Transition

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.

In this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, host Sean Morgan sits down with author and leader Dave Ferguson to reflect on the lasting impact and evolving lessons of Hero Maker and kingdom multiplication. Dave challenges the misconception that becoming a "hero maker" means sacrificing leadership influence, showing instead that pouring into others is the key to compounding long-term kingdom impact. Together, they explore how effective ministry leaders change the way they keep score, shifting focus from Sunday attendance to tracking their sent "family tree" of church planters, and explain why adopting fresh leadership language is essential for reshaping organizational culture and future paradigms.

How do you step into the lead pastor role of a massive, multi-site urban church at a young age? In this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, host Sean Morgan sits down with Josiah Jobe, lead pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. Spanning 26 locations, over 40 worship services, and utilizing multiple languages, New Life represents a highly complex and deeply scaled urban ministry. Josiah candidly shares his initially reluctant journey toward pastoral ministry, fighting a distinct call during his youth and navigating the immense pressure and expectations that come with following in the footsteps of his father, Mark Jobe. Together, they explore the profound lessons learned from watching a father's decision-making process, the critical baseline of matching public and private integrity, and how keeping strict structure at home ultimately fuels a leader's health for the ministry.

What happens when the pressure to perform as a ministry leader completely hollows out your internal world? In this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, Sean Morgan sits down with pastor, author, and former NFL player Dr. Derwin L. Gray for an incredibly raw and vital conversation on pastoral wholeness. Too many pastors are fluent in the language of emotional health but completely starving for a theology that transforms their real, everyday pain. Pulling from the insights of his upcoming book, It’s Time to Heal, Dr. Gray unpacks why your accomplishments can never fix your soul, how to navigate habitual patterns that keep you feeling stuck, and what it practically looks like to lead from a place of profound spiritual redemption rather than performance. If you are tired of pretending you are fine while carrying unaddressed wounds, this episode is a compassionate, urgent roadmap back to the heart of Jesus.

How do you transition a historic, world-changing church into a new season without losing its DNA? In this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, Sean Morgan sits down with Andy Wood, Senior Pastor of Saddleback Church, to pull back the curtain on the messy, rewarding reality of leading major institutional change. Andy shares his raw, firsthand experiences transitioning from planting a tight-knit congregation to navigating the vast scale of Saddleback. Together, they break down what it practically looks like to fuse a historic legacy of evangelism with a deeply rooted culture of prayer, providing leaders with a masterclass on navigating the loneliness of senior leadership, building scalable organizational systems, and pacing change at the "speed of trust".

In this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, Sean Morgan sits down with Fr. James Mallon to explore what it really takes to move a church from maintenance to mission. Drawing from his experience revitalizing struggling parishes, Fr. James shares the realities of church turnaround, the weight of leadership, and the deep cultural shifts required to reclaim a missional identity. He unpacks the tension between shepherding and evangelism, the danger of inward-focused church culture, and the critical role of the Holy Spirit, leadership development, and intentional systems like Alpha in sparking renewal. This conversation offers both encouragement and practical wisdom for leaders navigating change and longing to see genuine transformation in their churches.

In this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, Sean Morgan sits down with Josh Newell, Executive Director of the Jesus Film Project, for a wide-ranging conversation on leadership, growth, and global evangelism in the digital age. Josh shares how shifting from a centralized model to a partnership-driven approach has unlocked greater scale and impact, especially through digital platforms that connect people to real discipleship pathways. He opens up about the challenges of leading through growth, including getting ahead of your team, cultivating belief, and learning to wait on God’s timing. The conversation also explores why animation is a critical next step in reaching younger, global audiences and how leaders can build healthy, high-performing teams by balancing vision, patience, and trust. Ultimately, Josh points leaders back to dependence on Jesus as the foundation for lasting impact.

In this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, Sean Morgan sits down with Jim Burgen to explore how senior leaders can cultivate vision, develop future leaders, and steward seasons of growth with intentionality and humility. Jim shares the story behind Flatirons Church’s “Be Free” faith initiative, a movement focused on establishing outposts of freedom, investing in leadership development, and engaging deeply in anti-trafficking efforts locally and globally. The conversation highlights the importance of resisting manufactured momentum, listening for God’s direction, and building structures that empower others while protecting the leader’s spiritual and emotional health. Jim also challenges pastors to create pathways for calling the next generation into ministry and to embrace both the weight and privilege of the mantle of leadership.

In this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, Sean Morgan sits down with Ben Cachiaras, Lead Pastor of Mountain Christian Church, to explore the evolving landscape of church leadership, multi-site strategy, and disciple-making in today’s cultural context. Ben shares insights from nearly 30 years of ministry, including lessons learned from launching multiple campuses and cultivating both church planting and multi-site expressions of ministry. Together, they discuss the growing need for leadership development pipelines, the critical role of trust in healthy organizations, and the importance of clarity around mission and identity in a politically polarized culture. Ben also highlights Mountain Christian Church’s innovative community center model, demonstrating how holistic ministry can build trust within neighborhoods and create meaningful pathways for gospel impact.

In this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, Sean Morgan welcomes back Mike Foster for a candid conversation about clarity, friction, leadership growth, and unlocking high performance. Mike unpacks why awareness alone isn’t enough, how leaders unintentionally create comfort zones that stall momentum, and why friction is essential for turning potential energy into kinetic energy. From navigating difficult conversations and team misalignment to understanding core motivation through The Seven Primal Questions, this conversation challenges leaders to embrace truth, sharpen communication, and build cultures where people thrive.

In this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, Sean Morgan sits down with Sarah Jackson of Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) to explore church revitalization inside the Church of England, raising diverse leadership pipelines, and what many are calling a “silent revival” among young people in the UK. Sarah shares her personal story of coming to faith at 13 through Alpha, the bold vision behind HTB’s Church Revitalisation Trust, and the urgent mission to reverse church decline by planting and revitalizing 1,000 churches. From developing “Peter” and “Caleb” leadership streams to stories of university students encountering Jesus through dreams and social media, this conversation is both strategic and deeply spiritual, reminding leaders that while systems matter, revival ultimately belongs to the Holy Spirit.

In today’s episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, Sean Morgan sits down with Bob Goff for a candid and refreshing conversation about leadership, identity, and returning to your “first love.” Bob unpacks the subtle ways leaders can drift into isolation—viewing people as projects rather than relationships—and shares practical, courageous ways to reset. From quitting his own law firm to encouraging teams to submit annual “mass resignations,” Bob challenges leaders to reapply for the job that is truly them. The conversation also explores his newest project, A Journey with Jesus, filmed in the Holy Land, designed to create safe spaces for honest conversations about faith. With humor, depth, and humility, Bob reminds leaders that we’re not chasing efficiency—we’re pursuing faithfulness.

In this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, Sean Morgan sits down with Nicky Gumbel to discuss the global acceleration of Alpha, leadership succession, church planting, and the essential role of spiritual leadership in the church today. As Alpha approaches its 50th anniversary and looks toward the 2033 vision—the 2,000-year anniversary of Jesus’ death and resurrection—Nicky shares how new, fully contextualized film series in Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, and African languages are expanding Alpha’s reach worldwide. He reflects on handing leadership to the next generation, the power of church planting to create healthy growth, and why pastors must resist being defined by business models rather than by spiritual leadership.

What happens when a leader chooses obedience over comfort and creates space for the Holy Spirit to move? In this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, Sean Morgan sits down with Jeff Brodie to unpack a remarkable season at Connexus Church that began with five years of quiet wrestling in prayer and culminated in a week of corporate repentance, renewal, and deep encounter with God. Without a playbook, branding strategy, or polished program, Jeff led his church into a posture of “shameless persistence” (Luke 11), creating space for confession, freedom, and the work of the Holy Spirit.

In this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, Sean Morgan sits down with Carey Nieuwhof to unpack one of the most significant moments facing the Church today: a rising Gen Z openness to faith paired with a looming leadership and succession crisis. Drawing from recent data, lived experience, and decades of leadership development, Carey challenges older generations to release authority sooner, create real opportunities for younger leaders, and rethink how leadership is developed—not just trained. The conversation also tackles under-discussed trends, including the quiet disengagement of women from church life, the creator economy’s impact on ministry, and what it truly means to build organizations that grow beyond their founders.

In this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, host Sean Morgan sits down with Randy Frazee and Jonathan Hansen for an honest, in-the-middle conversation about church leadership succession. Drawing from their shared experience at Westside Family Church, Randy and Jonathan reflect on what makes succession healthy, why intentional overlap and trust matter, and how culture, governance, humility, and love shape long-term success. This conversation pulls back the curtain on the real tensions, decisions, and relational work required when leadership changes hands and why succession is not the end of leadership, but its fulfillment.

As the church enters a new season of ministry in 2026, this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms invites leaders to re-examine what they think they know about multisite ministry. Sean Morgan is joined by Warren Bird and Jim Tomberlin to explore how the multisite movement has quietly shifted from simple replication into a multiplying, movement-driven model focused on discipleship, innovation, and the Great Commission. Together, they unpack common critiques of multisite churches, highlight emerging “pacesetter” churches shaping the future, and preview an ambitious national research project designed to equip churches navigating growth, complexity, and mission at scale.

In this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, Sean Morgan sits down with Jonathan Moynihan, Lead Pastor of Mosaic Christian Church in Baltimore, to explore a leadership journey shaped more by formation than ambition. Jonathan shares how what he once assumed was a call to church planting unexpectedly became a rapid succession into the lead pastor role—after years of hidden preparation, inner work, and confronting unhealthy ambition. Together, Sean and Jonathan unpack themes of calling versus opportunity, the dangers of tying worth to performance, and how silence, solitude, and failure became essential tools God used to form Jonathan into a healthier, more grounded leader. This honest conversation offers a rare look at the interior life of leadership, reminding pastors that God’s primary work is often deeper than visible success.

In this episode of Leaders in Living Rooms, Sean Morgan sits down with longtime pastor and Oikos Movement founder Tom Mercer to unpack nearly four decades of ministry leadership at High Desert Church and the relational principles that shaped a church of 8,000 in rural Southern California. Tom shares candid stories about longevity, accountability, team chemistry, leadership development, and how the Oikos principle, reaching the world through the natural relationships God has already placed around us, became the backbone of High Desert Church’s growth. From navigating criticism and facility challenges to building a healthy staff culture grounded in prayer and friendship, Tom offers practical, grounded wisdom for leaders pursuing disciple-making and sustainable ministry.

In this episode, Sean sits down with Justin Kendrick, planter and pastor of Vox Church in New England, to explore the heart behind multi-site ministry, leadership development, and the surprising move of God happening across one of the least-churched regions in the U.S. Justin shares his journey from musician to church planter, the early chaos of scaling locations without systems, and the intentional shift toward forming leaders through habits of the heart rather than skills alone. He unpacks Vox’s leader-development process, the power of life-on-life discipleship, and the humbling lessons learned along the way. Their conversation offers a rare and honest look at building a movement while staying grounded in accountability, character, and focus.