I am joined in this podcast by Geri as we address one of the great challenges we face during of this prolonged, stay-at-home time in which we find ourselves – our relationships.  Covid-19 has radically altered our relationships at work, in our families, and with our friends. Thus, learning to love well as Christ-followers is one of the most important things we can do in this season. In this podcast, we introduce a life-changing skill called “Clarify Expectations.” Unmet and unclear expectations create havoc in our places of employment, classrooms, friendships, dating relationships, marriages, families, and churches. We expect other people to know what we want before we say it (especially if they are invested in the relationship). The problem with most expectations is that they are:  unconscious unrealistic unspoken un-agreed upon We all know the unpleasant experience of other people having expectations we never agreed to. In order for an expectation to be. Read more.

In this podcast, I apply John of the Cross’ extraordinary work on the dark night written almost 500 years ago to the unique situation in which we find ourselves – a global, collective dark night of the soul. We may not know what God is doing, where He is going, how He is getting us there, or when this will be over. But I do believe there is one thing we can know: This is potentially a deeply transformational season in which God empties us of things hindering the inflowing of His life into the depths of our being. This dark night of loving fire is His invitation to allow Him to lead us by another road, cultivating a lifestyle of a more contemplative, a more patient, a more silent waiting on Him, offering Jesus space to invade us during this season. Why? He wants to do something extraordinary in us, so much so. Read more.

Geri joins me in this podcast as we share four ways to transition from surviving to flourishing during this COVID-19 pandemic. Using the framework of a Rule of Life (an intentional tool to help us remain in the center of God’s love), we share ways to structure our days amidst our involuntary isolation. Looking at the four areas of prayer, rest, relationships and work, we provide examples from our own lives to stimulate your thinking before God so you can create your own Rule of Life: In this podcast, we seek to answer the questions: Prayer – How do we rest in His love, and be still before Him, with all the anxiety around us? How do we pour out our sadness, anger, and fear before the Lord? Rest – How do we intentionally rest from paid and unpaid work each day rather than live in the guilt and anxiety of feeling unproductive? Relationships. Read more.

In this podcast, I apply more fully and specifically last week’s message from the story of Job on the three biblical phases of grief –to us personally and to our leadership. We live in a culture that values control and continued ascent through life. We like things rising, whether that be the stock market, the economy, the growth in our churches, or our conquering of problems. The problem is we are in a season of descent and decline. This pandemic’s disruption of our life plan reveals the illusion we were ever in control. There are three main approaches to the enormity of grief around us and our loss of control. The first, and most common, is to get busy and try to keep the momentum going strong. We may strive to hold things together by embarking quickly on new strategies and plans. The problem is that by pushing the sadness of this season to. Read more.

In this podcast, I share my initial reflections on the difficult season of the coronavirus pandemic that we have just entered. Challenging, hard-to-believe news is coming at a pace that is demanding to absorb for ourselves – let alone the people we lead. Geri and I find ourselves also in a voluntary self-containment with millions of others around the world. What is God saying? How is He coming to us? How do we lead others in such an unprecedented time of crisis? I am not sure. But what I do know is that part of good leadership involves normalizing and helping people grieve biblically. The disorientation in which we find ourselves in will not be going away any time soon. Thus, we must remember, and remind others, that the way we grieve in the new family of Jesus is very different from the world. So, in this podcast, I share with you a very. Read more.

There is no movement of God in and through us unless we listen attentively to the Holy Spirit. This led me to ponder, over the past few weeks, my leadership journey around listening to the Holy Spirit. I spent most of my first seventeen years as a Christ-follower and leader in different expressions of the Pentecostal/charismatic stream of the church that emphasized the Holy Spirit. But a dramatic shift, both theologically and practically, happened as God led me into the journey, we call Emotionally Healthy Discipleship in 1996. With that came surprisingly new roads to listen to the Holy Spirit in fresh, powerful ways. In this podcast, I examine three unique ways emotionally healthy discipleship enables us to tap into the explosive power of listening to the Spirit. I begin by examining the life of Philip in Acts 8 as a model for us of listening to the Spirit, contrasting it with Peter’s posture. Read more.