The Leadership Journey 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.

For the past 16 years Fred Drummond has been the director of the Evangelical Alliance in Scotland – a role he is leaving in a few weeks. He also has a role with the EA in encouraging and developing prayer. In our podcast conversation he talks about his early years, including the story of coming to faith in Jesus and how he was mentored both in his first steps as a Christian, and as he developed in ministry. He also talks about his work in Scotland, with the challenge of encouraging Christians to cultivate intimacy with Jesus, hope in the gospel, and confidence to live as disciples in a rapidly secularising culture. He shares personally about his own habits of prayer and – as with other guests on the podcast – about what pieces of advice he would share with his 20-year-old self. You can find a selection of Fred’s writing, including his articles on woundedness in leaders, via the website of the Evangelical Alliance.

On this episode of the podcast, the guests are husband and wife team, ‘Mitch’ and Amanda Mitchell who are based in Belfast with Crown Jesus Ministries, a Christian charity at work in evangelism across Ireland. In our conversation they talk about their own story – how they became Christians and some of the ways their faith has grown – as well as the remarkable story of Crown Jesus, birthed in a dramatic encounter at a conference in Germany 25 years ago. They bring a challenge in terms of how we think of evangelism and what they believe needs to happen in the Church (and academy) for witness and evangelism to regain their rightful place. Of course we also wrap up the conversation by hearing them share what they would say to their 20-year-old selves. You can visit their website to find out more about Crown Jesus and their mission to ensure that everyone on the island of Ireland has the opportunity to hear and respond to the good news of Jesus.

This week the Evangelical Alliance in Northern Ireland released a detailed snapshot of evangelicals in this part of the world. ‘Good News People’ brings together the results of two surveys that were carried out in 2023: one, a representative survey of the general population, and the other, an online survey of professing Christians. David Smyth, head of the Evangelical Alliance in Northern Ireland, joins me to talk about the report. You can download your own copy of the report, or read it online, on the EA website.

Colin Holmes is pastor of Ferrybank Christian Community Church in Waterford. Four years ago he suffered a brain injury (from which he has thankfully recovered). He has recently written about his experience in a new book, Recovering Life: Searching for a Healthy Spirituality for the Whole of our Humanity. Not only does the book reflect on Colin’s experience of a health crisis, but it also seeks to reflect on a number of themes that Colin believes have been brought into focus during the recent pandemic. Colin takes these themes and turns to Scripture to trace ways in which they are discussed there. In our conversation we talk about Colin’s story and about aspects of the book. For anyone in Northern Ireland, there is a launch event in Ballymena on Friday, February 16. It’s a ticketed event and the price of the ticket covers a meal as well as a copy of the book. Tickets are available on Eventbrite (follow the link). Otherwise, the book is available at various Christian bookshops.

My guest on this episode of the podcast has been described as ‘the nicest man in politics’. While John Kyle is no longer involved in electoral politics, he has some fascinating things to say about his career (which culminated in him serving as High Sheriff of Belfast) and on the role that Christians can play in civic life – and it was pertinent that we were having this conversation what may turn out to be a(nother) pivotal week in Northern Ireland politics. As well as his political career John has worked as a GP and has been very involved in church and pastoral work. Our conversation covers his formative years, including his experience in the fledgling Charismatic movement in Belfast and runs through his time as a GP and on to his time as a member of the Progressive Unionist Party in Belfast. He has a lot to say about the idea of vocation outside of the conventional understanding of church or mission work and he brings encouragement for Christians involved in politics and other areas of civic life: the key is servanthood. He’s also given some thought to the five things he would say to his twenty-year old self.