5 Leadership Questions: A Leadership Podcast Featuring Interviews With Carey Nieuwhof, Craig Groeschel, Matt Chandler, Jen Wi

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Scott McConnell, Executive Director of Lifeway Research. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: What is the state of theology in America? Why is this important? What surprised you about this research? What trends did you see? What should churches do with this research? BEST QUOTES  “7 out of 10 Americans believe in the trinity." "Almost 7 out of 10 Americans believe God is a perfect being and cannot make a mistake." "Less than a quarter of Americans agree that even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation." "Our definition of good is completely different than God's." "6 out of 10 Americans believe that religion is a matter of personal opinion, it's not about rejecting truth." "Almost 6 out of 10 Americans agree that worshiping alone or with your family is a valid replacement for regularly attending church." "Among those with evangelical beliefs, 52% agree that everyone

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im breakdown the leadership book The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter by Michael D. Watkins. In their conversation they discuss the following questions: What's the book and why does it matter? Overview of the book How applicable is the book to leadership in my church? What are things churches should ignore from the book? What can you do this week in light of the book? BEST QUOTES “Whatever you are living in is a direct result of whatever you were working on 90 days ago." "This book is about helping you assess what the situation is and apply the right strategy to that situation." "You have to figure out how this place works before you work on this place." "Imagine if the next 90 days were your first 90 days." "The first 90 days matter because it will help you get to the break even point." "Your job is to find clarity and understanding and then bring that to the surface." "Y

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Robby Gallaty and Chris Swain, co-hosts of the Making Disciples podcast. During their conversation, they discuss how to make disciples of the people in your church and the need for planning in all aspects of life. BEST QUOTES “The day you stop learning is the day you stop leading, so we have to be self-motivated in this." "The Church went from being a movement of people to being a monument you go to." "The pastor leader has to repent for not making disciples for years." "Most churches think they can grow and grow their people by just offering another option to the already programized church they already pastor." "Disciples don't grow by menus, they grow by maps." "How many people are you investing in who have now reproduced their life into the life of another person?" "The discipleship process is never complete until the mentee becomes a mentor or until the player becomes a coach." "The gospel came to you bec

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Mark Clark, the pastor of Village Church in Vancouver and author of The Problem of God. During their conversation, they discuss over and above hospitality in the church and how his leadership role in the church has developed over the years. BEST QUOTES  “I would quit ministry before I let it crush my family." "On one hand we need to develop people, on the other hand you can't teach speed. You either have it or you don't." "As the culture keeper of the organization, I need to be aware of the things that are happening around the margins and the things that are happening in the center." "Who I interact with evolved over time, now it's really 4 or 5 people at the exec level and they develop pastors and keep me in the loop about what's going on." "I do my best to schedule meetings with people in the church so that I can keep my finger on the pulse of what the people in the church are experiencing." "There is a disti

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Rich Clark, the host of the Living & Effective Podcast. During their conversation, they discuss collaboration with others led by God's grace and the importance of casting a vision for your family. BEST QUOTES  “We talk all the time about how hard it is to hear something from someone close to you." "Interviewing is one of the things I love doing most because it is fun to me to explore the ideas of another person from their perspective." "We don't have to be the center of the story that God is writing." "I'm really interested in figuring out who is good at what and what are some ways we can appreciate one another's gifts." "Collaborating with people and actively receiving their gift helps me to work more effectively." "God shows us grace when our gifts are used haphazardly." "The people we work with are human people with human traits and flaws and characteristics." "It takes a lot of intentionality and work to

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Eric Geiger, former cohost of 5LQ and senior pastor of Mariners Church. During their conversation, they discuss leading in the workplace and in the home amidst change. BEST QUOTES  “Vision is always associated with change." "How do we articulate the vision as being an overflow and next iteration in the life of Mariners, as opposed to feeling like this hard right turn?" "We were used to being a small team with one emphasis and now we have to be more sophisticated in thinking about how all the things we've started point back to our purpose?" "How do you make the shift from seeing yourself as the hero to seeing yourself as the hero maker?" "If I'm not daily taking in articles or books, I am not going to be leading to my full potential." "Seeing my girls see how God is in the middle of things is really fun." "It's been interesting to see how my wife has come alive since she has this new purpose." "I wonder what's

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Scott McConnell, Executive Director of Lifeway Research. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: Overview of the research Who are the unchurched? What are some of the common beliefs about evangelism that this research confirms and denies? What surprised you most about the research? What is your personal takeaway from the research? BEST QUOTES  “Of those who said they are a Christian, a third said they aren't devout, and a third said they aren't currently practicing." "A quarter of unchurched people think they are Christians with a strong faith." "Only a quarter of the unchurched have never attended a church regularly in their life." "For the majority of the unchurched, the church has had a chance to present who Jesus Christ is and what we are about and for whatever reasons they have said, 'that is not for me.'" "Just 35% of people say they would be likely to attend if somebod

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Sam Rainer, Micah Fries, and Josh King, the co-hosts of the Established Church Podcast. During their conversation, they discuss what advice they would have given their younger selves about preparing to lead and what it means to be an established church. BEST QUOTES "I workout for my mind. The physical health benefits are an aside. It's to clear my head." "Daily I will read a couple of chapters of fiction. It helps my brain to shut down before I go to sleep." "I would tell my 20-year-old self I needed to be more comfortable with who I am." "I always knew that I was a chameleon, but it was a survival technique for me. Because I moved so often it was how I could quickly make friends and adjust." "Like a lot of people, I have a constant sense of inferiority and I overcompensate for that with pride sometimes." "I have to rest in who He has made me to be, rest in the Gospel, rest in who He is." "Stop dating that gir

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Mike Harland, director of Lifeway Worship and author of Worship Essentials. During their conversation, they discuss current worship culture. BEST QUOTES "Years ago, I realized that music was not the point, it was only the language." "The idea that you can unify a church around a music style is insanity. You better unify it around Jesus." "When an artist is leading congregational music it can be problematic." "There needs to be a really healthy awareness of the shepherding role that a worship leader has to have." "When we began to print lyrics and project lyrics, suddenly the hymnal wasn't the source book anymore." "What I've seen is the church believing that a worship approach could be a growth strategy for their church, and I just can't see that in the Scripture." "The way a church approaches worship becomes such an identifiable mark of their ministry approach." "In a healthy worship culture, there is a sing

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Scott Sanders and Derek Hanna, cohosts of The One Thing Podcast, part of the Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network. During their conversation, they discuss BEST QUOTES "My tendency always is to run toward getting the thousand things done, but I've realized I need to run toward the team at the moment." "One of the key things I am working on at the moment is how to get out of the way." "It's that process of building relationships that I am working on at the moment." "Reflecting on what's ahead is really important." "Naturally I am a forward thinker. The weakness in that is that I don't always get the stuff done that I need to do in the week." "I've made it a priority to spend a half an hour a day at the end of the day with my boys doing boy stuff and when I don't that's the beginning of everything else unraveling." "It's not just about me pursuing something, it's about us doing ministry together." "Leadership at m

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins is joined by Terry A. Smith, pastor and author of The Hospitable Leader. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: What's the connection between leadership and hospitality and how important is that? What part did hospitality play in the culture of the early church? What did this look like when you started out both internally inside the church and externally in your community and how did that change through the different stages of growth in the church? How do you instill this in your culture with the average attendee at your church? What are some examples of businesses or churches that get hospitality right? What does it look like for a leader to curate environments? How can this shift toward hospitality affect things like leading meetings and other aspects of ministry that may seem mundane? BEST QUOTES "I love the connection between hospitality and leadership as long as someone doesn't get confused that i

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Scott McConnell, Executive Director of Lifeway Research. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: What do Americans think about the Bible? "More than half of all Americans have read little to none of the Bible." Talk about that. What is surprising about the research? What do you think churches can do to encourage Bible reading? What does Bible reading look like for us? BEST QUOTES  “The largest group of people think the Bible is a good source of morals." "Not very many people view the Bible in really negative terms, even though we could quote them verses that would make them think that." "11% of Americans admit they really aren't sure what they think about the Bible." "We do see more females have read at least half of the Bible." "A quarter of 18-24 year olds have read none of the Bible, not even a few sentences." "Young people have not taken the initiative to say, 'I am goin

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Barnabas Piper, former 5LQ podcast co-host. During their conversation, they discuss what resources they are currently learning from and what leadership looks like in their current lives. BEST QUOTES “A lot of times we measure things because they are easy to measure, not because they are important, and then we make them important." "If you are trying to get more members to get more giving, your motivation might be misplaced." "If you want to see true growth in a lot of aspects of your church, including giving, membership is not just a one or two hour class. It has to be multiple weeks in a row where you are growing the relationship and discipling." "Leaders are no longer allowed to expect the same things they did from people decades ago." "I have become reasonable in my expectations of what God is going to do in a service." "I hope when I am 68 years old that I have the same attitude of eagerness to learn and hu

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im breakdown the leadership book Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable ... About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business by Patrick Lencioni. In their conversation they discuss the following questions: What's the book and why does it matter? Overview of the book How applicable is the book to leadership in my church? What are things churches should ignore from the book? What can you do this week in light of the book? BEST QUOTES “For a lot of organizations, meetings are a blessing and a curse." "Bad meetings lead to bad decisions." "The format, purpose, and timing of those meetings is vital." "You don't need to buy a summary of any of his books because the latter half is the summary." "A daily check-in meeting is really about what's going on today." "When it comes to our weekly tactical meetings, we typically will mix the daily check-in with the tactical because we've suffered from meeting drift." "Having an age

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Brad Lomenick, past leader of Catalyst and author of H3 Leadership. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: How did you go from looking like Uncle Fester to Vin Diesel? What should we know about the difference in Millennial and Gen Z leaders? You personally know people who should have been shot out of the saddle, did you notice any patterns in their lives? As a leader, how do I choose what conference to go to? When you say "hustle" what does that actually mean and what does it look like? BEST QUOTES “From the inside out, I said that I wanted to pursue health. Spiritual health, physical health, emotional health." "Based on my identity now, I don't have to struggle with the rule of what can I or can't I eat." "Gen Z is risk adverse, where Millennials were risk aggressive." "The average Gen Z has walked through recession, terrorism, an economy that's up and down. Everything in th

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Ed Stetzer, author of Christians in the Age of Outrage. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: In the book you talk about eight personas of Christian leaders online, some of them being more sheep-like and others being more wolf-like. How would you advise us as Christian leaders to engage online? In the book you talk about how the Church compromises its faith and witness when it protects the powerful at the expense of the victim. Why do you think this happens and how does it affect our church and leadership? How should we stand up for our beliefs about human sexuality and lead our churches in light of the way that our culture sees this issue? Talk about how Christians need to grasp the hypocrisy of engaging online in a way that would be holy intolerable if we were face-to-face with others. "When we become primarily identified with any tribe outside the body of Christ, especially w

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Jason Daye, vice president of mobilization at Outreach and host of The ChurchLeaders Podcast. During their conversation, they discuss the daily practices he uses to be a better leader and leadership in the home as a parent to six children. BEST QUOTES “Life happens at life speed. As much as we plan and prepare, there are going to be things that just occur." "How are we trying to look ahead at where life is going?" "What I am investing most of my time in is new ministry initiatives." "So much of the fabric of America is being an individual and conquering something." "The city wide movements that are really making impact have this excitement rallying around a sense of mission." "I'm submitting myself to the leadership of the Holy Spirit." "Rereading has become a part of my regular discipline." "At home it is helpful to be a lot more fluid so that people stay relaxed." "How you lead them and discipline them is

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im breakdown the leadership book Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else  by Geoff Colvin. In their conversation they discuss the following questions: What's the book and why does it matter? Overview of the book How applicable is the book to leadership in my church? What are things churches should ignore from the book? What can you do this week in light of the book? BEST QUOTES “One of the things he doesn't talk about in the book is talent being an important factor." "Some of the people that do become the most successful aren't the people you would think." "Deliberate practice is not fun." "If the activities that lead to greatness were easy and fun, then everyone would do them and they would not distinguish the best from the rest." "The scarce resource is no longer money. It is human ability. The roadblocks we face are mostly imaginary." "At the end of the day, it really

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Jackie Hill Perry, author of Gay Girl, Good God. During their conversation, they discuss being discipled as a new Christian and what led her to write the book. BEST QUOTES “When I talk about my conversion, I am actually teaching about conversion." "God made me right with Himself. And in making me right with Himself, He has given me power over my temptations." "She taught me how to drink deeply from the Scriptures." "My discipler is imperfect, but even when she falls she has the faith to go to Jesus with it." "She discipled my whole person, which was way more beneficial to me than if she zeroed in on my sexuality and left everything else out, as if I didn't need to learn how to walk by the Spirit in all ways." "Over the last year and a half, I've been trying to work harder at becoming a servant in my church, but I want to find ways to serve secretly." "I just want to model what it is to be a woman who is empowe

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im breakdown the leadership book The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization by Peter M. Senge. In their conversation they discuss the following questions: What's the book and why does it matter? Overview of the book How applicable is the book to leadership in my church? What are things churches should ignore from the book? What can you do this week in light of the book? BEST QUOTES “This book is about creating a learning organization." "If you want to grow your church, you have to grow your people." "Non-learning organizations react, whereas learning organizations look at the deeper underlying systems that generate that behavior." "In building learning organizations there is no ultimate destination or end state, only a lifelong journey." "Are you spending more time reacting or acting upon?" "How do we grow people's commitment to the mission that Jesus has given us?" "Learning in front of