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 Whitney Capps, author of Sick of Me and speaker for Proverbs 31 Ministries. During their conversation, they discuss the importance of listening to God's Word for it's truth and discerning wise decisions in ministry. BEST QUOTES "I wrote it as an act of obedience, not fully convinced that anybody would read it." "It was really a book for me walking through the process and realization - a painful one - that I had traded sanctification for self-help." "To some extent I thought sanctification was about doing better and missed that the call is actually for us to be better." "One of my goals for 2019 is to read more from people who are not my contemporaries." "There is no excuse for a person breathing millennial air to not know and understand God's Word." "God's Word is so pregnant that He can do a lot with a little." "There is something about appreciating what it is to read God's Word for its truth rather than my p

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im breakdown the leadership book The Power of Moments by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. 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 “Research has found that in recalling experiences we ignore most of what happened and focus instead on a few particular moments." "There are a lot of powerful moments that happen in a person's life that often are a turning point for them to come to know the Lord." "Defining moments shape our lives, but we don't have to wait for them to happen, we can be the author's of them." "A defining moment is a short experience that is both memorable and meaningful." "How do you build peaks in your ministry appeal?" "What's that transformational sweet spot for u

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Jana Magruder, director of Lifeway Kids and author of Kids Ministry that Nourishes and Nothing Less. During their conversation, they discuss how the Levels of Biblical Learning can provide a framework for kids ministry and how technology impacts parenting today. BEST QUOTES "The Levels of Biblical Learning is truly a framework that a church can use from the baby room to high school graduation." "My heart and mind is in the research of Gen Z and technology." "VBS is quality-time with Godly men and women who are pouring into the lives of kids and families." "The majority of American parents would say yes to a child who is invited to a VBS by a friend." "I have challenged my smaller strategy team to re-engage with their giftedness." "We are pioneer parents because we are in uncharted territory in the digital world." "Don't get wrapped up in the Instagram family dinner. Standing around the island chatting about yo

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Jonathan Pokluda, lead pastor of Harris Creek, former leader of the Porch, and author of Welcome to Adulting. During their conversation, they discuss Jonathan's transition from The Porch to Harris Creek and how our phones are affecting our lives. BEST QUOTES "The whole context of leading has changed for me from leading a staff of 150 to leading a staff of 15." "I think you are leading well when people are making fun of you for saying your values so much." "What do we need to keep doing? What do we need to start doing? What do we need to stop doing?" "We don't talk about people, we talk to people." "What makes you love God more?" "It was your weakness that got you in ministry, but you think your giftedness will keep you there." "The idea of deep meditation is something that's always been asked of Christians, but right now even the secular world is catching on." "We are looking at our phone thousands of times a

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: How do you know your church is growing? What's the difference between church growth and reproduction and multiplication? What are the 5 levels and what is the research about? What did you discover in the research? What did you discover about the state of the church? BEST QUOTES  “A good thing to compare is the growth rate of your church to the growth rate of your city." "If you are in a community that has 25% turnover every year, and you are holding steady, that is a huge accomplishment." "Reproduction and multiplication is an investment and activity outside of your church. You are working to open new churches outside of your church." "This was a chance to nationally register how many churches are in each of the levels." "93% of protestant churches did not help a church open their

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Santiago "Jimmy" Mellado, the CEO of Compassion International. During their conversation, they discuss what's needed for true authenticity and teams working together to hear from God. BEST QUOTES "In vulnerability, if you actually aren't risking something, it's not vulnerability." "Over the long haul your heart can either become hard like a rock or cynical or stay soft." "There are disciplines in my life that I live in so I can protect a soft, authentic heart." "The more compelling the mission of the organization the more tempting it will be for leaders to cut corners on their soul in pursuit of that mission." "What are the disciplines that the team or the board needs to engage to be able to develop the competency of actually listening to God as a group?" "Often we blame too much of the weight we carry as leaders on stress, but really it's our incompetent recovery strategies." "My rest and replenishment days g

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Bethany Lewis, vice president of forums and content at The Veritas Forum, contributor at The Gospel Coalition, and a senior fellow at The King's College. During their conversation, they discuss talking about faith in non-Christian settings and trusting God in the process of reorganizing. BEST QUOTES “We are equipping, training, and deploying 500+ student editors and writers into doing the student-led thought journals on their campuses." "We're not interested in questions Christians are asking. We're interested in questions that all people are asking and then having a Christian perspective on it." "When you are trying to move the needle on people's opinions who disagree with you, you need to get someone up there who nobody expects to say what they are saying." "What does it look like to think through how do we shepherd and care for the people we have on our team that we love but also think through what's the work

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Dhati Lewis, lead pastor of Blueprint Church in Atlanta and vice president of Send Network at the North American Mission Board. During their conversation, they discuss the importance of emotional health and having an impact in local schools. BEST QUOTES “I'm listening to the stories as a missionary." "That wall is a missiological issue that we aren't addressing." "We can't even talk about tense issues because emotions get in the way and no one listens." "If we are going to have healthy conversations we have to address our inability to even express ourselves." "You can't be spiritually healthy without being emotionally healthy." "We want to be known as a family of churches that are about planting healthy multiplying churches everywhere for everyone." "A problem is not a real problem unless it's your problem." "The way we define leadership is proactively meeting the needs of others or taking initiative for the

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im breakdown the leadership book Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal. 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 “How do you scale teamwork in an organization?" "Once you have people that are able to instinctively make the right decisions, it's all about adaptability to whatever it is their facing." "What posture did they approach the problem with?" "What would it look like for us to move from chess masters to gardeners?" "If your church listed their top 10 problems, the church down the street or across the world would list at least 7 of the same ones." "As your church grows, it becomes increasingly complex and it is very difficult to bring clarity to all the necess

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: Background of the research What is the next level insight gleaned from the research? Discuss what the research said about ethnic diversity. How is women in leadership another significant change or factor? What encouragement would you give the church leaders about something they can do next week in light of this research? BEST QUOTES  “Are we really in love with the church enough that those on the outside would say, 'I want to be a part of that.'?" "The largest group of pastors, 4 out of 10, indicated that reaching the next generation is the thing they are most concerned about as a church." "These are the difficult things that pastors are ready to address." "For a third of pastors, they have had an increase in diversity. Going forward, 62% says they expect it to increase in the next

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins is joined by Dan Reiland, executive pastor at 12Stone and author of Amplified Leadership: 5 Practices to Establish Influence, Build People, and Impact Others for a Lifetime. During their conversation, they discuss the intersection of the speed of light and the speed of love and how leadership in the home looks differently than it used to. BEST QUOTES “What are my opportunities? What are my responsibilities? What is my calling?" "You are never going to get to the deep work or the essentials if you don't know what to say no to, so you can say yes." "When you are not focused and have a lot of things that matter, you aren't going to make a dent." "Christ calls us to love everybody, but you can't develop everybody." "The speed of life says run as fast as you can, do as much as you can. The speed of love says you have to slow down to develop." "Speed and pressure let's every leader know who you are and what you have under the hood." "We are wo

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Matt Brown, evangelist, founder of Think Eternity, and author of Truth Plus Love. During their conversation, they discuss the joy found in a life of generosity and what our motivations are as leaders. BEST QUOTES “Truth minus love and we will just be like a noise to the world around us. Love minus truth and we will be walking on air, we we won't have the power of God. Truth plus love equals influence." "The fruit of the Spirit is really the filter that as believers we're called to and also what will make us influential in the world." "Wanting to be first and best at everything is a sure sign that we have an unhealthy heart." "God's called me to be grateful and satisfied with what He's blessed me with." "As a leader, sometimes you are the facilitator of relationships that need to happen, but you don't always get a pat on the back." "A life of generosity is not just our financial resources, but also the totality

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Ryan Hutchinson to breakdown the leadership book The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues 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 “It's written for the people who are putting the team together." "The most significant decision any leader is going to make is to hire someone." "Leaders who can identify, hire, and cultivate employees who are humble, hungry, and smart will have a serious advantage over those who are not." "There is so much to unpack there when it comes to your business and your church that it really is a sit-down." "If you are committed as a church to making teamwork a cultural real

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard, founder of The Unlocking Potential Foundation, and author of Find Your Way. During their conversation, they discuss leading in the midst of fear and the character that is needed to unlock your potential. BEST QUOTES “I think people are very confused these days by what leadership really is." "If you do a good job and solve problems and change the order of things for better and have an impact, opportunity will knock." "People closest to problems know best how to solve them if they are given the opportunity to do so." "One of the things that's important to maximize our impact and our potential is to really be present in what's going on right in front of you." "It's very easy to get fixated on the title and all that comes with it, and it's the wrong focus." "The higher you go in any organization the less people will tell you what you need to hear and the more they will

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Shauna Pilgreen, author of Love Where You Live. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: Why does it always seem like being sent is leaving where you are and going somewhere else? How have you and Ben helped your church learn how to live sent where they are? How do you resist the-grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side syndrome? What would you say to leaders who are trying to discern and decide whether to stay or to go? What would you tell your 20-year-old self about leadership? What does leadership look like in your home? BEST QUOTES “God began to tell us that I can bring people in to do what you are doing here, but I don't have enough people that are heading out into these strategic cities to start churches from scratch." "When I heard missionary, I heard career missionary. You were signing your life away to that." "Living sent has much to do with our daily engagement with where

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Steve Cockram, the cofounder of GiANT Worldwide and coauthor of 5 Gears and 5 Voices. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: What is your favorite personality assessment other than 5 voices? What are your thoughts on the Enneagram? And what are your thoughts on the Enneagram for church leaders? How do you go about creating a good assessment of any type? How are teams using this and what advice would you give them? BEST QUOTES “In some ways Myers-Briggs allowed me to use humor to unlock people over time." "If it connects with your experience and makes sense of it, you learn from it." "I don't mind which assessment you use, just find someone who is really competent at administering it." "Certain instruments are amazing when you have someone there to translate it for you." "A good assessment gets to nature more often than not." "My aim is that 80% of the time what comes out is t

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Bobby Gruenewald, YouVersion founder. During their conversation, they discuss how to involve kids in your ministry, especially when you travel frequently, and setting yourself up to succeed with daily habits and routines. BEST QUOTES “We didn't give the resources away as a strategy, we did it as an act of obedience." "I spent an entire day with him soaking in anything I could possibly learn about his life experience." "It's better for kids to see their parents as superheroes in their own eyes." "Integrating your family into ministry is an important thing." "I put things intentionally on my calendar that I want to do first." "Without an intentional effort to focus on agility and speed, things get slower and tougher to move." "When you start to look at the waiting time in processes it changes your mindset." "I had to tell myself, 'every time that I think I should stay in bed, I am going to always choose the oth

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Holly Brown executive pastor at Embrace Church. During their conversation, they discuss what it's like to be a virtual executive pastor and not relying on passion alone to do your job well. BEST QUOTES “When you do virtual well, you really do become ingrained in the team." "My biggest goal in leading them is helping them learn to lead in multiple lanes." "Growing ministries always have growing roles." "I function under the assumption that everyone needs to see a growth path." "These are your three focus points, scrolling is not going to help you solve these things." "Leadership in our home really is a dance." "We are passionate about creating opportunities for our kids to understand the common need and practice being entrepreneurs." "Right now leadership is a lot about transfer to our children." "God lit a fire inside of me for living a life that would see what He did in the Bible done today." "I spent a de

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Rusty George, lead pastor of Real Life Church and author of Justice. Mercy. Humility. During their conversation, they discuss shepherding the people in a large church well and leading your church through a crisis. BEST QUOTES “We assumed once our church got over a certain size, we could no longer shepherd everybody, so then we decided we would shepherd nobody." "How do we create experiences that aren't downloadable?" "Everything in you, when a crisis happens like this, says, 'tell no one.'" "I sent an email to all of the local pastors in our community and told them what was going on." "I had no idea this tragedy was coming, but some of those verses are exactly what I needed to hear." "Have a clear finish line. I go home and turn off email, have family time, and read a book that has nothing to do with my job." "When you have a clear deadline there is automatic pressure to get stuff done if you can't work on it

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Daniel Im are joined by Scott Sauls, senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church and author of Irresistible Faith. During their conversation, they discuss how work and faith go together and marriage-centered parenting. BEST QUOTES “We are only going to be good for the world to the degree that we have allowed Christ to infuse His goodness into us." "There is a shelf life on our influence." "I'm convinced that only a vital relationship with Jesus Christ can give you a non-defensive posture where you can be not only a life-giving friend, but a life-giving enemy." "What are we supposed to do with our work when it comes to faith?" "I'm learning extraordinary things from people who are dying well." "We want our public ministry to be matched by our private reality of pursuing Christ personally." "A love for Christ between people is often more caught than it is taught." "We want the last thing they hear every night to be, 'We love you, God