The Jim Bradford Podcast

For several weeks, we've been discussing the commitments Jim made when he came to Central Assembly. Collectively, they form a distinct view of ministry which Jim refers to as Spiritual Leadership.  In his book, Lead So That Others Can Follow , Jim describes spiritual leadership as, “ walking in the Spirit’s life, making and keeping life commitments, earning trust, demanding little for ourselv...

As pastors, we spend a lot of time thinking about and planning for the future. Vision has become a central element of pastoral work. But Jim offers some warnings about the importance of shaping vision with people and why believing for a future is sometimes more important than envisioning it.  Jim explains that servant leadership has to do with seeing the potential of your church and the people in...

It's easy to allow the ministry to become abstract: techniques, systems, and procedures. In this week's episode, Pastor Jim calls pastors to rekindle their love for people through a people-centered approach to ministry.  You have to hold onto the "why" of ministry before you attempt to determine the "what." The "why" is always people. Ministry is a call to p...

Just about everyone agrees that the COVID crisis will have a lasting impact on our world and on the church. The question is what will change. In this conversation, Jim and I discuss the lasting impacts of the crisis on the church. Jim shares how the crisis has impacted him personally and how preaching online has impacted Central. No one can predict the future, but Jim offers some helpful thoughts...

Most pastors and leaders are facing new levels of complexity and controversy within the congregations they lead. Making decisions is complicated by all of the diverse views and opinions—often to opposite extremes. How does a pastor navigate these complexities and continue to make faithful and wise decisions? Can a pastor remain politically neutral?  Pastor Jim addresses how he is thinking about th...

One of the universal experiences COVID has created for pastors is the need for rapid decision making, often without all of the information needed to feel confident about those decisions. In today's episode, Jim and I discuss how to make good decisions during a crisis and how to avoid decision fatigue.  Jim offers wise counsel on how to evaluate capacity, where to seek counsel, and when you ca...

Maybe the most memorable of Jim's pastoral commitments was the commitment to disappoint his congregation—"I will disappoint you." Every pastor understands the difficulty of navigating complex expectations. The truth is, we will disappoint people and people will disappoint us. But that's not an excuse, its a reality that frames the work we do as pastors. In this episode, Jim dis...

There are a lot of resources to help pastors and churches address the rapid changes of the COVID19 crisis. Over the next few weeks, we want to discuss the personal impacts of stress, anxiety, and decision fatigue.  In this episode, we catch up on how Central is implementing changes and how Jim is handling leadership during this crisis. How do you adjust to changing routine, how do you adjust to pr...

In 2015, Jim published the book, Lead So Others Can Follow . It was a call for a different kind of leadership, what he calls "Spiritual Leadership." In this episode, we discuss the church's current interest in leadership topics and what is missing from those discussions. Jim shares how he came to recognize the need for leadership to flow out of a personal spiritual depth and why min...

In, Lead So That Others Can Follow , Jim outlines five commitments he made when becoming the pastor of Central Assembly. In this episode, we look at the commitment to be a growing person.  There is a risk that you can grow a church while neglecting to grow as a person. Eventually, that disparity has consequences. Jim describes why a leader must be constantly giving attention to personal growth and...

Jim's path to ministry has been an unconventional one. As he shares in this episode, Jim was finishing a Ph. D. in Aerospace Engineering when he began to sense a call to pastoral ministry.  We discuss how Jim wrestled with that transition and how God often uses unconventional paths to ministry. I think this conversation will help you process your own vocational interests and the unique path G...

We want to take a few minutes to introduce you to this podcast. What we hope to offer you are an ongoing series of conversations around life, faith, and leadership. My name is Chase Replogle and I’m a pastor in Springfield, Missouri, and the host of the Pastor Writer podcast.  I’ve known pastor Jim for a long time. First, as a college student sitting under his preaching at Central Assembly, then a...