Podcasts about North Point Community Church

Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. We're talking with Tensley Almand, President and CEO of Atlanta Mission, the largest and longest-running provider of services for people experiencing homelessness in the Atlanta metro area. Founded in 1938 as a soup kitchen during the Great Depression, Atlanta Mission now operates four campuses, serving over 800 men, women, and children nightly through programs that provide housing, recovery support, and Christ-centered transformation. How do you lead through complexity while staying true to your calling? Tensley shares leadership lessons from his transition from church ministry to leading a $20 million nonprofit—insights that apply to every pastor or church leader navigating growth, complexity, or change. Moving beyond shelter to transformation. // While many think of Atlanta Mission as only an emergency shelter, over 60% of its beds are dedicated to long-term transformational programs that address root causes of homelessness. The yearlong program includes counseling, trauma recovery, life skills, and vocational training. Clients complete a four-week “Next Steps” program focused on relational, emotional, and workplace health. The results are remarkable: 70% of graduates maintain stable housing and employment a year later. Learning to lead by listening. // When Tensley stepped into his CEO role, he faced the challenge of succeeding a leader who had guided the organization from crisis to stability. Rather than arriving as the expert, Tensley began as what he calls the “Chief Question Officer.” He met with every employee to ask four key questions: What's right? What's wrong? What's missing? What's confusing? The responses revealed a clear need for strategic focus. Building clarity and focus. // Using that input, Tensley led a yearlong process to create a strategic roadmap—a seven-year plan that defines the organization's mission, values, and measurable outcomes. When there's clarity in an organization, saying ‘no' becomes easy and saying ‘yes' becomes difficult. The new strategy gave Atlanta Mission a unified framework for decision-making, with every initiative measured against the same mission. Measuring what matters. // Data fuels care. In order to better track client progress, the team at Atlanta Mission built dashboards, measuring not only how many people they serve but how lives are changing. When graduation rates dipped from 70% to 45%, they discovered the cause wasn't program failure but economic change. That same approach can transform church leadership. Churches measure nickels and noses, but what if we measured progression—how many first-time guests become group members, or how many volunteers grow into leaders? Partnership through presence. // Atlanta Mission thrives through partnerships with churches across the city. Tensley explains that relational poverty—people lacking healthy connections—is as debilitating as material poverty. Rather than only focusing on “do for” service projects, he encourages churches to create “be with” opportunities: hosting birthday parties, sharing meals, or building relationships with families at Atlanta Mission. Encouragement for leaders. // Reflecting on his own journey, Tensley reminds church leaders who feel stretched or uncertain that often you’ll overestimate what you can accomplish in 90 days, but underestimate what you can do in a year or two. Take time to listen, build unity, and stay faithful in the process. Over time, that faithfulness becomes transformation—both in the people you lead and in yourself. To learn more about Atlanta Mission, visit atlantamission.org or email to connect or schedule a visit. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I'm grateful for that. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they're extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Episode Transcript Rich Birch — Hey friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. I am so glad that you have decided to tune in. We’ve got a real honored to have an incredible guest on today’s episode. We’ve got Tensley Almand with us. He is the president and CEO of Atlanta Mission. Rich Birch — Now, if you don’t know Atlanta Mission, I’m not sure where you’ve been. You really should know. This organization was founded in 1938 as a soup kitchen to feed men who were displaced by the Great Depression. And they just keep chugging along. They do incredible work. They now serve Metro Atlanta’s largest homeless population and bring hope in the face of homelessness, poverty, and addiction. Rich Birch — Prior to serving at Atlanta Mission, he was in vocational ministry for 20 plus years, the last 12 of those, as we were just saying in the pre-call. He said, felt like he had the the best job in the world, was a lead pastor at Decatur City Church, one of the eight Atlanta City, Atlanta area campuses of North Point Ministries. Tensley, welcome. So glad you’re here. Tensley Almand — Man, so good to be here. Thanks so much for having me. I’ve been looking forward to this conversation. Rich Birch — No, this is going to be good. I’m excited. Why don’t you kind of fill in the picture? Tell us a little bit more of your background and tell us a bit more about Atlanta Mission, that kind of thing. Just help set the table. Tensley Almand — Yeah, so I’m a native Atlantan. I grew up here, born and raised just north of the city. Yeah. Only child. Parents still live north of the city in the same town that I grew up in. Rich Birch — Nice. Tensley Almand — My wife and I, we have four kids. We have been married now, just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary… Rich Birch — Congratulations. That’s great. Tensley Almand — …which makes me feel old, but it’s it’s it’s all good. So four kids, three boys, little girl, they’re all just amazing, doing great things and in their worlds. We live over in city of Decatur. So ah for those that don’t know, just kind of just right outside of downtown Atlanta. So we feel like we’re living in the heart of the city. Rich Birch — Cool. Tensley Almand — Like you said, I spent 20 plus years on the church side of ministry, which you had told younger me that that was going to be my future, I probably would have laughed at you. Grew up in a family that church just frankly, wasn’t that important to us. My mom gets mad if I say I didn’t grow up in a Christian home, um, which, you know, looking back, I think is really true. I just grew up in a home that we didn’t feel like the church was for us. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — And so, um, after, you know, meeting Jesus in college, giving my life to him, which is a whole nother really cool story, started down the path towards ministry. And eventually several years into that kind of looked up and thought, I don’t know what I’m doing. Like I’m working at these churches that I don’t even want to attend. Tensley Almand — Like remember this very pivotal meeting in my life where our pastor asked us, he’s like, if I didn’t pay you to go to church here, is this the church you would attend? Rich Birch — Yes. Tensley Almand — And every one of us said no. Rich Birch — Oh, gosh. Oh, my goodness. Tensley Almand — And they were all okay with it. Rich Birch — Oh, no. Tensley Almand — And I just like something broke in me. Rich Birch — Oh, no. Oh, no. Yeah. Tensley Almand — And I remember going home and I told my wife, I was like, I can’t do this anymore. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — And so I started the process of just trying to find a job. But the problem is I’ve genuinely felt called by God to ministry. And so God used that to, to lead us down the path of starting Decatur City Church. And, um, our whole dream was just to create a church that people who didn’t like church would love to attend. Tensley Almand — And so, which is really cool. Again, it’s probably a whole other episode, but really cool because we got to do that in one of the most unchurched cities in Atlanta. 70% of the people who live in Decatur ah don’t go to a church. And Decatur, for those who don’t know, small little town right outside of a big city. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — But literally, there’s over 600 churches in that town. So we used to say all the time, nobody wakes up on Sunday wondering where a church is. They just wake up wondering if church is for them. Rich Birch — Right, right. Tensley Almand — And so that’s, that’s the thing we tried to solve. Right. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — And so did that for 12 years, thought I would do that with my whole life. Just an amazing season. And then God called me out of there to Atlanta Mission. And so for those who don’t know, and we can get into that story here if you want to, but, for those who don’t know, Atlanta mission, like you said, it’s the largest and longest running provider of services… Rich Birch — Wow. Tensley Almand — …for men, women, and children experiencing homelessness in our city. So for perspective, what that means is on any given night, we’ll have about 800 men, women, or children who are staying with us. Rich Birch — Wow. Wow. That’s a significant operation. That’s, that’s incredible. Tensley Almand — It’s a significant operation. Rich Birch — Yeah. Tensley Almand — It represents that in our city, that represents about 35 to 40% of all the shelter beds in Atlanta. Rich Birch — Wow. Wow. Tensley Almand — So that’s, it’s a, it’s pretty remarkable opportunity that we do that across three campuses in downtown Atlanta. Rich Birch — Okay. Tensley Almand — One for men, two for women and children. Rich Birch — Yeah. Tensley Almand — And then we have this really cool drug and alcohol addiction facility out near Athens, which is about an hour outside of town, on 550 acre farm that is just beautiful ah for men who are in recovery from addiction. Rich Birch — Wow. Oh my goodness. Huh. Tensley Almand — So yeah. Rich Birch — Yeah. That’s, that’s incredible. i’m I’m glad you started with the kind of community size that you’re you’re serving. That’s, that’s amazing. Give me a sense of the operation from like a, you know, total number of staff, other kinds of metrics. Like I’m just trying to, I know, you know, you’re not a kind of person that’s going to brag about that kind of stuff, but just trying to help people kind of place, because this is a significant operation, friends. Atlanta Mission is it’s a world-class organization doing great work and honored to have you on this the show. But people might not be ah kind of aware of the the scale of it. Give us a bit more sense of that. Tensley Almand — Yeah, no, it’s a, it’s a good question. I appreciate you asking. Cause yeah, I definitely don’t, I don’t want to, I don’t like going there, but… Rich Birch — Yes. And it’s even just, it’s a funny thing to, it’s a funny thing to even like, it’s like, well, we’re really good. It’s like, it’s like, well, yeah, it’s a tough thing you’re doing. So it’s like, man, it’s a weird thing to kind of try to but get ah your arms around. How, how do we talk about this? Yeah. Tensley Almand — Yeah. So let me kind of give you scope and then let me talk a little bit about what we’re doing. So scope is ah we’re we’re about a $20 million dollars a year organization. Rich Birch — Yep. Yep. Tensley Almand — And so just like every church out there, that means, you know, we start July as the start of our fiscal year and we start at zero… Rich Birch — Yep. Tensley Almand — …and then we go and raise $20 million dollars… Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — …to meet the need of our expenses. And we do that through mainly private and and corporate donations. And so… Rich Birch — Yep. Tensley Almand — …we’re almost a hundred percent privately funded this year. Rich Birch — Oh, wow. Tensley Almand — We, we, we took our very first government grant. Rich Birch — Huh. Tensley Almand — But I mean, it’s a $250,000 grant, which is not insignificant, but on the scope of 20 million. So that kind of gives everybody an idea. So you’re talking about, uh, you know, thousands of donors who come alongside of us to partner with us, which is just amazing. Rich Birch — Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. Tensley Almand — We serve about 800 men, women, and children, like I said, Rich Birch — Yeah. Tensley Almand — And we have right at about 180 staff… Rich Birch — Wow. Tensley Almand — …who are who are either you know full-time equivalents basically here with us. And that’s across four different campuses. So we’re essentially like a multi-site operation. So I’m sitting here at my office today, which is basically our mission support center. Rich Birch — Yeah. Tensley Almand — So your accounting, HR, development team, all of your infrastructure, and we support the work that’s happening all over our city. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — And then we also have three thrift stores across Northeast Georgia that’s included in that head count. Rich Birch — Wow. Tensley Almand — And so a little bit of that 20 million that I was telling you about that that revenue comes from sales as well. And so, so yeah, it’s pretty broad organization. And then what we do, a lot of people think about you know Atlanta Mission, especially here in our city, and they just think emergency shelter. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — Certainly what we do. But of those 800 beds, roughly only 40% of those go towards emergency shelter. And so if you… Rich Birch — Oh, really? OK. Tensley Almand — Yeah. And so if you show up at our door and you just need safety, security, stability, um, you’re just trying to like get off the street… Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — …we have a program called Find Hope… Rich Birch — Yep. Tensley Almand — …and it’s a 30-day program. You can stay with us rent free 30 days. You know, bed meals, showers, really, really, really, really low expectation on those clients. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — It’s just like, hey, we’re here to meet your needs. Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s cool. Tensley Almand — The other 60% of our beds go towards what we call our transformational model… Rich Birch — Okay. Tensley Almand — …where we provide complete wraparound services. It’s about a year long program. Rich Birch — Wow. Tensley Almand — You show up and we’re going to try to help you get healthy relationally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, vocationally. We’ve got counselors, we’ve got advocates, we’ve got social workers. You have a whole team… Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — …that works with you, walks with you for a year… Rich Birch — Wow. Tensley Almand — …depending on really your core traumas, what’s caused your homelessness. And our main goal, our mission is to transform through Christ the lives of those who are experiencing homelessness, poverty, and addiction. Tensley Almand — And so what we want to do, what that means to us is over the course of that year, Um, we want to give you the tools to identify your traumas, understand those traumas and ultimately break the cycles so that you don’t ever have to come back to our doors again. We we tell our clients, we love you, but we don’t ever want to see you again. Like this is just like, like, how do we… Rich Birch — Yes. Yes. This was a phase of your life, hopefully, right? Tensley Almand — Yeah. Rich Birch — That’s the goal. Tensley Almand — How do we end that for you? And so our program goes through all the counseling, all the services, and it wraps up in a vocational training program we call Next Steps that… Rich Birch — Wow. That’s amazing. Tensley Almand — …that gives our clients the soft skills they need to not just get a job. Because here’s here’s what’s really cool. You you would get this. Our clients are really good at getting jobs. But like so many people out there, we’re terrible at keeping a job. Rich Birch — Right. Right. Right. Yes. Tensley Almand — Like people don’t know the skills needed to like keep a job. Like how do you manage conflict? Rich Birch — Right, right. Tensley Almand — What do you do with that boss who’s just overbearing? How do you have normal workplace conversations? Rich Birch — Yes. Tensley Almand — And so we have a ah four week training program that gives our clients those skills. And what we’re finding is that for the clients who go all the way through our program, 70% of those who graduate our program, they still have a house or a living situation a year later. Rich Birch — Wow. Tensley Almand — And they are maintaining that job a year later. Rich Birch — Wow. That’s incredible. Tensley Almand — And so it’s just been a remarkable, remarkable journey. And so we’ve got some transitional housing in there… Rich Birch — Yep. Tensley Almand — …where you graduate our program, you stay with us, we help you save up and and we help you find an apartment. And then when you’re ready financially and you’re you’re stable, we help you move into that that apartment. Tensley Almand — And what’s really cool, probably one of my favorite things is for alumni is that year after you graduate, you get a retention coach with us and they walk with you. And they just help you navigate life because, man, when you’ve stayed somewhere for a year and then you kind of come back in and you’re like, oooh, the pressures of the world are on me. That first year is so tough. Rich Birch — So hard. Yeah. Tensley Almand — Yeah. Yeah. Rich Birch — Well, that’s cool. I appreciate you sharing that. and And yeah, even church leaders that are listening in, um man, ah there whether if you’re in the Atlanta area, you definitely should reach out to Atlanta Mission. Rich Birch — But even in your neighborhood, like there are, this is why you shouldn’t be trying to invent this yourself as a church. There are these are incredibly complex issues that you know when I heard all of the the different things you’re doing to surround people, try to help them, um that’s that’s inspiring. That’s amazing. Rich Birch — Well, I’d love to pivot and talk about kind of your experience as you’ve transitioned in, like some try to extract some leadership lessons. It’s been said that one of the first things that leaders do is define reality or gain clarity for their for their organization. Rich Birch — When you first started early on in your role, what were you listening for or look for that told you, maybe there’s some areas here that just aren’t very clear? What did you see as you were, you know, we got to bring some more clarity in the organization? Were there things you kind of saw that that made you think, oh, we maybe this is some areas we need to gain some better clarity as an organization? Tensley Almand — Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think, you know, every leadership transition is different. One of the advantages I had is that what my predecessor was leaving me was so much different than what he inherited. Rich Birch — That’s good. Tensley Almand — And so he inherited an organization that was in crisis. He handed me an organization that was thriving. But, that organization really was, and he was, and it’s it’s all kind of wrapped up in our story, is that it was time for him to retire. It was time for him to move on. And so the whole organization was asking what’s next. And so that’s, that’s one advantage I had is that there was this collective, like, well, like what what is next for us? That was helpful. Tensley Almand — The other advantage I had, and I did not think this was an advantage. But, you know, I, I came out of church ministry. I didn’t know how to lead a nonprofit. I didn’t know anything about homelessness. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — Tensley Almand — I didn’t know much about social services. And so, yeah I truly believe God called me into this, but I couldn’t come in like an expert. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — And so I literally was forced to, my I tell people my door said CEO, but I think I was really the chief question officer. I mean, my my first year… Rich Birch — Help me understand. Help me understand. Tensley Almand — …was, yeah, asking questions. I can I can vividly remember our clinical director coming into my office and saying, hey, we’ve got this massive clinical decision that we need to make and there’s this and this and this. And you know and then like trying to leave that way. What do you think we should do? And I’m like… you’re the clinical director. Like, what do what do you mean? Rich Birch — Yes. Tensley Almand — But that was again, and this is and he would say this if he was sitting here, my predecessor had an organization that was in crisis. And so every decision had to center on him. And I needed to come in and teach our team how to have a decentralized leadership. How like, hey, look you’re the clinical director I’m going to support you, I’m to remove obstacles for you. But if I have to make clinical decisions, we’re we’ve got a really big problem because I’m not qualified to make that decision. Tensley Almand — And so um really pushing leadership down… Rich Birch — yeah Tensley Almand — …asking a lot of questions, understanding what we do. And so that was that was a huge advantage that that i think a lot of people probably, they can like I did, they they think about the things that are stacked against them. To me, it’s like you don’t know anything about the space. That’s a big obstacle. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — Well, maybe lean into those obstacles because it’s a really good way to to get underneath the hood. And so it forced me to ask questions, forced me to listen. And then what I did is I I truly went on a just a listening tour. Rich Birch — That’s good. Tensley Almand — I set up a meeting, I think, with every employee of our organization. Rich Birch — Wow. Wow. Tensley Almand — And I asked everybody what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s missing and what’s confusing. Rich Birch — Huh. Tensley Almand — And I still have that notebook. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — I mean, my assistant like cataloged answers for days. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — And what was so cool to me was that without having the same language, almost everybody in the organization identified the same rights, wrongs, missings and confusions. And so I was able to then take that and really come back to our senior team and say, hey, what should we do about this? Like we all… Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — We all agree this is a problem. like What should we do do? And I think a colleague of mine, I remember walking into his office and he had this drawing on his board. I’m like, what is what is that? He’s like, well, is how I feel about our organization. I remember it was ah it was a circle. Rich Birch — Yeah. Tensley Almand — And all the arrows were pointed in every direction around the circle. And he’s like, that’s us. Like, we’ve got the right idea… Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — …but everybody’s pulling in a hundred directions to try to figure out how to do that idea. Rich Birch — Wow. Tensley Almand — and I said, man, we need to take that circle and get all those arrows on one side. Cause if we can collectively pull… and that just kind of became our quest. And so we took all those answers and, you know, basically the the big thing was, um you know, and I don’t know where I learned this, but I feel like when there’s clarity in an organization, ‘no’ is really easy and ‘yes’ is is really difficult. It’s like really easy to say no. Rich Birch — That’s good. Tensley Almand — And what I found at Atlanta Mission was we were just saying yes to everything. And the reason we were saying yes to everything is because there was no strategy, there was no clarity. Rich Birch — That’s good. Tensley Almand — And so we took that first year and a half, wrote our strategic plan, identified who we want to be and why we want to be that. And then what would it look like to be that organization? And so we just kind of built it backwards. And that’s the journey we’ve been on now for the last four years since I’ve been here. Rich Birch — Wow. That’s, ah yeah, that’s incredible. I love that that feeling. In fact, i I took over a nonprofit ah kids camp and much smaller scale than what you’re running. But I remember those early days where there yeah people are looking at you and and and there is this sense of like, okay, so like you got to tell us where we’re going. What is the thing we’re doing next? Like and it’s easy to like… the easy thing is, let’s try this. Let’s try that. Let’s do a bunch of different things. And that can lead to that pulling, those hundred different, you know, it’s lots of activity, but it’s not focused. Tensley Almand — Yeah. Rich Birch — And trying to get everybody on a kind of a shared page of or shared picture of what the future looks like, man, that’s great through this, this process of kind of we’re going to do a strategic plan over a year. What, what would you, what would you say to a leader that is feeling the pressure of like, Hey, I want to define the future now, as opposed to that feels like a step back. We’re going to year and a half and define this stuff. What would you say to a leader? Why should we slow down? Talk us through why that, how that benefited now that you’re on the other side of all that. Tensley Almand — Yeah, I think the first thing I would say is it’s it’s totally worth it. I mean, it it was hard. It was challenging. It it does feel like a step back. But I don’t know how to step forward without without clarity, you know. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — And that’s, you said at the beginning, I got to ah got to be one of the campus pastors at North Point Community Church for years. I can remember Andy always saying, The beauty of North Point wasn’t that we got to start with a blank page, just that we started on the same page. Rich Birch — That’s good Tensley Almand — And I just think that like that, that is always set with me. And so when I when I started here, I realized like, hey, I don’t I don’t get the luxury of a blank page. I mean, this organization has been around since 1938. You know, when I when I started Decatur City, it was so easy because I just told everybody what we were doing and why we were doing it and there was nothing else we were doing. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — And so it was just like… But here it’s like, OK, if I can’t get to a blank page, the best thing I can do is we’ve got to get on the same page… Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — …or else we’re just we’re going to spin our tires. And, and you know, I think I’ll I’ll this story probably sums it up and maybe somebody can relate to this. I have a monthly breakfast with our board chair and our vice chair. And the very first breakfast I went to in this role, it was my predecessor’s last breakfast and my first. And so we’re all so it’s him, it’s me and it’s a board chair a vice chair, all of which have been around this organization 3x the amount of time I had at that point, I had been there like three days. Rich Birch — Yes. Yes. Couple weeks. Tensley Almand — And and we got this email the night before the breakfast, and it was from a developer. And they were offering $14 million dollars for the piece of property that my office sits on, which is a widely underused piece of property… Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — …that we’ve always kind of wrestled with, like, what do we do with this thing? Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — $14 million dollars. Rich Birch — Yes. Tensley Almand — That’s almost our entire year’s budget. Rich Birch — Yes. Tensley Almand — And I remember showing up to this breakfast with this LOI and I asked the question, should we take it or should we not? Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — And nobody could answer my question. Rich Birch — Wow. Wow. Tensley Almand — Nobody knew if it was a good idea to take $14 million dollars or to walk away from $14 million dollars Rich Birch — And if that group doesn’t know, nobody else in the organization is going to know, right? Tensley Almand — And that’s exactly what I said. I was like, if you don’t know, and I don’t know… Rich Birch — Yeah. Yes, exactly. Tensley Almand — …nobody knows. Rich Birch — Yes, yes, yes. Tensley Almand — And so I started with that small group and I said, hey, would you give me the freedom to to take however long it takes for us to make sure we can answer that question? Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. Tensley Almand — And so in our first board meeting, I raised my hand and I just said, hey guys, I know I’m new, I know I just started. But I shared the story and I said, hey, we have to be able to answer questions like this. Or we’re never going to get anywhere. We may do a lot of good things, but we are going to have no idea if we did the best thing. Rich Birch — Right, right. That’s good. That’s good. So kind of double clicking on that, continuing to kind of focus in on this. You know, there are churches, organizations that will do the strat plan or roll. We go away for the big retreat. We come up with the new value statements. It’s got great strategy on paper. But it doesn’t end up translating into practice. What are you doing at the mission to try to make sure that we’re going from that wasn’t just a great document that’s like in a nice book somewhere, but it’s actually rolling out. Maybe give us some examples of that. And what are those kind of rhythms, cadences, all that? How how are you making that happen? Tensley Almand — Yeah, it’s wish I could really tell you we’re crushing it in this area. It’s this is a new habit for us. Rich Birch — Sure. Sure. Good. Tensley Almand — And so we’re I’m four years in. We just finished our first full fiscal year under our new strategy. And so I can tell you what we’ve learned. Rich Birch — Hey, that’s good. Yeah, good. Tensley Almand — One, once you get it built you have to start small. We, I wish I could remember the exact number, I think as a senior team we committed and told our board we were going to do 392 new initiatives or something in year one, you know. Rich Birch — Wow. Right. Tensley Almand — And this is a seven-year plan… Rich Birch — Yes. Tensley Almand — …we’re like we got almost for it and I think we got 100 through of the 392. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — And we celebrated like crazy at the end of the year because it was like, that’s 100 things that were all in alignment that we’d never done before. We learned so much. So, start small. Tensley Almand — The other thing is we built our plan. And I was I was very intentional about this because of what you just said. I did not want another notebook that was going to sit on my shelf. And so our strategic plan is really a strategic roadmap. And what I have told our board, what I’ve told our staff is I want an organization that knows how to think. Rich Birch — That’s good. Tensley Almand — And our our plan is really a roadmap for how we should think. It’s not overly prescriptive in necessarily what that means. Because it’s it’s designed to take us all the way through 2030. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — Well, I have no idea what’s going to happen between now and 2030. Rich Birch — Right. Right. Tensley Almand — But I do know that if what we said we want to accomplish, we’re accomplishing, however that looks, by 2030, we’re on the right track. And so that would be the other thing is just like, I would build, I wouldn’t make it so prescriptive that it tells you like, Hey, next week you’re doing this. And the week after… It needs to teach the organization how to think, how to act so that the person who’s brand new on the front line, if I’m not in the room, they don’t need to spend any time going like what, what would Tensley want me to do? They just, this is who we are as an organization. It’s how we think. Tensley Almand — And then we at a senior level and then we pushed it all the way down to our organization. We built a meeting cadence around it. Rich Birch — Nice. Tensley Almand — And so we have our senior team meets once a week. Rich Birch — Yeah. Tensley Almand — That’s my six direct reports and plus my admin. Rich Birch — Yeah. Tensley Almand — And we, one, so we do that on Tuesday morning, one, the first Tuesday of the month is a strategy meeting. We talk all about the strategic plan. That’s like a, how how are you doing and your department doing towards what you said you were gonna do? Rich Birch — That’s good. Tensley Almand — And we have a dashboard to measure that against. And then the next Tuesday is an operations meeting. And it’s just like, hey, what are what are we working on? We can’t live at 50,000 feet all the time. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — Let’s get down to 1,000 feet or whatever it is. Rich Birch — Yeah. Tensley Almand — And so we have that operations cadence. And then the third meeting is kind of like a catch-all, like, hey, what you know what needs to happen? And then our last meeting of the month is a monthly ministry review with the entire, not just my direct reports, but all the managers that sit under my direct reports. Rich Birch — Oh, that’s cool. Tensley Almand — And they lead that meeting. I listen in that meeting. And I get to hear what’s happening at every campus, what’s going on. And I get to hear how people are implementing or not implementing the strategy. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — And then the very next meeting, if you’re keeping up, is then our strategy meeting. Rich Birch — Yes. Tensley Almand — So then I’m like, hey… Rich Birch — Here’s some stuff I heard. Tensley Almand — …tell me more about this. Rich Birch — Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Tensley Almand — Or I didn’t hear like, Hey, I thought we were working on this. Why is that not happening? And so we have dashboards. Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah. Tensley Almand — We’ve never had those before. We have data that we can follow. We have metrics we’ve identified as a, as a team, our wins. And so it’s like, Hey, how are we tracking towards those wins and just have created a layer of accountability that didn’t exist probably three years ago. Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. Let’s talk a little bit more about the data thing. I’ve, or data thing. We, I’ve, I’ve said with younger leaders, you know, spreadsheets are the language of leadership. Like you’re going to have to get used to this stuff. This is just… Tensley Almand — Yep. Rich Birch — …this is how we care for people at scale is, is that is what it looks like. So data can either inspire or intimidate. How do you track outcomes? How do you, how do you how have you seen, you know, data over this last year actually change behavior and move things, improve care, better outcomes, all that kind of stuff. Talk us through what, cause you know, what we measure can get, can, you know, steer us in the wrong direction or steer us in the right direction. Help, help us think through that. As we’re thinking about what numbers should we pay attention to? Tensley Almand — Yeah. So again, when I started, that was a big question I had. So if you were to look at our numbers, you would see that we serve, you know, let’s, these are rough, but right at about 3000 people a year come through our doors. Rich Birch — Okay. Tensley Almand — Right. Which is huge. Rich Birch — Yep. Tensley Almand — You’re like, man, that’s amazing. Well, then I, as I walk you through that, by the time you get to the end of our vocational training a year later, we may graduate like 400. And then 70% of those 400 are still doing well the the next year. And so, you know, on paper, you’re like, man, is that good? Rich Birch — Right. Yes. Tensley Almand — Like that, that there’s a lot of attrition there. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — Like should, is, is, are we fail… And that was, again, when I started, that was a question nobody could answer for me is, Hey, is that good? Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — And so even backing up before we built our strategy, our senior team spent so much time defining our outcomes. And we had all of these statements, you know, but it was like we want somebody to be healthy vocationally. Tensley Almand — It’s like, okay, what does that mean? Crickets in the room. Rich Birch — Yes. Tensley Almand — Wait, if you don’t know what it means and I don’t know what it means, does the person who’s leading that program know what it means? Better question: does the person who’s receiving our services know if they’ve actually achieved help in that area? Tensley Almand — And so we went through, defined all of those terms so that there was a clear outcome to it… Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — …so that we could then measure it. And then we built both a one-page dashboard that our senior team could look at at a high level. So I could I can open this dashboard on any Monday morning. It’s just in Tableau, so nothing super you know exciting. Rich Birch — Yep. Yep. Tensley Almand — And I can just see, i can see progression through our program. I can see healthy exits. We’ve defined what are healthy exits. I can see, ah you know, are people getting stuck? That was a big thing we were we were learning is like, people are just getting stuck in our program and we’re committing to somebody. You’re going to be at this phase of the program 30 days. Well, then they spend 60 days. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — And what we were finding. We were, so this, this probably long winded way of saying this, but what we, we didn’t know what was happening or why it was happening and it felt good. But you know, you’re like, I don’t know. Tensley Almand — And so what we were finding is it’s like, Hey, so that’s an example. Like, somebody gets stuck in our program. We promised them 30. It takes 60. All of a sudden, we were able to track that, hey, there’s a certain amount of fallout rate at this stage of the program. Why is that happening? Oh, people are stuck. They’ve been here too long. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — We got to fix that. And so it it enabled us to know what needed to be fixed and and not fixed. Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. Tensley Almand — And probably the the best real-time example of that is just recently. So I keep telling you the 70% number of graduates are successful. That’s kind of our historical data. Rich Birch — Yep. Yep. Tensley Almand — Well, this year, that number fell for the first time ever. It’s gotten better every year. Rich Birch — Wow. Tensley Almand — This year it fell and it fell like dramatically. And this is one of those I don’t like to talk about it because it doesn’t look good. Rich Birch — Interesting. Yes. Tensley Almand — I mean, like it fell down to almost like 45, 50 percent. Rich Birch — Oh, wow. Tensley Almand — You’re like, what’s happening? Rich Birch — Almost inverse. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Tensley Almand — Exactly. And so at first, you’re like, our program is no good. We got rewrite our program. Well, thankfully, we had been tracking all of the kind of whys and we understood what was happening in people’s lives. And what we have found out is no, like the economy shifted. You can’t get a job in 30 to 60 days anymore. Rich Birch — Interesting. Tensley Almand — And so a gate in our program is when you graduate, you have 60 days to get a job. If you don’t get a job, you can’t move into our transitional housing because if we just allow you to stay, beds back up and then more people can’t get in. Tensley Almand — Well, our clients then would stop taking our advice and stop waiting for a good job. And at day like 50, they would just go get that job that doesn’t pay well. Rich Birch — Ohhh. Tensley Almand — And they knew it wasn’t going to be a career builder job. It was just going to keep them sheltered. Rich Birch — Right, right. Tensley Almand — And so it was our our like metrics were actually driving a behavior we didn’t like. Rich Birch — That’s interesting. Tensley Almand — And so we’re in the process now of like, hey, we’ve got to change this. The length of time it takes to get a job now takes longer. and Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — The job market’s more you know fierce right now. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — And so we don’t want nothing against these types of jobs. We don’t necessarily want our client leaving to go get a job at McDonald’s Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — But for them, leaving it to go get a job at McDonald’s versus not having a place to stay, I’ll take the McDonald’s job… Rich Birch — Right. Yes. Tensley Almand — …even though I know I’m only going to be there three months. Rich Birch — Right. Right. Tensley Almand — And so it was throwing off all of our numbers and it’s because we were incorrectly driving a behavior that we don’t want to drive. So. Rich Birch — Wow. That’s cool. That’s a great, very vivid example. And there’s lots of that in the church world. I know you I know you know that. There was a church I was doing some work with last year, large church, 10,000-person church. And they were we were talking one of the numbers I obsess with my clients over is documented first-time guests, the actual number of people that come every single weekend. And I was convinced that this church was just was missing a whole bunch of first time guests. And so they were telling me about how great their, their, their assimilation numbers were. They were like, Oh, this is so great. And I was like, I just don’t believe it. I’m like, because, because if you are not capturing the number of, of documented first time guests, then yeah and you’re comparing against half of what you probably actually have coming into your church, then then every number be below that, all your integration stuff looks twice as good as it actually is. Tensley Almand — Yeah. Rich Birch — And you know that that happens in lots of places across our numbers. We’ve got to get real clear and benchmark against other people. Tensley Almand — If I could go back and if I could go back, no, no, it’s just, like I’ve often thought like, what would I do different if I was a church leader now? Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s a good question. Tensley Almand — And I would I would measure so much differently. Rich Birch — Yeah, interesting. Tensley Almand — You know, historically we’ve measured nickels and noses, right? Like how much money’s coming in and how many people are sitting in the pews. But it’s like, those are important. Rich Birch — Yeah. Tensley Almand — I wouldn’t stop measuring them, but I would pay attention to like this. I would try to find a way to measure progression, you know. Rich Birch — Yes, 100%. Tensley Almand — It’s like to your point how many first-time guests are you having okay well then of those first-time guests how many of them are actually moving to your small groups. Rich Birch — Yeah, 100%. Tensley Almand — Of those who moved your small groups do any of them ever volunteer like and and really understand the behaviors you want. And then measure to those behaviors and i think especially in a world where just church attendance looks so much so much different, we could gauge health of our churches so much more effectively if we were Rich Birch — Yeah, it’s so true. I’d love to I’d love to kind of pivot for a few minutes in a slightly different direction. Tensley Almand — Okay. Rich Birch — So we have a lot of church leaders that are listening in and I’d love to understand how Atlanta Mission partners with churches. What does that look like? How do you work together? So specifically at Atlanta misha, and then what would you, Mission, and then what would you say to churches in general? Hey, um what advice would you give now that you’re on this side of the equation of actually partnering with an organization like Atlanta Mission? How can you be kind of the best partner? How do we what are what are people on your side of the table actually looking for from a church like ours? Because I’m sure there’s all kinds of stories of like, yeah, that didn’t work well. Talk us through what that looks like, partnerships specifically, and then kind of in general, how can we be better at that? Tensley Almand — Yeah, and partnership is one of our pillars of our strategic plan. I think I think for nonprofits, especially when you’re large and you’re self-funded, you can it’s easy to get siloed. And we we fell into that category, not just with outside partners that wanted to come in and help us, but also with other service providers across the the, you know, continuum of care in our city. is It’s just it’s easy to kind of put your head down and do your own thing. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — And so this is a huge emphasis for us, mainly because it’s really woven into the vision of our organization. Our organization is a community that’s united to end homelessness one person at a time. Well, I mean, it’s like partnership has to be built into that. Rich Birch — Right. Yes, baked into it. Yeah. Tensley Almand — So what who are we to then go get siloed? Like, that’s like, wow, you can’t even accomplish what you said you wanted to do. And so um we… I’ll back into this answer by telling you one of the things we’ve discovered at Atlanta Mission is that this isn’t this, you know, this isn’t novel, but, you know, material poverty, we all know is debilitating. Relational poverty is just as debilitating as material poverty. Rich Birch — That’s so true. Tensley Almand — And what we find with our clients is that almost 100 percent obviously are struggling with some version of material poverty, but they are just relationally broken and poor. They are void of healthy relationships. And so this is this is so much where partnership comes in, because we we literally have a metric that we track of how many healthy contacts does a client have in their phone before they graduate our program. And what we were finding is I mean we were their only healthy contact. Rich Birch — Oh, wow. Tensley Almand — And it’s wait this is this is not good. And this is such a great place for churches to partner with us because we have so many opportunities that we just call we call them “be with” opportunities there’s like there’s “do for” service projects but there’s also “be with” service projects. And they’re just designed for you to establish healthy community with our clients, build relationships, throw a birthday party for somebody… Rich Birch — That’s so good. Right. Tensley Almand — …have a Christmas party at one of our shelters. Come, you know, we’re moving into the holiday season, you know, come and build gingerbread houses together with our kids who are staying with us and just create an hour in somebody’s life that’s normal. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — And I feel like churches are better at this than anybody. Our corporate partners are fantastic at the “do for” projects. They can then come in and beautify our campuses in 30 minutes in a way that none of us can. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — You know, Home Depot comes in and it’s like, we’re going to transform your landscape. Great. This is awesome. Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah. Tensley Almand — I love it. But a church can come in and just be authentic and be real and be with our clients. Rich Birch — That’s good. Tensley Almand — And you would be amazed at how different somebody’s life looks after just that hour. And so, and I think that’s a huge thing. And then what I would tell churches, I think even as a church leader, I I probably overlooked how vital we were to nonprofits. You just you know, you think it’s an hour, but you know, even the day of, you know, you wake up that morning and you’re like, they don’t really need me. Like, I don’t know. Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — This is, am I not really going to make a difference? Yes, you are. Rich Birch — That’s good. Tensley Almand — You are going to make a huge difference. It is worth the hour. It is worth the drive. Tensley Almand — And we we tell people all the time, and I’ve seen this in my own life. The thing that happens at Atlanta Mission is there’s always two stories of transformation happening. There’s the story of transformation that’s happening in a client’s life. But God transforms my life every day. Rich Birch — That’s so true. Tensley Almand — And it’s that’s the part I didn’t expect, Rich, is that… Rich Birch — Right. Tensley Almand — …my life is being changed as much as anybody else’s. And so I would, I would tell a church, Hey, our clients need you. But you need this as well. Rich Birch — Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Tensley Almand — Like God’s going to do something in your life. Tensley Almand — And then the other is just, um I think, especially for really big churches, it’s easy to think like, I bet they need my expertise. It’s like, actually, that’s not like. We need your partnership. Rich Birch — Yes. Yes. Tensley Almand — You know, we, we know how to do this. Come put wind in our sails. Rich Birch — Yeah. Yeah, Tensley Almand — Come just serve, be a part of what we’re doing. Rich Birch — Yeah, it’s so good. That’s super helpful. Love love that. Well, just as we’re coming to land, any kind of final words or encouragement you’d you’d say to church leaders that are listening in today that are, you know, wrestling with maybe clarity or wrestling with some of the stuff we’ve talked about today? This has been a really fruitful conversation. Thank you for it. Tensley Almand — Yeah, I think the, you know, probably the biggest thing I would say, and I have to tell myself this all the time. I mean, I’m an entrepreneurial type A. I’m going to like, you know, go conquer the world in a day is that, you know, remind yourself, you know, more than likely what you can accomplish in 90 days is nowhere near what you think it is, you know. But what you can accomplish in a year or two years is probably way more than you ever imagined you could. Rich Birch — Right. So true Yeah, that’s good. Tensley Almand — And so just again, kind of back to the strategy thing, it takes time. It’s messy. You know, you’re going to feel like, is this worth it? It creates conflict on your team. It feels uncomfortable. We were, we were joking as a senior team the other day. There was, it was about a year where I just, every Tuesday morning, I thought I want to cancel this meeting because I just didn’t enjoy, like we were just, we were at conflict because we were… Rich Birch — Right. Yes. Tensley Almand — …hashing out who we are and why we exist and what are we going to do and why are we going to do it? Rich Birch — Yes. Tensley Almand — But now it’s my favorite hour of the week. Like, I just love it. And so, you know, I would say that… Rich Birch — That’s good. Tensley Almand — …you know, and I think, yeah, I don’t know that I have anything, you know, much more. Rich Birch — That’s good. Tensley Almand — Yeah. Rich Birch — No, that’s good. Well, I really appreciate being on the show today. Where do we want to send people if they want to connect with you or with Atlanta Mission? Where are the best places for us to send people online? Tensley Almand — Probably the easiest place is just our website, atlantamission.org. You can find everything you want to about us. If you want to know more, you can email info@atlantamission.org. And that actually goes right to my assistant and we’ll get you connected to the right person. And you can, you know, next time you’re in town, you partner with us. You can help us. You can be happy to give you a tour, show you what we do. Rich Birch — That’s great. Thanks so much, Tensley. Appreciate you being here today. Tensley Almand — Thanks.

265. Servant Leadership, Mentoring, and Actionable Steps with Kathryn Spitznagle   2 Timothy 2:2 (NIV) "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others."   **Transcription Below**   Questions and Topics We Cover: What are some servant leadership principles you've learned over the years? How did you learn forgiveness is part of leadership? Will you elaborate on a leadership tool mentioned in your book, which is called the "Hero Page?"   Thank You to Our Sponsor: WinShape Marriage   Kathryn Spitznagle is the author of "Rock Star Millennials--Developing the Next Generation of Leaders," and the companion workbook, "Rock Star Millennials Toolkit." She is a professional coach and the founder of Mentoring Women Millennials, LLC. She has 30+ years of mentoring, coaching and leadership development in corporate, small business and not-for-profit environments as well as 10+ years of mentoring cancer survivors and their families throughout their journey. Her mission is to foster the personal and professional development of leaders... for the life they lead today...and the one they want tomorrow.   Savvy Sauce Episodes Mentioned in Episode: Being Intentional with Marriage, Parenting, Rest, Personal development, and Leadership with Pastor, Podcaster, and Author, Jeff Henderson Biblical Principles as Wise Business Practices with Steve Robinson   Additional Previous Episodes on Business and Leadership on The Savvy Sauce: The Inside Scoop on Chick-fil-A with Mark Dugger How to Apply Successful Business Principles to Your Life with Dee Ann Turner Leadership Principles and Practices with Former NFL Player, J Leman How to Lead When You're Not in Charge with Author and Pastor of North Point Community Church, Clay Scroggins Understanding the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator to Improve Your Marriage, Family, and Work Relationships  Thriving at Work, Home, and Life with Author, Blogger, Podcaster, and Business Owner, Crystal Paine Energy to Spark Success in Your Business with Best-Selling Author, Speaker, and Podcaster, Christy Wright How 2 questions can grow your business and change your life with author, pastor, and podcaster, Jeff Henderson Radical Business and Radical Parenting with Gary & Marla Ringger, Founders of Lifesong for Orphans Stewardship as the Daughter of Chick-fil-A Founders with Trudy Cathy White Living Intentionally with Shunta Grant Generational Differences in the Workplace with Haydn Shaw Pursuing Your God-Given Dream with Francie Hinrichsen Leadership Training: Five Key Elements for Creating Customer Loyalty in Your Business with Elizabeth Dixon  Uncover Your Purpose with Clarity with Isimemen Aladejobi Unlocking Meaning and Purpose in Your Life and Overcoming Burnout with Dale Wilsher Leading Your Family, Marriage, and Self with Justin Maust Divine Productivity with Matt Perman 223 Journey and Learnings as Former Second Lady of the United States with Karen Pence Patreon 27 Re-Release: Purposeful and Practical with Emily Thomas Special Patreon Re-Release: Creativity and Career While Raising a Family with Jean Stoffer   Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook or Instagram or Our Website   Please help us out by sharing this episode with a friend, leaving a 5-star rating and review, and subscribing to this podcast!   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV)   Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”    Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”    Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”    John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”    Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   **Transcription**   Music: (0:00 – 0:09)   Laura Dugger:  (0:12 - 1:20) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.    I'm thrilled to introduce you to our sponsor, WinShape Marriage.    Their weekend marriage retreats will strengthen your marriage while you enjoy the gorgeous setting, delicious food, and quality time with your spouse. To find out more, visit them online at winshapemarriage.org/savvy.    Kathryn Spitznagle is my enchanting guest for today, and her resume is quite impressive, but what actually is even more of a standout is her humble heart.   So, if you are one who learns from stories and encouragement, and you also appreciate actionable, practical tools, this conversation is definitely for you. Here's our chat. Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Kathryn.   Kathryn Spitznagle: (1:21 - 1:24) Oh, thank you, Laura. Appreciate you having me.   Laura Dugger:  (1:24 - 1:32) Well, I'd love for you just to start us off by giving us a snapshot of your background and also your current phase of life.   Kathryn Spitznagle: (1:33 - 6:47) Okay, lots of seasons. Yeah, learned, you know, you learn something from all of them. So, I started out in journalism.   I've kind of come back to my roots interviewing folks. I was a sports writer, so I grew up in a family with four brothers, so when I went to college, I knew sports, and at the time, that was unusual to have a female sports So I did that, and then went into publishing after I got my journalism degree, and since I'd been a sports writer, they put me in the men's division of this magazine publishing company. So, I started out learning, I started out working for a helicopter magazine, and I was an editor, and the only one that did know how to fly, and so they sent me to flight school in order to be a better editor and, you know, learn how to communicate with our readers.   And again, then because I'd done that and was in the men's division, they moved me then to shooting times, which was hunting and sports shooting. So, then I learned how to shoot guns and reload in that whole industry. From there, I went to fashion.   So, I went to the women's division, and at first they said, you know, are you sure you want to do this? And I said, well, this will be the first job you've put me on that won't kill me. You know, I've learned how to fly planes and shoot guns.   You know, let me have a shot at that Singer sewing machine. And I was a terrible seamstress. And they said, really, what we want you to do in fashion is to create a presence in New York, in Manhattan.   And so, the publisher was in Peoria, Illinois, but they wanted a presence in Manhattan. And so that's what I did for three years, worked remotely back and forth, and created that presence, joined the Fashion Group International. They hired three consultants to fix me up.   And so, I laugh if you've ever seen the movie Miss Congeniality, that was me. So, you know, learned all about the fashion industry and built those relationships with our advertisers. And also, then we went into television and did a lifetime, the TV show, weekly TV show on Lifetime called Make It Fashion.   And we're trying to blend that the home sewing industry with the fashion industry. So, if you saw this on the runway, in Milan, or in New York, or in Paris, this is how you can make it yourself, be your own designer kind of thing. So that was my journalism start, then moved to St. Louis, got married, had babies, and went into corporate communications, worked for Purina in St. Louis, where I learned so much about leadership, moved back to Peoria, and I went to work for Caterpillar. And when I retired from Caterpillar, then I started this business, Mentoring Women Millennials. And I have such a heart for this generation. I think they're so bright and smart and creative and entrepreneurial, and they get a bad rap.   And so, I wanted to have a platform to lift them up, and also to give them tools. So, the first year I wrote a book, Rockstar Millennials, Developing the Next Generation of Leaders. And what I found, there were so many really sharp, bright millennials that had never had good leaders.   They never had a mentor. They didn't have the tools. Many of them were entrepreneurs.   They didn't intend to lead people. They had a craft. They started a business, and it grew.   And they're like, now I got people. What do I do with people? And as I was out speaking about my business, I found the audience very consistently had two types of attendees.   One was what I would call a seasoned leader, who said, for helping the millennials, thank you. Something along that line. And then I would have a young person stand up and say, “Do you have a book”?   And after that happened several times, okay, Lord, I got this. Yeah, write a book. And I remember saying, “That's a good idea, God, but I don't have time.”   And so if you want to know why COVID happened, it was me. Because the good Lord said, hey, it's February of 2020. It looks like you have time right now.   And so I hired an editor. We wrote a book in four months and published it at the end of the year. And in 2021, then started the podcast.   Laura Dugger:  (6:48 - 7:04) Well, that's an incredible resume and such a whirlwind to getting here today. But you mentioned some leadership principles, especially at Purina. So, Kathryn, what are some of those servant leadership principles that you've learned and acquired over the years?   Kathryn Spitznagle: (7:04 - 9:34) Over the years, yeah. Just some amazing leaders at Purina. Their culture was very much a servant leadership culture.   Purina as a company was created in the 1950s by an independently wealthy gentleman, William H. Danforth. And he created the Youth Foundation in St. Louis. And he found once he got kids out of gangs and out of jail and off drugs, nobody would hire them. So, he created a company to hire those kids, Purina. And so, they, yes, told us that, you know, the first day he said, you know, this is never confused what we make with why we're here.   We were here, we were created to develop people for life. What we make will change. But the reason we're here will not.   And Danforth also wrote a book called I Dare You. I Dare You to be the best you can be and help someone else do the same. And so that very first day we were told the story of the genesis of Purina, we were given that book, I Dare You.   And when we left orientation, we met, they had 360-degree mentoring. And they said, “This is how we create this culture. And we continue this for generations through mentoring.”   So, when you leave orientation, you're going to meet your leader mentor, your peer mentor, and in 90 days, you'll be mentoring. Everyone at Purina mentors, and we all learn from each other constantly. So that was the platform.   And that was the culture. And when you think about feeling cherished, and valued, that's how they did it. Because if you're going to mentor someone, and someone's going to mentor you, you have value.   And the people you're working with have value. And so that creating a cherished culture was their legacy. And then it's something that I took on to Caterpillar.   And I continue now, in my keynote speaking, that's one of the most popular is how to create a cherished culture in the boardroom, in the living room, and in the classroom. Hmm.   Laura Dugger:  (9:35 - 9:47) And so, I won't ask for the entire keynote speech then, but is there an overview that you can give us of those things that we could implement that you've learned to implement over time as well?   Kathryn Spitznagle: (9:47 - 11:29) Yes, some of the tools. And, and that was another wonderful thing about Purina that I saw then, and haven't seen it since. You know, it seemed unique to me at the time.   Fast forward a few years, and it was like, yeah, that was very unusual leadership. And one of the things that they valued was, know your people, understand them, know their needs, know their wants. Even at this point, so, you know, I'm talking 30 years ago, I went to work there in 1990.   They were talking about purpose. What's your purpose? Purina had a very specific purpose.   We are a purposeful company. We're here to develop people for life. And, and they even said, I thought this was unique to it at orientation.   They said, and we hire bright, smart people, and we don't expect you to stay here very long. Our job is to send you off better than we found you. And with a positive impression of Purina.   And here's why. When you leave here, you may go to another Fortune 50 company, which I did. You may be in a position to impact a merger or acquisition.   You can buy and sell our stock. And at the very least, when you go to the grocery store, you can buy dog food. And we want it to be Purina.   Laura Dugger:  (11:31 - 11:36) That's incredible. That actually happened then with you taking that forward.   Kathryn Spitznagle: (11:37 - 16:07) And all of those lessons learned. So, when I talk about creating a cherished culture, Purina, one of the things they did very well was to introduce a concept, illustrate it with a story, and then activate it with a tool. So mentoring, they talked about here is the platform on which our company is built, developing people for life.   And they told us that story then about Purina. Then they gave us the book. And then they gave us a mentor that we were meeting with each week.   And they gave us a, what do I want to say, an outline. So, when you meet with your mentor or mentee, here are questions to ask. Here's a way to go about this.   And the number one reason people do mentor is because they don't know how. What's a process? And so how smart?   Purina's like, here. Here's an outline. Here are things to ask.   Here are discussion topics. And here are different tools we're going to give you as you progress in leadership. And they're designed for you then to pass on.   And so those are some of the tools when I talk about creating a cherished culture. One of the tools is here are questions to ask. Here's how to have that dialogue.   Here are discussion topics. When you're developing a relationship with this person, ask about their life outside of work. Ask about their family and friends and whatever, as much as they'd like to share.   Not everyone does. That's okay too. Ask about their best day at work.   What's a bad day at work? What's their best boss like? How do they like to be recognized?   What's their purpose? One of the most insightful questions they asked at Purina was, why do you want to succeed? And why do you want this company to succeed?   And those two questions give insight to someone's purpose. And so, then if you frame discussions around their purpose and their values, it is exponentially more meaningful to them. So, when I talk about how do you lead millennials and how is it different?   Those are a couple of the things. Understand their purpose. Understand their life. Their values outside of work, and frame things within their purpose.   Here's an example and or their values. If someone says, my values are hard work and transparency. I want people to be honest. Those are a couple of my values.    Okay. So, if I were leading that person and I saw them being transparent with someone else, being open and honest, I would recognize them for that.   Not just recognize them for the work, but recognize them for their value, demonstrating their value. I saw you be open and honest with that person. Thank you for that.   If kindness is a value, I saw you. I saw what you did there today to help someone out without being asked. Thank you for that kindness.   That resonates on a whole different level. And if you have to have a tough discussion with that person to say, frame it in those words. I know you value honesty, and I do too.   And so, we need to have an honest conversation. And here's some things that I'm seeing in your behavior, in your leadership, or in your work style that can hold you back. So, let's fix this whole different way to lead.   Laura Dugger:  (16:09 - 16:39) Absolutely. And I love how some of these even one-page practical tools you've included in the back of your book. So, it's a plug and play, but I'm even thinking back to your mentoring relationships where you had this circle of mentors and you were mentoring.   I think it's also helpful to get to hear one another's mistakes. So, are you comfortable sharing any mistakes that you've made along the way that actually even turned out to be beneficial learning opportunities?   Kathryn Spitznagle: (16:40 - 20:32) Absolutely. Loads of them. I've got loads of them.   And one of the women I mentor has said, I think I've advanced my career 10 years by learning from your mistakes. And I love that. And she's like, now I'm going to make plenty of my own, but I'm not going to make yours.   And I said, “Good. That's the point of all this.” One of the big ones I made at Purina.   I think a lot of places I would have been fired, probably should have been. I was working in the marketing group, and we were like an internal marketing. So, we did the new product introduction, point of purchase, point of sale materials, the legal documents that went out, the whole packet that would go out to a distributor, a grocery store.   And EverReady Battery was one of our product lines. So, we had internal clients. And as they had new product introductions, we'd get the materials together.   We had in-house printing, all of the things, graphic design, and that was all under my purview. The letter, there's a letter that went out to distributors that was a legal document and had a number. And I pulled the wrong letter, the wrong number.   And it wasn't discovered until last minute. And we sat down with the client and they're like, oh my gosh, this is the wrong legal letter. And I, you know, I'm the account rep, that was on me.   So, I had to go back, I had to go to Neil Lewis, my boss and say, “Okay, we've got to pull this back before it all goes out, reprint, which is going to be all our expense. We're going to have to have people working off shifts and all that sort of thing to do it quickly. And then reassemble all these Eveready Battery packets and, you know, do as close as we can to meeting their deadline.”   And so basically it's going to eat up our margin and we're going to have more printing expense. We're going to have more labor and we're going to have some unhappy people. And our client's not real happy either.   And that was all me. And Neil said to me, “You know, I learned something today. And he said, until today, I thought you walked on water.”   And he said, “Now I know you're human, just like the rest of us.” And I thought, oh, my word. And he's like, okay, so what happened?   That was a mistake. How are we going to fix it? And I said, “I've already pulled the right letter, getting it reprinted. Here's the, additional time and money. Here's how it's going to impact our margin.” And he said, “You know, can we do it? And can we satisfy the customer and get, if not meet their deadline very close?”   And I said, “We can meet their deadline if we have people work third shift.” And, you know, and he said, “Okay, let's do it. That's the right thing to do.” And, and he said, Kathryn, “I told you what I learned today. What did you learn?”   And I said, “I learned how to be the kind of leader I want to be when someone makes a mistake.”   Laura Dugger:  (20:36 - 21:05) Wow. The humility in that is incredible. And thank you for sharing.   Stories are so memorable. It makes me instantly reminded of two previous episodes. I'll make sure I link in the show notes, both with Jeff Henderson and Steve Robinson, accomplished businessmen, but who were also willing to share stories and how just like you, it actually made them a better, more relatable leader.   And so that's encouraging.   Kathryn Spitznagle: (21:06 - 21:34) And I knew when I got to Caterpillar and, uh, particularly when I was running the Caterpillar visitor center, because that was so new and never been done in Caterpillar. And so, we're going to make some mistakes and we're going to learn, you know, along the way. And there was more than one occasion where I was reminded of Neil Lewis.   And I said, okay, I learned something today. You are human. Just like the rest of us.   Now, how are we going to fix this?   Laura Dugger:  (21:35 - 23:48) And then what did you learn?    Let's take a quick break to hear a message from our sponsor.    Friends, I'm excited to share with you today's sponsor, WinShape Marriage. Do you feel like you need a weekend away with your spouse and a chance to grow in your relationship together at the same time? WinShape Marriage is a fantastic ministry that provides weekend marriage retreats to help couples grow closer together in every season and stage of life from premarital to parenting to the emptiness phase.   There is an opportunity for you. WinShape Marriage is grounded on the belief that the strongest marriages are the ones that are nurtured. Even when it seems things are going smoothly so that they're stronger.   If they do hit a bump along their marital journey, these weekend retreats are hosted within the beautiful refuge of WinShape retreat perched in the mountains of Rome, Georgia, which is a short drive from Atlanta, Birmingham, and Chattanooga. While you're there, you will be well fed, well nurtured, and well cared for. During your time away in this beautiful place, you and your spouse will learn from expert speakers and explore topics related to intimacy, overcoming challenges, improving communication, and more.   I've stayed on site at WinShape before and I can attest to their generosity, food, and content. You will be so grateful you went. To find an experience that's right for you and your spouse, head to their website, to find out more, visit them online at winshapemarriage.org/savvy. That's W-I-N-S-H-A-P-E marriage.org slash S-A-V-V-Y. Thanks for your sponsorship.   You've had so much experience in different areas and as a corporate leader. So what is it that drew you specifically to have a heart for millennials, which we can define as those approximately born between the 1980s and early 2000s?   Kathryn Spitznagle: (23:50 - 28:18) I really started working with them. My last role at Caterpillar, I was a director of global sustainability and it was within public affairs. So, we were leading, Caterpillar was leading a natural infrastructure coalition.   I was working with a lot of different entities, public, private, governmental. We're trying to get language passed into law. That was a big portion of my job.   Another portion of my job was to be out speaking about what Caterpillar was doing in the world of sustainability. And I loved that. What I found was the sustainability groups of Caterpillar employees all around the world, we do a global call quarterly, learning what everybody was doing.   They were all this age group. And when we would do the river cleanup on Saturday, these are the people that showed up with their kids. And when we do tree plantings, these are the people that showed up with their kids.   It's like, okay. And I remember saying to my peers, you know what, this group of employees, these young people are not going to retire with a pension like we are with health care like we do. There's so many things that we have garnered through our career appropriately.   They don't have that. What drives loyalty for them and what engages them with Caterpillar are these things. These things we're doing through the foundation where we're giving back and improving the world and the things we're doing in sustainability, giving back, improving the world.   They are so much more engaged in our company through these things. And so, I kind of knew, I thought, okay, I'm not sure exactly where the Lord is leading, but it's going to be with those people. And that was the thing I knew when I retired that, okay, this is what I want to do.   And then the more I worked, you know, I started the business mentoring women millennials. The more I worked with these young women, the more I saw, yes, there's a need. There's a need here.   And I always, you know, again, people would ask, why? Why are you so connected? And I said, first of all, I saw the value in them.   But secondly, I think I was one. My husband and I laughed that we never really fit in with our generation. And here's why.   We both were out of school and working on our careers when we met. And in our generation, you got married right out of high school, or at the very least right out of college. And so, you know, our families had given up.   They're like, they're never going to get married. They're working. They got this whole career thing going.   And so, when we got married, well, then we didn't have children until we were in our 30s. You know, highly irregular for our generation. We were entrepreneurial.   So, we were looking at franchises in our 20s. And our families were like, just get a job. What is this?   You got to buy something and then you buy something else. And my husband owned a business, his first business in his 30s. We both had side hustles.   Again, friends and family were like, just do one job. What is with you guys? Always got all these things, you know, going.   And then when I took the job in fashion, and I was working in Manhattan and living in Peoria, like, what do you even call that kind of work to call it remote? Working remotely? Yeah.   And so, I think part of my heart for them is I was one. And so, when they talk about some of the struggles and the things that are endearing to them, like, I got you. I felt like that, too.   Laura Dugger:  (28:20 - 28:57) That is incredible. And I think it really does make you the perfect person for that mentor mentee relationship. And I kind of want to camp out on that further, because we've alluded to it.   And some of these tips are in your book, where you highlight those discussion topics that give people the tools. But then if we take it a step further or personalize it, how can all of us as listeners begin a mentoring relationship like the one you've described? And I'm even thinking of the beginning point.   Do you think it's up to the mentor or the mentee to initially reach out?   Kathryn Spitznagle: (28:58 - 33:07) Either one. Yeah, either one can work. When I left Purina, having had this wonderful leadership experience and mentoring environment, I thought, well, this must be what all corporations are like.   No. Doesn't make them bad. They're just different.   So, when I got to Caterpillar that was male, very male dominated, I remember calling my mentor at Purina, who is still my mentor today. She mentored me for 22 years at Caterpillar after I left Purina. And then was one of the biggest proponents of me writing my book and starting my business.   And we still get together today. So, when they talk about developing people for life, they're very serious about that. And so, when I got to Caterpillar, I thought, well, they don't seem to have this.   I think I'll start a mentoring program. Well, I was, you know, some little gal in marketing. You're not going to start a mentoring program for a Fortune 50 company out of that spot.   It comes up through HR and Office of Business Practices and Legal and all of that. Anyway, I called my mentor at Purina, very frustrated, and I said, “Lynn, you and Neil make a place for me. I'm coming back.   They don't have a mentoring program here.” I don't, you know, and she said, “Okay, first of all, we didn't train you up to come back. Your job is to take this forward.”   And she said, “Are there young women there?” Yes. And she said, “Mentor them.”   And she said, “Are there leaders that need support?” And I said, “Yes.” And she said, “Okay, support them.”   She said, “Are there teams that need to be built?” And I said, “Yes.” And she said, “Then you have good work to do there.”   Go. And she hung up. I thought, OK.   And so, from that moment on, when I would see an announcement that would come through email where a woman was being hired into Caterpillar, I would reach out to her and just say, do you have a mentor or would you like one? And for 22 years, they all said yes. And so that's what I did.   I worked with those women. And, you know, here's another God wink when my announcement went out, then that I was retiring. These women all started coming back to me wherever they were in the nation and even in the world.   Many of them had gone on to do other things, bigger, better things. And they all started reaching out to me. Someone had forwarded the announcement to them and said, “We want you to start a business, a mentoring business and help others just like you helped us, and we will help you.”   And one said, “You need to write a book, and I'll write the forward.” Another one said, “Yes, and you need to do podcasts and I'll be on one.” Another one said, “I know what's going to stop you at your website, so I'm going to help you with your website.”   Another one said, “You're going to need testimonials.” So, she posted on social media that anyone that's ever been mentored by Kathryn Spitznagel, leave a message here. Very humbling.   And another one said, “I'm now VP of a big company in Chicago and I will hire you.” And so, I retired one day and started a business the next.   Laura Dugger:  (33:09 - 33:30) Incredible how that all came back around. And I gleaned so much from your stories in your book, and then even getting to connect with you before today. But there's another story about servant leadership that you shared from the man who you've named your previous boss, Neil Lewis.   Will you share? Do you know which one I'm thinking of?   Kathryn Spitznagle: (33:31 - 36:35) Yeah. You need to know three personal things about everyone who works for you. Okay.   So, Neil Lewis had leadership meetings. There were 12 of us were his leadership team every Monday morning. He was also a minister outside of work.   So, a lot of times we would laugh that we were getting the rehash of the sermon from yesterday as part of his leadership. But he often gave us assignments. And one Monday morning, he said, okay, here's your assignment.   I want you to know three personal things about everyone who works for you. And they need to be things that aren't in their personnel file. And he said, I'm going to ask you sometime this week about one of those people, but you won't know which one.   So, you need to know all of them. And I, you know, lousy leader, I was just learning. And I said, Neil, I have 10 people, three things, 10 people, that's 30 things I got to know.   And he said, Kathryn, good math. You have some work to do. So, I went back, and I interviewed each one of my 10 people, three things, found him out, followed the assignment.   And I was ready. And I saw him in the hall later in the week. He said, “Kathryn, walk with me. I'm going to the next meeting.” I said, “Okay.” Tell me three personal things about Kathy, who works for you. I said, “Okay.”   Kathy has recently divorced. Uh, she has an 18-month-old baby, and she is moving to a new apartment. And he said, “What have you done to help her?”   And honest to God, I said, “That wasn't part of the assignment.” And he looked at me and I said, “No, wait a minute. I did help her.   I changed her hours. She has a longer commute now into St. Louis. So, she's going to come in at 8:30 am and work till 5:00 pm.”   And I was feeling pretty proud of myself, like bonus question. And he said, “Did she come to you, or did you go to her?” And I said, “Well, she came to me, but I said, it was okay.”   So, Kathryn know your people. If you don't know your people, you don't know what they need. And if you don't know what they need, you can't help them.   And if you can't help them, what in the world are you doing here? It says leaders were here to serve. And if you're not here to serve, you need to step out.   I became a different leader that day. One who chose to lead by serving.   Laura Dugger:  (36:38 - 37:17) I just wanted to let you know there are now multiple ways to give when you visit thesavvysauce.com. We now have a donation button on our website and you can find it under the donate page, which is under the tab entitled support. Our mailing address is also provided.   If you would prefer to save us the processing fee and send a check that is tax deductible. Either way, you'll be supporting the work of Savvy Sauce Charities and helping us continue to reach the nations with the good news of Jesus Christ. Make sure you visit thesavvysauce.com today. Thanks for your support.   Kathryn Spitznagle: (37:18 - 38:19) You know, the other piece, uh, the other thing that he taught me there, uh, Laura, as we continued to walk, uh, because he always wanted to bring things back around to, to a positive. He was going to make his point, but he was not going to leave me there, you know? He said, Kathryn, “Do you understand what you missed there?”   It was such a missed opportunity with Kathy, um, to engage her and to help her feel cherished. He said, “That's the difference when you anticipate someone's needs and you go to them before they ask. That's the opportunity.”   That's the gold. That's what engages people and, uh, garners their loyalty. And that's when they feel cherished.   That was the real missed opportunity.   Laura Dugger:  (38:23 - 38:35) And that never left you. And that's probably blessed so many people hearing that. What about lessons of forgiveness in leadership as well?   Do you have any stories to illustrate that?   Kathryn Spitznagle: (38:35 - 42:28) Yes. And that's another lesson from, from Neil Lewis that was a profound lesson for me that I've never heard anywhere else. Forgiveness is part of leadership. So, I learned this, um, again, lousy leader just starting out.   And, um, when he put me into leadership, I was like, how hard could it be? Tell people what to do. They do it.   And then came my first employee opinion survey results and they were bad. The numbers were bad. The comments were bad.   The people were unhappy. Um, and the comments to me were, were hurtful. They were justified, but they were hurtful.   And so, when I got, uh, you know, got all the information, I left, I was upset. The next day when I came into the office, I just went into my office and closed the door. I thought they don't want to talk to me.   I don't want to talk to them. That's fine. I was working here.   So, Neil gave me a little time to cool off. And then he came in and, um, on my desk, uh, one of the things that they, um, Purina does in terms of creating that cherished culture is, um, to have things around you that revitalize you. And so, they ask you one of the first days about what, what are things that revitalize you?   And I said, okay, uh, fresh flowers revitalize me. They remind me of my grandmother, nanny, and being in the garden. Um, notes are cards from handwritten, you know, from friends and family and a walk outside.   Those are three things that revitalize me. Okay. So again, I registered with Neil Lewis.   He knew that was a way to frame things for me. So, when he came in that morning, he picked up one of the cards from my desk and he handed it to me and he said, to read that card. And I said, you can read it.   He said, “No. No, I'm asking you to read it out loud to me.” So, it was a card from someone on my team, very complimentary about my leadership style and what it, how it impacted them. And he said, “Is that the leader you are today?”   And I said, “No, but in fairness, they were mean to me. They said some very hurtful things and yeah, I'm not happy.” He said, “Okay.”   And he said, “Kathryn, as leaders, our job is to give first and give again”. And he said, “Do you know what the bridge is between giving first and giving again?” And I said, “No.”   I said, “Neil, I'm not tracking with you.” And he said, “Forgive.” And I said, “Oh, forgiveness.”   And he said, “Nope. Forgiveness is something someone else does. That's a noun. Forgive is a verb. And that's what I need to see you do. Forgive.”   He said, “Kathryn, forgiveness is a big part of leadership and it's something that will hold you back for the rest of your life. So, I am asking you today to be the leader I know you to be and forgive them.”   Laura Dugger:  (42:32 - 42:52) Well, in even the way he modeled that in the way you shared that story, it also reminds me of another leadership tool that you mentioned in your book, which I think if somebody is experiencing this, that could be a really practical next step. So, it's called the hero page. Will you elaborate on that for us?   Kathryn Spitznagle: (42:52 - 52:07) Yes. And so, at Purina, when they talked about having these one-on-ones with your team, with your mentees, with your mentors, kind of framing the dialogue in three buckets, called it three bucket exercise. And I still, this is how I still mentor today.   Uh, so the first thing we ask people to come prepared with is bucket one. What are we celebrating? What have you learned? What have you accomplished? What has gone so well?   Um, since the last time we spoke, because we, as people, but particularly as women pass through things very quickly and go, yep, done good onto the next. Yeah. We don't take that time to celebrate.   And Purina was very focused on what they called reveling. Take just a minute to revel. That was good work, did good work, but whatever was accomplished personal and professional, it was, there were things at home, baby slept four hours straight.   Okay. So, bucket one, what are we celebrating?    Um, so bucket one, they called aha.    Bucket two, they called, hmm, what is, uh, what's out there that you need to, um, do, you know, what's on your to-do list. Is there something you need to get a plan for?   Um, is there something that you want to talk through that's kind of on your assignment board, something like that. And we'll talk through some tactics.    Bucket three is what in the world.   So, anything that seems overwhelming, uh, caught you by surprise. You didn't know it was part of the job. You didn't know it was part of life.   Those are the things we want to talk about in bucket three, every time. So, you want me to tell you the things that are overwhelming me and that I don't know where to start. Yes.   Yes. Every week, because here's what we'll do. We will take the power out of that.   Once you, that's it. We're going to fix it and say, okay, this is what's overwhelming me. This is what I'm anxious about.   This is what caught me by surprise. And we're going to figure out how to break it down into something actionable. And then we're going to move it to bucket two.   And next week, we're going to be talking about those action steps and pretty soon it's going to move to bucket one. There you go. We're celebrating that process that I learned at Purina still did at Caterpillar and doing today.   Um, that just warms my heart. Uh, when I see, um, the folks that I've worked with who've now gone on to do other things. And, uh, one of the guys on my team at Caterpillar, um, now works for McDonald's in Chicago.   And he said that Kathryn, that's our onboarding process. And so, anybody that comes through his team in McDonald's, that's what they learn how to do. And he said that it was just gold.   And you can talk about creating a safe space, but again, the difference with Purina was they gave you a tool, not ours, we are a cherished culture. We create a safe space. And you know what, here's how, by asking this question and by setting aside time to answer it and wrestle with it and work through it.   Now, having said all that, where do you put this information as you're learning this about this person? Uh, you're learning what they're celebrating. You're learning, um, what their values are.   You're learning what they like to do outside of work. What's important to them learning about their purpose. That's a hero page.   And so, they gave us a tool and they said, you know, it's very simple, a hero page. You, you just record things that you have learned about this person that you respect and admire about them. And you can do one for yourself.   They ask you to do the first one for you. Um, but then also to do them for, you can do them for a peer or a leader. Um, you can also do them for someone you're struggling with because oftentimes we aren't really looking for the positives in that person.   So, the, uh, the logic behind the hero page is once you've created it, uh, you're going to look for things to put on it. Positives, all positives, negatives we remember. Positives we're looking for and that's the first reason.    The second reason for a hero page is you may have a tough day with that person sometime. And if you do, you go back and look at your hero page and it puts things in perspective.   Yeah, this isn't going well today, but here are the things I respect and admire about this person. And yes, um, perspective.    The third reason is they may have a tough day sometime and what an incredible gift you can be to them.   Here's an example. When I worked at Caterpillar, um, had wonderful leaders, some remarkable women leaders at Caterpillar, I think because there were so few of them, they were rock stars. And one that I worked for, uh, was sent to Beijing, China on a short term, like a, I don't know, six month or one year assignment as it at the same time, I was also mentoring someone in that Beijing office and it was very remote.   They were, in a remote area, creating an office, creating an HR office, you know, where they, where there's a factory and the person I was mentoring said, you know, let me give you an idea of what we're struggling with here. What kind of, what our situation is. And I'm at corporate and I said, well, whatever it is, I think I could send you some of our signage, some of our value signs.   Those are, those are, that's what you need. I'll send you some value signs. You can put them up on your walls.   And she said, Kathryn, we don't have walls. We're working out of a tent. And she said, each morning we send a bus out to the rural areas here in China and it stops to pick up workers.   And if dad can't go, he sends mom. And if mom can't go, she puts a couple of kids on the bus. And we never know from day to day who's coming to work.   What we do know is that the bus will be full. They will get two meals while they're at work, breakfast and lunch. And then when it returns them home, they will have gotten paid.   She said, we are all but paying people and chickens. Do you understand the situation, the gravity of what we're trying to do to come in here and create an office and HR processes? And she said, first, we're trying to determine who our employees are.   I said, “Oh, our leader is struggling”. And she said, “Will you get on a call with her today?” I said, “Give me a minute.”   And she said, “You're going to get her hero page.” So, we got on the call. Lois, “Kathryn, is this the woman that led one of the first NPI projects for Caterpillar as a woman with our flagship tractor?”   And she said, “Yes.” I said, “Is this the woman who was handed a belt buckle and a t-shirt and created global merchandising stores all around the world?” And she said, “Yes.”   I said, “Is this the woman who has been married 30 plus years happily, raised two remarkable children and showed us all it was possible?” Yes. I said, “I don't know what you're struggling with today, but I do know the woman who did these things can tackle this.”   What a gift you would be to another leader on the day that they needed it in that moment, just to remind them of their value.   Laura Dugger:  (52:10 - 52:40) That encouragement is so powerful. And you're such an engaging storyteller. And like you had mentioned previously, you've gone on from corporate America to now beginning your own business, including your podcast that will link to Rockstar Millennials.   So, I'm curious, Kathryn, are there any stories from those podcast episodes that really come to mind as you think of any standout lessons or your favorites?   Kathryn Spitznagle: (52:41 - 55:51) Oh my gosh. There are so many. It just seems like when I think I can't meet someone any more incredible, I do.   And again, good Lord's hand, they come from all different paths. We're international now. A couple of them that really stand out to me, Michael Kuzma,: he invented the self-playing guitar.   He knew people in his life who had either never been able to play the guitar and wanted to, or they had experienced some sort of an injury or illness that then prevented them from doing what they loved. And so, he created this and just said, “I want this to bring joy and be fun for people.” And I guess the part of the platform that I have for the podcast is purpose.   How are you living your purpose? Khushi Shah is 19 years old. So, she's a little bit younger than a millennial even.   Created a company called Drizzl and it is an informed, what I want to say, it's an irrigation company. And she created this as a science project in grade school. She's now in college at MIT and Harvard and Northeastern.   So, she's attending classes at all. She went to a science and math school in Chicago for high school, finished early and took a gap year at 17. And I said, “So you traveled?”   And she said, “Nope, I decided I'd just run that business full-time, Drizzl.” And so, her families of Indian descent. They'd gone to India and seen the need for water, clean water.   And she said, coming back to the States, I saw sprinklers, lawn sprinklers running and it was raining. And I thought, I need to fix that. There are products on the market that will turn a sprinkler off if it's raining.   Her product is predictive. She's 19. Yeah.   So, folks from St. Jude, folks from Midwest Food Bank, just incredible. Obviously, I can't name one.   There are so many. And those who are living their purpose in all walks of life, in all places around the world, I want to talk to.   Laura Dugger:  (55:52 - 56:07) Wow. And Kathryn, you've invested in so many people and highlighted so many people through your podcast. As you look back, what are you happiest that you invested your life in?   Kathryn Spitznagle: (56:09 - 57:07) Well, I'm a mom, boy mom. So that would have to be my first, my boys. Again, one of the women that I mentor said to me early on, Kathryn, one of the things I love the most is you're from the other side.   I said, Kelsey, what does that mean? I'm from the other side. And she said, you've already done all of this.   You've done the corporate life. You understand small business. You have a decades long, happy marriage.   You've raised your boys. They're happy. They're successful.   If you did this, we can do this and you can help us. And so that investment on so many levels, yeah, is coming back.   Laura Dugger:  (57:08 - 57:19) I love that. And would you be willing just to share anything else about your business or what all you have to offer so that we can continue learning from you after this conversation?   Kathryn Spitznagle: (57:20 - 1:00:49) Oh, absolutely. So, the book that you mentioned, Rockstar Millennials, Developing the Next Generation of Leaders. That's the book.   And it recounts so many of these leadership stories. And then in the back, as you said, are the different tools. And I have to credit the Caterpillar engineers because when I went to Caterpillar and I would tell these stories about Purina or I would live something that they had taught me.   Very early on, in the meeting, or after the meeting, some of these gentlemen came up to me and said, “That thing you just did in that meeting, can you write that down? Like what?” And they said, “Like the words and or the process.”   And so, it began. So, I'd start writing down the words and they might put a graphic with it or somehow improve it. And so, through the years, this same group kept coming back to me.   And when they saw the announcement that I was retiring, they showed up again and said, “Okay, we need one more thing, a spreadsheet.” What do you mean a spreadsheet? They said, “You know, all through the years, we have all of these tools now that we've created out of your head on this paper that we can use and we're using.”   If you can give us a spreadsheet that says, “If you're having this leadership issue, use this tool.” So, God bless the engineers.   So, I credit them, and the tools are in the back of the hard book.   What I found when I started doing workshops was people didn't want to write in the book and they also wanted something bigger and they wanted a place to make notes and doodle and that sort of thing. So that's why we have the book and then the toolkit. So, my business is Mentoring Women Millennials and I do one on one mentoring with individuals, small business primarily.   They'll bring me in to work with their women leaders, but also just individuals who are in some sort of a transition in life or that have never had a mentor and would like one. And so, I do the one-on-one mentoring also with nonprofits. And I'm now an 18-year breast cancer survivor, still in treatment.   And I also mentor breast cancer survivors. And keynote speaking. I work with the Capital City Speakers Bureau.   And so, I do speaking there and I'm prepping for a TED Talk. So those are the next things.   Laura Dugger:  (1:00:50 - 1:01:16) I love it. Always something up your sleeve. We will link to your website so that people can follow up and get in touch if that would be a good partnership.   And you may already be familiar that we're called The Savvy Sauce because savvy is synonymous with practical knowledge or insight. And so as my final question for you today, Kathryn, what is your Savvy Sauce?   Kathryn Spitznagle: (1:01:18 - 1:01:49) Um, when I left Purina, um, I asked Neil, “You know, how do I ever repay this company that has given so much to me?” And he said, “Take what you've learned and help someone else.” And so, if you learn from me, that would be my ask, help someone else.   Laura Dugger:  (1:01:50 - 1:02:05) I love that. Amen. Great Savvy Sauce.   And Kathryn, you're just so poised and classy and full of insight. And it was an absolute pleasure to get to host you as my guest today. So, thank you for being my guest.   Kathryn Spitznagle: (1:02:05 - 1:02:07) Thank you. Thank you for having me.   Laura Dugger:  (1:02:09 - 1:05:52) One more thing before you go. Have you heard the term gospel before?   It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you. But it starts with the bad news.   Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves. This means there is absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death, and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved.   We need a savior. But God loved us so much, he made a way for his only son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with him.   That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live and died in our place for our sin. This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus.   We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished if we choose to receive what He has done for us. Romans 10:9 says, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” So, would you pray with me now?   Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to you. Will you clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare you as Lord of their life?   We trust you to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.   If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring him for me, so me for him. You get the opportunity to live your life for him. And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason.   We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So, you ready to get started? First, tell someone.   Say it out loud. Get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes & Noble and let me choose my own Bible.   I selected the Quest NIV Bible, and I love it. You can start by reading the book of John. Also, get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ.   I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps, such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you. We want to celebrate with you too, so feel free to leave a comment for us here if you did make a decision to follow Christ. We also have show notes included where you can read scripture that describes this process.   And finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, “In the same way I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.   And if you've already received this good news, I pray you have someone to share it with. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.

Today, we have the joy of welcoming Robby Angle, President and CEO of Trueface, to the Love is Fearless Podcast! Robby is passionate about helping people move from simply knowing about grace to living out their true identity in Jesus—with trust, freedom, and relational depth. Before leading Trueface, Robby pastored thousands toward authentic community at North Point Community Church. Now, he's helping steward a powerful new resource called The Path—an experience designed to move believers beyond striving and into a transformational life of trusting God. Also, The Path Experience Guide is designed for community groups to facilitate life change through relationships. Together, we'll explore: What inspired The Path and why it's so needed now How trusting God (not just pleasing Him) changes everything Why following Jesus sometimes feels harder after you surrender—and how that's part of real transformation How families, not just individuals, can be reshaped by grace You're in the Right Place If… You're tired of knowing about grace but still feeling stuck. Maybe you're looking for God's approval. Maybe you're looking for man's approval. Maybe you're tired of looking for approval, and you're ready to admit you're looking for meaning and purpose.  You're not sure about Jesus - and you're really not sure about a life of faith. Too much of what you see either lacks authenticity or adds too much pressure…but, honestly, you're tired of dreading Mondays…so if there's more to the Jesus story than you've experienced so far…you're curious. You're ready to stop trying to figure it out alone—and start walking the path of grace with Jesus. Favorite quotes from today's conversation:  (Doug's favorite) “Each and every one of us longs for fulfillment. It's in our bones, in our blood, in our breath. We sense that we are made for peace and joy and yet it slips through our grasping fingers like water and wind. Breathe. Find the courage to look at your longing, at your closed fists. And ask: What have I been searching for?” (The City, The Path) (Janet's favorite) “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." (Frederick Buechner) “Every morning we stand on the wild edge of a story unfolding beneath our very feet.” (The Story, The Path)

Josiah and Micah Kennealy sit down with Clay and Allie Cooney about leading together as a married couple in ministry. They lead NPYA at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia.  Today's episode is presented by: 1. The Minnesota Young Adult WKND: https://www.youngadults.today/the-wknd 2. -Join us June 5-6 for the West Coast leader conference IN PERSON in Irvine, California: https://www.youngadults.today/west-coast-conference More about us: -Free eBook "10 Steps to Starting a Successful Young Adult Ministry: https://www.youngadults.today/book/starting-a-successful-young-adult-ministry -Book Bundle: https://www.youngadults.today/book/3-book-bundle -Subscribe to the youngadultstoday podcast: On Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/youngadults-today/id1477787085 On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4swpMslS254rcZR41lpEPp?si=46a279679e794ca7 -Join our FaceBook Group Community with 2500+ leaders: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1KYXn2hsbK/ -Follow youngadultstoday on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youngadults.today/ About our ministry: www.youngadults.today Check out our conversation with Clay and Allie about FRIENDSHIP on the NPYA podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-npya-podcast/id1692235861 

In this episode Pastor Raef examines a few stories that have made their way into the news cycle. Andy Stanley, from North Point Community Church put out a video for his Church on how to engage transgender youth. New statistics reveal young men are reading their Bibles and attending church far more. John Piper makes waves by saying... what the Bible says.Resourceshttps://protestia.com/2025/03/28/exclusive-leaked-lgbtq-training-video-from-andy-stanleys-church-reveals-shocking-instructions/https://www.christianpost.com/news/more-men-turning-to-the-bible-across-every-generation.html

In this episode of the Celebrate Kids podcast, Dr. Kathy addresses the ongoing discussions surrounding gender identity within the church, particularly in light of a leaked training video from North Point Community Church. The video showed a ministry director instructing leaders to use affirming language for transgender students aged 11 to 14. Dr. Kathy emphasizes the importance of truth in guiding youth, expressing concern over the confusion that can arise from misleading ideas propagated by leaders. She offers insights on how to navigate these challenging conversations with children, highlighting the necessity of making sure that the church remains a place of truth while ensuring that all students feel safe and supported. Tune in as Dr. Kathy shares helpful strategies for parents and leaders facing this complex issue.

In this episode, Brady teams up with Josh Klein from  @FreethinkingMinistries to respond to a leaked LGBTQ+ youth leader training video from North Point Community Church — led by the influential Andy Stanley.We break down the language, theology, and cultural shifts revealed in the training and offer a biblical response rooted in truth and love. This is a critical conversation for anyone involved in youth ministry, Christian parenting, or church leadership.⏱️ Timestamps00:00 Intro02:05 Why this conversation matters10:59 Overview of North Point's LGBTQ+ training29:30 Discipleship vs. affirmation42:48 Gender dysphoria and youth identity52:29 Puberty blockers and medical harm1:05:15 The tragic consequences of “loving affirmation”1:15:01 What churches must do moving forward

In today's episode, we continue our conversation from last week about letting kids do things on their own to help build their confidence, and boy, were people mad, so we had to revisit the topic. After all, we want to encourage bravery, not paranoia, in our children. We also talk about whether parents should allow their kids to attend sleepovers or not, and our views might surprise you. Also, we're discussing the leaked training video out of Andy Stanley's North Point Community Church for youth group leaders about LGBTQ youth in middle school and how they ought to respond. Spoiler alert: It's not biblical. And is the White House going too far with its bizarre social media messaging about deportations? Or is it just capitalizing on trending memes? Share the Arrows 2025 is on October 11 in Dallas, Texas! Go to sharethearrows.com for tickets now! Buy Allie's new book, "Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion": https://a.co/d/4COtBxy --- Timecodes: (03:45) Allowing kids to take risks (15:44) Should parents allow sleepovers? (26:06) North Point Community Church's youth training (01:00:22) White House Ghibli meme  --- Today's Sponsors: We Heart Nutrition — Get 20% off women's vitamins with We Heart Nutrition, and get your first bottle of their new supplement, Wholesome Balance; use code ALLIE at https://www.WeHeartNutrition.com. Good Ranchers — Go to GoodRanchers.com for their Spring Into Action special, and subscribe to any of their boxes (but preferably the Allie Beth Stuckey Box) to get free bacon, ground beef, seed oil free chicken nuggets, or salmon in every box for a year. Plus, you'll get $40 off when you use code ALLIE at checkout. EveryLife — The only premium baby brand that is unapologetically pro-life, and praying for more babies in 2025. If you and your spouse are believing for a baby in 2025, now through April 11th, sign up at EveryLife.com/Pray to request prayers. Jase Medical — Go to Jase.com and enter code “ALLIE” at checkout for a discount on your order. --- Related Episodes: Ep 1163 | Self-Centered Women's Ministries Are Making the Church Weak | Guest: Natasha Crain https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-1163-self-centered-womens-ministries-are-making/id1359249098?i=1000701631532 Ep 1162 | SkinnyTok, the iPad Pacifier & Paula White's New Scam https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-1162-skinnytok-the-ipad-pacifier-paula-whites-new-scam/id1359249098?i=1000701152306 Ep 904 | My Response to Andy Stanley's LGBTQ Sermon https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-904-my-response-to-andy-stanleys-lgbtq-sermon/id1359249098?i=1000634183444 Ep 1030 | Responding to Andy Stanley's Message to Conservatives https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-1030-responding-to-andy-stanleys-message-to-conservatives/id1359249098?i=1000661071312 Ep 750 | Is Andy Stanley Gay-Affirming? | Guest: Jacob Kersey https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-750-is-andy-stanley-gay-affirming-guest-jacob-kersey/id1359249098?i=1000598536639 --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise – use promo code 'ALLIE10' for a discount: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can we overcome some of the concerns and frustrations surrounding discipleship and ensure that we are effectively developing disciples of Jesus in our local churches? In this week's conversation on FrontStage BackStage, host Jason Daye is joined by Robby Angle. Robby is the president and CEO of Trueface. Prior to joining Trueface, Robby served for over seven years at North Point Community Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Together, Robby and Jason explore some of the disappointments that we might feel when we try to adopt or adapt discipleship models into our local churches. Robby shares some powerful insights on how you and the leaders in your local church can help create a discipleship plan that is authentic to the unique culture and context of your church.Dig deeper into this conversation: Find the free Weekly Toolkit, including the Ministry Leaders Growth Guide, all resource links, and more, at http://PastorServe.org/networkSome key takeaways from this conversation:Robby Angle on the fundamental biblical truth about spiritual growth and community: "We're designed to grow through relationships and discipleship is the process of growing in love of God and others."Robby Angle on the importance of deep, personal connections over mere group participation: "Groups don't lead to growth, relationships lead to growth."Robby Angle on the principle of intentional discipleship and deeper relationships over superficial connections: "Spend more time with fewer people for greater Kingdom impact."----------------Looking to dig more deeply into this topic and conversation? FrontStage BackStage is much more than another church leadership show, it is a complete resource to help you and your ministry leaders grow. Every week we go the extra mile and create a free toolkit so you and your ministry team can dive deeper into the topic that is discussed.Visit http://PastorServe.org/network to find the Weekly Toolkit, including the Ministry Leaders Growth Guide. Our team pulls key insights and quotes from every conversation with our guests. We also create engaging questions for you and your team to consider and process, providing space for you to reflect on how each episode's topic relates to your unique church context. Use these questions in your staff meetings, or other settings, to guide your conversation as you invest in the growth of your ministry leaders. Love well, live well, & lead well Complimentary Coaching Session for Pastors http://PastorServe.org/freesession Follow PastorServe LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | FacebookConnect with Jason Daye LinkedIn | Instagram...

In this episode of Working Class Audio, Matt welcomes Mixing Engineer David Stagl who has worked on projects for or with North Point Community Church, Christ Fellowship(West Palm Beach, FL), Eagle Brook Church (Minneapolis, MN), musical artists: Kristian Stanfill, Jesus Culture, Passion, Phil Keaggy, North Point Music and in broadcast: Discovery Channel, HGTV. Corporate: Home Depot, Wyndham Vacations, and Motorola. In This Episode, We Discuss: Post Production Broadcast Audio Books Worship Sound Dolby ATMOS Live Sound Mistakes Audio Professionals in Religious Settings Immersive Audio for Churches Worship Audio Challenges and Solutions North Point Church Links and Show Notes: David's Site Matt's Rant: Humility in Audio Credits: Guest: David Stagl Host/Engineer/Editor/Producer: Matt Boudreau WCA Theme Music: Cliff Truesdell The Voice: Chuck Smith

In this episode of Working Class Audio, Matt welcomes Mixing Engineer David Stagl who has worked on projects for or with North Point Community Church, Christ Fellowship(West Palm Beach, FL), Eagle Brook Church (Minneapolis, MN), musical artists: Kristian Stanfill, Jesus Culture, Passion, Phil Keaggy, North Point Music and in broadcast: Discovery Channel, HGTV. Corporate: Home Depot, Wyndham Vacations, and Motorola.In This Episode, We Discuss:Post ProductionBroadcastAudio BooksWorship SoundDolby ATMOSLive Sound MistakesAudio Professionals in Religious SettingsImmersive Audio for ChurchesWorship Audio Challenges and SolutionsNorth Point ChurchLinks and Show Notes:David's SiteMatt's Rant: Humility in AudioCredits:Guest: David StaglHost/Engineer/Editor/Producer: Matt BoudreauWCA Theme Music: Cliff TruesdellThe Voice: Chuck Smith

Many of you have already heard of Tony Morgan's passing on the morning of Wednesday, September 4, 2024, after suffering a heart attack two days before and battling with all his strength. But we wanted you to hear it from our voices. This is a tribute to the best boss we ever had, the leader who practiced what he preached, and the man who loved Jesus and His church. In this short episode, Sean, Tiffany, and Amy share the statement released by The Unstuck Group, along with some updates on the future of the podcast.  It's been an unspeakably difficult week. Thank you for all your kind words and prayers. Please continue to lift up Emily and all of Tony's kids in prayer, and the Unstuck team too.  The Morgan family has published Tony's obituary and asked us to share it with you.  We will be celebrating the life and the legacy that Tony lived on September 19th at 11:00 am Eastern at his church, North Point Community Church. If you choose to attend, please wear anything but black clothes, because this is a celebration—celebration of the life he lived and the impact that we will continue to carry throughout our lives. If you plan to attend the service, please bring a handwritten or typed note with a memory of Tony or a description of the impact he had on your life. Notes will be displayed on a memory board at the reception following the service, and treasured forever by the family. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that you make a donation in support of a cause close to Tony's heart: developing the next generation to lead unstuck churches. You can donate here to a fund established to provide scholarships for young pastors to participate in leadership training through The Unstuck Group.  

The sermon in this review was preached by Andy Stanley at North Point Community Church and was uploaded to Andy Stanley's YouTube page on July 1, 2024. All rights belong to Andy Stanley and North Point Community Church. This video is for teaching and review purposes only and is protected under fair use. Fair use is a doctrine in the United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, or scholarship. 1) Original Sermon: https://youtu.be/vga6t63XGcQ?si=STVe89FHccjlIJ2R 2) FREE PDF Sermon Review Guide: https://thehonestyouthpastor.com/products/sermon-review-form 3) Read, Exegete, Preach Sticker: https://thehonestyouthpastor.com/products/read-exegete-preach-2-pack-stickers 4) “2000 Years Of Christ's Power”: https://heritagebooks.org/products/2000-years-of-christs-power-5-vols-needham.html?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwkJm0BhBxEiwAwT1AXIE7wyY2ZnfaNJuFsL30yB1dMp7gmLFbz-g0bWf-1IXHz8PuIfrVwxoC0pcQAvD_BwE 5) Making Of A Minister: The Deconstruction Of Andy Stanley: https://youtu.be/Y9H-ovSrNjE?si=IP1Ew5Az97UkNiaQ 6) My Sermon On Baptism: https://youtu.be/VsWOExCZis8?si=qWzloyWPDtn4kDTo

It's Friday, July 5th, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Adam McManus Nigerian Muslim terrorists demand ransom for kidnapped pastor Boko Haram, the Islamic terror group, recently shared a video on social media in which Nigerian Pastor Paul Musa was pleading for his life as an armed, masked Islamic extremist stands behind him, reports International Christian Concern. The Muslim terrorist group abducted the 59-year-old pastor and his wife, Ruth, age 50, in March 2023 from their home in Borno State, Nigeria. In the video, the pastor is wearing orange clothing, reminiscent of the orange jumpsuits worn by the 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians that the Islamic State group beheaded on a beach in Libya in 2015. The Muslim militants demanded the pastor's family pay $130,000 by Monday, July 8th or Pastor Musa would be killed. Since 2009, Islamic extremists such as Boko Haram, Islamic State West African Province, Islamic Fulani militants, and unidentified gunmen have killed an estimated 45,000 Nigerian Christians. In fact, earlier this month, members of Islamic State West African Province executed three Christians in the Borno State. These groups also continue to kidnap pastors and priests and hold them for ransom. It is critical that there is a loud cry from American Christians to the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. Please send a polite, yet firm physical letter to Dr. Uzoma Emenike, the Nigerian Ambassador, asking her to use her influence to save Pastor Paul Musa. Send your letter to Nigerian Embassy, 3519 International Court, NW, Washington, DC 20008. You can also email Mr. Rabi Luwal, Head of Information, to two specific email addresses in our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com.  RabiuLawal@NigeriaEmbassyusa.org, PublicComplaints@NigeriaEmbassyUSA.org Hezbollah launches big attack on Israel The Lebanese Hezbollah group said it launched over 200 rockets on Thursday at several military bases in Israel in retaliation for a strike that killed one of its senior commanders, reports The Associated Press. An atheist set to become new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, an atheist, is on course for a landslide election victory as the next British Prime minister, and leader of the Labour Party. Starmer is forecast to win 410 seats, putting the party on track for its best result since 2001. In a brutal reckoning, the Conservatives are set to be reduced to just 131 Members of Parliament, their lowest number since the party was founded in 1832. The Liberal Democrats are expected to get 61 seats. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, a Hindu, was heading for crushing defeat as voters rejected Tory rule after 14 years. Hurricane Beryl's trail of destruction in Jamaica Hurricane Beryl is churning toward the Cayman Islands and Mexico  today after leaving a trail of destruction in southern Jamaica, killing at least two people on the island nation, bringing down power lines, and leaving hundreds homeless and in shelters, reports NBC News. That brings the total dead this week in the Caribbean to nine. Hurricane Beryl had maximum sustained winds of about 160 mph, reported the National Hurricane Center, putting the storm in Category 5 status. Since debate, Trump's lead widens by additional 3% Former President Donald Trump is leading President Biden 49% to 43% among likely voters in the latest New York Times/Siena College poll, reports Axios.com. That's a three-point swing for Trump since the debate, and his largest lead in the survey since 2015. Democrats begin to consider Harris at the top of their ticket As President Biden continues to face questions about whether he should end his bid to seek a second term, there are growing signs that many in the Democratic Party are willing to accept the notion of Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of their presidential ticket, a potentially significant shift, reports The Washington Post. In candor, many Democrats were also worried that Harris would be a weak candidate, based in part on her ill-fated presidential run in 2020, when she was forced to drop out before a single vote was cast. But choosing someone instead of Harris, the first woman of color to serve as vice president, seemed politically untenable. Andy Stanley criticizes Southern Baptists for ousting Rick Warren's Saddleback Church over female pastor Georgia megachurch Pastor Andy Stanley has criticized the Southern Baptist Convention for disfellowshipping Rick Warren's Saddleback Church over its unbiblical approval of female pastors, reports The Christian Post. In a sermon Sunday at North Point Community Church of Alpharetta, Stanley, the son of the late Charles Stanley, a Southern Baptist pastor, expressed his strong disagreement. STANLEY: “One of the two people who really launched this movement way back in the late 70s is Rick Warren. Before he wrote The Purpose Driven Life, he wrote The Purpose Driven Church. That book sold millions of copies to pastors, and it was a book about how to create a church that's for outsiders, for unchurched people. He is a modern church reformer. “Last year, his denomination kicked him out of the denomination for something immoral? No! Something illegal? No! Something to do with money? No!  Because he's had some addiction. No, none of that, you know, glamorous stuff. “They kicked him out because he had the nerve to ordain three female staff members who were functioning as pastors. He ordained them as pastors, which is actually a legal status. It gave them a tax benefit. They're doing the work of all the other male pastors. He's like, ‘Well, why in the world, would we not make them pastors?' They're pastoring. And they weren't gonna go out and lead a church. They were working on his staff. He ordained three women and they kicked him out of the church. You don't get any more insider focused than that!” But, truth be told, that's not the whole story. In February 2023, the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee deemed Saddleback not in "friendly cooperation" with the convention. At issue is Pastor Andy Wood, who succeeded Saddleback founder Rick Warren as lead pastor, listing his wife, Stacie, as the church's teaching pastor. The Baptist Faith & Message 2000, the convention's official statement of beliefs, says that the "office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture." Although Saddleback Church had previously ordained three female pastors in May 2021, the convention cited Stacie Wood's naming as teaching pastor as the actual reason for the expulsion. In describing a pastor, Titus 1:6 says, “An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.” Join me on the Colorado Father/Son Retreat Join me, Adam McManus, and my two sons, Honor and Valor, at the Colorado father son retreat Thursday, August 15. through Sunday, August 18. It'll be a great time filled with fun activities time for fathers and sons to connect in a meaningful way, and hear inspirational speakers. For more info visit the website, ColoradoFatherSon.com. Close And that's The Worldview on this Friday, July 5th, in the year of our Lord 2024.  Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

  The following is a three part series on Spiritual Warfare that I presented in December 2005 at First Baptist Atlanta for leaders (primarily the counselors and lay counselors at FBA, the counselors at In Touch Ministries and the counselors at North Point Community Church). Ignorance of Satan's devices (2 Corinthians 2:11) has resulted in […] The post SPIRITUAL WARFARE SERIES – SATAN'S DEVICES first appeared on Source Ministries International.

Have you ever questioned the role of brokenness in shaping your identity? Is it possible to find hope amidst pain and use it as a catalyst for growth?   In this powerful episode, Toni and I dive deep into this as we explore the intersection of leadership, personal growth, and faith and also share our personal stories of overcoming adversity and embracing self-care.   Join us as we discuss the importance of rhythms or replenishment cycles, the transformative power of supportive communities, and some valuable insights on setting goals, consistency, and taking small steps towards personal growth.   Key Takeaways   00:00 - Introduction   More about our guest today   Toni Collier is a beacon of hope and resilience, using her personal journey to inspire and empower women worldwide through her international women's ministry, Broken Crayons Still Color. An accomplished speaker, author, and consultant, Toni has collaborated with organizations such as North Point Community Church, TBN, and IF:Gathering, leveraging her expertise in creative marketing, leadership, and strategic planning. Through Broken Crayons, Toni leads a team of women in creating impactful content and resources like the "Hopeful Woman Course," guiding thousands on a transformative journey of healing and self-discovery. With her unyielding determination to confront life's challenges, Toni's work is a testament to the power of embracing brokenness and cultivating hope to live a vibrant, purposeful life.   02:14 - Leadership, personal growth, and faith Toni and I explore the rhythms of leadership while discussing the power of turning brokenness into beauty. With vibrancy and colorful anecdotes, including Toni's personal experiences and encounters, we want to spread hope and kindness, and emphasize the need for compassion in the face of mean behavior.   09:54 - Healing and hope for parents and children. Toni recounts her story of overcoming pain and trauma to write a children's book, proving that perseverance and determination can lead to unexpected joy and validation, as seen by the book's appearance on an incredible platform. It is a story that ultimately empowers parents and children to find strength and hope in their own journeys.   15:03 - Rhythms and self-care for leaders, including exercise, worship, and nature. How important are rhythms in our daily lives, especially in leadership roles? Toni and I talk about our personal experiences with rhythms, why they matter, and share the rhythms we have embraced as we explore the significance we have seen of incorporating these patterns.    21:28 - Fitness journey, transformation, and community support Through shared experiences of our transformative fitness journeys, we hope to inspire you to push boundaries, embrace challenges and find strength in supportive communities.   26:30 - Conclusion In summary, this episode offers a profound exploration of leadership, personal growth, and faith, providing you with valuable insights and motivation for your own journey.    Through our stories, we aim to inspire you to embrace your individuality, discover your inner strength, and cultivate hope as you navigate life's challenges and evolve into the best version of yourself!   Mentions Toni Collier Instagram Toni Collier Website Broken Crayons Still Color (the book) Still Coloring Podcast Overcomer Devotional Unshakable Moxie Docuseries  

Ameera Joe, Intersect Director, North Point Community Church (Good2Give Podcast, Episode 8) On this episode of the Good2Give Podcast, Maria Walden-Sullivan and DePriest Waddy welcomed guest Ameera Joe, Intersect Director, North Point Community Church in Alpharetta. Their discussion revolved around how their organizations actively engage in their respective communities, assist nonprofits, and encourage philanthropy. Ameera shared the […]

Our guest today is Robby Angle. Robby is the President and CEO of Trueface, a ministry based in Dawsonville, GA.  He specializes in helping churches develop leaders through relational ministry.Prior to Trueface, Robby served for seven years as the Director of Adult Ministry Environments and Men's Groups for North Point Community Church in Atlanta, a church founded by Andy Stanley.Before North Point, he worked in professional counseling and aid work for Samaritan's Purse, overseeing international disaster response teams. Robby has a Masters in Community Counseling from Appalachian State University and a Certificate in Biblical Studies from DallasTheological Seminary.Host: Rodney CoxEmail us at information@ministryinsights.comTweet us at @Insights_IntlFollow us on LinkedInFollow us on FacebookThe podcast is a production of Ministry Insights. Visit us at ministryinsights.com.© 2023 Ministry Insights International, Inc. All rights reserved.

On this episode of the Trueface podcast, I am with Todd Fields. Todd is a worship leader and founder of Worship Circle. Todd  was created to create leaders. Whether it was with Louie Giglio at 7:22, at North Point Community Church in Atlanta or now with the mentorship ministry he started called Worship Circle, there are countless worship leaders in the world that wouldn't be who they are today without Todd pouring into them little by little. Ministry life can be rewarding, but it can also be lonely and tiring. Although we are known from the platform it's easy to exchange that knowing from being truly known in a safe and intimate way. It can be easy to believe that God wants what we DO for Him more than who we ARE in Him. The mission of reaching people is a good thing…but can often come before the mission of our own heart being reached and cared for.Worship Circle began in 2014 when Carrie and Todd Fields felt God calling them to pay attention to the development of their own hearts and souls after years of being in public ministry. Over the past 8 years they have been on a journey of knowing themselves and knowing God in a deeper way. By providing a safe virtual community through mentors leading small groups and an in person REST Retreat each year over 1200 worship leaders from countries all over the world have come to know that they are “Loved and Not Alone”.Watch: https://youtu.be/rQ9UkJLu6t4Listen:Download the Trueface Life app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store!Learn More about the trueface Journey Here: https://www.trueface.org/truefacejourney.Thanks for joining the podcast. Our goal is to help you experience and apply grace to your everyday life through sharing stories and processing these principles as we all learn to live beyond the mask.If you enjoyed this episode of the Trueface Podcast, it would help us if you would share this podcast with your friends and give us a 5-star review wherever you listen to this podcast.Support the show

Statistics show that one in five Gen Z children are identifying somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum. One in five. Parents must realize that all of our children are dealing with this issue, because even if our kids aren't personally struggling in their sexuality, their friends are. This issue affects every parent and every child.    The church needs to have a loving and truthful approach for families facing this issue.   One of the largest and most influential churches in the United States, North Point Community Church, pastored by one of the most influential ministers in the world, Andy Stanley, just went on the record telling us about his church's approach. Stanley's message, along with the Unconditional Conference for parents of LGBTQ identifying children held at North Point, signify a substantial departure from where the evangelical church has stood on this issue.   Does Stanley have the right approach? Is it Biblical? Should we be concerned?   Catherine's guest in this episode has been ministering to parents of children in the LGBTQ community for many years because she is one. As a mother of a same-sex attracted daughter who has embraced an LGBTQ identity and union, Melinda Patrick is precisely the kind of parent that the Unconditional Conference was trying to reach. But she has deep concerns about this conference and Stanley's teaching.   Together, Catherine and Melinda break down the troubling aspects of this conference and the message that Andy Stanley presented to his church.   Melinda's Bio: Melinda Patrick is the Director of Parent Support for His Wonderful Works and is host of The Bridge Between Us Podcast: Loving Your LGBTQ Identified Child While Not Compromising Truth and The Even While Podcast: Living Well in the Midst of Waiting. Melinda has parented a same-sex attracted child for twelve years and is passionate about helping moms and dads build strong relationships with their children while not compromising truth.   RESOURCES MENTIONED/REFERENCED:   Melinda Patrick's Website Melinda Patrick's email address: melinda@melindapatrick.org Melinda Patrick's Instagram Page The Bridge Between Us Podcast: Loving Your LGBTQ Identified Child Well While Not Compromising Truth The Even While Podcast: Living Well in the Midst of Waiting His Wonderful Works: Hope Healing and Freedom   Catherine Segars email address: catherine@catherinesegars.com   “The Number of LGBTQ Identifying Adults is Soaring” (Axios/data from Gallup) “The Train is Leaving the Station” by Albert Mohler Jr. Andy Stanley's Response: “I Love My Church” Greg & Lynn McDonald: Embracing the Journey The Unconditional Conference Debbie Causey's Website The Freedom March   SCRIPTURES REFERENCED:   John 3:16-21 Matthew 10:34-36 John 18:37 John 14:15 John 15:14 John 15:1 John 8:30-31 Matthew 18:7 Matthew 7:21-23 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 Romans 6:23 Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

If you're not familiar with Andy Stanley, he is the pastor of North Point Community Church just outside of Atlanta, GA. He is well known for his books and messages on leadership and influence. If you want to learn more about him, you can do so on his website. At the end of September, him and his church hosted a conference for the parents of LGBTQIA+ teens and their ministry leaders. Here's an excerpt from the webpage :  "YOU'RE INVITED to the Unconditional Conference. This two-day premier event is for parents of LGBTQ+ children and for ministry leaders looking to discover ways to support parents and LGBTQ+ children in their churches. You will be equipped, refreshed, and inspired as you hear from leading communicators on topics that speak to your heart, soul, and mind. We deeply desire this time will bring about healing and restoration. No matter what theological stance you hold, we invite you to listen, reflect, and learn as we approach this topic from the quieter middle space." I think as Christian leaders and those of us who are leading with a Christian worldview, this is something we need to be talking about. Tune in to today's episode to hear my take on the matter.

In this episode, we discuss the recent LGBTQ+-affirming Unconditional Conference that Andy Stanley and North Point Community Church hosted. Some reports claim that Andy Stanley affirmed the biblical stance on homosexuality and marriage, but did he? Also, in the Quick Hitters segment, we discuss Trevor Bauer having his professional baseball career destroyed by a conniving, manipulative, gold-digging whore, Paw Patrol featuring a non-binary character, President Biden's egregious tweet mocking “thoughts and prayers”, RFK Jr. indicating that he plans to launch an Independent bid for the 2024 Presidential election, California Governor Gavin Newsom's surprising veto of AB 957, and famous tattoo artist Kat Von D renouncing witchcraft and accepting Christ. Let's get into it… Go HERE to schedule your free personal and/or business financial assessment with Mike McCall of Bluecrest Financial. Go to www.getsecurity.tech for your free IT and Data Security assessment from LMS Tech. Let them help you with network installation, server setup, cloud data storage, email security, anti-virus management, tech compliance, and more. Episode notes and links HERE. Donate to support our mission of equipping men to push back darkness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

North Point Community Church, which is pastored by Andy Stanley, recently hosted a conference that caused quite a stir. Called the Unconditional Conference, the two-day event was geared toward helping Christian parents of LGBTQ+ children navigate their relationships with the children. However, the conference came under sharp criticism for hosting speakers who are LGBTQ+ affirming theologians, two of whom were gay married men. One of the biggest names weighing into the conversation was Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Mohler accused Stanley of departing from "biblical Christianity," a claim Stanley took exception to. While Stanley clarified that he and his church still uphold the traditional view of sexuality and marriage, he said that he doesn't want to "draw lines" but instead "draw circles." Despite his words, many have interpreted Stanley's actions as a tacit endorsement of LGBTQ+ affirming theology. In this episode, we wade into the mess of navigating grace and truth in light of LGBTQ+ issues. How can we prioritize relationships with people within the LGBTQ+ community while not compromising our convictions? What can we learn from Andy Stanley's example, both for the positive and the negative? READ FULL SHOW NOTES HERE Visit kainosproject.com to find other resources to help you tackle ancient truths in everyday settings, and be sure to subscribe to our email list to get all of our fresh content delivered straight to your inbox.Subscribe on Apple PodcastsFollow on Spotify Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

John and Maria discuss the hotly debated conference at Andy Stanley's North Point Community Church. How is boredom affecting American education? And science is facing a lack of trust over a series of questionable studies.   - Recommendations - Lighthouse Voices: The Genesis of Gender with Dr. Abigail Favale Micah Mattix on Substack Section 1 - North Point Church's “Unconditional” Conference  Andy Stanley's “Unconditional” Contradiction  Andy Stanley's Unconditional Conference: Deep Dive Response  A Sober Response of Gospel Importance  Section 2 - Leisure and Liberality Leisure and Liberality “Why Boredom Matters” by Kevin Hood Gary Section 3 - The Crisis of Trust in Science The Crisis of Trust in Science  The Band of Debunkers Busting Bad Scientists  Section 4 - Reflecting on Lighthouse Voices with Abigail Favale Lighthouse Voices: Dr. Abigail Favale

Andy Stanley's church, North Point Community Church, got himself in trouble when his church hosted a conference for parents of LGBTQ children. At the conference there were speakers who promote LGBTQ values and are in same-sex marriages. But the problem with Stanley's church is much deeper than this issue, as serious as it is. Follow my ministry with InFaith by going to:https://www.facebook.com/DennisInFaithIf you have any questions or comments that you'd like me to address you can shoot me an email to dennissutherby@infaith.orgAnd if you'd like to support my ministry with InFaith you can text the word "discipleship" to 41444 or head over to https://infaith.org/dennis-sutherby or StopSmallCon.com and give there.Theme Music:Overseas by Vlad Gluschenko | https://soundcloud.com/vgl9Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.comCreative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US#AndyStanley #LGBTQ #NorthPointCommunityChurch #SSA #Christian #Church #MegaChurchSupport the show

The Unconditional Conference hosted by Andy Stanley and North Point Community Church concluded last Friday, and details are beginning to emerge about what was taught across the two-day event. While there is much with which I disagree regarding the implications of Stanley's message, hearing the heart with which Stanley said it is helpful for responding to it in a way that is fair and honors God. Author: Ryan Denison, PhD Narrator: Chris Elkins Subscribe: http://www.denisonforum.org/subscribe Read The Daily Article: https://www.denisonforum.org/daily-article/andy-stanley-responds-unconditional-conference/ Andy Stanley's sermon, October 1, 2023 The Denison Forum Podcast  with Dr. Mark Turman and Proclaim Cuba leadership

Let's talk addiction, empathy, prosocial activities, relational resources, and being parental with licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor, Jolene Dalluhn! Jolene is the co-founder and Executive Director of Quest Counseling. Quest brings hope, recovery, and healing to our community by providing comprehensive, caring, and quality behavioral health treatment to each person and family seeking services. Learn more about Quest Counseling and their many treatment services at https://www.questreno.com/ Additional links from the episode: -Solace Tree's episode of Hope, NV: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5lCsaet5wQCeLWhymDrqUH?si=b88ec84d087646d9 -Jennifer Garner on why her teens aren't on social media: https://youtu.be/QZb8BLek1S8 -Jeff Foxworthy at North Point Community Church, talking about his experience at the Atlanta Mission (starts around 15:20): https://youtu.be/UZiHJ5wWkvU

Pastor Andy Stanley from North Point Community Church kicks off Be Rich 2023. Pastor Andy discusses why Jesus didn't command us to agree with one another. We can disagree and love unconditionally.

Today, I interview Robby Angle, author of “The Cure for Groups, How to Lead a Small Group People Will Talk About The Rest of Your Lives.”  Listen as Robby shares: o   About his experience leading 800 small groups in Andy Stanley's church, North Point Community Church. o   How to create a good culture in small groups o   Why the leader matters so much in making small groups work o   Why trust is so essential in small group relationships as well as our relationship with God o   How to ask good questions o   Why a good schedule and memorable events make such a big difference   How to Reach Robby Angle: Website: http://www.trueface.org LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robby-angle-a55b1433/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/truefacecommunity Twitter: https://twitter.com/Truefaced Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truefacelife/ YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/Trueface Robby Angle was booked via The Expert Bookers, www.expertbookers.com.   

Podcast 234 - Jeff Henderson - Know What You're For   This is one of my all-time favorite podcast conversations. Jeff Henderson is an author, motivational speaker, and leadership coach. We talk about what he's learned from his experiences in marketing and community impact initiatives during his time at Chick-fil-A and North Point Community Church. Jeff aims to motivate audiences to make a meaningful difference in their work AND THEIR COMMUNITIES. I've taken so much from his book Know What You're For, and am so excited to introduce him to the What's Up Dunwoody audience. Special shoutout to Karissa Tuttle with Simply Done Donuts for introducing us and helping make this possible!

In this episode of the Seek Go Create podcast, Tim Winders interviews Robby Angle, the president of True Face, about trust, humility, and leadership transitions. Robby shares valuable insights on the importance of trust as an action word and a relational word, emphasizing the significance of trusting God and others to meet our needs. He also highlights the necessity of humility in a leader during a founder transition and the difference between being a steward and an owner. Robby's personal anecdotes and lessons learned from his own experiences in leadership roles add depth and authenticity to the conversation. This episode is a must-listen for leaders who are navigating leadership transitions and want to cultivate trust, humility, and stewardship in their organizations. Whether you're a current leader or aspiring to become one, this episode offers valuable insights and real-life examples that will inspire and empower you. Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn from Robby's wisdom and expertise in leadership."Relationships lead to growth, not groups. We are designed to grow and mature through the context of relationships. Jesus defines discipleship by the way you love one another." Robby Angle Access all show and episode resources HEREAbout Our Guest:Robby Angle brings the topics of faith, trust, and leadership together. In his role as the President and CEO of True Face, Robby's commitment to the transformational power of grace, and building deeper relationships with God, translates into sustainable discipleship resources. He further refined his leadership skills during his seven-year journey at North Point Community Church, where he significantly contributed to creating enriching adult ministry environments. His key message? Leadership is synonymous with trust.Reasons to Listen: Recognize the importance of trust in constructing influential leadership.Get insight into the impactful role of small group leaders in church environments.Delve into the process of cultivating grace-centred relationships.Equip yourself with effective tools and resources for promoting spiritual growth and discipleship.Distinguish the significance of pursuing relationships, fortified by determination and courage.Episode Highlights:00:00:00 - Introduction, The episode begins with a discussion about the challenges of disciple making and the importance of knowing what to do and who to do it with.00:01:06 - Robbie's Background and Role, Robbie Angle introduces himself as the president and CEO of True Face, a ministry that develops grace-based relational discipleship resources. He also shares his personal identity as a follower of Jesus, a husband, and a father.00:03:31 - What Do You Do?, Robbie discusses the tension between societal expectations of defining oneself by their profession and the deeper longing for relational dynamics. He shares both his personal and professional descriptions, highlighting the importance of trust and following the way of Jesus.00:06:12 - Identity and Language, The conversation delves into the use of terms like "Christian" and "follower of Christ" in response to the politicization of faith. Robbie acknowledges the challenge of navigating the divisive nature of politics and emphasizes the need for detangling faith and politics.00:12:24 - True Face and Dawsonville, Robbie's role as the president and CEO of True Face is explored, and his location in Dawsonville, Georgia, is mentioned. The conversation briefly touches on the NASCAR history of Dawsonville and the connection to the Elliott family.00:14:45 - The Origin of True Face, True Face was founded 27-28 years ago by Bill Thrall and Bruce McNichol as Leadership...

On this episode of the Trueface Podcast, Robby is with Ted Lowe! Ted has been married since 1995, and he and his wife have four busy kids, whom he serves as Uber drivers and sometimes parents.He believes that marriage is simpler than most people think and that you can be better at it than you ever imagined. Ted is a speaker, author, resource creator, and proud member of the Family First staff. At Family First, they are on a mission to help families love well. Before joining in 2023, Ted held several positions, including Director of Marriage Strategies at Orange in Cumming, GA, Director of Married Life at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, GA, and Youth Pastor at Saddleback Community Church in Lake Forest, CA. During his time at Saddleback, Ted graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary. Ted is the author of multiple books which can be purchased anywhere books are sold! Learn more about Ted here: https://tedlowe.com/Watch: https://youtu.be/dKG5fP4KUkUDownload the Trueface Life app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store!Register for the Trueface Beyond Retreat today! https://trueface.regfox.com/trueface-retreat/Learn More about the trueface Journey Here: https://www.trueface.org/truefacejourney.Thanks for joining the podcast. Our goal is to help you experience and apply grace to your everyday life through sharing stories and processing these principles as we all learn to live beyond the mask.If you enjoyed this episode of the Trueface Podcast, it would help us if you would share this podcast with your friends and give us a 5-star review wherever you listen to this podcast.Support the show

Andy Stanley is one of the most well-known pastors in American Christianity. Known for founding North Point Community Church, the Catalyst Conference, and producing a number of resources for believers and church leaders. In this video essay, I aim to lay out an understandable timeline for where Andy Stanley came from and how different events in his life have influenced how he approaches situations now. This isn't a hit piece, which will disappoint some, but rather a video in which I present the facts I've discovered during researching Andy. My goal is to present that information and let the viewer decide. To assist in this endeavor I have provided a list of links to the full videos I used in this video. If you find this video helpful make sure you leave a like, subscribe for more content like this, and share it with a friend. This project was made possible because of our generous Patreons: BibleDingers, April Howe, Oscar Mendez, Austin Strange, Will Horn, Kristin Ellis, Terry, Melodie, Mark Abney, Brian, Jerrid, Matt Fries, Nick Hartman, Pedro Heizer, Ruslan, Kimberly, Koleen Biegacki, Nate Keane, TJ Barrett, Caleb Higdon, Seth, Sean Genette, Lee Escobar, Andrew Hansen, Phil Ayres, Carlos Rivera, Cade Northcutt, Brandt M., Russell, Josh Garman, and Nicole Hudson If you want to support more of what we do here you can do so via PayPal: TheHonestYouthPastorIG@gmail.com https://www.patreon.com/HonestYouthPastorhttps://www.thehonestyouthpastors.com Link List: ————— 1. "His Ways Mine: A Tribute to Dr. Chalres Stanley" - https://youtu.be/N8vpLY4R8sw 2. "A Conversation w/ Dr. Charles Stanley Part 1" - https://youtu.be/ZPr7nKBay8Q 3. "A Conversation w/ Dr. Charles Stanley Part 2" - https://youtu.be/ZPr7nKBay8Q 4. "How To Be FAithful And Fruitful w/ Dr. Chalres Stanley" - https://youtu.be/OpCCdaELZYY 5. "Andy Stanley: Full Uncut Interview" - https://youtu.be/emRPPoqkFPY 6. "Rise of the Religious Right Part 1" - https://youtu.be/PqE6WnIc8Rw 7. "Rise of the Religious Right Part 2" - https://youtu.be/3WsREKJCx2s 8. "1985 Southern Baptist Convention Part 1" - https://youtu.be/OVhIIWsXfOE 9. "Andy Stanley's Advice To Young Leaders" - https://youtu.be/66cHcKZwtdk 10. "History Part 4 - Andy Stanley & Andy Stanley" - https://youtu.be/p4uJI8RjrT4 11. "Forgiveness: Andy Stanley" - https://youtu.be/0yS146fXFXc 12. "Circles Instead Of Rows" - https://youtu.be/2uuBEdR6r-0 13. "Your Assumption Is Showing" - https://youtu.be/CMi9pOiBwCw 14. "The Bible's Falacies: Sam Harris: - https://youtu.be/U_8nBDVw72w 15. "Worship Services Not Essential" - https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/07/15/megachurch-pastor-andy-stanley-suspends-worship-services-covid-19-atlanta-bts-nr-vpx.cnn 16. "Leadership, Preaching, And Cultural Engagement" - https://youtu.be/Vho3oF5DJmQ 17. "When Truthy Meet Gracie" - https://subsplash.com/gwinnettchurch/media/mi/+8b4c8e3?autoplay=true 18. "Discovering God's Will Part 1" - https://youtu.be/688v0nlAEKg 19. "Discovering God's Will Part 2" - https://youtu.be/klI550Ilvos 20. "Discovering God's Will Part 3" - https://youtu.be/cdtEhTFOeEQ 21. "Discovering God's Will Part 4" - https://youtu.be/Dh9BCLdE_Vs 22. "Hang On To Baby Jesus" -https://youtu.be/_YDWAhDC6oc 23. "Shadowcaster" - https://youtu.be/_uPFYnsBAlc 24. "The Sin Knot" - https://youtu.be/1idr7Q1UZk0 25. "Introduction To The Founders Of Embracing The Journey" - https://youtu.be/JbdoqLSYnEM 26. "How Parent Connect Meetings Work" - https://www.bitchute.com/video/gz3ixxMAbbyo/ 27. "Is Andy Stanley Affirming?" - https://youtu.be/ilce2HctB5w Additional Links On YouTube Video.

The sermon in this review was preached by Reed Moore at Gwinnett Church, a campus of North Point Community Church, located in Atlanta, Georgia, and was uploaded to their website on April 16th, 2023. All rights belong to Gwinnett Church and North Point Community Church. This video is for teaching and review purposes only and is protected under fair use. Fair use is a doctrine in the United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, or scholarship. Original Sermon: https://gwinnettchurch.org/messages/the-way-of-jesus/the-narrow-way

Today you are in for a treat! Listen as Robby and I unpack GRACE. What is it really? Why is it so hard to grasp? Why does it make some of us so uncomfortable? Grace is simple but also complex, so it makes for a fun topic to nerd out on, and we do! But more than fun, this episode will challenge any root of self-righteousness, pride, or works-based faith that you might have. Which, if you do have, is stealing the peace and joy and freedom that can be yours RIGHT NOW. Yes, it's true. We all remember when we really got grace. Have you gotten it? Host Information: Rebekah Anne Perkins Website Instagram Speaking Inquiries Join the Membership Guest Information: Robby is the President and CEO of Trueface. He lives in Dawsonville, Georgia with his wife Emily and their eight children. Prior to serving at Trueface, Robby served for seven years as the Director of Adult Ministry Environments and Men's Groups for North Point Community Church in Atlanta, a church founded by Andy Stanley. Prior to joining North Point, Robby and Emily worked in professional counseling and aid work for Samaritan's Purse. They served in Pakistan and Myanmar, overseeing international disaster response teams. They both received a Masters in Community Counseling from Appalachian State University. Robby also holds a business degree from the University of Florida and a Certificate in Biblical studies from Dallas Theological Seminary. Website: http://www.trueface.org LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robby-angle-a55b1433/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/truefacecommunity Twitter: https://twitter.com/Truefaced Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truefacelife/ YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/Trueface The expert guest was booked via The Expert Bookers, www.expertbookers.com.

The Legacy Dads sat down with Robby Angle, President and CEO of Trueface. He lives in Dawsonville Georgia with his wife Emily and they have 8 wonderful children.  Prior to serving at Trueface, Robby served for over 7 years at North Point Community Church in Atlanta, Georgia. In his role, Robby utilized Trueface resources through his various positions as Director of Adult Ministry Environments and Director of Men's Groups.  Prior to joining North Point, Robby and his wife, Emily, both worked in professional counseling and aid work, where they served with Samaritan's Purse in Pakistan and Myanmar overseeing international disaster response teams. Robby and Emily received a Masters in Community Counseling from Appalachian State University. Angle also holds a business degree from the University of Florida, and a Certificate in Bible/Biblical studies from Dallas Theological Seminary. He loves Trueface because he believes Trueface has created such a unique and effective way for teaching complex biblical principles of truth and grace, and moving people from pleasing God to trusting God with their new identity. Listen in and enjoy the wide-ranging topics covered in the conversation. Legacy Dads is proud to be partnered with the Christian Parenting Network of podcasts. For more practical and spiritual resources to help you become the perfectly imperfect parent you wish to be, visit https://www.christianparenting.org.

Subscriber-only episodeOn this week's A Quiet Life podcast I sit down and talk with Robby Angle the President and CEO of Trueface.org. Prior to serving at Trueface, Robby served for over 7 years at North Point Community Church in Atlanta, Georgia founded by Andy Stanley. In his role, Robby utilized Trueface resources through his various positions as Director of Adult Ministry Environments and Director of Men's Groups. He loves Trueface because he believes Trueface has created such a unique and effective way for teaching complex biblical principles of truth and grace, and moving people from pleasing God to trusting God with their new identity.Connect with Robby Angle and Trueface: https://www.trueface.org/Join The Herd and receive bonus podcast content and access to exclusive Herd conversations. https://www.buzzsprout.com/110664/subscribeCheck out the PoM Gear Store: https://www.thepursuitofmanliness.com/gearA Quiet Life podcast is sponsored by Armored Nation Coffee a small, purpose driven, Combat Veteran Owned and Operated Coffee Company, based in beautiful Brown County, Indiana. To save 25% off of your next coffee order use the coupon code "PURSUEMANLINESS" when you check out. https://www.armoredcoffee.com/Support the show

On this week's A Quiet Life podcast I sit down and talk with Robby Angle the President and CEO of Trueface.org. Prior to serving at Trueface, Robby served for over 7 years at North Point Community Church in Atlanta, Georgia founded by Andy Stanley. In his role, Robby utilized Trueface resources through his various positions as Director of Adult Ministry Environments and Director of Men's Groups. He loves Trueface because he believes Trueface has created such a unique and effective way for teaching complex biblical principles of truth and grace, and moving people from pleasing God to trusting God with their new identity.Connect with Robby Angle and Trueface: https://www.trueface.org/Join The Herd and receive bonus podcast content and access to exclusive Herd conversations. https://www.buzzsprout.com/110664/subscribeCheck out the PoM Gear Store: https://www.thepursuitofmanliness.com/gearA Quiet Life podcast is sponsored by Armored Nation Coffee a small, purpose driven, Combat Veteran Owned and Operated Coffee Company, based in beautiful Brown County, Indiana. To save 25% off of your next coffee order use the coupon code "PURSUEMANLINESS" when you check out. https://www.armoredcoffee.com/Support the show

Carlos Whittaker is a speaker, worship leader, social media personality, and self-professed "hope dealer" who appears at some of the largest churches in the country including Fresh Life Church, Embrace Church, and North Point Community Church, among others. In addition, he's been on stage at the Orange Conference, Catalyst, MomCon, Experience Conference, and many other key events. A People's Choice Award winner, Carlos is the author of four books including Enter Wild and his latest, How to Human. He hosts the podcast Human Hope with Carlos Whittaker (1M downloads) and has appeared on many outlets including the "Today Show," ABC News, NPR, and CBS Early Show. Carlos lives in Nashville with his wife, Heather, and their three children. To learn more about Carlos and purchase his newest book, visit www.carloswhittaker.com.

Carlos Whittaker is a speaker, worship leader, social media personality, and self-professed "hope dealer" who appears at some of the largest churches in the country including Fresh Life Church, Embrace Church, and North Point Community Church, among others. In addition, he's been on stage at the Orange Conference, Catalyst, MomCon, Experience Conference, and many other key events. A People's Choice Award winner, Carlos is the author of four books including Enter Wild and his latest, How to Human. He hosts the podcast Human Hope with Carlos Whittaker (1M downloads) and has appeared on many outlets including the "Today Show," ABC News, NPR, and CBS Early Show. Carlos lives in Nashville with his wife, Heather, and their three children. To learn more about Carlos and purchase his newest book, visit www.carloswhittaker.com.

Carlos Whittaker is a speaker, worship leader, social media personality, and self-professed “hope dealer” who appears at some of the largest churches in the country including Fresh Life Church, Embrace Church, and North Point Community Church, among others. In addition, he's been on stage at the Orange Conference, Catalyst, MomCon, Experience Conference, and many other key events. A People's Choice Award winner, Carlos is the author of four books including Enter Wild and his latest, How to Human. He hosts the podcast Human Hope with Carlos Whittaker (1M downloads) and has appeared on many outlets including the “Today Show,” ABC News, NPR, and CBS Early Show. Carlos lives in Nashville with his wife, Heather, and their three children. To learn more about Carlos and purchase his newest book, visit www.carloswhittaker.com.

It's Monday, February 13th, A.D. 2023. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. By Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com) Indonesian Christian arrested for YouTube videos An Indonesian Christian apologist, Gratia Pello, has not been seen since his arrest in early December, reports Morning Star News. On December 6, 2022, police came to Pello's home and arrested him. Pello, a professor at a small Christian theological school in East Java, regularly published videos that compared Christianity to Islam. His content was widely disseminated online.   Pello is reportedly a Coptic Orthodox Christian known for debates with Muslims. Proverbs 28:1 says the “righteous are as bold as a lion.” This Indonesian professor certainly qualifies. Many Christians and other religious minorities in the Muslim-majority country often face persecution. According to Open Doors' 2023 World Watch List, Indonesia is the 33rd most difficult country to be a Christian. Please pray for Gratia Pello's release from his Indonesian prison. DeSantis preps 2024 presidential bid behind the scenes Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is actively preparing a run for president in 2024, even as he delays a formal announcement to keep Republican voters' attention on his aggressively conservative record in Florida, reports Bloomberg. Behind the scenes, DeSantis and his tight-knit team of advisers are interviewing national consultants to work on a presidential campaign. A retreat for roughly 150 donors, GOP leaders and lawmakers is planned for the final weekend in February at a hotel in Palm Beach, where DeSantis will tout his record as governor. Oddly enough, former President Donald Trump has already started to attack his Florida rival, giving him the nonsensical nickname of “Ron DeSanctimonious.”  The Republican primary has gotten off to a slow start, with Trump as the only official candidate so far. Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is expected to announce her run on February 15. Andy Stanley: Homosexuals have “more faith than a lot of you” A now-viral video of Georgia Pastor Andy Stanley magnifying the faith of homosexuals over "most" of his own congregation has drawn sharp criticism from pastors and Christian thinkers alike, reports The Christian Post.  The clip of Stanley, an influential pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, comes from North Point's Drive Conference last May, where Stanley told pastors and church leaders that any homosexual who continues to go to church has "more faith than a lot of you." Listen. STANLEY: “A gay person who still wants to attend church, after the way the church has treated the gay community, I'm telling you, they have more faith than I do. They have more faith than a lot of you. “A gay person who knows, ‘You know what, I might not be accepted here, but I'm going to try it anyway.' Have you ever done that as a straight person? Where do you go that you're not sure you're going to be accepted and you go over and over and over and over? Only your in-laws' house. That's the only place you go, where you know you're not completely accepted, but you go over and over and over. And it's because you have to. But other than the in-laws, what environment do you continue to step foot in, knowing at any moment, you may feel ostracized? No place. “I'm telling you that gay men and women who grew up in church and the gay men and women have come to faith in Christ as adults who want to participate in our church. Oh, my goodness. I know 1 Corinthians 6 and I know Leviticus, and I know Romans 1. It's so interesting to talk about all that stuff, but, just, oh my goodness.” Stanley referenced and then tabled Leviticus 18:22 which says, “Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.” Tony Perkins: “Andy Stanley is a false prophet!” Appearing on Todd Starnes' radio show, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins didn't pull any punches. PERKINS: “Andy Stanley is a false prophet, and I believe he is going to have to give an account for ignoring scripture. “It's kind of like in Jeremiah's day where Jeremiah was the target of the cancel culture because he was speaking the Word of God: ‘The people needed to repent and return to the truth.' And the false prophets were saying, “Ah, no, no, peace, peace. Nothing's gonna happen. This guy is just out there. He's crazy.” “We have false prophets today. And when they deviate from the Word of God, they get into this error, into this heretical teaching. And Andy Stanley is one of those.” STARNES: “I think it's causing confusion in the church as well. when he comes out with these kinds of statements.” PERKINS: “It's not only causing confusion, this is causing people to walk in darkness. This is very dangerous. And this is why the New Testament talks about teachers are going to be held to a higher account because, you know, if you're a teacher, if you're a leader, people are listening to you, and they are following you. I make this statement only because I have communicated with Andy Stanley in the past about statements that he's made. So I approached him about these issues, and he said, we'll just have to agree to disagree.” Perkins explained why it's critical that Christian pastors, like Andy Stanley, have a biblical perspective which condemns homosexual behavior. PERKINS: “We're at a point where we're seeing children that are being trafficked. We see children that are being led down this path and an alarming rate led into confusion about their sexual identity.” South Dakota to ban transgender surgeries, hormones for kids And finally, South Dakota is poised to ban puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and disfiguring transgender surgeries to kids younger than 18, reports UPI News. To their credit, the state Senate vote was 30-4 and fell along party lines. The bill now heads to Republican Governor Kristi Noem's desk, where she has signaled she will sign the bill into law. Close And that's The Worldview on this Monday, February 13th, in the year of our Lord 2023. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

Our research has found that churches engaging a multisite strategy tend to be healthier in many key areas than other churches, and it's clear that more large churches are using the strategy to increase health and growth. In this episode, Tony and Amy unpack multisite insights and best practices from Transformation Church, Sun Valley Community Church, and North Point Community Church. Free Webinar: What's Working in Large Churches Now on February 23 Register now to join the conversation as Tony Morgan and Amy Anderson sit down with senior leaders Chris Hodges (Church of the Highlands), Omar Giritli (Christ Fellowship Church in Miami), and Miles McPherson (Rock Church) to discuss what's actually working in their large churches now. This Episode is Sponsored by PlainJoe Studios PlainJoe Studios is an experience design group who loves making practical solutions available for churches like yours. To learn more about working with PlainJoe's team of down-to-earth specialists, artists, architects, strategists and problem solvers, visit plainjoestudios.com/getunstuck. For the full episode transcript, links mentioned during the show, and to download the Leader Conversation Guide, visit this episode's Show Notes at theunstuckgroup.com/episode283. Join the Live Conversation on Social Media If you're listening on Wednesday, when the episode first releases, join the live conversation The Unstuck Group's team will be having on social media about this week's topic. We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on Twitter. Or you can join in on Facebook.

Are you two old-fashioneds and a skinny dip away from losing it all? These two can relate. Savannah Chrisley is joined by author, podcaster and philanthropist, Toni Collier. As distinguished of a human and business woman as she's become, Toni does not shy away from her modest (and crazy) beginnings. SPONSORS -- Our podcast "Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley" is proudly sponsored by: - BETTERHELP: Save 10% off your first month at www.BetterHelp.com/SAVANNAH - PROGRESSIVE: Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 29 million drivers who trust Progressive. About Toni Collier: Toni Collier is the founder of an international women's ministry called Broken Crayons Still Color, which helps women process through brokenness and get to hope. She is a Speaker, Host, Author of Brave Enough to be Broken, and Consultant who has helped organizations with creative marketing, leadership, student ministry, and strategic planning. She's had the opportunity to stand proudly to speak and work with organizations such as North Point Community Church, TBN, Chick-fil-A, IF:Gathering, Orange Conference, MOPS International, and more. Through Broken Crayons, Toni and her team of powerhouse women create raw, hope-filled content distributed to their growing social media following, including a Facebook group with 3,000 members, a semi-annual digital challenge, and an 8-step course called “The Hopeful Woman Course,” which walks up to 100 women at a time through a six-month journey of processing their brokenness and finding true healing. Toni kills illusions. She confronts the hard things. She approaches her challenges head-on, and then she takes on your challenges. In this digital age of anxiety, Toni is teaching people all over the country that you can be both broken and worthy, unqualified and called to do great things. She doesn't want you to just face your demons—she wants you to quash the illusion of your brokenness so you can live the most colorful life possible.

Show Sponsor Learn more about Impact 360 Institute (https://www.impact360institute.org) and their apologetic videos and resources for students and young adults. Purchase an online course and use the promo code FREEMIND to get $25 off! Visit: impact360.org (https://www.impact360institute.org) Freemind Patreon Support Freemind with a monthly donation on our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/freemindfm) and gain access to bonus episodes, interviews, and more! Visit patreon.com/freemindfm (https://www.patreon.com/freemindfm) to join today. Social Media Links Freemind on Twitter (https://twitter.com/FreemindFM) Freemind on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/freemindfm/) Seth and Nirva's Website (http://sethandnirva.com) Seth and Nirva on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYqnbFT37k3tz_86ZwIelNw) Seth and Nirva on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/sethandnirva/) Apologetics and Philosophy Resources Canon Press (https://canonpress.com) Reasonable Faith (https://www.reasonablefaith.org) J.P. Moreland Website (http://www.jpmoreland.com) Stand To Reason (https://www.str.org) Impact 360 Institute (https://www.impact360institute.org) Science & Religion Reasonable Faith (https://www.reasonablefaith.org) Discovery Institute (https://www.discovery.org) John Lennox (http://www.johnlennox.org) Reasons To Believe (https://www.reasons.org) Answers In Genesis (https://answersingenesis.org) BioLogos (https://biologos.org) Politics and Culture Canon Press (https://canonpress.com) Ezra Institute (https://www.ezrainstitute.com) Os Guiness (http://www.osguinness.com) Prager U (https://www.prageru.com) Discovery Institute (https://www.discovery.org) Wayne Grudem (http://www.waynegrudem.com/politics-according-to-the-bible/) Eric Metaxas (http://ericmetaxas.com) LGBTQ Joe Dallas (https://joedallas.com) Christopher Yuan (https://christopheryuan.com) Can You Be Gay and Christian? By Dr. Michael Brown (https://askdrbrown.myshopify.com/collections/books-1/products/can-you-be-gay-and-christian-responding-with-love-and-truth-to-questions-about-homosexuality) Outlasting The Gay Revolution By Dr. Michael Brown (https://askdrbrown.myshopify.com/collections/books-1/products/outlasting-the-gay-revolution)

Despite being raised within a traditional baptistic theology, Pastor Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church has made many statements that depart from a simple faith in the Bible. In this episode we examine Andy's confusing pronouncements about Scripture and uncover how he is leading Christians away from fundamental Christian doctrine by presenting a view of faith that emphasizes anthropological and historical perspectives. In other words, Stanley adopts a skeptical approach to scripture in order to revise his evangelical faith and make it palatable to an enlightened postmodern audience. In place of Biblical authority, Pastor Stanley leads by cult of personality. Visit https://www.lfbi.org/learnmore

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Ted Lowe is a speaker, author, and the director of MarriedPeople.org, an organization with the mission of helping you do marriage better. Prior to founding MarriedPeople, Ted served for almost 10 years as the director of MarriedLife at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia.   And I invited back on the show to talk to us about his latest book for married couples, called “Us In Mind: How Changing Your Thoughts Can Change Your Marriage.”  To contact Ted, please visit please visit TedLowe.com and MarriedPeople.org. -------------------- If you want to help us transform the lives of even MORE MEN for God's glory, please take a minute to leave us a helpful REVIEW on iTunes: http://www.rmcpodcast.com and SHARE this podcast with any young man (or men) you're mentoring or discipling. And make sure you don't miss an interview episode by signing up for our Man-to-Man eNewsletter at http://www.RealMenConnect.com, and grab your FREE copy of the Real Men Victory Tracker.  Are you stuck? Want to go to the next level in your marriage, career, business, or ministry?  Then maybe it's time you got a coach. ALL CHAMPIONS have one. Let me coach you to help you strengthen your faith, improve your marriage, spiritually lead your family, achieve more, balance your time, grow your ministry, or even stop an addiction. Click here for details: http://www.RMCfree.com   Also join us on: Join the Real Men 300: http://www.RealMen300.com Facebook Group: http://www.realmenuniversity.com/ YouTube: http://www.RealMenTraining.com Facebook: @realdrjoemartin Instagram: @realdrjoemartin Twitter: @professormartin

For Jeanne Stevens, it didn't take long to see herself in her Enneagram type. But it took the experience of facing three deep losses in a short period of time to finally learn how to process—and ultimately let go—of grief, freeing her up to truly live in the present.  In today's episode, Jeanne shares how a childhood experience led her to believe a narrative about her life that no longer serves her.  She also shares the ways she's learned to live in the present through noticing and naming what's happening around her, asking and answering the all-important question: "What's Here Now?"  Jeanne Stevens is the founding and co-lead pastor of Soul City Church in Chicago, one of America's fastest growing urban churches. Prior to starting Soul City Church, Stevens was on the pastoral staff at Willow Creek Community Church and North Point Community Church. A sought-after speaker, leader, and writer, Jeanne's passion is to help people wake up to their purpose as they pursue a life of wholehearted freedom. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Jarrett, and their two children.

Jeanne Stevens is the founding and co-lead pastor of Soul City Church in Chicago, one of America's fastest growing urban churches. Prior to starting Soul City Church, Stevens was on the pastoral staff at Willow Creek Community Church and North Point Community Church. A sought-after speaker, leader, and writer, Jeanne's passion is to help people wake up to their purpose as they pursue a life of wholehearted freedom. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Jarrett, and their two children. What's Here Now? will be available nationwide May 17, 2022 To learn more about Jeanne and puchase her new book, please visit jeannestevens.com