Five Questions With: Pastor Jennifer Fisher
As a two-time starter of churches (New York and now Cincinnati), and Co-Founder of a church launching organization, Jen Fisher has some fresh imaginations for the future of church.
Welcome to my series, “Five Questions With,” where I introduce you to people from various industries and walks of life by asking them five questions about their work. This series is free for all readers.
The month of May will be, Five Questions With: Pastors.
As a pastor for the past 20+ years, the folks who embody this role hold a special place in my heart. I look forward to introducing you to four of them this month. Please check out their churches/ministries, and consider dropping them notes of encouragement. Pastoring can be a lonely, challenging profession, but one I still believe matters so very much.
In April 2021, after the birth of their second son and in the midst of a pandemic, Jen, her husband Bobby and their two boys, worn-down, exhausted, and longing for community themselves, moved to Cincinnati to be closer to family.
Then Jen had a conversation with their realtor that changed everything.
You see, Jen knew the hustle and grind of both church planting (helping to launch Forefront Brooklyn Church) and urban city living. And both her and her family were looking for another way to be, to do, to live.
After moving to Cincinnati and chatting one night with her realtor, they began to bond over their shared desire to raise kids well—body, mind and spirit. Kids who have good relationships with others across all kinds of cultures and backgrounds. Kids who aren’t going to be lonely… or assholes.
From there, Imagine Cincinnati was born. A unique “church” where it’s far more about the community, the families, and the relationships than it is about the pomp, circumstance, or hustle-of-the-Sunday-service.
I’ve got a special bond with Jen as her and I (along with others) spent countless hours together dreaming up, designing, and birthing in to the world Launchpad Partners, an organization that launches inclusive, Jesus-following, anti-racist, love and justice generating communities. I had to step down from leadership several years ago, but watching her and her co-Founder Aaron Bailey continue to grow Launchpad, and launch thriving faith communities, has been a real gift.
Imagine Cincinnati is still getting up and running, so if you’re in the area then please connect with them and tell Jen I said hi!
For now, let’s listen in as Jen shares her thoughts to my Five Questions.
Question 1: What does the term/label “pastor” mean to you?
To pastor is to love people and guide them toward healing connection.
I deeply believe we are each created to live in relationship. Imagine Cincinnati is born out of this belief.
We believe kids, parents and caregivers need
safe spaces that nurture them,
whole-hearted communities that help them get in touch with their own deepest selves, with others, and with nature, and
to an experience of the sacred. (Or to God, however they name or experience God.)
While the majority of people in my growing community don't think of me as "pastor," I hope they do think of me as a person who can be a resource of support and love for them and their kids as they journey through life.
Question 2: Tell me something you love about pastoring your community?
I love how little expectation comes with my current role.
I'm not pastoring in a traditional Sunday morning worship structure. I lead family playgroups each week. I organize stories, play in nature, introduce spiritual practices, and I bring great snacks.
I hold the space and show up however I need to show up that week, and it's almost always just right. Anytime I feel pressure to have it figured out any more than that, my people remind me that all they need is a space to show up to.
I get to creatively make it all up as I go and enhance the good work already being done by others. That's all I need these days. I don't have energy for any more than that. Seriously, who does?
Question 3: Many pastors over the past three years have stepped away from full time ministry. What inspires you, or compels you to keep doing this work?
I think the answer to this question is mostly in my answer to the last question. But I'll add that Imagine Cincinnati grew out of my own desire to no longer be a part of the exhausting system of Sunday-morning-centered ministry.
My family needs room to breathe, so we started gathering in community with other families with the same desire. We have picnics, holiday celebrations, seasonal events, and we do it all in rhythms that actually work for our lives now.
It's a big experiment right now, but so far, it's working beautifully. It feels more like leading in the wilderness, and I am all about this feeling of being settled in the wilderness.
Question 4: If you could wave a magic wand and fix one thing in the larger American church tomorrow, what would it be and why?
Dismantle the whole thing.
What's worth keeping will still exist, and God doesn't need our concept of "the American church" to be God. So ‘ya know, burn it all down. Maybe without the hierarchy, power trips, pride, and greed, we might have the space to imagine something better.
With the history the church has going against it, it's going to take a whole lot of fresh imagination, wonder and awe to get us back to the essence of it all. In churches I coach or partner with, it most often boils down to a lack of imagination and inability to change that which holds them back.
Question 5: In my years at Sojourn it felt like the role of Pastor was one of the last things people deconstruct. Meaning, they brought with them a lot of notions and expectations about what a pastor is or ought-be. What’s something you hope future generations of church-goers would begin to think differently about who/what/why their Pastor is?
I think my hope goes more towards the people who will step into the role of "pastor."
In my years of coaching and pastoring other pastors through Launchpad, no matter where in the journey people are when they first come to us, we always have to take them back to the root of what they think it means to "pastor" and to lead "church."
In our progressive spaces, it's most often the pastors themselves who don't do enough of the deconstructing. When they become clearer about what it feels like to
share power with, not hold power over,
to model learning,
to dismantle hierarchy,
to process history, and
really listen for theology, pain and healing,
when they get clear on what it does and does not mean to "pastor" in themselves and in their very specific context, then maybe the people they walk in community with can process the role of "pastor" in their lives.
It starts with the leaders themselves.
I love this SO MUCH! Jen sounds like such a bright light in this dark world. Reading her responses brought tears to my eyes. That’s the kind of community I long for! If only I was in Cincinnati!! I’ve been loving this 5 Questions series! Thanks, Colby!