Tod Bolsinger
In our conversation with Tod Bolsinger, author of Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory, talks with us about how to lead when you don’t know what to do. He quotes a pastor who told him, “I think I can learn adaptive change but I’m not sure I can survive it.” In this episode, Dr. Bolsinger reminds us that we can grow our leadership resilience through reflection, relationships and a rule of life.
Steve Cuss
Do we love people by tolerating their terrible behavior? How do we stop demonizing people who get in our way? What about when I am the one who is sabotaging change?
In our conversation with Steve Cuss, author of Managing Leadership Anxiety: Yours and Theirs, we look at the reality of sabotage in the process of leading change. Because anxiety spreads in a group and because typically the most anxious person in the room holds the most power, managing ourselves in the face of sabotage is always the key to leadership survival.
Phuc Luu
Our friend Phuc Luu wrote one of our favorite books this year, Jesus From the East. In this episode, he shares his thinking about how the gospel is not only for sinners but also for the sinned-against. Using the Korean concept of han, Phuc shows us how we lead best when we lead in ways that are not just transactional but deeply human, actively caring for the wounded and vulnerable.
Juanita Rasmus
Feeling disoriented these days? Pastor and author Juanita Rasmus helps us to see that all of life is an expression of orientation, dis-orientation and re-orientation.
She describes the day that her life “crashed,” eventually opening up new ways of being, ministering and leading. She shows us how to find God and our truest selves when we have nothing else to offer. As a bonus, she shares with us the ultimate question we must all answer.
Mandy Smith
Being a leader means being an expert, having it all together and getting things done . . . or at least that’s what we sometimes think.
Pastor and author Mandy Smith guides us into a way of thinking about leadership that is centered in vulnerability, deep reflection and slow growth. She reminds us that weakness can be a ministry resource and that all ministry begins with a gut-level cry for help to God.
Chuck Degroat
It seems fitting that Chuck DeGroat’s new book about narcissism and the church would come out in 2020 as we’re all noticing the fault lines in our life together like never before.
Chuck (psychologist, professor, pastor) reminds us that this isn’t new; that “we swim in the cultural waters of narcissism” all the time. He helps us to see how narcissism affects us, how misunderstanding it makes it worse and how we can respond to it with both grace and boundaries.
We explore how healthy leaders can ask “How do you experience me?” Then listen non-defensively to the honest feedback.