Leaders in Living Rooms

Filipe Santos, lead pastor of Echo Church in Silicon Valley, returns to Leaders in Living Rooms four years into his succession, and he's refreshingly honest about what he's learned. After more than a decade as executive pastor, Filipe unpacks how he learned to lead as himself instead of wearing someone else's armor, why the applause that comes with a new title is more dangerous than most of us admit, and the unexpected rhythms (like ditching the green room) that keep his heart in check. Then he and Sean dig into multisite. Filipe shares hard-won lessons from two mergers and a campus launch, why multiplication amplifies your culture instead of fixing it, and what changes when you stop asking "how do we grow our church?" and start asking "what is God doing in our region?"

Most pastors treat a sabbatical like a finish line: hold on until it arrives, then collapse into it. But what if there is a better way? In this solo episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, Sean shares what he learned from his own sabbatical, including what he'd do again and the one thing he'd change. He talks about why you can't flip a switch on the way out or the way back in, and why he redirected his inbox to a folder he never plans to open. He also explains what it looked like to step away from the need to produce. If a sabbatical is on your horizon, this is a practical, honest look at how to prepare well.

Do you actually have power, and what are you supposed to do with it? On this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, Sean Morgan sits down with author Andy Crouch, whose landmark book Playing God reframed how a generation of Christian leaders think about power, for a conversation most leadership podcasts won't touch. Andy makes the case that power isn't a necessary evil to be minimized or hidden behind a flat org chart; it's a gift, and the only thing that keeps it from corrupting is sacrificial love. Sean and Andy unpack why isolation (not authority) is the real danger every leader faces, and how the healthiest churches build real accountability without pretending power doesn't exist. If you've ever felt uneasy about your own influence, this one will hand you language and a working model you can use this week.

In this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, host Sean Morgan sits down with Matthew Brown, pastor of Sandals Church, to unpack the tension pastoral leaders feel when the roles of friend, pastor, and boss collide in the same relationship. Matt challenges the instinct to soften hard conversations for the sake of the relationship, showing instead that clarity delivered with genuine care is what actually protects trust and long-term health on a team. Together, they explore how effective leaders learn to address problems early rather than let them fester, why staff exits leave a lasting imprint on a leader, and how building a team strong enough to be submitted to is one of the most underrated marks of mature leadership.