Influence Podcast

“Sometimes to follow in the footsteps of Jesus is to walk away from others or to let them walk away from us.” That’s what Gary Thomas writes in his new, When to Walk Away, published this past Tuesday by Zondervan. I’ll be talking with him about how to walk away from toxic people in this episode of the Influence Podcast.

I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. Gary Thomas is writer-in-residence at Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, and adjunct faculty teaching spiritual formation at Western Seminary in Denver, Colorado, as well as Houston Theological Seminary. He’s the author of numerous books, including Sacred Marriage, Sacred Parenting, and Authentic Faith.

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This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of Say HELLO Forever Friends: Sharing Jesus is easy when you “Say Hello!” Help kids build intentional friendships with Muslim friends and others who need to know Jesus with the Say HELLO Forever Friends curriculum kit. Start kids on a path to lifelong evangelism while showing them how important it is to connect to others with compassion and care.    For more information visit MyHealthyChurch.com/SayHello.

This past August, the Assemblies of God Executive Presbytery appointed Wilfredo De Jesús as general treasurer of the denomination. Best known as “Pastor Choco,” De Jesús succeeds Rick DuBose in that office, which is charged with oversight of the Division of Treasury.

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I talk to to Pastor Choco about his life, ministry, and new responsibilities.

Until his appointment as general treasurer, Pastor Choco was senior pastor of New Life Covenant Church, a multisite congregation in Chicago, Illinois, and one of the city’s fastest growing churches. He is author of Amazing Faith, In the Gap, and Move into More, among other titles. You can watch him on TBN’s miniseries, In the Gap.

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This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of Balanced Budget, Balanced Life: People don't plan on having money troubles, which is exactly the problem: they don’t plan! In Balanced Budget, Balanced Life, Rollie Dimos shows you how to make a Biblically sound financial plan and stick to it. Get back the time and resources you need to stop stressing out about money, and start enjoying the balance of a truly abundant life. For more information visit BalancedBudgetBalancedLife.com.

“Millennials, and now Gen Z, aren’t going to ruin the world or the church,” write David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock in their new book, Faith for Exiles. “We, the Christian community, would do well to put our confidence in them.”

I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I’m talking to David Kinnaman about how to make disciples of young adults in our current culture. Kinnaman is president of Barna Group and the author or coauthor of numerous books, most recently Faith for Exiles: 5 Ways for a New Genration to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon, published by Baker Books.

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This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of Tru Fire curriculum:

From Preschool to Middle School, Tru Fire digital curriculum equips teachers with engaging lessons that help students connect with the Holy Spirit and respond to Him. Tru Fire is the Pentecostal curriculum your church is looking for.

To download free sample lessons, visit TruFireCurriculum.com.

In a recent articlefor InfluenceMagazine.com, Mark Entzminger wrote: “[A] poorly designed or implemented safety plan can not only damage the church’s reputation in the community but, more importantly, it can also damage the heart and spirit of a child for a lifetime.”

I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I’m talking to Mark Entzminger about why churches must put child safety first and how they can do so. Entzminger is national director of Children’s Ministriesfor the Assemblies of God (USA).

Richard Hammar’s checklist to prevent child molestation can be accessed here.

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This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of Balanced Budget, Balanced Life: People don’t plan on having money troubles, which is exactly the problem: they don’t plan! In Balanced Budget, Balanced Life, Rollie Dimos shows you how to make a Biblically sound financial plan and stick to it. Get back the time and resources you need to stop stressing out about money, and start enjoying the balance of a truly abundant life. For more information visit BalancedBudgetBalancedLife.com. 

Many Assemblies of God ministers are doing fine financially, but a significant group is experiencing considerable financial difficulty.” That’s the first sentence of the Ministers and Finances Study published by the AG’s Center for Leadership and Stewardship Excellence.

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, George P. Wood talks to Rollie Dimos about the concerning results of that study, as well as what to do about them. Wood is executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Rollie Dimos is director of Internal Audit for The General Council of the Assemblies of God as well as director of its Center for Leadership and Stewardship Excellence. He is author of Balanced Budget, Balanced Life: 10 Steps to Transforming Your Finances (Salubris Resources), which is also available in Spanish as Presupuesto Equilibrado, Vida Equilibrada.

“Americans today are less involved in spiritual conversations than we were twenty-five years ago,” writes Don Everts in his new book, The Reluctant Witness. In this episode of the Influence Podcast, George P. Wood, Influencemagazine’s executive editor, talks to Everts about why this is the case and what we need to do to have better spiritual conversations.

Don Everts is a writer for Lutheran Hour Ministries and associate pastor at Bonhomme Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri. He is also author of several books about evangelism, most recently, The Reluctant Witness: Discovering the Delight of Spiritual Conversations, published by IVP Books.

For free online resources about how to engage in better spiritual conversations, go here.

“Many churches in America are stalled in their conversion growth, but it doesn’t have to be that way,” writes Rick Richardson in his new book, You Found Me. In this episode of the Influence Podcast, George P. Wood, executive editor of Influencemagazine, talks to Richardson about the best practices of congregations that are “effectively reaching people and having an impact in their communities.”

Rick Richardson is director of the Billy Graham Center Institute and its Church Evangelism Initiative. The institute is the research arm of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, where Richardson also serves in the graduate school as professor of evangelism and leadership. He is author of You Found Me: New Research on How Unchurched Nones, Millennials, and Irreligious Are Surprisingly Open to Christian Faith, published by IVP Books.

This week, Influence magazine's very own George Paul Wood talks to Lee Strobel, NY Times bestselling author of 'The Case for Christ'.

Learn more about Influence and subscribe to our magazine: InfluenceMagazine.com.

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Stories about the rise of the “Nones,” that share of the American populace which identifies with no religion, give the impression that religion in America is in steep decline. “What they fail to report,” writes David Zahl, “is that the marketplace in replacement religion is booming.”

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, George P. Wood talks to David Zahl about the contours of this new secular religiosity. George P. Wood is executive editor of Influencemagazine, and your host.

David Zahl is the founder and director of Mockingbird Ministries, whose mission is “to connect the Christian faith with the realities of everyday life in fresh and down-to-earth ways.” He’s also editor-in-chief of the popular Mockingbird website and cohost of the Mockingcast. Most recently, he’s author of Seculosity: How Career, Parenting, Technology, Food, Politics, and Romance Became Our New Religion and What to Do About It, published by Fortress Press.

Read the headlines, and you just might come to the conclusion that Christianity in America is dying. “Christianity Faces Sharp Decline as Americans Are Becoming Even Less Affiliated with Religion,” according to a Washington Postheadline. A BeliefNet story was titled, “Declining Christianity: The Exodus of the Young and the Rise of Atheists.” According to National Public Radio, “Christians in the U.S. on Decline as Number of ‘Nones’ Grows, Survey Finds.”

So is American Christianity really declining? That’s the question George P. Wood asks Glenn Stanton in this episode of the Influence Podcast. George P. Wood is executive editor of Influencemagazine and your host. Glenn Stanton is the director of Global Family Formation Studies at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and author of The Myth of the Dying Church, just out from Worthy Publishing.