Leading Conversations

In this episode, you will hear from Luke Allen. Not only a church planter that has planted other churches out of his own, but the COO of Excel Leadership Network. You will be encouraged by his journey, and after listening, you may feel the need to head to a Cracker Barrell restaurant for a challenging conversation.  This episode originally aired on March 21, 2022 Send us Fan Mail We want to help y...

A teenager running drugs in Cleveland. A loaded gun in his pocket at church. A home invasion charge that could have meant decades behind bars. Patrick Davis’s story doesn’t soften the details, and that’s exactly why it lands so hard. We talk with Patrick about growing up without faith, without a father figure, and with the constant shame of poverty and public humiliation. He walks us through how t...

Larry Osborne is a pastor, author, mentor, and leadership consultant. He pioneered several concepts that shape our modern church today, teaching teams, multisite churches, and sermon-based small groups. Larry shares his own journey and how his family and their support shaped his faith. You will be encouraged by his story. This episode originally aired August 15, 2022 Send us Fan Mail We want to he...

Faith gets real when the plan stops working. We sit down with Chris and Shelly from Dayton to trace a path that starts in youth ministry, runs through bold church-plant dreams, and lands in the tough middle: excellent services, strong systems, packed community events, and a stubborn attendance ceiling near seventy. What keeps them going isn’t hype. It’s a record of specific prayers answered with u...

Ralph Moore has been tied to more church plants than anyone in North America.  He planted churches in Southern California and Hawaii and has a family tree that includes over 2300 churches!  Ralph lives in San Diego with his wife, Ruby.  He coaches and advises church planters and serves as a church planting catalyst for Exponential. This podcast was originally posted February 27, 2021  Send us Fan...

A teenage promise forged in a camp chapel changed the course of Jeff Crandall’s life. From growing up with MLB legend Del Crandall as dad to drumming in one of the first Christian punk bands, Jeff’s story bends through unexpected turns toward a clear calling: serve people, build teams, and give small churches the tools they rarely receive. If you care about worship that includes the whole room, ab...

A minute-long phone call from an unknown Phoenix number set off a chain of events that brought Garrett Nates back to Colorado to lead a 70-year-old church—and to champion a bold, sustainable plan to plant three new congregations in nine years across Northern Colorado. We open with the story behind that call and zoom out to the forces reshaping Longmont, a city wedged between Boulder and Fort Colli...

A camp quiet time, a seven‑minute first sermon, and a calling that survived Seattle headwinds, LA creativity, and an Austin reset—Eric Bryant joins us to trace a lived map of ministry that is honest, hopeful, and deeply practical. We open with his world in South Austin, where skepticism runs high and belonging often precedes belief. Eric unpacks how his team builds space for spiritual explorers, w...

Hurt and hope can live in the same room, and sometimes that room is a borrowed auditorium in the heart of Seattle’s tech campus. We sit down with pastor and church planter Tyler Gorseland to trace a winding path from AA basements and a late-teen encounter with Jesus to launching A Seattle Church surrounded by Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Google Cloud. Tyler opens up about layoffs, the slow work of hea...

A clear plan, a humble posture, and one simple patio moment—that’s how a baton gets passed and a church keeps moving. We sit down with James Grogan, lead pastor of EastLake Church in San Diego, to explore what healthy succession actually looks like when a larger-than-life founder hands leadership to a different kind of leader, and why clarity and security beat charisma and ambiguity every time. Ja...

The story starts with two very different paths to faith—one raised in church but resistant to ministry, the other the first Christian in her family who woke up changed at seventeen. Those paths converged years later, when we compared dreams on a first date and said the quiet part out loud: we felt called to plant and pastor a church. The only mystery left was where. The answer became Chicago—its f...

Sean Morgan's path from disillusioned churchgoer to ministry leader unfolds as a powerful testimony of God's patient pursuit. Growing up in a Christian environment but becoming lukewarm in his faith, Sean details three pivotal incidents that pushed him away from organized religion—a church staff member abandoned during divorce, an elder involved in a murder, and a youth leader refusing t...

Dominique Beaumont's life reads like a modern-day parable of divine orchestration. Born to a severely schizophrenic mother who worked as a prostitute, Dominique bounced between foster homes until landing with a Pentecostal foster mother who introduced him to church. What followed was nothing short of miraculous—at just eight years old, he felt drawn to ministry, organizing "churches&quot...

Andrew McDonald never imagined he'd become a pastor, let alone a church planter. Growing up in eastern Canada, church was something you endured weekly while wearing uncomfortable clothes—a religious obligation completely disconnected from daily life. After pursuing what he thought would bring fulfillment—parties, marriage, career success, and material possessions—he found himself at 22 with e...

The power of the local church to transform lives sits at the heart of Spencer and Sarah Green's remarkable story. When a youth pastor Spencer only knew as "the more than enough guy" (because he always brought extra pizza to school) became the lifeline that saved him from suicide, he discovered what genuine Christian community could be. Having lost 33 loved ones to addiction, violenc...

What does a world champion roller skater, a transformative mission trip to India, and a text message church merger have in common? They're all part of Sean Arisco's extraordinary journey into church planting and leadership. Sean's path began far from ministry, competing as a professional roller figure skater and representing the United States internationally. Though raised in a Chri...

What happens when rigid religious rules collide with authentic faith? Jon Groves takes us on a remarkable journey from his beginnings as a fourth-generation preacher's kid to finding freedom beyond the confines of legalism. At just eight years old, Jon delivered his first sermon standing on a stepping stool behind the pulpit. Growing up in an environment where shorts were forbidden, movies we...

Rick McKinley's remarkable journey from partying at Chico State to establishing one of Portland's most influential churches reveals the transformative power of authentic faith and leadership. With refreshing candor, Rick shares how he wandered into a church on Palm Sunday thinking they were going to read his palm—a misunderstanding that ultimately led to a profound spiritual awakening. J...

What if your small church isn't broken? What if it's exactly the size it's meant to be? In this illuminating conversation, third-generation pastor Karl Vaters shares his 32-year journey leading the same congregation and his revolutionary discovery that transformed his ministry: small churches aren't failed big churches—they're a strategic approach to effective ministry. Hi...

What if the key to transforming a city isn't building bigger churches, but bringing existing ones together? Don Proctor has spent nearly two decades proving this principle as the Director of City Pastors Fellowship in Sacramento—arguably the strongest citywide pastoral network in America. The story begins with a 20-year-old electrician taking a weekend job at an auto parts store. The owner&ap...

Craig Whitney's journey from burned-out church planter to multiplication catalyst reveals powerful insights about sustainable ministry and leadership development.  Whitney's story begins with a familiar path—growing up in a ministry family, experiencing a pivotal moment of faith at summer camp, and eventually planting a church at just 26 years old. But after seven years of ministry in Wi...

What happens when church becomes the last place people want to go? James Gleason never planned to become a senior pastor, but when a teen in his youth group pointed out how uninviting their church had become, something shifted. That realization launched him on a journey that would transform a congregation of 150 into a thriving church of nearly 2,000 while planting five additional churches. Growin...

Josephine "Jojo" Namudu's life story reads like a modern-day psalm of redemption and divine provision. From the red dirt of Uganda to the green landscape of Oregon, her journey reveals the transformative power of faith amid unimaginable hardship. At just four years old, Jojo watched her mother die after a botched C-section when the family couldn't afford the $50 needed for corr...

What happens when a punk drummer with a pompadour hairstyle starts questioning if Christianity might be a cult? Dan Kimball's spiritual journey unfolds as a testament to the power of honest inquiry and unexpected grace. From a chance encounter with a gospel tract at Colorado State University to finding spiritual mentorship in a tiny elderly church in London, Kimball shares how his path to fai...

What does it take to stay in pastoral ministry for over three decades? For Rene Schlaepfer of Twin Lakes Church in Santa Cruz, California, the answer might surprise you - a series of two-year commitments rather than a lifetime vow. Rene's story begins with profound childhood trauma. At just four years old, his father died from cancer, leaving his Swiss immigrant mother barely speaking English...