Influence Podcast

Welcome to the Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. Joe Oden writes the following in his new book, Empowered to Pray : In an hour when many leaders are fixated on numerical growth, how to accommodate and make seekers feel comfortable, leadership strategies, higher education, and enhanced communications, we observe that well-intended leaders...

Welcome to the Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I talk Assemblies of God General Superintendent Doug Clay about themes in his new book, Blind Spots: The Invisible Vulnerabilities Shaping Your Leadership , published by Gospel Publishing House. Introducing the topic of his book, Clay writes: "The m...

Welcome to the Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. "Honesty matters, and people care a great deal about it," writes Christian Miller. Yet we are facing an unprecedented erosion of honesty today — what I call an honesty crisis . Indeed, we are facing not just one crisis, but a variety of honesty crises in different parts of our society. … Fo...

Welcome to the Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. "Paul didn't want believers to detach themselves from life in this world," writes Nijay Gupta. "He didn't want 'otherworldliness' only. He also didn't want them to be preoccupied with only temporary and fleeting things, 'cheap worldliness.' He wanted believers to imitate Christ and walk in...

Welcome to the Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. "Regardless of your Sunday attendance numbers, your church can become one of the most influential organizations in your city," writes Kevin Foster. "As culture drifts further from the local church, one of the most powerful ways to become relevant again is to engage with the brokenness in th...

Welcome to the Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. Recently, a prominent Southern Baptist leader called on his denomination to end the confusion caused when Baptist churches allow women to be called pastors. "The vast majority of Southern Baptists … are absolutely clear and have been all along that the office of pastors is restricted to men...

Welcome to the Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. In this episode I talk to Prof. Matthew D. Kim about his new book, Becoming a Friendlier Church: A Pathway to Genuine Community , forthcoming from Baker Books. Our focus is why churches are unfriendly and how they can become friendlier. "In this book, I want to draw attention to a crisis in...

Welcome to the Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. "The church is called to be a place of belonging for all people," writes Julie Pratt. "Paul reminded us in 1 Corinthians 12:12–27 that the body of Christ is made up of many different parts, each one valuable and necessary. In verse 22 he wrote, 'Some of the parts that seem weakest and least...

Welcome to the Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. "The doctrine of hell can be a powerful motivator," writes Allen Tennison. "Many believers initially responded to a salvation message for fear of going to hell. Christians have also dedicated themselves to prayer, evangelism, and global missions over the threat of hell." "Images of hell can...

Welcome to the Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. "Most professions have ethical codes of conduct that govern the behavior of members," writes Brad Kesler. "If ethical behavior is important for other professions, how much more for ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ?" Kesler wrote a just-published book on ministerial ethics to "equip all Go...

Welcome to the Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. "The so-called worship wars often consist of ill-suited judgments about worship," writes Steven Félix-Jäger. "The debates generally center around the question of what constitutes appropriate worship and can include issues such as the use of contemporary music versus traditional hymns, the r...

Welcome to the Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. "Children's ministry is arguably one of the most difficult ministries to lead, but it is also the most rewarding," writes David Reneau. "We get the sacred opportunity to be some of the first people to tell little children — the next generation — about Jesus. We get to plant the seeds, tend...

Welcome to the Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. Ministers hear a lot about church multiplication these days. Sometimes, the phrase is little more than a synonym for church planting. Other times, it refers to multisite ministry in which one church exists in many locations. "Multiplication isn't just about strategy or structure," Gerad Str...

Welcome to the Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. "In the last sixty years in the USA, some churches shifted strategies and adopted a model that focused almost exclusively on numerical expansion," writes Marroquin. "New sanctuaries and program adjustments were made with the goal of reaching the unchurched. And praise God, the model produce...

Welcome to the Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. In this episode, I talk to Melissa Alfaro about her new book, The Heart of a Pathfinder: Charting Paths for the Next Generation . "A pathfinder's greatest motivation is not the sustainability of their legacy but their ability to launch members of the next generation into their call," Alfaro...

Welcome to the Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. "The founders of the Assemblies of God believed they were experiencing a significant historical moment," writes Daniel Isgrigg. "They recognized God was moving by His Spirit to enable them to evangelize the world. Leaders were set apart by their understanding that this mission could not be...

Welcome to the  Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. In this episode, I talk to Mark Hausfeld about how ministers can move toward physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health — and why they should. Hausfeld is executive director of the Institute for Ministerial Wholeness and an ordained Assemblies of God minister, Ministry is demanding,...

Welcome to the Influence Podcast ! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. In this episode, I talk to Doug Clay about the state of the Assemblies of God as the New Year begins. Clay is AG general superintendent and author of Conversations with My Younger Self and 13: Leadership Is More Than Luck , both published by Gospel Publishing House . This past year, the Ass...

Welcome to the Influence Podcast! I'm George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. In this episode, I talk to Allen Tennison about what Pentecostal ministers should read in 2026. Tennison serves as theological counsel to The General Counsel of the Assemblies of God. Reading may not be at or even near the top of many ministers' new year's resolutions, but it should be. In a...

"Jesus is up front with us that there is a cost to following him," writes Craig Keener. "From God's side, the gift of him in him is free—or rather, already paid for by what Christ suffered for us. But we live in a world that challenges our faith, so from the world's side our faith is bound to cost us hardships. Yet God empowers us by his Spirit to maintain our witness for Christ in this world no m...

Donna Barrett is retiring at the end of this year from her position as general secretary of the Assemblies of God. Elected unanimously by the executive presbytery in 2018 to fill the unexpired term of her predecessor, Jim Bradford, then elected twice by the General Council in 2019 and 2023, she is the first woman to hold executive office at the national level in the history of the AG. Full disclos...

"Young men are leading a religious resurgence," wrote Erica Pandey in a May 10, 2025 report on Axios.com . "Within older generations, there's a consistent gender gap among Christians, with women more likely to be religious than men," she explained. "Within Gen Z, the gap has closed, as young men join the church and  young women leave it . If the current trajectory sticks, the gender gap will flip....

The season of Advent begins this Sunday, November 30, and ends, appropriately enough, on Christmas Eve — Sunday, December 24. No doubt many churches will sing Isaac Watts' "Joy to the World" throughout this season, especially on Christmas Eve. But did you know that Watts wrote that song to celebrate the Second Coming, not the birth of Jesus Christ? Advent celebrates both in the Christian tradition...

This past Tuesday, the Executive Presbytery of the Assemblies of God announced that Brad Kesler will succeed Donna Barrett as general secretary of the Fellowship. Kesler's first day in office is January 1, 2026. He will serve the remainder of Barrett's unexpired term. Kesler has been an ordained AG minister since 2000. He has served as a youth pastor in Sitka, Alaska, and a senior pastor in Juneau...

The goal of the Church Health Partners is clear. "To foster healthy, vibrant churches by equipping pastors and their teams with the tools, strategies, and support they need to lead effectively and fulfill their unique calling. We want to see a healthy church in every community, led by empowered and passionate leaders, making a lasting impact for the Kingdom of God." In Episode 405 of the Influence...