Burnout isn’t just being tired. It’s chronic fatigue, loss of joy, and reduced effectiveness that often arrives slowly and quietly. Join Chad, Jason, Ethan, and Ava as they unpack what burnout really is, how it shows up in ministry and leadership, how they’ve navigated it in different seasons of life, and why boundaries and accountability aren’t optional when it comes to addressing it.

In this episode, Chad, Jason, and Ava explore how nostalgia shows up in leadership and ministry, not just as memory, but as a force that can quietly shape decisions and direction. They unpack why nostalgia happens, how emotional and spiritual connections to the past form, and when honoring what was begins to compete with vision for what’s next. This conversation is a challenge to  leaders to examine what they’re protecting, question what they’ve labeled “sacred,” and consider whether their longing for the past is helping them lead, or keeping them from moving forward.

Rumor has it… this week’s conversation is all about gossip. Chad, Jason, and Ava unpack how rumors often begin not with bad intent, but with curiosity filling the gaps where communication is unclear or siloed. When questions go unanswered, assumptions form, frustration grows, and what felt small can quickly become destructive.

Through reflection and real leadership scenarios, they explore how speculation takes root and challenge leaders to own their role in shaping transparency and healthier communication. This episode invites leaders to address rumors early, lean into clarity, and lead in ways that leave less room for confusion and more room for trust.

Chad and Jason explore what happens when leaders assume clarity that isn’t actually shared. This conversation invites leaders to identify unexamined leadership jargon, recognize how perception shapes reality, and build a culture of feedback where messages are tested, refined, and actually understood by the people they’re meant to reach.

In this episode, Chad and Jason wrestle with a question many ministry leaders feel but rarely slow down to define: what does healthy growth actually look like? While churches often default to numbers to measure success, this conversation challenges the idea that growth is purely numeric. Instead, they explore how true health is found in alignment, life change, and shared clarity around what really matters. Through stories of transformation and honest reflection, they contrast business-style metrics with ministry fruit and invite leaders to rethink how they define health, resist comparison, and pursue growth that reflects real change in people’s lives.

Chad and Jason unpack how churches often borrow business-style scorecards like attendance, giving, number of programs and then quietly use those numbers to compare, compete, and judge success. Instead, they argue that the most important ‘metric’ is transformation: real stories of people growing, healing, serving, and living on mission. Through a rural church case study and honest reflections on board expectations and pastoral pressure, they contrast transactional metrics with a transformational lens, inviting leaders to rethink how they define and measure impact in their own context.

In this very first episode of the Keenly Podcast, we’re keeping it real. Chad Murrell and Jason Lehman sit down to talk about the heart behind Keenly and why we decided to step into the podcast space in the first place. 

It’s our first episode, which means there are a few glitches, plenty of learning along the way, and a lot of genuine conversation. But at the core is a simple desire: to help pastors and ministry leaders understand what’s happening, define a meaningful path forward, tell a compelling story, and ultimately do better ministry. 

This conversation sets the tone for what’s ahead. Thanks for joining us at the beginning.

We know what it's like to have a nostalgic moment and be taken back to a memory years ago. The emotion of that memory has a powerful effect on us. While there are a lot of good things about nostalgia, it can influence how a ministry makes decisions if we are not careful.

We've all been there. We are in a moment to share what we do or what our ministry is about and we find ourselves feeling unprepared. The E3 approach is a simple way to structure a presentation into 3 steps that are easy to remember.

We all see things a different way. That unique point of view can be a help or a barrier to good communication in your ministry.