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 Daniel Im are joined by Caleb Kaltenbach, pastor and author of Messy Grace and God of Tomorrow. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: * What was it like to be raised by LGBTQ parents? * How does this affect your marriage and parenting today? * How does your personal story affect your everyday leadership and the lens in which you view leadership? * Why do you think churches are so reluctant to engage the LGBTQ community? * What are some things you teach churches to navigate through this issue? BEST QUOTES  “At the age of 16, I had never set foot in a Christian household before.” “The more that I learned, the more that I studied, the more that I saw that Jesus was different.” “I find myself having to be really intentional about what I say to my kids, how I tell them to love people, but at the same time hold firmly to their biblical convictions.” “I wanted the book to be about how to empathetically love people without sacrificing your theological convictions.” “A theological conviction is never a catalyst to devalue another human being.” “I think we underestimate how much people base their view of God off of how we treat them and what our personal character is.” “I help churches and organizations build policies that help create safe places where people can belong before they believe, where they can engage the church or organization, while that organization also hold firmly to its biblical beliefs.” “The best thing you can do in a new context is ask questions.” “There is a big difference between acceptance and approval.” “Real love is built on acceptance, not agreement.” “This is primarily an identity issue, and when we treat an identity issue primarily as a sexual sin issue, then we eventually end up shaming the person.” “We’ve got to help them identify with Christ first and foremost.” “What would you be willing to do to keep and build influence with your child?” “The first thing I would do is forget the whole LGBTQ stuff and I would just get to know them as a person.” “Treat them like a person, invest in them, and look for the opportunities to start talking to them about Jesus.” RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Gay Girl, Good God by Jackie Hill Perry Messy Grace by Caleb Kaltenbach God of Tomorrow by Caleb Kaltenbach

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Scott Harrison, founder and CEO of Charity Water and author of Thirst. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: * How has Charity Water grown and what obstacles have you faced? * What would you say to individuals or organizations that are fundraising about recurring donations? * What are the growing pains of moving from a start up to an established organization? * What does the leadership pipeline line look like with in your organization and also externally? * What does the second half of your life look like? BEST QUOTES "We have no idea what it would be like to walk 5 hours in the hot sun carrying 40 pounds of dirty water." "Water means health, improved education, improved local economies." "Only .007 percent of all the water in the planet is usable for us." "We went from giving a million human beings clean water in our 8th year to 800,000 human beings in our 9th year." "Our numbers are not revenue for shareholders. Our numbers are human lives." "Instead of whining about the down year, why not try to fix it?" "Organizations hit points where what got you here, will not get you there." "Fundraising only gets harder." "If you give monthly, one thing we can give back is stories of impact." "I asked myself what would a 180 degree different life look like and it led me to this life of service." "I made the decision that we would go bust before compromising a shred of our integrity." "We are actively trying to develop leaders internally." "We've had interns rise to directors here with extraordinary amounts of responsibility." "If you tell the truth in the small things, you tell the truth in the big things." "I'd like to personally be involved in getting 100 million people clean water." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Ministrygrid.com Charity Water Thirstbook.com leadership.lifeway.com

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im breakdown the leadership book Profitable Growth is Everyone's Business: 10 Tools You Can Use Monday Morning by Ram Charan. In their conversation they discuss the following questions: * What's the book and why does it matter? * Overview of the book * How applicable is the book to leadership in my church? * What are things churches should ignore from the book? * What can you do this week in light of the book? BEST QUOTES “When we think about church, a lot of people are obsessed with growth." "People started treating baptism like it was the finish line instead of the starting line." "Apply some of the findings in this book toward the growth of your ministry." "If you want to grow your church, you have to grow your people." "Improving productivity and increasing revenue are seen as two separate things, but in reality they are, in fact, inseparable for long term success." "Growth projects are not additional work, they replace a less productive part of their job." "We love starting things, we don't mind refining things, but it's really hard to stop." "We are not saying that profitable revenue growth is the goal of a church, but we are taking principles of this book and we are going to talk about how it applies to leadership in the local church." "We will not impact our community until we release the people to do the work." "I do think it's important to ask people questions until they ask you the question." "This is about making sure that the things that are growing, and the things that are most aligned with our purpose, are the things that are being fed the most." "It's not just about the number of people your church serves, it's about the depth to which you serve them." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Pipeline 2018 Conference Profitable Growth is Everyone's Business: 10 Tools You Can Use Monday Morning by Ram Charan The Leadership Pipeline by Ram Charan, Steve Drotter, and Jim Noel The Leadership Engine by Noel M. Tichy The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling    

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Annie F. Downs, podcast host and bestselling author of Remember God. During their conversation, they discuss how she keeps her relationship with God as the priority in her life and the importance of taking care of yourself to be able to fulfill the mission God has for you. BEST QUOTES "I want my readers to feel pastored." "Anyone can teach you how to shoot up like a firework, but fireworks explode and disappear. I want someone to teach my how to finish the race." "I have learned in the last year the discipline of prayer and the power of prayer in ways I never have before." "The presence of God is the gas that keeps this thing going." "Prayer and time in the presence of God are the two things that are going to help us finish well." "Does this feel like something your friend would say if you were sitting across the table having coffee?" "My leadership emphasis is a personal relationship with God. Do you believe that God is who He says He is and His Word is true?" "My hope is that how I lead is an overflow of how I am living with the people who have my phone number not just my Instagram handle." "We believe the Bible over our circumstances." "God is not going to ask me how many books I sold, but He is going to ask me how I treated people." "If we are going to go at any kind of pace that impacts the Kingdom, then we need to go at a pace that we have the right fuel to do." "I am just not willing for my body to give up before I am done with what God has for me." "For me in my home as a single person, leadership is about self-discipline." "If I was mentored by anyone, it was by the worst versions of myself." "Every good ministry is also a business." "The things I am doing now are for the person I want to be in 10 or 20 years." "Everything compounds to make you who you want to be." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Pipeline 2018 Conference Remember God by Annie F. Downs That Sounds Fun with Annie F. Downs Podcast anniefdowns.com She Reads Truth Onsite Living Centered program The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Mark Satterfield, Executive and Teaching Pastor at The Glade Church in Mount Juliet, Tenn. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: * How did you lead in between pastors? * How do you keep casting vision for your volunteers? And how do you help your staff continue to cast vision for their volunteers? * What are some ways you set up the new pastor for success, or wish you had done? * Should you implement change during the in-between season, or should you keep the status quo? * How would you advise a church on how to prepare for an in-between season so that it goes smoothly when it inevitably happens? BEST QUOTES "If you've walked through an interim process, you're glad to have had that experience, but when it's over you are glad it's over." "In that season, I knew what was really important was for us to communicate often and for us to communicate well." "You are in a season of unknowns, but that doesn't mean you pause." "With staff, it was important for us to be unified." "We wanted to love on people well, but during an interim season that can be tough because you have an unknown factor." "I had key individuals inside and outside the church that I could talk to." "I wish we would have had more times as a staff and as a church to gather together to pray for the new pastor." "You want your staff to be comfortable enough to come to you and have open conversations about what their true gifting is." "You are on the right bus, we just need to get you in the right seat." "What I'm doing today is so important in terms of a hand off for tomorrow." "I would encourage members to lean in. And if you aren't participating, get involved." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Pipeline 2018 Conference The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon  

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Brad Waggoner, Executive Vice President at Lifeway Christian Resources. During their conversation, they discuss reasons to make tough personnel decisions and looking back at family leadership. BEST QUOTES "There is a sea of information that flows by us at rapid pace." "Men and methods come and go, but the mission stays the same." "I almost like finding problems, because it means you get better." "I think one mistake that leaders make is misplaced compassion." "The more experience I've gained, the less I'm worried about the fallout." "I try to be intentional about who should I be initiating time with." "I try to read or listen to audiobooks daily." "I did not cultivate emotional intimacy in the home." "If I could go back to my 20-year-old self would I say, "lower your expectations of others?" Because I've been disappointed at well-known leaders who pick and choose the parts of the Bible they want to talk about." "I spent two days alone with God, fasting and praying. I needed to know, "God, what do you want from me?" RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Pipeline 2018 Conference The Leadership Engine by Noel Tichy Harvard Business Review Wall Street Journal A Seat at the Table by Mark Schwartz Cornerstones by Brian Dembowczyk No Silver Bullets by Daniel Im The Shape of Faith to Come by Brad Waggoner My Top 20 Leadership Books Brad Waggoner * Good to Great. Jim Collins * The Speed of Trust. Stephen Covey, Jr. * The Top 10 Mistakes Leaders Make. Hans Finzel * Spiritual Leadership. J. Oswald Sanders * Working with Emotional Intelligence. Daniel Goleman * The Leadership Challenge. James Kouzes and Barry Posner (5thedition) * Leading Change. John Kotter *

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Josh Patterson, Lead Pastor at The Village Church in Texas. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: * How do you lead high capacity leaders on your team? * What do you look for when recruiting staff? * How do you know what level of leadership you are best gifted for? * You made a decision to transition your campuses to church plants. How is it going? * You and Kevin Peck lead a strategic learning community, and have trained a lot of senior leaders. What have you found as you have trained them to be their greatest need? BEST QUOTES "It's different leading leaders than it is leading minions or yes people." "High capacity leaders want to be recognized as such. They want to have room to lead." "I don't think you can grow without healthy conflict." "Every time you hire someone you are making a cultural decision." "Membership is not the same thing as employment." "There's a difference between someone who can stand in the pulpit for a season and someone who can carry a pulpit." "It is like replanting five churches while you are flying with one church in five locations." "Moving from intuitive leadership to intentional leadership is often an "aha" moment for these leaders." "We can work with these leaders to move their churches from a model of intuition to a model of intentionality." "We give them tools and exercises to get it into their hands and out of their hearts. It demystifies some of it in a lot of ways." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Pipeline 2018 Conference Rumsfeld's Rules by Donal Rumsfeld On Leadership by John Gardner

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. During their conversation, they discuss research on Vacation Bible School (VBS) and answer the following questions. * What are some of the highlights from the VBS research? * What are our personal experiences with VBS? * Why does VBS work today? * What are some tips for the next time someone hosts VBS? BEST QUOTES “Sometimes parents are twisting their kids' arms to get them to go to church on Sunday. It's usually not that way with VBS." "Almost 7 out of 10 parents would let their child attend a VBS at someone else's church if invited." "9 out of 10 adults say that attending VBS as a child influenced their spiritual growth positively." "Because VBS is a short-term commitment, it fits with our culture today." "As adults look back on their experience, 88% say that VBS helped them better understand the Bible." "69% of parents whose kids have not attended VBS say that if their kids went to VBS they would understand the Bible better." "VBS needs to be a real budget line. Don't rely on outside donations to pull it off." "Don't miss the opportunity to meet the family. Relationship is what will draw them in." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Pipeline 2018 Conference Lifeway Research 5LQ Episode 265: Scott McConnell on Why People Leave Your Church  5LQ Episode 219: Kailey Black on Navigating Maternity Leave Text VBS to 888111 to receive a copy of the research

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im breakdown the leadership book The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. In their conversation they discuss the importance of creating checklists and how they can help you become more efficient and effective. * What's the book and why does it matter? * Overview of the book * How applicable is the book to leadership in my church? * What are things churches should ignore from the book? * What can you do this week in light of the book? BEST QUOTES “This book will help you scale. It will help you delegate." "The world is becoming increasingly complex. In order to get things done consistently, his premise is you have to use checklists." "We don't like checklists. They can be painstaking. They're not much fun, but I don't think the issue here is mere laziness." "Under conditions of complexity, not only are checklists a help, they are required for success." "Checklists raise wide, unexpected possibilities." "That's not my problem is probably the worst thing people can think." "The book is going to help you in your church develop systems for recruitment and training." "Checklists are your friend." "You need to create some key checklists in your area." "Think about one of the things you would love to hand off. Identify it, create a checklist for it, and train someone up." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Pipeline 2018 Conference The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande New Churches podcast Ministry Grid The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell Blink by Malcolm Gladwell  Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner Tell Me Something I Don't Know podcast The Four by Scott Galloway No Silver Bullets by Daniel Im

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Craig Groeschel, author of Hope in the Dark: Believing God is Good When Life is Not. During their conversation, they discuss helping leaders when they go through hard places. * How do I believe God is good when life is not good? * What do you do when you can’t seem to find God? * What’s the connection between faith and hope, and how are they different? * Share about how walking through darkness and hard times can bring glory to God. * What would you like to say to leaders in their throes of leadership in light of those book? BEST QUOTES “The key to me, both as a leader and just as a person as a follower of Christ is in the name of Habbakuk. It means both to wrestle and to embrace.” “It’s OK to have spiritual doubts, but at the same time hang on to God.” “God is a sovereign God. If I am still in this role, it’s because He wants me to be in this role.” “God does more spiritually in the valley than he does on the mountaintop.” “The words I’d written to someone else ministered to me.” “Instead of trying to create success or do something important, what I want to do is be faithful today.” “Those times when things aren’t going well, I try to do as a leader what I know is right.” “As we lead more complicated organizations, we have to be more sophisticated in our understanding that there are different teams, there are different stages.” “The longer we lead organizations, the more we default to reacting, because there is so much to react to.” “Our intimacy with God is not in what He gives us, or withholds from us, it’s just based on who He is.” “God does bless us, and we do suffer.” “I get better as a leader through the hard times, not the good times.” “Doubts can be a real part of faith.” “Leaders are always leading with a limp.” “If you’re not hurting, you’re not leading.” “We are always making decisions about things that people won’t understand.” “Sometimes the difference between where you are and where God wants you to be is the pain that you are unwilling to step into.” RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Start Up Podcast New Churches Podcast Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast Streams in the Desert by L.B. Cowman The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis  Hope in the Dark by Craig Groeschel

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im discuss and share a talk from Bob Russell, author of After 50 Years of Ministry, from Pipeline 2017 in which Russell shares the lessons he learned from the mistakes he made in ministry. BEST QUOTES “I feel like I have done some things the way God would have me do them, but I’ve also made some serious mistakes along the way and I’ve learned some valuable lessons from those mistakes.” “Sometimes we learn our best lessons from our worst mistakes.” “The worst single mistake I ever made in ministry was I forgot a wedding.” “I acknowledged that this was an area where I was weak and I need to surround myself with people who have strengths in administration and let them do it.” “A lot of our problems we have in ministry and in leadership come from ego.” “Delegate even if it hurts your ego.” “The reason people burn out in ministry isn’t because they work too hard, the reason they burn out in ministry is they work too hard in areas they are not gifted.” “I learned to give my family priority even when the church needs attention.” “Long after the elders and deacons in your church forget your name, your wife is going to be there.” “The best thing a preacher can do for his church is to model marriage in front of them.” “I learned to be content in ministry regardless of statistics.” “Why we are discontent in this ministry is because we compare all the time.” “God does not value your worth in ministry by your statistics.” “Seventy-five years from now when somebody looks at a picture of your church, what are they going to say about your influence?” “Don’t grow weary in doing good in ministry, in due season you reap a harvest if you just don’t give up.” RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Pipeline 2018 Conference When God Builds a Church by Bob Russell The Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren Watch this video and all the talks from Pipeline 2017 at MinistryGrid.com

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Carey Nieuwhof, author of Didn't See It Coming: Overcoming the 7 Greatest Challenges that No One Expects and Everyone Experiences. During their conversation, they continue their discussion on the challenges that everyone faces. * Will you give us an overview of irrelevance? * How do we keep from sliding into pride and narcissism as we continue to grow? * What will only humility get you out of that pride got you into? * Let's move on to the next challenge no one expects to face: emptiness. * How do we see burnout coming? BEST QUOTES “It’s inevitable that you become irrelevant unless you decide not to.” “You think you are cutting edge because you used to be cool, you used to be great, and nobody 15 years younger than you believes that anymore, but you are the last guy to know.” “The antidote to irrelevance is change.” “Relevance simply gains you permission to speak into the culture.” “I think you can communicate understanding without communicating agreement.” “If I can understand their world I have a better chance of speaking into it.” “Our crisis is not a crisis of information it’s a crisis of meaning.” “The gap between how quickly you change and how quickly the culture changes is called irrelevance.” “You want to make sure you are imparting meaning to a culture that is changing rapidly in a way that that culture can understand.” “Most leaders pride comes not from narcissism, but from insecurity.” “Push other people into the spotlight.” “I think as you get older, your job is not to hog the spotlight, it is to push younger leaders into the spotlight. It’s to give them the opportunity.” “Only humility will get you out of what pride got you into.” “Humiliation is involuntary humility.” “When you have to confess it, you have to address it.” “There is a whole in the middle of your heart that really only Christ can fill.” “I’ve got to live in a way today, that will help me thrive tomorrow.” RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Pipeline 2018 Conference Didn't See It Coming: Overcoming the 7 Greatest Challenges that No One Expects and Everyone Experiences by Carey Nieuwhof

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Eric Geiger discuss Eric's transition from Senior Vice President at Lifeway Christian Resources to senior pastor at Mariners Church in Irvine, California. BEST QUOTES “The Lord has made it clear that He wants me back in the local church. I’m grateful for the clarity and I’m really grateful that He made it clear where He wants me. I’m going to be the senior pastor at Mariners Church in Irvine, California.” “Part of me thought the Lord wasn’t even giving me an answer because He loved how much time I was spending with Him.” “I asked the Lord to give my children a desire as He was giving me a desire for the place that He wanted us to be.” “Holding two emotions together at the same time has been really challenging. In my right hand is a deep excitement for going to Mariners. … In the left hand, I’ve held a sense of loss. The death of a dream of a team that I’ve worked alongside for a long time.” “To me that’s ending well, affirming great people on the way out.” “Because I love this team so much and I love what we do, I didn’t have the temptation to coast.” “What’s our family impact going to be for the Kingdom?” “Do not jet for a list of pushes, because you will go to another context and there will be a new list of pushes. You only go if there is a super strong pull.” RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Pipeline 2018 Conference Leadership Pipeline Ministry Grid Mariners Church

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins is joined by Carey Nieuwhof, author of Didn't See It Coming: Overcoming the 7 Greatest Challenges that No One Expects and Everyone Experiences. During their conversation, they discuss some of the challenges that everyone faces. * What are the types of cynicism that we often face and how do we address those? * How does compromise play a role? * How do leaders often disconnect? What does that look like and what is the result? BEST QUOTES "I didn't feel my heart grow bigger in ministry, I felt it grow smaller. And that's how cynicism starts." "Most cynics are made not because they don't care, but because they did care." "If you close your heart to people, you close your heart to God." "The curious are never cynical, and the cynical are never curious." "There is social research that suggests that the average person tells about 200 lies a day." "If you let yourself get away with the little things, will you let yourself get away with more?" "If you find yourself in that, humble your public talk and accelerate your private walk." "You cannot be intimate in a hurry." "I have a tendency to disconnect from human relationships, which kind of goes back to the book of Genesis. That we have a tendency to disconnect from God." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Pipeline 2018 Conference Didn't See It Coming: Overcoming the 7 Greatest Challenges that No One Expects and Everyone Experiences by Carey Nieuwhof

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins is joined by Johnny Baker, pastor of Celebrate Recovery at Saddleback and author of The Road to Freedom. During their conversation, they discuss helping people remove barriers and general leadership principles. BEST QUOTES "Celebrate Recovery is not just for drug addicts and alcoholics. It's for anybody with what we say is a hurt, a hang-up, or a habit." "What we've found over the years is that pain is universal." "Admitting you have a problem doesn't make you weak, and covering up a problem always makes things worse." "The higher up in leadership you go, the more temptation there is to say, 'I have to have it all together.'" "People want a one-size-fits-all this is how we handle this situation. And what I'm learning is that you can't always do that." "If I hang out with a certain group of people, I become more like them. That's just how it goes." "Everything that happens to you now is going to determine how you lead later - both good and bad." "Figure out who you are, and just be that person. It's so tempting to chameleon yourself and become different around different people." "Stop trying to be cool. Being cool is such a waste of time." "When you show up to Celebrate Recovery, every person there is going through Celebrate Recovery - including the leaders. We are in it with you." "We've all hurt people, and people have hurt us, which means we all qualify for Celebrate Recovery." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Pipeline 2018 Conference Celebrate Recovery The Road to Freedom: Healing From Your Hurts, Hang-Ups, and Habits by Johnny Baker The Bait of Satan by John Bevere Tim Ferriss podcast