At Gateway in South Austin, several business leaders and entrepreneurs gather monthly to hear a “Ted talk” on topics important to us, and we discuss how to apply the message to our businesses before praying for each other.
Dr. Tracy Asamoah is a certified leadership coach, coach trainer, writer, and board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist. She shared on Overcoming the Stress Cycle inspired by insights from Burnout by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski.
1. Breathe (Job 33:4) 2. Move Your Body (1 Cor. 6:19-20) 3. Connect with Friends (Hebrews 10:24-25) 4. Have a Belly Laugh (Prov. 17:22) 5. Get Creative (Genesis 1:1) 6. Hug It Out (Rom. 12:10) 7. Have a Cry (Psalm 34:17)
Within Martin Luther’s lifetime, the experience of gathering in a local church changed dramatically. Before Luther there was no congregational singing, the homily was in Latin which no one spoke, and there were indulgences. All of that changed within his lifetime!
Could it again be time for reform and renewal?
We are living in a time of crisis of discipleship in the Western church.
Stages of Faith:
Recognition of God
Life of Discipleship
Productive Life The Wall – “the only way out is through”
Most Christians (and even pastors) never grow beyond stage 3.
Too often we don’t offer anything beyond stage 3 to our people.
Spiritual formation is the process which a person’s spirit is formed into the image of Jesus.
“The modern church is facing a crisis of spiritual formation, and the spiritual formation movement is facing a crisis of church.” – Brandon Shields
Now is an exciting time as more and more seem to be more open to Jesus than in the recent past.
The old model of attractional church is coming to an end.
There are two movements of the Spirit right now: The Quiet Revival and a desire for a “deeper life”
It seems that the same Spirit that is drawing a generation to the church is drawing people within the church to a closer walk with God.
This is what the Church is meant to be!
Paul writes in Ephesians 2:19-22:
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Members of God’s household are to become a Temple!
Four Convictions on Spiritual Formation:
1. Spiritual Formation (rightly understood) is the mission of the church.
What is Jesus doing right now? He is rescuing people from every nation and forming us into a new family!
“The aim of God in history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons with God himself at the very center of this community as its prime Sustainer and most glorious.”
– Dallas Willard
“The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose.”
– C.S. Lewis
2. There is no silver bullet, but there is a reliable pathway for transformation.
There is an ancient time-tested way to disciple people as demonstrated in the life of Jesus and the early church and the church fathers and mothers.
Prior to the 19th century, people went to the church for healing of the soul. Sadly, the Protestant side of the Church bought into consumerism and the enlightenment. Freud and others stepped into that void. As a result, people now go to psychologists and psychiatrists for healing their soul instead.
Discovering the path of drawing closer to God is like coming alive again! It’s not hidden, it’s just not known in our stream of the Church.
3. It has to start with us.
“As the leaders go, so goes the church.”
– Emotionally Healthy Discipleship
You cannot teach others how to take a Sabbath until after you start to live it out.
We don’t have to arrive before we teach it, but we need to
The best give the people you lead is your transforming self.
4. This calls for a new pastoral imagination.
The journey for us needs to include:
Personal Formation
Pastoral Imagination
Church Integration
It’s impossible for us not to repeat what we inherited from our
We all live at the mercy of our models.
We need to recapture the ancient ideas for what the church could be. Not much will change and everything will change.
Don’t underestimate the strength and importance of existing traditions. Don’t be too utopian.
The church is not a white board but a living community of broken people finding healing in God.
Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than they love the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest and sacrificial. God hates this wishful dreaming because it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. Those who dream of this idolized community demand that it be fulfilled by God, by others and by themselves. They enter the community of Christians with their demands set up by their own law, and judge one another and God accordingly. It is not we who build. Christ builds the church.
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We need to be the church reformed and always reforming.
Don’t rush this process! Just determine the best next step and do it!
Radical incrementalism – small, tiny, and patient change is the most profound.
“The patient ferment of the early church.”
– Alan Kreider
This journey will require patience. This is long obedience in the same direction!
This will require humility.
This will require faith.
But I must caution you in advance to prepare yourself for an acute paradigm shift. A return to the community orientation of early Christianity requires much more than a slight course correction in our weekly programming or the addition of another line item to the church budget. Contextualizing New Testament social values in our congregations requires us to significantly revise the way that we conceive of church. And there will inevitably be a cost to pay as leaders. For as is generally the case during seasons of renewal, those of us who have the most invested in “church as it is” will inevitably be called upon to sacrifice more than others in order to liberate our people to experience “church as it was” during the New Testament era.
What does it look like to lead a church that’s anchored in Jesus when everything around you feels like it’s being blown by political winds?
Dr. Derwin Gray, lead pastor of Transformation Church, joins us for an honest conversation about staying focused on the kingdom of God in a divided culture. Derwin challenges us to stop using a 250-year-old country as our biblical filter and instead anchor our churches in first-century gospel truth. The result?
A church family that’s unified and a living example of Hope to those around them. Derwin shares the real secret behind their multi-ethnic church community and why he refuses to let the spirit of the age put him in a box. He talks about his book Lit Up With Love and why evangelism isn’t about perfecting a sales pitch—it’s about living so authentically in God’s love that others are naturally drawn to what they see.
If you’re navigating leadership in these divisive times, this conversation will remind you that people are hungry for the Jesus of Scripture, not a left or right version.
12 I’m not implying that I’ve already received “resurrection,” or that I’ve already become complete and mature! No; I’m hurrying on, eager to overtake it, because Messiah Jesus has overtaken me. 13 My dear family, I don’t reckon that I have yet overtaken it. But this is my one aim: to forget everything that’s behind, and to strain every nerve to go after what’s ahead. 14 I mean to chase on towards the finishing post, where the prize waiting for me is the upward call of God in Messiah Jesus.
15 Those of us who are mature should think like this! If you think differently about it, God will reveal this to you as well. 16 Only let’s be sure to keep in line with the position we have reached.
17 So, my dear family, I want you, all together, to watch what I do and copy me. You’ve got us as a pattern of behavior; pay careful attention to people who follow it.
18 You see, there are several people who behave as enemies of the cross of the Messiah. I told you about them often enough, and now I’m weeping as I say it again. 19 They are on the road to destruction; their stomach is their god, and they find glory in their own shame. All they ever think about is what’s on the earth.
20 We are citizens of heaven, you see, and we’re eagerly waiting for the savior, the Lord, Messiah Jesus, who is going to come from there. 21 Our present body is a shabby old thing, but he’s going to transform it so that it’s just like his glorious body. And he’s going to do this by the power which makes him able to bring everything into line under his authority.
1Well then, my dear family—I miss you so much, you’re my joy and crown!—this is how you must stand firm in the Lord, my beloved people.
– Philippians 3:12-4:1
This passage is about how Jesus people need to be in the present moment.
The resurrection is worldview defining for Paul! The Creator will one day put everything right! God is the good and wise Creator and the just and loving covenant partner so then the promise is resurrection. Creation plus justice equals resurrection. We have proof of this in the resurrection of Jesus.
“We are citizens of heaven” does not mean “Jesus is coming to get us to take us there.” The Philippians were citizens of Rome where they were! They were not supposed to actually go to Rome. This phrase is more about our vocation. This is in line with Jesus’ prayer “on earth as it is in heaven.”
Psalm 8 is being quoted pointing towards Jesus, the One True Human, raising up other true humans in His image.
Phil. 3:12-16 Paul is talking about Christian maturity in the present time. Paul says his point in vs. 12, expands on it with an athletic metaphor in vs. 13-14, and then applies his point in vs. 15-16. Our present life must drawn our future reality as resurrected Messiah people. Paul has not already attained or received resurrection is what he means in Phil. 3:12 but this is obvious when we look at Phil. 3:20-21.Even in the midst of our suffering and trouble, we are to draw on this resurrected life to help us through it all. The mature among us know they are not yet mature.| Once again Paul reminds us this is all about changing how we think so that we think like the Messiah. “Stand firm” and keep in line with the message we have and the identity we have.
Phil. 3:17-4:1 As the new covenant people, we are to imitate Paul rather than the people who play fast and loose with ethics. If there comes a clash between their loyalty to the civic authorities and their loyalty to Jesus, we need to go the way of Jesus. Humility, chastity, and generosity are the virtues of Messiah people even though this was not part of the Roman culture. Paul’s heart was broken by those who were headed towards destruction. Perhaps he was thinking of the pagan society or the Judaizers. Most likely, his heart was broken by those who were supposed to be following Jesus but had turned away and were drifting back into a pagan lifestyle. In their thinking they set their mind on earthly things rather than the ways of Jesus and His Kingdom. They were living as if there was no heavenly kingdom. The created world is good as God’s creation, but we are not to worship the creation.
We must be careful to avoid “easy-believism” or offer assurance of salvation to all who raised their hand in an emotional moment as a child. We want to communicate clearly what the invitation of following Jesus means – becoming Messiah people who experience new life and bring new life. Jesus is the Savior, the Lord, and the King.
Jesus will come to deal with the problem not to take us away from it! He will come to complete the work of new creation!
When He comes, He will transform those who are Messiah people who are still alive and resurrect those have been with Him waiting for this glorious day of the Lord!
Christology opens up to give us a vision of humanity becoming what God had always intended. God already has our new body ready! God already knows the glorious and unique person He created me to be! Because of the promise of the resurrection and new creation, we are currently just a shadow of our future selves. We will be “glorified” which means installed as the royal priesthood of God’s new world. “Glorified” does not mean far away from earth in a far off place as glowing souls.
And then the reality of this broken world interrupts this beautiful vision of the new heaven and new earth…
2 I have a special appeal which goes jointly to Euodia and Syntyche: please, please, come to a common mind in the Lord. 3 (And here’s a request for you too, my loyal comrade: please help these women. They have struggled hard in the gospel alongside me, as have Clement and my other fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.) – Philippians 4:2-3
Though we don’t know why Euodia and Syntyche are in conflict, we absolutely know this situation as we have all faced this. Paul wanted them to reframe how they are thinking and think more like Jesus.
4 Celebrate joyfully in the Lord, all the time. I’ll say it again: celebrate! 5 Let everybody know how gentle and gracious you are. The Lord is near.
6 Don’t worry about anything. Rather, in every area of life let God know what you want, as you pray and make requests, and give thanks as well. 7 And God’s peace, which is greater than we can ever understand, will keep guard over your hearts and minds in Messiah Jesus.
8 For the rest, my dear family, these are the things you should think through: whatever is true, whatever is holy, whatever is upright, whatever is pure, whatever is attractive, whatever has a good reputation; anything virtuous, anything praiseworthy. 9 And these are the things you should do: what you learned, received, heard and saw in and through me. And the God of peace will be with you. – Philippians 4:4-9
The God of peace wants people to be reconciled as He is the God who reconciles! (See also Romans 15:33) The eschatological reality of Jesus being with us should shape how we live.
Get the transformed mind and other things will fall into line; therefore, rejoice! Celebrate! Followers of Jesus are to be celebration people! Celebration rinses the mind of the nagging doubts and fears. Celebration opens new neural pathways for God to do His new thing in us and through us! The world around should know us gentle and gracious!
Paul tells us not to worry about anything (even though he often expresses his anxieties in his letters). This is a spiritual discipline we need to continue to work out in our lives. God will translate our stumbling prayers into what we really need. He is with us! He is the Source of our peace!
Phil. 4:8-9 There are lots of virtues we should pursue. Celebrate God’s goodness wherever we find it in our world AND have a commitment to the holy way of Jesus as Paul was trying to live out as an example to them. Both are important!
We can become slaves to our screens. Most of the world is telling us other things to be thinking about (fake news and conspiracy theories) other than the One who is Truth.
Paul’s example (along with Timothy and Epaphroditus) includes holiness, kindness to the poor, a knowing of Jesus, and a witness to the world.
19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I in turn may be encouraged by getting news about you. 20 I have nobody else of his quality: he will care quite genuinely about how you are. 21 Everybody else, you see, looks after their own interests, not those of Messiah Jesus. 22 But you know how Timothy has proved himself. Like a child with a father he has worked as a slave alongside me for the sake of the gospel. 23 So I’m hoping to send him just as soon as I see how it will turn out with me. 24 And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come very soon as well.
25 But I did think it was necessary to send Epaphroditus to you. He is my brother; he has worked alongside me and fought alongside me; and he’s served as your agent in tending to my needs. 26 He was longing for you all, you see, and he was upset because you heard that he was sick. 27 And he really was sick, too; he nearly died. But God took pity on him—yes, and on me as well, so that I wouldn’t have one sorrow piled on top of another.
28 This has made me all the more eager to send him, so that you’ll see him again and be glad, and my own anxieties will be laid to rest. 29 So give him a wonderfully happy welcome in the Lord, and hold people like him in special respect. 30 He came close to death through risking his life for the Messiah’s work, so that he could complete the service to me that you hadn’t been able to perform.
-Philippians 2:19-30
Paul commends Timothy and Epaphroditus to the Philippians. Timothy had traveled with Paul to Philippi in the past and the Philippians had sent Epaphroditus with the money for Paul. Perhaps Paul was making sure the Philippians knew that Epaphroditus had not stolen the money since he had not yet returned! Instead he had gotten sick but was now better.
Paul’s Judean Context The Judaizers wanted the Gentiles to follow the law starting with getting circumcised in order to become followers of Jesus. Paul refers to these Judaizers as “dogs.” Jews often called Gentiles “dogs.” Paul also says they are doing bad works rather than good works as they suggest. Paul says they are not the “cutting round people” but the “cut off people.” He may be referencing the way the priests of Baal mutilated themselves when going up against Elijah. Paul insists followers of Jesus are the circumcision and children of Abraham! (See also Romans 2:25-29) Followers of Jesus have access to the Spirit of God and none of this has anything to do with moral good works or ethnic heritage. This happens because of what Jesus has done for us and our faith in His faithfulness.
Justification and Being in Christ Paul deals with this more in other letters, but he includes this here as well. The word “righteousness” is a HUGE word that has picked up lots of baggage along the way. Does it mean covenant faithfulness and loyalty or moral goodness? It means those things and so much more!
So then, my dear family, it comes down to this: celebrate in the Lord! It’s no trouble for me to write the same things to you, and it’s safe for you.
2 Watch out for the dogs! Watch out for the “bad works” people! Watch out for the “incision” party, that is, the mutilators! 3 We are the “circumcision,” you see—we who worship God by the spirit, and boast in Messiah Jesus, and refuse to trust in the flesh.
4 Mind you, I’ve got good reason to trust in the flesh. If anyone else thinks they have reason to trust in the flesh, I’ve got more. 5 Circumcised? On the eighth day. Race? Israelite. Tribe? Benjamin. Descent? Hebrew through and through. Torah-observance? A Pharisee. 6 Zealous? I persecuted the church! Official status under the law? Blameless.
7 Does that sound as though my account was well in credit? Well, maybe; but whatever I had written in on the profit side, I calculated it instead as a loss—because of the Messiah. 8 Yes, I know that’s weird, but there’s more: I calculate everything as a loss, because knowing Messiah Jesus as my Lord is worth far more than everything else put together! In fact, because of the Messiah I’ve suffered the loss of everything, and I now calculate it as trash, so that my profit may be the Messiah, 9 and that I may be discovered in him, not having my own covenant status defined by Torah, but the status which comes through the Messiah’s faithfulness: the covenant status from God which is given to faith. 10 This means knowing him, knowing the power of his resurrection, and knowing the partnership of his sufferings. It means sharing the form and pattern of his death, 11 so that somehow I may arrive at the final resurrection from the dead.
– Philippians 3:1-11
Phil. 3:1-11 Paul is talking about how God’s covenant people are to live. He is not talking about what we must do to get to heaven as so many Westerners think. The inner heart of covenant status is to KNOW JESUS! This is the beating heart of our relationship.
The meaning of “pistis Cristou” is “the faithfulness of the Messiah” rather than “faith in the Messiah” as what is meant so our “faith in the faithfulness of the Messiah” is the more accurate meaning.
Resurrection is the Jewish aspiration! No one else believed this (and really only the Pharisees within Judaism held onto this hope). God has done for Jesus what He promises to do for all of His children. Belief in Jesus makes us Messianic people. Jesus expressed and lived out a new way to be human which meant fully surrendered to God including giving His life. Jesus lived out and experienced the Messianic obedience of the cross, the Messianic vindication of the resurrection, and the Messianic enthronement of the ascension.
Paul sets aside his elite Jewish status to be a Messianic man. Perhaps he is hinting at the need for the Philippians to set aside their special Roman status. Paul goes through his “insignia of honor” which was a common thing to do in their culture. He lists 7 things – 6 of which had nothing to do with his own moral goodness.
Paul tells his own story to communicate that even he had to die to the law so that he might live for God. He is wanting to see others like him come to faith in Jesus as well. He is not boasting! He is inviting others like him to follow Jesus as the Messiah.
So much of this is grounded in the Christology of Phil. 2:6-11 and Jesus’ invitation to “take up your cross and follow me.”
Just as Jesus did not consider his equality with God as something to exploit, Paul does not consider his elite Judaism heritage as something for him to exploit. These “successes” are not considered “loss.”
Phil. 3:8-11 The personal cost for Paul included losing his family and comfort or identity in his ethnic heritage. But all the loss was worth it to be with Jesus! Paul experienced Jesus’s love for him. There is a deeply personal note of friendship and understanding that Jesus is the King! The Lord of the whole world! The promised Messiah! All that was honoring to him in the past was now just like trash, what you find in the dump.
Knowing Jesus is deeply personal, but it should not remain private. We are to be those who proclaim this opportunity to others! We are to live as royal family and ambassadors to the world as Jesus is King of the whole world!
Roman emperors exploited their power. Jesus, the True King, suffered for us.
If you are in Messiah then you are part of the innermost circle of God’s people. That’s how Paul knows we are the circumcision. We have covenant status with God (diakosune) because of the (pistis) faithfulness of the Messiah himself and our faith in Him. We now have the courage and confidence to be the Messiah’s people in our broken and dark world. We live joyfully in our world rather than hiding in a corner from the world.
The Messiah’s people do not need to wait to find out what our status in with Him. When Paul writes “that I may be discovered in Him” (Phil. 3:9), this is a declaration of his present status not just something to come in the future.
We are not like the Judean community whose identity is based on ethnicity but the Messianic community whose identity is based on who Jesus is and who we are in Him.
We cannot allow ourselves to be sidelined! We are in Him – the One who is King of the whole world! The One whose Kingdom is here!
In this transformative conversation, renowned theologian Dr. N.T. Wright challenges the Western church’s Platonized view of salvation and calls pastors back to the Bible’s actual vision: new heaven and new earth. Discover why understanding resurrection, not just afterlife, changes everything about how we live, lead, and witness today.
Dr. Wright unpacks Ephesians’ cosmic vision, explains how Western Christianity moralized salvation instead of vocation, and shows why the church is God’s multicultural project displaying new creation to watching principalities and powers.
🔥5 Key Takeaways:
The Bible emphasizes a transformative hope for creation, not an escape from it.
The church has a responsibility to engage in social justice and beauty.
God’s kingdom is already present and active in the world.
Misunderstandings about God’s anger can distort the gospel message.
The church should model unity and diversity as a reflection of God’s kingdom as seen in Ephesians.
JOIN US FOR OUR 2026 PASTORAL COHORT WITH N.T. WRIGHT! More info here.
THE INNOVATIVE CHURCH LEADER PODCAST AND GIVEAWAYS:
We want to help pastors experience and bring renewal through Spirit-led innovation, reaching new people, and making disciples who make disciples.
Be sure to sign up for our email newsletter at innovativechurchleaders.org/join-us for a chance to win future book giveaways and assessments!
“I feel close to people in my local area.” – 63% of Gen Z church goers agree 25% of non-church goers agree
How We Approach Church With Gen Z Is Changing
Seeker sensitive churches morphed into attractional churches which were all copying each other
Trend One
Preaching is becoming less informational and more facilitational. Information used to be scarce but community was everywhere, now the opposite is true.
Gen Z is ready for experiences that lead to transformation. They are drowning in information. They are not looking for an echo of the culture but an alternative to the culture. The preacher’s job is facilitation. We are not the star of the show. God is the star.
It is not manipulation but evocation.
Trend Two
The Church’s future direction is human connection. Authenticity is an increasingly rare and increasingly valued attribute. We appreciate people’s strengths, but we resonate with their weaknesses.
IRL > Online
Example: Church of the Valley offers burgers and pizza at cost just to try to get people to the church. These food kiosks also facilitate community. There are frisbees and kids playing. They have 55,000 people over the weekends.
What do you need to do to connect people on Sunday and off-Sunday?
Trend Three
Evangelism is getting bolder.
Who are you talking to Jesus about personally?
Reaching Gen Z is more about surrender than strategy, a posture not a program.
Gen Z
Luke LeFevre, founder of Holy Work and Author joined Carey and they shared some of the following:
How are we creating an environment for our people to encounter God?
If we are convicted over something it is more likely for those with us to be convicted as well.
They want to be invited into something worth living for and worth dying for.
66-72% of Gen Alpha said they would attend a church if they were invited. Get Gen Z and Gen Alpha to invite their friends on a Sunday and include a proclamation of the Gospel with an opportunity to respond with an altar call.
Gen Z wants raw and hard truths.
A bunch of people coming to Christ would not be revival. Revival is the return of the manifest presence of God, and even a crushing reality of the fear of God.
When God is in a room, people cannot help but repent because His holiness.
The saturated presence of God in a community
There is a despair in Gen Z that is turning into a desperation that is causing them to turn to God. This will get worse and worse. Within the next decade we could go from 10% of people responding to 40% responding.
“Barring a move of God the church in the United States is irrevocably in decline” was what people have long believed. Stats now say otherwise.
In the next 60 years we will see 100,000,000 people come to Christ in North America.
This is the moment to go all in on the Gospel.
Gen Z loves the challenge of being asked to repent, and it is in that repentance they experience forgiveness and the presence of God!
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” – Matthew 24:9-14
The challenge of the hour will be to keep your love for God hot! The best way to serve Gen Z is to keep your heart burning for Jesus. Do whatever it takes to stay there.
Losing our first love is a lamp-removing offense. That means the removal of God’s manifest presence.
Five Major Disruptions We’re Facing (6-36 months):
1. White-collar job loss (“a blood bath” – Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei) 2. Rise of the super-elite (top 10% in the U.S. spend almost 50% of what is spent) 3. Deepfake 4. Brain rot 5. Artificial intimacy
So what do we do?
The church’s future direction is human connection.
Elevate relationships.
Sundays can’t keep being gatherings of randomly assembled people.
Connect people with one another. (Make sure it doesn’t all go through the communicator).
No staff can handle the depth of human need. But the church can.
We need to train the body of Christ to care for the body of Christ.
Model authenticity.
Your advantage isn’t polish – its presence: transparent, human, and honest.
No one is better positioned to provide what the world needs than the church.
As the world becomes artificial, the church should become more human.
The church’s future direction is human connection.
They discuss Jimmy’s ministry serving the poor and shares about the importance of stepping out of comfort zones and entering the pain of those in need.
1. You Can’t Reach the Poor from a Distance—You Have to Live Among Them Real ministry begins when we leave our comfort zones and move into the neighborhoods that need us most.
2. Compassion Is Entering the Pain of Others True compassion means walking with people in their suffering, not just serving from a distance. It’s about presence, empathy, and solidarity.
3. Relationships Are the Heartbeat of Community Transformation Programs don’t change lives—people do.
4. Theological Depth Fuels Real-World Impact When grounded in Scripture, justice and mercy become powerful expressions of the Gospel.
5. Experiential Learning in Hard Places Will Change How You Lead Challenging environments can radically reshape our vision, leadership, and love for people.
THE INNOVATIVE CHURCH LEADER PODCAST AND GIVEAWAYS:
We want to help pastors experience and bring renewal through Spirit-led innovation, reaching new people, and making disciples who make disciples.
Be sure to sign up for our email newsletter at innovativechurchleaders.org/join-us for a chance to win future book giveaways and assessments!
In this episode of the Innovative Church Leaders podcast, I interview Christine Caine who shares her insights on the global movement of God, the importance of discipleship, and the church’s role in justice and mission work.
Christine’s personal testimony has led her work to start A21 which seeks to end slavery. She highlights the transformative power of faith and the urgency of action in today’s society.
Join us and Christine at the Beyond Us Conference in October 2025 at Baylor University.
🔥 Top 5 Takeaways:
1. “God is Moving Around the World—Are We Ready?”People are coming to faith in surprising places across the globe. This global momentum is a wake-up call for church leaders in the West to reignite their passion for the mission of Jesus.
2. “Gen Z Doesn’t Want Fluff—They Want Real Answers”Young people today are spiritually hungry but skeptical of surface-level religion. The church must engage with deep, honest, and relevant discipleship that actually speaks to their lives.
3. “Justice Isn’t a Trend—It’s Biblical”Justice is not just a social movement; it’s central to God’s heart and mission. Churches that embrace this will be more aligned with Scripture and more effective in reaching their communities.
4. “Your Story Could Be Someone’s Turning Point”Personal testimonies still carry incredible power. Sharing your faith story—even casually—can unlock conversations and transformation in people who are spiritually searching.
5. “The Church’s Best Days Are Ahead—If We Focus on Jesus”Despite challenges, the church can thrive again. By returning to Jesus at the center, we’ll find clarity, courage, and direction for the future.
THE INNOVATIVE CHURCH LEADER PODCAST AND GIVEAWAYS:
We want to help pastors experience and bring renewal through Spirit-led innovation, reaching new people, and making disciples who make disciples.
Be sure to sign up for our email newsletter at innovativechurchleaders.org/join-us for a chance to win future book giveaways and assessments!
