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 Robby Gallaty, senior pastor of Long Hollow Baptist Church and author of Firmly Planted and Foundations. They discuss how is church is experiencing revival through spontaneous baptism and avoiding burnout in ministry. BEST QUOTES "God began to show us that the medium of the screen doesn't minimize the ministry of the Holy Spirit.""Here's how you know you are burning out in ministry: the Bible for you becomes a tool to use and not a treasure to behold.""It's very easy for us to fall in love with the ministry of Jesus and out of love with the Jesus of our ministry.""The Holy Spirit is a great leader, and He is honest. If you ask Him to put His finger on the pulse of the problem of your life, He is great at it.""Every great movement of God begins by not moving.""So many people want to go out in pastoral ministry and they don't want to wait on the Lord.""I went to seminary and traded an anointing for intellect. And I traded the power of God for ingenuity and my own ability.""The more I sat with the Lord the more I realized the human language is insufficient in the presence of an infinite, eternal God.""We have to, through silence and solitude, sit long enough for the voices, noises, and volume in our life to slow down enough that we can hear that small voice.""Burnout, in your life and my life, comes when we do the thing we are made to do and we do all the other things that other people can do at the same time.""If you pray for the hands of God and not His face, you may get neither. But if you pray and seek the face of God, you get both." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus The Disciple's Study Bible by Robby Gallaty Firmly Planted by Robby Gallaty Foundations by Robby Gallaty They Found the Secret by V. Raymond Edman This Episode's Sponser: 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 John Mark Comer, pastor for teaching and vision at Bridgetown Church and author of Garden City and The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. They discuss the following questions: * How is your church handling COVID restrictions?* What will you take with you and what will you leave behind from this COVID experience?* Who or what has been the greatest leadership influence in your life?* What is your favorite leadership failure?* What advice would you give to someone about leaning into the body of the church?* What book would you gift yourself as a young leader and how would you read that book? BEST QUOTES "For us, live stream is a concession, not a conviction.""A year of live stream, online church has deepened our conviction that the future of the church is embodied people around tables not cameras of people on stages.""Pastoral work is bottomless, there is no end to it, so if you don't self-select limits it will literally take you into the black hole because you are never done.""The church is not a lump of clay that you as the pastor get to write your theory of church and your value system and your idealism on. It is a living breathing body and family and you have to honor their heritage.""Learning to accept the reality of who the church was and who I was, was the greatest failure/my invitation.""You can be a success as a pastor and a failure as a disciple of Jesus and even as a human being.""A lot of people aren't idealistic, but a lot of leaders are.""It's important to realize that no church is as close to as awesome as it looks on the outside.""Recognize that idealism is dangerous and it can actually result in a kind of violence in leadership where you don't honor people's integrity.""Leadership is a form of suffering in love." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer Garden City by John Mark Comer The Emotionally Healthy Church by Pete Scazzero The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Pete Scazzero The Way of the Heart by Henri Nouwen

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Tami Heim, President/CEO of Christian Leadership Alliance. They discuss the following questions: * What are some of the trends you think we are experiencing now? And how do we look ahead to the future about leading in an innovative way?* What have you learned about technology disruption and what would you say to leaders so they don't view it in fear but as how we leverage it instead?* Who or what has been the greatest leadership influence in your life?* How did you feel that God refined your ambition and made it honoring in Him while also wanting to lead out?* What advice would you share with someone who is trying to take risks but is scared of failure? BEST QUOTES "There is the timeless truth of God's Word and then there is our ability to adapt to the containers that now allow that wisdom to transfer so that it can be received and timely and relevant for future and current generations to build and innovate around.""The leaders who more quickly got to acknowledging their lack of control, surrendering the situation completely to God, have moved faster.""When I look back on 2020, God brought me to the place where I surrendered any dependency I had on my own competencies.""How do we constantly think about not staying in business as usual, but how do we think innovatively and go to breakthrough and not have pain and crisis bring us there?""People are looking for trusted resources to be the wise guide and to aggregate what matters most.""The ease for someone to get to something, the less friction experienced, is important.""God didn't take me out of everything that He had equipped me for.""I began to study the life of Christ, not only as my Savior, Redeemer, and Lord, but as my leadership model.""When we try hard to stay true and follow Jesus and depend on Him, then He moves you along.""When the doors opened, it threw me into a new level of dependency on God.""This is a time that has been entrusted to us as leaders, so don't fear the time that God has called you to, because He has a place for you in His master redemption plan." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus Christian Leadership Alliance

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Ben Mandrell are joined by Dave Ferguson and Jon Ferguson, authors of B.L.E.S.S., Exponential and Finding Your Way Back to God. They discuss the following questions: * What is your current context?* What is the message of your new book B.L.E.S.S.?* Explain what B.L.E.S.S. stands for* What book do you wish someone had given you as a young leader?* What mistakes have you made as a leader?* What has it been like to stay emotionally healthy through COVID?* Who or what has been the greatest leadership influence in your life? BEST QUOTES "Community and connection is the commodity because we have been so isolated.""Anybody who has given their life to Jesus and is compelled by what has happened in their life can in turn begin to bless the people and places around them in everyday ways that could actually lead somebody to Jesus.""If you can create an outreach culture around this relational style of evangelism, that's the game changer.""Unfortunately, Christians are becoming much more known for talking than listening.""One of the greatest gifts we can give to anybody is to simply listen.""This is like a remedial course in how to be friends with somebody.""Here are some steps you can take to be a friend and then when the opportunity arises tell them your story. Tell them the difference Jesus has made in your life.""For most leaders, what happens is we drift and we suddenly find ourselves somewhere we didn't mean to be at all.""As a pretty aggressive leader, you have a fifth gear you can put it in, and I had a point this summer when I couldn't find fifth gear." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus B.L.E.S.S. by Dave and Jon Ferguson Exponential by Dave and Jon Ferguson Finding Your Way Back to God by Dave and Jon Ferguson NewThing Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Pete Scazzero

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Jeff Martin, executive director at FCA. They discuss the following questions: * How has your role changed and how have things shifted for FCA during COVID?* In light of COVID, what has shifted in leading volunteers?* What are some of the common mistakes made in leading volunteers?* What is your main point of emphasis as you are leading your team currently?* What are 2 to 3 things you try to do daily that benefit your life and your leadership?* What would you tell your 20-year-old self about leading? BEST QUOTES "Leaders of denominational organizations, global ministry organizations, businesses have said they've realized now how important it is that we empower our people to lead.""The reality of an organization is that the most influential people are the people that take the message out.""As a church body, are we looking at these volunteers as people to be rolled into our organization or are we looking at them as influencers that are sent out into the community to change the community and ultimately change the world?""As ministers and leaders we like to control the situation, but when you empower someone you are giving up some control.""You don't value what you don't trust and volunteers can tell that.""In adversity you have to unite, you cannot isolate.""One of the key elements in a movement is the word simplicity.""Understand how God has wired you. What are your strengths and weaknesses? Once you understand that you are able to lead better.""The very thing that can make you a strong leader can be a detriment on the other side of the coin." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) Fuge Camps Empower: The 4 Keys to Leading a Volunteer Movement by Jeff Martin

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Dr. Ken Braugh, former pastor and author of Unhindered Abundance. They discuss right and left brain dynamics in regards to character building and having a safe place for feedback. BEST QUOTES "Character passes through the conduit of relationship.""Information that is dispensed from the pulpit does not produce transformation. It is a part of that dynamic but it doesn't do as much as we think it does.""To measure spiritual growth and maturity is a tricky thing. It may be that the best way to measure that is my growing capacity to love.""We don't have a good theology of emotion within evangelicalism.""You need a place where you can go to experience safe feedback.""I think Satan's greatest weapon against all of us as human beings, as believers specifically, is shame.""The whole aspect of soul care, self care, was not something we got in seminary.""If we are constantly living in the future, we are going to miss what God is doing right here and right now.""The larger your platform the easier it may be to slip into pride.""The spiritual discipline that I engage in and think is most effective in rewiring the brain is Scripture memorization.""The one dynamic throughout all of Scripture that we have been given direct control over is what we will think about.""Behavior is always a result of what is going on inside the heart." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus IDT Ministries Unhindered Abundance by Dr. Ken Baugh The Other Half of the Church by Jim Wilder and Michael Hendricks Warren Wiersbe's Be Series

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Ben Mandrell are joined by Brad Lomenick, author of The Catalyst Leader and H3 Leadership. They discuss the following questions: * What have you learned over the years about movements and the value they bring?* How are you moving forward now?* What does it look like to bring smaller groups together?* Do you see the shift happening from just preaching to also gathering and developing leaders? BEST QUOTES "If something is God-breathed, just hold on.""Nobody wants to see a movement end, but there is a season to movements and it is OK that they wrap up.""We have to remove ourselves from the idea that whether it grows or it stops that's because of me as the point leader.""Movements don't have to be global in nature. They can be neighborly in nature and still be incredibly God-breathed.""When you gather influencers, let them be the center of the conversation.""The experiences we are creating, how are they different from content that is readily available at all times for free?""Content might be the draw, but the connection is what retains people.""As a pastor, I need to give the sheriff's badge to as many of my lay leaders to let them carry the weight of the responsibility of discipleship.""Right now and going forward, small is the new big. People want something that is real and that is personal.""The reason your church is now unique is because people know each other." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus Brad Lomenick H3 Leadership Podcast Cataylst The Catalyst Leader by Brad Lomenick H3 Leadership by Brad Lomenick Living By the Book by Howard Hendricks

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Larry Osborne, author and teaching pastor at North Coast Church. They discuss succession planning and how people choose to live in echo chambers. BEST QUOTES "There are no good transitions, there are only good people.""Godly people can make weird structures work, even co-pastoring.""When you have goals you immediately move to metrics, and when you move to metrics you artificially try to reach them.""God does not give me a flock, he gives me to a flock.""It's not a trick to explode in growth, it's a trick to be healthy.""We choose the world we live in informationally.""We need to have a true kingdom mindset to reach our communities like we never have before.""The absolutely predictable fruit of a culture in which everything is have it your way is everybody is different.""The weekend service is simply a catalyst for discipleship.""The only legacy you have is with your spouse, your children, your closest friends. No one remembers a great-great-grandfather unless he's famous or infamous.""We all overestimate what we can do in one year and greatly underestimate what God will do in five.""If you can't learn to find peace in circumstances that aren't great, you still won't be at peace when they are great." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus 5LQ Episode 258: Larry Osborne Sticky Church by Larry Osborne Sticky Teams by Larry Osborne Sticky Leaders by Larry Osborne Lead Like a Shepherd by Larry Osborne Thriving in Babylon by Larry Osborne A Contrarians's Guide to Knowing God by Larry Osborne The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker 5LQ Episode 93: Simon Sinek

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center. They discuss navigating leadership during times of crisis and being a better leader through learning. BEST QUOTES "The cultural moment now is more complex than it has been anytime in my lifetime.""We are probably in the worst days of the worst crisis of our lifetime, so I think things on crisis leadership are really helpful.""We help lead conversations for greater gospel impact.""My role as a missiologist is to help people be thoughtful about engaging an increasingly disinterested and in some ways more hostile culture.""Mission, vision, and values stay the same, but strategy and structure have changed.""Leading through this time is in a lot of ways asking, 'what now?'""What does it look like to pivot as a congregational level?""We have to lead through partly by addressing the cultural issues of the moment, but also partly by mobilizing our congregations in new and fresh ways.""Scarcity brings clarity.""To read, listen, and learn each day will help you be a better leader in the long term." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus New Churches Q&A Podcast Stetzer Leadership Podcast Wheaton College Billy Graham Center What Now? Navigating Leadership in Tumultuous Times Course Christians in the Age of Outrage by Ed Stetzer Your It: Crisis Change and How to Lead When It Matters by Leonard J. Marcus, Eric J. McNulty, Joseph M. Henderson, and Barry C. Dorn

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Ben Mandrell are joined by Carey and Toni Nieuwhof, author of Before You Split. They discuss the following questions: * An overview of your background* How did being in the pastorate affect your marriage and this book?* What was the transition like going from being lawyers to being in the ministry?* What was your viewpoint like as Carey's spouse?* What tips do you have on starting to attack this problem instead of watching it wither? BEST QUOTES "Leading up to my burnout there was a lot of strife in our marriage." - Carey Nieuwhof"There were times where our personal struggle was so intense that it was hard to be at church on Sundays - for both of us." - Toni Nieuwhof"At the end of the day, emotional maturity is spiritual maturity and emotional immaturity is spiritual immaturity." - Carey Nieuwhof"It was a real bone of contention between us that there was so much success outside of our home but so much tension between us." - Toni Nieuwhof"If you are winning at work, but you are losing at home, you are losing." - Carey Nieuwhof"I want the people closest to me to be the people most grateful for me." - Carey Nieuwhof"One of the problems that I've seen is the natural human tendency to be blinded by a victim narrative." - Toni Nieuwhof"The problem with the victim narrative is that it allows us to take ourselves off the hook." - Toni Nieuwhof"Leadership is so hard, our marriage was hard, and what I would do was look for the one thing I could control." - Carey Nieuwhof"Whatever you can do to bring down the conflict level and take some of the intensity out of what is going on between you relationally is a great first focus, but that's something you may need a counselor's help with." - Toni Nieuwhof"Your spouse cannot bear the weight of being your only friend." - Toni Nieuwhof RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus Before You Split by Toni Nieuwhof Didn't See It Coming by Carey Nieuwhof The Emotionally Healthy Church by Pete Scazzero Smart Family Podcast

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Chandler Vannoy is joined by Matt Carter, lead pastor of Sagemont Church in Houston, Texas. They discuss changing culture in an established church and the power of encouragement. BEST QUOTES "One of the biggest things I am facing is how do you honor the legacies of the past but then transition this church that hired you because they want you to help them?""How do you keep the DNA of the organization that is good, and right, and healthy, but at the same time transition the culture in the areas that need to be transitioned without causing World War III?""Culture is something you can change.""I'm trying to instill a culture of excellence in the church.""The goal is to not just come to church and hear preaching but to live on mission wherever God has them.""There's no such thing as a non-missional Christian.""Raising the missional temperature in the church, I think, is done a lot through the pulpit.""I have realized the power of encouragement in my own life, so I am trying to walk around and make sure people know I appreciate them.""Place your wife first before your ministry.""Lead from gentleness and humility." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Dr. Henry Cloud, author of Boundaries and Necessary Endings. They discuss how trauma affects decision making and how pruning away healthy things is actually helpful in following intended vision. BEST QUOTES "A lot of times in high performers, their unprocessed hurt does their thinking for them.""If you are going to get from where you are today to wherever you've decided your vision is, it won't happen unless you let go of some things you are doing today.""Over time you have a different audience, a different demographic, a different emphasis in the mission, and it's very difficult for people to create a necessary ending.""That's leadership: to figure out what's got to end.""There's no such thing in the New Testament as people taking up resources and not being accountable for a return on that investment.""If you look at COVID, a lot of people are having to prune ways they used to do church and create stuff for the new season.""We have been trying to get more focused on equipping people on the crucial life skills.""The biggest challenge for any parent or spouse right now is focus." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus 5LQ Episode 404: Necessary Endings Book Breakdown Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend Necessary Endings by Dr. Henry Cloud Changes That Heal by Dr. Henry Cloud Churches That Heal Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk Boundaries.me Leadership University For instant access to 100 of Dr. Cloud's leadership videos for free text "CLOUD" to 33777

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Andrew Peterson, musician and author. They discuss the following questions: * What is a conflict or failure that has benefited you in your leadership?* Who or what has been the greatest leadership influence in your life?* What book would you gift yourself as a young leader?* If you could teach any course on any topic, what would it be?* When you look at from a Scriptural stand point and from who we are as being created in the image of God, what does that mean? BEST QUOTES "There is a tendency in our current climate to be really afraid of being wrong and it can make you second guess everything.""Being wrong is one of the best things you can be, and what I mean by that is that being wrong forces you to experience mercy and humility and teaches you how to ask for forgiveness.""The thing that is way better than getting it right every time is being humble enough to know that you can't get it right every time.""Tipping into my 40s wasn't the death of a person, it was like the death of some dreams. It felt like the were things in me dying to make room for other things God had for me.""There have been so many ups and downs over the years, by the time I hit 40 this massive tidal wave of grief slammed into me.""Helping people see that no matter what their gifting is, they are called to speak light into the world and bring order out of chaos and build the kingdom of God in a creative way.""I think people need to be given permission sometimes to think of themselves as creatives, they don't realize that they have this bright fire of the image of God burning in them and the world needs that light.""You are always building a kingdom. The question is, whose kingdom are you building?" RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus Adorning the Dark by Andrew Peterson On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson (Wingfeather Saga Book #1) North! Or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson (Wingfeather Saga Book #2) The Monster in the Hollows by Andrew Peterson (Wingfeather Saga Book #3) The Warden and the Wolf King by Andrew Peterson (Wingfeather Saga Book #4) 5LQ Episode 387: Andrew Peterson Walking On Water by Madeleine L'Engle A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Tony Evans, founding president of The Urban Alternative and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. They discuss how God can use the church to fix society issues and what he has learned about preaching virtually throughout this year. BEST QUOTES "Whenever God does a divine disruption, it's because He is after a divine reset.""God doesn't skip the church house to fix the White House.""When you understand the biblical theology which leads you to the systematic theology, it will affect your interpretation.""We are focusing on two things: kingdom discipleship and kingdom impact.""We want to have a kingdom, not a cultural, impact.""We call every member once a month to check on them.""I try to study to grow, not just study to teach, but I will teach what is helping me to grow.""You have to know your flock, you have to know yourself, and you have to merge the two by the Holy Spirit.""The table is the single best way to lead, guide, govern, encourage, and bless a family.""Leading a family and leading in the ministry is a big deal, but so many small things get in the way and hinder that." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus The Urban Alternative The Tony Evans Study Bible The Tony Evans Bible Commentary Final Destiny by Joseph Dillow

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Louie Giglio, pastor at Passion City Church and original visionary of the Passion movement. They discuss the following questions: * What is the plot shift in this book?* What issues are young people 8 to 12 facing today that you are most hopeful that they will be encouraged by through what you wrote in this book?* What advice would you share for preaching or discipling parents to wrestle with their own giants?* How can the giant of addiction manifest itself in kids 8 to 12 today?* How can this book impact the spiritual and emotional health of the entire family? BEST QUOTES "When you are talking about the greatness of God and creation, your best audience for that is kids.""If you can start talking about anger when you are 11 and not when you are 41, why wouldn't you want to start doing that?""The big twist is understanding that we are not David in the story of David and Goliath, and if there is anytime to make that shift it is when you are talking to a 9 to 12 year old.""Jesus is David in the story of David and Goliath, and Jesus through His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of God has already taken down every single giant.""Most 9 and 10 year olds are already struggling with anxiety on some level.""The very best thing a parent can do for their kids is to get help.""How will our kids see Jesus glorified? By letting Him bring forth victory in our life.""If we preach the Word week by week by week, we will be calling people up to who they are and calling people up to the giants that are standing right in front of them.""If Mom and Dad fall in love with Jesus and have a revival, then the kids are going to get to watch revival.""If you look at a household of young teens, you will see a lot of habits that are simply coping mechanisms and that is addiction.""Addiction is saying I don't think Jesus can help me with this so I want to find another lane to get in to help me cope, and those seeds are sown at ages 9 to 11." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus 5LQ Episode 54: Louie Giglio 5LQ Episode 261: Louie Giglio 5LQ Episode 361: Louie Giglio Goliath Must Fall by Louie Giglio Goliath Must Fall for Young Readers by Louie Giglio Goliath Must Fall Bible Study by Louie Giglio