Church leaders often approach Lent with a familiar script: add a devotional practice, give something up, host a midweek service. But what if this season called us to something deeper? In this special Pivot Podcast Lenten reflection, the Rev. Dr. F. Willis Johnson invites us into four transformative Lenten practices for church leaders that meet our exhaustion head-on. He offers: 1. sacred honesty about what hurts; 2. holy slowness as resistance to constant rushing; 3. embodied compassion in places where people are hurting; and 4. courageous imagining that refuses to let harshness shape our vision. Willis doesn't turn away from the brokenness around us—he teaches us to stick with it instead.

From ashes to service, from truth to tenderness, from fear to faithful love—this is the Lenten trajectory Willis traces through the season. He reminds us that Ash Wednesday is not an ending but a true beginning, that the ashes on our skin clarify rather than humiliate, and that we don't walk this journey alone. Whether you're navigating congregational exhaustion, naming systemic injustice, or reclaiming power that looks like service rather than control, these Lenten practices for church leaders offer both challenge and hope for the season ahead.

Many church leaders feel crushing church growth pressure—the constant anxiety that if you don't reverse decline or manage outcomes perfectly, you've failed. But what if that pressure is actually destroying the very connections you're trying to create? Dr. Andy Root and Rev. Kara Root discovered this truth on a 63-mile pilgrimage through Scotland with their teenagers. As they learned to let go of control in parenting, they began to see how the same dynamic plays out in pastoral leadership. When consultants use decline statistics to scare congregations into action, when the main issue becomes lack of growth instead of the Word of God, something shifts: pastors become managers and God becomes subtle.

In this episode, Andy (Luther Seminary professor) and Kara (pastor at Lake Nokomis Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis) talk about what it means to create space for God without trying to manufacture the moment. They discuss "semi-controlled experiences" in worship and prayer, where you can create conditions but can't guarantee the encounter. They share what it means to be dialogue partners instead of managers with your congregation. And they reflect on what a 300-year gap in church leadership at the ancient monastery of Lindisfarne taught them about who really holds the story. If you're exhausted from church growth pressure and the weight of trying to control everything, this conversation offers a different way forward.

Many church leaders love the idea of lay ministry in theory, but struggle to understand what it actually looks like in practice. In this special Q&A episode, Dwight Zscheile and Alicia Granholm answer your questions about the shift from clergy-led to lay-led ministry, sharing concrete examples from small congregations to megachurches that are making this work.

You'll hear concrete examples from small congregations to megachurches that are making this work, learn how to renegotiate expectations with your congregation, discover what clergy are actually called to do when they stop doing everything themselves, and understand why this shift isn't about working yourself out of a job—it's about recovering the biblical pattern of the whole body of Christ engaged in ministry together.

What if the church planters God is calling are already in your congregation? John McGinley, executive director of Myriad in the UK, shares how they're equipping everyday disciples to start new worshiping communities in gyms, schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces. Since 2022, over 100 teams and 400+ people have launched contextual churches led by non-ordained believers. John explains how to recognize potential church planters, why a two-and-a-half-year community journey sustains these fragile new communities, and how ordained leaders can shift from delivering ministry to equipping it.

In this conversation, you'll hear stories of a former bodybuilder who turned his gym into a church where over 20 people have come to faith, and a mom who created worship for families with special needs children. John shares practical wisdom on validating callings you might be missing, building small communities around meals and relationships rather than programs, and contextualizing the gospel for the people already in your networks. Discover how the role of ordained leadership is shifting from professional ministry delivery to equipping and overseeing grassroots church planters who are reaching people traditional models can't.

What does Protestant identity in Christ mean for today's church leaders? In this conversation, theologian Beth Felker Jones explores why Protestant faith still matters in a moment when many are converting to Catholicism, embracing Orthodoxy, or deconstructing entirely. Beth unpacks the unique gifts of Protestant tradition: scripture as our primary authority, communal interpretation led by the Spirit, and the freedom to contextualize the gospel for new times and places. She challenges the myth of a "one pure church" before Protestantism and offers a compelling case for reclaiming Protestant heritage without fragmenting the broader body of Christ.

Beth also addresses church hurt with refreshing honesty, exploring how Protestant identity in Christ allows space for both brokenness and hope. From the art of retelling the gospel for new contexts to why justification by grace still speaks to our self-justifying culture, this conversation helps leaders think more deeply about what they've inherited and what they want to pass on. Whether you're navigating questions about tradition and authority or helping people explore their faith identity, Beth offers wisdom for embracing Protestant faith as a gift rather than just a default.

Discover how to read the financial parables of Jesus Christ with fresh eyes in this conversation with Dr. Keith Bodner, author of "Exploring the Financial Parables of Jesus." Keith shares how a moment of panic in the pulpit led him to rediscover the confrontational power of Jesus' economic stories—parables about treasure in fields, workers in vineyards, servants with talents, and rich men who know their neighbor's name but never open the gate. These stories reveal what Keith calls the economy of grace, where God's generosity turns our assumptions about wealth, fairness, and resources upside down.

The financial parables of Jesus Christ haven't lost their power—familiarity has just worn off their edge. Keith helps church leaders understand why context matters when interpreting these stories, how a deficient view of God shapes the way we respond to what we've been given, and why the older brother in the prodigal son parable might be about us rather than the Pharisees. Whether you're preparing to preach on the parable of the talents, teaching a Bible study on Lazarus at the gate, or helping your congregation think differently about stewardship, this conversation offers practical insights for letting these ancient texts confront and transform us again.

In November 2020, amid a pandemic and national racial reckoning, two congregations in Des Moines made a bold decision to merge. Hope Des Moines, a primarily white Lutheran church, and Elim Christian Fellowship, a historically Black church, became Hope+Elim. This wasn't about saving declining attendance or finding quick institutional fixes. It was about two pastors who had built a friendship over years of sharing pulpits and dreaming together, and who believed God was calling them to witness to church unity in their city.

Pastor Brian Brown joins the conversation to share what building church unity actually looks like in real time. From blending worship styles to tackling hard conversations about race with grace, from hosting community meals to creating ministry partnerships that serve their neighborhood, Hope+Elim is learning that proximity doesn't equal community. Real church unity requires vulnerability, resilience, and the willingness to create something new together. If you're wondering where to start in building bridges across racial and cultural divides, Brian's wisdom offers both practical guidance and hope for the journey.

Pastoral care for pastors takes center stage in this special Christmas reflection as Steve Thomason offers church leaders a rare gift during the busiest season of the year: permission to let go of perfect. If you've been working nonstop since September with rally days, sermons, hospital visits, and board meetings, you know the weight that builds as Christmas approaches. The pressure to make everything spectacular for people who'll only attend once all year can feel overwhelming. But Steve invites leaders to remember what really happened that first Christmas night—not spectacle or perfection, but the raw, ordinary mess of childbirth in a stable where God chose to enter the world.

Drawing from the Gospel of John and Paul's letter to the Philippians, Steve reminds us that Jesus didn't own a home or get worked up about buildings and budgets. He had a simple call: proclaim God's kingdom and invite people to love God and neighbor. This reflection offers weary church leaders a blessing of simplicity, inviting them back to that stable scene where a young couple, displaced strangers finding shelter among animals, brought God into the world through the same painful process we all experience. It was normal, messy, and beautiful—and pastoral care for pastors means remembering that you are too.

AI and church leadership are colliding in ways that demand theological clarity. Dr. Paul Hoffman, author of AI Shepherds and Electric Sheep, joins hosts Terri Elton and Dwight Zscheile to offer a framework for discernment: How might artificial intelligence help or hinder human flourishing? And what does human flourishing mean when we're created in the image of God? Paul brings both pastoral experience and academic rigor to questions many church leaders are facing: Should AI write sermons? How do we shepherd people forming relationships with chatbots? What embodied practices can help our congregations stay grounded in an increasingly digital world?

Rather than embracing technological solutions or rejecting them entirely, Paul invites church leaders into curiosity and theological reflection. He explores which ministry tasks AI can genuinely assist with and which require irreplaceable human presence. From the incarnation of Jesus to the gathered worship of Christian community, Paul helps us see what technology can never touch and why embodiment matters more than ever. Whether your congregation is already experimenting with AI or you're just beginning these conversations, this episode offers practical wisdom for shepherding your people through this cultural shift.

Ministry burnout prevention isn't just about better time management or clearer boundaries. In this episode, Wes Granberg-Michaelson shares what he learned from five decades of church leadership and 50 years of personal journals: the leaders who sustain faithful ministry for the long haul are the ones who tend their inner lives. Wes explains why "only the pain you name is available for transformation" and why the pain you don't name gets transmitted to others. He talks about building a "holding space" that takes care of your soul when no board or congregation will do it for you, why prayer is fundamentally about attention in an attention economy, and why strategic plans can't do what spiritual grounding does. For church leaders feeling exhausted or discouraged, Wes offers both honest diagnosis and genuine hope.

Wes also addresses what's really happening with spiritual interest in America beyond the decline statistics, why the deepest failure of mainline Christianity has been the failure of Christian formation, and what pastors can learn from Dietrich Bonhoeffer about forming communities in challenging times. Drawing on his experience from the U.S. Senate to denominational leadership to global ecumenical work, Wes challenges the addiction to planning and control that infiltrates the church and invites leaders to pay attention to where God is already at work. This conversation offers wisdom about integrating your inward and outward journeys for sustainable, faithful leadership.