The Leadership Journey Podcast

The guest on this episode of the podcast is Alain Emerson. Alain lives with his wife and three children just outside Lurgan in County Armagh. He pastors Emmanuel Church in Portadown alongside his work with 24-7 Prayer and his oversight of the Tobar network of churches. Alain has just released his third book - The Cruciform Leader. The book is a rich combination of biblical reflection and personal story that aims to call Christian leaders back to the heart of New Testament leaders, embodied in Jesus and lived out by his first followers. In our conversation we talk about Alain's own leadership journey as well as delving into what lies behind the book and outlining some of its themes. You can get hold of a copy of the book (which includes a helpful study guide at the end of each chapter) from various outlets, including Emmanuel Church in Lurgan (if you are in the area), the various Faith Mission bookshops, and online, including from the publisher, Muddy Pearl.

Karise Hutchinson is Professor of Leadership at Ulster University. She is also the founder of Illuminaire Leadership - a global institute that provides research-led insight into leaders across a range of areas. Illuminaire publishes an annual journal that is available at illuminaireleadership.com. In the podcast Karise talks about the roots of her journey of faith and the roots of her interest in leadership. We talk about ways in which faith and leadership studies can inform each other (as well as some of the pitfalls), and Karise talks about her vision for the recently launched Illuminaire institute and publication. You can get copies of the Illuminaire journals and sign up for Karise's Substack, by visiting the website.

Rev Dr Israel Oluwole Olofinjana is director of the One People Commission at the Evangelical Alliance. He is the founding director of the Centre for Missionaries from the Majority World, a mission network initiative that provides cross-cultural training to reverse missionaries in Britain. He also serves several other organisations, including Tearfund and Lausanne Europe. In addition, he has authored or edited several books, including the upcoming Polyphonic God: Exploring Intercultural Theology, Churches and Justice. In our conversation we talk about Israel’s ministry journey but also about some of the issues that come under the umbrella of the work of the OPC. We chat about ‘Visions of Justice and Hope’ - a new resource on racial reconciliation from the EA and we unpack some of the differences between cross-cultural, multi-cultural, and inter-cultural churches. Here is the link to the podcast conversation. You can find out more about Visions of Justice and Hope from the Evangelical Alliance website where you can download a PDF: otherwise you can email opc@eauk.org to request a copy. Also, Israel will be taking part in the Irish Bible Institute's Summer Institute that will be held in June in Maynooth. The theme is churches moving from being multi-ethnic to intercultural and you can find information about this - and register - on IBI's website.

David Cassidy is pastor of Spanish River Church in Florida. He visited Northern Ireland in 2024, when he was one of the speakers at the Keswick-at-Portstewart Convention. Among other things, in our conversation David talks about the ethnic diversity and the global reach of his church, about some of the people who have influenced him, including Francis Schaeffer and Scotty Smith, and about the challenge of having a congregation and not simply an aggregation. He also tells us what he would say to his 20-year-old self.  

Nick Park is the Executive Director of the Evangelical Alliance (Ireland). He is also the founding pastor of of Solid Rock church in Drogheda, and oversees a network of almost 40 churches in the Republic of Ireland under the auspices of the Church of God. In our conversation Nick talked about his dramatic early years, coming to faith in Christ as a young man through the work of the Salvation Army, after several years of homelessness. He talks about his path into ministry and how he and his wife came to start Solid Rock Church in Drogheda (there is a fascinating reference to St Patrick). Along the way we chat about the state of the Evangelical Church in Ireland and discuss ways in which it might contribute to church planting in the North. As ever, we finish with Nick talking about what he would like to say to his 20-year-old self. Visit the EAI's website where you can catch Nick's Friday podcast.

People with a strong sense of call tend to have higher levels of motivation and satisfaction. However, the flip side is that they can be more prone to burnout. Arianna Molloy has recently published 'Healthy Calling: From Toxic Burnout to Sustainable Work' (IVP) in which she explores these important themes.

Leaders do not lead in a vacuum. There is always a context, and part of that context is the organisation within which the leader operates, whether it's a business with many employees or a church with an army of volunteers. So what do Christian leaders need to know about how organisations operate? Frank Markow has written about this in his book, 'Organizational Behavior in Christian Perspective'. Frank is Professor of Leadership Studies at the King's University in Texas. Notes: Of course if the book had been published on this side of the Atlantic, there would be a couple of tweaks to the spelling! Books mentioned include 'Leadership' - Peter Northouse; 'A Phenomenology of Pentecostal Leadership - Truls Akerlund.

As well as being a wife, mother, and grandmother, Ruth Walker describes herself as 'a whole-life disciple' with a portfolio career. She is a non-executive director with a number of charities, including Bethany Christian Trust, a charity dedicated to ending homelessness across Scotland. She is also a coach and a speaker. In our conversation she talks about her strong Christian family and the formative years spent growing up in a Brethren church in Glasgow where she became involved in the ministry of Crusaders (now Urban Saints). Her career has involved several roles and working with some inspiring leaders. She also talks about her work with LICC and the Evangelical Alliance Public Leader programme. As well as discussing some of her key learnings on the subject of leadership, Ruth shares what she would say to her 20-year-old self.

Wendy Pawsey is Head of Giving at the Evangelical Alliance: she also leads an Elim Church in rural Buckinghamshire, along with her husband, Marcus. Wendy has also written a book on generosity: Generosity with a Capital G. The book is published by Instant Apostle: it launches this month and is featured as part of The Big Church Read. Wendy joined me on this episode of the podcast to talk about the book and its theme of generosity. She also talks about her own fascinating story of coming to faith and her journey in Christian ministry. You can get a copy of the book via the outlets listed on the Instant Apostle website, or by visiting The Big Church Read.

Tod Bolsinger is the author of popular leadership books, Canoeing the Mountains, and Tempered Resilience: we chatted on a couple of episodes of this podcast back in 2021. More recently he has been working on a series of short books on change. How not to waste a crisis The mission always wins Leading through resistance Invest in transformation Basically, the books work off the ideas that Tod has established in his earlier writing, in particular Canoeing the Mountains. Each of the books tackles a mistake that good leaders often make, whether it is responding to a crisis by working harder, or aiming to lead always on the basis of ‘win-win’ – the mistakes form the (sometimes provocative) subtitles of the books. These mistakes are what he calls old mindsets and they need to be replaced by a series of new skillsets which lead to an adaptive reset. In our conversation we begin to unpack some of the key ideas in the books – mission, loss, disagreement and values. Hopefully you will hear enough to make you want to purchase the books and get to work on them with your leadership team! The collection will be available around the middle of August, but they are already available for pre-order. If you are in the US, visit the IVP website, and in the UK, try Eden Books.