The Called to Flourish Podcast

There is little question about the significant influence Willow Creek Community Church has had on leadership development in the Christian world. A key to Willow Creek's healthy, flourishing culture has been developing outstanding talent. How do they do it? The answer just might benefit your organization. Today, Tara VanderSande , Willows' Staff Development Director, will give us the inside scoop o...

Jesus calls us to be all about love.  But how do we practically live this out in our workplaces – in what we believe about others, how we treat others, who we hire, and so on? In January 2014,  Cherry Hills Community Church faced the reality of a weakened and toxic staff culture. How did they go from siloed teams, low trust and suspicion of motives among staff members to a "flourishing culture" in...

How can you make significant changes in your workplace culture? Action planning and follow up is one key element. One action planning strategy is to designate individuals – called Engagement Champions – who can take ownership for your culture at the departmental level. This is where the rubber really meets the road if you're serious about building a healthy, flourishing culture. But not too seriou...

"It's great to work in your area of passion, but it can become toxic if you don't have some boundaries." These are the words of today's guest,  Dave Ferguson , the Lead Pastor of Community Christian Church , with 10 locations across the Chicagoland area. Often ministry staff are deeply passionate about their organization's mission, and they're willing to work so hard toward it that life can someti...

If you were a new leader in an organization, what would be an important first step to create a healthier culture? Today's guest started with creating core values to take his church's culture to the next level. Join us for a conversation with Doug Sauder , the Lead Pastor of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale . Doug found himself in this role after a surprise transition and was faced with multiple chal...

Transforming the workplace culture of a Christian ministry is a challenging proposition. Our guest today knows this for a fact, because he's been a key part of transforming the employee culture of one of the largest, best known churches in the world. Listen in on this conversation with Colby Burke, the director of human resources at Willow Creek Community Church . Find the full show notes at  http...

Why does having a healthy staff culture matter? Is it really worth the effort? Does it ultimately impact your organization's performance? Today's guest has a fascinating response to this question. Today we have the pleasure of visiting with Gary Schwammlein , who is President and CEO of the Willow Creek Association  – known for helping Christians grow their leadership to maximize Kingdom impact th...

How can you make sure your entire team is aligned around the same goals and working toward your mission and vision? And why is this important for your workplace culture? Today we're talking with Roland Warren , the President and CEO of Care Net , based in Lansdowne, Virginia, which provides services for more than 1,100 affiliated pregnancy centers across the country. In the past 4 years, Roland ha...

How does a church that has a very healthy staff culture go about making it even better? There is nothing normal about Eastview Christian Church other than it's in . . . Normal, Illinois! As a growing church with nearly 90 staff, Eastview reached a tipping point where they realized their human resources efforts needed to move from a committee to a strategic department within their staff. Here to te...

How can clearly defining your church's distinct culture both transform your team and increase your ministry impact? That's exactly what happened with the 120-employee staff at Central Christian Church in Mesa, Arizona. With us today is the best person who can tell this amazing story: Kelly O'Donnell has a dual role as Executive Director of the Connect Ministry and Human Resources. Find the full sh...

What can leaders learn from "the greatest leadership role model of all time"?  Our guest today not only coined that phrase, but is also best known as one of the most influential leadership experts in the world. Today we have the pleasure of talking with Ken Blanchard . Ken's writing career includes over 60 books, including The One Minute Manager , which has sold over 13 million copies. Many of us...

What are the secrets of leaders who continue to have significant influence over long periods of time, where age doesn't seem to slow them down or see their influence diminish? Today, we're talking to just such a leader: Jerry White , president emeritus of The Navigators . He doesn't disappoint in offering sage advice for Christian leaders at any stage. With his Ph. D. in astronautics, Jerry served...

One of the most remarkable cultural transformations we've seen comes from one of the oldest and most revered Chrisitan ministries. In the past 6 years,  Craig Warner , Executive Director of The Gideons International , has moved their workplace culture from toxic to one that's very healthy. Today, we're going to learn about a few of the steps they took to accomplish this remarkable feat. Starting i...

How can leaders build a culture of trust and open communication? Today, it's our pleasure to welcome Bob Lonac , President and Chief Executive Officer of CRISTA . The number one strength CRISTA scored on the BCWI Employee Engagement Survey is trust. And right there with trust, CRISTA is also very strong when it comes to healthy communication. CRISTA is a large group of seven thriving and distincti...

Imagine, for a moment, if you could significantly improve the health of your workplace culture over this coming year and see the growing satisfaction, camaraderie and productivity of your people. Today, you're going to meet a leader who's has done just that – significantly improve the health of his workplace culture over the course of one year. Today we have the pleasure of visiting with Scott Eva...

Have you ever wondered if there's a strategic planning process that's effective, yet doesn't take months to develop? Today, we're talking with an innovator behind a proven strategic planning process that's immediately functional and operational—and that works for both organizations and churches. Here to tell us all about it is  Greg Hawkins , Minister of Ministry Development at Oak Hills Church in...

Changing your workplace culture can be a daunting task. Leaders often wonder where to start. Which areas or initiatives should you focus on to have the greatest impact? On today's podcast, we're going look into our research to highlight the top four culture drivers that have the power to accelerate the health of your culture and effectiveness of your organization. We'll look at why these four key...

What is the primary driver that differentiates a flourishing Christian workplace from others? In our research, we have found that  Inspirational Leadership  is the most important factor in creating a healthy culture. Inspirational Leadership is nothing less than the presence of Christ, living in and directing a leader to influence an organization, including its culture, to bring about a part of Go...

As a leader, what's the best way to handle a mistake you or your team has made? As an individual, how do you reconcile damaged relationships that result from a mistake? Today, we will look at what makes a meaningful, effective apology when – as the book title says – "sorry isn't enough." Joining us is Dr. Jennifer Thomas , who along with New York Times best-selling author Gary Chapman , has co-aut...

Is your Human Resource department providing you the strategic value it could or should?  We are seeing a sea shift in the role Human Resources plays in the church and Christian organizations. As we have worked with hundreds of Christian organizations, we are seeing the HR role shift from being an administrative, back-office function to a strategic C-Suite or senior leadership role.  Today we have...

Thanks for joining us today as we kick off Season 2! In our listener survey last fall, the number one topic you were interested in hearing about is how to build a trust-based culture. Today, our Communications Coordinator, Rachel Large, is putting Al in the hot seat to teach us how to create trust in the workplace. He'll share practical tactics you can implement today t0 create a more efficient te...

Our research indicates that one of the top four drivers of employee engagement is what we call  Sustainable Strategy. So the question we're going to explore today is: How does a Christian faith-based organization develop and execute an effective, even sustainable, strategy? Of the more than 700 organizations we've surveyed, Joni and Friends has consistently scored on the high end of this dimension...

Willow Creek Community Church and their senior pastor Bill Hybels  have been an inspirational model for building a healthy, flourishing culture. Bill has been very public about the transformation of Willow's staff culture from nearly toxic to highly flourishing. Bill is the first to say, "The culture in any organization will only be as good as the top leader wants it to be." He also knows that it...

Our podcast is on hiatus for a few weeks as we prepare to launch Season 2 in September. Today, we have one of the most popular episodes from our archives to share with you. Enjoy this listener favorite! As Christian leaders, how can we most effectively achieve our organizations' calling and purpose in these rapidly changing times? Today, Al is talking with  Tami Heim , the President and CEO of Chr...

What leadership practices in Christian organizations are having a positive, dramatic impact to effectively address a huge global problem? And how does an organization's staff culture impact its ability to change our world? Our guest today has an answer. He leads an organization that's addressing one of our world's greatest problems: poverty. We're talking with Peter Greer , President and CEO of HO...