In this episode of the Iowa Church Leaders Podcast, Tom Steele sits down with Jerry Harris, Publisher of The Christian Standard and former Lead Pastor of The Crossing Church in Quincy, Illinois. With decades of ministry experience and a deep love for the Restoration Movement, Jerry offers thoughtful insight into the changing landscape of the church, reflects on the movement's rich heritage, and shares his hope for its future. Whether you're a pastor, elder, ministry leader, or simply passionate about the Church, this conversation will encourage you to lead with faithfulness, wisdom, and a renewed vision for making disciples of King Jesus. https://www.cemchurches.org/events

On this episode of the Iowa Church Leaders Podcast, Tom sits down with Chaz Robbins from Spire to talk about the vision behind the transition from the North American Christian Convention to Spire—and why this gathering still matters for Restoration Movement church leaders today.

In this conversation, Chaz shares the heart behind the rebrand, the mission of Spire, and how the conference is designed to encourage, equip, and resource church leaders from every ministry context. Whether you're a pastor, elder, ministry leader, church planter, or volunteer leader, Spire exists to help strengthen you for the Kingdom work God has called you to in your region and community.

Tom and Chaz also discuss the importance of networking, spiritual encouragement, practical ministry tools, and why gatherings like Spire continue to play a valuable role in uniting and strengthening leaders across the Restoration Movement.

To learn more or register for the conference, visit Spire Conference Registration

Interested in the preconference opportunities? Check them out here: Spire Preconference Registration

Use promo code CEM75 for registration savings.

Episode Summary

In this episode, Tom sits down with longtime preacher and ministry leader Rowlie Hutton. Rowlie has spent more than 35 years serving churches across the Dakotas, Montana, and Nebraska, and brings a seasoned, pastoral perspective to the conversation. A graduate of Dakota Bible College and Montana State University–Northern, Rowlie has also served a term in the Montana State Senate, where he focused on Sanctity of Life legislation.

Rowlie shares stories from his life and ministry, what he's learning in this season, and how he continues investing in younger leaders—usually with a strong cup of coffee and plenty of laughter. He also talks about his current work as Chief Development Officer for Renew University, and why he believes Renew is uniquely positioned to strengthen and support Restoration Movement churches in Iowa.

If you're a church leader looking for encouragement, wisdom, and a hopeful vision for the future of ministry in our region, this conversation will be a gift.

To learn more, make sure and check out RenewUniversity.org

In this episode of the Iowa Church Leaders Podcast, Tom chats with one of the CEM Board Members and Pastor of Central Church of Christ in Griswold, Iowa. Together, they reflect on his years of ministry in Iowa and talk about the exciting direction CEM is heading—developing a more clearly defined Iowa Restoration Movement Church Network. You'll hear how this renewed vision is striving to help churches across our state connect, raise up new leaders, encourage current pastors, and care well for ministry families serving in Iowa.

Clayton Hentzel is the Lead Pastor at The Crossing. The Crossing is an independent, non-denominational church headquartered in Quincy, Illinois, associated with the Christian Churches in the Restoration Movement.[1] The church oversees locations in Hannibal, Missouri, Jacksonville, Illinois, Keokuk, Iowa, Kirksville, Missouri, Lima, Illinois, Macomb, Illinois, Monmouth, Illinois, Mount Sterling, Illinois, Pike County, Illinois, and two locations in Quincy, Illinois and maintains an online presence.

Greg Baker is the Executive Vice President of the Church Ambassador Network. In this discussion, we discuss various topics related to the role church leaders can play in representing the Kingdom of God in government. Greg provides a better way of viewing the impact we can have as church leaders: it's less about politics and more about building bridges with our state leaders and representatives. If you want a fresh approach to how Christians can influence government, listen to this very insightful conversation.

In high school, Matt was a National Merit finalist who enrolled at the University of Iowa as a journalism major. But after hearing God's call, he transferred to Ozark Christian College in Joplin, Missouri. Now instead of broadcasting the bad news, he's proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. Matt has served as a youth minister, preaching minister, Bible college professor and is now president of Ozark Christian College. He was the president of the 2013 North American Christian Convention and he serves as a contributing editor for Christian Standard magazine. His writing includes two books, Finish-Line Faith and Victorious. He enjoys reading, cheering for the St. Louis Cardinals, and traveling widely to preach about Jesus. Matt is especially grateful to God for his wife Katie and their six children—Luke, Lydia, Clara, Carl, Conrad and Caroline.

In this episode we have an in depth conversation with David Fincher about Central Christian College of the Bible. We talk about how CCCB is serving the needs of churches in training men and women for ministry. We cover the changes taking place in ministry as well as the growing demand to fill the ministry needs of churchs, as well as some very practical solutions. We hope you find the converstaion to be helpful!

Travis Roehm is one of the pastors at Adventure Christian Community in Davenport. I got him to hangout and talk about ministry. We are really not experts in anything, just two guys serving Jesus in the local church. We took some time to review what we learned from ministry this last year as well as project where things are headed for leading churches in 2024. We hope you find it helpful!

Dan is the Lead Pastor at Pathway Church in Johnston, Iowa. In this episode we talk about his connection with Hippo Valley Christian Mission in Zimbabwe, Africa. We cover the Kingdom work that is taking place in this spiriually hungry country and how the mission there has impacted Dan and the church. If you are interested in learning more about the work taking place in Zimbabwe feel free to contact Dan ([email protected])

We also talk about the upcoming, Real Men Iowa event coming up: