Rev Sandy Brodine’s new podcast ‘Thriving’ is aimed at helping congregations and faith communities grow.
By Andrew Humphries
When Younger Generations Education and Strategy Coordinator Rev Sandy Brodine kicked off a new podcast at the end of June, it was easy to settle on a name for it.
With the aim of encouraging growth within Uniting Church congregations, the title of ‘Thriving’ seemed most appropriate.
“The purpose of the podcast is to showcase ways in which we can grow thriving church communities,” Sandy explains.
“More than that, though, it’s about creating thriving missional and worshipping communities, with an emphasis on thriving discipleship and faith formation and growing healthy and flourishing communities of faith.”
In the podcast’s first episode, Sandy explained to Discipleship and Advocacy Director Rev Nigel Hanscamp what she hopes will emerge from the weekly podcast.
“The one thing we want to do is to grow communities where discipleship thrives and where people are coming to know and love Jesus, to share the love of Jesus with others, and help to grow themselves as Christians, but also to grow a healthy and thriving community,” she told Nigel.
With a background in ministry and faith formation within the Uniting Church, as well as extensive broadcast communications experience, Sandy is perfectly equipped to see the podcast thrive.
“‘Thriving’ and ‘flourishing’ seem to be the two words presbyteries are using around this particular space at the moment, which is why ‘thriving’ is such an appropriate word to capture the podcast’s intent,” she says.
Sandy says there isn’t currently a podcast elsewhere in Australia that focuses on growing faith communities in this way.
“It’s trying to meet the needs of congregations that are looking for ideas to grab hold of (that will allow them to thrive),” she says.
“People who listen to a specific podcast episode will hopefully come away with a few ideas on how their own congregation might grow or thrive.
“Each episode will be framed around a particular subject congregations might be interested in, so one might be on Messy Church, or all-age communities or neurodiverse children.
“It might be something a congregation can do a bit differently to help it thrive, with the podcast providing information about what that is and who might be able to offer guidance around establishing it within that congregation.
“The topics will all be very different, so people might not want to listen to it every week, but they can listen to an episode that might, for example, focus on preaching to intergenerational communities.”
Rev Sandy Brodine hopes to see communities of faith continuing to grow throughout the Uniting Church.
Sandy has a wealth of interview subjects, including some overseas, she plans to engage with to keep the podcast fresh and relevant.
“I will be talking to these people about the different ways they help communities thrive overseas and what we in Australia might be able to learn from that,” she says.
“I have a number of friends in Australia and around the world who are very heavily involved in youth and children’s ministry and intergenerational ministry, and also in growing missional communities, so I’ve got a number of people who are really excited to join me.
“I’m hoping that a bit further down the track there will be good examples of communities within the Uniting Church where things are starting to happen around Faithful Futures which we can showcase.”
Sandy says obvious signs of growth within Victorian and Tasmanian congregations, rather than just the number of listeners, will mean the podcast is a success.
“If we can see evidence that there are a number of communities where shoots are growing and things are happening as a result of people listening to the podcast, it will be achieving its aim,” she says.
“I’m more interested in people listening to it and taking something from it that encourages them in practice than I am about listener numbers themselves.
“There are plenty of examples of good things happening in the Uniting Church in Victoria and Tasmania, so I’ll be looking forward to having some opportunities to talk with some of those people about what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and how the rest of us can learn from them.”
Sandy is keen to hear from any community that has an idea around one of the Faithful Futures goals they are trialling.
She can be contacted at Sandy.Brodine@victas.uca.org.au and the podcast can be found here
