Pivot Podcast

What is the meaning of Pentecost? In this reflection episode of the Pivot Podcast, Luther Seminary theologian Dr. Lois Malcolm moves past the familiar imagery of wind and fire to ask what the Spirit was actually doing that day in Jerusalem. Her answer is both clarifying and unsettling: the Spirit arrived not so the disciples could possess it, but so it could send them out.Lois draws three claims from the Pentecost story that speak directly to the life of the church today. The Spirit belongs to no one. Speaking in other people's languages is a divine mandate for empathy, not a one-time miracle. And the power given at Pentecost was never for the church's self-advancement; it was given for the common good, for the dead places in our communities, and for the people most unlike us. A short, searching reflection for Pentecost Sunday and beyond.

The debate over whether the church's primary calling is evangelism or justice has been running for over a century, and Dr. Al Tizon believes it has cost us more than we know. In this episode, the lead pastor of Grace Fellowship Community Church in San Francisco and affiliate professor of missional and global leadership at North Park Theological Seminary and Fuller Theological Seminary joins hosts Dwight Zscheile and Alicia Granholm to make the case for a missional church grounded in the whole gospel. Drawing on decades of ministry in the Philippines and the United States, Al offers reconciliation as the organizing framework for mission today, one that holds evangelism, peacemaking, compassion, and creation care together rather than forcing a choice between them.The conversation also gets at the heart of Season 6's central question: why is Christian community so hard to cultivate? Al's answer is direct. The church has largely failed at discipleship, forming individuals in private piety rather than communities that embody the values of the kingdom in every arena of life. He shares stories of congregations where holistic mission has genuinely taken root, names the false gospels most tempting to American churches right now, and closes with a candid account of where he is finding hope in a moment that makes despair feel like the easier option.Christ Among the Classes: The Rich, the Poor, and the Mission of the Church by Al TizonWhole and Reconciled – Baker Publishing GroupChristian Witness in Smaller Membership Congregations with Jon Anderson Missio Dei: The Church Sent with Edwin Ortiz-Rivera and Chris Steubing Recruiting, Equipping, and Empowering Church Leaders with Clara King and Dwight Zscheile

What does first century Christianity have to teach the church about belonging today? In this episode of the Pivot Podcast, Dr. Kristofer Phan Coffman, Assistant Professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary, joins hosts Dwight Zscheile and Alicia Granholm to explore the early church as a community of genuinely unlike people navigating real social upheaval. From the chaos of the Roman Empire to Paul's fledgling congregations scattered across the Mediterranean, Kristofer helps us see that the early church was not a settled institution with established patterns. It was a community figuring out, often under pressure, what it meant to belong to one another across real difference.That history has direct implications for church leaders today. Kristofer challenges the assimilation patterns that quietly shape much of North American Christianity and invites leaders to ask hard questions about who feels at home in their communities and why. Drawing on Paul's letters and the witness of Acts, he points toward self-awareness and deep listening as the foundational practices for forming Christian community in a fragmented cultural moment.Genesis to Revelation: A Bible Overview with Kristofer Phan CoffmanWalking the Narrow Road: Milestones in Church History with Jennifer Hornyak WojciechowskiCrash Course: Church with Stephanie Luedke

What does it mean to find your identity in Christ, and what does the Old Testament have to say about it? In this episode of the Pivot Podcast, Dr. Kathryn Schifferdecker, professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary, walks hosts Dwight Zscheile and Alicia Granholm through the Bible's vision for human community, from the boundaries woven into creation in Genesis, to the covenant at Sinai, to the prophets calling Israel back to account. Along the way, she challenges the modern assumption that identity is something we construct from within, offering instead a picture of people called into being by God and sent into the world to be a blessing.From the call of Abraham to the Sabbath commandment to the words of Amos, Kathryn shows how scripture consistently orients us away from self-fulfillment and toward the flourishing of others, especially the most vulnerable. This is the first of a two-part series on biblical community at Pivot Podcast, and it offers church leaders a grounding and hopeful framework for navigating a culture that has largely forgotten what community is for.

Why does God allow suffering? It's one of the oldest and most urgent questions in human experience, and Dr. Rolf Jacobson has lived inside it. Diagnosed with bone cancer at 15 and losing both legs, then decades later walking alongside his brother Karl and close friend Mike through simultaneous cancer diagnoses, Rolf has wrestled with that question personally, pastorally, and theologically. In this conversation with host Dwight Zscheile, he draws on the theology of the cross, the Psalms, and the hard-won wisdom of his own experience to offer some of the most grounded and practical guidance you'll hear on faith, suffering, and Christian community.Rolf talks about what to say and what not to say to someone in crisis, why the impulse to explain suffering usually backfires, and what it looks like for a congregation to truly show up for someone going through the worst. He also shares the story behind his book God Meets Us in Our Suffering, co-authored with Karl and Michael Pancoast, and why he believes the theology of the cross is not abstract doctrine but the most practical pastoral theology there is. Dr. Rolf Jacobson is Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary.The Grace of Just Showing Up (With Cheetos) - MockingbirdGod Meets Us in Our Suffering – Baker Publishing GroupGod and Grief and Loss: Turning on the Light with Michelle Bryant Powell