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 Jonathan Evans. Evans is a pastor, speaker, mentor, and author. He serves on the pastoral staff at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas. His latest book is Your Time is Now. They discuss building time into your day to purposefully hear from God and the biblical importance of rest. BEST QUOTES "God will use your greatest misery for your greatest ministry.""A lot of people want to discount the journey for the goal, not realizing that the journey makes you ready for the goal when it comes.""Comparison is a killer of purpose.""I want people to be known, loved, valued, and spiritually developed so they can be commissioned.""We find value in our work, but we don't realize our power is in our rest.""If you are exhausted, then you will become an enemy of your own vision.""There is a place for eating and drinking the bread of life. For walking with God. For resting. For pulling back and being a great leader who trusts the people they hire and put in place.""You cannot be high impact when you are high fatigue.""As a pastor's son, I can tell you now, that if you don't prioritize your family they will know that they are not the priority and that's why a lot of PK kids go left, because the ministry was more important than them and they can feel it.""If you are a micromanager what you are saying to your staff is that you really don't trust them.""There is a realization that pastor's have to understand that God will allow those hard times and trials because He needs you to let go.""When you are exacerbated, it may be God prying it out of your hands, saying you are frustrated because you need to let go." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Your Time is Now by Jonathan Evans The Blessed Church by Robert Morris 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.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Dave Alpern. Alpern is the president of Joe Gibbs Racing and author of Taking the Lead. They discuss being a reluctant leader and investing in what matters most for your current season of life. BEST QUOTES "If you want job security, deliver more value than you're paid.""Most leadership books are written from the perspective of the alpha leader, I am not that. I am a reluctant leader.""One of my philosophies in meetings was to never talk first and to talk infrequently so that everyone listens.""When I am in a meeting, even if I think I have a lot to offer, I will save it because I really want to listen and I don't want to skew people.""It starts with spending time in the Word, spending time in prayer, and taking time of yourself.""It's really important for me to focus on that idea of investing in who matters the most - investing in my family, myself, making sure I am healthy there before I even think about trying to lead at work.""The Bible is a great blueprint for God using all kinds of different people to lead - sometimes misfits, sometimes extraordinarily impressive, sharp people, and sometimes people in between.""You don't have to fit a certain profile to be a leader.""You are not a success or failure based on your title.""Your job isn't your identity.""Leadership has nothing to do with your title.""Who am I influencing as the president that I couldn't influence when I was an intern? Am I being a good steward of that influence and that responsibility?" RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Taking the Lead by Dave Alpern 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.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Brett Hagler. Hagler is the CEO and co-founder of New Story. They discuss being obsessive about learning and taking calculated risks for the Kingdom. BEST QUOTES "For myself and even my exec team and the directors I work closely with, I need to care, first and foremost, about who they are becoming from a character standpoint and a leadership standpoint than what they are achieving.""When you are at work, there needs to be a real desire to want to be stretched and to be obsessive about learning and growing.""If you are growing at a certain pace and taking on new challenges, you have to make sure the people under you are excited about that and want to do that and are willing to put in the effort to do so." "Learning these challenges actually creates our biggest opportunities for the innovations or what we want to bring to solve the challenges.""I got on my knees and said God, I have no clue why this is happening, but I am going to trust that You have something coming next that could be better and could be bigger, and I then thought of New Story about four months after that.""The more calculated risks we can take, if it's something we have a conviction on and feel pulled to by the Spirit, go for it!""I would try to pair an obsession with learning with a bias toward action.""I figured out I could put intentional time in to learn from other entrepreneurs or pastors that inspired me, I could consistently learn and take action as well.""If you just have action and you are not obsessed with learning, it is hard to mature and grow and get better." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network New Story The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer Relentless by Tim Grover Soul Keeping by John Ortberg 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.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Horst Schulze. Horst is the former president and co-founder of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and the author of Excellence Wins. They discuss the following questions: Do you have any stories of difficult experiences you led through?How do you maintain excellence in changing and shifting times?Where should someone learn about hospitality?What are two to three things you do daily to stay sharp in your leadership?How do you measure elements that are difficult to measure?Who or what was the greatest influence on your life?What advice would you give your 20-year-old self? BEST QUOTES "Whatever happens in the life of an organization, or for that matter in the life of an individual, the one thing you don't give up is your objectives.""You should question yourself, 'How do I make sure when I am through this setback the customers like me even more?'""Excellence is never an accident, it is always the result of high intent and hard work.""If I see a change in the customer's expectation of my product, I have to redo my processes to make sure I am serving that change. At the same time, I have to realign my employees so they have knowledge of the new expectation that the customer has of me.""My intent as an organization is to serve the community of people for their benefit." "Service starts with a great greeting. It starts the instant I meet them.""Service continues by helping the guest receive what they need. It's not about me, it's all about them.""You cannot create something for everybody.""Create excellence at all times.""Excellence in a human being is doing your very best in the functions that you fulfill, doing your very best in relationships, doing your very best in morality, and doing your very best spiritually.""God has created us for more than just fulfilling functions." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Excellence Wins by Horst Schulze The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey 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.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Scott Harrison. Scott is the founder and CEO of the nonprofit charity: water and author of Thirst: A Story of Redemption, Compassion, and a Mission to Bring Clean Water to the World. They discuss finding clarity by stepping away and why integrity is so important. BEST QUOTES "I personally felt like I had let down 180,000 people because I hadn't figured out how to achieve the success of the previous year or grow.""When you are in the day-to-day, often, it is easy as leaders to be hard on ourselves.""The thing I am most interested in at the moment, hitting 15 years, is the idea of the long obedience in the same direction or showing up for a long time and allowing amazing things to happen.""I would like to personally oversee 100 million people getting clean water before I die, so that keeps me going.""We had a million dollars in the bank account that was going straight to build water projects, and we were about to miss payroll in the overhead bank account. We were never going to borrow against that.""Find the highest road possible, and take that.""Integrity is the number one most valued value for me.""How you do something is way more important than what you actually do." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network charity: water Thirst: A Story of Redemption, Compassion, and a Mission to Bring Clean Water to the World by Scott Harrison 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.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Chandler Vannoy is joined by Andy Wood. Andy is the lead pastor of Echo Church in the San Francisco Bay area and host of the Echo Leadership Podcast. They discuss why leadership means giving things up to grow as a leader and how self-care allows for greater ministry. BEST QUOTES "There is a lot of hostility toward the church in general, so if we were going to be able to reach people who were beyond the walls of the church we had to make serving a really big deal.""What I realize now at 40, it's a lot harder to run for 40-50 years in ministry and finish with your soul intact, your marriage intact, your family intact.""The area that has required the most time and energy is learning to develop leaders and how do you lead the organization when people don't grow with the organization.""Part of leadership is saying what are the things in this season that I need to give up in order to go up to that next level that God would have for me as a leader.""There is an invitation in this season for our formation as leaders.""I want to be developed by Jesus in that way that my heart has the ability to forgive people that harm me, that our ministry.""All of us have had our flywheel of ministry crushed in the last year and we can either try to go back to that or we can see it as an invitation to allow God to cultivate a deeper level of love and intimacy with Him.""I can still push us, but I can also make space for people who don't see it the same way that I do.""I've noticed my engagement in meetings, my focus on deep work, all of that goes up when I am rested.""That self-care allows me to minister to more people and have a greater influence in my life.""The pain of ministry is equal to the perks.""Give attention to the pain and let the pain push you further into the presence of God.""Embrace that pain as part of God's development plan to make you more like Jesus and make you a better leader." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Echo Leadership Podcast How Not to Read the Bible by Dan Kimball This Episode's Sponsor: No matter how many people you have on staff at your church, there’s only so much you can accomplish in a day, right? Your church exists to serve your community, so the mission of your church and its staff is to reach as many people as you can. So BELAY, the innovative staffing solution with over 10 years of experience serving churches with virtual assistants, bookkeepers and social media strategists, is offering a free download of their resource, ‘Church Leaders: Essential Strategies to Unleash Productivity.’  Let BELAY help your church live its mission in your community by helping you juggle less and accomplish more. Visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway for your free download.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Jimmy and Kristin Scroggins. Jimmy is lead pastor at Family Church in South Florida and Kristin is a gifted Bible teacher and speaker. They just released the book Full Circle Parenting. They discuss the following questions: Who or what has been the greatest influence in the way you parent and lead your family?What is the foundational piece of the theology of parenting?As pastors and leaders, how do we handle the times when our kids are rebellious?What is your favorite parenting failure story?What did those failures teach you moving forward?What are the three circles and what led you to start using them in your parenting?How did you help your kids handle the expectations and navigate the world as pastor's kids?How do you speak to a wife who sees a spiritual leader at church, but not at home?What advice would you tell your 20-year-old self about parenting? BEST QUOTES "If parents will develop a good theology, from that they can build a good parenting strategy, which will set up really good parenting conversations.""Theology behind parenting helps us stay in the game with what our strategy is going to be.""God has a design for every aspect of our kids lives.""Because of the gospel, there is a way for us to be restored and reconciled in every situation because of what Christ has done for us.""When our children see us trusting God, forgiving each other easily, repenting quickly, it's easier for them to believe that God is going to forgive them no matter what, forgive them easily, and give them room for repentance.""Every mistake, every sin, every meltdown isn't a reflection of me as a person, but the way I respond to it is.""The heart of parenting isn't how this is going to make me look, but who they are going to become in Christ.""We developed the three circles as a tool to talk to people about marriage and parenting.""If you are married and you are parenting, make sure your marriage is at the center of your home.""God has given us a lot of days to speak into our kids' lives, so if we get something wrong today we have tomorrow and the next hour, and our kids do as well.""We've got to stay in the game with our kids, no matter what, because that's what God does for His people." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Full Circle Parenting by Jimmy and Kristin Scroggins 3 Circles by Jimmy Scroggins and Leslee Bennett This Episode's Sponsor: No matter how many people you have on staff at your church, there’s only so much you can accomplish in a day, right? Your church exists to serve your community, so the mission of your church and its staff is to reach as many people as you can. So BELAY, the innovative staffing solution with over 10 years of experience serving churches with virtual assistants, bookkeepers and social media strategists, is offering a free download of their resource, ‘Church Leaders: Essential Strategies to Unleash Productivity.’  Let BELAY help your church live its mission in your community by helping you juggle less and accomplish more. Visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway for your free download.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Michael Hyatt, blogger, speaker, former chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, and author of many books including Win at Work and Succeed at Life. They discuss the following questions: Explain why you wrote the book.Why would you say overworking is such a problem these days, and especially in the church?Why do we need to understand the balance between areas of our lives?Why do you think the cult of overwork is so prevalent?How can pastors create boundaries and restraints to be more healthy in this area?How do you continue to add boundaries as you move to a higher level of leadership?What habits or practices have you created in your life?What's the best piece of leadership advice you've ever been given?What do you mean by delegation as development?What do you want your leadership legacy to be? BEST QUOTES "I thought I had reached the pinnacle of success, but what I discovered was that it was a false summit. I was winning at work, but I was losing at home.""A lot of pastors get confused - does ministry come ahead of their health or their family life? Maybe they should sacrifice it all for the sake of serving other people and serving God. I think that is bad theology and doesn't work out in practice.""You can't win in just one domain of life and sacrifice the other domains and ultimately be successful because they are all interrelated.""If we aren't careful, we end up in a situation where we are helping everyone else, but we aren't helping ourselves.""Be really reticent about thinking that you are the exception to the rule.""Leaders are going to replicate themselves in the lives of their followers, whether it's the bad qualities or the good qualities.""If you are standing in the pulpit and telling people that they need to love their wives, or husband, or kids, or take care of their health, and you aren't doing it, your actions will speak louder than your words.""For the sake of the people that follow us, we have to be all in on trying to model what God would have us to be.""A habit or a system is always better than a goal.""You are either growing or you are regressing.""Define the win in advance so your delegate doesn't have to read your mind.""Design the outcome you want, don't drift into it." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus Win at Work and Succeed at Life by Michael Hyatt and Megan Hyatt Miller After purchasing the book, go to winandsucceedbook.com/questions to receive $500 worth of resources Living Forward by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy This Episode's Sponsor: No matter how many people you have on staff at your church, there’s only so much you can accomplish in a day, right? Your church exists to serve your community, so the mission of your church and its staff is to reach as many people as you can. So BELAY, the innovative staffing solution with over 10 years of experience serving churches with virtual assistants, bookkeepers and social media strategists, is offering a free download of their resource, ‘Church Leaders: Essential Strategies to Unleash Productivity.’  Let BELAY help your church live its mission in your community by helping you juggle less and accomplish more. Visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway for your free download.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Ben Mandrell are joined by Jon Acuff, public speaker and author of Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking. They discuss learning how to be a better virtual speaker through the pandemic and ways to plan instead of pine over your current situation. BEST QUOTES "I can either pine or I can plan.""Innovation is a classroom. A crisis is an invitation.""Most people think a thought is something you have, not something you hone.""The goal of a great thought is always a great action.""I think every live event from this point on will have a hybrid approach.""One of the simplest ways to break it from a typical zoom meeting is you stand up.""Authenticity, whether it is via camera or via live, is still better than in-authenticity.""As a leader if your whole identity becomes the thing you are leading, it is game over.""One of the most damaging things you can do to yourself right now is compare this current situation to your goals a year ago.""If you decide you are going to build a platform as part of your career, admit that, and then put some boundaries around it.""It's not that I was a wise 13-year-old, I didn't have the public forum to leave a gingerbread trail back to my worst moments.""The amount of isolation we have practiced for the last year will have emotional heart cost for generations.""You should ask any repetitive thought: Is it true? Is it helpful? Is it kind? If it's not, you should probably change it." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking by Jon Acuff All It Takes is a Goal Podcast The Dip by Seth Godin Leap Over a Wall by Eugene Peterson Death by Suburb by Dave Goetz This Episode's Sponsor: No matter how many people you have on staff at your church, there’s only so much you can accomplish in a day, right? Your church exists to serve your community, so the mission of your church and its staff is to reach as many people as you can. So BELAY, the innovative staffing solution with over 10 years of experience serving churches with virtual assistants, bookkeepers and social media strategists, is offering a free download of their resource, ‘Church Leaders: Essential Strategies to Unleash Productivity.’  Let BELAY help your church live its mission in your community by helping you juggle less and accomplish more. Visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway for your free download.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Ben Mandrell are joined by Tim Keller, founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church and author of Hope in Times of Fear. They discuss the following questions: What is happening in the church culture because of COVID?How have you encouraged pastors in this season?Are there any books that you went back to during this time?What is a story of a leadership failure in your life?Moving out of COVID and toward establishing a normal rhythm, what advice do you have? BEST QUOTES "COVID is probably accelerating the waning of the middle class.""The reality is there is going to be an economic inequality that is being accelerated, and that is going to have a big impact on the church.""The churches that are doing well need to give to the famine struck churches.""The extremes are very empowered, when you go online you get the impression there isn't anything in the middle.""The small churches will probably retain everybody, the big churches will be fine, the medium group is going to have to really rethink it from the ground up.""God doesn't go from strength to strength, He goes through weakness to strength.""What's so debilitating about this year is that no one is getting any wins.""If you spend twice as much time seeking the Lord's face, He actually is there.""If there are some ways in which your church is experiencing deaths - literally or figuratively - there's the resurrection on the other side you've got to seek God for.""Just because you are good at your job doesn't mean you are good at leading an organization that does that job.""The biggest advantage of leadership planning is not the plan, but the process of planning and how it enriches you and gets you ready for the future.""Even if you have a plan, the process of the planning is more viable than the plan because the future will never be quite what you thought, but you will be in a position to move much more quickly." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus Hope in Times of Fear by Timothy Keller Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ by John Owens Communion with God by John Owens The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices by Thomas Brooks This Episode's Sponsor: No matter how many people you have on staff at your church, there’s only so much you can accomplish in a day, right? Your church exists to serve your community, so the mission of your church and its staff is to reach as many people as you can. So BELAY, the innovative staffing solution with over 10 years of experience serving churches with virtual assistants, bookkeepers and social media strategists, is offering a free download of their resource, ‘Church Leaders: Essential Strategies to Unleash Productivity.’  Let BELAY help your church live its mission in your community by helping you juggle less and accomplish more. Visit belaysolutions.com/lifeway for your free download.