Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!What happened to Solana Beach Presbyterian Church?  Oh, it's still a big church, but it's half the size it was twenty years ago.  Some would say that Mike McClenahan, the Senior Pastor, failed in some way.  He must have done something wrong and that's why this church has declined so much.Maybe.  Or maybe it's just a reflection of what's going on everywhere in our culture.Mike McClenahan and his team have been wrestling with these challenges for almost two decades.  And what they have found is that maybe they've been measuring the wrong thing.  Maybe, rather than measuring weekly church attendance, what they needed to measure was what was going on in people's hearts.In this episode, Mike McClenahan shares the story of his journey from trying to lead a successful church to recognizing that it’s more important to grow people’s hearts than it is to grow people’s church attendance.THIS EPISODE’S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Mike McClenahan is the Senior Pastor at Solana Beach Presbyterian Church in Solana Beach, CA.When Mike was nine years old, his three-year-old brother tragically died. Two years later, Mike’s dad left and his parents divorced when he was thirteen.These events were significant moments of loss in Mike’s life that taught him about the importance of the church.If you understand attendance as a measure of success, pastors experience loss and feelings of lack of success all the time.Solana Beach Presbyterian Church engaged in the Reveal Study, which showed that people in the church were engaged in the things that the church did together, but they were not experiencing their own personal spirituality.In the book Move, Greg Hawkins and Cally Parkinson identify four qualities of leaders whose churches were the most spiritually vital: Disarmingly humbleModeled a surrendered lifeGrow hearts, not attendanceThey had one passion: Intimacy with JesusMike McClenahan had to vulnerably admit to his congregation that he was committing to deeper spiritual intimacy with God.The most important thing for pastors to do—as they lead their churches into deeper intimacy with Jesus—is surrender.RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKSBooks mentioned:Move by Greg L. Hawkins and Cally ParkinsonSolana Beach Presbyterian ChurchWebsite: https://solanabeach.church/Reveal StudyWebsite: https://revealforchurch.com/To leave a review of Spiritual Life and Leadership: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spiritual-life-and-leadership/id1435252632— Links to Amazon are affiliate links.  If you make a purchase through any of these links, I’ll receive a small commission–which will help pay for the Spiritual Life and Leadership podcast!Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!I’ve discovered that therapy—good therapy—is something that everyone needs. Especially if you’re in leadership.  In this episode, I speak with Elaine Hamilton, founder of a therapy group in San Diego called the Soul Care House. Elaine helps to demystify therapy for us.  What is it?  Why is it important?  Why do leaders, especially, need good therapy?THIS EPISODE’S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Elaine Hamilton is founder of the Soul Care House and author of Church on the Couch.Elaine Hamilton grew up in a German Mennonite community in Canada. They had a very rigid way of living their lives, but they also were very committed to doing good in the world.Good therapy involves sitting with someone who is trained, but who is also on their own journey toward wholeness.The therapist should be leading the process.Bad therapy can include any of the following: Too passiveToo directiveStates the obviousNo boundariesWhen the therapist talks too much about themselvesLeaders often have a hard time being vulnerable enough to truly care for their own souls.Spiritual leaders are constantly hearing people’s stories. Because of their position, leaders have the potential for wounding people in ways that others wouldn’t.Leaders need to become aware of their own stories.As leaders, it’s also helpful to be able to process current circumstances so that we can deal with them in a healthy and helpful way.The spiritual life isn’t merely about intellectual content (e.g. theology, Bible verses). It’s also about how we live in the world and in relation to other people.Psychology and therapy is a gift from God in that the tools of psychology help us to better understand ourselves.The Soul Care House website is www.soulcarehouse.com. The Soul Care House is also on Instagram at @soulcarehouseandbarn.RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKSSoul Care House Website:  http://www.soulcarehouse.com/Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/soulcarehouseandbarn/Soul Care House Podcast:  https://soulcarehouse.com/pages/PodcastElaine Hamilton E-mail:  elaine@soulcarehouse.comBook mentioned Church on the Couch by Elaine HamiltonTo leave a review of Spiritual Life and Leadership: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spiritual-life-and-leadership/id1435252632— Links to Amazon are affiliate links.  If you make a purchase through any of these links, I’ll receive a small commission–which will help pay for the Spiritual Life and Leadership podcast!Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!There is no easy solution to homelessness and extreme poverty.  But some solutions are definitely better than others.  In this episode, Michelle LeBeau, Director of Church Partnerships at the San Diego Rescue Mission, shares why deep inner life transformation is so important for helping people escape poverty.THIS EPISODE’S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Michelle LeBeau is the Director of Church Partnerships at the San Diego Rescue Mission.Michelle LeBeau is the daughter of a Presbyterian pastor. She shares about her life as a “rebellious” pastor’s kid.Michelle LeBeau shares about her journey to joining the San Diego Rescue Mission.The San Diego Rescue Mission is a twelve-month holistic recovery and rehabilitation program.There are four phases in the Rescue Mission’s recovery process: WellnessEducationEmploymentHousingThe staff at San Diego Rescue Mission does “trauma-informed care,” which approaches behavior from a perspective that asks, “What happened to you?” rather than, “What’s wrong with you?”The first step to getting healthy is to acknowledge you have a problem. This is true in the recovery process, as well as in the church and in life in general.To be a “red-letter Christian” is to focus on the teachings of Jesus.In regard to church partnerships, the Rescue Mission wants to start by asking, “How can we help the local church?”RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKSSan Diego Rescue Mission Website:  https://www.sdrescue.org/Twitter:  https://twitter.com/SD_RescueMichelle LeBeau E-mail:  mlebeau@sdrescue.orgTo leave a review of Spiritual Life and Leadership: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spiritual-life-and-leadership/id1435252632— Links to Amazon are affiliate links.  If you make a purchase through any of these links, I’ll receive a small commission–which will help pay for the Spiritual Life and Leadership podcast!Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!Can an atheist participate with God in the healing of the world? If one who doesn’t believe in God volunteers at the local homeless shelter, should Christians dismiss that? If an atheist adopts an abused child into a home of love and acceptance, a place where that child can heal from the wounds of their past, are we to dismiss that?Those are the kinds of questions that Kutter Callaway and I wrestle with in this episode.  We talk about culture. We talk about the church. We talk about atheism. And we talk about “the previousness of the kingdom.”THIS EPISODE’S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Kutter Callaway is the Associate Professor of Theology and Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary and the other of several books including The Aesthetics of Atheism.A formative book that Kutter Callaway has read in recent years is Nobody Cries When We Die by Patrick Reyes.Kutter’s colleague at Fuller, Bill Dyrness, defines culture as the stuff we create from God’s creation. It’s what we make of what’s here.Religion “makes culture odd.” For instance, everyone eats bread and drinks wine. But we do that in an “odd” way.Christianity is not separate from culture. We are called to engage culture because we are a part of the culture.Lesslie Newbigin, in the The Open Secret, talks about “the previousness of the kindgdom.” God is already ahead of us in the culture and we are invited to joing God.In The Aesthetics of Atheism, Kutter Callaway interestingly says that theism and atheism need each other.Interesting thought: In that moment when Jesus on the cross feels abandoned by the Father, God becomes an atheist.The Bible is full of prophetic voices from outside of God’s people.Culture can be a destroyer of shalom. It can also be a restorer of shalom.A healthy posture for pastors and ministry leaders to take toward culture is the posture of the injured man on the side of the road in the Good Samaritan story. It is a posture of humility and receptivity. Culture is like the untouchable Samaritan, but we need to let it help us.The right question today might not be, “How do we help culture?” Rather, “How do we listen to, learn from, and humble ourselves in ways that allow us to be evangelized by the God who is at work out there?”Learn more about Kutter Callaway at www.kuttercallaway.com and listen to his podcast, The Kutter Callaway Podcast. RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKSKutter Callaway Website:  https://www.kuttercallaway.comPodcast:  https://www.kuttercallaway.com/podcastBooks mentioned: The Aesthetics of Atheism by Kutter Callaway and Barry TaylorNobody Cries When We Die by Patrick ReyesThe Open Secret by Lesslie NewbiginGod’s Wider Presence by Rob JohnstonTo leave a review of Spiritual Life and Leadership: Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!In this episode, Trevor Lee discusses the importance of getting past the ministry model that just tries to get people through our discipleship programs. Instead, we need a model that values the uniqueness and inherent worth of each person.  We also talked a lot about suffering.  And we talked about the part suffering plays—ironically!—in the healing of the world.THIS EPISODE’S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Trevor Lee is a Development Representative with Made to Flourish and host of Speak in the Suffering podcast.The most formative book Trevor has red is A Failure of Nerve by Edwin Friedman.Trevor Lee learned through Made to Flourish that the work of every person is sacred and is a participation in the mission of God.The mission of Made to Flourish is to help pastors bridge the gap between Sunday and Monday for their congregations.Made to Flourish is focused on equipping and forming pastors to walk their people to live for the good of the world in their places of work and home.There is no inherent distinction between sacred and secular, between clergy and laity.A great idea is to do interviews with people about their work in the worship gatherings. Trevor got mixed reviews when he did this in his church.The mission of Trevor’s former church was worded like this: “Participating with God in the renewal of all things, and people in particular.”The mission involves evangelism, but it points toward something even bigger—the renewal of everything.Trevor Lee defines shalom as everything being as God intended.God wants people to be made whole.God wants the harmony of all things.Suffering plays a unique part in the fulfillment of God’s mission. God uses suffering in profoundly redemptive ways that nothing can replace.Trevor Lee shares about the challenges he faced in his last congregation.Embracing our suffering can help us move through the pain and into healing on the other side.Markus’ experience of suffering changed the way he thinks about what really matters in ministry.Markus suggests that organizations like Made to Flourish and Flourish San Diego want to help pastors humanize their people.The key quality a pastor needs to help people flourish is humility.You can find out more about Made to Flourish at https://www.madetoflourish.org/ RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKSSpeak in the Suffering podcast with Trevor LeeBooks mentioned: A Failure of Nerve by Edwin FriedmanManaging Leadership Anxiety by Steve CussMade to FlourishWebsite:  https://www.madetoflourish.org/Twitter:  https://twitter.com/MadeToFlourishTo leave a review of Spiritual Life and Leadership: https://podcastsClick HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!In a broken and confusing world, it is realy hard to know the right thing to do.  In this episode, Lisa Slayton doesn’t come with a bunch of clear-cut answers, but she does raise the right questions. And I think she points in the right direction.  We need to become people of integrity, people who live lives of coherence. The Hebrew word for this is tamim. Lisa Slayton, the CEO of Tamim Partners, works with leaders and organizations to help them live from a place of integrity and coherence.THIS EPISODE’S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Lisa Slayton is the CEO of Tamim Partners.Tamim is a Hebrew word often translated as “perfect” or “blameless.” A better translation might be “wholeheartedness,” “integrity,” or “coherence.”Lisa Slayton suggests that shalom is an outward expression of wholeness and tamim refers to an inner wholeness that is required for true shalom.Lisa Slayton had previously been the CEO of the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation.We live in a VUCA world: volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity.In order to best coach an organization and/or its leader, it is critical to look at the systems.Leaders can’t rely on “best practices” anymore.Pastors today have not been given the tools or resources to lead in these times of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.Lisa Slayton is committed to the Made to Flourish pastors’ network.Tamim Partners has for key values: integrity, hospitality, learning, and relationships.Integrity has to do with living integrated, coherent lives.Leaders often push themselves to the point of dis-integration and in-coherence.An axiom Lisa shares: “What we know gets in the way of what we need to learn.”When a leaders says, “I just don’t know what to do,” that’s when the leader is ready to begin truly learning.Much of what Lisa Slayton has shared is reminiscent of the previous two episodes of Spiritual Life and Leadership:Episode 46: Inviting the Real, with Esther Lightcap Meek, author of A Little Manual for KnowingEpisode 47: Leadership, Anxiety, and Family Systems, with Steve Cuss, author of Managing Leadership Anxiety RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKSBooks mentioned: A Failure of Nerve by Edwin FriedmanManaging Leadership Anxiety by Steve CussA Little Manual for Knowingby Esther Lightcap MeekTamim Parnters: Website:  http://www.tamimpartners.comTo leave a review of Spiritual Life and Leadership: htClick HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

Steve Cuss, author of Managing Leadership Anxiety, discusses the impact of anxiety on relationships and organizations. He explores family systems theory and ways to manage chronic anxiety. Tips include viewing anxiety as a 'pet' and identifying unnecessary needs. The podcast highlights the importance of self-awareness and managing anxiety in leadership roles.

Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!In her book,  A Little Manual for Knowing, Esther Lightcap Meek says that in order to truly know something, we must welcome “the yet-to-be-known with respect, humility, patience, and attentiveness.”In this episode, Esther Lightcap Meek unpacks what she calls “covenant epistemology,” an approach to knowing that acknowledges the relationship between the knower and the known.  It’s an approach that I believe can help us better life into the way God is calling us–actually calling us–to bring healing to the world.THIS EPISODE’S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Esther Lightcap Meek is the author of A Little Manual for Knowing and Professor of Philosophy at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.Esther grew up “a good little Christian girl.” In eighth grade, she began to question her faith, including, “How do I know there is a world outside my mind?”Esther read The God Who is There by Francis Schaeffer when she was in high school. It was then that her questions were not sin, they were philosophical.The dominant paradigm for thinking about knowledge is that knowledge is information to be acquired.Subsidiary Focal Integration is a way of describing the fact that knowing relies on a multitude of “subsidiary” knowings. In riding a bicycle, we focus on where we are going. Subsidiary to that focus is the knowledge of balance, pedaling, braking, steering, and so forth. When we know something we are integrating into our focus all the subsidiary patterns that make up that knowledge.When we memorize scripture, it’s not so that we can merely have scripture memorized. It is so that we can indwell scripture subsidiarily. RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKSEsther Lightcap Meek Website:  http://www.longingtoknow.com/Books mentioned: A Little Manual for Knowing by Esther Lightcap MeekLonging to Know by Esther Lightcap MeekLoving to Know by Esther Lightcap MeekThe God Who is There by Francis SchaefferPersonal Knowledge by Michael PolanyiThe Catholicity of Reason by D.C. SchindlerNo God, No Science: Theology, Cosmology, Biology by Michael HanbyThe Gospel in a Pluralist Society by Lesslie NewbiginProper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship by Lesslie NewbiginWestern Culture in Gospel Context: Towards the Conversion of the West by David J. KettleVideo mentioned: Wonder: The Final Word by D.C. SchindlerTo leave a review of Spiritual Life and Leadership: Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!We are called to participate with God in the healing of the world through our very work–as teachers, as mechanics, as doctors, as attorneys, as salespeople.  Our work brings the goodness of God into the world.But what about when we retire?  How can we participate with God in the healing of the world then?  Is it possible to live a full life in retirement in which we understand our post-work life as more than just a big vacation?Jeff Haanen addresses these questions in his book, An Uncommon Guide to Retirement.  Jeff challenges us to rethink our understanding of retirement, recognizing that it’s not just an extended vacation, but a time of fruitful work and ministry as we live into our calling as retired people.THIS EPISODE’S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Jeff Haanen is the Executive Director of the Denver Institute for Faith and Work and the author of An Uncommon Guide to Retirement.Jeff Haanen came to faith as he read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. In recent years, the most formative book Jeff has read is Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert Putnam.People need a why for their work to have meaning. Jeff Haanen wants to give people a why in their work. The why comes down to loving God and loving neighbor through one’s work.“Vocation” comes from the Latin word for “voice,” which has to do with responding to God’s voice.Jeff Haanen says we need to pause and question the culture around retirement, a culture that says if you save so much money you’ll be living “the life” when you retire. But life doesn’t always work that way.Rather than moving into a big vacation at retirement, people ought to move into a time of sabbatical rest.It’s important in retirement to not live merely for ourselves, but for God who calls us and for the well-being of our neighbors.Pastors can help those retired by encouraging seasons of rest, renewal, and reengagement.You can find out more about the book at www.uncommonretirement.com.To learn more about the Denver Institute for Faith, go to www.denverinstitute.org, For short online courses on faith, work, vocation, and so forth, go to www.scatter.org. RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKSAn Uncommon Guide to Retirement by Jeff Haanen:  https://www.uncommonretirement.com/Denver Institute for Faith and Work:  https://denverinstitute.org/Online courses by Jeff Haanen: Theology for BusinessSoul Care for EntrepreneursOther books mentioned: Mere Christianity by C.S. LewisOur Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert PutnamTo leave a review of Spiritual Life and Leadership: https:Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!If we want to keep growing in our faith we have to go deeper than merely reading a chapter of the Bible per day. That’s where lectio divina comes in. Lectio divina is a way of not merely getting information about God or about Jesus, but a way of truly experiencing Jesus. It’s a type of reading that involves silence and listening and receiving from Jesus his presence and his spirit.In this episode, Eric Nevins, host of the Halfway There podcast, shares about the transformative effect lectio divina has had on his life. THIS EPISODE’S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:Eric Nevins is host of the Halfway There podcast.The book, The Critical Journey, names six stages of spiritual formation. Eric likes to simplify spiritual formation into four stages:  The journey of meeting Jesus. The journey of learning Jesus. The journey of finding yourself in Jesus. The journey of loving like Jesus.Lectio divina is process by which a person can read and meditate on scripture.Too often we read scripture for content or to try to get a principle that we can apply too our lives. But that may not be the best way to read scripture for the purpose of transformation.Lectio divina consists of essentially five parts: Read the passage. Reflect. Remain. Respond. Return to the passage.To reflect and remain in a passage involves noticing or imagining what it might be like to be in the text.To respond is to say to God, “Here’s what I’m feeling. Here’s what I’m interested in.”In lectio divina, we surrender ourselves to the text and allow ourselves to be shaped by it.Eric has written several 8-day experiences to help people practice lectio divina. You can find these at www.ericnevins.com. There are two of these 8-day experiences. One is on Mark 1:40-45 and the other is on John 2:1-12.Eric can be found on Twitter at @EricDNevinsJr, as well as on Facebook. For anyone who is a Christian podcaster, Eric would love to invite you to be a part of the Christian Podcast Association Facebook page. RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKSEric Nevins Website: https://ericnevins.com/Halfway There podcast: https://ericnevins.com/series/halfwaythere/8-Day Experiences: https://ericnevins.com/jesus-willing-8-day-experience/Books mentioned: The Critical Journey by Janet O. Hagberg and Robert A. GuelichEmotionally Healthy Spirituality by Pete ScazzeroTo leave a review of Spiritual Life and Leadership: Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.