By Andy Hale
This week’s CBF Podcast Conversation comes to you live from General Assembly in St. Louis, where we sat down with Dr. Pamela R. Durso, President of Central Seminary. Under Pam’s leadership, Central is helping congregations develop deeper cultural awareness and compassion in ministry. Their new Cultural Competency in Congregational Leadership series invites churches to reflect on how preaching, pastoral care, and hospitality can become spaces where all people feel seen, understood, and honored. As Pam shared, “Cultural competency isn’t an optional skill—it’s part of being faithful to the people God has placed in our care.”
The conversation explores how demographic shifts, multicultural identities, and evolving community contexts are transforming the expectations of church leadership. Pam describes cultural competency not as a program but as a practice of listening, learning, and leading with humility. The video series offers training, guided discussion, and tools that help churches examine preaching habits, caregiving assumptions, and what it means to offer genuine hospitality across cultural lines. If your congregation is searching for a way to move from good intentions to meaningful, embodied welcome, this episode will both challenge and encourage you in real and practical ways.
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Sponsorship
This podcast is presented by:
- Baylor’s Garland School of Social Work: Social workers can be found addressing the full scope of the human experience in churches, schools, prisons, government agencies, senior living centers, nonprofits, and Fortune 500 companies.
- Baptist Seminary of Kentucky: BSK equips leaders through their Homegrown Initiative, offering ministry leaders training and growth that fits into their busy schedules.
- The Gardner-Webb School of Divinity: The Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity aims to equip, nurture, encourage, and support men and women for their very best service in the Kingdom of God.
- The Center for Congregational Health: Strengthening congregations through consulting, leadership coaching, and intentional ministry.
- The Baptist House of Studies at Union Presbyterian Seminary: Exists by God’s grace to educate, inspire, and support generations of bold, faithful servant leaders as they seek actively to participate in God’s mission in the world.
- Community Transformation Center: Through educational opportunities, community conversations, and research initiatives in collaboration with universities and local leaders, PBACTC is at the forefront of integrating spiritual care into holistic community development.
- Creation Justice Ministries: Creation Justice Ministries equips churches to turn conviction into faithful action with Scripture-based resources, worship guides, and community support to pursue environmental justice and care for God’s creation.
- Dawnings: Through prayerful discernment, storytelling, and collaborative visioning, Dawnings helps churches rediscover their calling and imagine their next chapter—guided by trained facilitators and grounded in God’s ongoing story.
- Congregational Ministries Team of CBF Global: Through coaching, resources, and collaborative support, CBF’s Congregational Ministries Team helps churches and ministers cultivate the five traits of thriving—Rooted Relationships, Compelling Clarity, Holy Tenacity, Strategic Agility, and Dynamic Collaboration—for faithful and flourishing ministry.
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Andy Hale is the creator and host of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Podcast. Hale is the Associate Executive Coordinator of CBF North Carolina. He’s also served as CBF’s Church Start Specialist, the founding pastor of Mosaic Church of Clayton, and the senior pastor of University Baptist Church of Baton Rouge. Follow on Twitter @haleandy.