The Making Space Podcast Season One Recap

The first season of the Making Space Podcast is a wrap! Thanks for joining us for this eight-part series hosted by Jay Kim and Benjamin Windle. If you missed it, you can listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify(or wherever you listen to podcasts), and you can learn more here.

During this season, Jay and Benjamin unpacked the Barna and Aspen Group research, Making Space for Inspiration, and delved into how physical space impacts our formation as we experience Jesus together and interact with those in our community. They sat down with various leaders and thinkers to discuss how nature affects our spiritual lives, the value of historic buildings in our digital era, what the church can learn from the design of retail spaces, and offered key takeaways. The following is a quick recap.

Be sure to click on each image to watch a video of each interview.

Episode 1: Ashley Ekmay and Elena Forsythe on Rediscovering Embodied Community Within the Church

In the first episode of the season, Ashley Ekmay, from Barna, and Elena Forsythe, from Aspen Group, shared insights on how their teams collaborated on the first volume of the Making Space research project, Making Space for Inspiration. They discussed the concepts of transcendence, comfort, how we bring our emotions into a space, and what it means for a space to be personal. They shared insights on how space affects us physically, emotionally, and how it influences our spiritual lives.

Episode 2: Tish Harrison Warren on Spiritual Formation and the Shaping Power of Spaces

In this episode, hosts Benjamin Windle and Jay Kim talked with priest and award-winning author of Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life, Tish Harrison Warren. They discussed the threads of connection between spiritual formation and the built environment.

Episode 3: Daniel Grothe on The Church as Home and Why Rootedness Matters More than Ever

In episode three, Daniel Grothe, Associate Senior Pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, and author of The Power of Place: Choosing Stability in a Rootless Age joined Jay and Benjamin. He talked about how the sense of connectedness to a place forms and shapes us and can impact our spiritual formation.

Episode 4: Darryl Answer on Breaking Down the Walls Between Church and Community

In this episode, Darryl Answer, founding and lead pastor of New Community Church in Kansas City, MO, joined Benjamin and Jay to discuss innovative ways his congregation approaches physical church and caring for the community.

Episode 5: A.J. Swoboda and Sara Joy Proppe on Designing Nature into Your Spaces of Worship

In episode five, author and Assistant Professor of Bible Theology and World Christianity at Bushnell University, Dr. A.J. Swoboda, and Sara Joy Proppe, a Placemaking Consultant and founder of Proximity Project joined Jay and Benjamin. They discussed how the transcendence of nature and creation translates to the design of our church spaces and how we can incorporate the outdoor world as part of the physical church experience.

Episode 6: Jonathan Shaffer on Church Renovations on a Budget: Ideas from the Retail Space

In this episode, Benjamin and Jay talked with Jonathan Shaffer, a virtual reality designer who brings brands to life both physically and digitally. Jonathan shared how the design of retail space can inspire innovative church environments and he gave examples for how churches can step outside of the mundane to create unique physical church experiences.

Episode 7: Daniel Yang on Post-Pandemic Trends in Church Planting and Missional Presence

In episode seven, Daniel Yang, Director of Church Multiplication Institute at Wheaton College Billy Graham Center, joined Jay to discussed how the pandemic affected church plants and the trends coming out of it. He also shared how we can reimagine the power of meaningful church gatherings in unique spaces.

Episode 8: Liz Laird on Why Church Buildings Still Matter in the Modern Era

In the final episode of the Making Space Podcast, Benjamin and Jay talked with Liz Laird, co-founder of the Sacred Spaces Conservancy, a Washington, D.C. based nonprofit organization that finds collaborative solutions to preserve vital sacred spaces in neighborhood life. Liz shared how historic church architecture can inspire the modern church to lean into creative ways to communicate beauty, transcendence, and holiness.

Also, if you haven’t picked up your copy of Making Space for Inspiration, get your copy now! This first of three volumes will helps leaders find value in the physical spaces they utilize and make space count spiritually, no matter the ministry goal or budget.