Rachel
Eliza
Pastor • Ministry Strategist • Communicator
Coming soon: “Preaching to Whom? Pastoral Priorities and Congregational Perceptions on Sermon Purpose and Content.” My chapter in an edited volume reports on original research and its implications for churches navigating today’s cultural winds.
The American church is navigating a period of profound disruption, and most of it was already in motion before the pandemic accelerated everything. Emerging adulthood has restructured the life-stage assumptions our ministry models were built on. A broad cultural drift toward “nothing in particular” is reshaping the spiritual landscape, especially among younger generations whose relationship to faith is being formed in a sociological reality that older ministry frameworks were never designed to address. The church’s role in society is shifting. The ways people gather, belong, and are formed are being redefined by technology. What churches need now is not better programs, it’s leaders who can read this landscape clearly enough to act.
Helping them do that, and removing the barriers between where churches are and where they’re called to be, is what drives everything I do. I am a researcher who has been studying these shifts from the inside, a pastor who understands what leaders need in order to move, and a communicator who translates complexity into the kind of clarity that gets people unstuck.
I am an ordained pastor in the Church of God with an MDiv and a passion for practical equipping. I am currently designing spiritual formation seminars that help everyday disciples understand and embrace the purpose and mission God has for them, right where they are.
Every leader should have a hobby. Mine is being active outside. Triathlon is my primary sport, but I also recently picked up skiing. More than anything, I’ve fallen in love with Michigan, and I cherish any opportunity to get out and enjoy the gorgeous landscapes and lakes.
I’m on the leadership team of two nonprofits: the Lansing Triathlon Team, a nonprofit that puts on a children’s triathlon for the community each year, and The Well Lansing Lansing, a women’s ministry where, each month, we hear about God’s faithfulness in one woman’s life.