UR 150: The Long Road Back — Stephen Mizell

Tray and Melody are joined for the 150th episode of the Undone Redone Podcast by author, speaker, pastor, and entrepreneur Stephen Mizell. Tray, Mel and Stephen talk the messy stories, his own undoing and coming back from the mess through grace. Growing up a Pastor’s kid, Stephen’s father urged him to try other things before settling on ministry and Stephen did just that. After trying a slew of jobs and businesses Stephen felt God stirring in his heart in 1995 to go into ministry.  He took a church in rural North Carolina where they were for several years. Around that time he and his wife had gone through several marital issues, but he thought he had dealt with his side of the issues. The big undoing started with the hiring of a new employee at the Church. Conversations lead to an affair with someone else and ended up having to resign from the Church. He and his wife eventually divorced. They discuss the comparison that is inevitable in our culture where we compare our lives to those of the people around us instead of looking at a perfect Savior. Its in the places of Gospel community where we can surround the conversations of vulnerability and weakness that real healing occurs. Stephen has been the lead pastor at Open Door Church in Edenton, North Carolina since 2010 and is working in northeastern North Carolina to build life-giving congregations in rural communities. Stephen, a gifted communicator known for making practical truths acceptable to people of all backgrounds, is also part of the John Maxwell team, and has been asked to share leadership principles to churches, business, and organizations of all sizes all around the world. In addition to sharing biblical and leadership principles in both the United States and abroad, Stephen has written several books including The Long Walk Back.The book chronicles the long, difficult, and arduous journey back from the brink, giving people hope, inspiration, and wisdom. As the subtitle to his book says, there is always a path to recover from failure.