The global coronavirus pandemic, the global outrage over racial injustice, and the global recession have exposed us, and put pressure on us as the church, in uncomfortable ways. We must change, for example, the scorecard for success from attendance and large gatherings, to a deep transformational discipleship for every single person in our church. But this deep transformational discipleship must start with us. This podcast is my passionate plea to respond to God’s invitation to take your next steps to deepen your relationship with him, integrating more deeply into your life, practices such as silence, solitude, Scripture, Sabbath-keeping, spiritual companions, and healthy self-care. I am increasingly alarmed as I talk with pastors and leaders. We are busier, more anxious, and less anchored than before these crisis – not less. Yet I believe God is inviting us to offer a new kind of prophetic leadership to those we lead out of a deep place with. Read more.

In this podcast, I address a fundamental discipleship issue confronting the church today in the midst of the global awakening around racial injustice – grief and loss. Scripture offers us a radically different approach to suffering than the world. Instead of avoiding or numbing our pain, God invites us to embrace our grief and losses directly, feeling them, wait on him with them, and allow new things to be birthed out of the old. Jesus shed his blood to birth a world-wide, multiracial, multicultural family that transcends all national, social, racial, economic barriers. This breaking down of hostility and hatred between races, cultures, genders, and social classes was one of the central tasks of the early church. It is one of ours as well. One key to get there, however, is embracing the grief and loss of racial injustice – both now and through history. When we follow him in this painful path, he. Read more.

In the wake of George Floyd’s death, Americans and people around the globe are expressing outrage and grief on a level I’ve never seem in my lifetime. It appears to be a moment in which God is doing something significant in the world and the church. In this podcast, I offer one of the major contributions of EH Discipleship to this issue–the genogram as a tool to unlock the roots of generational racism in our families, cultures, countries, and institutions. Geri and I spent over 17 years developing this tool because of its unique power to help us get at roots in our discipleship with and for Jesus. I look at my particular genogram from the perspective of how issues of race were handled, and what was passed on to me growing up as an Italian American. I then talk about my journey as a new believer and, eventually a pastor, with bridging race,. Read more.

In this podcast, I introduce the elements of one way to move from traditional devotions to transformative devotions through the integration of the practice of the Daily Office. In particular, I focus on the four elements of this ancient treasure that utterly transformed my spiritual life: Rhythms Silence Focus on Communion Flexibility/Freedom I focus on only the first two in this podcast – rhythms and silence. I begin by offering tips to get started on developing a rhythm of stopping to be with Jesus each day. I then do the same with silence, sharing ideas on how to be still before the Lord – be it for two minutes or twenty. Persevering in the practice of silence and stillness as core to your time with God, however, is incredibly challenging – especially in the beginning. So, I close with ten reasons to encourage you to persevere and to not quit. They are: We know. Read more.

In this podcast I talk about one key, often overlooked, ingredient of mature leaders – prudence. As Proverbs says, “…she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.   Prov. 3:13-15 This is a topic particularly important today with the many conspiracy theories and misinformation around COVID-19 reaching new levels of intensity -both inside and outside the church.  But my passion around this biblical theme comes from a deeper source – that of making so many foolish decisions in my own leadership. How many times did I appoint volunteers and staff too quickly without asking hard questions? How often did I add a new ministry without thinking through the support it would need? How many times did I say yes to a commitment without looking at my calendar? In this podcast, I unpack the word prudence from the book. Read more.

In this podcast, I begin with the reminder that success is becoming the person God has called us to become and doing what God calls us to do. In other words, detaching from the outcomes and circumstances we want, and surrendering to God and his will, is success — regardless of where that takes us. Most of us want the world to unfold in a certain way – clinging to things we love and resisting those we don’t like. Covid-19 has introduced us into a reality that highlights our attachments and invites us to a deep place of surrender. After contrasting Mary’s surrendered will with the apostle Peter and his self-will, I invite you to three things in this podcast: Integrate Silence/Stillness and Surrender as Core to Your Prayer Life.  Surrender to the “Dark ways of God” by Detaching from our Small Ideas of Him. Lead for Jesus out of a Deep Place of. Read more.