The Heart of a Discerning Leader

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Ken Shigematsu

“If you can put yourself in a pathway of beauty every day, it can awaken you to God’s love for you and it leaves less room for shame to work so that you can become your truest self.” – Ken Shigematsu

Author and Pastor Ken Shigematsu joins the podcast to talk about shame. In this episode he shares the spiritual practices that work to awaken us to God’s forgiveness and love for us, making less of shame and more of the self that God created us to be. From his book Now I Become Myself: How Deep Grace Heals Our Shame and Restores Our True Self, Ken shares candidly about his history with shame and finding a way to allow God’s grace to penetrate his soul. As you listen, may you come out of a place of anxiously needing to prove that you are enough to God, to yourself or to others but live from a place of acceptance as the beloved of God.

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net.

 

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Jeff Crosby

“Embracing the mystery is good enough” – Jeff Crosby

Jeff Crosby joins the podcast to talk about longings – the inner ache and sadness that we feel at times. From Jeff’s newest book, The Language of the Soul: Meeting God in the Longings of our Hearts, Jeff teaches that the longings we experience are places for God to meet us. Jeff walks us through several longings from the book – the longing for home, for friendship, for heaven and for an undivided life. All of us carry longings in our hearts. The invitation is to be attentive to those longings and invite the Lord of the universe to meet with us in the midst of them and to take time to cultivate spiritual practice that makes us more aware of God’s presence in our lives.

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net.

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: KeumJu Jewel Hyun

“Whether you like it or not, you are in the leadership position. Who do you think you work for?” – KeumJu Jewel Hyun

KeumJu Jewel Hyun joins the podcast to talk about the role of servant leadership within the heart of a discerning leader. Jewel is an author, a professor, and the founder of Matthew 28 Ministries, which focuses on Christian women’s leadership development and economic empowerment in Kenya. Jewel’s most recent work, The Quest for Biblical Servant Leadership: Insights from the Global Church, is a collaboration of Christian authors from around the globe. In this podcast episode Jewel shares the insight discovered from diverse cultures from Kenya to Canada to Korea. Listen and discover the common leadership thread across many diverse cultures.

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net.

 

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Philip Yancey

“Nature, beauty, love, these are good things. They must have been given to us by God. That’s what grace is. It’s a free gift we didn’t deserve. That’s my story, being drawn back to God, not by fearsome threats, but by the experience of God’s grace.” – Philip Yancey

Award-winning author Philip Yancey is on the podcast this week to share his own life story. He candidly shares about his discovery that God is not the “super cop in the sky” looking for someone to punish but is the giver of all good things – including nature, beauty, and love. Philip teaches us that when we live as if our hands are closed in fists, God’s grace falls to the ground unreceived. He encourages us to live openhandedly and generously because that is how God treats us. Philip ends the conversation by sharing his hope for the Church in our time.

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net.

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Barbara Peacock

 “I believe the foundation of effective leadership is understanding and embracing and living out the discipline of love.” – Barbara Peacock

The Discerning Leader podcast returns from a summer break to focus on the Heart of a Discerning Leader. Our first guest for Season 27 is Barbara Peacock – an award-winning author, spiritual director, teacher, and intercessor. Her recent book, Spiritual Practices for Soul Care, has just been released by Baker books.

Barbara joins Steve to talk about leadership as loving people. She reminds us that we are first called to love God and then to love people and not things. Barbara shares an original poem she wrote entitled Silencing Today and encourages us to be attentive in our love for God and towards others.

Join the conversation about spiritual discernment as a way of life at www.LeadershipTransformations.org and consider participation in our online and in-person program offerings. Additional LTI spiritual formation resources can be found at www.SpiritualFormationStore.com and www.ruleoflife.com and www.healthychurch.net.