In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast Todd Adkins and Barnabas Piper speak with Eric Mason, pastor of Epiphany Fellowship in Philadelphia, author of several books, and founder of Thriving. Their conversation covers the usual five questions but ranges from urban missiology, urban ministry, leadership development in the church, volunteer training, and is generally a masters class in development structure for churches. Mason is both a scholar and a practitioner, a deep thinker and an implementer. You will enjoy this wide-ranging and thoughtful conversation.

BEST QUOTES

“Planting a church out of your church is more like having a baby than being a god parent.”

“In an urban context there is a different evangelism narrative that needs to be engaged.”

“Cities are living systems already and third places are in abundance.”

“I’ve always seen friendship evangelism on the neighborhood. I’ve always seen proclamational evangelism in the neighborhood.”

“System thinking is a way in which a person begins to view and exegete their city by knowing the visible and invisible systems of their city in order that they may engage it with the gospel.”

“If you’ve grown up in a system there’s a natural common ground that you don’t have to bridge since you already have relationships.”

“We need to see how things work here before we begin doing work.”

“If momma (the church) isn’t healthy other things won’t be healthy.”

“We want to have an infrastructure in place administratively to help make sure that the focus of gospel ministry and discipleship happens.”

“We want to help young men in our neighborhood aspire to be more than ball players and rappers.”

“We want to show that the gospel has comprehensive affect on our life in every single area.”

“People talk about a carbon footprint – we want to have a gospel footprint on our neighborhood.”

“We want you to be fruitful as a single, but we want you to be living – we don’t want the entirety of your life to be built around ministry.”

“All of our leaders have to have apprentices.”

“Smart goals are specific, measurable, relevant, achievable, and time-bound.”

“Every January we set a family vision.”

“As a pastor it’s easier to have a better vision and leadership in the church than in your home.”

“The Christian life and leadership is a marathon, not a sprint.”

“Being patient with people is one of the best lessons to learn in leadership.”

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Manhood Restored

Urban Apologetics by Christopher Brooks

Doctrine that Dances by Robert Smith Jr.

The Present Future by Reggie McNeal

The Shaping of Things to Come by Alan Hirsch & Michael Frost

Transforming Mission by David Bosch

Urban Ministry by Manual Ortiz & Harvie Conn

Thriving

Pipeline Conference