Spiritual Life and Leadership

Latest Episodes:

69. Connecting Christ to Culture, with Michael Cooper, author of Ephesiology: A Study of the Ephesian Movement Apr 14, 2020

Show notes

Michael Cooper discusses his book Ephesiology: A Study of the Ephesian Movement, in which he explores the important role of the city of Ephesus in the early Roman Empire and the early church, with a special emphasis on the ways the apostles Paul, John, and Peter all worked to connect the story of Jesus to the Ephesian people in language that made sense to them.

This is a timely message for us today as churches are struggling to learn how we are called to connect Christ to our culture.
THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

Michael Cooper is the author of Ephesiology: A Study of the Ephesian Movement and trains church leaders and pastors around the world.
Michael shares the story of his faith journey and what led him to write Ephesiology.
Nearly half of the New Testament has a connection to the city of Ephesus. Michael sensed there must be something there to discover.
Ephesus was a critical city in the Roman Empire. It was a crossroad, not only of commerce, but also of philosophy.
Heraclitus of Ephesus was a philosopher who wrote On Nature, which was more popular than anything written about Socrates or by Plato or Aristotle.
The temple of Artemis in Ephesus had great influence in the city of Ephesus and the in all of Asia Minor.
Paul, John, and Peter were missiological theologians. Their heart was in engaging the culture effectively.
The Gospel of John is connected to the city of Ephesus. John arrived in Ephesus in around 67 A.D.
The stories of Jesus in the Gospel of John parallel the culture of Ephesus. John’s heart was to connect the stories of Jesus with the stories of the Ephesians.
When John says, “In the beginning was the logos,” he is using familiar Ephesian language first used by Heraclitus.
Like John, Paul, and Peter, we need to be able to connect theological themes to cultures in which we serve.
Michael describes how the Western church, in its missionary work, has exported a Western sixteenth-century form of Christianity to other cultures, rather than connecting the stories of Jesus to the stories and forms of those cultures.
The early church leadership had a flat organizational structure.
The focus on a pastor-centric church did not emerge until later in the church’s development.
You can find out more about Michael Cooper and his book at www.ephesiology.com. You can also e-mail Michael at michael@ephesiology.com.

RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:

Michael Cooper:
- E-mail: michael@ephesiology.com
- Website: https://ephesiology.com/
Books mentioned:
- Ephesiology: A Study of the Ephesian Movement, by Michael Cooper
- On Nature, by Heraclitus
- Beyond Thingification: Helping Your Church Engage in God's Mission, by Markus Watson

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68. Public Policy, Stewardship, and the Kingdom of God, with Breon Wells, President of the Daniel Initiative Mar 31, 2020

Show notes

What in the world does the Kingdom of God have to do with public policy? What does the Kingdom of God have to do with shaping governments and institutions? And how does stewardship fit into all that?

That’s what I’m be talking about in this episode with Breon Wells of the Daniel Initiative, a government relations firm that helps underrepresented and underserved populations promote positive change.
THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

Breon Wells is the President and Founder of The Daniel Initiative and author of The K-Gene: Principles for Attaining Your Destiny.
Breon Wells worked in Washington, D.C., for eight years as a Congressional aide.
The Daniel Initiative to help people connect with the mandate they have outside the four walls of the church.
Breon makes the case for eliminating the divide between secular and sacred.
Daniel in the Old Testament lived without a sacred/secular divide.
We too often elevate the “spiritual stuff” we do at church without valuing what people do in the rest of their lives.
Breon Wells sees his work as prophetic. The prophet’s job is not to manipulate or control the people, but simply to speak the truth of God.
When Breon talks about “Kingdom” he is in part talking about stewardship. As sons and daughters of God, the King, we have a calling to be good stewards of all that has been entrusted to us.
The one quality we need to do God’s Kingdom work is surrender. Total surrender.
You can find Breon Wells on Twitter at @RealDaniel24 and on Facebook by searching for Breon Wells. And he is on Instagram at @imbreonwells.
To find out more about The Daniel Initiative, visit www.thedanielinitiative.org.

RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:

Breon Wells
- Twitter: @RealDaniel24
- Facebook: Breon Wells
- Instagram: @imbreonwells
The Daniel Initiative
- Website: https://www.thedanielinitiative.org/
Books Mentioned
- The K-Gene: Principles for Attaining Your Destiny, by Breon Wells
Patreon
- https://www.patreon.com/markuswatson

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67. How the Church Lost its Missionionary Identity Mar 17, 2020

Show notes

Christendom was that period of history in which Western culture considered itself to be formally and officially Christian. It was an era in which Christianity had a lot of cultural power--a far cry from the Pre-Christendom time of the Roman Empire.
This episode will give you a lot of insight into how Christianity moved from being a marginalized and persecuted religion during its first 300 years, to being the most powerful cultural force in Western society for 1500 years. And we’ll unpack how Christianity lost its missionary identity as it transitions to a Christendom culture.
THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

Cody and Markus discuss how the Coronavirus threat has revealed churches’ dependency on having to meet in person. But the need to cancel services provides an opportunity for churches to discover what it means to be the church without the weekly gathering.
Markus reviews the characteristics of Pre-Christendom, which he and Cody discussed in episode 66, “The Improbable Growth of the Early Church.”
Christendom is the period of history during which Western culture considered itself officially Christian. It was at this time that the church lost its missionary identity.
In a Christendom society everyone is considered to be a Christian.
The era of Christendom began with the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine to Christianity. This thrust the church into a position of power and authority.
Constantine was neither baptized nor catechized until shortly before his death. Because of this, Constantine offered the world a new kind of Christianity, one that required neither conversion nor commitment. This paced the way to the church losing its missionary identity.
Christendom affected Christianity in three ways:
- The church lost its missionary identity.
- The church emphasized a new distinction.
- The church invented a new reason to exist.
Christianity is not at the center of society the way it used to be. We are moving out of Christendom and into an era we might call Post-Christendom.
Post-Christendom gives the church the opportunity to rethink the reason for its existence.

RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:

Books mentioned:
- Missional Church, edited by Darrel Guder
- Another City, by Barry A. Harvey
- Beyond Thingification, by Markus Watson

Instruction to leave a review of Spiritual Life and Leadership:

Click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spiritual-life-and-leadership/id1435252632
Click on the link that says, "Listen on Apple Podcasts."
In the window that opens, click the button that says, "Open Link." This will open iTunes.
To the right of the Spiritual Life and Leadership logo, click "Ratings and Reviews."
Under the heading, "Customer Reviews," click on the button that says, "Write a Review."
Select the number of stars and write your review.
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I'd be so grateful if you did this. Thank you!

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Links to Amazon are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through any of these links, I’ll receive a small commission–which will help pay for the Spiritual Life and Leadership podcast!

Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!

Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

66. The Improbable Growth of the Early Church Mar 03, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, we consider the growth of the early church in the pre-Christendom era, a time when Christianity had very little cultural influence. Much like the church in today's world! And yet, the early church grew. What was their secret? And is there anything we can learn and perhaps implement in our world today?
THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

Christendom is defined as the “centuries in which Western civilization considered itself formally and officially Christian.”
During the first 300 years after Jesus, the church had very little power at all in the culture, which at that time was dominated by the Roman Empire.
And yet, somehow, in the fourth century, due to the growth of the early church, Christianity ended up at the very center of power in Western society.
Four Characteristics of the Pre-Christendom Church:
- The church had no political or social or cultural power.
- The church grew by leaps and bounds anyway.
- The church had a missionary identity.
- The church focused on developing a habitus in the followers of Jesus.
The growth of the early church changed the trajectory of Western civilization.

RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:

Books mentioned:
- Missional Church, edited by Darrell Guder
- Canoeing the Mountains, by Tod Bolsinger
- The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom, by Alan Kreider
- The Patient Ferment of the Early Church, by Alan Kreider
- The Parables of the Kingdom, by Robert Ferrar Capone
Free Resource:
- Six Practices of a Flourishing Church, by Markus Watson
Pick up my new book:
- Beyond Thingification, by Markus Watson

To leave a review of Spiritual Life and Leadership:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spiritual-life-and-leadership/id1435252632
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Links to Amazon are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through any of these links, I’ll receive a small commission–which will help pay for the Spiritual Life and Leadership podcast!

Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!

Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

65. Why Don't People Go to Church Anymore? Feb 18, 2020

Show notes

Why don't people go to church anymore? There was a time when you could start a church and it would just grow. Especially if it was a new community that people were moving into. Not anymore. People generally just don't go to church anymore.

Why not? What changed? And what--if anything--can we do about it?

In this episode, I discuss the reality of our situation and offer a thought about the kind of posture we need in order to be the church that the world needs us to be.
THIS EPISODE’S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

Cody Vermillion founded a “churchish” non-profit called Uncommon Good for people who might never attend a typical church, addressing why people don't go to church anymore.
According to Gallup:
- In 1948, 76% of U.S. adults said they were members of a church, synagogue, or mosque.
- In 1998, that was down to 70%.
- In 2018, that was down to 50%.
In 2015, Pew research asked people if religion was “very important in their lives.” Here’s how they responded by age group:
- Silent Generation (born 1928-1945) 67%
- Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) 59%
- Generation X (born 1965-1980) 53%
- Older Millennials (born 1981-1989) 44%
- Younger Millennials (born 1990-1996) 38%
Churches are declining not only because people don't go to church in great numbers, but also because people attend church less frequently.
Church attendance is not a social convention the way it was in the past. That's part of the reason why people don't go to church these days.
Pew research, in 2019, found that:
- 69% believe religious leaders behave unethically some or all of the time
- Surpassed only by leaders of technology companies (77%) and members of Congress (81%)
People don’t think leaders of institutions face serious consequences for their unethical behavior
- 71% believe members of Congress face consequences little of the time or not at all
- 58% believe leaders of tech companies face consequences little of the time or not at all
- 53% believe religious leader face consequences little of the time or not at all
The church needs to become “indifferent” to all the things that are irrelevant to the mission of God (including the fact that people don't got church much anymore).

RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:

Uncommon Good:
- Website: https://uncommongoodsd.com/
Book mentioned:
- Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation, by Ruth Haley Barton
Statistics:

To leave a review of Spiritual Life and Leadership:

Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!

Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

64. Getting the Bible from the Head to the Heart, with Ron Ovitt Feb 04, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, Ron Ovitt shares about something called Integrated Meditation. Integrated Meditation is a process designed to help us get Scripture beyond the head and to the heart. Through a process that fosters deep emotional healing and profound spiritual formation, Integrated Meditation helps us get scripture into our heart and our gut and our spirit.
THIS EPISODE’S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

Ron Ovitt is the President of Empower Ministry and the creator of Emotional Relearning, which you can learn about in Episode 32, “Emotional Resilience and Spiritual Leadership, with Ron Ovitt.”
Ron developed Integrated Meditation to help people in the process of Emotional Relearning.
Integrated Meditation is a way of experiencing the Bible in such a way that it touches not only the mind but also reaches to the heart.
Integrated Meditation involves six steps:
1. Reading – Read the text in two translations.
2. Comprehension – What are the key points of the passage?
3. Introspection – Looking inward. What do I sense as I read this passage? How does my body respond? What emotions am I feeling? What questions does this passage raise? What am I believing about myself? What am I believing about God?
4. Contemplation – Create space for the divine to enter. Shift from the brain to the heart by remembering a time when someone loved me.
5. Reflection – What am I going to believe as a result of reading this? What am I going to do now? What feelings will I embrace as a result of this? Who do I feel I should share this with?
6. Visualization – Visualize yourself receiving the scripture from God. Visualize knowing what I need to think, feel, and do—and visualize myself doing it.
Ron suggests that pastors might use these six steps as a way for congregations to dig deeper into the sermon text after the service, helping get the sermon from the head to the heart.
You can get a resource with ten Integrated Meditations by going to www.empowerministry.org/meditation.
You can e-mail Ron at ron@empowerministry.org.
You can listen to Ron’s podcast, Mr. Change Agent, and see his videos on his Mr. Change Agent YouTube channel.

RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:

Ron Ovitt:
- Free Resource: https://www.empowerministry.org/meditation/
- Website: https://www.empowerministry.org/
- E-mail: ron@empowerministry.org
- Ron’s Podcast: Mr. Change Agent
- Ron’s YouTube Channel: Mr. Change Agent YouTube channel

To leave a review of Spiritual Life and Leadership:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spiritual-life-and-leadership/id1435252632

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Links to Amazon are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through any of these links, I’ll receive a small commission–which will help pay for the Spiritual Life and Leadership podcast!

Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!

Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

63. Liturgy of Commute, with Shannon Vandewarker, author of Working in the Presence of God Jan 21, 2020

Show notes

Too often, we separate our work in sacred work and secular work. Because of this, we forget that God is present even in our most mundane, ordinary, "unspiritual" kinds of work. Shannon Vandewarker, author of Working in the Presence of God, helps us see that in the midst of our seemingly ordinary places of work, we can draw close to God.
THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

Shannon Vandewarker is the author of Working in the Presence of God: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Work.
Shannon shares the story of what led her to write the book.
The message of Working in the Presence of God is that our place of work can be a place where we encounter God in deep and intentional ways.
The “liturgy of commute” is a systematic way of focusing on God as one drives, rides, or walks to work and from work.
Shannon Vandewarker shares the way she practices the liturgy of commute. Markus also shares the way he practices liturgy of commute.
“Lamenting work” can be a profound experience for those who struggle in the work that they do. Sometimes we need to lament in the midst of our work.
Lamenting consists of pouring our hearts out to God and then listening to what God says in response.
“Lamenting” is a foreign concept for many people. Shannon offers some ideas for how to lament.
The practices explored in Working in the Presence of God can be just as helpful for pastors and ministry leaders as for people working in “secular” jobs.
It can also be helpful for pastors to invite church members to join them in doing some of these practices.
For Shannon Vandewarker, engaging in these practices has helped her become more aware of God’s presence in every area of her life.

RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:

Shannon Vandewarker:
- Website: http://shannonvandewarker.com/
- Instagram: @shannonvande
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shannon.vandewarker
- Book: Working In the Presence of God, by Shannon Vandewarker and Denise Daniels
To leave a review of Spiritual Life and Leadership:
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spiritual-life-and-leadership/id1435252632
To get bonus content, sign up to be a Patreon patron:
- https://www.patreon.com/markuswatson

Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!

Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

62. Different People Need Different Kinds of Leaders, with Ted Gillgrist Jan 07, 2020

Show notes

Ted Gillgrist is a business leader and a committed follower of Jesus. He's also one of my oldest friends! In this episode, Ted shares some of the wisdom he’s learned about leadership over the past twenty-five years.

THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

Ted Gillgrist is Vice President of Southern Diversified Distributors and a proud graduate of Slippery Rock University! (Also, Markus’ alma mater…)
Ted and Markus were discipleship partners in the college ministry in which they were involved.
Ted’s first significant leadership role was as a health care administrator.
Ted shares about the challenges of stepping into leadership in a health care facility that was on the verge of being shut down. He also tells the story of how he and his team restored the facility to a high level of competence and quality.
In telling his story, Ted Gillgrist shares these three leadership lessons:
- Always give a person the tools to do a job before you determine they can’t.
- Various teams in an organization need to have a common “enemy” and have goals that overlap.
- Different people need different kinds of leaders.
Ted feels like he has in some ways become a pastor to his employees.
You can find Ted Gillgrist's company at www.twentyandoak.com

RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:

Books Mentioned:
- By Ken Blanchard:
To leave a review of Spiritual Life and Leadership:
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spiritual-life-and-leadership/id1435252632

Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!

Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

61. A Chorus of Podcasters! (Bonus Christmas Episode) Dec 17, 2019

Show notes

This bonus Christmas episodes contains five great mini-episodes from five great podcasts (one of which is this one)!
TRUCE

Chris Staron draws a connection between the musical piece, Bolero, and the hope that the people of Israel felt as they longed for the Messiah.

Find out more about the Truce podcast here:

https://trucepodcast.com/

THE ROAD HOME TO YOU

Brandy Goebell offers twelve really helpful strategies for self-care during the Christmas season.

Find out more about The Road Home to You here:

http://theroadhometoyou.libsyn.com/

BIBLICAL CHILI

A fun, dramatized version of the shepherds’ and the magi’s encounter with Jesus, with a neat connection to Jesus’ parable of the Lost Sheep.

Find out more about Biblical Chili here:

https://biblicalchili.podbean.com/

RAISING KIDS ON YOUR KNEES

Tina Smith shares about how God takes all the broken pieces of our lives and puts them back together again.

Find out more about Raising Kids on Your Knees here:

https://raisingkidsonyourknees.org/

SPIRITUAL LIFE AND LEADERSHIP

Markus Watson shares how the women in Jesus’ genealogy reveal the deep love of God and the wide mercy of God.

Find out more about Spiritual Life and Leadership, well, here:

https://www.markuswatson.com/

Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!

Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

60. Shalom for the City, with Amy Sherman, author of Kingdom Calling Nov 25, 2019

Show notes

When I read Amy Sherman's book, Kingdom Calling, it felt like the lights turned on for me. As I read, it became more and more clear that God wants to restore healing and wholeness in our world, not merely through spiritual vocations like pastors and missionaries, but through every vocation. Every kind of work is a way by which we love our neighbors and bring shalom into the world.
In this episode, Amy Sherman unpacks the first part of Proverbs 11:10, which says, "When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices." Why would a city rejoice at the prosperity of the righteous? Wouldn't they be envious? And yet... There's something about the prospering of the righteous, both in the ancient world and the present day, that causes people and cities to rejoice!
THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

Amy Sherman is Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Faith in Communities at the Sagamore Institute. Amy is also the author of Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good.
The key verse on which Kingdom Calling is Proverbs 11:10a, which reads, “When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices.”
The “righteous” are, in Hebrew, the tsaddiqim. These are people who are so in love with God and so committed to his purposes in the world that they understand everything they have been given as blessings to be poured out for the sake of others and in worship of this God.
The tsaddiqim understand that they have been blessed to be a blessing.
This is different from the prosperity gospel, which teaches that our prosperity is for our own enjoyment, rather than for the common good.
We can think of “righteousness” as “set-rightness.” God longs to set all things right. And this reminds us of that wonderful Hebrew word shalom.
God wants flourishing not only for our souls, but also for our bodies.
Peace with God is part of a fourfold shalom. You can find out more about the four-fold nature of shalom in episode 3 of Spiritual Life and Leadership, The Fourfold Nature of Shalom.
Vocational stewardship refers to “the intentional and strategic deployment of all of the dimensions of our vocational power to advance foretastes of the kingdom of God.”
Life in the new heaven and new earth will be marked by such things as intimacy with God, perfect justice, peace, security, safety, health, beauty, and joy. We are called to steward our vocations in ways that lead to all these things for our neighbors today.
Amy Sherman shares two present-day examples of people who are living as the tsaddiqim today. The first is a contractor who builds homes and neighborhoods designed to foster shalom. The second is an interior designer who focuses on designing spaces that are for everyone, especially in regard to accessibility and mobility.
You can find out more about Amy Sherman and her work at www.vocationalstewardship.org.

RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS:

Amy Sherman:
- Website: http://www.vocationalstewardship.org/
Books mentioned:
- Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good, by Amy Sherman
To leave a review of Spiritual Life and Leadership:
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spiritual-life-and-leadership/id1435252632

Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking!

Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM.

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