The 95 Podcast: Conversations for Small-Church Pastors

This week is the last of the "Stalled" podcast series we've been featuring leading up to the launch of the new book Stalled: Hope and Help for Pastors Who Thought They'd Be There By Now. And what an incredible launch we had earlier this week! One of the key aspects of the "Stalled" message is the understanding that our Enemy wants to keep leaders discouraged not just...

Today on the podcast, we're walking through 4 questions every leader needs to answer for themselves. We discuss approval addiction, leading "surrendered," negative thinking, and what remains of your passion for the next generation. Take a listen! Looking for the show notes? Head over to https://www.95network.org/blog/4-questions-every-leader-47 Support the show

Every week, we connect with pastors who are stalled. Many of them see it. But many of them don't. In Dale's own life, he learned the hard way what can happen inside of us if we don't understanding the warning signs of becoming stalled in life and ministry. Today on the podcast, we discuss the 4 warning signs a ministry leader is becoming stalled. We hope this is a simple check-in fo...

Shawn Lovejoy is the Founder & CEO of CourageToLead.com. His heart beats for coaching leaders through what keeps them up at night. Shawn has been a successful real estate developer, church planter, pastor, entrepreneur, and leadership coach. Courage To Lead facilitates leadership growth and organizational health for leaders all around the globe. We were honored to have Shawn join us for Episod...

"Ministry almost killed me." This week we're switching things up on the podcast. You may have heard us talking about "Stalled," Dale's upcoming book highlighting his years of discouragement as a small-church pastor feeling like Jesus was disappointed in him. Today on the podcast, Austin interviews Dale about his own story, walking through when he came to faith, the mi...

"I got this sense that the rural church had really been forgotten about." Today we're joined by Danny Davis, author of Rural Church Turnaround and Pastor of Life Point Church in Odessa, MO. Danny has a rich story, spending 11 years planting and revitalizing churches in South Africa before coming back to pastor a rural church in Odessa, MO. He also holds a Doctor of Education in Tran...

We're back from our short break from the podcast while Austin was on paternity leave! And it's good to be back! We've got some great podcast episodes and articles ahead, a book launching in the Fall, and a whole lot more. On Episode 42, Austin and I take some time to chat about a recent VisionDay, Andy Stanley's recent announcement that they won't hold services through the...

Every pastor has a story to share. No matter the size of their church. That's a belief of ours and is one of the core reasons we love supporting church leaders. There are so many crucial, powerful things happening every day in small and mid-size churches that go unnoticed and unseen. Joe Thompson is the Lead Pastor at Smithfield Christian Church in Smithfield, VA. We've been connected to...

This was a fun one. We recently asked some of our listeners to share with us who has been most helpful to them in navigating COVID-19. We got quite a few responses for our guest today! Ryan Wakefield spent years as the Creative Director at James River Church, and has since founded Church Marketing University, a hub of training and resources to help churches utilize new methods to share the message...

This week, many conversations are happening that should have been happening for many years. And that's true about our ministry as well. A Note From Dale: I met Harold Coleman about 14 years ago when we were both part of the same church in South Carolina. I've always loved his leadership, friendship, and as of late have greatly appreciated his insight and honesty into where our country is...

Today on the podcast we've got such a great conversation with Tiffany Deluccia, Director of Sales and Marketing at The Unstuck Group. Tiffany is an incredibly strategic thinker and has a huge heart for the Church. She shares some practical thoughts about communicating more strategically online, empowering leaders within our congregation to champion aspects of our communications efforts better...

Today on the podcast, we've got a great conversation with John Lynch, a speaker, author, and former pastor. We loved this conversation. Nothing in it is specifically addressed to churches navigating COVID-19, and that's honestly why we're sharing it today. Instead of piling more on to your crisis-related toolbox, we wanted to share a resource that would speak straight to your heart....

The word "engagement" has been a common one in church leadership in the last few years. During COVID-19, that term has become even more crucial as people determine what it looks like to measure their effectiveness online. But for many churches, a lot of the conversations happening have added a level of confusion and complexity in their ministry that doesn't need to be there. So this...

As we all know, the conversations surrounding COVID-19 are constantly changing. This past week, many of the conversations online have shifted towards developing a strategy for reopening our buildings, with many smaller churches seeing that as a possibility in the (fairly) near future. As Karl Vaters shared a couple weeks back on the podcast, the season that's ahead will look different for eve...

We're really grateful to be sharing today's conversation with Dale's good friend Clayton King, long-time ministry leader, a gifted evangelist, and part of the team at Newspring Church. We got to record this conversation before everything hit with COVID-19, and we've been sitting on it for a little while, so we're glad we're finally sharing it today. Clayton is the rea...

It is always so special to us to have conversations with others who have a passion, understanding, and care for small churches. Karl Vaters checks all of those boxes. Our conversations with him are some of our favorites, and this one is no different! For Episode 33 of the podcast, we have Karl back on the show to talk about his own experiences in crisis leadership, how he's currently helping...

"I wish someone would have told me that I was entering cross-cultural ministry..." This week on the podcast we have such a great conversation with Ron Klassen, Executive Director of Rural Home Missionary Association, an organization that exists to plant and strengthen churches in small-town America. We spend a few minutes upfront talking about some great things we've seen from churc...

Our defaults have been taken away. The normalcy or tradition we rely on has been removed. So how should we respond? Dale and Austin share some honest thoughts (and a little bit of preachin') about your role during this crisis, what our Easter efforts should focus on this year, and some reminders about the opportunities you have during this season of ministry. And we walk through 4 important r...

Today's episode, sponsored by Twitter (just kidding), is a really fun one. We got to have Jeanette Yates, Communications Manager at Text in Church , on the podcast to talk through guest experience, guest follow-up, volunteer training, and how the team at Text in Church is supporting churches during COVID-19. Jeanette is such an encouragement! And her insights are so valuable in thinking throu...

This was originally a Facebook Live we hosted with our friends in ministry, Aimee Cottle and Jamie Shafer, from Fishhook. If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can click here ! No doubt, as the world around us has quickly changed, one of the pressing issues for church leaders is how we're going to shift our strategy for Easter. So today we're sharing a conversation with our...

This was originally a Facebook Live we hosted with our friend in ministry, Kem Meyer. If you'd prefer to watch the conversation, you can click here . One pastor commented and said, "This is the single most helpful post/video I have seen yet for the small and struggling churches." Great wisdom from Kem -- worth a listen! Our team has been focusing this past week on providing as many...

It's a crazy season in ministry, to say the least. A lot of changes have happened really quickly and it's left a lot of churches scrambling to piece ministry together. However, where we go from here is crucial as ministry leaders. This is not a time to shrink back, fight back against, or ignore. It is a time for us to put all our methods on the table and figure out how we leverage the sh...

We are so excited to be sharing today's episode of the podcast. Lance wrote a book called Replenish and it is one of Dale's personal favorite books for ministry leaders. So the fact that we got to have Lance on the podcast is really special to us! Lance Witt was a Senior Pastor for over 20 years, worked at Saddleback Church for a while, wrote 2 books ( Replenish and High Impact Teams ) a...

We recently helped a church we're connected with in New York structure a capital campaign for a new building. They had reached out to an organization that wanted to charge them $30,000 upfront to (hopefully) raise $200,000. And we didn't think that was realistic, honest, or wise for their smaller church. So today we're excited to share our conversation with Mike Stadelmayer, VP of C...

This week on the podcast, we got to have another special conversation. We recently connected with Roy Yanke, Executive Director of PIR Ministries , an incredible ministry that partners in pastoral restoration and renewal. We wanted to have Roy on the podcast simply to share about the work they're doing. But when he honestly shared his story while we were talking, the work they do took on even...