unSeminary Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: How to Be a Church Your Community Actually Trusts with Lou Pizzichillo
Host: Rich Birch
Guest: Lou Pizzichillo, Lead Pastor of Community Church (Babylon, NY)
Release Date: February 26, 2026

Overview

This episode explores practical strategies and hard-won wisdom on building genuine community trust as a local church. Host Rich Birch interviews Lou Pizzichillo, lead pastor at Community Church in Babylon, New York—a “church for people who don’t go to church”—about cultivating a posture of humility, addressing skepticism and wounds, and becoming an indispensable asset to the surrounding community. The conversation is rich with real-life examples of bridge-building, values implementation, and how “permission to be in progress” shapes both culture and outreach.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Church Context & Philosophy

• Start-Up and Setbacks:

  • Community Church launched in January 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a 52-week closure, uniquely shaping their team culture and adaptability. (02:37)
  • “We like to say that we’re a church for people who don’t go to church. And so we try to keep things pretty casual. We try not to assume that there’s any interest or experience with the people who are showing up on a Sunday.” — Lou (02:53)

• Ministry Style:

  • Contemporary, casual, “attractional” style with Thursday night (“the weekend starts on Thursday”) and Sunday morning services.
  • Average attendance is about 1,200, with continual change and many new people. (03:32)

Understanding the Community’s Perception of Church

• Northeast Skepticism:

  • Many in the local culture don’t notice or care about church openings/events—“If you’re not a church person, then you don’t really notice when churches are doing things.” — Lou (04:46)
  • The biggest obstacle is not a lack of familiarity, but negative experiences or assumptions about church: judgmentalism, hypocrisy, exclusivity, impracticality. (05:18)
  • “It’s not that people don’t know the church. It’s what they know that they don’t like.” — Rich (06:10)

• Starting Points:

  • Many locals have some religious background but see “church” as disconnected from daily life—a “box to check.”

• Real Stories, Real Baggage:

  • Lou emphasizes extended family experiences and listening to stories of “church hurt”:
    “Even if their claims aren’t valid, a lot of their experiences are. … Just kind of giving them the space to be hurt and for it to be real. That’s been huge for us.” (07:44)

Defining and Embodying Core Values

• “Belong Before You Believe” and “Permission to Be in Progress”:

  • Radical hospitality includes genuinely expecting people to be at any point in their faith journey—even openly antagonistic (“If somebody walks in with a shirt that says ‘I hate God,’ we are glad that person is here.”) (09:06)

• Key Phrases and Values:

  • Permission to Be in Progress:
    • “People have permission to be in progress, and that has to do with their actions, the choices that they make, but also the things that they believe.” — Lou (09:06)
    • These concepts were “sermon-born” and then intentionally woven into culture after seeing strong feedback from new attendees.
  • No Pretending:
    • “If both of those things are actually true for us as a church, then we can also say … our third value is no pretending. Like, you don’t have to pretend to be on board with certain things if you’re not there yet.” — Lou (11:00)

• Focus on Jesus as Central:

  • “The goal is to get people to Jesus, and everything else is secondary.” (12:31)
  • Lou resists arguing secondary issues: “In a lot of ways, I feel like when we get too into the issues, we’re putting the cart before the horse.” (12:31)

Notable Quote:

“You’ve got permission to be in progress, and so many people repeated it back to me that I was like, okay, this needs to be woven into our culture because it needs to be articulated.” — Lou (09:45)

Leadership and Authenticity

• Transparency From the Front:

  • Sharing personal shortcomings fosters connection:
    “Every time I tell a story that has me screwing up, it is the thing that people come to tell me about, like, ‘Oh, thank you so much for telling me about the way you spoke to your kids or… your wife.’” — Lou (14:45)
  • “Don’t share what you haven’t processed yet”—sharing “scars” not “wounds” (reference to Brene Brown) for healthy authenticity.

• Changing Generational Expectations:

  • Rich reflects how previous generations prized a “superhuman” religious leader, but now people are repulsed by inauthenticity and crave honest leadership. (15:58)

Practical Outreach: Earning Community Trust

• Community Partnerships—“An Asset to the Community”:

  • Before launching, Community Church began the “12 Days of Christmas”: giving away local shop gifts, benefiting shopkeepers, community, and church reputation. (17:25)
    • Early skepticism: “On year one… it was very hard to get 12 shops to agree to do this… [now] there are shops lining up to do it. … It’s shown this posture of partnership with what’s going on, rather than, okay, there are the shops and then there’s the church.” — Lou (18:56)

• “Church Has Left the Building”—Mutual Service:

  • The church cancels services to serve at the major Argyll Fair, helping with volunteers/parking and teaching about faith in action. (19:55)
  • “Instead of staying in here talking about serving, we’re going to go out there and serve.” (20:55)
  • When the fair was postponed due to rain, the church doubled down and canceled two weeks of services—putting values before convenience. (21:43)
    • “It was amazing to be able to say on the phone, like, hey, we’re with you no matter what.” — Lou (21:58)

• Earning Trust Incrementally:

  • Lou recounts how the church responded to community complaints about parking, renting additional lots, and even canceling a planned Christmas light show at the mayor’s request to prioritize neighborhood peace. (23:29 – 26:30)
    • “I think canceling the show accomplished more than we would have accomplished if we actually did the show. … Even the people that attend the church, they were like, I want to be part of a church that supports their community.” — Lou (26:30)

Navigating Criticism and Common “Potholes”

• Don’t Default to Persecution Narrative:

  • “It is very easy to tell the story, like, hey, they don’t want us to do our Christmas show. This is persecution, you know. … We’ve just found that’s not always the case.” (27:12)
  • Focus on the broad, ambivalent middle of the community—not just loud supporters or opponents. (27:38)

• Building Trust Is Slow and Messy:

  • “Trust has been earned. One decision at a time.” (23:29)
  • “Once you go down that road of, like, we’re going to try to go negative with our community, it’s very difficult to step back from that.” — Rich (28:51)

Actionable Advice for Church Leaders

• Seek Out (Even Inconvenient) Opportunities:
  • “When you’re in a situation that may seem like a challenge… just stop and think, is there an opportunity here to build trust with the community?” — Lou (30:09)
• Willingness to Sacrifice for Credibility:
  • The payoff for community trust “has just been huge, even though it’s been an inconvenience. … There's never been a time where we’ve regretted it.” — Lou (31:27)
• Recognize Scale and Public Perception:
  • Larger churches may be seen as a “source of power” or a threat by local leaders; transparency and authentic support is essential. (32:26)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “We want people to be glad we’re here whether they attend our church or not.” — Lou (17:28)
• “A lot of times I think we’re a little too quick to say, oh, this is persecution, when really it may not be.” — Lou (28:36)
• “When you have people who don’t go to church coming to church and you give them permission to be in progress, you get a lot of hairy situations. And we have a lot of conversations where we’re trying to figure out which way to go. But it’s in those conversations... we remind ourselves: we’re glad that these people are here.” — Lou (33:27)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:37] — Community Church’s launch and DNA
• [03:32] — Service style & attendance
• [05:18] — Understanding local skepticism & negative church reputation
• [07:44] — Listening to criticism, being a safe place for the hurt
• [09:06] — Core values: “permission to be in progress,” “belong before you believe”
• [12:31] — Centering on Jesus, not secondary issues
• [14:45] — Vulnerability: leading with transparency about failures
• [17:25] — “12 Days of Christmas” outreach: trust-building example
• [19:55] — Canceling church services to serve fair—“Church Has Left the Building”
• [23:29] — Lessons from city hall: parking, large events, listening to concerns
• [27:12] — Avoiding the persecution mindset, focusing on the “movable middle”
• [30:09] — Practical advice for building trust as a church leader
• [32:26] — Handling growth, public perception, and responsibly stewarding influence
• [33:27] — Final encouragement: “It’s worth it, even when it’s messy and hard.”

Final Takeaways

• Building genuine community trust takes humility, sacrifice, patience, and a willingness to listen deeply to both criticism and need.
• Values must be lived, not just stated—especially radical hospitality, transparency, and servant-heartedness.
• Change and inconvenience are the cost of credibility, but the result is a church the community is glad to have around, even if they never attend a service.

Connect with Community Church:
Website: communitychurch.net
Instagram/YouTube: @communitychurchli