Years ago, we were doing some strategic planning at the church I had founded in Queens, NY. We were reflecting on what contributed to our growth over a 26 year period.
A single word kept reappearing on the whiteboard - "BASEMENT"
How did we disciple so many quality leaders, many of whom are still leading today?
Hint: it wasn't what happened on the stage. It was what happened in the basement.
Matthew 28 tells us to "make disciples of all nations". But many leaders today feel a pressure to make their discipleship strategies big and public rather than small and hidden.
Jesus modeled a different way of making disciples. In fact, he flipped the entire thing upside down. In today's podcast, I share with you why real discipleship starts in the basement.
Tension. Distress. Difficulty. Pressure. Do these adjectives describe some days in your leadership? In Part 2 of “Hard Lessons from the Life of Jacob” Pete shares how God met Jacob in the mess, strain and conflict of his leadership. God is there to do the same in our own difficult leadership days.
To download a free e-book on Six Marks of a Church Culture that Deeply Changes Lives visit www.emotionallyhealthy.org/churchculture.
Jacob offers us a rich study of leadership. While he was richly blessed by God – chosen, destined to greatness, and deeply loved – he struggled to rest in that reality. In Part 1 of this series, Pete unpacks the lessons of Jacob’s exploitation of Esau to ensure he gets God’s blessings for the future.
To download a free e-book on Six Marks of a Church Culture that Deeply Changes Lives visit www.emotionallyhealthy.org/churchculture.
Jesus’ challenge to the leaders in his day, found in his sermon in Matthew 23, is so biting and sharp that some interpreters have wondered if these words are authentically Jesus’. They are. In this podcast, Pete breaks down Jesus’ challenge into 5 categories and shares how it applies to us today.
To download a free e-book on Six Marks of a Church Culture that Deeply Changes Lives visit www.emotionallyhealthy.org/churchculture.
Pete invites you into his personal journey of slowly breaking patterns and behaviors of overfunctioning. After considering the examples of Moses and Martha as classic overfunctioners, he lays out the three steps he took to stop overfunctioning.
To download a free e-book on Six Marks of a Church Culture that Deeply Changes Lives visit www.emotionallyhealthy.org/churchculture.
When we cross the line into “fixing” our ministries instead of leading them forward to greener pastures, we are overfunctioning. Pete invites you to listen to Geri’s reading of the audio version of an outstanding chapter out of The Emotionally Healthy Woman called “Quit Overfunctioning.” By the time you finish, it will make sense why quitting overfunctioning is foundational to leadership.
To download a free e-book on Six Marks of a Church Culture that Deeply Changes Lives visit www.emotionallyhealthy.org/churchculture.
In part 2 of this podcast series, Pete explores four additional goals we frequently overlook in our leadership. To download a free e-book on Six Marks of a Church Culture that Deeply Changes Lives visit www.emotionallyhealthy.org/churchculture.
Setting priorities as a Christian leader is one of our most challenging and difficult tasks. If we get it right, fruitfulness and joy follow. If we get it wrong, feelings of failure and misery follow. This podcast (Part 1 of 2) will consider, in detail, the most frequently overlooked priority and goal of our leadership.
To download a free e-book on Six Marks of a Church Culture that Deeply Changes Lives visit www.emotionallyhealthy.org/churchculture.
This podcast, a 15-minute experience of silence and stillness before the Lord, is our Christmas gift to you, our way of saying “thank you” for being one of our faithful podcast listeners. For the fuller experience with Jesus, please find the video titled "Breathe: Being with God in Silence" on our YouTube page.
Advent is a low point spiritually for most Christian leaders. We are told that told Christmas is the time to get as many people as possible to the church, to close the financial year strong, to thank all our leaders, and to model reaching out to our neighbors for Christ. The problem is that in the process we lose the wonder and beauty of celebrating God’s coming in Jesus of Nazareth. This podcast talks about the top 4 Christmas killers and what we can do to resist them.
God’s ways are little and slow, i.e. they are a mustard seed. Mustard seeds appear insignificant, powerless, imperceptible, and defeated. Few of us signed up to lead in this way. I surely did not! Yet Jesus pleads with us to resist the big, powerful, and sensational ways of the world and embrace his way.