PAVE launches podcast to encourage pastors ‘church revitalization is possible’

On March 24, Jonathan Smith, director of Church Health and Growth and associate director of the Center for Church Health at Texas Baptists, launched the PAVE Podcast with an episode on “The Power of Story in Church Revitalization.” 

PAVE is Texas Baptists’ church revitalization strategy designed to help pastors customize revitalization for their context by equipping them with resources and placing them in cohorts to be trained by a coach and encouraged within a community of pastors. 

Born out of a desire to see Texas Baptists “be the place to go for church health, growth and revitalization,” Smith said the ministry was in need of a medium to communicate the biblical imperatives and practical ideas of PAVE “to people who otherwise would not have a venue in which to hear them.” 

“We want pastors to be encouraged and inspired to know that church revitalization by the power of the Holy Spirit really is possible. God breathes life back into struggling churches, so we want them to find and hear that it is real. It is possible,” said Smith. “[God] is revitalizing churches.” 

Smith said listeners can look forward to hearing from Texas Baptists pastors whose churches are revitalizing, church health and growth practitioners and “nationally recognized church health and growth experts.” 

“I believe that my calling for this season of my life and ministry is [for when] Baptist people in the nation wonder about revitalization, they would say, ‘Well, Texas Baptists, they have some answers,’” said Smith. 

Walking away with practical PAVE principles

Each episode of the PAVE Podcast is in one of two categories: inspirational, “where we tell the story of a Texas Baptists church who has been through PAVE and how God has used those biblical principles to turn the church around,” and instructional, which are practice-heavy. In the instructional episodes, Smith discusses “the things that you should be doing to help a church that’s plateaued or in decline.”

“In most episodes, we have this back-and-forth round of [discussing] ‘Here's what we talked about today, but here are the practical ideas to make it happen,’” explained Smith. [Listeners are] going to walk away almost every episode with 5 to 10 practical ideas about ‘How do I display courage?’ as an example. ‘How do I help my people to live more unified in the church?’ ‘What are practical ways that I can love senior adults in my congregation as I'm changing my congregation?’” 

Smith said he is praying that pastors would be encouraged by the practical help they find in each episode.

“I'm praying that God uses the content by the power of his Holy Spirit, that pastors and churches would be changed as a result of listening to these powerful biblical principles,” said Smith. 

In the eight weeks of the podcast, Smith said he has heard from people around the nation who have been encouraged by the content. He’s even onboarded a few pastors into the PAVE assessment “to help them take the first step to walk down the PAVE journey.” 

The PAVE Podcast is made possible by gifts to the Cooperative Program and the Mary Hill Davis Offering. 

Listeners can access The PAVE Podcast on all their favorite streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and Simplecast. 

Visit txb.org/pave to learn more about PAVE and how it can be a resource to your congregation.