5 Leadership Questions Podcast on Church Leadership with Todd Adkins and Dan Iten

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Eric Geiger. Geiger is the senior pastor of Mariners Church and former co-host of 5LQ. He is also author of several books including Simple Church, Identity, and Designed to Lead. They discuss the following questions: Why is reading important for a leader?How has reading helped you lead in new spaces and new disciplines?How should a leader read a book?How does reading help influence your preaching and how do you take what you are reading and curate it into sermon?What are your top 5 books to read as a leader?When should you ask your staff to read a book with you? What are the best practices?How do you apply what you read and put it into practice? BEST QUOTES "You combine the humility of opening a book and the discipline of opening a book and that's a recipe for growth.""The more I read, the more I am able to articulate strategy, vision, and concise arguments.""Reading is important for leaders because the leader grows and the leader learns how to frame communication.""Know on the front end how you are going to engage the book.""Going into each book knowing the point of reading that book informs how you engage.""If I read a paradigm shifting book, then I look to bring it to the team to help them process where I believe we need to go.""Identify on the tail end of a book what are a couple of things you are going to do." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger Identity by Eric Geiger Designed to Lead by Eric Geiger Spiritual Leadership by Oswald Sanders Leading Change by John Kotter Leadership and the One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, Stephen Covey and Jim Huling A Beautiful Constraint by Mark Barden and Adam Morgan The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero Depression by Edward Welch This Episode's Sponsor: Our sponsor, BELAY, is offering all our podcast listeners a free download of their resource, ‘5 Ways A Church Bookkeeper Can Transform Your Day,’ which shares the five most positive changes that will come out of hiring a bookkeeper for your church.  Just text LIFEWAY to 55123 or visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway to download it for free today!

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Steve Carter. Carter is pastor, speaker, author, podcast host and the former lead teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago. He hosts the Craft & Character podcast, a sports podcast called The Home Team, and his latest book, The Thing Beneath the Thing, is now available. They discuss how people respond when they are triggered by past pain and why sanctification really matters. BEST QUOTES "If I say something I shouldn't say or I do not follow through on a commitment, I can't say that just like Paul, 'I do not understand what I do.'""We are people who have been triggered and those triggers are deeply connected to pains, traumas, and wounds.""The healthiest people, when they get triggered, don't see it as permission to escape. They see it as an invitation to be courageously curious.""The desert was a real gift for me because it was character school. It helped me remember why I got into this.""You can have these principles and values and practices and then all of a sudden you go through a season of three months where you feel like there isn't margin.""I needed to be healthy. I didn't want to step into another church and transfer my pain onto some other elder board.""A lot of times, especially in moments of crisis, there isn't a true north. Oftentimes, for pastors and leaders, we know the vision for our church, but we don't have a personal vision.""Every 90 days we try to look at the last 90 days to see what worked, what didn't, what needs to change, what can we be better at.""I was grateful that there were pastors in my life who could see that my success was outpacing my character and they pulled me aside.""Don't ever stop working on your craft.""I think a lot of pastors plateau in their 30s. I want to be a better communicator when I'm 70. I want to be wiser, but I always want my character to lead the way." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Craft & Character podcast The Home Team podcast The Thing Beneath the Thing by Steve Carter Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard The Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton This Episode's Sponsor: Our sponsor, BELAY, is offering all our podcast listeners a free download of their resource, ‘5 Ways A Church Bookkeeper Can Transform Your Day,’ which shares the five most positive changes that will come out of hiring a bookkeeper for your church.  Just text LIFEWAY to 55123 or visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway to download it for free today!

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Josh Patterson. Patterson is lead pastor at the Village Church. He co-authored Creature of the Word and leads Strategic Leadership Community with Kevin Peck. They discuss the following questions: What are the most common causes of conflict on a team?How have you seen the dynamics of conflict change over time?What does healthy and unhealthy conflict look like in a church?How does leading out through conflict set the tone for everyone else?How do you navigate conflict when it does arise on your team?How do you create a culture that handles conflict in a healthy way? BEST QUOTES "The theological underpinning to why we have conflict is that we have things going on inside of us.""If we want to resolve the conflict and do it well we have to get to those below the line realities.""Leaders have to set the pace for the organizational values.""When I think about healthy conflict, I am thinking about robust and refining conversations.""A mark of healthy conflict is the fruit of it is you have charitable narratives.""If I am conflict avoidant as a leader then that says some thing to my team about how I engage in conflict.""There is really no way when conflict arises, if you want healthy culture, to avoid it.""If we have positive stories of how conflict was navigated and negotiated, to me that creates a culture that says this is a safe place for conflict to happen.""How your leaders handle conflict will shape the organization.""There's no way to have a healthy culture around conflict if you don't have healthy leaders who are engaging in conflict." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Creature of the Word by Matt Chandler, Josh Patterson, and Eric Geiger This Episode's Sponsor: Our sponsor, BELAY, is offering all our podcast listeners a free download of their resource, ‘5 Ways A Church Bookkeeper Can Transform Your Day,’ which shares the five most positive changes that will come out of hiring a bookkeeper for your church.  Just text LIFEWAY to 55123 or visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway to download it for free today!

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Ben Mandrell are joined by J.D. Greear. Greear is the lead pastor of Summit Church and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. They discuss the following questions: Why is it hard for pastors to pray?How has preaching and writing about prayer affected your prayer life?How do you practically pray?How do you engage people and get them all to work on their prayer lives?How can we pray with intensity and clarity?How does prayer feed vision? BEST QUOTES "Ultimately, our prayerlessness is a gospel problem. That is that the gospel hasn't trained our heart to both feel our powerlessness on things that matter and then also the promises that Jesus has for those who call to Him.""I've learned out loud and struggled in print.""The Lord's Prayer is supposed to be your outline to pray.""Pray out loud. When I am quiet that is when my mind begins to wander.""When you realize that prayerlessness is not a self-discipline problem, you realize that when the gospel is appropriately shaping somebody's soul then prayer becomes as instinctive as breathing.""When the gospel has shaped your soul properly, then you begin to crave God enough that you find yourself instinctively praying.""Prayer is not just preparation for the ministry, it is the ministry.""A significant portion of our service is devoted to the congregation praying and we make the invitation at the end very prominent.""I'm praying, so that I can preach, so that I can move people to more prayer.""In the model prayer that Jesus gave, over half of it is relational or worship oriented and only half of it is request oriented.""If you are using Jesus's model as your guide, you are going to find that you will spend a lot of time just thinking about the sovereignty of God.""When our team is united in prayer, that is when the Holy Spirit begins to plant ideas." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Just Ask by J.D. Greear This Episode's Sponsor: Our sponsor, BELAY, is offering all our podcast listeners a free download of their resource, ‘5 Ways A Church Bookkeeper Can Transform Your Day,’ which shares the five most positive changes that will come out of hiring a bookkeeper for your church.  Just text LIFEWAY to 55123 or visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway to download it for free today!

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins is joined by Carey Nieuwhof. Nieuwhof is the host of the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast and the author of At Your Best. They discuss doing your best work when you are at your best and determining ahead of time what your best work is so you can prioritize your commitments. BEST QUOTES "The stress spiral is overwhelmed, overworked, overcommitted. It happens when you don't let your time get focused, where you never leverage your energy, and your priorities continually get hijacked.""Your energy waxes and wanes over the course of the day, and it is almost the same every day.""Do what your best at when you are at your best.""How do you say no? One thing is to have a really clear sense of your lane, what are you best at?""Deciding ahead of time what you will and won't do can really help.""When you are in a rapid change environment, what would have been a 9 last year, may not be a 9 this year, so don't make your decisions too far in advance.""You know who always absorbs the slack of all your bad decision making and saying yes too much and being overcommitted? Your family.""If you don't declare a finish line to this, your body will.""Time off won't heal you when the problem is how you spend your time on.""If you don't deal with your problems, they don't get better. They get worse." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast At Your Best by Carey Nieuwhof Before You Split by Toni Nieuwhof Didn't See It Coming by Carey Nieuwhof When by Daniel Pink Essentialism by Greg McKeown This Episode's Sponsor:

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Daniel Im. Im is the former co-host of 5LQ and the current lead pastor at Beulah Alliance Church in Edmonton, Alberta. They discuss the following questions: What does Beulah's staff structure currently look like?How should a small church learn from a large church perspective?When is the right time to make a position paid versus volunteer?When is the right time to restructure the staff? How often should that happen? Are there benefits to a siloed organization or a flat organization, or is it dependent on the circumstances? BEST QUOTES "There are structures and systems in absolutely everything. You are either intentional about it or you just let it happen.""Our role as kingdom workers is to see God's kingdom advance which requires scaling and church's multiplying and growing.""The structure has to be fluid around who you have on the bus.""When it comes to staff structure, you need to start with yourself and discern how God has gifted you, what He is calling you to, what are the things that only you can do, and what are the things that as the lead you need to do.""Overstructuring can actually harm you.""Learn from the communicators of 1,000+, but don't learn from their structure because their structure will choke your growth and prevent you from growing.""Don't hire three or four ten-hour positions, hire one person who is a master recruiter.""Re-orging is not a silver bullet.""If we are re-orging just because we are not happy with the results of our church, that is the wrong time to re-org.""So many churches turn to re-organizations as a bandage.""Don't do it to often, but you have to re-org when there are major changes like succession.""We too quickly go to other people's experience and wisdom and we don't often just sit at the feet of Jesus, pray, wait, listen, and study your own context.""We have to study our own context and wait on Jesus for the answer." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network No Silver Bullets by Daniel Im Jesus on Leadership by C. Gene Wilkes "Leadership and Size Dynamics" by Tim Keller Staff Your Church for Growth by Gary McIntosh Designed to Lead by Eric Geiger and Kevin Peck This Episode's Sponsor:

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Henry Kaestner. Kaestner is the co-founder of Bandwidth, managing principal at Sovereign's Capital, and co-author of Faith Driven Entrepreneur. They discuss the relationship between pastors and faith driven entrepreneurs and finding identity in Christ, not in entrepreneurship. BEST QUOTES "Casting and solving problems is a part of getting into this work that is done by God as His kingdom is advancing.""I think that faith-driven entrepreneurs are being used by God in the marketplace to really impact culture.""Now my biggest leadership challenge is how do I help to lead a movement that is not about me.""Your identity is as a beloved child of God. When God looks at you He doesn't see that Mark Zuckerberg type of character that you might want to be, He sees His son.""The balance that an entrepreneur has is: Am I faithful and obedient? Do I have a right understanding of my identity?""One of the marks of a faith-driven entrepreneur is to be faithful rather than willful.""I would tell my 20-year-old self, my 35-year-old self, my 51-year-old-self who just yesterday made decisions without just pausing for a second to ask God, 'Help me make sure that this is not of you, to just kill it.'" RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Faith Driven Entrepreneur by Henry Kaestner, J.D. Greear, and Chip Ingram The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom This Episode's Sponsor:

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Will Heath. Heath has been working on the topic of succession for decades. He is also author of the book Embracing Succession. They discuss the following questions: Why is succession something you should prepare for now, not when you are about to transition?What can you do from a practical standpoint to redistribute the weight of succession?How should pastor manage conversations about succession?What decisions lead to a poor succession transition?What resources would you share?How can the successor step into the transition and follow a long-tenured pastor well? BEST QUOTES "To not lead and behave in a way that recognizes the seasons we are in as human beings is poor stewardship.""Another important aspect of how we steward is discerning the seasons that we as leaders are in and that our organizations are in.""One of the reasons we see failures in succession planning is because leaders don't redistribute the weight that they are applying to the conversation.""Many churches don't have an ongoing rhythm and ability to access risk.""A leader doesn't have to signal that they are thinking about succession in 5 to 7 years to do an organizational assessment.""Pastors can have candid conversations with their boards.""We associate succession planning with search, and I want to destroy that connection.""This is the perfect season for you to model what you've been teaching us for decades in how to trust the Lord in our transitions.""Transitions don't create problems as much as they expose them.""Talk to current staff and previous staff. That will go a long way to helping successors understand whether or not hey are going to be a fit." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Embracing Succession by Will Heath SuccessionSherpa.com Emergency Succession Planning Policy Template Use the code 5LQ-50  to get 50% OFF (offer is good through August 31, 2021) Leading Change by John Kotter Succession: Are You Ready? by Marshall Goldsmith Too Great a Temptation by Joel Gregory Leading Change Without Losing It by Carey Nieuwhof Transition Plan by Bob Russell This Episode's Sponsor:

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Ben Mandrell are joined by Choco De Jesús. Jesús was a pastor for 20 years at New Life Covenant in Chicago, a public servant, and a speaker. He is also on the executive leadership team of the Assemblies of God. They discuss supporting young people in the church and why it is important to have priorities. BEST QUOTES "Love is the currency of heaven, not Bible study, not prayers, not fasting.""During this cancel culture, we need to know that we are citizens of heaven.""God is a God of generations. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the God who speaks into generations and we have to follow that lead.""We have to be able to open the gates for the next generation to be able to find their purpose and what God has for them.""I try to tell leaders not to balance their lives. You aren't a juggler. You are a man or woman of God. You've got to be able to have priorities.""My leadership in my home was establishing some sort of structure that the next generation, my children's children, would be able to follow.""The local church had this major role of showing me what the family looks like even though we are made up of different people.""As leaders, we create moments in the lives of these children that will mark them for the rest of their lives.""God has called us to be servants and to be leading in our communities and our cities and our families." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Stay the Course: Finding Hope in a Drifting Culture by Choco De Jesús Love Them Anyway by Choco De Jesús This Episode's Sponsor:

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Ben Mandrell are joined by Tim Challies. Challies is a pastor, blogger, and book reviewer. He is also the author of Knowing and Enjoying God. They discuss learning how sorrow is a ministry and the decision to not pursue a large ministry. BEST QUOTES "God equips us for ministry in different ways and one of the ministries of the church is the ministry of sorrow.""If we can understand the hand of providence in it - whether God does things or whether God permits things - somehow God is involved in all the circumstances of our lives.""This is an assignment from God, I don't need to get hung up on the why it happened. I can just say this is what did happen and now I am going to take it as a gift of His grace, an assignment from His hand.""In the Christian world, there is intense pressure to grow.""I really want to be encouraging to people, to be able to continue to bring truth that will shore people up to face another day in a difficult world and help them commit more and more to dutifully serving the Lord.""Envy never does anybody any good, it primarily hurts the one who is envious, because it is a sin in which you are always comparing yourself to others. If you win the comparison you become prideful, if you lose the comparison you become despairing and you turn on God.""Godliness doesn't run in the family, but when you have three generations there is something that builds over time.""We can become very full of ourselves and think far too highly of ourselves and lose that awareness of how sinful we are and what our family tolerates.""As leaders, it is good to get a better assessment from time to time of our own leadership failures and then be willing to bear with our family as they put up with us.""When you are at your best, prepare for your worst.""Your most important leadership moments are probably going to come when you are in great difficulty." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Challies.com Knowing and Enjoying God by Tim Challies This Episode's Sponsor: Downline Ministries' mission is to encourage a restoration of biblical discipleship in and through the local church by equipping men and women to know God's Word and make disciples.  The primary way we partner with churches is through the Downline Institute, a 9 month biblical discipleship training program that walks students through the Bible (Genesis-Revelation), biblical manhood/womanhood, and key discipleship lessons. Listeners can receive $100 off tuition cost by using the code LIFEWAY when you apply at www.downlineministries.com.