for New Way, the podcast of the 1001 New Worshiping Communities movement

The Rev. Sara Hayden talks with guests about rebuilding faith and ministry on the margins

by Beth Waltemath | Presbyterian News Service

Season 10 of New Way, the 1001 New Worshiping Communities movement, made its debut on Thursday.

The podcast, which started in 2019 as a way of inspiring and informing aspiring leaders to start new worshiping communities, now has a catalog of more than 75 episodes.

Hosted by the Rev. Sara Hayden, associate for Apprenticeships and Residences in 1001 New Worshiping Communities, New Way is an essential resource for church planters and leaders on the frontier of faith communities or anyone in search of encouragement in a shifting spiritual landscape. Applicants for 1001’s Mission Program Grants often cite listening to entire seasons as part of their discernment process to take a quiz, assessment or workshop in missional leadership, or to apply for an initial seed grant through 1001 New Worshiping Communities.

The Rev. Sara Hayden

“It is an absolute treat to record and share these conversations with others,” says Hayden. “My hope is that the voices and stories represented in each episode of New Way give you, the listener, a sense of freedom that God is with you and in your particular story, and that there is space in our larger community for what is working itself out in your life.”

Hayden has hosted a diverse list of guests over the years, from best-selling authors like Brian McLaren to pastors of new immigrant churches, seekers of spiritual syncretism, pastors of established churches and founders of new communal models of faith.

The Rev. Mindie Moore

This season’s first two episodes feature the Rev. Mindie Moore in 25-minute episodes called “Christianity Beyond T-Shirts and Bumper Stickers” (May 25) and “Getting Past Transactional Ministry” (June 1). Moore leads the midtown campus of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, an intown-based congregation in Indianapolis, where she encourages people to take the building blocks of their spiritual history and past and rearrange their stories in colorful new arrangements like a Lego creation, built and rebuilt to reflect their experiences over a lifetime.

The new season continues with guest the Rev. Liz Edman, author of “Queer Virtue: What LGBTQ People Know About Life and Love and How it Can Revitalize Christianity.” Edman was a chaplain during the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s, a strategist for marriage equality, and a trailblazer as an openly queer priest in The Episcopal Church for almost two decades. Edman talks with Hayden about the courage that comes when people must discern a queer identity and listen to the genuine from within.

New episodes of the New Way podcast drop on Thursdays from May 25 through June 15. Learn more here.