Leading From Alignment

What happens when things get back to “normal?” When the COVID-19 shelter-in-place restrictions are lifted, what will church look like? What do we need to bring forward from this experience into our leading once we can gather again? Today’s pod will explore three powerful takeaways for leaders in this challenging season.

This week on the Leading From Alignment Podcast, we once again have the privilege of talking with Doug Clay, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God. We’re excited to share with you Part 2 of Doug’s thoughts on leading during quarantine and leading in a post-quarantine world.

This week on the Leading From Alignment Podcast, we have the privilege of talking with Doug Clay, General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God. We’re excited to share with you Doug’s thoughts on leading during quarantine and leading in a post-quarantine world.

Every relationship carries some degree of risk. Isolating ourselves carries risk as well—maybe even more risk. God has wired us for deep friendship. Leadership doesn’t immunize us from our need for honest, meaningful, and replenishing relationships. With these challenges in mind, today’s podcast will explore seven friendship hacks leaders can use to improve the relational currency in their life.

The coronavirus has unleashed an amazing amount of stress into a leader’s world. It’s isolated many of us from friends and family. As with any challenging season of life, we tend to learn and grow a lot . . . if we take time to reflect and internalize what God is teaching us. Today’s pod will explore four lessons we’ve learned during this unprecedented time in our nation. We hope you find each one...

The amount of white space in our calendar (or a lack thereof) is a pretty accurate predictor of the amount of emotional fuel we have in our tank. If our schedule contains long stretches with no white space, it’s likely we’re running on emotional fumes, regardless of what our adrenaline and cortisol hormones may be telling us. If we want to lead better, lead longer, and enjoy it more, we need margi...

Today’s pod explores another building block that helps us build emotional resilience: Refueling Emotionally. If you observe Jesus’ life, you discover He was never stressed out (except for Gethsemane). One reason why? He had this refueling thing figured out.

Difficult people go to church. Difficult people who go to church can cause a great deal of harm to a leader. Today’s pod, Protect Yourself from Abuse, will give you three safeguards you can use to protect yourself from abusive people who attend the church you serve and lead.

We live in an angry world. Anger is a human emotion common to us all. In previous pods, we’ve established that pastors experience a significant rate of depression . . . and I wonder if one reason is because we’re afraid to be honest about our anger. We mistakenly believe pastors “shouldn’t” get angry, and for them to express anger is immature. One thing many leaders don’t know don’t know about ang...

It’s possible to be serving in the center of your God-given calling and still crash into a wall of anxiety and/or major depression. Being a pastor or ministry leader or missionary has its great points, Being used by God to influence others is fun! But being a ministry leader has it’s not so great points too. And if we fail to take a thoughtful approach to what God’s called us to do… we can get int...

Many leaders struggle with the demon of insecurity. (I’m using the word “demon” metaphorically, not literally.) King Saul was the crown prince of this particular character flaw. Chosen by God to be Israel’s first king, Saul had good looks, leadership skills, flashes of spirituality . . . but he was painfully insecure. And his insecure tendencies led to a string of bad decisions. Fast forward to th...

If you’re a leader in any capacity, I’m guessing you have more opportunities than you have time or energy. If you’re in a caregiver role, I suspect you have more invitations to care for people than you have calendar space to do so. It’s so easy to get lost in the day-to-day execution of our work we fail to periodically take a step back and consider this challenging question: Am I only doing what o...

Nothing good ever comes from a ministry devoted to pleasing people ~ Chuck Swindol When I think about my first fifteen years of pastoral ministry, so much of it was tinged with a subconscious desire for people to like me. I craved approval without realizing it. Today’s podcast will look at some sure-fire signs indicating you’re stuck in people-pleasing mode, and offer a few ideas about how to get...

A Barna 2017 Study of 14,000 Protestant Lead Pastors in U.S. revealed that 37% of lead pastors are at medium to high risk of burnout. Here’s the thing about burnout – getting healed up from it is not like flipping a switch. It takes longer to recover than you imagine. So . . . how can you know if burnout is near? How can you prevent it? Today’s pod explores five key contributors to burnout, and th...

In pod 19, we considered what lead pastors need from their staff. Today in Episode 20 of Leading From Alignment, we’re flipping the script and exploring what associate staff members need from their lead pastor. Essentially, the staff needs their lead to answer five questions for them: Why, where, what, when, and how. Clear answers to these five questions will help a lead pastor get more out their...

Nobody knows what it’s like to be a lead pastor unless they’ve been a lead pastor. Today’s pod is the result of our combined 30+ years as lead pastors, as well as 6 years of church consulting and 15 years as mentors to pastors. Between all of those inputs – five consistent themes emerge regarding what a lead pastor seems to need from an associate: Integrity, humility, hunger, interpersonal skills,...

Near the end of every calendar year, I take time to write down the two or three most important things I learned during the year. Then I spend time reflecting on those items, because I want to remember them. Practice them. Live life differently because of them. Well . . . 2019 is in the books. And I find myself reflecting on another year of learning. Today’s pod is extremely personal. It includes t...

If you want to lead well for a long time—you have to figure out how to handle difficult conversations. When it comes to tough conversations, some leaders tend to bully, while others tend to wimp out. Health lies somewhere between the two. How do we find the sweet spot between these two extremes? Today’s pod focuses on six practical ideas around how to navigate these tough conversations.

Difficult people go to church. Difficult people work at the company you lead. Not all people who go to church are difficult. Not all people you work with are difficult. The vast majority are not. But the few who are difficult can make life miserable for a leader. Leaders who intend on leading for the long-haul need steel in their spine. Today’s episode focuses on how to think—from God’s perspectiv...

How do you make sense of life when you feel God is leading you down a confusing path? Most of the time, His directives are logical. The numbers add up. The pieces fit together. But sometimes the numbers don’t add up when it comes to discerning God’s assignment for a particular season in your life. Today’s episode will look at three quick takeaways that hopefully will help you if you’re in a season...

It’s not easy to finish. It’s even less easy to finish well. Question is, how do we live today to increase our chances of reaching the finish line tomorrow? Today’s podcast will explore three behaviors—going upward; going inward, and going outward. These three actions will help you finish your life’s race with a flourish.

A good night’s sleep is a leader’s cheat code. It’s an undervalued weapon in a leader’s quiver. In today’s pod we’ll explore several reasons why sleep matters, and practical ways we can leverage its power to lead our organization better and more effectively. If you’re a leader, you’re running a marathon, not a sprint. Only well-rested leaders can run the long-distance race they’ve been called to.

According to an extensive Barna research study of 14,000 U.S. lead pastors, published in January 2017, 37% of lead pastors are at medium to high risk of burnout. A whopping 66% say they have no deep friendships. 40% are not energized by ministry work. Expastor.com reports 47% of pastors suffer from depression. Many of the moral failures we read about (and those that never make the news) can be tra...

What drives you? Passion? Or adrenaline? Passion is an intense desire or enthusiasm for something. Adrenaline is a hormone secreted by the adrenal glands, especially in conditions of stress, increasing rates of blood circulation, breathing, and preparing muscles for exertion. Passion gets us out of bed in the morning, ready to take on the day. Adrenaline keeps us up at night, unable to let go of t...

Transition is a reality every leader has to deal with at some point in their work life. The majority of leaders who leave for supposedly greener pastures do so prematurely. Some stay too long. Some leave at the first sign of sustained trouble—some stay in toxic environments that have no realistic hope of changing. So . . . how does a leader know: “Should I stay or should I go?” Today’s episode wil...