Ep. 10 - Cody Deese - How to Shrink a Church

In this episode, we joined (live!) by Cody Deese - lead pastor at Vinings Lake Church, President of Presence, and fellow journeyman in de/reconstruction.

Cody dives into his personal faith journey - how he grew up, where the "wheels came off," how he made sense of it, and what it means to move forward in a community. Oh, and he gives his top four ways to shrink a church, reduce financial giving, and cancel plans for a bigger building.

Thanks again for listening, and thank you Cody for the phenomenal conversation.

 

Check out: 

Vinings Lake Church

Atlanta Becoming

Cody's Ignatian Spirituality quote at the end:

Prayer of Teilhard de Chardin

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.