Gravity Commons Podcast

Part 7 of our series on what we’re learning about women and men leading together in the church. We interview Geoff and Cyd Holsclaw, who recently moved to Grand Rapids to serve as Pastors of Family and Youth at Vineyard North after spending 15 years serving at Life on the Vine Christian Community in Chicagoland. […] The post 031 – Women & Men Leading Together, Pt 7: Geoff & Cyd appeared fi...

Part 6 of our series on what we’re learning about women and men leading together in the church. We interview Derek Radney, a friend of ours and a Presbyterian pastor in North Carolina who sees things a little differently from us on this issue, but we had a generous and generative conversation about what we’re […] The post 030 – Women & Men Leading Together, Pt 6: Derek Radney appeared first on...

Part 5 of our series on what we’re learning about women and men leading together in the church. We take a break from our interviews to zoom out just a bit and talk about why we’re talking about this “issue” in the first place. For us, it’s not an minor theological quibble, it’s a front-and-center issue […] The post 029 – Women & Men Leading Together, Pt 5: 3 Reasons Why appeared first on Gravi...

Part 4 of our series on women and men leading together in the church. We interview married Anglican priests Emily and Ron McGowin on how they lead together. The post 028 – Women & Men Leading Together, Pt 4: Emily and Ron appeared first on Gravity Leadership. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Part 2 of our series on women and men leading together in the church, where we explore in more depth the related Scriptures and our interpretation of them. The post 026 – Women & Men Leading Together, Pt 2: Scripture appeared first on Gravity Leadership. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We start a new series on what we're learning about women and men leading together, sharing some of our journeys into where they're at today. The post 025 – Women & Men Leading Together, Pt 1: Our Stories appeared first on Gravity Leadership. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We respond to a listener question about the difference between discipling and developing others in their unique gifting and calling and just trying to clone yourself to get more work done. We talk about the need to be aware of how we are uniquely wired, and also how those we are investing in are uniquely […] The post 024 – Disciple and Develop People, Don’t Clone Yourself appeared first on Gravity...

This week Gravity Leadership co-founders Ben Hardman, Matt Tebbe, and Ben Sternke check-in on what’s going on their local church ministries, and end up discussing a common tension in ministry: continuing to invest in a culture of development while feeling the demands of a growing church. We talk about the the typical solutions most of us […] The post 023 – Creating a Culture of Development, Not Ex...

This week we talk with Douglas Tappin, a playwright, composer, lyricist, librettist, and dramatist living in Marietta, Georgia who attends Ben Hardman’s church. We talk with Douglas about discovering what God is doing in your life by paying attention to your life as you go (not getting a big vision all at once). Douglas went from […] The post 022 – Paying Attention to Your Life (with Douglas Tappi...

This week we talk with Adam Gustine, Director of Ministry Initiatives for Love Mercy, Do Justice, an initiative of the Evangelical Covenant Church, whose mission it is to "Join God in making things right in our broken world." Adam is also a good friend. We talk about white privilege, power dynamics, and some of the pitfalls […] The post 021 – White Privilege, Power, and Justice with Adam G...

This week we talk with Becky Dunn (a member of Matt and Ben’s local church) about meeting God in our doubts and dark places. We talk about not only how to personally meet God in dark times, but how to create a church culture where people feel safe to meet God in the midst of […] The post 020 – Meeting God in Our Doubts and Dark Places appeared first on Gravity Leadership. Advertising Inquiries: ht...

This week we talk with Mandy Smith about vulnerability in leadership. Mandy wrote a book called The Vulnerable Pastor: How Human Limitations Empower Our Ministry, and a big part of her journey as a leader has been learning to lead from a place of vulnerability. This episode was a bit longer than we normally go, […] The post 019 – Mandy Smith on Leading in Vulnerability appeared first on Gravity Le...

This week we talk with Tara Beth Leach about her book Emboldened: A Vision for Empowering Women in Ministry. Tara Beth is the senior pastor of First Church of the Nazarene of Pasadena (affectionately known as “PazNaz“). She shares with us some of the challenges of being a woman in leadership, and how to create a […] The post 018 – Tara Beth Leach on Empowering Women For Leadership appeared first o...

This week we talk with David Fitch about his book Seven Practices for the Church on Mission. The post 017 – David Fitch on 7 Practices For the Church On Mission appeared first on Gravity Leadership. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Cofounders Ben Sternke, Matt Tebbe, and Ben Hardman talk about navigating exhaustion and conflict in ministry, responding to a listener email. The post 016 – Navigating Exhaustion and Conflict in Ministry appeared first on Gravity Leadership. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Ben Sternke, Ben Hardman, and Justin Wallace share stories about navigating theological disorientation and reorientation while leading in ministry. The post 015 – Navigating Disorientation and Reorientation in Ministry appeared first on Gravity Leadership. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Brian Zahnd joins us to talk about how to go through theological paradigm shifts without shipwrecking your life or burning down your church. The post 014 – Brian Zahnd on Going Through Theological Paradigm Shifts appeared first on Gravity Leadership. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In this second part to our recap of our initial podcast series on our 7 missional theology axioms, we talk about the specific “Christendom assumptions” that the axioms confront. The work these axioms do is to untangle us from the Christendom assumptions that trip us up in ministry without us even realizing it. Here are the […] The post 013 – Confronting Our Christendom Assumptions appeared first o...

We recap our 7 missional theology axioms and talk about why we have them in the first place. Why are they important? What do they accomplish for us? The post 012 – Why Even Have These Missional Theology Axioms? appeared first on Gravity Leadership. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

We added a 7th missional theology axiom because that’s what we do: change things as we go. It has to do with how we learn and grow. If the goal of our discipleship is divine union in love, the way we grow into love isn’t by getting more information about it, but by directly participating […] The post Episode 11 – We Learn Love Through Embodied Participation appeared first on Gravity Leadership. Ad...

Part 2 of our sixth missional theology axiom, which is that the goal of our discipleship is not moral perfection or cognitive certitude. The goal of discipleship is divine union. In this episode, we talk specifically about this axiom affects not just our personal discipleship, but our entire leadership philosophy and practice, including the discipleship […] The post Episode 10: The Goal of Discipl...

Our sixth missional theology axiom is that the goal of our discipleship is not moral perfection or cognitive certitude. The goal of discipleship is divine union. Airtight theological systems nor perfect behavior are the goal of our salvation. Salvation is being invited to participate in the life of the Trinity, and thus our growth in […] The post Episode 9: The Goal of Discipleship is Divine Union...

Brian Zahnd is our guest on this episode. He’s is the founder and lead pastor of Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri, author of several books, and has started leading “Prayer Schools” across the world. We are hosting two Prayer Schools with Brian Zahnd this year (Atlanta and New York), and on this episode […] The post Episode 8: Brian Zahnd on Learning to Pray appeared first on Gravity Lea...

What do you do when you realize you’re a better preacher than you are a person? That’s the story that starts this podcast on our 5th missional theology axiom: Whatever God does through you he always also does in you. As leaders, we are always full participants in any transformation we help to bring about. We don’t […] The post Episode 7: What God Does Through You He Also Does In You appeared first...

In this episode, we look back on the 4 missional theology axioms we’ve covered so far. We do some review and some riffing, offering a few extra thoughts about how they work and why they’re important for living a truly integrated missional life. We surf from trinitarian theology, to yelling at our kids, to how we’re […] The post Episode 6: Reviewing and Riffing on Missional Theology Axioms appeared...