Before You Quit

I had the privilege of being a guest on another podcast. I include this podcast here where Pastor Dan Samms interviews me on my experience of following a pastor who experienced moral failure. This is the description of that conversation on Dan’s website : Years ago Mitch Schultz was asked to step in to pastor a church after the previous pastor had a moral failure. Little did he know that in...

In today’s podcast we are going to look at the challenges and opportunities that happen when someone in ministry enters what many refer to as the second half season of life. Many pastors, missionaries and ministry leaders find themselves in a unique place particularly when they have a couple decades under their belt. Different questions are asked than were being asked at the starting blocks...

Parents are often ill-equipped for the challenges that come when their children become adults. Increasingly I have conversations with friends who’s adult children are either struggling with their faith and/or struggling in their relationship with the parents. This can be deeply disenchanting for parents particularly when they feel they did everything “by the book” in raising their son or daughter....

I Want to talk on this episode on how a church transitions well. I remember sitting down with a friend processing a tough church and he made a comment I could never shrug. “Mitch you need to start your transition now. It might need to take you several years, but start your transition”. Unfortunately certain events kept me from having control in that process, but later I realized this s...

Often in summer I put out fewer podcasts, but I have also had a number of personal challenges that have led me to focus more on family than my other responsibilities. It’s actually fitting I am doing this podcast on the subject of Scripture and prayer as this has been a sustaining discipline for me this past several months. In fact a tool that I have used directly connects me to this podcast and t...

One of my hero’s of the faith, and go to guy, is Charles Spurgeon, the famous pastor from London in the mid 1800’s. I even have a first edition of his devotional book, Morning By Morning. We have so much to learn from past spiritual leaders. I am not sure we really appreciate how their legacy on the church today. So, with in mind this podcast is going to be different. We are going to talk about an...

I have the privilege today to interview Sam Thompson, a pastor who happens to also be blind. Before I go to that interview I want to draw your attention to something Sam and I talk about in the closing of our interview. I thought it would be wise to emphasis it again here in the beginning. Many of us in the church are not aware of our unconscious mannerisms toward people who are blind or who have...

 It’s not often I have had the opportunity to talk so openly with someone suffering a terminal illness. I think we would all agree that the church and even our culture is ill prepared to have hard and honest conversations about death and dying. In this podcast my goal is to help the church, help you, the believer who loves Jesus and loves the church, to grow in your ministry capacity to help those...

I have to admit, as I get older I stand back curious and some times burdened as I watch the up and coming generation navigate perhaps some of the same challenges we grew up with, but perhaps with different world views. I have also observed with keen interest, and equal concern how progressive Christianity is shaping the world view of many in what we refer to as Gen Z. Things are not as black and w...

For some time I have been wanting to talk about the pastor and his money. One of the stresses in ministry is the pastor’s need for security which can add to the tensions in his life. A low paying ministry. Debt. Moves. Unexpected change. THis is an important topic because it is also a kingdom topic. How we handle money, our attitude toward money, how we even handle some of the trials that co...

Today I have the privilege of interviewing Jim Newheiser on the topic of Pastors, Parents and Prodigals . I’ve been wanting to do this podcast for some time but wasn’t sure how to approach it. Increasingly, with my ministry, and even out of my personal friendships, I am becoming burdened for parents navigating the reality that their children, now adults, are either not following the Lord or seriou...

Since last podcast we need something lighter. Let me give some context. I grew up in Papua, Indonesia and have the fondest memories of traveling from one village of town to another thanks to a mission organization called Mission Aviation Fellowship. Like many missionary kids I longed to one day become a pilot, and while this podcast is not at all about that, I did fulfill that dream.  Twenty years...

Like many of you I have been reeling from the stories that have come out in the last years of great Christian leaders, mostly men, who have fallen hard. How do we respond to these events? What is it doing for the church or to the church? Why does this even happen to people we look up to and admire and then find they have a completely double life. Why should this be good for our own faith where it...

I picked up and read best selling author Dave Harvey’s popular book “ When Sinners Say I Do ” about a year ago, and I loved it. How important it was to be reminded that problems happen in marriage because we are sinners, but there is hope because we have a Savior. Not long ago, I connected with Dr. Dave Harvey and asked if we could talk, for my podcast. He agreed, I was happy, an...

 I want to talk today about the gospel and the right kind of anger. Much of this comes from my own personal reflection on how we are to respond when so much seems so wrong around us.  Is it possible to act in love, to respond in love, motivated and driven by the gospel and still be angry by what we see around us? I hear often that as believers we should respond with understanding, but where is thi...

With so much changing in our church, as we seek to reach each other and reach culture around us what we want to talk about today is the role of biblical education in our church life. My encouragement to you as a pastor and church leader, is as you make changes, as you adjust, as you make room for growth and seek to reach better and serve better, don’t diminish your commitment to biblical education...

I recorded this podcast in February, just before COVID. Have a good laugh at my reference to the primaries in Maine. Seems like years ago, doesn’t it? I interview pastor Steve about his involvement with IPM (Intentional Pastoral Interim) and how best to help troubled churches. We don’t just talk about the role of the interim pastor, but also what is going in a church that might require...

I have a question. Maybe two? What is happening to the church during COVID? What will happen to the church? We are hearing a lot about what COVID is doing to the church and to believers. (I A study done by The Barna Group suggests that because of this reason one in five churches will close post COVID (See source here .) Barna also anticipates that one in three Christians will likely stop attending...

Today is a hard topic but a necessary one. I want to talk about something the church needs to be more aware of than I think we are and that is the topic of opioid addiction. You will also find later in the podcast that this is a very personal subject for me as I choose this podcast to share publicly about my own struggle some years ago with dependance on prescription pain medication. I love the co...

In this podcast I muse over the state of the gospel, post-Covid. I also encourage the pastor to commit to gospel-centered, Biblically-solid expository preaching. My suggestion is; the church that will remain strong are those who are committed to the gospel. I also look at some of the pressures threatening the church, distracting her from her mission, and the call to remain true to the sufficiency...

It’s Interesting how this podcast turned out. I asked around for someone I could interview on the subject of addiction, mainly the issue of addictions to opioids and how the church should understand it and respond and so someone was recommended to me. His name is Mark Danzey. I sat down with Mark and as we began this conversation the addiction we ended up mostly talking about was on pornography. A...

Brett Schultz grew up in a pastor’s home and he’s actually a normal kid. Pastors try as best they can to assure their children do not grow up with the common stigmas that come with being a PK (Pastor’s Kid). The pressure to represent the family well can be a heavy burden for any child of a ministry parent. While most pastors and missionaries do a great job protecting their children from these burd...

What exactly is being asked of us? Why should I be responsible for the sins of my ancestors? I’m not racist, but why am I made to feel like I am? What do you mean, ‘unless I am anti racist, then I am racist? It feels you’re asking for penance, not repentance? Can there really be justice in a world full of rebellion and hatred toward God? How does the gospel speak to race and soci...

In today’s conversation with Rev. Mark Barnard and Dr. Kenneth Quick we are going to talk about dancing in church. Okay, now I know I have your attention. But no, not that kind of dancing. We will be discussing the dance of gifts in the church. Here’s what the conversation will be about: Much has been written on how God speaks to us as individuals, but the bookshelves are bare when it comes...

 Let me start with a question, maybe a bit tongue in cheek. What if during this Covid 19 season while the church has been fasting from meeting corporately that the antagonist in the church have had a huge change of heart and are now determined to come back fully supporting the pastor and the church leaders? Well, we hope this would be, but I would imagine that the pastor and church leader wil...