Episode 10: The Power of an Encounter Weekend - A Pastor's Experience

Summary

The podcast episode from Between Heaven and Earth features hosts Justin and Amy Howard interviewing Pastor Shea Fitzgibbons from Bethany Church, New Hampshire, about the transformative impact of Encounter Culture Mission Collaborative (ECMC) on his ministry and congregation. Pastor Shea shares his personal journey to pastoral ministry, highlighting the deep challenges of pastoral life, including stress, loneliness, and burnout. He emphasizes the critical need for holistic discipleship that addresses emotional, spiritual, and physical healing while fostering authentic community within the church.

Shea describes his introduction to ECMC events like Encounter God weekends, Encounter Equip trainings, and Encounter Life cohorts, and how these have reshaped his perspective on prayer ministry and healing in a practical, non-weird way suited to his culturally reserved church context. The interview explores common pastoral and congregational concerns around charismatic expressions and the balance of spiritual openness with structure and respect. Shea reveals how these programs promote genuine healing, transparency, and community through practices like confession, prayer ministry, and mutual support. He shares encouraging stories of congregants empowered to bring healing prayer into everyday life and evangelism without formulaic approaches.

The episode also addresses broader cultural and spiritual struggles in churches that reflect the brokenness of society, such as addiction, loneliness, and complacency. The hosts and Pastor Shea urge church leaders and followers to pursue authentic encounters with God’s love and healing power that extend beyond information to embodied transformation and mission. The conversation closes with a hopeful call for churches to foster honest, healing environments where people can bring their pain openly and experience the power of community and the Spirit. The interview highlights ECMC’s role in equipping ordinary believers for ministry and prayer that bridges heaven and earth with practical love and restoration.

Highlights

• 🙏 Pastor Shea’s journey from engineer to pastor embodies God’s gentle, persistent call to ministry.
• 💡 ECMC’s holistic discipleship fosters healing that touches the whole person—not just behavior change.
• 🤝 The importance of authentic community in church for overcoming loneliness and isolation.
• 🔥 Training in “non-weird” prayer ministry unlocks healing and evangelism accessible to reserved church cultures.
• 🌿 Encounter Life cohorts support ongoing healing and relational growth beyond weekend events.
• 💬 Authentic vulnerability and confession in community radically transform church culture and individual healing.
• 🌍 Healing prayer ministry serves as a natural bridge between meeting practical needs and sharing the gospel.

Key Insights

• 🙌 Ministry is hard and often isolating, but shared community and honest confession offer needed relief: Pastor Shea candidly discusses the loneliness and stress common among pastors, emphasizing the value of trusted peer groups and prayer teams for mutual support and resilience. This counters the damaging expectation that pastors must always “have it together,” highlighting the importance of vulnerability.
• ✨ Encounter Culture offers a fresh model of discipleship centered on experiential healing rather than solely informational teaching: Traditional discipleship often relies on knowledge acquisition, but ECMC prioritizes encounters with God’s love that heal deep wounds—physical, emotional, and spiritual—enabling transformation rather than mere behavior modification. This approach better addresses the root causes of struggle and sin in people’s lives.
• 🔄 Prayer ministry training grounded in relational authenticity and practical technique eases fears of ‘weirdness’ in more reserved church cultures: Many evangelical and conservative congregations worry about charismatic expression disrupting order or alienating attendees. ECMC’s “non-weird” prayer training provides safe, reproducible practices for prayer ministry that empower laypeople to minister healing in ways respectful of their cultural context.
• 💞 Church culture that invites honesty about sin and brokenness profoundly shifts congregational health: By modeling confession and mutual intercession, churches dismantle the damaging “sin management” mentality that leads to shame and isolation. Instead, a culture of grace strengthens the body as a whole and demonstrates the power of Jesus to heal ongoing struggles transparently.
• 🌱 Ongoing ministry through groups like Encounter Life sustains growth and deepens community beyond weekend experiences: The 12-week cohorts create safe spaces where people can progress through healing at a realistic pace, holding one another accountable with emotional, spiritual, and relational support—essential for lasting change.
• 👣 Healing prayer ministry naturally connects evangelism with care, making gospel conversations less forced and more organic: Instead of rehearsed presentations, trained prayer ministers spontaneously meet hurting people’s needs, inviting them to Jesus through demonstrated love and power. This approach aligns well with cultural skepticism toward formulaic evangelism strategies.
• 🌎 The New England church context challenges the church to embrace authentic spirituality over cultural religiosity: Pastor Shea highlights New Englanders’ preference for genuine, tested faith over superficial religious trends. This regional mindset offers a fertile ground for authentic discipleship and spiritual renewal if ministries are willing to prioritize honesty and practical ministry rooted in real-life experience.

This episode underlines the urgent need for churches to shift from surface-level discipleship and disconnected ministry toward embracing holistic healing, authentic community, and Spirit-led prayer ministries. ECMC’s resources and model serve as exemplars for building vibrant churches where heaven and earth converge in healing and mission.