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 Dr. Lina Abujamra, founder of Living With Power Ministries and pediatric ER doctor. They discuss the following questions: * What does it look like on the frontlines right now?* What do we need to know about COVID-19?* What advice would you share about ministering during this time?* How long do you think this current COVID season will last? And will there be a second round? BEST QUOTES "The very thing that God had directed me to became the hub of ministry and medicine combining like no other time before.""As New York has grown in its crisis, one of the things that has happened in the rest of the United States is that there has been time to prep.""The easiest way for me to talk about plain, old COVID is the trifecta - fever, shortness of breath, and cough - and sort of a flu-like look.""The fear factor is exponentially increased because of so much mis-information out there and that's dangerous.""Something happens in crisis that makes ministry to people so much easier.""People simply want to be seen, heard, and ministered to.""Look at people as individuals who need Jesus desperately now and be a pastor.""Move into the pastoring role of finding those people and setting up systems of dividing up people so they can be seen one-on-one.""I feel like God has given the church this gift of stripping away those things that were background noise that we have made important in our culture that have distracted us from the main thing which is first vertical: love of God, and second horizontal: love for one another.""This week I felt some deep optimism both about the disease itself and about the future of the church. I believe God is going to bring revival in this season." "No matter where we meet, we know who the church is and we will still be connected in some way." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus Living With Power This episode's sponsor: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Jenaye White are joined by Ian Morgan Cron, author of The Road Back to You. They discuss how the Enneagram helps you become more self-aware and how knowing more about your people makes you a better leader. BEST QUOTES "As I think about the Enneagram and the crisis we are in, it opens up all kinds of opportunities to become the best expressions of ourselves that we can become, to exercise the muscles of compassion and patience and self care.""The Enneagram is a personality typing system that teaches there are nine basic or core personality styles - one of which people gravitate toward and adopt in childhood.""The human ego would like us to believe we know ourselves better than we do and that we are more in control of our lives than we actually are.""The Enneagram helps us see what we are like at our best and at our worst - when we are under a lot of strain and when we are in a good space.""The Enneagram is very simple to learn, it's very hard to master. But you don't need to master it to benefit from it in ways that are incredibly helpful.""The Enneagram can move you along a continuum of self knowledge in a way that is like evolutionary steps forward.""One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to believe that your way of seeing the world is normal." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus IanMorganCron.com @ianmorgancron on Instagram The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron The iEQ9 test Insight by Tasha Eurich A Beautiful Constraint by Adam Morgan and Mark Barden This episode's sponsor: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Justin Murff, director of The MENA Collective. They discuss responding to current COVID-19 circumstances as churches move to digital platforms and focusing on family during challenging ministry times. BEST QUOTES "Are we the kind of church that is making a difference in the life of our community and our city, or are we just occupying space and having a good social gathering on a Sunday morning?""Use the tools that you have at your disposal. Facebook Live is a great tool. Zoom is a great tool.""Your congregation needs to see you. They need to hear you. They don't just need to get an email.""We are facing, for the first time in our country's history, we most likely will not be able to gather as a church to celebrate Easter. That is profound.""When we think about digital church it is going to expand some of our boundaries, particularly when we talk about our ordinances or sacraments." "Use what you have, think through it, and use your tradition to best of your ability. We may see God do something completely new.""Take you Sunday School classes into Facebook Groups. Use those opportunities and those technologies that are there.""This is a great opportunity to onboard and recruit that army of digital natives that are in your church that have been there honestly thinking, 'Do I even belong here? Where is my place to serve?'" RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus The MENA Collective The African Memory of Mark by Thomas C. Oden Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Reneee Mauborgne This episode's sponsor: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Tim Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan and author of The Reason for God, The Prodigal God, and the How to Find God Series. They discuss how lessons learned while serving in New York City after 9/11 can be helpful in response to the current COVID-19 situation. BEST QUOTES "Right now, a lot of our cultural idols are being smashed.""How do we minimize the damage of this situation to our ministries and also how do we capitalize on the situation to minister?""This is not like the 2008 recession. This is not like 9/11 in New York City. These are all somewhat unique, but they are all cataclysmic.""After 9/11, we knew that 14,000 small business went away overnight and all the people that worked their lost their livelihood. We put out word that if you could prove you worked there we could help.""It's going to take time, but be looking for ways to step in and if you are praying for it, the Lord will show them to you." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus The Reason for God by Tim Keller The Prodigal God by Tim Keller Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller On Birth: How to Find God #1 by Timothy Keller On Marriage: How to Find God #2 by Timothy Keller and Kathy Keller On Death: How to Find God #3 by Timothy Keller TimothyKeller.com GospelInLife.com Living by Faith in Troubled Times The Triumph of the Therapeutic by Philip Rieff Sources of the Self by Charles Taylor A Secular Age by Charles Taylor Habits of the Heart by Robert Bellah

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Todd McMichen, director of Generosity by Lifeway. They discuss the following questions: * What do I say on Sunday?* How can you communicate this throughout the week?* How can pastors lead their people to live a generous life during this time?* What do I do if giving starts to tank?* How do we help people have a good experience giving online?* During this season, how should churches handle benevolence? BEST QUOTES "We have to settle into this new world and help people see the mission of the church.""Lead with a generosity story of how someone in your church is living generously right now.""If you can give a positive word about your finances, that would be good to do.""Because life is so challenging right now and there are so many distractions, giving to the church is the last thing on their mind.""On Sunday when you refer to the offering you only need to refer to one way to give digitally to keep it simple.""There are lots of ways to take up an offering during the week.""The offering is more important to a human being's faith than it is to a church's budget.""The church is going to have lower resources and it is going to have an increased benevolence need.""The biggest ministry in this season may be a church down the street that you need to lock arms with.""A simple online form that eliminates every conflict you can is what you need to start with for digital giving." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Lifeway Generosity LifewayGenerosity.com/CoronaVirus Lifeway.com/CoronaVirus Church Giving Group on Facebook This episode's sponsor: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Brad Lomenick, past Catalyst leader and author of H3 Leadership and The Catalyst Leader. They discuss the following questions: * Who or what has been the greatest leadership influence in your life?* What is your favorite leadership failure story?* What book would you gift yourself as a young leader?* If you could teach a course on any topic, what would it be?* What advice would you give a student about the real world of leadership and ministry? What common things should they ignore? BEST QUOTES "Networking is all about you, connecting is all about others.""As a connector, my job is to put people together and let the power of the connection be built between them.""The person of Jesus and the people of the Scriptures I think are true connectors.""If you are a leader, a parent, or train horses, there are so many similarities.""You need to be aware of your passions, but you have to combine strengths and passions with an undergirding of the Holy Spirit.""This whole premise that we can do anything in life is true, but is it biblical or smart?""The reason I ended up doing the things I've done is because of the people I was around.""Figure out whatever your area of deficiency is and lean into that." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Unseen Leadership Podcast H3 Leadership by Brad Lomenick The Catalyst Leader by Brad Lomenick Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley Dangerous Calling by Paul David Tripp Good to Great by Jim Collins This episode's sponsor: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins is joined by Daniel Im, former cohost of 5LQ, Senior Associate Pastor at Beulah Alliance Church, and author of You Are What You Do. They discuss the following questions: * How do you deal with past regrets?* Is the process of journaling regrets supposed to be individual, or with someone? And if it is with someone, who?* How can this lie disable or destroy your future?* How does this lie fit into the gig economy?* What's your advice for leaders who still have things from their past they need to deal with? BEST QUOTES "The past is not just about the things that you have done, the past is also about what others have done to you.""Reflecting on both what you have done and what others have done to you will help you assess the extent to which your past affects your present.""There's a lot of junk and pain that we experience because we work with broken people.""Is what I am doing right now a reaction to something in the past or am I living the way I am living out of freedom and intentionality?""If we don't deal with our past, it can disable or destroy our future.""The grip of these lies is only going to grow stronger as long as we keep them buried underneath the surface.""What are ways that you can come to terms about the lie you are dealing with?""Bring your issues to the surface between you and Him and let Jesus tell you what the next steps are." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network You Are What You Do by Daniel Im How to Ruin Your Life by Eric Geiger 7 Lies The World Tells Us, 7 Biblical Truths That God Tells Us - YouVersion Bible Reading Plan This episode's sponsor: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Joshua Gagnon, the founding and lead pastor of Next Level Church. They discuss starting a church in a difficult situation and navigating being an organization that is stable and agile. BEST QUOTES "We are excited that that started where nobody would have thought a movement of God could start.""Looking back, God prepared me to lead Next Level Church, but it wasn't in a church environment.""We have to have people walking alongside of us as sidekicks that are sweating with us in our pursuit of what we hope to become.""Heroes are simply people who are living the life now that we hope to someday live.""Let's keep the grit, passion, and great expectation for God to do great things, but in the end let's go ahead and surrender our expectations.""One of the dangers of the church world is the lack of grit and resolve. When we face resistance we often want to back down from it.""A vision statement is pointless outside of a culture that can carry it.""I believe high-impact moments over a long stretch are way more valuable than low-impact moments over a long stretch.""I was so guilty of hoping for fast results, but I've learned that fast results are not always sustainable or achievable." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Next Level Church It's Not Over by Joshua Gagnon This episode's sponsor: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins is joined by Daniel Im, former cohost of 5LQ, Senior Associate Pastor at Beulah Alliance Church, and author of You Are What You Do. They discuss the following questions: * What do you mean by the saying that experiences are better than things?* What's the shadow side of the lie that you are what you experience?* Do you address anything about how experience economy has shifted us from ownership-minded to access-minded?* How are we seeing the idea of experience come into the church? BEST QUOTES "Experiences create more memories and for us, as a culture, we are spending more money on experiences than things.""Experience is everywhere you look, even in the way our culture is trying to sell products." "If you take a photo of a thing, you are never going to get as many likes as if you take a picture of yourself in an experience." "Influencer marketing is being driven by narcissism.""Envy and jealousy stirs up in our heart when we see an experience, not just when we see a thing.""The problem with believing you are what you experience is that the odds are stacked against us because it is impossible not to compare.""In the church, you don't want to fuel comparison and envy the way that marketers do.""You want connection, community, and interactions to happen within the church." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network You Are What You Do by Daniel Im The Experience Economy by Joseph Pine and James Gilmore 5LQ Episode 344: The Power of Moments Book Breakdown New Churches Q&A Podcast This episode's sponsor: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by D.A. Horton, Pastor of Reach Fellowship in Long Beach, California. They discuss being engaged in a deep accountability relationship and transparency in difficult situations in your life. BEST QUOTES "Learning church history will help believers understand how the church contextualized the nuances of the great commission where they lived in the time that they lived in.""It's the idols of comfort, personal peace, and self-preference that we have to combat, confess, and then destroy in order to be freed up.""It's through that fire that we have melded together meaningful relationships that you cannot communicate in a prospectus.""Scars are a representation that healing is possible through Jesus Christ and His local church.""It's in community that the Scriptures come to life.""If we have truly trusted Christ to save our soul, then He will also provide for the physical needs we have.""Praying to the Lord privately is a key discipline that has flourished my walk with the Lord.""If I'm not leading my wife well in humility, brokenness, and honesty and decision making, it's all for naught.""Arguably the best advice I ever received was there are are three areas in your life you need to passionately pursue: purity in your doctrine, purity in your sexuality, and purity in your finances." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network A Gospel for the Poor by David C. Kirkpatrick Global Gospel by Douglas Jacobson Evangelism in the Early Church by Michael Green This episode's sponsor: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins is joined by Daniel Im, former cohost of 5LQ, Senior Associate Pastor at Beulah Alliance Church, and author of You Are What You Do. They discuss the following questions: * What is the greatest lie that leaders believe?* How is this lie affecting the church?* How has this continued to shift in culture? * We have both experienced the tragedy of a fall. How does that happen?* How do you come back from this? BEST QUOTES "'You Are What You Do' is the greatest lie that leaders believe.""Every single one of these lies is likely more appealing to one of the Enneagram numbers than not.""Doing has become a badge of honor. It has become a status symbol and the way to define ourselves.""Books have become the new business card.""Is your identity on the things that you do, have done, and are going to do? Or on what Jesus has done for you? And is that enough?""Ephesians 2:8-9 is what Christ has done for us, and doing is a response in verse 10.""There are three unintended consequences when we believe this lie that we are what we do.""Platforms in and of themselves are neutral, but the problem is that desiring for and building your life on getting that platform often opens the door to a compartmentalized life.""The problem with pretending is it always leads to anxiety.""That divide between your inner and outer life continues to grow until you just can't hold it anymore and that's where we see implosions happen.""It was in the desert that God shaped David's character, deepened his prayer life, and made him into the man he was." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network You Are What You Do by Daniel Im How to Ruin Your Life by Eric Geiger This episode's sponsor: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins is joined by John Mark Comer, author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. They discuss what he learned from writing his book and living an unhurried life. BEST QUOTES "Once you discover Truth and wisdom you are tapping into God's design and intention for the universe.""In my experience, you have to exegete the cultural narrative as much as you exegete the biblical narrative and point people to Jesus and His gospel.""Knowing the exegesis of a text is different than actually becoming the kind of person with the capacity to do what the text says.""Now I think about a sermon through a Venn diagram of three parts: biblical theology, spiritual formation, and cultural commentary.""How do we live an unhurried life and focus on sabbath and soul care without getting into introspective, introverted self-improvement for Jesus?""Hurry and burnout are coming for everybody.""Because of the digital age, there are all sorts of Type B people who are still way over busy, hurried, and stressed out.""Shifting my morning to having to read for an hour before touching my phone has had a profound effect.""I would like to tell my 20-year-old self to go discover the practice and joy and art and need of sabbath." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer This Cultural Moment Podcast Facing Leviathin by Mark Sayers JohnMarkComer.com Essentialism by Greg McKeown Deep Work by Cal Newport Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick Deneen The Disappearance of Moral Knowledge by Dallas Willard This episode's sponsor: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins is joined by Daniel Im, former cohost of 5LQ, Senior Associate Pastor at Beulah Alliance Church, and author of You Are What You Do. They discuss the following questions: * How prevalent is the gig economy and how has it grown?* How is the gig economy affecting the church?* How is the gig economy beneficial and what are ways people can participate?* How does the gig economy change the way we hire? BEST QUOTES "The book started out from a talk I gave to leaders and pastors about how the gig economy is affecting churches.""The broadest way to define the gig economy is being self-employed in a part-time or full-time capacity and if you get paid for your time, skills, possessions, or expertise.""In 2019, 35% of the American workforce was a part of the gig economy.""If you aren't a part of the gig economy, you are funding it.""When you look at the research, about 68% of all gig workers joined the gig economy in the last 5 years,""The gig economy's number one promise is a life of control.""People have less discretionary time to give and to serve because they are using that time to work and make money instead.""The seven lies in the book fund and fuel and come together with the core lie of the gig economy - a life with ultimate freedom and flexibility." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network You Are What You Do: And Six Other Lies About Work, Life, and Love by Daniel Im ImBetween Podcast Morning and Evening with Charles Spurgeon Podcast Trends.google.com This episode's sponsor: For more than 25 years, Portable Church® has helped thousands of churches launch strong and thrive in a mobile setting. They design custom solutions that fit each budget, vision, and venue. Everything you need to launch a mobile church — an inviting worship space, kids ministry areas, welcome spaces, storage cases, etc — all in a system refined to make it fast, easy & fun for the weekly volunteer teams.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Barnabas Piper, former cohost of 5LQ, current director for community at Immanuel Nashville, and author of Help My Unbelief. They discuss the following questions: * What is one thing you’ve read recently?* What is one thing you’ve listened to recently?* What is one tool or resource you’ve started using recently?* Who is one person who has influenced you recently?* What is one lesson you have learned recently? BEST QUOTES "Everyone thinks it's the abundance of resources that are the answer to the golden tomorrow, and really it's more about what you stop and clarify.""I have found the Community Bible Reading Journal really helpful in terms of slowing down to think through text that normally I would have read over quickly.""One thing I've noticed after moving from Lifeway into church ministry is the way I have gravitated to learning from people who are 20 to 30 years ahead of me in ministry or in faith.""The biggest shift for me is that publishing is not a people-oriented job, it's a production-oriented job; and the church is entirely people-oriented.""I wish churches understood more the number of people at Lifeway who are really dedicated to churches.""What I am learning is that our culture is saying hustle and fill up your calendar, but they are saying it's OK to take Sabbath and rest.""Grinding doesn't always lead to greater success, but having a good work ethic and being a hard worker is always a necessity.""We really connected around intentionality and I haven't stopped thinking about it since.""I'm going to try to read less books and take notes on them to slow down and process what I'm reading." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Living Life Backwards by David Gibson The Message of Ecclesiastes by Derek Kidner On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior Deep Work by Cal Newport Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin What If by Robert Cowley Educated by Tara Westover Hillbilly Elegy by J.D.

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins is joined by Vance Pitman, a church planter in Las Vegas, Nevada, at Hope Church. They discuss the current realities of church planting in the Western United States and why it's important to wait to write a book. BEST QUOTES "A few years ago God gave us a vision to reach the Western United States.""I think one of the great tragedies of the Christian movement today is that a lot of guys are writing books who just started in the ministry and they are writing a lot of theory but not a lot of proven practice.""I'm learning from three categories of people right now: people who finish well, people from a different context, and people who are doing it.""America's west coast is still largely a pre-Christian context.""It wasn't until God brought me to Las Vegas that I realized that the real passion and the heart of God was for the Gospel and the Kingdom to expand in the city.""I believe if there is hope for another gospel movement in the United States, it's in the west.""Seasons of growth lead to seeing things with fresh eyes.""I have to prioritize the important over the urgent.""Too often in the home we do things based on distrust instead of trust.""Leadership can be lonely, but leadership should never be done alone." RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network Unburdened by Vance Pitman Vance Pitman Leadership Podcast