Igniting Imagination

Every movement for change starts with a generative conversation. The Igniting Imagination podcast features rich conversations with leaders across the church landscape that invite you into new possibilities for yourself, your church, and your community. Each episode offers inspiring ideas to spark the Spirit within you as a leader and inspire courage and innovation to bring about human flourishing grounded in love, generosity, and belonging.

Igniting Imagination is a christianity podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 138 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Igniting Imagination, a christianity show with 138 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #4

  Before You Borrow, Sell, or Reimagine with Rev. Dr. Mark R. Holland and Chris Miller

  Aug 19, 202646 minS19

  What if the buildings and land your congregation has stewarded for generations are an asset waiting to serve God's mission in a changing world? This week on the Igniting Imagination® podcast, Rev. Lisa Greenwood is joined by Rev. Dr. Mark Holland, project manager for church property development with Wesleyan Impact Partners and Texas Methodist Foundation, alongside Chris Miller, chief financial, investment, and lending officer at Texas Methodist Foundation and Wesleyan Impact Partners. Together they explore one of the most pressing and deeply spiritual questions facing congregations today: How do we best steward the property assets God has entrusted to us? As a quarter to a third of American churches face closure in the coming years, these are not simply financial decisions. They are invitations to discern who we are called to be. Listen as Lisa, Mark, and Chris move the conversation from scarcity to abundance, unpacking why the discernment work matters more than the real estate transaction, why the best time to gather a small team of visionary leaders is now rather than at the six-month runway, and how a loan can become a tool for ministry. Along the way, Mark reframes decline as change, reminding us that "the church has survived 2000 years of human intervention" and that getting back to the basics, asking why we are here and what would be missing if we weren't, may be exactly the invitation this moment offers. Guest Rev. Dr. Mark R. Holland Rev. Dr. Mark R. Holland is a third-generation United Methodist pastor and Senior Pastor of Pasadena Community Church in St. Petersburg, Florida. He also serves as Project Manager for Church Property Development with Wesleyan Impact Partners and Texas Methodist Foundation, working to identify a repeatable, national model for church property development in the United Methodist Church. In addition to his ministry leadership, Mark has served as mayor of Kansas City, Kansas, and as a county commissioner, bringing expertise in strategic planning, fundraising, and community development. Chris Miller As Chief Financial, Investment, and Lending Officer, Chris Miller oversees all lending functions for Texas Methodist Foundation and Wesleyan Impact Partners. Chris has sixteen years of banking and commercial lending experience in Texas, supporting the business growth strategies of owner-operated businesses and commercial real estate developers. He most recently served as market area executive at Simmons Bank. Prior to Simmons, Chris served as senior vice president of commercial banking at Southside Bank. Connect Visit our show's website at https://ignitingimagination.org/ To view videos of podcast episodes, please go to the Igniting Imagination YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-8qT0_yWfBe6LXM7ATfUHw Connect with Rev. Lisa Greenwood on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-greenwood-5419772a/ #IgnitingImagination #FaithInAction #HumanFlourishing #ChurchLeadership #SpiritualInnovation #SpiritualFormation #FaithAndJustice #FaithAndTechnology #ReimaginingChurch #ChurchInnovation

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  Episode #2

  Everyone Can Be a Philanthropist with Justin Gould and Pamela Gray

  Aug 5, 202639 minS19

  What if the most meaningful conversations about charitable giving were never really about money at all, but about the story we hope our lives will tell? This episode of the Igniting Imagination® podcast takes listeners behind the scenes of Texas Methodist Foundation and Wesleyan Impact Partners, where host Rev. Lisa Greenwood sits down with two colleagues to explore how generosity becomes part of the legacy we leave. Joining her is Justin Gould, Chief Philanthropy Officer at Texas Methodist Foundation and Wesleyan Impact Partners, who works with individuals, families, and congregations to align generosity with purpose, connecting people's passions with opportunities to make a lasting difference. He is joined by Pamela Gray, Director of Philanthropy and Gift Planning, who has spent more than three decades helping families think thoughtfully about generosity, legacy, and the ways their resources can continue serving others long into the future. Against the backdrop of the great transfer of wealth now underway across the country, Lisa, Justin, and Pamela make the case that churches are uniquely poised for this moment. With loyal members, deep relationships, and a good story to tell, faith communities can help people move from managing resources as an obligation to imagining a generous future. The conversation reframes philanthropy as something accessible to everyone, not the province of the wealthy few, and unpacks the practical tools, from donor-advised funds and endowments to charitable gift annuities and gifts by will, that let people support ministry both today and for generations to come. Listen as the three of them explore why the best giving conversations begin with dreaming and values rather than assets, how a spirit of generosity becomes contagious within a congregation, and why, as they put it again and again, everyone can be a philanthropist. Guests Justin Gould Justin Gould is Chief Philanthropy Officer of Wesleyan Impact Partners and Texas Methodist Foundation. Gould joined the staff of Texas Methodist Foundation in 2013 after nearly a decade serving in various fundraising roles at Southwestern University during its successful $150 million comprehensive campaign. Gould leads all aspects of TMF’s fundraising and gift planning programs. Gould holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX, where he currently serves on the Board of Visitors, and a Master of Business Administration from Willamette University in Salem, OR. Pamela Gray Pamela Gray, director of philanthropy, gift planning, started in September of 2023 at Wesleyan Impact Partners. Prior to arriving, she was the national personal philanthropy director at Disabled American Veterans (DAV) in Erlanger, Kentucky, where she managed a team of eleven, focused on individual relationships and gift-planning activities. Pamela has also served as the senior director of philanthropy and alumni at the University of Kentucky (UK), College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. Prior to her return to Kentucky in 2016, she worked as a director, gift planning at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Connect Visit our show's website at https://ignitingimagination.org. To view videos of podcast episodes, please go to the Igniting Imagination YouTube. Host: Rev. Lisa Greenwood https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-greenwood-5419772a/ Pamela Gray: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamela-a-gray/ Justin Gould: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justingould/ #IgnitingImagination #FaithInAction #HumanFlourishing #ChurchLeadership #SpiritualInnovation #SpiritualFormation #FaithAndJustice #FaithAndTechnology #ReimaginingChurch #ChurchInnovation

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  Episode #1

  What We’re Seeing in the Changing Ecology of the Church with Rev. Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean

  Jul 29, 202639 minS19

  What if the church isn't broken so much as being reshaped, quietly, from the inside out, into something older and truer than the buildings we've come to call home? This week on the Igniting Imagination ® podcast, Rev. Lisa Greenwood sits down with Rev. Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean, Professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, for a conversation about the tectonic shifts moving beneath the church today. An ordained United Methodist minister and a distinguished Locke Innovative Leader recognized by Wesleyan Impact Partners, Kenda has spent decades helping the Church navigate cultural change, emerging generations, and innovation. Together, Lisa and Kenda explore why the pandemic may have spared us twenty years of painful admission, and what it means to lead when everyone finally agrees that things have changed. Rev. Dr. Kenda offers a gentle but bracing challenge: We have treated innovation as the goal rather than the tool it was meant to be. She invites listeners to recover the church's most ancient identity as "the way," to take younger generations seriously as teachers rather than exotic birds, and to reclaim the lost art of Christian formation, which happens less through programs than through people who are simply gifted at the ministry of noticing. Listen as Lisa and Kenda reflect on cathedrals and pilgrimage, on the ecological idea of "refugia" as a picture of faith taking root, and on why one of the most innovative things a church can do is to do less, saying no to the treadmill so it can say yes to the sacred encounter of relationship. Guest Kenda Creasy Dean is the Mary D. Synnott Professor of Youth, Church, and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary and an ordained United Methodist pastor in the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference. In addition to teaching in practical theology, education, and formation, Dean works closely with Princeton’s Institute for Youth Ministry and the Farminary . Dean is the author of numerous books on youth, church, and culture, the best known of which includes Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church . Connect Visit our show's website at https://ignitingimagination.org . To view videos of podcast episodes, please go to the Igniting Imagination YouTube . Host: Rev. Lisa Greenwood https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-greenwood-5419772a/ Guest: Rev. Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean, Princeton Theological Seminary https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenda-creasy-dean-2a932322/ #IgnitingImagination #FaithInAction #HumanFlourishing #ChurchLeadership #SpiritualInnovation #SpiritualFormation #FaithAndJustice #FaithAndTechnology #ReimaginingChurch #ChurchInnovation

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  Episode #4

  Worship, Justice, and the Next Generation with Rev. Sandra Van Opstal

  Apr 8, 202647 minS18

  <p>What does it look like when worship and justice are no longer separate categories, but the same lived reality?</p><p>This week on the Igniting Imagination® podcast, Rev. Lisa Greenwood and Dr. Aaron Kuecker welcome Rev. Sandra Maria Van Opstal, co-founder and executive director of Chasing Justice, a movement mobilizing young leaders at the intersection of faith and justice. Sandra is a global speaker, preacher, activist, and author of The Next Worship and Rally, with deep roots in urban ministry and a lifelong commitment to the work of neighboring well.</p><p>Listen as Lisa, Aaron, and Sandra e...

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  Episode #3

  Economic Dignity and Collective Flourishing with Rev. Matt St. Pierre

  Apr 1, 202648 minS18

  <p>What if faith communities saw themselves not as distant helpers, but as neighbors, woven into the lives, struggles, and dreams of the people around them?</p><p>This week on the Igniting Imagination® podcast, Rev. Lisa Greenwood and Dr. Aaron Kuecker are joined by Rev. Matt St. Pierre, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Restore Merced, to explore beyond economics into something more sacred, the restoration of dignity, purpose, and belonging. Together, they reflect on the quiet but powerful truth that meaningful work is more than a paycheck; it is a pathway to rediscovering worth, agency, and hope, especially for those t...

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