This interview appears in Faithfully Magazine No. 1 (Spring 2017).
Jo Saxton is an author and speaker known for her passion to help women step into their calling to lead. She is the director of 3D Ministries, a global organization focused on helping leaders to implement discipleship and missions in their churches. The international organization’s roots lie at St. Thomas Church in Sheffield in the U.K., where Saxton served as a youth pastor and college pastor before moving to the U.S. with her husband.
About how long ago did you and your family transition to the States?
We moved to the States, me my husband, about 12, 13 years ago.
So you’ve been here for a long time. I guess you’re well used to it now?
It took me about five years to work out what I didn’t understand, and then 10 years in, I began to feel a bit more used to things. There are so many things that are different culturally that I didn’t expect.
How about on the church front? How are Christian communities here in the States compared to those back in London? Are there any differences that really stand out?
I think that was probably one of my biggest culture shocks, really. The primary difference, I would say, within the U.K., both in London and then in Sheffield where I went to college and worked for a lot of my adult life, [is] the church is quite small. In Sheffield where I was, maybe 2 percent of the city would be found in church on a Sunday. In London, I think it’s closer to 10 percent. But compared to some of the places I’ve lived in in the U.S. it’s a lot. It’s a post-Christian culture. And it’s not that it’s necessarily hostile to Christianity. It’s just not necessarily seen as remotely relevant.
