The Discerning Leader Podcast

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Steve Smith " We can experience hitting the wall, burnout, and exhaustion, all the while working to build up the Kingdom. " – Steve Smith Steve Smith, Founder of Potters Inn, a ministry of soul care for local church and professionals in the marketplace, confronts head on the soullessness of leaders today. With God as the Potter, we are his clay, and if we want to be for...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Tara Owens " As much as we think we're not, we're heavily defended against God; we have a lot of walls up, but creativity sneaks around those walls and opens us up to God. " – Tara Owens Tara Owens, founder of Anam Cara (which means soul friend, coming alongside another in spiritual friendship), shares about how we deepen our affection for God through creative expressio...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Alan Fadling " We have a cultural assumption that fast is good and slow is bad…how might slow be good for your soul? " – Alan Fadling Today we commence a new season focusing on the pace of your soul. Our souls don't operate at the pace of our smart phones and so much slower than the speed of technology. Our brokenness, weariness, and hunger for more of God leads us into...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Alice Fryling " I want to look back on my life to see what I've learned about God and apply it to my life now and in the future. " – Alice Fryling The aging process is never-ending, and it's a goldmine for transformation. We have a choice as we age: will we do so selfishly and begrudgingly, or will we age gracefully and faithfully? Alice Fryling offers us wisdom for how...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Gary Thomas " The Christian life is about an abundance of good fruit. We must walk away from toxic people in order to preserve that good fruit ." – Gary Thomas Gary Thomas speaks to a glaring issue today: dealing with toxic people. He says, "Before you walk away from your ministry, try walking away from toxic people first." We need to learn how to play defense, to prote...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Amy Murgatroyd " When you live as if you're dying, you begin to see the world in a much different way. " – Amy Murgatroyd Mom, wife, and award-winning photographer and film-maker, Amy Murgatroyd (amymurgatroyd.com) shares today about the importance of capturing our emotions and relationships. She invites us to consider how we can become story catchers, who with wide-eye...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Gary Thomas " What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy? " – Gary Thomas Imagine what your marriage would look like if you first and foremost prioritized your relationship with God. "If only we could just be Christians first, then our marriages wouldn't become so difficult," according to our guest Gary Thomas, author of Sacred Marriage . ...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Alison Cook " In my own personal story, I found it easy to love God, but very challenging to know and love myself ." – Alison Cook In her ground-breaking book Boundaries for Your Soul , Alison Cook is seeking to help us turn our overwhelming thoughts and feelings into our strongest allies. Using the internal family systems model, she illumines our pathway forward by add...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Adele Calhoun " Shaming voices have the power to cripple us. They isolate us from the truth about ourselves and others. " – Adele Calhoun Shame is universal. It's been with us since Adam and Eve hid from God after succumbing to the shaming voice of the devil.  How we deal with the shaming voices of our past will either set us free to live more abundantly, or will keep u...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Susan Currie " Providing an hospitable presence helps us to notice God together. " —Susan Currie Group spiritual direction is a ministry of listening that is unique among all other small group experiences. Susan Currie unpacks how to create, protect, and nurture such groups, offering wise principles and priorities that embody this transformative practice. When we help e...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Susan Currie " In spiritual direction, one person is being present to another for the sake of being attentive to the voice of God. " – Susan Currie Are you looking for a spiritual director or a training program in spiritual direction? LTI's Director of Selah , Susan Currie, joins Steve in this episode focusing on the ministry of spiritual direction. Distinct from other...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Gayle Heaslip " We create hospitable space, non-judgmental, gentle, supportive, deeply attentive to God's work in our lives and our midst. " —Gayle Heaslip Trained counselor, spiritual director, LTI team member and Anglican priest, Gayle Heaslip, offers her wisdom on spiritual friendship, especially between and among women. Her ministry of hospitality has shown women (a...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Rick Anderson " Friendship among men is elusive, but incredibly important. " —Rick Anderson Who in your life is saving you from the worst of you and bringing out the best of you? Since most men life lives of quiet desperation, men in the body of Christ have an opportunity to pursue so much more. Spiritual friendship among the company of other men can be both formative a...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Richard Plass " At the core of who we are, we are relational beings, created by a relational God. Many leaders today, however, don't have anyone to share their story. " —Rich Plass Today's episode is an overview of Rich Plass' book, The Relational Soul (IVP). He reminds us that our Trinitarian God is relational, as he invites relationship with us as his beloved children...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Richard Plass " Our long-standing spiritual friendship has been a tapestry woven together by the grace of God. " —Rich Plass Our host and guest have been friends and brothers in Christ for nearly 50 years. They speak authoritatively about the importance of friendship for all of us in the body of Christ. Recounting their shared history, they dovetail their reflections wi...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: David Vryhof " We're all trying to listen deeply to what God wants of us throughout the entire prayerful process ." – David Vryhof, SSJE Prior to group discernment, it's important to follow guiding principles: does the group have a stated covenant? Do we all share a faith view of reality and willing to be led by God prayerfully? Are we willing to bathe the process in pr...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: David Vryhof " Prayerful listening together is essential for us to know what we are to do and who we are to become in this season of life and ministry. " –David Vryhof, SSJE The Good Shepherd loves us and desires to lead us, for as we listen to God, we join him in his longings for us. But we need to be intentional about this pursuit of learning how to listen to God indi...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: David Vryhof " God enters our lives in unusual ways, often in places where we are weakest and most vulnerable, where he delights to bring change to our lives. " —David Vryhof, SSJE The art of discernment takes time and experience, as we learn how to recognize the voice of God and discover the yearnings God has for us. Our culture is so dominated by the decisiveness of t...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: David Vryhof " In order for us to hear the voice of God, it's not about our ears, but much more about our hearts. " —David Vryhof, SSJE Instead of using the term "God's will" David and Steve unpack a healthy alternative: God's yearnings for us. God desires for us is to live with him, noticing his empowering presence, and trusting him to abide in us. Paying attention to...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: David Vryhof " Most of us have a stained-glass image of Jesus and it's hard for us to grasp his daily life as a beloved son of God. " David Vryhof, SSJE In this new series, Brother David Vryhof of the Society of St. John the Evangelist (Episcopal Monastic Community based in Cambridge, MA) joins Steve in conversation about Jesus and his discernment at the beginning of hi...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Mark Buchanan " Endurance. All walking eventually gets hard, lonely, tedious. All start with exhilaration, but end with some level of perseverance. " – Mark Buchanan God's faithfulness is understood deeply and fully amidst a life of perseverance. He invites us into a long obedience in the same direction. His pace is slow because it's the pace of love. God longs to form...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Mark Buchanan " Walking with a friend is soul formative and nurturing, especially among God's creation as we walk and pause in awe together. " –Mark Buchanan Walking has a built-in requirement to attentiveness. Not only the noticing of where we are heading and the terrain under our feet, but in our awareness of God and the companions that join us. In this episode we exp...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Mark Buchanan " I've always been in a rush and it's not served me well for my deeper formation. " –Mark Buchanan God invites us into a life of receptivity and grace, walking with God as he companions us at his pace: 3 mph. As we seek to resemble Jesus, we need to learn how to slow down our fast-paced lives. Here we discover so much more about his faithful affection for...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Mark Buchanan " Our Sabbath practices began by taking one do-nothing day each week…and it changed everything. " – Mark Buchanan The spiritual rhythm of Sabbath rest is good for our souls, our relationships, and our service to others. Learning to linger at the pace of grace, Sabbath teaches us to slow down long enough to savor every important morsel of life. We need to b...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Mark Buchanan " Jesus saved me and then the Sabbath saved my relationship with Jesus. " –Mark Buchanan Mark Buchanan, author of The Rest of God , reminds us that we spend many of our waking moments pursuing adrenaline rushes. Activity, noise, productivity, and even relationships can hinder us from a life of attentiveness and receptivity. Sabbath slows us down and awaken...