Spiritual Leadership with Dr. Paul Chappell

That word perilous in 2 Timothy 3:1 speaks of an unraveling. It’s not hard to see the application of this verse to the world we live in today. It seems that culture from top to bottom is unraveling around us. The question is, how should we as spiritual leaders respond in this perilous time? In this newest episode of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast, my son Larry and I discuss three vital responses: We need to settle our convictions. We need to know what we believe from Scripture and be unwaveringly faithful to biblical truth. As culture moves further and further from the truth there is a stronger and stronger pull on Christian leaders to accommodate their beliefs to the whims of culture. We must resist this trend. We need to study our culture. We need to be discerning of current trends. While we must never bend our convictions to culture, we do need to understand the world in which we live in order to reach people for Christ. We need to understand how to teach and apply biblical truth to the people which we are ministering. We need to seize our calling. We need a renewed commitment to proclaiming the gospel and to serving the local church. We need to lead like Jesus, walking in the Spirit even as we face opposition.

Prayerfully, and with God’s help, as vaccines get distributed, it looks like we could soon be closing the chapter on COVID-19. I think most of us are looking forward to breathing a collective sigh of relief. This season of ministry has brought numerous challenges, and most church ministry today does not look like it did just 12 months ago. Most of our churches have seen some combination of spiritual, physical and financial challenges over the past year. So what do we do now? How do we restart with fresh passion and vision? In today’s episode of Spiritual Leadership Conference, my son, Larry and I discuss moving ministry forward. We talk about learning from the challenges and reengaging our staff and our church family in our cause of declaring the gospel to our lost world.

Time is one of God’s greatest gifts. He gives it to all of us equally, and how we use it is our gift back to Him. We often speak of managing our time, but I have learned you really can’t manage time—you can only manage yourself. In this episode of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast, we discuss how to develop and remain accountable to a weekly schedule that holds all of the core responsibilities which God has given to us. My son, Larry, joined me for this discussion and posed helpful questions throughout, including these: What is a good starting point for developing a weekly schedule? How often do you step back and re-evaluate your priorities? What are the differences in your purposes for a weekly, monthly, and annual view? How often does your week go as it was planned? What are some of the ways you replenish and restore after expending energy? How do you deal with interruptions? What would your advice be to ministry leaders who want to implement this for themselves as well as for their team? I enjoyed this discussion with Larry. We have different temperaments but share the same desire to steward our lives fully for Christ. I believe what we covered in this conversation is helpful for every leader regardless of their temperament, responsibilities, or specifics of their weekly schedule. Near the end of our conversation, we talked about a new resource that is a tool for your weekly schedule—the revised edition of the Stewarding Life Planner. The changes in this edition are substantive and useful. They include a new weekly review process as you go through your roles as well as a daily page spread with room to include devotional thoughts, identify the big priorities for the day, and map out the day’s appointments and tasks. The planner is available for pre-order now and will be in before Christmas. For listeners of this podcast, we are offering a special 20% discount if you order by December 18. Simply use the coupon code PODCAST20.

If you have a heart for missions and for the spread of the gospel around the world, you are going to love this episode of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast. Our three guests on this episode each brought a unique vantage point to our discussion on New Testament missions. There are entire denominations that have designated social works as missions. But when we look to the New Testament model in Acts, we see missions as winning the lost, discipling them, and planting indigenous churches. Visiting with these men on this focus of missions was refreshing to me, and I believe it will be to you as well.

In today’s episode of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast, I interview Pastor Tim Rasmussen, Pastor of the Faith Baptist Church in Canoga Park, CA, and his brother, Dr. Mark Rasmussen, who serves as a vice president here at West Coast Baptist College. I recently had the honor of attending the funeral service for Mark and Tim’s father, Dr. Roland Rasmussen, who pastored the Faith Baptist Church for decades. I was struck by his testimony and how he was able to pass his faith and convictions on to the next generation—not only within his own family but also within his church and community. I know this conversation encouraged and convicted me as a dad and a pastor. I hope that some of the principles that we discussed with challenge you, as a spiritual leader be passionate about souls, family, and biblical convictions.

In this new episode of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast, my son Larry and I discuss my new book, Keep the Faith and walk through the chapters and topics covered. This episode is for anyone who teaches or preaches God’s Word or anyone who would like insight into the changes happening in churches nationwide. Keep the Faith is available here: https://strivingtogether.com/products/keep-the-faith The book is organized into three parts: Standing for Biblical Truth—In these introductory chapters, we cover the importance of the truth itself, the biblical premise behind ecclesiastical separation, and then spend three chapters looking at church history. The history section is important because it provides context for the trends we look at in part 2. Although we look briefly at early church history, we zero in on the beginning of the modern fundamental movement and how it was birthed as a response to German rationalism, looking at how this affected the Baptist world in particular. Then we look at some of the various Baptist groups and recent Baptist history. From there we move into the birth of the New Evangelical movement and how it set the context for some of the ministry philosophies today. Discerning Ministry Trends—Part 2 is the meat of this book. It begins with an overview of the cultural changes that affect today’s ministry landscape and then looks at the shifts taking place in ministry. From there, we examine terms such as integrative ministry, syncretism, contextualization, missional ministry, Critical Race Theory, identity politics, social justice, gospel centered, radical grace, and much more. We discuss these on the podcast as well as diving deep into them in the book. Reaching forward with the Gospel—If part 2 is the meat of the book, part 3 is the purpose for it. Reaching forward with the gospel must be our passion if we are to obey the Great Commission of Christ. These final chapters of the book (and of our discussion on the podcast) wrap up the previous material with recommendations for how to keep he faith and reach into our communities with the gospel. In these chapters, I argue that we need freedom and liberty in our methods, but we need to remain focused on pleasing Christ and making Him known. We want to not only keep the faith, but also advance it! If this episode of the Spiritual Leadership Podcast was a blessing to you, please share it with a friend. You can subscribe to future episodes via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or YouTube.

On today’s podcast, I begin a discussion about leadership qualities for turbulent times. What kind of spiritual leader will you be during this trying time? First I believe God’s people deserve a leader with a sense of calling. We should have a firm belief that God intends for us to serve Him. Secondly, I believe we need spiritual leaders with the right spirit. Just as Daniel expanded his leadership influence through his excellent spirit, people are looking for a genuine hearted, kind, forgiving leader. Thirdly, I discuss the subject of spiritual gifts. How can we give people the opportunity to exercise their spiritual gifts during this unusual season of ministry? Fourthly, I believe it is critical that we have spiritual leaders with integrity. We cannot simply have the right position doctrinally, we have to live a life that is consistent with the biblical values we teach. Fifthly, we need spiritual leaders who are compassionate. People are looking for someone who has a heart for them and their needs. I hope this episode is a help, we will be back next month with the conclusion of this lesson. Until then, may God richly bless you.

What can Christian leaders do during this unprecedented time of challenges, anger, and unrest? Pastor Paul Chappell discusses with his son Larry nine biblical principles that should be applied during this time of delusion.

Nehemiah was taken captive from his home land, and worked for King Artaxerxes for decades, but what is recorded for us in Scripture and what we remember from his life is how he responded to his defining moment—the building of the wall in Jerusalem. In this episode of Spiritual Leadership Podcast, Pastor Chappell is joined by his son, Larry to discuss principles from Nehemiah on how to navigate and maximize defining moments. Whether you are pivoting to a new leadership role, starting or restarting a ministry, or returning to church services after a global pandemic, there are lessons you can apply from the life of Nehemiah.

Adapting Ministry for COVID-19