5 Leadership Questions Podcast on Church Leadership with Todd Adkins and Dan Iten

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Dan Iten are joined by Tyler Reagin who is the founder and CEO of The Life Giving Company and the author of The Life-Giving Leader and Leading Things You Didn’t Start.

BEST QUOTES 

“Leaders are learners. If there is not a system for learning, you are not going to think about it.” “Leaders, if you are not a learner, you have a short shelf life.” “Maintenance creates momentum.” “A good product with a bad process is a counterfeit win.” 

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

10 Ten Project

Life Giving Leader

Leading Things You Didn't Start

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins, Chandler Vannoy, and Dan Iten discuss 5 Leadership Questions on the topic of effectively recruiting volunteers.

BEST QUOTES 

“Our job of course is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.” “We aren’t just looking for a warm body who can fill a seat. We want to get the right volunteers in the right seat.” “Desperation for volunteers is not a good look, so you are going to get a poor result when you approach it with that posture.” “Many times, we actually say no for a person when we are asking them to serve.” “If you are recruiting me, you need to do so with great clarity including a job description and expectations.” “There is a high cost to a cheap ask.” “What you celebrate is what you cultivate in the culture.” 

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Creating a Recruiting Culture eBook

Sample Job Descriptions on Ministry Grid

6 Essentials to Onboarding and Training Volunteers eBook

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Dan Iten are joined by Katie Allred to discuss 5 Leadership Questions on the topic of church communications. Katie founded ChurchCommunications.com and manages the Church Communications Facebook Group that serves as a resource on marketing and communication strategies for over 30,000 church leaders.

BEST QUOTES 

“You can challenge your church to be salt and light on the internet.” “You can’t be on every channel, everywhere. You don’t need to be on every platform.” “If you are on every platform, you aren’t doing any of them well.” “Social media is moving from corporate to personal.” “Remember when on Youtube to name them as if someone is searching for what you are giving them.” “Intentionality trumps excellence.” 

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Church Communications Facebook Group 

The Church Communications Conference 

Church Communications - Methods and Marketing Book  

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins, Daniel Im, and Dan Iten discuss 5 Leadership Questions on the topic of discipleship.

BEST QUOTES

“We have made discipleship unnecessarily complex.” “We teach the way we have been taught. We lead the way that we have been led. Unless we consciously do so otherwise.” “We can sometimes set the bar way too high for what it means to be discipled or disciple other people.” “A question we should ask ourselves is, When’s the last time I have made a disciple who is making other disciples?” “Culture is created by what you celebrate, measure, and control.” “Discipleship should be rooted in everything we do in the church.” “The people of your church are stickier than any program or preaching that you’ve got.” “Discipleship is very simple. It is follow me as I follow Christ.” 

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

No Silver Bullets by Daniel Im

The Gospel Project

Bible Studies for Life

Explore the Bible

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Chandler Vannoy and Todd Adkins are joined by Scott McConnell. McConnell is the executive director of LifeWay Research. They complete a discussion on research all about pastors and the greatest needs of pastors, including the following questions:

* What is the pastors survey?* What are the top concerns from this research when it comes to the personal life of the pastor?* What does it mean when a pastor says disciple-making is a big concern?* Are these results just a reflection of what everyone in society is experiencing or are these unique to pastors?* Are there any significant statistical differences that you might point out?* What is one encouragement that you can pull from the research for pastors?

BEST QUOTES

"Several things that land at the top of the list for a pastor's needs are stress, their own disciple-making, consistently exercising, avoiding over-commitment and overwork, and time management.""Seven out of ten pastors need to invest time in their consistency when it comes to personal prayer.""Almost seven out of ten pastors say they need to be more consistent in their Bible reading that is not related to sermon prep.""The relationship with God is so vital for leaders and pastors. You have to be living it out yourself to ask people to do the same.""It can be so easy as a pastor with all the demands on you to take the personal things and say, 'I'll get to that later.' But really you have to be intentional and proactive when it comes to self-care and boundaries.""The best way to slowly build yourself back up is to have someone walking along with you.""Younger pastors are more likely to indicate that they need to work on building relationships with other pastors.""Fifty-one percent of older pastors say the consistency of taking a sabbath is something they need to work on."

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

The Greatest Needs of Pastors Research Study

5LQ Episode 483: Pastoral Research #1 with Scott McConnell

5LQ Episode 484: Pastoral Research #2 with Scott McConnell

Lifeway Research

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Chandler Vannoy and Todd Adkins are joined by Scott McConnell. McConnell is the executive director of LifeWay Research. They continue a discussion on research all about pastors and the greatest needs of pastors, including the following questions:

* What is the pastors survey?* What are the top concerns from this research when it comes to the job of the pastor? * What does it mean to force rank these areas?* Do you have any idea what lies beneath some of these larger concerns?* What tools are there for pastors to gauge the health of their congregations?* What encouragement does a pastor need to hear based on the research?

BEST QUOTES

"Some of the top needs for the pastor are the ministry side. When they are thinking about what they need to give attention to, they are often thinking about the church.""Within ministry difficulties, a quarter of pastors indicated fostering connections with unchurched people as their number one ministry difficulty. Another quarter said developing leaders and volunteers, and right behind that is training current leaders and volunteers.""One of the things that churches have gotten out of the habit of doing is talking about evangelism.""Half of Americans are curious as to why some people are so devoted to their faith."

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

The Greatest Needs of Pastors Research Study

5LQ Episode 483: Pastoral Research #1 with Scott McConnell

Evangelism Explosion Study of American Christians’ Openness to Talking about Faith

Discipleship Pathway Assessment

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Chandler Vannoy and Todd Adkins are joined by Scott McConnell. McConnell is the Executive Director of LifeWay Research. They discuss a new set of research all about pastors and the greatest needs of pastors, including the following questions:

* How was this research conducted?* What are the biggest concerns that pastors have today?* Have you seen needs change from pre-Covid to post-Covid?* What surprised you about the research?* Was their one area you wish you could have gone deeper in the study?

BEST QUOTES

"More than three-fourths of pastors indicated that developing leaders and volunteers, peoples apathy and lack of commitment, and fostering connections with unchurched people are things they are trying to address right now."

"Worship attendance is still running, on average. about 75% of what it was pre-Covid."

"We've got to move in our thinking from looking at the numbers, to making sure you are looking at the names. Who exactly is not back? We need to connect with them personally."

"Those who study jobs will talk about the fact that the pastor role has not only a large number of things that you need to be skilled at, but you need to be able to switch between them very quickly."

"There's not one silver bullet we can do to suddenly meet the needs of pastors this year, because when it comes to 'What's your one biggest need?' they are really spread out."

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

The Greatest Needs of Pastors Research Study

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Chandler Vannoy and Todd Adkins are joined by Jen Wilkin. Wilkin is the Executive Director of Family and Next Gen Ministries at The Village Church. She is also an author, speaker, and Bible teacher. They discuss how to cultivate female leaders in the church and why anonymous feedback loops are important.

BEST QUOTES

"All of us are called to teach and to train, so let's be well equipped to do it.""A good leader is always looking for how to give people real buy-in to what is happening in ministry.""If you pay attention to what your volunteers are giving big chunks of their time to it is actually not things that ask little of them, it is things that ask a great deal of them.""A woman who is going to risk exhibiting a leadership gift in a local church will probably first do so in an all female space.""Often in churches there are tribal cultures where the depth of relationship is what determines who received the most budget dollars. As a female in leadership spaces, that is something I am sensitive to because I am not going to have the depth of relationship with my male counterparts.""We should compel people, not just with beautiful words about the sea but with our evident commitment to take them there.""People are compelled by beautiful vision. That is the gospel."

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Lifeway Women Academy

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Kevin Peck. Peck is the lead pastor of The Austin Stone Church. He is the co-author of Designed to Lead. They discuss the following questions:

* What is the biblical reason that churches should serve the city they are in?* How have the churches in Austin come together to serve their city well?* How did serving become part of the DNA at Austin Stone?* How does this become practice?

BEST QUOTES

"God is calling all of His people to love their neighbor and their neighbor is someone that you see that is in need, you are supposed to go help. It is really that simple.""Why should we help our city? A city is nothing if it is not just your neighbors.""When you see someone hurting you meet the need because Jesus Christ has saved your life and given you the capacity to love in ways that are alien to everyone else.""Some of the sweetest things for me as a pastor is to see one church be able to provide funds for another, not because they were doing it out of sentimentality, but because that was how the Kingdom needed to work in that moment.""During 2020 and 2021, the church was either going to become something in the city that ultimately was unnecessary or completely critical.""At the end of the day, the gospel changes you in such a radical way that we should start caring about the things that God cares about.""He gives special attention to people who are marginalized or vulnerable or hurting, and the reason He does that is because that is how fathers act.""We are trying to all the time teach them and give them tools to see opportunities around them and to meet those needs.""I don't think we can be a blessing to our city if we don't love our city."

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network

Designed to Lead by Eric Geiger and Kevin Peck

Strategic Leadership Community

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins and Chandler Vannoy are joined by Derwin Gray. Gray is the founding and lead pastor of Transformation Church. He is the author of several books including his newest, God, Do You Hear Me?. They discuss wisdom in hiring friends on your staff and closing the gap between what we know and what we live.

BEST QUOTES

"Leadership is about embodying what you want other people to become.""Trying to be good without God makes us bad, and people get hurt.""Make sure that Jesus comes before friendships.""The longer you keep someone in a role they are not competent for, it is actually hurting them.""Jesus is paramount and everything else is secondary.""A leader can be a leader without being a disciple, but every disciple should be a leader.""My life impacts too many other lives for me to not ask the Holy Spirit to grow me in every facet of life.""Leadership competence can be learned but discipleship flows out of obedience.""I don't think America or their church lacks leaders. I think it lacks gospel character."

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network

God, Do You Hear Me? by Derwin Gray

The Good Life by Derwin Gray

Conformed to His Image by Kenneth Boa