Tony Miltenberger transitioned from a 14-year stint in the Army Reserve to becoming the Lead Pastor at Centerville, Ohio’s Restoration Church. (Note: he has since moved on from the Lead Pastor role.)

He is also the co-author of Unbreakable: Forging a Marriage of Content and Delight, a book on marital struggles experienced by servicemen after their deployment. Tony also happens to be one of the lucky handfuls of people who get to marry their childhood sweethearts. Now, Tony balances being a husband, father, pastor, and coach for children’s sports. 

Tony joins me today to discuss how his career shifted from being a military man to a ‘man of the cloth’.

He shares the story of how, early on, he became part of a youth ministry group to help him break free from his troubled circumstances. He explains why he decided to join the Army, how he reached the decision to leave the Army and join his church’s clergy, and how the different skills he has learned from both professions have played a key role in his ongoing success.

He also explains how his penchant for discussing work culture and relationship-building ballooned into a full-blown podcast, why he turns to prayer and meditation in times of great distress, and the steps he takes in ensuring that despite his work, he’ll still have time for family. 

“I do what I do to try to give people the same thing that the church gave me: A vision that’s bigger than whatever circumstances are in my life right now.”-

• Tony’s life as a pastor in a small community in Ohio. 
• The relaxed atmosphere that he maintains in his neighborhood church; “the mission over the method.” 
• How being a part of a youth ministry group helped Tony get through difficult times in his life that started when his parents divorced. 
• His journey with the Army and how it reflected his desire to escape his life. 
• The one thing that ministry training doesn’t do very well, based on his experience — and how his military experience supplemented this. 
• Why he schedules most of his fitness and creative activities in the morning. 
• Why he focused on setting up a digital church culture for his community. 
• The challenges of working in a “big mega-church” and how that inspired him to create a culture of true leadership in the current community where he serves. 
• His views on being a manager and why he thinks he’s terrible at it. 
• His experience with working with a younger team and how that helped determine which digital tools and apps they use for communication and operations. 
• The process he followed in co-authoring the book he published in 2014. 
• How certain aspects of his military life strongly appealed to his type-A side. 
• How he struggled to find meaning in his quiet, married life after he came home from his military service. 
• How he went from a regular participant of the Army’s various seminars and retreats to being offered to conduct them. 
• Why the church felt like a natural fit for him after he got out of military service. 
• The additional efforts he made in making sure that he plays a more active role in his children’s lives. 
• The benefits of setting a culture where you’re in charge of your own schedule. 
• The concept of the “Yes weekend” and how it works in building a stronger relationship between parents and children. 
• How he handles a bad day through meditation, prayer, and scripture. 
• The importance of being healthy, and why becoming unhealthy (e.g. keeping secrets from your loved ones) can ruin your relationships. 
• How Tony defines a day in which he gets to “live more.” 

• Slack 
• Outlook 
• Dropbox 
• Voxer 
• Trello 
• Asana 
• Google Form 
• Evernote 
• Skype 

• Tony Miltenberger website 
• Facebook 
• Instagram 

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Show notes provided (brilliantly, my words not theirs!) by Lidwell Writing Services, LLC 

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