Podcast with Ed Stetzer

In an age of soundbites podcasts are striking back.

I learnt recently podcasts are surging at the moment having gone through a phase of looking like they might die out a few years ago. Where they seem to work best it turns out is in producing relaxed long form interviews that get behind carefully honed communication messages. Perhaps people are yearning for more than pithy key messages.

The recipe seems to be to take two people who get on reasonably well, put them in a relaxed environment ideally over a cup of tea or coffee, but possibly even over the web. Add a bit of laughter, some good questions and conversation, and a lot of time, and the result can feel like you the audience are also sitting right there round the table joining in. Even better if the interviewer is already asking the questions you wish you could. Essentially its a fireside chat, or a relaxed coffee / tea drinking session.

Back in 2008, which is surely the very dark ages of the Internet, I recorded what was one of the first cross-Atlantic internet-based video interview to be shared on a Christian blog. It was with Ed Stetzer and really should have been a podcast, but until today it has only been available in piecemeal bits of video. If you have ever wanted to really get to know Ed Stetzer why not have a listen.

I think I would like to record some more of this kind of material in the future. I hope I don’t get Ed into any trouble for sharing any views of his that may have changed in the intervening years!

We spoke about many subjects including

• technology and our then amazement at being able to communicate in that way
• church planting
• If missional and apostolic are synonymous (the word missionary is the Latin word used in the vulgate Bible to translate apostle from the Greek)
• The Atonement
• The state of the church (find out if we worried about the same things back then we worry about now
• What it means to “want it all” when it comes to church
• Preaching
• Contextualization
• How to build truly multicultural churches.