The Ferment Podcast - Conversations About Worship And Transformation

This week we continue our a three-part series on leading worship in different-sized churches. 
In this episode of The Ferment, Adam chats with Megan Zeilinger about leading worship in a midsized church, some practical steps for building a relational team, and how she dealt with a season of carrying a desire for church growth that she wasn't seeing. Megan also shares about the songs that are currently speaking to her church. 

Megan Zeilinger is the worship pastor at Tehachapi Vineyard Church. She is passionate about hospitality and making space for people to experience the love and presence of God in corporate worship. She loves coffee, authentic conversations, and watching people’s lives be transformed by the love and kindness of Jesus. Her husband, Jeff, leads the Production Team, and together they love serving the church with what they have been given to give away. Megan, Jeff, and their adorable two-year-old daughter live in Tehachapi, California.

Show Notes: 
Vineyard Worship Essentials: https://www.vineyardworship.com/essentials

In this episode of The Ferment, Adam chats with Leah Morrison about being a worship leader and a mother of 3 kids, including how she learned to work within the confines of her real life and some practical tips for pastors working with moms of young children. Leah also shares how motherhood has changed her worship leading. 

Leah Morrison joined the staff of Vineyard North in Grand Rapids, MI in 2015 after several years as an ordained worship pastor with her previous church. Leah spent some of her growing up years in Russia as her family did missionary work with the Vineyard, and after moving back to the US attended Kendall College of Art & Design. She and her husband are raising 3 awesome kiddos and have a passion for ministry in their neighborhood and a dream of doing work in the middle east.  

Show Notes: 

Leah's Instagram: @leah_morrison_creative

In this episode of The Ferment, Adam chats with us about the relentless nature of Sundays that just.keep.coming and shares some suggestions about how to think bigger than the weekly rhythm.

Adam gathers with the Vineyard Worship crew to talk about Vineyard Worship Essentials, an online training opportunity! You can join a cohort or audit the program with your worship community or by yourself. Take a listen and share this episode with all the worship leaders in your life! Sign up now at: Vineyardworship.com/essentials

In this episode of The Ferment, Adam chats with Thomas Lyons about the difference between a revival and revivalism, how revival has shaped American identity, and what the hope of the church is during ordinary seasons of life.  Thomas shares an academic perspective on historical outpourings, common precursors to revivals, and some Biblical study on the presence of God. Adam and Thomas also share some of their personal experiences of the Asbury Outpouring. 

Thomas Lyons (PhD, Asbury Theological Seminary) is the interim Director of For-Credit Courses for Seminary Now  and Director of Library Services and Education Technology at Northern Seminary. He has served the Vineyard movement locally, nationally, and globally in a variety of ministries and capacities over the past 17 years. Thomas lives in the Lexington, KY area with his four children.

Show Notes: 
Asbury University
https://www.asbury.edu/outpouring/ 

In this Advent-focused episode of The Ferment, Adam catches up with Mike and Susan O’Brien to chat about some themes to meditate on, the gifts that come through a season of waiting, and why Advent might feel like a heavy weight for some worship leaders. They talk through some practical ways to relieve the pressure of expectation, remove the tension and chaos of the season, and share an encouragement to prioritize the traditions that make Christmastime special and enjoyable for you and your family. Mike provides some thoughts about how to mix classic Christmas songs into a modern worship set, and ways we can take advantage of the liturgical gifts offered by our friends in different streams. Finally, Susan leads us in a spiritual direction exercise that allows us to connect with the Holy Spirit and prepare our hearts and minds for this coming Advent Season.

Mike O’Brien has served as a worship pastor, speaker, record producer and songwriter for over 25 years. For 18 years he served one church (Vineyard Community Church of Marietta, GA) training hundreds of worship leaders and musicians and is currently serving the church at large in worship team training and worship leader mentoring as the director for the Vineyard School of Worship.

Susan O’Brien is a spiritual director who works with people to become more aware of God’s presence in their lives. She received her certification through the Institute of Christian Spirituality at Lipscomb University and also holds a Bachelor of Theology from Point University. She believes that God is working in every person that she encounters. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, Mike and their son, Ezekiel.

In this special repost of The Ferment, Eleanor shares her origin story and the power of a praying roommate. She also talks about her husband’s first interactions with John Wimber and their earliest days with the Vineyard movement, the profound impact of worship in their life and ministry, and their life more recently as international coordinators within Vineyard Global. Eleanor speaks about unity, equipping international leaders to care for their people and communities, and shares an encouraging word about staying close to the Lord during this hard season.

Eleanor Mumford and her husband John play a significant leadership role within the Vineyard family of churches, both in the UK and overseas. They worked for two years with John Wimber at the Anaheim Vineyard in California before starting the SW London Vineyard in 1987. They handed over the leadership of that church in 2008 and served as National Directors in the UK and Ireland until 2015. They now focus on the continued development and momentum of the international Vineyard family. Eleanor and John have two grown sons, two beautiful daughters-in-law and 4 grandchildren.

Show notes:

Vineyard Global:
https://vineyard.org

In this episode of the Ferment, Adam and Steve Nicholson have a conversation about how to lead a Vineyard ministry time.  Steve identifies the distinctives of Vineyard ministry, and they talk about what we can do when ministry time becomes formulaic, and how to recognize what the Lord is doing in people. Steve shares his thoughts on the role of a worship leader in ministry, and what to do when nothing seems to be happening. This is a back-to-basics conversation where Adam asks all the questions you’ve probably wondered at one time or another, and is an excellent training tool for both fresh and seasoned ministry leaders and prayer teams!

Steve Nicholson began ministering as a college student through InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in the early 1970s.  After graduation, he moved to the Chicago area where he and several other twenty-something leaders founded a church.  That fellowship, begun in 1976 in Evanston, Illinois, placed a high priority on contemporary worship, biblical teaching, openness to the Holy Spirit, and committed relationships as a church family.

In 1981, Steve and a team from the fellowship established a new church in Humboldt Park, a neighborhood in Chicago’s inner city. Both churches joined Vineyard USA in August of 1985, and Steve transferred leadership of the Humboldt Park Vineyard to one of his team members in 1986.

The Evanston Vineyard has since planted nine other congregations in the Chicago area, and another fifteen in other cities or countries.  Steve led Vineyard USA’s church planting task force for over twenty years. Steve has ministered to and trained church leaders in India, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Turkey, Lebanon, Brazil, Chile and several Central Asian countries as well as in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The Evanston Vineyard is a diverse congregation from over 50 nations of the world with no majority racial or cultural group. Since 1986 the ministry of the Holy Spirit has been a regular and ongoing strength and emphasis of the Evanston Vineyard. 

Steve and his wife, Cindy, live in Chicago. They have three adult children and eight grandchildren.

In this episode of The Ferment, Adam talks with Christina Lowery in a continuation of our short series on raising up leaders. Christina shares about her inclination towards ministry from an early age, and when that calling was named and fostered by her pastor. She talks about how being a life-long church attendee and student of church health eventually led to her role as the Associate National Director of Church Health and Development for Vineyard USA, the effects of COVID on the church she pastors, and what that time of disruption revealed about the discipleship in our congregations. Christina gives an encouragement to tell people what you see God doing in them, and talks about the gift of entrusting youth with Sunday service responsibilities, as well as the value in broadening our expectations of what it looks like to disciple people.

Christina Lowery is the Associate National Director for Church Health and Development. Early in her ministry career, Christina served as the Events Director for a large student internship at Teen Mania Ministries (Acquire the Fire) in Tyler, TX.  In 2001, she and her husband Joel joined a local Vineyard Church there, and served on the pastoral team for several years until they were called to move back to Virginia and plant Crossroads Church.    

Christina and Joel have co-pastored Crossroads Church in Fredericksburg, VA since 2008. As a Lead Pastor, Christina has been a big-picture thinker and creative visionary, responsible for communicating and driving the vision and mission of the church forward. She finds great joy in preaching and teaching, leadership development, and building systems that foster church health and growth.

In addition to her local leadership at Crossroads Church, she has served in other leadership roles with the Vineyard, such as an Area Leader in Northern and Central Virginia for ten years (2009-2019) and on the Vineyard Women in Leadership Team for the past three years (2018-2021). 

Joel and Christina have been married for 23 years and have 3 amazing kids – Hannah (17), Caleb (15) and Zoe (8).  The Lowery family loves to travel and so far, their favorite destination is Maui, with its warm sun and beautiful island beaches. 

In this episode of The Ferment, Adam talks with Kelly D’Auria about life at Cape Vineyard Community Church in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. Kelly provides an on-the-ground update about the effects of the hurricane on her community and what the church is doing to meet the needs of their neighbors.  She also talks about what it’s like to be a worship leader after a community-wide crisis, the way devastating events shape the songs we write, and how songs birthed from tragedy serve a congregation. Kelly speaks a powerful word about how worship leaders are called to lead people through times of chaos and hardship, and shares some of the beautiful moments she’s seen in the wake of Hurricane Ian, as well as the lasting work that will need to be done over the coming months and years.

Kelly D’Auria is the worship leader at Cape Vineyard in Cape Coral, FL. Kelly, her husband, and their three boys are busy helping to care for their community in the wake of Hurricane Ian.

Show Notes:

Cape Vineyard needs about $1000 per day to feed their community. If you would like to contribute, please go to CapeVineyard.com