The Called to Flourish Podcast

At some point, every church will face the inevitable challenge of transitioning from an outgoing pastor to a new pastor. This reality begs the question, "What is essential to successful pastoral succession—especially as its bound to affect the church's workplace?" Our guest, today, is a national leader in this area, and he's going to give you some valuable, practical wisdom you need to know. His name is William Vanderbloemen, the Founder and CEO of the Vanderbloemen Search Group in Houston. William has been able to combine over 15 years of ministry experience as a Senior Pastor with the best practices of Executive Search to provide churches with a unique offering: a deep understanding of local church work with the very best knowledge and practices of professional executive search. William is regularly invited to speak across the country in both church services and as a resource to churches and conferences on leadership. His book Next: Pastoral Succession That Works on effective pastoral leadership and succession was released through Baker Books in September 2014, and his book Search: The Pastoral Search Committee Handbook was released through B&H Books in June 2016. Find full show notes here http://blog.bcwinstitute.org/s3e16-william-vanderbloemen

We believe having a healthy culture for a Christian organization is an end in itself. But we also believe when a ministry has a healthy culture it creates the conditions necessary for growth. What lessons about how to build a healthy culture can a global mission-sending agency teach the rest of us? The answer, I believe, can be seen inside the culture of East-West International Ministries. In the past five years, East-West has doubled the number of missionaries they send overseas from 100 to 200. Clearly, that's a sign of a growing, healthy culture. I want you to hear the full story, so let me set the context for what you're about to hear. The setting is Dallas, Texas, site of the Great Commission Community at the 2017 Mission Leaders Conference hosted by Missio Nexus. Missio Nexus is the largest association of Great Commission churches and organizations in North America. At the conference, I had the pleasure to speak to a group of mission leaders about the proven approach of the Best Christian Workplace Institute to help Christian organizations, churches and businesses grow their culture. What you're about to hear is an open conversation between myself, Dave Gibson, EVP of Field Ministries, and Jessica Garrett, Human Resources Director, both from East-West Ministries International. I invite you to listen and learn, along with me. Find full show notes here http://blog.bcwinstitute.org/s3e15-jessica-garrett-dave-gibson-east-west

I think we can all agree that organizational growth is a good thing. Yet, growth can be both a gift and a huge challenge. Today, we're going to learn how one church has paid attention to the challenges of the continual growth to build a healthier church. By building healthier culture, this church is poised to make a greater overall ministry impact. Today we have the pleasure of talking with Josh Patterson. Josh is Lead Pastor of Ministry Leadership at The Village Church, which has five campuses in the greater Dallas area. Josh has written a book called, Creature of the Word. It's a book that lays out the Scripture-based beauty of a Jesus-centered church and how to go about actually forming Jesus-centered church. Find full show notes here http://blog.bcwinstitute.org/s3e14-josh-patterson-the-village-church

Are you interested in improving the relationships on your team and across your organization? I believe our topic today has the potential to radically improve the relationships among the employees in your team and organization. Having just heard of this recently, we had to include this innovative idea in a podcast for our listeners. What is it? Paul writes in Romans 12:10 to be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Thus, the basis for our discussion today… the honor chair. Find the full show notes at http://blog.bcwinstitute.org/s3e1dawn-pearcy-bobby-bemis-calvary-chapel-ft-lauderdale

Today we have the pleasure of talking with Peter Greer, President and CEO of HOPE International, a global nonprofit focused on Christ-centered job creation, savings mobilization, and microenterprise development. Peter is the co-author, along with David Weekley, of the new book The Board and the CEO: Seven Practices to Protect Your Organization's Most Important Relationship. Find full show notes here http://blog.bcwinstitute.org/s3-e13-peter-greer

Today's podcast is something completely different. Normally, I'm the one asking the questions. In the next few minutes, the questions will be coming straight at me! Playing the role of host, today, is Mark Cutshall. As a professional writer and creative consultant is a member of the team at the Best Christian Workplaces Institute. He's a long-time friend and I have a good idea of what he has up his sleeve, today. Welcome, Mark, and lead us on. Back in August, I took a little journey, the journey of a life-time, a journey that lasted 35 days in which I actually walked 500 miles across the northern tier of Spain. This spiritual pilgrimage has affected me as a follower of Jesus, and has impacted my work as president of BCWI. Find full show notes here http://blog.bcwinstitute.org/s3e12-camino-al-lopus

If you're a CEO or other senior leader who answers to a board of directors, OR if you chair a board, OR if serve on a board of a Christian organization (pause) and if you want your board to be more effective to further and fulfill the unique work to which God has called your organization, church or business, then these next few minutes are just for you. And even if you're not directly involved with a board, you're in for a treat. We have the pleasure of visiting with two longtime friends and incredible Christian leaders. They're going to share with you some of their very best wisdom, experience, and stories from their new forth-coming book: Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom. Dan Busby is the president of the Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability—known of course as ECFA. Forty years of experience serving the Christ-centered church and nonprofit community. Prolific writer of eight books. Named by Nonprofit Times as one of the "50 Most Powerful Nonprofit Leaders" from 2010-2015. And with Dan . . . John Pearson, board governance and management consultant. Former CEO of Christian Camp and Conference Association, Willow Creek Association and Christian Management Association, now Christian Leadership Alliance. John's the author of Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit. Find full show notes here http://blog.bcwinstitute.org/s3-e11-john-pearson-dan-busby/

It always gives us great joy when we see a Christian organization make a significant improvement in their culture and reach the flourishing level. Today, you're going to hear an inspiring story that will give you some powerful, practical approaches you can use to improve the health of your culture. We have the pleasure of visiting with Sam Barfell, Superintendent of Southside Christian School in Simpsonville, South Carolina. Southside Christian school includes Pre-K to 12th grade. Southside Christian School's purpose is to "partner with Christian parents to provide an excellent education consistent with biblical truth." Find full show notes here http://blog.bcwinstitute.org/s3e10-sam-barfell/

Christian leaders, listen up. There's a critical demographic trend playing out before us right now. It's called the Millennial generation. 75.4 million millennials make up the largest living generation. Why should this matter to your church, organization, or business? Because Millennials are the future of your culture. Millennials are the "tomorrow" of your culture that you need to take notice of, today. The question in front of us on today's podcast is, how can you leverage and optimize the unique perspective and multiple talents of Millennials to grow the health of your culture and therefore deepen the immediate and lasting impact of your organization? Our guest is going to answer this question. Today we have the pleasure of visiting with Dr. Amy Nagley. Amy recently served as research consultant with the Best Christian Workplaces Institute. Amy has written a white paper on the topic of Millennials in the Christian Workplace, which we'll make available on the show notes page on our blog. Find full show notes here http://blog.bcwinstitute.org/s3e9-amy-nagley-millennials/

When it comes to transforming an organization's culture, there are inspirational stories, unique comeback stories and memorable stories. The story you're going to hear over these next few minutes is ALL of these things—inspirational, unique, memorable—and more. Today, we have the pleasure of visiting with Gary Lausch, Vice President of Human Resources at ELIC – English Language Institute of China. ELIC is based in Fort Collins, Colorado. Since 1981, ELIC has trained English teachers to work with educational partners in more than 16 countries. Find full show notes at http://blog.bcwinstitute.org/s3-e8-3-workplace-desires-that-transform-culture-gary-lausch-elic