The Mission Guys

In this episode, Nick Jorgensen and Rick Pop explore the often-hidden role of fear in leadership, especially within the church. Drawing from St. Thomas Aquinas and Scripture, they examine how fear can disguise itself as prudence, pulling leaders toward safety and the status quo instead of bold, Spirit-led mission. They also discuss how fear surfaces in team dynamics, conflict avoidance, and organi...

In this episode, Nick Jorgensen and Rick Pop take a fun, honest look at the little habits that can quietly undermine our leadership—everything from jumping to conclusions, to time management, to competitive comparison. Through personal stories, they invite leaders to grow in self-awareness, bring these patterns to prayer, and ask trusted people for loving feedback. The challenge: identify what mig...

In this episode, Nick Jorgensen and Rick Pop explore the concept of living an integrated life, particularly for leaders in the church. They discuss the challenges leaders face in maintaining a truly integrated life that contains their spiritual, personal, and professional responsibilities. They emphasize the importance of intentionality, prayer, and self-examination, highlighting key elements and...

  Ambition. Drive. Desire. Hunger. We aspire to cultivate these qualities, both as individuals and among the teams we lead. Yet, at times, maybe frequently, we don’t sense the hunger that is required to accomplish the great Mission for which we are called. At other times, we may be questioning if our hunger is properly ordered toward the glory of God and serving others, or is it instead chasing pe...

In this episode, Nick and Rick discuss one of the worst forms of cancer in any organization and the need for immediate treatment of that cancer. Among the many challenges and pitfalls that all leaders, teams, and families may face, the one that cannot be tolerated is subversion, the deliberate or unconscious undermining of authority, mission, or vision. Join The Mission Guys as they share share in...

In this episode, Nick and Rick discuss Stephen M.R. Covey's book "The Speed of Trust" and its relevance to leadership within the church. They explore how trust serves as a foundational principle of leadership, emphasizing the importance of integrity, character, and the process of restoring broken trust. Additionally, they connect these concepts to Biblical teachings and encourage leaders to follow...

In this episode, Nick and Rick discuss one of the best secular leadership books written in our lifetime. They kick around a few ideas that can both take advantage of this all time leadership classic and then take it even further in the Church to help you grow as a Kingdom Leader. ______   Connect with us! MissioInstitute.org Missionguys@missioinstitue.org

One of the most important responsibilities of a leader is to grow other leaders. However, too often in the Church, this is at best an underdeveloped leadership trait and at worst is often ignored — poor leadership is frequently tolerated. In this episode, Nick and Rick share their observations, insights, and practical advice for Church leaders to grow in developing other leaders, a must. ______  ...

Did God design tomato plants so that we can be even better leaders? In this episode, Nick and Rick discuss why pruning even fruitful endeavors is necessary in order to feed and grow the most important aspects of our ministries. Pruning can be painful, and is often avoided, but is necessary for more abundant fruit.  This episode will help make pruning easier. ______   MissioInstitute.org Connect wi...

In this episode, The Mission Guys address the all too often habit of Church leaders who avoid conflict for the pseudo-virtue of being nice (aka Catholic nice). Instead, Nick and Rick offer a fresh perspective and practical methods for leaders and their teams to encourage and have good fights, resulting in better decisions, more creativity, increased clarity, and stronger relationships. ______   Mi...

Are you taking the time, both scheduled and unscheduled, to step back, reflect, and recharge? We suspect your answer is “No, I don’t have enough time to get all the work done that I need to do, so who has time for that?!”  So in this episode, Nick and Rick explore ways to ensure that you regularly take advantage of the opportunities to “sharpen the ax,” whether they are via planned retreats and of...

Unfortunately, leaders in the Church too often buy this bad advice as they try to lead people as though they are running a business. That’s not biblical. And it doesn’t work well in the Church. So set down “Inc. Magazine” and “Harvard Business Review” for the length of this episode, and consider what the Bible and Jesus have to say about becoming a family on mission. You’ll love it brothers and si...

Goals. Focus. Energy.    The Mission Guys close out a mini-series for leaders on strategic planning. In this episode, they’ll help you as leaders to think about how best to establish your organization’s goals, in order to focus the energy of your team to achieve what it is the Lord has called you to achieve together. ______   MissioInstitute.org Connect with us! Missionguys@missioinstitue.org

In this episode, Nick and Rick tackle one of the biggest challenges for leadership teams in the Church, which is to figure out how to assess and monitor the success of their organization (diocese, parish, school, apostolate, etc.). Metrics, indicators, measures, markers, KPIs, SMART objectives, and many more terms like those often get leaders in the Church especially agitated. Some insist that you...

In this episode, the second part of a mini-series on strategic planning, Nick and Rick focus on the concept of ’mission’, the definition, the often confused difference and relationship between mission and vision, why clarity of mission matters in the church (parish, diocese, school, family, your organization), and how to approach missional clarity.   Though vision and mission are critically linked...

Strategic Planning Mini-Series: It All Starts with Vision Mission, Vision, Strategy, Plans, Goals, Metrics, KPIs, …Ugh! The Church is not a business! Do we need any of this? I’m confused.    In this mini-series on Strategic Planning in the Church, Nick and Rick simplify strategic planning for leaders in the Church, from a biblical perspective and always being docile to the Holy Spirit.   This epis...

If you want to establish a culture of discipleship, it is essential to begin with your leadership team. In this episode, we provide personal examples and discuss the practical components necessary for your leadership team to develop and live as a discipleship community. Link to the FOCUS discipleship roadmap www. MissioInstitute.org Connect with us! Missionguys@missioinstitue.org

"Your organization will never outgrow your leadership team." This truth emphasizes the importance of leaders in the Church committing to their discipleship journey together if they wish to see it flourish in their parish. In this episode, we offer some valuable insights for leaders to contemplate as they strive to transform their culture. www. MissioInstitute.org Connect with us! Missionguys@missi...

Envy is a deadly sin, and it has a sneaky way of showing up in our lives. In this episode, the guys discuss how envy in leadership roles harms progress and the prescribed antidotes given to us through the Church. www. MissioInstitute.org Connect with us! Missionguys@missioinstitue.org

Have you ever said this to yourself? "I know I should talk to her about that, but I really don’t want to.” "I know the team is suffering, but I don’t want to hurt his feelings by bringing up such a potentially sensitive topic.” "I’m not very good at having those kinds of difficult conversations." Or how about this? “Wow, that went better than I thought; I should have done that a long time ago.” “W...

Big changes are happening with the Mission Guys! Listen to this episode to hear about the launch of a new apostolate, Missio, dedicated to equipping leaders to fulfill their God-given mission.  www. MissioInstitute.org Connect with us! Missionguys@missioinstitue.org

Our first guest! Brenda Cannella, CFO of the Archdiocese of Denver, joins Rick and Nick to discuss how pride in leadership can often be hidden. And when pride in leadership goes undetected and unaddressed, the “root of all sin” becomes the root of bad leadership. It is an honor for The Mission Guys to have this great leader, parent, friend, and disciple of Jesus join the podcast and share her expe...

One of the most fundamental aspects of leadership to be able to effectively delegate work and authority. And yet, for many of us as leaders, delegation feels like a bad word! We often feel guilty about delegating; we feel frustrated about not delegating; we feel inadequate when delegating poorly; and so on. So in this episode, Nick and Rick first reflect on the biblical roots of delegation and wha...

We all know that leadership entails many different aspects, and is especially challenging in the Church these days. But one particular aspect of leadership that often gets shortchanged, and is foundational to all other elements of individual and team performance, is the critical importance of the clarity of the mission, for both the team and for every individual on the team. And the traditional ap...

In this episode, Nick and Rick discuss the call to show one another honor to others (Romans 12:10) and taking the time to celebrate what the Lord is doing in mission. ====== Seeking to be even more encouraged and inspired? Follow our online streaming channel . Visit us at our online site . Subscribe to "Thoughts from the Trailer", our weekly article Have a comment about this podcast? Contact us!