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 Caleb Kaltenbach, pastor and author of Messy Grace and God of Tomorrow. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: What was it like to be raised by LGBTQ parents? How does this affect your marriage and parenting today? How does your personal story affect your everyday leadership and the lens in which you view leadership? Why do you think churches are so reluctant to engage the LGBTQ community? What are some things you teach churches to navigate through this issue? BEST QUOTES  “At the age of 16, I had never set foot in a Christian household before.” “The more that I learned, the more that I studied, the more that I saw that Jesus was different.” “I find myself having to be really intentional about what I say to my kids, how I tell them to love people, but at the same time hold firmly to their biblical convictions.” “I wanted the book to be about how to empathetically love people

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Scott Harrison, founder and CEO of Charity Water and author of Thirst. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: How has Charity Water grown and what obstacles have you faced? What would you say to individuals or organizations that are fundraising about recurring donations? What are the growing pains of moving from a start up to an established organization? What does the leadership pipeline line look like with in your organization and also externally? What does the second half of your life look like? BEST QUOTES "We have no idea what it would be like to walk 5 hours in the hot sun carrying 40 pounds of dirty water." "Water means health, improved education, improved local economies." "Only .007 percent of all the water in the planet is usable for us." "We went from giving a million human beings clean water in our 8th year to 800,000 human beings in our 9th year." "Our numbers ar

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im breakdown the leadership book Profitable Growth is Everyone's Business: 10 Tools You Can Use Monday Morning by Ram Charan. 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 “When we think about church, a lot of people are obsessed with growth." "People started treating baptism like it was the finish line instead of the starting line." "Apply some of the findings in this book toward the growth of your ministry." "If you want to grow your church, you have to grow your people." "Improving productivity and increasing revenue are seen as two separate things, but in reality they are, in fact, inseparable for long term success." "Growth projects are not additional work, they replace a

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Annie F. Downs, podcast host and bestselling author of Remember God. During their conversation, they discuss how she keeps her relationship with God as the priority in her life and the importance of taking care of yourself to be able to fulfill the mission God has for you. BEST QUOTES "I want my readers to feel pastored." "Anyone can teach you how to shoot up like a firework, but fireworks explode and disappear. I want someone to teach my how to finish the race." "I have learned in the last year the discipline of prayer and the power of prayer in ways I never have before." "The presence of God is the gas that keeps this thing going." "Prayer and time in the presence of God are the two things that are going to help us finish well." "Does this feel like something your friend would say if you were sitting across the table having coffee?" "My leadership emphasis is a personal relationship with God. Do you believe

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Mark Satterfield, Executive and Teaching Pastor at The Glade Church in Mount Juliet, Tenn. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: How did you lead in between pastors? How do you keep casting vision for your volunteers? And how do you help your staff continue to cast vision for their volunteers? What are some ways you set up the new pastor for success, or wish you had done? Should you implement change during the in-between season, or should you keep the status quo? How would you advise a church on how to prepare for an in-between season so that it goes smoothly when it inevitably happens? BEST QUOTES "If you've walked through an interim process, you're glad to have had that experience, but when it's over you are glad it's over." "In that season, I knew what was really important was for us to communicate often and for us to communicate well." "You are in a season of unknowns, bu

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Brad Waggoner, Executive Vice President at Lifeway Christian Resources. During their conversation, they discuss reasons to make tough personnel decisions and looking back at family leadership. BEST QUOTES "There is a sea of information that flows by us at rapid pace." "Men and methods come and go, but the mission stays the same." "I almost like finding problems, because it means you get better." "I think one mistake that leaders make is misplaced compassion." "The more experience I've gained, the less I'm worried about the fallout." "I try to be intentional about who should I be initiating time with." "I try to read or listen to audiobooks daily." "I did not cultivate emotional intimacy in the home." "If I could go back to my 20-year-old self would I say, "lower your expectations of others?" Because I've been disappointed at well-known leaders who pick and choose the parts of the Bible they want to talk abou

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Josh Patterson, Lead Pastor at The Village Church in Texas. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: How do you lead high capacity leaders on your team? What do you look for when recruiting staff? How do you know what level of leadership you are best gifted for? You made a decision to transition your campuses to church plants. How is it going? You and Kevin Peck lead a strategic learning community, and have trained a lot of senior leaders. What have you found as you have trained them to be their greatest need? BEST QUOTES "It's different leading leaders than it is leading minions or yes people." "High capacity leaders want to be recognized as such. They want to have room to lead." "I don't think you can grow without healthy conflict." "Every time you hire someone you are making a cultural decision." "Membership is not the same thing as employment." "There's a difference betwe

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 research on Vacation Bible School (VBS) and answer the following questions. What are some of the highlights from the VBS research? What are our personal experiences with VBS? Why does VBS work today? What are some tips for the next time someone hosts VBS? BEST QUOTES “Sometimes parents are twisting their kids' arms to get them to go to church on Sunday. It's usually not that way with VBS." "Almost 7 out of 10 parents would let their child attend a VBS at someone else's church if invited." "9 out of 10 adults say that attending VBS as a child influenced their spiritual growth positively." "Because VBS is a short-term commitment, it fits with our culture today." "As adults look back on their experience, 88% say that VBS helped them better understand the Bible." "69% of parents whose kids have not attended VB

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im breakdown the leadership book The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. In their conversation they discuss the importance of creating checklists and how they can help you become more efficient and effective. 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 will help you scale. It will help you delegate." "The world is becoming increasingly complex. In order to get things done consistently, his premise is you have to use checklists." "We don't like checklists. They can be painstaking. They're not much fun, but I don't think the issue here is mere laziness." "Under conditions of complexity, not only are checklists a help, they are required for success." "Checklists raise wide, unexpected possibilities." "That's not my problem i

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Craig Groeschel, author of Hope in the Dark: Believing God is Good When Life is Not. During their conversation, they discuss helping leaders when they go through hard places. How do I believe God is good when life is not good? What do you do when you can’t seem to find God? What’s the connection between faith and hope, and how are they different? Share about how walking through darkness and hard times can bring glory to God. What would you like to say to leaders in their throes of leadership in light of those book? BEST QUOTES “The key to me, both as a leader and just as a person as a follower of Christ is in the name of Habbakuk. It means both to wrestle and to embrace.” “It’s OK to have spiritual doubts, but at the same time hang on to God.” “God is a sovereign God. If I am still in this role, it’s because He wants me to be in this role.” “God does more spiritually in the valley than he does on the

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im discuss and share a talk from Bob Russell, author of After 50 Years of Ministry, from Pipeline 2017 in which Russell shares the lessons he learned from the mistakes he made in ministry. BEST QUOTES “I feel like I have done some things the way God would have me do them, but I’ve also made some serious mistakes along the way and I’ve learned some valuable lessons from those mistakes.” “Sometimes we learn our best lessons from our worst mistakes.” “The worst single mistake I ever made in ministry was I forgot a wedding.” “I acknowledged that this was an area where I was weak and I need to surround myself with people who have strengths in administration and let them do it.” “A lot of our problems we have in ministry and in leadership come from ego.” “Delegate even if it hurts your ego.” “The reason people burn out in ministry isn’t because they work too hard, the reason they burn out in ministry is they work too hard in areas t

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Carey Nieuwhof, author of Didn't See It Coming: Overcoming the 7 Greatest Challenges that No One Expects and Everyone Experiences. During their conversation, they continue their discussion on the challenges that everyone faces. Will you give us an overview of irrelevance? How do we keep from sliding into pride and narcissism as we continue to grow? What will only humility get you out of that pride got you into? Let's move on to the next challenge no one expects to face: emptiness. How do we see burnout coming? BEST QUOTES “It’s inevitable that you become irrelevant unless you decide not to.” “You think you are cutting edge because you used to be cool, you used to be great, and nobody 15 years younger than you believes that anymore, but you are the last guy to know.” “The antidote to irrelevance is change.” “Relevance simply gains you permission to speak into the culture.” “I think you can communicate

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Eric Geiger discuss Eric's transition from Senior Vice President at Lifeway Christian Resources to senior pastor at Mariners Church in Irvine, California. BEST QUOTES “The Lord has made it clear that He wants me back in the local church. I’m grateful for the clarity and I’m really grateful that He made it clear where He wants me. I’m going to be the senior pastor at Mariners Church in Irvine, California.” “Part of me thought the Lord wasn’t even giving me an answer because He loved how much time I was spending with Him.” “I asked the Lord to give my children a desire as He was giving me a desire for the place that He wanted us to be.” “Holding two emotions together at the same time has been really challenging. In my right hand is a deep excitement for going to Mariners. … In the left hand, I’ve held a sense of loss. The death of a dream of a team that I’ve worked alongside for a long time.” “To me that’s ending well, affirming great pe

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins is joined by Carey Nieuwhof, author of Didn't See It Coming: Overcoming the 7 Greatest Challenges that No One Expects and Everyone Experiences. During their conversation, they discuss some of the challenges that everyone faces. What are the types of cynicism that we often face and how do we address those? How does compromise play a role? How do leaders often disconnect? What does that look like and what is the result? BEST QUOTES "I didn't feel my heart grow bigger in ministry, I felt it grow smaller. And that's how cynicism starts." "Most cynics are made not because they don't care, but because they did care." "If you close your heart to people, you close your heart to God." "The curious are never cynical, and the cynical are never curious." "There is social research that suggests that the average person tells about 200 lies a day." "If you let yourself get away with the little things, will you let yourself get away with more?"

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins is joined by Johnny Baker, pastor of Celebrate Recovery at Saddleback and author of The Road to Freedom. During their conversation, they discuss helping people remove barriers and general leadership principles. BEST QUOTES "Celebrate Recovery is not just for drug addicts and alcoholics. It's for anybody with what we say is a hurt, a hang-up, or a habit." "What we've found over the years is that pain is universal." "Admitting you have a problem doesn't make you weak, and covering up a problem always makes things worse." "The higher up in leadership you go, the more temptation there is to say, 'I have to have it all together.'" "People want a one-size-fits-all this is how we handle this situation. And what I'm learning is that you can't always do that." "If I hang out with a certain group of people, I become more like them. That's just how it goes." "Everything that happens to you now is going to determine how you lead later - both good an

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins is joined by Bryan Rose, Lead Navigator for Auxano. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: How is multisite biblical? What are the most common reasons to go multisite? What are the best strategies for multisite? How long does it take to launch a new campus? How do you staff for multisite? BEST QUOTES "As we read Paul's letters, we can see the church was one church in multiple locations." "Yes, it's biblical. How is it biblical? Well, the church is always called to respond to its local context." "Every church is unique, and part of that uniqueness is the context." "Multisite is a replication of systems and processes that improves efficiency and in some statistical studies raises the chances of success higher than church planting because of the connection." "Most people go to multisite for practical reasons: they run out of space, they don't want to add a third or a fourth service." "You can't commute t

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Aaron Coe. He serves Passion City Church in Strategic Initiatives. During their conversation, they discuss the importance of connecting with people and how the church needs to consider the urban age. BEST QUOTES "Anytime you face conflict, it's designed to sharpen you and to help you become a better leader." "Whether you are associated with something like Passion that has a global reach, or you are a brand new church planter just getting started, you really aren't immune to the handwork of having to get out there and connect with people right where they are." "The hinge cities of the world are on our radar, and we are just praying where and when next." "I want my leadership legacy to be that I spent my life helping to build Jesus' church." "I really want to help the evangelical church in America think about the urban age. Because in 2007 we crossed over into the urban age, so we are all city people now. As I thi

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Daniel Im and Eric Geiger are joined by Christy Wright, founder of Business Boutique and author of Business Boutique. During their conversation, they discuss discerning how to approach failures and challenges and discussing work commitments with your spouse. BEST QUOTES "What was true about business 30 years ago is definitely not true today." "Get to the root of the issue. What are you actually facing? What is really going on? Look at it as factually and practically as you can. That can help you discern whether or not that's something you should push through or something you should pivot." "If I let that one failure define me, I would have missed out on almost a decade of professional speaking and making an impact to those audiences." "You know what, we are going to fail 99 times and we are still going to try the hundredth time, because on the hundredth time we are going to get it." "I've definitely become a bottleneck for our brand, so we are trying

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Daniel Im and Eric Geiger are joined by Rachel Cruze, author of Smart Money Smart Kids and Love Your Life, Not Theirs and host of The Rachel Cruze Show. During their conversation, they discuss the importance of scheduling for efficiency and servant leadership in the home. BEST QUOTES "Growing up in Dave Ramsey's household we have quite a few stories around money, so I got to talk about that as the kids perspective." "One thing my parents gave all three of us was confidence. Confidence precedes so many choices you make." "As a company, as Ramsey Solutions, we've harnessed these three words we say, 'Stability. Succession. Scalability.'" "To be able to get up in the morning for me and have some stillness, have coffee, and have conversation with my husband is a must for me." "I have to have a schedule everyday. I am flexible in my day, but I need it scheduled. It's the only way we can be efficient in what we do." "The things that make me most efficient p

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Dave Milam, vice president of strategic design at Visioneering Studios. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: What are the new trends when it comes to churches and their use of space? What are the most common mistakes churches make when they enter into a building program? What research does Visioneering do before a church moves forward with a plan? When revitalizing and replanting, what should churches do to their space before relaunching? What are best practices for making a move, celebrating, and transitioning well? BEST QUOTES “Constantly I am hearing churches say we need more lobby space, we need more community space, places where people can just sit and talk.” “One of the biggest mistakes I see is churches not locking down that number – this is how much money we are going to spend, not a penny over – and really holding the team that they hire to that number.” “What’s the