The Renewed Pastor Podcast

Are you trying to fulfill your calling by doing everything yourself? Discover how Working Genius helps pastors build stronger teams, delegate with confidence, reduce burnout, and align ministry roles with God-given gifts.

In this episode, we welcome Cody Thompson of The Table Group for a practical conversation about Working Genius and its application to ministry. We explore how understanding the work that energizes and drains you can help pastors build healthier teams, equip volunteers, and release unnecessary guilt.

The conversation also connects Working Genius with The Renewed Pastor Pathway’s emphasis on soul care, identity, calling, and context. The central message is clear: you were not designed to carry every ministry responsibility alone. Healthy leadership begins with knowing who you are, acknowledging your limitations, and welcoming the gifts of others.

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Dale Sellers and Joseph Bennett explore church context, pastoral calling, and practical ways to serve your community with clarity, authenticity, and purpose in today’s podcast.

Key Points In Brief

• Healthy ministry begins with soul care and an honest understanding of who God has called you to be, not simply the role you hold.
• Joseph shares the grief, uncertainty, excitement, and peace involved in transitioning from executive pastor to full-time work with The Renewed Pastor.
• Understanding church context means learning where God has planted you, who lives around you, and what your community needs.
• Community history, development, demographics, economic conditions, and local activities all inform ministry decisions.
• A church’s mission explains why it exists. It should guide action, not merely appear in a written statement.
• Doing one or two things well is more sustainable than copying other churches or attempting every possible ministry.
• Relationships with local leaders and participation in existing community events can open meaningful opportunities to serve.
• Authenticity and actions that match your words build trust more effectively than hype.
• Older members remain valuable contributors and can help younger generations through relationships, mentoring, and shared experience.
• Lasting change requires understanding church history, communicating clearly, and moving at a thoughtful pace.
• Alignment connects a leader’s identity and calling with the congregation’s context and direction.

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Visit therenewedpastor.org for more free content and information about The Renewed Pastor Pathway.

Discover how pastors can move beyond performance, approval, and fear to find their God-given identity and lead with greater peace, joy, and freedom.

In this episode of the Renewed Pastor Podcast, Dale Sellers and Joseph Bennett welcome Mark Morgan for an honest conversation about identity, calling, and the pressure to prove yourself in ministry. Drawing from his experience in church leadership and his personal journey through burnout, Mark explains how outward success can coexist with inward anxiety—and how discovering his God-given identity transformed his approach to leadership. The conversation also introduces the identity and context focus of the Renewed Pastor Pathway.⁠⁠

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Visit therenewedpastor.org for more free content and information about The Renewed Pastor Pathway.

In this episode of The Renewed Pastor Podcast, Dale Sellers, Joseph Bennett, and Jason Allison explain why healthy pastors are essential to healthy churches and introduce the yearlong The Renewed Pastor Pathway™.

The conversation begins with an update on The Renewed Pastor and the organization’s recent strategic planning retreat. Jason describes the value of stepping away from urgent demands to clarify what matters most, why the ministry exists, and how it can serve pastors effectively in a rapidly changing church environment.

The group discusses the pressures facing churches and pastors. Smaller churches often experience limited resources and aging facilities more intensely, while larger churches face their own leadership and capacity challenges. Across church sizes, pastors are struggling to develop the next layer of leaders. Many also carry their burdens alone, even though pastoral ministry places them in spiritually, emotionally, and organizationally demanding situations.

Jason explains his passion for supporting pastors: leaders who continually make others the heroes rarely receive affirmation themselves. The team wants pastors to know they are seen, valued, and not alone. Their aim is not to question anyone’s theology or devotion, but to provide practical friendship, encouragement, and guidance.

The second half of the episode outlines the four quarters of the yearlong Renewed Pastor Pathway. Quarter One addresses soul care and sustainable rhythms. Quarter Two explores identity and context—who the pastor is, how God has gifted the leader, what the congregation is like, and what the surrounding community needs. Quarter Three focuses on vision and impact, helping leaders discern where God is inviting the church rather than inventing a plan and merely asking Him to bless it. Quarter Four centers on leadership development, equipping, discipleship, succession, and legacy.

Throughout the conversation, the team stresses that the pathway is a process rather than a presentation. Coaches commit to walking with pastors for an entire year, helping them apply each principle in their own setting. The episode closes with an invitation for both struggling pastors and healthy, growing leaders to take a next step by scheduling a discovery call.

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Visit therenewedpastor.org for more free content and information about The Renewed Pastor Pathway.

Dale Sellers and Joseph Bennett share the story of how God has been shaping Joseph for this next chapter with The Renewed Pastor. Joseph reflects on sensing a call to ministry as a teenager, serving in youth ministry and leadership development, and eventually following God’s leading with his wife to Honduras. After returning to the States, Joseph joined Foothills Church, where he launched a new campus and later served as executive pastor.

In this personal conversation, Dale and Joseph unpack the God-led transition bringing Joseph onto The Renewed Pastor team full-time, what a gradual and healthy leadership handoff can look like, and how Joseph’s journey reflects the heart of the Renewed Pastor Pathway: helping pastors pursue greater health in their life, leadership, and legacy.

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Visit therenewedpastor.org for more free content and information about The Renewed Pastor Pathway.

oseph Bennett & Dale Sellers launched the Renewed Pastor Podcast to help pastors get healthy in life, leadership, and legacy.

Dale Sellers and Joseph Bennett talk with Gavin Adams about his book Remodel, why hope is not a strategy, and how pastors can design ministry around the right person, message, time, way, and next step.

Key Points In Brief

• Dale Sellers and Joseph Bennett welcome Gavin Adams to discuss intentional ministry design and pastoral renewal.
• Gavin Adams shares his background in business, consulting, church revitalization, and leadership at Woodstock City Church.
• The conversation highlights the tension many pastors feel between shepherding, leadership, strategy, and organizational responsibility.
• Gavin Adams explains why “hope is not a strategy” and why churches need a clear, contextualized ministry model.
• The group discusses pastoral burnout, identity, striving, and the need for deep soul care.
• Gavin Adams introduces the “five rights” from Remodel: the right person, right message, right time, right way, and right next step.
• The episode challenges pastors to ask, “Who is this actually for?” before creating programs, sermons, announcements, or ministry initiatives.

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Visit therenewedpastor.org for more free content and information about The Renewed Pastor Pathway.

Corey Alderin is the Founder and CEO of Sermon Shots, leading a team of 25+ serving 9,000+ churches on the platform. Sermon Shots helps churches transform a single sermon into an entire collection of ready-to-share content – sermon clips, quote graphics, devotionals, discussion guides, transcripts, and more – empowering ministries to extend the impact of every message throughout the week.

A 3X founder and an accomplished SaaS entrepreneur in the church technology space, Corey has been recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies in the US, and the software he’s built is used by 200,000+ users. Learn more about Corey at coreyalderin.com.

Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., is the Dean and Professor of Leadership and Christian Ministry at Talbot School of Theology at Biola University. He also serves as Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Wycliffe Hall at Oxford University, where he teaches twice a year. Stetzer has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches; trained pastors and church planters on six continents; earned two master’s degrees and two doctorates; and written hundreds of articles and a dozen books.

He is Regional Director for Lausanne North America, the Editor-in-Chief of Outreach Magazine, and regularly writes for news outlets such as USA Today and CNN. His national radio show, Ed Stetzer Live, airs Saturdays on Moody Radio and affiliates. Stetzer serves his local church, Mariners Church, as Scholar in Residence & Teaching Pastor.

Dale Sellers and Joseph Bennett talk with Corey Alderin and Ed Stetzer about how pastors can use AI wisely, save time, strengthen ministry, and protect the embodied, soul-level work of the church.

Support the show

Visit therenewedpastor.org for more free content and information about The Renewed Pastor Pathway.

Joseph Bennett & Dale Sellers launched the Renewed Pastor Podcast to help pastors get healthy in life, leadership, and legacy.

Dale Sellers and Joseph Bennett talk with Jesse Barnett and Becca Barnett about the strategic retreat that helped 95Network become The Renewed Pastor, why pastors need clarity, and how churches can move from being stalled to renewed.

Key Points In Brief

• Dale Sellers and Joseph Bennett welcome Jesse Barnett and Becca Barnett to discuss the story behind the transition from 95Network to The Renewed Pastor.
• Jesse Barnett and Becca Barnett share the heart behind The Message Clarity Company: helping churches, ministries, and organizations amplify “kingdom voices.”
• The conversation highlights the strategic retreat that helped the Renewed Pastor team clarify who they serve, why they serve them, what they offer, and how the new pathway should work.
• A major breakthrough came after the group stopped to pray, leading to the name “The Renewed Pastor.”
• The team describes the need for pastors to embrace courage, humility, obedience, and openness to the Holy Spirit.
• The Renewed Pastor Pathway is described as a year-long coaching process focused on soul care, identity and calling, mission and vision, and leadership development.
• Jesse Barnett and Becca Barnett encourage pastors to seek refreshment, stay interruptible, and remember the long-term kingdom impact of faithful ministry.

Support the show

Visit therenewedpastor.org for more free content and information about The Renewed Pastor Pathway.

Dale Sellers and Joseph Bennett launch the Renewed Pastor Podcast, sharing why 95 Network became The Renewed Pastor and how the new Renewed Pastor Pathway helps pastors get healthy in life, leadership, and legacy.

This is the first episode of the Renewed Pastor Podcast, formerly the 95 Podcast. Dale Sellers and Joseph Bennett use the launch conversation to explain a significant transition: as of September 1, 95 Network has officially become The Renewed Pastor.

Dale Sellers walks through the ministry's history. 95 Network was founded in 2014 by Jim Powell, a pastor in Peoria, Illinois, who led a large church but carried a deep burden for smaller congregations. The name reflected the statistic that roughly 95 percent of American churches were small or midsize. Dale joined the board in 2016, and in late 2017 Jim handed leadership to Dale and a group of pastors. Dale became executive director on July 1, 2018, and has led the ministry for eight years.

The conversation then turns personal. Dale describes the isolation he experienced as a pastor, including a board member who literally put a hand up at a restaurant table and said he did not want to hear about his pastor's struggles. Years of internalized stress, a devastating church split, and a culture that expected pastors to appear invincible contributed to quadruple bypass surgery at age 53. When Dale asked his surgeon how it happened, the answer was blunt: hypertension and high blood pressure caused by his vocation. That crisis launched a decade-long journey of inner work that eventually produced his book, Stalled.

Dale also names the shift he has watched unfold in the church world. Pastors no longer need more content; content is everywhere. What they lack is relationship, mentoring, and honest community. Denominations, seminaries, and networks often repackage old approaches instead of making the changes pastors actually need. After more than a year of prayer, conversations with leaders, and a two-day retreat with Jesse Barnett of The Message Clarity Company, the team landed on a new name, a new focus, and a new offering.

That offering is the Renewed Pastor Pathway™, a one-year, research-informed coaching track built around four quarters: Soul Care, Identity and Calling, Mission and Vision, and Leadership Development with Succession planning. It includes twelve sessions, a monthly call, and an on-site day with the church's leaders. Dale explains why soul care must come first: an unhealthy soul produces an unhealthy congregation, and a pastor who cannot take a Sabbath is functionally saying that everything depends on him.

The vision behind the rebrand is a goal Dale believes God gave him: help one thousand pastors get healthy over the next ten years. With the average pastor now between 62 and 64 years old and more than 100,000 expected to retire in the next decade, the leadership pipeline problem is urgent. The Renewed Pastor exists to serve pastors of any church size who genuinely want help, with scholarship dollars available for those who cannot afford the full cost.

Support the show

Visit therenewedpastor.org for more free content and information about The Renewed Pastor Pathway.

Greg Woodard has been active in Christian leadership for many years. He is the author of Leadership from Within: Navigating the Path Toward Soul-Driven Success, a Spiritual director in training, a life and leadership coach, and an active lay member in a local church.

He retired from twenty-two years of active-duty military service: fifteen years as a Navy Chaplain and seven years as a Marine and Army National Guardsman. He has also pastored in a Christian drug and alcohol recovery program and local church settings.

Over his years as a military chaplain in deployed environments, Greg learned to live a holistically healthy life and take care of himself in difficult spiritual leadership experiences. His journey has helped him understand the complexities of the human person.

Greg holds a Doctor of Ministry in Leadership Renewal and Coaching from Regent University.

During his doctoral work, Greg was privileged to write his dissertation on developing a curriculum that connects deployed chaplains’ soul care with their emotional health, the genesis of his book. Greg has a continuing passion for the soul care of faith-driven leaders.

He is a devoted Christian husband to Vicki for 27 years, father to two grown children, Liahna and David, and the proud papa of a grandchild. Greg enjoys walking with Vicki and their dog, dinners out, watching an occasional television show or movie, and traveling.

Greg Woodard joins Dale and Joseph to discuss pastoral soul care, burnout prevention, and four life-giving rhythms that help ministry leaders stay healthy.

Support the show

Visit therenewedpastor.org for more free content and information about The Renewed Pastor Pathway.