Spiritual Life and Leadership

What is a digital silent retreat?  In this episode, Laura Murray, a pastor and spiritual director, will tell the story of how she began to use Zoom to lead digital silent retreats while people were quarantining due to Covid, as well as offer insight into how to lead your own digital silent retreats. THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDES:Laura Murray is a pastor, a spiritual director, and regularly hosts digital silent retreats.Laura started leading digital silent retreats as a response to the experience of isolation due to the Covid quarantine that began in March 2020.Laura Murray knew it was important for people to have solitude and silence, but also to have connection—to be able to talk about their experience and what they were feeling.Laura explains how the digital silent retreat is structured.Participants in the digital silent retreats are asked to prepare before they show up, such as putting it on your calendar and letting their families know they’ll be unavailable during that time.The digital silent retreats are limited to the host plus eight people.Participants tend to find courage from one another in their sharing in the digital space.Laura Murray reflects on whether it would be better if they met in person.Meeting by Zoom has some advantages over in-person.  For instance, it levels the group socio-economically.According to Laura Murray, hospitality is a cornerstone practice for the digital silent retreats.Two other key practices are generosity and spacious guidance.Hospitality creates safe space for people to open up.  Hospitality also has boundaries.Laura Murray helps us understand the connection between leadership and hospitality.We need to have a clear “why” when doing digital silent retreats.RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:Laura Murray:Website – www.laurabmurray.com/retreatsBooks mentioned:This Here Flesh, by Cole Arthur RileyChurch 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.

Nicholas Pearce is the author of The Purpose Path.  He is also Clinical Professor of Management & Organizations at Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management and Founder & CEO of The Vocati Group.In this episode, Nicholas Pearce discusses what success really is.  Spoiler alert—it has nothing to do with bigger, better, and more.  It has to do with faithfully following the purpose to which God has called us.THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Nicholas Pearce is the author of The Purpose Path.  He is also Clinical Professor of Management & Organizations at Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management and Founder & CEO of The Vocati Group.Nicholas Pearce says that many of us learn to define success from an early age based on how those around us define success.The question, “What is success?” is best answered by faithfulness.According to Nicholas Pearce, success is best thought of as simple faithfulness one decision at a time.Many people climb the ladder of success, but feel like failures when they get to the top.Our definitions of success are like rudders that orient us in certain directions, impacting our sense of purpose.Nicholas Pearce makes the case that sometimes moments of purpose present themselves as distractions or disruptions.Nicholas Pearce shares how he has had to redefine success in his own life in order to more faithfully pursue his purpose.Sometimes we need to pivot when pursuing our purpose.God is not always going to do the miraculous.  Sometimes God just wants to see if you’ll put into practice what you know.Nicholas Pearce suggests that instead of praying for clarity, maybe we should be praying for courage, specifically vocational courage.Nicholas Pearce offers words of advice and encouragement for ministry leaders and pastors who are struggling to follow their purpose path.RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:Nicholas Pearce:Twitter - @napphdInstagram - @napphdWebsite – www.nicholaspearce.orgBooks mentioned:The Purpose Path: A Guide to Pursuing Your Authentic Life's Work, by Nicholas PearceBrighter by the Day: Waking Up to New Hopes and Dreams, by Robin RobertsChurch 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.

Authors Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch discuss the need to recalibrate the church around Jesus. They address the challenges faced by the evangelical church and the importance of refocusing on Jesus' teachings. The conversation highlights the significance of discipleship and the essential role of embodying Christ's values in the church community.

Bryan Sims is the author of Leading Together: The Holy Possibility of Harmony and Synergy in the Face of Change.  He is also a coach with Spiritual Leadership Inc. and a professor at Asbury Theological Serminary.In this episode, Bryan Sims discusses the importance of shared leadership.  As we lead through these challenging times, leaders need to be able to bring people together—to draw on all our gifts and talents and knowledge.  We are called to lead healthy teams of people in order to fully participate in God’s mission in the world.  We cannot do it alone.THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Bryan Sims is the author of Leading Together: The Holy Possibility of Harmony and Synergy in the Face of Change and is a coach with Spiritual Leadership Inc. and a professor at Asbury Theological Seminary.Bryan Sims explains that healthy leadership requires working together and harmony among those that are working together, especially as we are living in times of disequilibrium.Disequilibrium creates a space of high possibility.Bryan Sims explains what he means by “technical challenges” and “adaptive challenges.”Covid has been a time of intense adaptive challenge.Overcoming adaptive challenges requires shared leadership.Shared leadership can involve staff, church members, and even people outside the church or organization.Kenosis is the Greek word that captures the self-emptying nature of Jesus.  Healthy church leadership, according to Bryan Sims, also kenotic in nature.  Controlling and manipulating is the opposite of kenosis.Bryan Sims demonstrates the early church exhibited kenotic shared leadership because they learned that kind of leadership from Jesus.Adaptive shared leadership is actually quite pastoral.Bryan Sims, in his work, asks a really important question:  How do we discern what God is doing and how do we join God in that?Bryan Sims suggests that every leader needs a coach, a spiritual director, and a counselor.For leaders wanting to engage in shared leadership, Bryan Sims suggests finding a person with whom they can process their leadership challenges.RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:Bryan Sims:Website – www.bryandsims.comChurch Leadership Inc.:Website - www.spiritual-leadership.orgBooks mentioned:Leading Together, by Bryan SimsSurfing the Edge of Chaos, by Richard Pascale, Mark Milleman, and Linda GiojaCanoeing the Mountains, by Tod BolsingerSend 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.

Jon Ritner is the author of Positively Irritating: Embracing a Post-Christian World to Form a More Faithful and Innovative Church.  In this episode, we discuss what it means to be the church in a post-Christendom world.  How can the church be the kind of church that a Post-Christendom world actually needs—and the kind of church that God is calling the church to be?THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Jon Ritner is the author of Positively Irritating: Embracing a Post-Christian World to Form a More Faithful and Innovative Church and has served as lead at Ecclesia Hollywood for the last seven.After serving as an executive pastor of a megachurch, Jon Ritner eventually made his way to a microchurch network in Brussels, Belgium.  Later, Jon Ritner and his wife moved to Hollywood to help churches adapt and innovate in an increasingly post-Christendom world.The early church existed in a pluralistic pre-Christian culture.Jon Ritner uses the metaphor of an oyster to help us understand that challenges, when approached with a posture of learning and embrace, can lead to beauty.Thanks to Covid, we have just spent the last two years in a liminal space.The mission of God is not just the conversion of every individual soul.  It’s the redemption and restoration of all of creation.Jon Ritner argues that ministry should happen throughout the week in all the places where God’s people are.  Then they can come together to celebrate on Sundays.For many people today, going to church is almost a cross-cultural experience.Jon Ritner explains that many churches unconsciously create an insider-outsider divide when they announce that if someone wants to find belonging they have to come to the church.RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:Jon Ritner:E-mail: jonritner@gmail.comWebsite:  www.jonritner.comBooks mentioned:Missional Church, edited by Darrell GuderPositively Irritating, by Jon RitnerThe Master Plan of Evangelism, by Robert E. ColemanChurch Leadership InstituteRelated Episodes:Ep 2: What is the Mission of God?, with Markus WatsonEp 12: God is a Woman in Labor, with Christiana RiceEp 24: Joining God’s Mission Through Neighborhood Exegesis, with Marcos MujicaEp 43: Introduction to “Beyond Thingification: Helping Your Church Engage in God’s Mission”Send 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.

The church is experiencing what Brian Wallace calls a crisis of adult discipleship.  We have plenty of people going to church.  But that doesn’t necessarily translate into faithful, deep discipleship.In this episode Brian Wallace discusses how to address that challenge.  Brian is the Executive Director of Fuller Seminary’s Center for Spiritual Formation, and he helps us understand the critical components necessary for deep spiritual formation.THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Brian Wallace is the Executive Director of the Fuller Center for Spiritual Formation.As a pastor in a megachurch, Brian Wallace knew there was a crisis of adult discipleship.The vision of the Center for Spiritual Formation is to empower leaders everywhere to grow and send everyone.In Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard says we are always being formed.Spiritual formation is the determination to let Jesus be in charge of who we become.Brian Wallace says we are the representation of God’s goodness in the world.The reason we have a crisis of formation is because, according to Brian Wallace, we have placed information at the center of the formative process.No one has ever been invited to follow Jesus by themselves.We are formed spiritually when we are in a safe place—not safe from challenge and conviction, but safe from shame and guilt.According to Brian Wallace, relationships are critically important in our journey to becoming more like Jesus.How do we help our congregations be engage in deep spiritual formation when most of our church members only attend church once or twice a month?Fuller Formation Groups (part of the Center for Spiritual Formation) are designed to help churches lead their congregations into deep spiritual formation.The calculus of transformation is an informed practice in a reflective community over time.Brian Wallace says spiritual formation requires time.  Not many hours in a week, but many weeks over time.RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:Books mentioned:In the Name of Jesus, by Henri NouwenThe Message of the Sermon on the Mount, by John StottThe Collective Works of C.S. LewisRenovation of the Heart, by Dallas WillardBrian Wallace:E-mail: spiritualformation@fuller.eduRelated episodes:Ep 44: Spiritual Formation and Lectio Divina, with Eric NevinsEp 112: The Beatitudes and Spiritual Leadership, with Mark ScandretteEp 119: Being Leaders of GraceSend 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.

Tom Nelson is author of The Flourishing Pastor, as well as the senior pastor of Christ Community Church in Kansas City and the president of Made to Flourish.In this episode, Tom Nelson unpacks what it means to be a flourishing pastor--a pastor who lives and leads from a deep well of inner health and wholeness.THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Tom Nelson is author of The Flourishing Pastor.  He is also the senior pastor of Christ Community Church in Kansas City and the president of Made to Flourish.The Flourishing Pastor is based on Psalm 78:72:  “So David shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them with his skillful hands.”“A flourishing pastor is increasingly like Jesus as he or she is yoked in apprenticeship with him over a long time.”When we prioritize greater intimacy with God, our leadership will grow in fruitfulness.What we are doing and what we are accomplishing matters, but for a flourishing pastor it’s secondary.“To lead well we must be led well.”Leadership and followership go hand in hand.Failure often is our greatest teacher.Tom Nelson explains what he means by “an integral life,” which refers to a kind of seamlessness in life.  When we are in Christ, we experience life as fully unified and integral.  That’s what it means to be a flourishing pastor.We are moving toward a greater wholeness.A “black swan” experience, as Tom Nelson describes, is a completely unexpected experience.  It’s something you’ve never seen before (something like a global pandemic).There are four things a flourishing pastor can do when confronted with a “black swan” experience:Lean into wisdomRemain relationalBuild enduranceStay in missionRELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:Books mentioned:The Flourishing Pastor, by Tom NelsonMade to Flourish:www.madetoflourish.orgChurch Leadership Institute:Website – www.depree.org/churchAnvil Leadership Support NetworkRelated episodes:Ep 36: The Vulnerable Pastor, with Mandy SmithEp 53: Growing Hearts, Not Attendance, with Mike McClenahanEp 113: Flourishing Leadership, with Andy CrouchEp 116: Power, Vulnerability, Rest, with Tod BolsingerSend 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.

Rich Villodas is the lead pastor at New Life Fellowship and the author of The Deeply Formed Life, in which he explores five values that help us live in union with Jesus.In this interview, Rich and I focus on two of those five values:  racial justice and reconciliation and sexual wholeness.  These are not values typically associated with spiritual formation, but they are incredibly important nonetheless to being formed in the way of Jesus.THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Rich Villodas is the lead pastor at New Life Fellowship in Queens, NY, and the author of The Deeply formed Life:  Five Transformative Values that Root us in the Way of Jesus.Rich shares the story of how he came to faith in Jesus and was called to be a pastor.The five values discussed in The Deeply Formed Life flow from the values of the church Rich Villodas pastors.These five values are:Contemplative rhythmsRacial justice and reconciliationInterior examinationSexual wholenessMissional presenceSpiritual formation is the process of being conformed to the image of Jesus for the sake of others.Rich Villodas explains why we need to think about racial justice formationally.Despite our many ethnicities, races, socio-economic backgrounds, and so forth, what unites all of us is that we have all been socialized in a racialized society.Rich Villodas unpacks what it means to be formed into sexual wholeness.Contemplative rhythms is about ordering our lives with God in such a way that we are living from a place of Communion, prayer, reflection.Rich Villodas explains why contemplative rhythms are so important for healthy spiritual leadership.RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:Rich Villodaswww.richvillodas.comInstagram - @richvillodasTwitter - @richvillodasBooks mentioned:The Deeply Formed Life, by Rich VillodasGood and Beautiful and Kind, by Rich VillodasRelated episodes:Ep 123: Gentrification and Spiritual Leadership, with Mark StrongEp 112: The Beatitudes and Spiritual LeadershipEp 111: A Gospel for the Sinned-Against, with Phuc LuuEp 87: Racism and the Trials of Hercules, with Dr. Jerome ButlerSend 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.

Gentrification is a process by which a local group of residents are slowly pushed out by economic forces, making room for a new group of residents.  In his book, Who Moved My Neighborhood: Leading Congregations through Gentrification and Economic Change, Mark Strong helps local churches navigate that challenge of gentrification.  And in this episode, Mark unpacks, not only the effects of gentrification on local residents and churches, but also how to respond with resilience and grace in the face of such great change.THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Mark Strong is the senior pastor of Life Change Church in Portland, Oregon, and the author of Who Moved My Neighborhood: Leading Congregations through Gentrification and Economic Change.Mark Strong shares the story of how he came to faith in the church of which he is now the pastor.The change of Mark’s neighborhood started very subtly.  They didn’t even notice it was happening at first.Gentrification is a process in which one homogeneous group of people who live in a particular area are slowly pushed out of their community by economic forces to make room for new groups of people.The process of gentrification stirs up feelings of powerlessness, anger, and disorientation among local residents.Mark Strong outlines a process that can help pastors and churches navigate the challenges of gentrification.For local residents, gentrification can feel like an experience of exile.It is important for the local church to learn to love their new neighbors.Mark Strong emphasizes the importance of developing a new vision for churches in gentrified communities.Mark shares some of the ways he and his congregation have adapted to their community’s gentrification.Mark discusses some of the ways race played into the experience of gentrification and the challenges they faced because of race and racism.RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:Books Mentioned:Who Moved My Neighborhood? by Mark StrongLeading on Empty, by Wayne CordeiroMark Strong:www.lifechangechurch.org www.drmarkestrong.orgRelated Episodes:Episode 10: Meeting God in the Darkest Places, Sermon on Jonah 2:1-10Episode 68: Public Policy, Stewardship, and the Kingdom of God, with Breon WellsEpisode 111: A Gospel for the Sinned-Against, with Phuc Luu, author of Jesus of the EastEpisode 120: Forming Leadership Resilience, with Tod Bolsinger, Executive Director of the Church 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.

Michael MacKenzie, the Executive Director of Marble Retreat and the author of Don’t Blow Up Your Ministry, has been working with pastors in crisis for a long time.  In this episode, Michael will help us understand not only the danger signs of an impending ministry blow-up, but also how to heal after we’ve blown up our ministry.THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Michael MacKenzie is Executive Director of Marble Retreat and the author of Don’t Blow Up Your Ministry.Michael shares what led him to his ministry with Marble Retreat.Michael MacKenzie describes what he means by a “blown up ministry.”Burnout results when the stresses of ministry combine with the pastor’s own brokenness.Potential stressors include: people-pleasing, avoidance of conflict, and so forth.To avoid these pitfalls, pastors should be on the lookout for:  resentment, exhaustion, lack of joy, lack of peace, lack of passion.Pride and success can also lead to a blown-up ministry when pastors cross certain unhealthy and inappropriate boundaries.Michael MacKenzie shares why failure can be better for the soul than success.Michael explains the differences between large churches and small churches and how that affects a pastors well-being.Healthy relationships are critical for healthy ministry leadership.One way to build relationships is to pick up a hobby that other people do.Michael MacKenzie reflects on the connection between confession and healing.RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:Marble Retreat websiteBooks mentioned:Don’t Blow Up Your Ministry, by Michael MacKenzieRenovation of the Heart, by Dallas WillardWorks of Love, by Soren KierkegaardRelated episodes:Ep 47: Leadership, Anxiety, and Family Systems, with Steve CussEp 52: Leadership and Soul Care, with Elaine HamiltonEp 81: Anger and Spiritual Leadership, with Chuck WhitleyEp 82: Narcissism and Spiritual Leadership, with Chuck DeGroatEp 92: Against a Culture of Abuse, with Scot McKnight and Laura BarringerEp 94: Centering Prayer, with Rich LewisSend 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.