Episode 644: Annie F. Downs on How Churches are Ignoring Single Women, a New Take on Sexual Purity, Finishing Well, and Lessons from 100 Million Podcast Downloads Annie F. Downs talks about how churches are ignoring single women, a new take on sexual purity, how to finish well, why your 50s, 60s, and 70s are your best decades, the state of publishing and podcasting, and lessons from New York. Download the Transcript Conversation Links Walking the City Walking the World – Seth Godin Let’s Read the Gospel podcast That Sounds Fun Show Annie’s Mini BFF Podcast Let’s Read the Gospels guided jou ..read more

As the saying goes, what got you here won’t get you there. The skills that got you to where you are today in church leadership won’t get you to where you want to be.  And that’s never been more true than it is now. As you’ve no doubt sensed, several new realities have combined to make this a deeply challenging season for church leaders. First, America, in particular, is quickly becoming a post-Christian culture. The rise of the Nones, deconstruction, culture wars, and declining church attendance are combining to suspend the normal rules about what used to ‘work’ and be effective in mini ..read more

Episode 643: George Kamel on How to Effectively Pitch Yourself as a Young Leader, How to Get Noticed and Promoted in Leadership, EQ Tips, and Money Advice for Millennials and Gen Z in the New Housing Reality Ramsey Personality George Kamel talks about his rise from an intern at Dave Ramsey as a college graduate to an on-air personality. He outlines how to effectively pitch yourself to an influencer as a young leader, how to get noticed and promoted in leadership, shares EQ tips, and money advice for Millennials and Gen Z in the new housing reality. Download the Transcript Conversation Link ..read more

Episode 642: Willie and Korie Robertson on the Backstory of Duck Dynasty, the Terrible Side of Rapid Growth, and How to Make Marriage, Family, and Friendship Work in the Spotlight Duck Dynasty’s Willie and Korie Robertson share the backstory behind the rise of their A&E reality show, how they got started, the terrible side of rapid growth, and how to make marriage, family, and friendship work when you’re in the spotlight. Download the Transcript Conversation Links Duck Commander The Blind Movie Gospeler by Willie Robertson On the Rise Newsletter The Art of Leadership Academy Get Carey ..read more

There’s a good chance that your church has core value statements. But whether they actually mean something to your staff, leaders, and members may be up for question. And let’s face it, many core value statements sound so generic that they’re meaningless, if not also ironic. Rather famously, integrity, respect and excellence were three of corporate fraudster Enron’s values before the energy company collapsed after it was discovered that their top executives laundered money, engaged in insider trading and embezzled tens of millions of dollars. The company’s executives were sentenced to decades ..read more

Episode 641: Daniel Harkavy on Imagining Your Funeral When You’re a Young Leader, Self-Leadership, Team Effectiveness, and What Separates the Best Leaders From the Rest Author and top leadership coach Daniel Harkavy talks about the value of imagining your funeral when you’re a young leader, life planning, self-leadership, team effectiveness, and what separates the best leaders from the rest. Download the Transcript Conversation Links The 7 Perspectives of Effective Leaders by Daniel Harkavy Living Forward by Daniel Harkavy and Michael Hyatt SetPath Episode 260: Ruth Haley Barton on How Bus ..read more

If you’re trying to get heard on social media, you know how frustrating that can be to build that presence online.  Whether you’re running your personal account or the social accounts for your church, you think you have a great message you want to share with the world, but for the most part, everyone keeps passing you by. The truth is, if you have 500 followers, 5000, or 50,000 followers, the results are almost always the same. Work hard on a post, get a couple dozen (or hundred likes), and generally expect a good chunk of your audience to never even see your post (thank you, algorithm ..read more

What is it about the items on your to-do list that make them so impossible to actually do?  Working in ministry comes with a unique set of challenges when it comes to efficiency… and your never-ending list of responsibilities is just one of them. All of the unexpected demands on your time can make administrative tasks pretty difficult, and that’s before all those last-minute meetings that inevitably swallow your calendar whole. Everywhere you turn, there seems to be more to do and less time to do it, right? It’s exhausting. And it’s especially exhausting if you try to do it all on y ..read more

Episode 640: Shauna Pilgreen on Church Planting Mistakes and Best Practices in a Post-Post-Christian and Progressive Culture, Planting a Church Without a Playbook, and How to Communicate with Deeply Unchurched People Shauna Pilgreen talks about planting a church in San Francisco without a playbook, church planting mistakes and best practices in a post-post Christian, Progressive culture, and how to communicate with deeply unchurched people. Download the Transcript Conversation Links Translating Jesus by Shauna Pilgreen Love Where You Live by Shauna Pilgreen Episode 674 with Warren Bird and ..read more

Give advice to many church leaders on any topic, and you’ll often hear them say, “You don’t understand. MY church is different.” Then they’ll give you five reasons why their church/city/people/culture is different, so, naturally, the rules or whatever piece of advice you’re giving them can’t apply to them.  I don’t buy it.  I mean, sure, there are some differences from place to place. The West Coast isn’t middle America. Vancouver isn’t Milwaukee. And the inner city isn’t suburbia. Nor is a retirement community a college town. Granted. But the question still remains…  Is your c ..read more