Spiritual Life and Leadership

In this episode, Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson delve into the importance of understanding and empathizing with others' beliefs, especially in times of political and cultural polarization. They discuss the role of churches in bridging divisions and striving for unity, highlighting the need to move away from comfortable spaces and embrace discomfort as an opportunity for growth. With insights from leaders such as Jim Harrington and Allen Hilton, this episode offers valuable perspectives on creating a sense of shalom across diverse backgrounds.Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss this quote from Allen Hilton in Episode 135: Leading Your Church Through Political Division.“Our shalom job right now—in this place and time—is to get good at being together across difference.” Ep. 135 is a conversation about Allen Hilton's book, A House United: How the Church Can Save the World.Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

How can we avoid burnout in ministry?Jason Young is a keynote speaker, coach, and consultant who helps churches and businesses thrive, and the co-author of Don’t Burn Out, Burn Bright.In this episode, Jason Young and Markus Watson get real specific about what can lead to burnout in ministry and what we can to do prevent it.THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Jason Young is a keynote speaker, coach, and consultant who helps churches and businesses thrive, and the co-author of Don’t Burn Out, Burn Bright.Jason wants to help leaders, not only prevent burnout in ministry, but structure their lives and ministries in such a way that they truly thrive in all areas of life.“When discouragement creeps in, destruction is nigh.”According to Jason Young, burnout in ministry leadership is not inevitable.Control isolates.  Control rarely invites.Staff members want to know two things in their work:Will I be successful if I do this?What’s in it for me?Jesus, too, was motivated by what was in it for him.  Hebrews says it was “for the joy set before him” that he endured that cross.Jason Young discusses the connection between entanglements and burnout in ministry.According to Jason Young, leaders read too much.  Maybe leaders need to do less reading.Sometimes in all our reading and consuming of information, we may begin to forget the voice of God.In his early ministry years, Markus Watson wanted to attend lots of conferences.  In his middle ministry years, Markus took lots of classes.  At this stage of his ministry, Markus recognizes that he’s filled his mind with plenty of information; now he wants to pursue life experiences.Exhaustion and burnout in ministry leadership doesn’t show up suddenly; it creeps in and slowly drains you.“If God called you to ministry, it’s his.  And he would like for you to be openhanded with his ministry because he wants to trust you with more.”RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:Book mentioned:Don’t Burn Out, Burn Bright, by Jason Young and Jonathan MalmJason Young:Catchfiredaily.comDrjasonyoung.comChurch Leadership InstituteSend me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!Get Becoming Leaders of Shalom for free HERE.Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss the transformative power of acknowledging and addressing our own pain as leaders. If our pain isn't transformed, it will be transmitted to others, potentially leading to harmful behaviors and dynamics within our ministries and organizations. By developing self-awareness, emotional health, and adaptive capacity, leaders can prioritize their mission over personal needs and avoid unconsciously inflicting pain on those they serve. This insightful conversation offers valuable insights and practical guidance for cultivating a healthy inner life of faithful discipleship and a healthy outer life of ministry leadership.Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss this quote from Tod Hall in Episode 136: Healthy Attachment and Spiritual Leadership.“If our pain isn’t transformed, it’s going to be transmitted.” Ep. 136 is a conversation about Todd Hall's book, The Connected Life.Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

Justin Bailey is associate professor of theology at Dordt University and the author of Interpreting Your World: Five Lenses for Engaging Theology and Culture.What is culture?  Sometimes people say we need to "resist culture."  But the language of resistance seems to be rooted in fear—and I don’t think we’re meant to react to our culture from a place of fear.Maybe engaging with culture as the church requires something else.  Maybe what it requires is interpretation.  And then, maybe it requires thoughtful response and engagement.In this episode, Justin Bailey helps us dig into these issues--including a really helpful conversation about cancel culture!THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Justin Bailey is associate professor of theology at Dordt University and the author of Interpreting Your World: Five Lenses for Engaging Theology and Culture.Justin’s books wants to help people understand their culture in a way that recognizes what isn’t life-giving, while also affirming that which is life-giving, generous, and generative.Justin Bailey offers two metaphors for understanding culture:Culture as a field or soil that nourishes and nurtures certain ideas and practices that can grow.Culture as a field of force in which certain things pull, push, and attract one in certain directions.Justin Bailey reflects on five lenses for interpreting culture:Meaning – How am I connected to the world around me?Power – Do I have real choices or am I at the mercy of greater powers?Ethics – What does it mean to be a good human?Religion – How do I face the anxiety of life and the certainty of death?Aesthetics – How do I live a life that is generative and beautiful?Outside the church, the lens that is most often used to interpret culture is the power lens.  But if this is the only lens we use, we will miss much of what is going on.Justin Bailey teaches students to analyze culture theologically in two movements:Movement 1 – From CultureMovement 2 – For CultureAccording to Justin Bailey, part of the work of ministry leadership is to discern, what might God’s Spirit be doing here in this culture to open people up to the Gospel?Justin Bailey discusses cancellation and complication as ways of responding to challenges within culture.The danger of an iconoclasm of cancellation is that we put ourselves up on the pedestals in the place of the thing we have dethroned.An iconoclasm of complication acknowledges that there is more than one story and things are more complicated than they once seemed.An iconoclasm of complication seeks to contextualize.RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:Books mentioned:Interpreting Your World: Five Lenses for Engaging Theology and Culture, by Justin BaileyJustin BaileyWebsiteTwitterSend me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!Get Becoming Leaders of Shalom for free HERE.Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson reflect on a quote from Rich Stearns focusing on courageious leadership, which often means disappointing your own people at a rate they can absorb. The conversation highlights the importance of leaders calling people to their better selves and standing up for what is right, even if it means facing challenges from within their own tribe. Tod Bolsinger also shares his insights on how to develop courage through healthy relationships with partners, friends, and mentors.Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss this quote from Rich Stearns in Episode 105: Courageous Leadership."Leaders have to make difficult decisions and difficult decisions require courage."Ep. 105 is a conversation about Rich Stearns' book, Lead Like it Matters to God.TIMESTAMPS:[00:01:12] Leadership requires the courage to disappoint your own people in order to fulfill the mission and make necessary changes.[00:03:28] Leaders must lead people through a process of transformation; without change, they are not needed. To reach the promised land, transformation took 40 years for Moses's people, but he had to be faithful and pass it down to the next generations. Leadership today requires courage to call on the better nature of people and lead them through transformation.Q&A:1. What challenges can people-pleasers face when they need to disappoint others, particularly their friends?Answer: People-pleasers can struggle with the fear of hurting their friends, and may feel an extra sense of obligation to keep them happy.2. How can people develop courage?Answer: Surrounding oneself with supportive and encouraging individuals who prioritize the mission over the individual can help develop courage.3. What is the role of disappointing people in adaptive leadership?Answer: Adaptive leadership involves making tough decisions that may disappoint one's own people for the sake of achieving a larger goal or mission.4. How can courage help in leadership?Answer: Courage is essential in leadership, as it allows leaders to call people to their better selves and stand up for what is right, even if it means facing challenges from their own community.5. What can "partners" and "friends" offer leaders in challenging situations?Answer: Partners should be more committed to the mission than to the individual, while friends should care about the person but be willing to provide honest feedback.6. What is the role of mentors in leadership?Answer: Mentors play a vital role in helping leaders be the best they can be in service of the larger mission.Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

If you grew up in the church, you may have spent a lot of time thinking about things like the rapture and the mark of the beast.  Or about the Soviet Union’s  role in bringing the anti-Christ into the world.But is that what Revelation is really about?  Does Revelation say anything to us today?Scot McKnight and I discuss his book, Revelation for the Rest of Us--not only what it means to put Revelation in its historical context, but also how Revelation helps us today live as “dissident disciples."THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Scot McKnight is professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary and author of Revelation for the Rest of Us.Scot read a lot of books about the end times when he was a young Christian.It wasn’t until he studied Jewish apocalyptic literature while working on his Ph.D. that Scot McKnight began to rethink what Revelation really is about.Revelation for the Rest of Us is not exactly a commentary, but it is meant to show us how to read the book of Revelation theologically.Scot McKnight explains that Revelation is a first-person account of a series of fantastic visions in which God shows that the suffering people of the world will experience justice, with special focus on the followers of Jesus who are suffering under the Roman Empire.Revelation tells us that the suffering people of the world are going to experience justice. And God is not asleep. God will awaken, in a sense, to act in this world to bring justice to those who are oppressed.Scot McKnight says the problem that John is addressing in Revelation is Babylon, or Rome, and its corruptions, and the fact that Babylon is creeping into the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3.Those who follow the Lamb will by definition become dissidents and resistors to Babylon and its ways.Revelation is full of either-or language. The dragon is contrasted with the Lamb.  Babylon is contrasted with New Jerusalem. Followers of Jesus are contrasted with those who have the mark of the beast.The marks of Babylon include:  idolatry, emphasis on opulence, violence and murder, image and branding, militarism, economic exploitation, arrogance.Scot McKnight reflects on the ways pastors can lead today in a society that in some ways bears the marks of Babylon.RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:Scot McKnight:Substack articlesTwitter - @scotmknightFacebookBooks mentioned:Revelation for the Rest of Us, by Scot McKnightA Church Called Tov, by Scot McKnightThe Second Testament, by Scot McKnightGuide to Survival, by Salem Kirban The Late Great Planet Earth, by Hal LindseyLeft Behind, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. JenkinsSend me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!Get Becoming Leaders of Shalom for free HERE.Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss the idea that listening is often overlooked in leadership, and provide insights on how genuine, deep listening can help leaders become more effective. It's important to listen to different groups of people, including those being served and those within the congregation, and to listen to God through prayer, worship, and scripture. This form of listening allows leaders to discern the needs of people and, in turn, respond to genuine needs in the world.Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson focus on this quote from Jeff Crosby in Episode 96: Crossing Leadership Thresholds."It is in the listening--genuine, deep listening--that we can offer our best selves to our organizations."TIMESTAMPED OVERVIEW:[00:01:27] Listening leads to powerful organizational leadership that responds to genuine needs.[00:03:04] Listening is key to effective leadership, as it allows for deeper understanding of needs and discernment of how best to serve.Q&A:1. Why is deep listening important in leadership?- Jeff Crosby's quote suggests that listening is often overlooked in favor of speaking and providing answers as a leader. Learning how to listen well allows leaders to go deeper into the pain and needs of others.2. Who should leaders listen to?- It is important to listen to different groups of people, including those being served and those within the congregation. He also suggests listening to God through prayer, worship, and scripture.3. Why do many leaders struggle with listening?- Many leaders struggle with too many voices and opinions when making decisions. Leaders tend to stop listening and start talking too much, which can be disruptive.4. What can leaders do to become better listeners?- Leaders can become better listeners by learning how to listen well, going deeper into the pain and needs of others, and attuning to those around them. This includes listening to the pain and needs of their own people, the needs of the world, and God to discern what they should do.5. What are some characteristics of the healthiest organizations?- The healthiest organizations are those that respond to genuine needs in the world, which can only be understood by genuinely listening to people, often including those who feel they do not have a right to articulate their needs.Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

Miroslav Volf is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School and the co-author of The Home of God: A Brief Story of Everything.In this episode, Miroslav Volf and I talk about what it means for this world to be God’s home.  And what it means for this world to be our home.  And what this means for the mission of the church.  And, finally, what should the church do when it feels like this world isn’t our home?THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Miroslav Volf is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School and the co-author of The Home of God: A Brief Story of Everything.The purpose of this book is to sketch the story in which we situate our lives so we can discern the meaning of our lives.According to Miroslav Volf, creation is God’s home.God delights in bringing the world to its fullness.In Revelation, we see God making his home on the earth.Miroslav Volf reflects on why Christian tradition seems to have lost the idea that God wants to make God’s home here on earth—rather than far away in heaven.We ought to think in terms of salvation being a matter of matter.  According to Miroslav Volf, there is a materiality to salvation.The world is a home of homes.Miroslav Volf coined the term dysoikos, which refers to “home that isn’t home.”  It expresses the feeling of being alienated, of being a stranger in one’s own home or space.God redeems us out of our sense of dysoikos, so that we might be made at one with each other, at one with our place, at one with creation, and at one with God.God invites us out of dysoikos and into the home that God has for us?Miroslav Volf reflects on how the church is called to navigate a world—a home—that is constantly changing.We can’t orient ourselves around the old world.  And we don’t know how to orient ourselves with a world that hasn’t yet been born.RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:Miroslav VolfYale Center for Faith and CultureBooks mentioned:The Home of God: a Brief Story of Everything, by Miroslav VolfSend me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!Get Becoming Leaders of Shalom for free HERE.Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

This episode revolves around Ken Blanchard's words from ep. 86, which states that "Great leaders are great because people trust and respect them, not because they have power."Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson explore the idea that true greatness is achieved through earning trust and respect, rather than relying on authority or position of power. They also discuss the importance of adaptive leadership, the need for transformation, and the role of trust in leadership.Overall, the conversation reflects on the idea of servant leadership modeled by Jesus, where true greatness is measured by the impact one has on others.Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss this quote from Ken Blanchard in Episode 86: Leading Like Jesus."Great leaders are great because people trust and respect them, not because they have power.” Ep. 86 is a conversation about Ken Blanchard's book, Lead Like Jesus.TIMESTAMPED OVERVIEW: [00:02:46] Trust is essential in adaptive leadership to lead people through transformation, but it's not enough. Leaders need to empower and enable their followers to reach their full potential.  [00:05:02] Leadership is about gathering people together and collaborating on what needs to be learned and where to go. The leader's role is to name the transformation process that everyone, especially the leader, will go through. Q&A:1. Can anyone be a "great" leader?Answer: Yes, almost anyone can be a great leader in the sense of earning trust and respect from those being led.2. What is the importance of trust in leadership?Answer: Trust is built on technical competence and relational congruence, and is key to effective leadership and taking people through the transformation process.3. What is necessary for transformation besides trust?Answer: People must be empowered, cared for, and enabled to become all that God wants them to be.4. What is true greatness according to this episode?Answer: True greatness is measured by the impact one has on others, their respect and trust, not by power, acclaim, platforms, clicks, or likes.Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

Claude Alexander is senior pastor of The Park Church in Charlotte, North Carolina and the author of Becoming the Church: God’s People in Purpose and Power.The church has never been perfect.It has always been filled broken people, sinful people, silly people, selfish people, violent people, manipulative people, mistaken people, intrusive people, rough-around-the edges people.All kinds of people. Including good people, kind people, compassionate people, people of justice.The church, we might say, is made of a “becoming” people.That’s what Bishop Claude Alexander and Markus Watson discuss in this episode, focusing on what it means to be a people who, not only are the church, but who are continuing to become the church in all the fullness of who the church is meant to be.THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Bishop Claude Alexander is senior pastor of The Park Church in Charlotte, North Carolina and the author of Becoming the Church: God’s People in Purpose and Power.Claude Alexander suggests there is a tendency to separate Jesus from the church.  But you can’t separate them.We need to temper our expectation that the church is a perfect product.The Church is essentially a people in the process of becoming.Claude Alexander describes Peter and Thomas as being “dechurched” after the death of Jesus.Churches need to do a better job of discipling people before they become dechurched.Many churches feel marginalized and decentered in Western society today.  But that is not a new experience for churches composed of racial and ethnic minorities.Our call in Christ, according to Claude Alexander, calls us to each other in the complexity of our diversity.Claude Alexander discusses the ways the apostles had to adapt in the early church, focusing especially on Acts 6.It was because of their obedience to what they knew that the apostles were able to seize later opportunities that God had for them.RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:Claude Alexander:www.claudealexanderministries.orgwww.theparkministries.orgTwitter - @bishopcrajrBooks mentioned:Becoming the Church: God’s People in Purpose and Power, by Claude AlexanderAnonymous: Jesus’ Hidden Years…and Yours, by Alicia Britt CholeSend me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!Get Becoming Leaders of Shalom for free HERE.Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.