The Discerning Leader Podcast

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Jeremy Stefano  " Jesus is gentle. Surely those who lead in His name must be typified especially by gentleness also. " –  Jeremy Stefano A stingy leader is stingy with grace, kindness, gifts, and generosity. A discerning leader is aware of God's abundance and leads with liberty and graciousness. Jeremy Stefano and Steve Macchia return to the podcast to share five more a...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Jeremy Stefano   " As a leader, we often love people who we need in our leadership. The love has to be unconditional, not measured out in increments to those we see as more deserving. " –  Jeremy Stefano What does it look like to lead well? Over the next few episodes, Jeremy Stefano and Steve Macchia will unpack this question, offering twenty attributes of a spiritually...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Winn Collier " You had this sense that you were with someone who knew Jesus. " – Winn Collier Winn Collier is the author of Eugene Peterson's authorized biography, A Burning in My Bones. Few people have had an opportunity to know Eugene's life as a pastor, theologian, author, and poet like Winn. Winn shares personal stories of Eugene's upbringing and transformation. Win...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Ken Shigematsu " If you can put yourself in a pathway of beauty every day, it can awaken you to God's love for you and it leaves less room for shame to work so that you can become your truest self. " – Ken Shigematsu Author and Pastor Ken Shigematsu joins the podcast to talk about shame. In this episode he shares the spiritual practices that work to awaken us to God's f...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Jeff Crosby " Embracing the mystery is good enough " – Jeff Crosby Jeff Crosby joins the podcast to talk about longings - the inner ache and sadness that we feel at times. From Jeff's newest book, The Language of the Soul: Meeting God in the Longings of our Hearts, Jeff teaches that the longings we experience are places for God to meet us. Jeff walks us through several...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: KeumJu Jewel Hyun " Whether you like it or not, you are in the leadership position. Who do you think you work for? " – KeumJu Jewel Hyun KeumJu Jewel Hyun joins the podcast to talk about the role of servant leadership within the heart of a discerning leader. Jewel is an author, a professor, and the founder of Matthew 28 Ministries, which focuses on Christian women's lea...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Philip Yancey " Nature, beauty, love, these are good things. They must have been given to us by God. That's what grace is. It's a free gift we didn't deserve. That's my story, being drawn back to God, not by fearsome threats, but by the experience of God's grace. " – Philip Yancey Award-winning author Philip Yancey is on the podcast this week to share his own life story...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Barbara Peacock  " I believe the foundation of effective leadership is understanding and embracing and living out the discipline of love. " – Barbara Peacock The Discerning Leader podcast returns from a summer break to focus on the Heart of a Discerning Leader. Our first guest for Season 27 is Barbara Peacock - an award-winning author, spiritual director, teacher, and i...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Susan Currie This is a reprise of season 3 episode 5 of  The Discerning Leader Podcast. " In the celebration of Sabbath, we explore the command and accept the invitation to dwell with God with a deep, resounding yes – with gusto! "  – Susan Currie The fourth rhythm of Sabbath is "celebrating" the joy and delight of our identity and freedom in Christ. When we gather with...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Susan Currie This is a reprise of season 3 episode 4 of The Discerning Leader Podcast. " We realize our deepest, truest, eternal part of us as God's dearly loved children when we rest. What God does in us when we rest is carried into all aspects of life. " – Susan Currie Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath and when he frustrated the religious leaders by healing on the Sabb...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Susan Currie This is a reprise of season 3 episode 3 of The Discerning Leader Podcast. " You have been set free (in God), so keep the Sabbath! This is what Sabbath rest is all about. We don't want to lose our memory for tasting the goodness of God. "  – Susan Currie God's loving invitation and specific commandment is to Sabbath rest – for all. The people of God were ush...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Susan Currie This is a reprise of season 3 episode 2 of The Discerning Leader Podcast. " Sabbath ceasing is meant for everyone and every living creature our lives touch: our children, our animals, all in our household.  God rests in order to delight in his creation. So too are we made to rest in order to engage our creational identity. " – Susan Currie Sabbath rest is t...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Susan Currie This is a reprise of season 3 episode 1 of The Discerning Leader Podcast. " Discernment is about being with God, paying attention to God, letting our every word and effort come from attentiveness to God. Sabbath is the place that nurtures that attentiveness. " – Susan Currie Sabbath nurtures our attentiveness to God and thereby enhances our practicing a pre...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: David Vryhof This is a reprise of season 2 episode 5 of The Discerning Leader Podcast.  Reflection is an important spiritual discipline, inviting us to notice, remember, and give thanks. It is practiced in a variety of ways, from journaling to photography, and especially in the ancient practice of Examen. In reflection we are seeking the Spirit's guidance to illuminate...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: David Vryhof This is a reprise of season 2 episode 4 of  The Discerning Leader Podcast. Prayer is a huge, somewhat daunting subject. No one has mastered prayer. In fact, if we're honest, we are all simply beginners. This episode explores the inward, upward, and outward nature of prayer, in both the "secret place" of our prayer closet, as well as in our public worship an...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: David Vryhof This is a reprise of season 2 episode 3 of The Discerning Leader Podcast. Instead of studying the Word to preach or teach it, Lectio Divina invites us to simply listen and receive the Word as a gift of love from God to us, his beloved children. Discerning leaders know the power of the Word and delight when the Scriptures come alive in our prayer closets. As...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: David Vryhof This is a reprise of season 2 episode 2 of  The Discerning Leader Podcast. We live in an incredibly noisy world. Distractions abound, vying for our attention all throughout our days. Choosing a subversive, counter-cultural pursuit of exterior and interior silence is what separates a discerning leader from society's norm. Silence and solitude is where we hea...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: David Vryhof This is a reprise of season 2 episode 1 of The Discerning Leader Podcast.  A discerning leader understands that service to others is based upon a relationship with God and thereby prioritizes the nurture of the soul.  Commencing a new series, Steve Macchia and his spiritual director, Br. David Vryhof (www.ssje.org), explore the importance of spiritual pract...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Jeremy Stefano This is a reprise of season 1 episode 5 of The Discerning Leader Podcast.  Imagining what it would be like if the Church were filled with discerning leaders, Steve and Jeremy dream together about a Church filled with those who regularly turn to God. With Romans 12: 1,2 as backdrop for today's episode, we explore six principles for practicing discernment t...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Jeremy Stefano This is a reprise of season 1 episode 4 of  The Discerning Leader Podcast. Psalm 139 reminds us that God discerns all of our ways out of his abundant and unconditional love for us. His attentiveness toward us evokes a response of attentiveness to him. Discernment means to perceive, recognize, sift, sort, and separate, learning to know what is knowable. To...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Jeremy Stefano This is a reprise of season 1 episode 3 of The Discerning Leader Podcast.  Beginning with the prayer of the Apostle Paul to the Church in Philippi and ending with his prayer to the Colossians, Steve and Jeremy unpack some of the most essential ingredients of prayerful discernment. They discuss the importance of an experiential knowledge of and an ever-dee...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Jeremy Stefano This is a reprise of season 1 episode 2 of The Discerning Leader Podcast.  Continuing the conversation about spiritual discernment, Steve and Jeremy look at how Jesus' mother and disciples were either kept from or open to his presence and mission. The Gospels are filled with stories that provide real-life opportunities for practicing a preference for God....

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Jeremy Stefano This is a reprise of season 1 episode 1 of  The Discerning Leader Podcast. On this inaugural episode, Steve and Jeremy recount one of the pinnacle accounts of discernment in Luke 24. The Road to Emmaus is a wonderful example of discernment as a way of life, and not simply a way to make decisions. Noticing the presence, power, and peace of Jesus is the beg...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Gary Franklin " For the first twenty years of my ministry, discernment wasn't a part of my way of life - it was just busyness and activity. " – Gary Franklin  A large part of discernment is learning to pay attention to our soul. Gary Franklin is a pastor in the greater Atlanta area who has ministered for over four decades, is the founder of the Leaders Heart Inc, and is...

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Abigail Carroll " Poetry starts with submitting myself to beauty. " – Abigail Carroll God is a creative artist who delights in our creativity. God is glorified when we enter into creativity with Him. Abigail Carroll, the author of three poetry collections and pastor of arts and spiritual formation joins Steve Macchia to share her life story of collaborating with God in...