The Discerning Leader Podcast

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Alison Cook

"In my own personal story, I found it easy to love God, but very challenging to know and love myself." – Alison Cook

In her ground-breaking book Boundaries for Your Soul, Alison Cook is seeking to help us turn our overwhelming thoughts and feelings into our strongest allies. Using the internal family systems model, she illumines our pathway forward by addressing the true struggles we face in life and relationships. She describes how a Christ-centered way to self-awareness will lead to internal freedom and joy, and much healthier relationships with others. Her "U-turn" approach to emotional wholeness includes five key phases: focus, befriend, invite, unburden, and integrate.

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Adele Calhoun

"Shaming voices have the power to cripple us. They isolate us from the truth about ourselves and others." – Adele Calhoun

Shame is universal. It's been with us since Adam and Eve hid from God after succumbing to the shaming voice of the devil. How we deal with the shaming voices of our past will either set us free to live more abundantly, or will keep us crippled by their falsehood. In today's episode, Adele Calhoun offers great wisdom and truth about the importance of knowing and naming the shaming narratives of our lives, and invites us to embrace practices that will lead to redemptive healing. Trust Jesus with your shame. When we are even at our worst, he comes to set us free.

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Susan Currie

"Providing an hospitable presence helps us to notice God together." —Susan Currie

Group spiritual direction is a ministry of listening that is unique among all other small group experiences. Susan Currie unpacks how to create, protect, and nurture such groups, offering wise principles and priorities that embody this transformative practice. When we help each other listen to the voice of God we do so tenderly, prayerfully, and gracefully. The Lord does the work when we come alongside another in their earnest desire to hear from God. In this hospitable space, we notice together that "our hearts are burning with the presence of Jesus."

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Susan Currie

"In spiritual direction, one person is being present to another for the sake of being attentive to the voice of God." – Susan Currie

Are you looking for a spiritual director or a training program in spiritual direction? LTI's Director of Selah, Susan Currie, joins Steve in this episode focusing on the ministry of spiritual direction.

Distinct from other forms of companionship – discipling, mentoring, coaching, pastoring – spiritual direction is laser focused on helping another listen attentively to the voice of God. When we have a trusted confidante helping us notice and prefer God in all aspects of our life, we grow in our affection for God. Holy listening transforms us into a person of discernment.

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Gayle Heaslip

"We create hospitable space, non-judgmental, gentle, supportive, deeply attentive to God's work in our lives and our midst." —Gayle Heaslip

Trained counselor, spiritual director, LTI team member and Anglican priest, Gayle Heaslip, offers her wisdom on spiritual friendship, especially between and among women. Her ministry of hospitality has shown women (and many men) what it means to practice the hospitality of God, who welcomes, affirms, celebrates, and blesses us simply for who we are as his children.

Stirred in longing and wonder over the friendship between Ruth and Naomi, Gayle opens the eyes of our hearts to see the gifts of love that create congruency and wholeness in persons.

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Rick Anderson

"Friendship among men is elusive, but incredibly important." —Rick Anderson

Who in your life is saving you from the worst of you and bringing out the best of you? Since most men life lives of quiet desperation, men in the body of Christ have an opportunity to pursue so much more. Spiritual friendship among the company of other men can be both formative and transformative. Shifting from playful bantering and competitive interactions, men can indeed experience empathy, compassion, and support from one another. With David and Jonathan as biblical examples, we explore the true meaning of covenantal companionship.

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Richard Plass

"At the core of who we are, we are relational beings, created by a relational God. Many leaders today, however, don't have anyone to share their story." —Rich Plass

Today's episode is an overview of Rich Plass' book, The Relational Soul (IVP). He reminds us that our Trinitarian God is relational, as he invites relationship with us as his beloved children, and as he desires for us to have relationships of love with one another. Our family of origin sets the trajectory for our relational connections, or lack thereof. As adults, it's important to have trusted friends with whom to courageously share our story, both the broken and whole aspects of our journey. Only then will we be set free to live the abundant life offered to us in Christ.

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Richard Plass

"Our long-standing spiritual friendship has been a tapestry woven together by the grace of God." —Rich Plass

Our host and guest have been friends and brothers in Christ for nearly 50 years. They speak authoritatively about the importance of friendship for all of us in the body of Christ. Recounting their shared history, they dovetail their reflections with the biblical text and a mature understanding of what makes for healthy, intentional, life-transforming friendship. They consider how friends are made and how they lead us into a healthy walk with God. Fresh insights are offered about being receivable, not reactionary, in loving and trusting ways.

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: David Vryhof

"We're all trying to listen deeply to what God wants of us throughout the entire prayerful process." – David Vryhof, SSJE

Prior to group discernment, it's important to follow guiding principles: does the group have a stated covenant? Do we all share a faith view of reality and willing to be led by God prayerfully? Are we willing to bathe the process in prayer, laying aside our preconceived ideas, have holy indifference and an openness to consider various opinions? Will we honor one another, listen well, contribute positively, pause frequently, affirm silence to help us slow down when needed? From that unhurried, prayerful attentiveness, we enter a guided process with joy and gusto.

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: David Vryhof

"Prayerful listening together is essential for us to know what we are to do and who we are to become in this season of life and ministry." –David Vryhof, SSJE

The Good Shepherd loves us and desires to lead us, for as we listen to God, we join him in his longings for us. But we need to be intentional about this pursuit of learning how to listen to God individually and collectively. From an attentive posture we then discern God's affection for us as well as his intentions for us as his beloved ones. Each member of the group needs to share the priority of listening together to God and one another, otherwise it's a bumpy road. Once the question(s) are clarified, asking God first will lead us smoothly into discernment as a team.

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net