How do you know if your church is actually making disciples? Lifeway Research writer Aaron Earls joins Mike Glenn to unpack what the data reveals about discipleship, church health, and Gen Z, and how pastors can use research to better understand the people they're called to reach.

What’s the difference between being welcomed at church and actually belonging? Stephanie Prince, Connections Minister at The Church at Station Hill, joins Mike Glenn to talk about helping people move from guests to active members of the church family. Drawing from her own unexpected call to ministry and her research on belonging, Stephanie shares why people need to be known, missed, and needed, and how churches can identify gifts, develop leaders, and give ministry back to the people.

Clay Stauffer, Senior Minister of Woodmont Christian Church, joins Mike Glenn to talk about leading through political polarization, disagreement, and cultural division. They discuss what it means to pastor a “purple church,” why humility and emotional intelligence matter, and how Christians can model a better way of living together in a divided world.

What could happen if churches stopped working in isolation and started seeing themselves as one body?
Melanie Wise, Executive Director of Together Nashville, joins Mike Glenn to talk about church unity, pastoral loneliness, collaboration, and what God is doing across Nashville to bring churches and leaders together.

Will Acuff, co-founder of Corner to Corner and Kingdom Founders, joins Mike Glenn to talk about the untapped gifts sitting in our churches. They explore what happens when believers connect their faith with the skills they use every day, why relief is only the beginning, and how churches can equip people to create real transformation in their communities.

Plus, Will shares the personal story behind his book No Elevator to Everest and what his family's journey taught him about faith, suffering, and experiencing God's love in the middle of difficult circumstances.

In this episode, Mike Glenn sits down with church planting specialist Lewis McMullen to discuss why understanding your neighborhood is essential for effective ministry. Together, they explore how demographics, community engagement, and a missionary mindset can help pastors stop guessing what people need and start reaching the people God has placed around them.

In this edition of Pastor’s Notes, Matt Pearson, pastor of Clearview Baptist Church in Franklin, Tennessee, breaks down these two approaches to interpreting Scripture and offers a simple way to remember the difference. He also explains how exegesis relates to expository preaching, the role of topical preaching, and the danger of making a passage say something it was never intended to say.

For generations, pastors preached to people who already knew the Bible. Today, many people walk into church with little or no biblical foundation.

In this episode, Mike Glenn sits down with New Testament scholar, former pastor, and former Belmont University dean Darrell Gwaltney to discuss what it means to faithfully communicate an unchanging gospel in a rapidly changing culture. Together, they explore why pastors must understand the questions people are asking, how ministry has changed, and why there has never been a better time to share the gospel.

Most churches ask people to join the church. What if we've been asking the wrong question?
In this episode, Mike Glenn sits down with Conduit Church pastor Darren Tyler to discuss why the church was never meant to be the mission, but the vehicle for God's mission. Together, they explore how churches can move beyond attendance and programs to equip everyday believers to live on mission.

Many believers assume God's calling begins when they leave their career behind. Gerald Cook's story suggests the opposite. Mike Glenn sits down with Gerald, a bi-vocational pastor, global sales training manager, and nationally recognized dog trainer, to explore how God used decades in business, discipleship, and everyday life to prepare him for pastoral ministry. Together they discuss why calling is often discovered through ordinary faithfulness, how the workplace can become a training ground for ministry, and why the future of the church depends on ordinary believers recognizing that God has already been preparing them for His purposes.