The Orchard Carries Sunday Messages Into Monday

Eric George, Senior Pastor of The Orchard Oxford interviews Mayor Robyn Tannehill for The Mondays podcast.
Photo provided

By Alyssa Schnugg
Staff writer
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com

The Orchard Oxford Church is taking the message given on Sundays during services and showing how they can be applied to everyday life with their weekly Monday podcast, aptly titled, “The Mondays.”

Pastor Pat Ward said the idea for the podcast started earlier this year after the church began making audio recordings of the Sunday services for people who couldn’t attend church or who have moved out of Oxford.

“Last spring, we decided to do an extended storytelling podcast and take Sunday’s truths and talk about how to apply them during the podcast on Monday,” Ward said. “It’s a way to take a Sunday message and make it more practical.”

The church generally does a series of podcasts, depending on the sermons. This month, the podcasts focus on being good neighbors.

“It’s the second most important commandment,” Ward said. “We live in a time where we don’t know our neighbors. We don’t know how to know our neighbors. Everyone is so busy. Because Oxford is such a transitional town, we live in a city of strangers.”

The Art of Neighboring series kicked off in August with Mayor Robyn Tannehill as the first guest for the six-week series.

“It was a fantastic conversation,” Ward said.

Tannehill said it was an honor to be asked by The Orchard to be on the podcast.

“It’s exciting to see the church engage on this topic and find ways that we can encourage people to get to know their neighbors,” she said. “In a time when people are so busy and moving fast, we have to be intentional about forming these relationships.”

Last week’s podcast featured Oxford Police Department’s Hardie Meeks.

“The thing I love about Hardie is that he is so deep and has some really good things to share,” Ward said.

Meeks said a neighbor doesn’t necessarily mean the person living next door to you.

“We discussed how our mentoring program, called Straight Talk of Oxford, is producing good neighbors with the community’s youth,” Meeks said. “We also discussed how being a police officer contributed to me being a good neighbor and where I see the gaps.”

Meeks also discussed a new book that he and his wife wrote, titled, “The Many Phases of Being a Man.”

“I loved the podcast interview. I would go back and do it anytime I’m asked,” Meeks said. “Ministering is more than just Sundays. The Mondays is a great example of ministry in a non-traditional sense.”

Next week, Ward will be speaking with a friend of his who is an atheist and discussing how neighbors with very different views can still be good neighbors to each other.

The next series starting in October will focus on wisdom followed by a series on the Book of Malachi.

Each podcast is about 20 minutes long and can be heard on The Orchard’s website or on most podcast apps.