Unhurried Living | Helping Christians Rest Deeper & Lead Better

Curiosity is one of the most important qualities in a good leader. We’ve seen the fruit of that counsel in our life and work. Today we share a conversation that Alan enjoyed with Casey Tygrett about his new book, Becoming Curious: A Spiritual Practice of Asking Questions. As a spiritual director, I have a bias for asking good questions. I love what Casey has written here, and it was a pleasure to interact with him about the journey that led to this book. We need to learn to resist the temptation to form easy answers when God might be leading us to live with a good question for a season. We give people a gift when we ask them a loving, thoughtful questions, and then give them the time is takes to listen well to their response. I hope you’ll enjoy today’s episode. Casey Tygrett is a pastor, blogger, adjunct seminary professor, and spiritual director who serves as the teaching pastor at Heartland Community Church in Rockford, Illinois. Casey's heart and passion is that writing is not just information, it can reveal the beauty of God as art. He is the author of Becoming Curious: A Spiritual Practice of Asking Questions. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

“As a holy listener …. I have to put myself out of the way, to become humble in the true sense of knowing my place in the order of God’s creation …. above, all, I must be reverent, for I am entrusted with something precious and tender.” (Margaret Guenther) This is the essence of spiritual direction. Enjoy a conversation between Gem Fadling and Beth Booram, who is a seasoned spiritual director. Here are the questions discussed: • How do you meet with God? What is your personal experience tending your own prayer and contemplative life? • What is your favorite definition of spiritual direction? • Describe for me the art of listening to God and the other person at the same time? • How do you develop the skill of asking good questions? • What are the benefits of spiritual direction? • What do you talk about with a spiritual director? • When is a good time in life for someone to seek spiritual direction? • What is one piece of advice you would give to a practicing spiritual director? • What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who is currently in a spiritual direction relationship? Beth Booram, along with her husband David, is the founder and director of Sustainable Faith Indy, a retreat center in Indianapolis. She leads The School of Spiritual Direction, and speaks around the country on topics related to spiritual formation and Christian leadership. She has authored several books including Awaken Your Senses, and Starting Something New: Spiritual Direction for Your God-given Dream. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

We’ve said before that at the heart of all we do is people. Where are the people? What do they need? How can we help them take their next step? One model we’ve used over the course of our lives is The Critical Journey by Janet Hagberg and Robert Guelich. Listen in as Alan and Gem describe the six stages in a life of faith. It is so helpful to see where you are in your journey. It can help you feel validated and understood. It can also help you to see where others are in their journey and give you eyes to see how to encourage them in their process. These stages are not prescriptive or limiting. They simply give vocabulary to our common developmental journey. And for leaders, it can be a helpful way to pray for those in our care. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

In today’s episode, we share a recent phone conversation I (Alan) had with Pete Scazzero. We focused especially on his most recent book, The Emotionally Healthy Leader. It came out when I was writing the first draft of my latest book, An Unhurried Leader. I purposely waited to start reading it because I had a sense that there would be many points of resonance. I wanted to give voice to what was on my heart before hearing what God had put on Pete’s heart. I was right. I think you’ll hear how much Pete and enjoyed our first opportunity to talk with one another about the theme of unhurried life in the spirit of Jesus, about how the monastic tradition has been such a gift to both of us, and our hopes for healthier Christian leaders. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Most of us know how to teach for information, but how do you lead a team or group for transformation? On this week’s podcast we will share with you our approach and our methods, drawing on our 25 years of experience. Here are a few bullet points from our conversation: ¬ The importance of preparing who you are. ¬ Spiritual leadership as hospitality. Holding space for others. ¬ Making space for spiritual practices & encountering God. ¬ Unhurried Time with God explained and experienced. ¬ Right-sizing content to maximize formation. ¬ Informational teaching vs. formational teaching. ¬ “Process” thinking versus “event” thinking. If you want really unpack this with us, join us for our upcoming training: Leading for Transformation. In addition to the content above, we will also dig into An Unhurried Leader chapters on Working with God and Prayer as Primary Influence. Go to unhurriedliving.com/change for more information and to register. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Don't speed read the Bible if you want to sink into the friendship with God you can enjoy there. This podcast shares an unhurried way to engage scripture. In this podcast, I'll share a little personal story about my own daily engagement with scripture in my spiritual journey. I want to talk a bit about unhurried ways I’ve been seeking to come to the Bible in recent years. Last Spring, about 15 months ago, I began engaging a chronological Bible reading plan. I hadn’t ever read through the Bible that way and thought it might be a life-giving practice for me. I wrote about this on the Unhurried Living blog in January. Basically, what I did was listen to the chapters for a particular day while reading along in my print Bible. I’m sure, like you, reading the Bible in my mind goes faster than listening to the Bible read aloud. So listening as I read had a way of slowing me down and letting me sink a bit deeper into what I was hearing. Just the other day, I finished listening to and reading along with the whole Old Testament. (You don’t have to be much of a math expert to know that if it took me 15 months to finish the Old Testament on a one-year reading plan, I didn’t do this every single day). In recent weeks, I had begun to feel that this listening and reading along plan wasn’t proving to be as much a place of grace for me as it was for so long before. This happens with spiritual practices. In this podcast, I unpack my slowing down even further through the practice of Lectio Divina. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Gem shares a spiritual practice she's developed called, “SLOW.” It is an an acronym for STOP, LINGER, OBSERVE and WONDER. SLOW is a practice you can engage, in just a couple of minutes at any point in your day. It’s a helpful process of re-focusing and re-engaging. It’s very difficult to be truly productive when you feel scattered or hurried. Five-minute retreats can help you slow down, remember God's care, and bring you back into the moment. You can emerge refreshed, and ready to move forward into your next interaction or task. If any of you follow us on YouTube (which we highly recommend), you’ve seen our 5-Minute Retreat videos. SLOW is the most popular video on our channel. That’s why I want to share it with you now. If you are able, sit in a comfortable chair or simply stand still wherever you are. I will gently guide you through the steps of SLOW – STOP, LINGER, OBSERVE and WONDER. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

“We need not have a position of influence to be a person of influence.” This isn’t a book just for people who are in organizational leadership roles. Leaders are influencers. God entrusts to each of us the privilege and responsibility to be persons of kingdom influence wherever he has planted us and in whatever relationships we find ourselves. One chapter is titled “Prayer as Primary Influence.” We may think of prayer as separate from the actual work and influence of our lives. We’ve found that it is actually an engine for our good work and godly influence. We can take fruitful action in prayer that would be impossible otherwise. Prayer as influence. Praying strategic and God-inspired prayers. One verse that has taught us a lot about unhurried influence is in Isaiah 30:15, “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength” Salvation and strength are leadership categories—influence categories. In life, we want leaders who fix things (salvation) and take bold action (strength). What is surprising in Isaiah is where such salvation or strength comes to us. Repentance. Rest. Quietness. Trust. Not our first thoughts for where to find rescue or courage, but they are actually where kingdom salvation and strength are found. “What I’ve been discovering is that unhurried leadership is actually more fruitful because it is more unhurried, not in spite of that slower pace.” Unhurried isn’t just a nice place to visit between frantic seasons of frenetic work. It’s the relational way of Jesus to more fruitful work. Jesus walks with his Father, speaks the Father’s words, does the Father’s work. He goes slow enough to stay in that place. And he can teach us how to follow him. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Alan and Gem traveled to Chatsworth, CA and The Church at Rocky Peak. Alan took part in a conversational sermon with Pastor Dave Cox. Hear the heartbeat of Unhurried Living and get a taste of An Unhurried Leader. The Fadlings spent the first 8 years of their marriage and ministry at The Church at Rocky Peak. It was so fun to go back to visit and do a pre-launch of An Unhurried Leader. Enjoy this conversation between Alan and Pastor Dave as they talk about unhurried influence. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Is it possible to have a busy life that is also unhurried? Can our life with God and our work with God become more and more connected and fruitful? Listen to this week’s conversation with Dr. Carol Taylor, president of Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri, as we talk about what she’s learned in years of leadership. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.