Tag Archives: group leader podcast

[Podcast] A Christ-Centered Leader is Built to Last

What does it take to last in leadership? How do you finish well? In this episode, we’ll look at 4 challenges from the Apostle Paul for being a leader who’s built to last.

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(Episode legth: 19 minutes)

Show Notes

Main idea: A Christ-centered leader is built to last.

Challenge #1: Live in the gospel

  • When you see the wonders and beauty of the cross of Christ, when you let it wash over your heart and overwhelm your mind, then you’ll find your actions and thoughts conforming to the character of Christ
  • Keep drawing from the living water—the well that never runs dry—the grace of Jesus Christ

Challenge #2: Pass on the gospel

  • A public witness
    • A Christ-centered leader has a public faith
  • Intentional investment
    • Intentionally invest your life in others with time, energy, resources
    • Get serious about passing on what you’ve been given
  • Invest in the right people
    • Paul calls us to invest in those who are 1) faithful now, and 2) will be able to teach others later

Challenge #3: Endure for the gospel

  • A dedicated soldier
    • We are not simply participants in a religion but soldiers in a battle
  • A disciplined athlete
    • It takes discipline—and lots of it—to follow Jesus
  • A hard-working farmer
    • “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9 ESV)

Challenge #4: Remember the hero of the gospel

  • You are not the hero of the gospel—Jesus is
  • “When your tank is empty, remember that the tomb is empty” —Tony Merida

 

Download a full transcript of this episode.

[Podcast] A Christ-Centered Leader is Called by God and Formed by Family

The opening lines of the book of 2 Timothy show us two important foundations of Christ-centered leaders—they are called by God and formed by family. Listen to this episode to see how both of these effect your leadership some two thousand years after Paul first wrote to Timothy.

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Episode length: 25 minutes

Show Notes

Main idea: A Christ-centered leader is called by God and formed by family.

Called by God

  • Paul viewed his suffering as an honor
  • Both Paul and Timothy, then, were called and set apart by God to lead

Formed by family

  • Paul served God with a clear conscience
  • Timothy was the result of a lineage of faith
  • Your faith was given to you so it could be given through you
  • The church is a family of faith

Reflection Questions

  1. Were you called by God to lead?
  2. Do you serve God with a clear conscience? When you think of how you live your life, spend your time, treat your family, or do your job, is there anything that comes to mind that would prevent you from saying that your conscience is clear?
  3. Are you sure about your group’s faith in the same way? Do you know with sincerity if those in your group who profess to believe actually do? You can look at someone’s life, listen to their speech, and observe how they treat people and see if their faith is sincere. Do the people in your group who say they follow Jesus look anything like him?
  4. Do you think of your group members and others you know at church like they’re your brothers and sisters, with all that implies?

Download a full transcript of this episode.

[Podcast] The Making of a Christ-Centered Leader

Almost two thousand years ago, an aging Apostle Paul penned a letter with his final words of wisdom for a young leader in the church. This fledgling leader was timid and reluctant to lead. If you’ve ever found yourself asked to lead beyond your capacity, you don’t want to miss Paul’s instructions for the making of a Christ-centered leader.

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Episode length: 15 minutes

Show Notes

Main idea: The book of 2 Timothy shows us the making of a Christ-centered leader.

Brief intro to the book

  • Paul is writing to Timothy from prison, about to face his execution
  • Paul’s thoughts are on ensuring the faith is protected, taught, and passed on

3 observations about 2 Timothy

  1. Paul was a prisoner in Rome
    • He was being held in a dismal underground dungeon with a hole in the ceiling for light and air
    • Emperor Nero was trying to destroy Christianity
    • Sensing his fate, Paul penned this letter to Timothy, calling him to guard the faith and ensure its passing on
  2. Timothy was being thrust into a position of Christian leadership far beyond his natural capacity
    • Timothy enjoyed a special relationship with Paul
    • Paul left Timothy in charge of the church in Ephesus
    • Timothy was hopelessly unfit for these weighty responsibilities of leadership in the church
    • Three reasons why: 1) Timothy was relatively young for leadership in his day, 2) he was always sick, 3) he was timid and reluctant to lead.
  3. Paul’s preoccupation in writing to Timothy is passing on the gospel
    • Timothy was charged with protecting, teaching, and spreading this gospel to the next generation
    • The gospel—the good news—of Jesus was Paul’s primary concern, and he urges Timothy to make it his

Reflection Questions

  1. Do you identify with Timothy—in over your head and called to lead beyond your capacity?
  2. How could it be a good thing that you feel unfit for your leadership role? What might your weaknesses reveal? Where do they cause you to look for help?
  3. To know how God wants to use you, you must discover your strengths and your weaknesses. Your strengths hint at where God wants to use you, but your weaknesses reveal how he wants to use you. What are your wordly weaknesses? (Are you not that smart, uncomfortable around people, slow to understand, awkward, do you have a speech impediment or handicap?) How might God want to work through your weakness?
  4. How do Paul’s leadership concerns differ from yours?
  5. Paul told the Corinthian church that his primary concern was passing on the gospel. If you asked your group or others you lead what you primary concern is in leading them, what would they say?
This is part of a podcast I do for group leaders at my church. Browse the archives for more.

[Podcast] How to Find Hope in Suffering

If you’ve ever gone through a season of anxiety, depression, or the like, or you’re going through one right now, you’ll want to hear what we can learn from the book of Lamentations about how to find hope in suffering.

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(Episode length: 30 mins)

Show Notes

Main idea: God wants to cultivate in you a hope that is fixed on him.

Right knowledge of God leads to hope in God

  • You can express your frustration and confusion to God over how he chooses to execute his purposes
  • What we think of God affects how we live

God’s faithfulness encourages ours

  • When you’re in a dark pit of anxiety or depression, the knowledge that God’s love is fixed on you and is not dependent on what you do drive you to hope in his deliverance
  • No matter how terrible today is, God’s mercies start anew with the rising of the sun each day

Hope is developed through waiting

  • If we’re thinking like God, we should be praying, “Change me, not my circumstances”
  • We can choose to live in despair, or we can choose to live with hope

Hope is grounded in eternity

  • Though we are grieved today, that grief will not last forever, because he is a compassionate God and great is his faithfulness
  • God has set his sights on loving you, and his love that never stops is abundant
  • Ultimately, our hope in Christ is rooted in knowing we’ll spend eternity with Christ

Reflection Questions

  1. What comes to mind when you think about God?
  2. We should look to God for our hope, happiness, significance, and security. Where have you misplaced your hope and trust? (Maybe in your kids’ ability to behave or perform in school, your job or a project you’re working on, or affirmation from your spouse, family, or friends.)
  3. What are some ways God has shown you his faithfulness in the past 24 hours? In the past week? (Think of the groceries you just bought, the car you’re driving, your health, your paycheck, your kids, and most importantly your relationship with Jesus.)
  4. With your previous answers in mind, now what comes to mind when you think about God?

Download a full transcript of this episode.

This is part of a podcast I do for group leaders at my church. Browse the archives for more.

[Podcast] Do You Like the Person You’ve Become?

I know—that’s a heavy question. But all of us ask it of ourselves at some point, and I guarantee some of the people in your group are asking it right now. We come up with standards we think will make us into the person we want to be, but we end up feeling crushed beneath the weight of it all. So what hope is there when you feel like that? Listen to this week’s episode to find out.

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(Episode length: 15 mins)

Show Notes

Main idea: There’s only one Person who can bear the weight of living.

All of us are trying to live up to something

  • The tendency today is to set up some standard for yourself then judge your value and self-worth based on how well you think you’re performing next to your standards
  • We’re all bound to something; we’re all trying to live up to something

The weight of living is crushing

  • When you make your performance the measure of your self-worth and value, then you will always be crushed beneath the weight
  • Every one of our life-lies can and will be taken from us at some point because everything in this life is temporary

Jesus can bare the weight

  • Jesus didn’t promise for us not to be yoked to anything—he promised to give us rest, relief, from the weight of living, if we yoke ourselves to him instead
  • Jesus alone can bear the weight of living

This is part of a podcast I do for group leaders at my church. Browse the archives for more.