Influence Podcast

To be a Christian is to bear witness to Jesus Christ in the place and time in which you live. Every age presents unique challenges to, as well as unique opportunities for, Christian witness. In this episode, Influence magazine executive editor George P. Wood talks to Prof. Alan Noble about how Christians can bear witness to Christ in the midst of a distracted, secular culture.

Alan Noble is assistant professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University, cofounder and editor-in-chief of Christ and Pop Culture, and author of Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age, published by IVP Books and hitting bookstores on Tuesday, July 17.

Spiritual warfare is a component of every Christian’s life and ministry (Ephesians 6:10–20). Pastors are often on its frontlines, however. In this episode of the Influence Podcast, Wayne and Kristi Northup share what they have learned about this often overlooked aspect of the Christian life.

The Northups are co-lead pastors of Saints Community Churchin New Orleans, Louisiana. They planted the church in 2011 with a vision to win a city, starting congregations throughout the greater New Orleans area. They have three children.

Jeffrey and Joanne Portmann planted Newhope Church in Puyallup, Washington, on Easter Sunday in 2014. From the outset, their vision was to have five locations within five years. Today, Newhope has five campuses throughout South Puget Sound.

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, Influence senior editor John Davidson talks to Jeffrey Portmann about how pastors and churches can implement a multiplication philosophy whatever their current size or location.

Over the past eight years, LifePoint Church in Clarksville, Tennessee, experienced explosive growth. That was good news, of course, but it created stresses throughout the organization, in terms of both personnel and finances. Indeed, the stresses almost caused Pastor Mike Burnette to leave the ministry entirely.

Few pastors lead churches that experience explosive growth, which is always a sovereign move of God. But all pastors experience heightened levels of stress. In this episode of the Influence Podcast, Burnette shares his experience of burnout and identifies practices that will replenish a leader's soul.

Husbands and wives ministering alongside one another in the church is common. Indeed, it has biblical precedents in ministry couples like Priscilla and Aquila and Andronicus and Junia (Romans 16:3, 7). But working together, even in ministry, presents unique challenges to healthy marriages.

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, Influence magazine senior editor John Davidson talks to Geoff and Sherry Surratt about how ministry couples can have thriving marriages.

The Surratts are founders of Ministry Together, and coauthors of Together: A Guide for Doing Ministry Together. Geoff wrote a feature story on multisite churches for the March/April 2018 issue of Influence magazine.

May is Mental Health Month. In today’s episode, Influence magazine executive editor George P. Wood talks to Dr. Stephen Grcevich about a mental health inclusion strategy for the local church.

Dr. Grcevich is founder and president of Key Ministry. He is a child and adolescent psychiatrist with over thirty years of clinical experience and extensive research experience evaluating medication prescribed to children and teens for mental health disorders. A past recipient of the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness, he is the author of Mental Health and the Church, published this year by Zondervan.

Yesterday—May 20, 2018—was Pentecost Sunday. Many churches marked the occasion with a special emphasis on the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

In today’s podcast, Influence magazine executive editor George P. Wood talks to Dr. Jim Bradford about how pastors can create environments for people to be filled — and refilled — with the Holy Spirit on a regular basis.

Dr. Bradford is the outgoing general secretary of the Assemblies of God. After nine years in that position, he is returning to ministry in the local church as senior pastor of Central Assembly of God in Springfield, Missouri.

May is National Foster Care Month.

In today’s episode, Influence magazine executive editor George P. Wood talks with Jay Mooney and Johan Mostert about how churches can support foster care parents and thus solve the twin problems of America’s foster care system: capacity and stability.

Jay Mooney is executive director of COMPACT Family Services, formerly Assemblies of God Family Services Agency. Johan Mostert is director of COMPACARE, one of COMPACT’S initiatives.

To learn more about COMPACT Family Services, go to CompassionateAction.com, or follow it on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Episode 139 Notes

• 00:00 Introduction to podcast
• 00:05 TruFire Curriculum sponsor ad
• 01:17 Introduction of Jay Mooney and Johan Mostert
• 01:39 The size and nature of America’s foster care problem
• 05:19 What happens when kids enter foster care
• 08:36 The twin problems of capacity and stability
• 13:35 How can churches can help solve the foster care problem
• 17:15 What church members can do to come alongside foster parents
• 19:29 How to access the COMPACARE systems manual for your church
• 22:55 The COMPACARE strategy is low-cost and scalable
• 28:12 More information about COMPACT Family Services
• 31:01 Conclusion

People--including practicing Christians--are neither as morally good as they should be nor as morally bad as they could be. This is the sanctification gap, the distance between who we are and who we should be.

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, executive editor George P. Wood talks to Christian Miller about how to close that gap. Miller is A. C. Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University and director of the Character Projected, funded by the John Templeton Foundation and Templeton World Charity. He is also author of The Character Gap: How Good Are We? (Oxford University Press).

Episode 137 Notes

• 00:00 Introduction of podcast topic
• 00:52 Senior Adult Ministries Conference sponsor ad
• 01:32 Introduction to Christian Miller
• 02:07 What is character? Why is it so important for sanctification?
• 05:45 Three ways of doing ethics, and why character is essential
• 11:31 Humanity as a moral middle: neither as good as we should be nor as bad as we could be
• 16:05 How biblical teaching and psychological studies align
• 19:24 Psychological insights into why we do (or don’t do) what we should do
• 25:15 Psychologically based, or common-sense strategies for improving character
• 30:26 Specifically Christian strategies for improving character
• 37:55 How as a Christian philosopher at a secular university, how do you stay faithful to Jesus but open to new academic insights?
• 43:37 Conclusion

On Monday, April 23, 2018, the Assemblies of God announced that Rev. Donna Barrett would succeed Dr. Jim Bradford in the office of general secretary. Her term beings June 1, 2018. This was an historic announcement, given that Barrett is the first woman in the denomination’s history to serve on the Executive Leadership Team. In today’s podcast, Influence magazine executive editor George P. Wood talks to Barrett about her life and ministry and how God has led her to this point in time.

• 00:00 Introduction of podcast topic
• 00:47 Trending Up sponsor ad
• 01:24 Introduction of Donna Barrett
• 01:53 Life, conversion and call to ministry
• 03:01 Why we need to create environments where youth can sense God’s calling
• 06:01 History of ministry and leadership positions
• 08:28 What the general secretary does, and what Barrett brings to the office
• 11:54 Experiences as a woman church planter
• 16:06 Why it’s important for Pentecostals to make a biblical case for women in leadership, as well as for women to be “at the table” of leadership
• 20:16 Shifts in thinking from local church to national office, and advice for pastors going through transitions
• 24:36 Conclusion