Leading From Alignment

The dynamics of your team—the way you work together to achieve the mission—flows throughout everything in your organization. Culture always wins. In today’s episode, John & Jim interview Jenni Catron on how culture impacts the organization you lead, why culture matters, and how to get started shaping the culture you want and need

The dynamics of your team—the way you work together to achieve the mission—flows throughout everything in your organization. Culture always wins. In today’s episode, John & Jim interview Jenni Catron on how culture impacts the organization you lead . . . and why it matters

Today's episode is pure gold. Andy Swart is back for Part 2 of our conversation about Hitting The Target When We Communication. On today's pod we explore three communication hacks that will up your communication game, and we also unpack three key next steps that will get you started

Communication has become a tricky business for leaders. Our current culture stands ready to pounce on any misspoken word or idea, and use it to attack/or criticize us. How can we hit the mark when we speak in such a volatile environment? Our guest, Andy Swart, Teaching Pastor at The Mount Church in Keller, Texas, unpacks practical ways leaders can hit the target when they communicate

Sometimes a leader has to . . . well . . . lead. Some situations call for swift action instead of collaborative consensus. And in those situations, leaders lead. In today’s episode, John and Jim unpack how to lead confidently without being too full of yourself or running over the team you lead

Retaining high-character, high-performing staff is one of the most difficult challenges facing leaders today. And yet with a thoughtful and consistent approach, staff longevity is doable. Unfortunately, A-players don’t grow on trees. In today’s pod, John & Jim unpack six practical and powerful ideas that will make your organization a great work place to work

Building a strong, productive team is one of the hardest things a leader has to do. No leader bats a thousand when it comes to hiring. When hiring staff, it’s not unusual to operate in one of two extremes: We go totally with our gut and ignore objectivity . . . or we go totally with objectivity and ignore our gut. Both extremes reduce our batting average when it comes to hiring. In today’s episode...

Church history (and world history) is full of stories about talented people who started well and had great upside only to eventually crash and burn. In today’s episode, Jim & John unpack three behaviors that help leaders grow in the most important area of teachability, and how teachability lends to longevity

The leadership model that brought the church you lead to where it is now probably won’t get the church to where God wants it to go next. The most influential contributor to the growth of an organization? The growth of its leader. In today’s episode, John & Jim explore three practical behaviors that will help remove the lid from the organization you lead.

Today we celebrate the 100th episode of Leading From Alignment! Since we launched the podcast two years ago, we’ve had over 16,000 listens and video through plays. Today, John and Jim interview three special guests, asking them to share their favorite episodes, how the podcast is helping them and the church they lead, and what advice they would give their “just-out-of-bible-school-self.” This is a...

Words . . . one of the most powerful forces for good in the organizations we serve. Our teammates often rise to the level of the words we speak to them. For every human, words matter. For humans that lead, they matter even more. In today’s episode, John & Jim explore how leaders can leverage the power of words in a way that moves their organization—and the people in their organization—in a positiv...

In 2015, more than 38% of pastors in the U.S. were bi-vocational. While there are some advantages to bi-vocational ministry, one of the biggest challenges is pace. How does a leader work in the marketplace full-time, pastor a church at the same time, and yet have any hope to find space for rest and rejuvenation? In today’s episode, John & Jim outline creative ways bi-vocational leaders can lead we...

In Episode 96 we mentioned a 2009 Barna report that stated the average church member expects their lead pastor to be great in sixteen competencies! And we’ve observed that some lead pastors expect the same out of themselves. If you ever want to grow sustainably, and keep your sanity at the same time, letting go of some of these sixteen roles is necessary. Question is, where does a lead pastor star...

A vast range of opinions exist regarding online/digital church vs. in-person physical gatherings. Some leaders have fully bought into digital; others reject it outright; while most find themselves somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. Today’s pod unpacks how digital may be both helping and hurting the local church

The past eighteen months have radically impacted the way churches measure success. Most of the numbers that screamed progress in the past have been flipped upside-down. In today’s pod, John and Jim explore four possible new metrics that move us toward working on what we can control and trusting God for what we can’t control

One of the hardest things to do for most lead pastors is to separate from work. According to a 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. Many of the moral failures by pastors we read about can be traced to exhaustion. One of the key contributors to this mess? Failure to pivot. The devious idea that a past...

Leadership possesses the uncanny capacity to keep us busy with work that gets us off-mission. On today’s episode we’re going to talk about three practical ways to manage what God’s given us to do so we can stay on-mission and one day hear, “well done, good and faithful servant.”

Welcome to Part 2 of our conversation on the subject Shaping the Culture You Need. You can craft an amazing vision, have a dynamic playbook, but only a healthy culture provides the fuel for that vision and playbook to become reality. Today’s pod unpacks a practical pathway to use core values to shape your organization’s culture

Jim & John spend a lot of time on the podcast talking about things they never learned in bible college or seminary. Today’s subject—shaping culture—is one of those things. Culture is fuel. You can craft an amazing vision, have a dynamic playbook, but only a healthy culture provides the fuel for that vision and playbook to become reality. Today’s pod unpacks a framework for shaping culture that wil...

Lead pastoring is quite possibly the ultimate bench vise. The lingering sense of weight, the messiness of people, and the unrelenting demands of the role squeeze even the best leaders. Here’s the good news: When difficult challenges emerge, all is not lost. In fact, something good is on the horizon. In today’s pod, Jim and John unpack four action items that can transform leadership pain into your...

Wounds and unfinished business from the past impact us as leaders in the present. Part 2 of John's conversation with Josh Spurlock unpacks how this dynamic plays out in the life of a leader. Today's pod outlines practical pathway to address past wounds so leaders can lead better, lead longer, and enjoy it more

Wounds and unfinished business from the past impact us as leaders in the present. In today's podcast, John and special guest Josh Spurlock unpack how this dynamic plays out in the life of a leader. They outline practical approaches to identify and address these past wounds so leaders can lead from health more and from dysfunction less

We humans tend to think we know what something feels like, until we experience it firsthand. With COVID-19, there is no lack of opinions about what it feels like. “It’s just a bad flu” or “It’s a made-up crisis” are some of the more popular opinions. In today’s podcast, we talk about the impact of COVID-19 on our relationships, our bodies, and our minds. And how these realities should shape the wa...

In today's pod John and Jim unpack some practical ways leaders can develop a most important character quality . . . resilience. The word resilient is defined as being capable of withstanding shock without permanent rupture. In other words, it's the ability to bounce back. Today's pod will outline three things leaders can do to help them bounce back in these most difficult of times

In today’s pod, we going to turn the mic around as John interviews his cohost, Jim Wiegand, as he lays out a proven, simple-to-follow method that helps churches with one of their most pressing problems . . . rebuilding their volunteer force. Today’s pod is loaded with practical, easy to follow tips that will help you build teams again.