The Stetzer Leadership Podcast is now partnering with Outreach Magazine to bring you The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the new channel.

In the meantime, here is a sample of our latest podcast with Mark Mittelberg.

The Stetzer Leadership Podcast is now partnering with Outreach Magazine to bring you The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the new channel.

In the meantime, here is a sample of our latest podcast with James Choung.

The Stetzer Leadership Podcast is now partnering with Outreach Magazine to bring you The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the new channel.

In the meantime, here is a sample of our latest podcast with Ann Voskamp.

The Stetzer Leadership Podcast is now partnering with Outreach Magazine to bring you The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the new channel.

In the meantime, here is a sample of our latest podcast with Dr. Francis Collins.

The Stetzer Leadership Podcast is now partnering with Outreach Magazine to bring you The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the new channel.

In the meantime, here is a sample of our latest podcast with Sho Baraka.

Subscribe to the new Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast and access show notes at: https://churchleaders.com/podcast

The Stetzer Leadership Podcast is now partnering with Outreach Magazine to bring you The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the new channel.

In the meantime, here is a sample of our latest podcast with Derwin Gray.

The Stetzer Leadership Podcast is now partnering with Outreach Magazine to bring you The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the new channel.

In the meantime, here is a sample of our latest podcast with Matt Chandler.

The Stetzer Leadership Podcast is moving! Subscribe to our new location at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-stetzer-churchleaders-podcast/id988990685.

Christine Caine joins Ed and guest host Wendy Larson to discuss her new book, How Did I Get Here? Finding Your Way Back to God When Everything is Pulling You Away.

Christine is a sought-after international speaker, author and activist. She leads the A21 campaign and Propel Women. Known for her ability to effectively communicate a message of hope, Christine has a heart for reaching the lost, strengthening leadership, and championing the cause of justice.

Ed Stetzer and guest host Josh Laxton interview former two-term governor of Tennessee, Bill Haslam, to talk about his new book Faithful Presence: The Promise and the Peril of Faith in the Public Square.

Gov. Haslam has been a mayor and governor, serving at local, state and federal levels of government.

His most recent release, and the focus of this conversion, is Lead Like It Matters to God: Values-Driven Leadership in a Success-Driven World. In this book, "Stearns shares captivating stories of his life journey and unpacks seventeen crucial values that can transform leaders and their organizations." He joins the podcast to share more about the leadership wisdom he's gained through the years.

Lecrae is a talented musician and gifted storyteller, as evidenced in his 7 studio albums and multiple mixtapes, now nearing the 2 million mark in sales, with the acclaimed artist winning a Billboard Music Award, multiple BET, Soul Train, and Dove awards and even an Honorary Doctorate of music to go along with his 2 Grammy wins.

Lecrae has partnered with Prison Fellowship to raise awareness about Second Chance Month. Prison Fellowship is the world's largest Christian nonprofit organization for prisoners, former prisoners, and their families, and a leading advocate for justice reform.

Jay C. Butler, MD is the Deputy Director for Infectious Diseases. In this capacity, he provides leadership to the efforts of CDC’s three infectious disease national centers and helps to advance the agency’s cross-cutting infectious disease priorities. He is board certified in medicine, pediatrics and infectious diseases, and has served in public health positions at federal, state, and tribal government, including completing more than 22 years in the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service, from which he retired at the level of Captain (Medical Director) in 2012.

• Defining Christian nationalism
• Christian nationalism across denominations
• The generational divide in nationalism

Show Notes:

Read Tim Keller's review of Taking America Back here: "A Book Review on the Topic of Christian Nationalism"

• Addressing mental health in the Church
• The differences between church counseling and professional counseling
• Physical symptoms of anxiety

• Handling conflict with your children in mind
• How leadership can affect your marriage
• Reclaiming joy in your relationship

• Obeying God in community, not just as an individual
• Planting churches as missional communities in COVID-19
• Growing beyond Sunday service

• Growing together as a ministry couple
• Creating boundaries between pastoral ministry and personal life
• The challenges and blessings of raising children as a ministry couple

• Church methodology for the next generations
• Articulating core Christian doctrines
• Evangelism in a post-truth age

• The relationship between leadership and influence
• The heart values of a good leader
• Explaining "outcome-based ministry"

• The volunteer to leadership pipeline
• Navigating division in the church
• Hosting micro-gatherings as a small group

Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. has served as Director of the National Institutes of Health since August 17, 2009, appointed by two presidents. In this role, Dr. Collins oversees the work of the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world, spanning the spectrum from basic to clinical research.

• How secular culture can increase spiritual conversations
• The importance of a personal invitation
• Fostering digital engagement
• Celebrating evangelism in our churches

• How pastors and church leaders can support families with young children
• How MOPS is fostering community during COVID-19
• How churches can support single mothers
• Raising up women leaders within your congregation

• The impact of COVID-19 on domestic adoption and international adoption
• How pastors can encourage families seeking to foster or adopt
• How church congregations can support adoptive families

• Prior’s recent book release Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues
• Defining post-truth and post-modern in the context of our culture
• What does it mean to live in the “digital dark ages”
• Challenges that evangelicals will face in this cultural moment

• The history of the Southern Baptist Convention and racial issues
• Acknowledging systemic racism as churches and denominations
• Filtering the differences between Americanism and Christianity

• The current state of the culture wars
• How Christians can effectively engage our culture
• How to engage difficult conversations
• Preaching and teaching in a culturally relevant way

Dr. Darrell Bock 

• Senior research professor of New Testament and executive director for cultural engagement at Dallas Theological Seminary
• He has authored or edited over 30 books, including Jesus According to Scripture: Restoring the Portrait from the Gospels, Jesus in Context: Background Readings for Gospel Study, Studying the Historical Jesus: A Guide to Sources and Methods, Jesus the Messiah: Tracking the Promises, and more. 
• Darrell is a graduate of the University of Texas (B.A.), Dallas Theological Seminary (Th.M.), and the University of Aberdeen (Ph.D.). 
• Serves on the board at Wheaton College 

Lisa Bishop

• Director of Small Groups Ministry and Women's Ministry at Park Community Church Near North, located in the heart of Chicago's Near North neighborhood. 
• She is passionate about biblical literacy and equipping and encouraging people to live a transformed life by the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
• She is the host of the Living a Life Unleashed Podcast and the Founder of Living a Life Unleashed LLC, a leadership development experience that equips and empowers leaders to lead with maximum impact.

• Addressing racial issues as a pastor
• How to create a flexible plan for reopening churches
• New ministry opportunities in the digital space

• The NAE "Call to Civic Responsibility"
• Support for the current administration among white Evangelicals
• The changing demographics of Evangelicalism
• Speaking prophetically to systems of power

·  Character in political leadership and the evangelical witness

·  How Christians can make the most impact in reducing abortion

·  Healing our congregations after the election

• Leading a congregation divided by politics
• The practical implementation of reopening plans
• Creating a church culture that encourages ministry, not restrains it

This episode will not tell you how to vote. Instead, Dr. David Platt joins us to discuss his latest book, Before You Vote. In this episode, we discuss:

• Responses to the first presidential debate
• The bible’s call to pray for our political leaders
• A pastor’s role in the American political system

• How racism can be perpetuated through systems and structures
• The importance of embracing global Christianity

• why the statement is needed,
• what it means for Christians to seek the health of the nation, and
• the difference between a public theology and a political stance.

• Defining racism and systemic racism
• The American church’s complicity in racism
• How should pastors talk about racism
• The legacy of Billy Graham as it relates to race
• How to study the history of racism

This episode references:

Our article series on The Exchange about White Fragility.

Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s documentary series on African American Lives

The Enduring Lost Cause: Afterlives of a Redeemer Nation Edward R. Crowther, editor

• How to honor the inerrancy of scripture and recognize the role of cultural hermeneutics 
• How pastors and Christian leaders of all races can benefit from different viewpoints
• The role of scripture in discipleship

• Personal and small group evangelism during the pandemic
• Breaking into evangelistic conversations by listening, engaging in natural conversations about what is going on in our world, and topics that have been impacted by Christ in your life
• How to train and mobilize people for personal evangelism by sharing stories, demystifying the process
• Principles for training everybody to share their faith (you already have everything you need, not trying to win arguments, different types of testimonies, and praying evangelistically)

• Shifting your church towards equipping parents for discipleship
• Creating faith cultures in our homes by sharing faith stories
• How to help kids belong, believe, and become with their faith
• How parents can disciple kids as the church of 2050

In this episode, Ed references “Waking Up in 2030” by Ross Douthat (New York Times)

• Winsome cultural engagement in what we watch, post, and listen to
• Dealing with weariness, anxiety, and other emotions that may arise during difficult conversations
• The transformative power of the gospel in our relationships

Trillia Newbell

• Author of numerous books, including the recently released Beautifully Distinct: Conversations with Friends on Faith, Life, and Culture. 
• Her writings on issues of faith, family, and diversity have been published in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, Desiring God, True Woman, Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, and more.
• She is also a commentator for World Radio (a sister platform for World Magazine).
• Trillia is a highly sought after speaker. She has presented at conferences, churches, women’s retreats, colleges and seminaries, including True Woman, The Gospel Coalition Women’s conference, Southeastern Theological Seminary, and more.
• Recently, she began working with Moody Publishers as an acquisitions editor.
• Her greatest love besides God is her family. She is married to her best friend and love, Thern. They reside with their two children near Nashville, TN.

• This is not a time to panic. We should be concerned, but the church has historically been through a lot of difficult times.  It is a new missiological opportunity for the church. 
• Our Western churches have primarily been vertical, meaning that they’ve grown through large mega churches. Now, we’re seeing more horizontal growth where there’s multi venues, and maybe even micro-sites now. 
• Some churches have found that during quarantine, the church members have connected with community members better than they had before the pandemic. 
• It’s a great time to rethink and re-engineer. This is an opportunity to make the necessary changes that you should have pre-pandemic. 

Book Referenced in this Episode: The Post-Quarantine Church 6 Urgent Challenges and Opportunities That Will Determine the Future of Your Congregation

Thom Rainer

• Founder and CEO of Church Answers
• Served as president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources
• Served for 12 years at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he was the founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism. 
• He has been a pastor of four churches and interim pastor of ten churches. 
• Graduate of the University of Alabama, MDiv and PhD degrees from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. 
• Written over 30 books, including three bestsellers: I Am a Church Member, Autopsy of a Deceased Church, and Simple Church.

• Rethinking Christian education for the digital age
• How churches can sustain online engagement
• Creating resilient disciples

David Kinnaman

• President of Barna Group, a leading research and communications company that works with churches, nonprofits, and businesses ranging from film studios to financial services.
• Author of the bestselling books Faith For Exiles, Good Faith, You Lost Me and unChristian.
• Since 1995, David has directed interviews with more than 1.5 million individuals and overseen hundreds of U.S. and global research studies. 
• He and his wife live in California with their three children.

• Define crisis as any issue or event that unravels the order or threatens the flourishing of a person, group, organization, or a body of people and our role as leaders.
• Describe the stages of crisis which start with the basement, where you protect yourself, your family, or your church; the workroom where you change your communication and people’s roles and the laboratory where you help people innovate.
• Identify the differences between incident and issue crises for how you lead.
• Describe how mission and vision remain, but strategies change.

This episode refers to our new online course on crisis leadership.

Bio:

Josh has been serving local churches in vocational ministry for almost twenty years replanting and revitalizing churches.

He currently serves as the Assistant Director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center, the Assistant Director of Lausanne North America, and the Director of the Rural Matters Institute.

Josh holds a PhD in North American Missiology from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

• How they made the decision to shift towards house churches during this season
• The theological case for shifting strategies in a crisis
• How they anticipate the change will impact their church moving forward

About the Guest:

• J.D. Greear is the pastor of The Summit Church, a church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina that has grown from 300 to over 10,000 in attendance each Sunday under his leadership.
• He has authored several books, his most recent being Above All: The Gospel Is the Source of the Church’s Renewal (2019)
• J.D. completed his Ph.D. in Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, writing on the correlations between early church presentations of the gospel and Islamic theology. Seeing Muslims come to faith in Christ has long been a burden of his, a burden that led him to serve in Southeast Asia with the International Mission Board.
• He is currently serving as the 62nd president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
• Pastor J.D. and his wife Veronica live in Raleigh. Together they are raising four kids: Kharis, Alethia, Ryah, and Adon

How do we best reach our neighbors? In this episode, Dave Runyon, author of The Art of Neighboring, helps us get to know our neighbors by:

• Having a map and a list
• Deploying people for ministry in their front yards
• Hosting ways for neighbors to connect
• Naturally loving our neighbors and building relationships

Referenced in this episode:

COVID-19 Neighboring Toolkit

The Art of Neighboring Video Series on Right Now Media

Dave Runyon

• Helps faith, business, and government leaders unite around common causes in the Denver metro area.
• Executive Director of CityUnite and as a consultant for businesses who have a desire to make a positive impact in their communities.
• Co-author The Art of Neighboring (Baker Books)
• Pastor for ten years at Foothills Community Church and The Next Level Church

• how they made the decision to open
• ways they’ve adjusted their campuses and services to be outside and socially distanced
• scriptural basis for complying with public health guidance
• engaging their community needs

Brian Brodersen is senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and is joined by their executive pastor, Jordan Taylor and Lance Emma, who oversees many things including Calvary’s radio program and facilities.

View the announcement here.

We ask Andy about:

• his team’s decision and how they made it
• how the crisis has impacted their budget and giving, and
• how he is calling his congregation to live on mission in the crisis.

Andy Stanley founded Atlanta-based North Point Ministries in 1995. Today, NPM consists of seven churches in the Atlanta area and a network of more than 90 churches around the globe that collectively serve nearly 185,000 people weekly. A survey of U.S. pastors in Outreach Magazine identified Andy as one of the ten most influential living pastors in America.

• the idols this season is exposing
• unexpected ministry opportunities where God is working
• what she’s learned about God from helping couples navigate the emptiness of losing a child and how it can help us navigate Coronavirus
• how to trust God when we’re feeling empty
• the role of scripture in helping us navigate the crisis

Here are the links referenced in this episode:

• “Our Faith is Being Tested, and is on Display” (article in byFaith magazine)
• Biblical Theology Workshops for Women

Nancy Guthrie:

• Teaches the Bible at her church, Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tennessee,
• Speaks at conferences worldwide, and through numerous books and video series.
• She and her husband, David, are the cohosts of the GriefShare video series used in more than 12,000 churches nationwide
• They also host Respite Retreats for couples who have experienced the death of a child.
• Guthrie is also the host of Help Me Teach the Bible, a podcast of the Gospel Coalition.
• Her latest book, God Does His Best Work with Empty, releases from Tyndale House Publishers in September 2020

Following up on their recent articles on Christianity Today’s The Exchange blog, Andrew and Ed talk about the discipleship implications when Christ-followers share false information online.

How do you help Christians think critically in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis?

• the challenges of depression and despair in the life of leadership
• the critical role of close friendships that can help leaders through crisis
• the role of supporting relationship structures such as elders and spouses
• Scripture’s role in helping us pray through burdens (specifically Psalm 142)

Mimi is Visiting Assistant Professor of Christian Formation & Ministry, Wheaton College

She has served in full-time ministry for twenty-five years, leading children and family minishttps://digitalpass.lifeway.com/tries in the church.

Mimi earned her doctorate in Early Childhood Educationfrom Concordia University Chicago.

She is passionate about encouraging, equipping, and challenging the next generation of ministry leaders to faithfully pursue God’s call in their lives.

Mimi has several publications including children’s ministry curriculum.

Jana Magruder

Jana serves as the Director of LifeWay Kids.

She is a Baylor graduate and offers a wealth of experience and passion for kids ministry, education, and publishing.

She recently published a book titled Nothing Less: Engaging Kids in a Lifetime of Faith.