The Christian Leader Podcast

Conflict is unavoidable--especially in today's heated culture. Jesus calls us to be peace-makers, and healthy relationships were at the core of His teaching. How can Christians manage conflict and heated discussions well, and what peaceful practices can we adopt to help us prepare? Jes Stoltzfus Buller is the Peace Education Coordinator at MCC, and she developed a free curriculum about these...

Modern research shows that stress, trauma, and anxiety can actually physically change our brains. Since we live in an era of chronic stress, that can have a significant impact on how we learn, how we grow, and how we interact with others. As important as these findings are, these things are rarely accounted for in our classrooms, leaving many students without crucial help they need to learn and de...

A healthy small group ministry is a crucial part of the American church today--especially for larger churches. As we grow in our faith, we all need a smaller group of friends where we can study Scripture and laugh, as well as be there for each other during hard seasons. Small groups can often provide that space, but building a healthy ministry takes a lot of work and intentionality. Today our gues...

Your church probably does a lot of things, and you probably have a lot of ministries. One of the hardest things to do as a church leader is to effectively communicate all of your church's messages in a way where every message is heard by your congregation, as well as those outside the church in your community.  Doing that well is  very  hard, especially if those various events and ministries...

Whatever position or title you have at your church, all church leaders (staff and volunteer) have a responsibility to lead teams well and create meaningful experiences where people can encounter Jesus. That's a big responsibility! Ready for a leadership "secret" you already know? It's all about relationships--including the relationships between you and your team members, and be...

Teenagers have been given a bad rap. Sure, parenting teens brings a unique set of challenges, but you can do it, and this season doesn't have to be the horror story our culture makes it out to be.  Today we're joined by counselor and therapist Matt Gallagher to get his insight on how to parent teens, how to prep for that season while they're young, what they need the most, and how t...

Teaching kids about Jesus is one of a parent's most important responsibilities. Today a lot of parents feel inadequate and aren't sure how to actually do that. The church can (and should!) help, but the most effect kids ministry occurs when the church and the parents work together  to install Christian principles and values to the next generation.  J.L. Martin has been on both sides of t...

Kids ministry is a crucial part of most (if not all) churches, and rightfully so. Effectively ministering to kids and their parents is a huge responsibility and great opportunity to share the gospel with our communities. COVID rocked the world in many ways, and children's ministry certainly wasn't an exception. Finding ways to reach children stuck at home was a challenge, and now that th...

All relationships can be messy, but the parent/child relationship is particularly interesting. As parents get older and their kids become care-givers, that can be a rocky transition, even for the closest of families. Knowing how to navigate new boundaries, difficult life adjustments, and challenging health diagnoses can lead to a lot of stress for both the parent and the child. How can we prepare...

Sometimes unlikely pairings can lead to significant and important partnerships. In recent years, many Congolese immigrants have found a new home in the U.S. in MB church families. Henri Ngolo has been one of those influential leaders, and MB district ministers Terry Hunt and Rick Eshbaugh have been instrumental in helping these new Congolese church plants grow and thrive in the U.S. Many immigrant...

The sudden emergence of COVID-19 rocked all of our worlds, but church leaders had to move quickly and make tough decisions about how their congregations would meet. Those tough decisions seemed to keep coming for basically an entire year, and that pressure can put a huge strain on leaders--especially in particularly divided times. Today we talk with three of USMB's district ministers to hear...

Many of our listeners are on staff at a local church, meaning our literal job is to spread the word about Jesus. As great of a privilege as that is, often times people working in the marketplace have more opportunities to build relationships and share about their faith with non-believers. Business leaders have tremendous opportunities to share the love of Christ by the way they lead, how they trea...

All of our lives have been affected by the spread of the Coronavirus, but few of us have been hit as directly as Tabor's president, Dr. Jules Glanzer. After catching COVID, his health declined dramatically and led to an extended stay in the hospital. As his symptoms got worse, he even had a vision of entering heaven that led to significant shifts in how he's choosing to spend his days no...

Losing a loved one is one of the hardest parts of the human experience. It's also true that knowing how to support grieving friends can be a tricky tight rope to walk. Everyone grieves differently, and knowing how to walk alongside people on that journey can be a real challenge.  Today we talk with Jenny Akina, a Grief Share leader from Fresno. Her husband passed away years ago, and her journ...

Debt. College. Mortgages. Tithing. Roths. Wills.  Like it or not, money is a big part of our lives. A lot of us didn't get great training for the nuts and bolts of a healthy financial life, and it can be challenging to know where to begin--especially if you find yourself in a tough financial situation.  Today we talk with Nate Yoder from MB Foundation about all of this and more. How can and s...

After a few weeks off, we're BACK with a special two-part episode! Several big cultural events took place while we were away, and we wanted to spend some time as a family talking about the violence at the capitol and the current political landscape. Don Morris and Tim Sullivan guide us through what the MB statement of faith has to say about events like these and provide some comfort and encou...

Singles often get overlooked in today's churches. Sometimes churches inadvertently do or say hurtful things to single (no pun intended) them out, and we would all be wise to do a little check-up to ensure we're ministering to and meeting the needs of this important demographic in our churches. Main takeaway: Singles aren't weird or broken or misfits, and they need to be included and...

Gavin and Micah are leaders on staff at Axiom Church in Peoria, Arizona. Their church plant has seen a lot of success in recent years because of their desire to remain authentic and reach out to people who may otherwise feel left out of the traditional church.  Gavin and Micah are artists, and that artistic soul reveals itself in the culture at Axiom. Your church may not look or sound like theirs,...

Church plants often lead to powerful spiritual growth and revival. Plus, Jesus called us to go out into the world and make more and more disciples. As successful and rewarding as church planting can be, actually starting a new church in the real world comes with a unique set of challenges.  In today's episode we talk with two young MB pastors who have completed the church plant process and ar...

2020 has been quite the year. The combination of COVID and politics and race issues and natural disasters has been hard on all of us, and most of us could probably do a better job of taking care of ourselves.  Today we're joined by two MB therapists with tips on how to manage our mental health, care for each other, and even find ways to thrive--and not just survive--the messy world we find ou...

The world of politics seems to just get messier and messier. This is a big week in America as we prepare for the upcoming election. The issues represented by our votes are big and important, and most of us feel compelled to share our thoughts and our convictions in various forms online. While there's nothing inherently wrong with that, you've probably seen Christian friends post things t...

The Mennonite Brethren family is much larger than just those of us living in the U.S. We have thousands of MB brothers and sisters around the world, and we all need each other to be most effective. In this episode, Rudi Plett (the director of ICOMB) and Ed Boschman (USMB representative) share how God has been at work in these world conferences and how we can best work together to help spread the g...

The story of Jesus and the woman at the well is a well-known and favorite story from the Gospels, but how should that interaction affect our lives and our ministries today? Copper Hills Church in Peoria, Arizona used that story as a model of how they wanted to serve their community. After years of dreaming and hard work, they now oversee the Copper Hills Center for the Arts, which is an  awesome ...

Your age and the culture you were raised in play a huge role in how you see God and how you view the church. On this week's episode we dive into a study on all current generations, with a special highlight on the emerging generations of Millennials and Gen Z. What characteristics define them, how are they different from those who came before them, and what should the church be doing to reach...

Who exactly are the Mennonite Brethren? Where did we come from, and what makes us unique from the hundreds of other Christian denominations?  Don't miss this episode! Peggy Goertzen is the Director and Archivist of the Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies, and Wendell Loewen has been an MB pastor and professor for many years. Hear them blitz through our MB history and share practical handles...