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Spiritual Life and Leadership

Religion & Spirituality Podcas

Ministry leadership is about more than just growing your church or organization. It’s about participating in God’s mission in the world. But how can leaders know God’s mission or their unique place in it? Faithful ministry leadership is rooted in a life of deep and abiding faithfulness to Jesus. In “Spiritual Life and Leadership,” Markus Watson and his guests explore what it means to be faithful leaders whose ministry flows from their ever-deepening relationship with God.

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Location:

United States

Description:

Ministry leadership is about more than just growing your church or organization. It’s about participating in God’s mission in the world. But how can leaders know God’s mission or their unique place in it? Faithful ministry leadership is rooted in a life of deep and abiding faithfulness to Jesus. In “Spiritual Life and Leadership,” Markus Watson and his guests explore what it means to be faithful leaders whose ministry flows from their ever-deepening relationship with God.

Language:

English

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8583354134

Episodes

156. The Power of Being on Mission Together, a Quick Conversation with Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson

3/21/2023
Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss this quote from Make Work Matter, by Michaela O'Donnell. "I am not on a solo mission from God. I am part of a larger collective of people who get to join in on God’s big mission of redemption creatively working in anticipation of all that God is doing to make us new." Learn how to lead your church into ministry that matters. Check out my online course, Engaging God's Mission.

Duration:00:09:06

155. Leadership and Looking to the Future, with Tom Sine, co-author of 2020s Foresight

3/14/2023
Tom Sine’s most recent book (co-authored with Dwight Friesen) is 2020s Foresight: Three Vital Practices for Thriving in a Decade of Accelerating Change. Tom Sine has been doing future forecasting for many decades and has helped lots of churches think about what is happening in their communities now so that they can make plans as they anticipate what is coming in the next several years. Tom also thinks a lot about the younger generations and how their presence and activity will shape our...

Duration:00:35:54

154. What Does Flourishing Leadership Require? A Quick Conversation with Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson

3/7/2023
Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss this quote from Strong and Weak, by Andy Crouch. “Flourishing requires us to embrace both authority and vulnerability, both capacity and frailty--even, at least in this broken world, both life and death.” Learn how to lead your church into ministry that matters. Check out my online course, Engaging God's Mission.

Duration:00:08:06

153. Leadership in a Time of Declining Church Attendance, with Thom Rainer, author of I Believe

2/28/2023
Thom Rainer is the CEO of Church Answers and the author of many books, including I Believe: A Concise Guide to the Essentials of the Christian Faith. In this episode, Thom Rainer discusses an article he wrote in which he said we need to rethink how we categorize churches, now that the median church size is 65—meaning 50% of churches in the U.S. have fewer than 65 people in church every Sunday! What does this decline mean and how should we lead in this strange new world? THIS EPISODE'S...

Duration:00:36:27

152. When the Leader is a Peacemonger, a Quick Conversation with Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson

2/21/2023
Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss this quote from A Failure of Nerve, by Edwin Friedman. “In any type of institution whatsoever, when a self-directed, imaginative, energetic, or creative member is being consistently frustrated and sabotaged rather than encouraged and supported, what will turn out to be true one hundred percent of the time, regardless of whether the disrupters are supervisors, subordinates, or peers, is that the person at the very top of that institution is a...

Duration:00:08:46

151. How Did God Intend Us to Experience Sabbath? with Ruth Haley Barton, author of Rhythms of Work and Rest

2/14/2023
Ruth Haley Barton is the Founder and Chief Essence Officer of the Transforming Center and the author of Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest. There is so much to do as pastors and leaders. And if I’m going to get everything done, there’s very little time to rest. Or if I do take some time to rest, work and responsibility are just gonna sneak their way into that time of rest, anyway. In this episode, Ruth Haley Barton and I ask: How am I called and invited to practice this gift of Sabbath?...

Duration:00:36:12

150. The New Normal of Church Attendance, a Quick Conversation with Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson

2/7/2023
How does your church attendance compare? Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss an article by Thom Rainer titled "The New Very Large Church." Learn how to lead your church into ministry that matters. Check out my online course, Engaging God's Mission.

Duration:00:08:39

149. Ministry Leadership in a Racialized Society, with David Swanson, author of Rediscipling the White Church

1/31/2023
David Swanson is pastor of New Community Covenant Church in Chicago and the author Rediscipling the White Church. In this episode, David Swanson helps us think, first, about the challenges of leading our people toward racial healing and equity, and, second, about the kinds of leadership and practices that can help us form our people to be people of healing and equity. THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: Rediscipling the White Church RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS: Rediscipling the White...

Duration:00:44:11

148. Discerning What's Essential, with Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson

1/24/2023
Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss this quote from Essentialism, by Greg McKeown: “Many capable people are kept from getting to the next level of contribution because they can’t let go of the belief that everything is important. An Essentialist has learned to tell the difference between what is truly important and everything else.” Learn how to lead your church into ministry that matters. Check out my online course, Engaging God's Mission.

Duration:00:07:08

147. Is Innovation Inherently Good? with Andrew Root, author of The Church After Innovation

1/17/2023
Andrew Root is the Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary and author of The Church After Innovation. In this conversation, Andrew Root, the author of The Church After Innovation, invites us to think critically about innovation. We live in a world in which innovation is held up as almost an ethical good in and of itself. Andrew helps us think about where the drive to innovate in our culture comes from and helps us reflect on our own motivations as we work to innovate in...

Duration:00:41:26

146. Leadership for the Long Haul, a Quick Conversation with Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson

1/10/2023
Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson discuss this quote from Leadership Without Easy Answers, by Ronald Heifetz: "In a crisis we tend to look for the wrong kind of leadership...in short, someone who can make hard problems simple. But problems like (we have been facing) are not simple.... Making progress on these problems demands not just someone who provides answers from on high but changes in our attitudes, behavior, and values. To meet challenges such as these, we need a different idea of...

Duration:00:09:20

145. Championing Leadership from the Margins, with Beth Birmingham and Eeva Sallinen Simard, authors of Cultures of Belonging

1/3/2023
Beth Birmingham and Eeva Sallinen Simard are the authors of Creating Cultures of Belonging: Cultivating Organizations Where Women and Men Thrive. In this episode, we discuss what it means for churches and organizations to develop cultures of belonging. Not just cultures of inclusion, but cultures in which those who tend to be on margins actually have the opportunity to shape the church or organization when they are in positions of leadership. THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: Creating...

Duration:00:40:46

144. Is the Church Failing to Make Disciples?, with Tod Bolsinger, Executive Director of the Church Leadership Institute

12/20/2022
Tod Bolsinger is the Executive Director of Fuller Seminary’s Church Leadership Institute and the author of five books, including Canoeing the Mountains and Tempered Resilience. In this episode, Tod Bolsinger and Markus Watson reflect on the reality that many people have not returned to the church in our post-pandemic world. Is there anything about how we have done church in the past that has failed to form the kind of people who are committed to living a life of discipleship in community...

Duration:00:31:36

143. How the Church Can Respond to Immigration, with Karen Gonzalez, author of Beyond Welcome

12/6/2022
Karen Gonzalez is an immigration advocate and the author of Beyond Welcome: Centering Immigrants in Our Christian Response to Immigration. In this episode, Karen Gonzalez, helps us understand both the challenges of immigration and how we, the church, can love and bless those who have immigrated in ways that are healthy and lifegiving for everyone. THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: Beyond Welcome: Centering Immigrants in Our Christian Response to ImmigrationWorld ReliefInternational Rescue...

Duration:00:44:24

142. Navigating the 7 Stages of Transition, with D. Michael Lindsay, author of Hinge Moments

11/22/2022
D. Michael Lindsay is the author of Hinge Moments: Making the Most of Life’s Transitions and the president of Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. In this episode, D. Michael Lindsay unpacks the seven stages of transition and helps us understand how to navigate those stages well--both personally and corporately. THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: Hinge Moments: Making the Most of Life’s Transitionshinge momentsHinge Moments RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS: Hinge Moments: Making the Most...

Duration:00:34:43

141. Being Fully Yourself in Leadership, with Sarah Bereza, author of Professional Christian

11/8/2022
Sarah Bereza is the author of Professional Christian: Being Fully Yourself in the Spotlight of Public Ministry and directs a music program at United Methodist Church. It can be really challenging to really be yourself when you're a pastor or ministry leader. There is a pressure to perform and to present yourself in an ideal sort of way. But putting on a false front can be exhausting. In this episode, Sarah Bereza unpacks how we can fully be ourselves even as we lead in ministry. THIS...

Duration:00:40:15

140. Bathed in Grace, with Matt Tebbe and Ben Sternke, authors of Having the Mind of Christ

10/25/2022
Matt Tebbe and Ben Sternke are the authors Having the Mind of Christ: 8 Axioms to Cultivate a Robust Faith and pastors of The Table in Indianapolis. So often the Christian life generally and Christian leadership specifically is oriented toward performance. But in this conversation, Matt Tebbe and Ben Sternke remind us that our spiritual life and our leadership is bathed in grace. THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: Having the Mind of Christ: 8 Axioms to Cultivate a Robust Faith The...

Duration:00:45:15

139. Disequilibrium and the Mission of God, with Markus Watson

10/11/2022
Eric Hoffman said, “To dispose a soul to action, we must upset its equilibrium.” In this episode, we’re going to talk about the state of disequilibrium that so many of us find ourselves in—what used to work in church leadership and ministry doesn’t seem to work anymore. And we’re going to talk about why that disequilibrium is actually a gift. THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: .Surfing the Edge of Chaos RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS: Books mentioned: Surfing the Edge of Chaos,Online...

Duration:00:31:08

138. Ministry Leadership in a Time of Immense Change, with Markus Watson

9/27/2022
In a time of immense change, how should churches do ministry? How should pastors and leaders lead their churches and organizations? Should we set a BHAG--a Big Hairy Audacious Goal? Should we set one-year, five-year, and ten-year goals? Or is there another way? Could it be that what we need are not big, enormous goals, but simple to take small steps and achieve short-term wins? THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDES: The Missional LeaderLeading Your Church Through ChangeAdaptive Church...

Duration:00:25:52

137. Ending Homelessness, with Kevin Nye, author of Grace Can Lead Us Home

9/13/2022
Kevin Nye is the author of Grace Can Lead Us Home: A Christian Call to End Homelessness, and Housing Director of a non-profit youth center. In this episode, Kevin helps us understand some of the misconceptions about homelessness—what’s really going on—and what we can do about it. Specifically, he helps us understand why the first thing we should do is provide housing for those who need it, not because they’ve earned it, but as an act of grace. THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: Grace Can...

Duration:00:37:39

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