Leaders in Living Rooms

“God uses transition to connect us more deeply to the people around us.” Meet Clay Scroggins, author of the best-selling books How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge, How to Lead in a World of Distraction, and The Aspiring Leader’s Guide to the Future. In today’s episode, Clay gives a deep, personal look at what transitioning from a lead pastor role to an entrepreneurial, self-employed role has looked like for him.

“Connection is what brings production.” Meet Kyle Idleman, Lead Pastor of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. Kyle sits down with Sean Morgan to talk through his pastoral journey from a lonely church planter to now leading one of the largest churches in America. Through key voices in his life, welcoming him in, speaking wisdom into his role, and placing helpful boundaries around pastoral input and output, Kyle has great wisdom to share with us in regard to church leadership.

“My life has been a story of transition… I’m used to having to rely on the Lord and ask for His wisdom, guidance, and understanding.” Meet Sam Acho, a nine year NFL Veteran, ESPN Football Analyst, Humanitarian, and Author. Sam sits down with Sean to talk through each of the transitions in his life and what changed along the way. Through all of them, what remained the same was his commitment to Christ.

“Pastors moving into the Lead Pastor role need to ask, “What created this vacancy that God has called me to fill? People mistakenly assume that succession and retirement are synonyms. They’re not.”” Meet William Vanderbloemen, CEO & Founder of Vanderbloemen, an executive search firm. In this episode, William and Sean really lean in to combine their pre and post-transition experience, unpacking the top lessons from coaching churches through pastoral transition.

“It wasn’t until maybe four years into me leading the church that I really felt like, ‘Okay, now I have a good sense as to what it means to lead the congregation from here to there from a vision perspective.’” Meet Rich Villodas, lead pastor of New Life Fellowship, a large multiracial church in Elmhurst, Queens.

“Every leader has to rethink vision for every new season. Mission is the north star, but vision can and should be something that changes over the course of your career.” In today’s episode, we bring in two of the great leadership voices in ministry to unpack the recent Carey Nieuwhof vision winnowing and inspire leaders on forging ahead in the New Year. Carey Nieuwhof and Brad Lomenick join Sean Morgan in a vulnerable conversation about Carey’s crisis of vision this past year and how church leaders can find encouragement if they too are unsure about the road ahead.

“God uses so many types of leaders that are way different from each other. So, it makes sense that there’s going to be all kinds of succession stories that God can bless equally.” Today, we’re joined by Dustin Aagaard and John Hampton, both pastors in the midst of a Lead Pastor transition at Journey Christian Church in Orlando. With specific insight into their current transition season, we’re hearing firsthand, from both sides, the nuances and wisdom that play into healthy leadership succession within a church.

“We haven’t just had a change in culture in the last couple of years, we’ve had a cultural shift. We’re in a different playing field.” Many of you know Chris Brown, Senior Pastor and Teaching Pastor at North Coast Church in San Diego, CA. In today’s episode, Sean Morgan leans in with Chris on exactly how North Coast is innovating around online church and why it’s so important.

“Don’t be so busy trying to turn things around that you neglect the people you’re working with. Start tackling the small stuff to build up a resume and track record of success, then you can gradually start tackling bigger and bigger things that ultimately need to get changed as well.”

“Love the church you have. Not the church you wish you had.” Meet James Forsyth, Senior Pastor of Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, TN. James grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland where he met his bride and started his family. He came to the US to go to seminary and stayed stateside as God called him and his family through two leadership transitions. James is an expert on the topic of transition. On this episode he leans in with James specifically on the currency of trust and four key transition leadership principles.

“Humility must be the chief characteristic of the outgoing pastor. Their transition feels like death by a thousand cuts. This is what they’ve dedicated their ministry to, their lives to, and they are having to slowly let it go…”

“The fear factor of a transition is real. And it will hit you. But you have to remind yourself that that is literally what the devil’s plan is to do to you. Is to paralyze you. He wants nothing more than to get you on your heels and start to revert back. But the Gospel is going no no, if God is for you who can be against you? I got you. You need to walk forward in faith and be strong and courageous like Joshua.”

“We tell our staff… if you are happy or aligned with 70% of what we’re doing as a church, then lay down the other 30% and embrace what God is doing.” On this episode we welcome Mike Bodine from Central Church in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mike is gracious enough to invite us into his living room to discuss the health of Central’s staff, the health of their church, and the health of the relationship between Mike and his Lead Pastor, Jud Wilhite. Mike shares incredible wisdom on fighting for culture in your church and why it matters. As he so concisely summarizes, “Culture is everything.”

“Leaders are waiting around for their rooms to fill up, but newcomers to your church are waiting for you to make room for them.” In this episode, Sean leans into a question that so many church leaders and staff are wrestling with on this side of the pandemic… “when is our room full?”

“For most churches, if you take 50% of your givers off the list, you’re only losing 2% of the gifts… Rather than talking about fear and anxiety of the coming recession, what if we talk about the real issue? Being broken-hearted about the spiritual condition of our people when it comes to money and possessions.”

“The definition of what the Lead Pastor needs to be and do coming out of the pandemic has changed.” In this episode, Sean sits down with Dr. Warren Bird from ECFA to lean into the challenges pastors are facing coming out of the pandemic, and into recession and inflation.

“The leadership lesson was that it all happened on my watch. It wasn’t all my fault, but it was my responsibility as a leader to shepherd my staff well and I wasn’t doing that.” Meet Jim Burgen from Flatirons Community Church in Colorado. In one of the most heartfelt and vulnerable episodes of our show, Jim opens up about what triggered his six month sabbatical and how God used it for Jim to come back as a better, healthier & stronger leader, just before Covid hit.

“People kept asking me, are you excited? But I wasn’t all that excited, and I felt like something was wrong. To be honest, I was a little bit scared. There are so many calls in scripture where the call was clear, but it wasn’t something they were excited about.” Meet Dave Dummitt, Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, dynamic leader and pastor who knows a thing or two about transitions. In this episode, Dave invites us into the behind-the-scenes process of being pursued by Willow, wrestling with God’s call to Chicago, and what it meant to leave 2|42 Community Church in its season of thriving. Dave says candidly, “This wasn’t a transition, it was a turnaround.”

“We’re half the church we were before Covid hit, attendance wise. But the foundation is stronger than it was when we built from where we are now, before.” Meet Greg Lindsey, Lead Pastor of Discovery Christian Church in Colorado Springs, CO. From lawyer, to church planter, to transitions leader, Greg has a transition story that didn’t start well, and then got worse before it ever got better. He shares his approach of leading Discovery with “duct tape and dreams” and encourages leaders to let off the gas in their striving and driving and be far more willing to grow slowly.