Your Discerning Life Story

John Pearson | Your Discerning Life Story, Episode 4

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: John Pearson

Once you taste spiritual discernment, you won’t want to go back to the old way of decision-making.” –John Pearson

John Pearson is a leadership and management consultant, who formerly served as CEO of the Willow Creek Association, Christian Camp and Conference Association, and Christian Leadership Alliance. His “Weekly Staff Meeting” email reviews at least one book per week, including The Discerning Life (sign up at www.managementbuckets.com). He shares with us heart-warming stories about how his life has been transformed by spiritual discernment. He reminds us of the importance of having people on our leadership teams who understand discernment and want to respond to God’s desires and hear God’s voice, urging us to focus on depth instead of #’s.

Board Prayer: You can download the Board Prayer John mentions in this episode here

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.

Steve Macchia (Podcast Host)
Founder and President of Leadership Transformations
Steve is the author of The Discerning Life,  Becoming a Healthy ChurchBroken and WholeCrafting a Rule of Life and several other titles. Steve has over 40 years in ministry and two postgraduate degrees from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

John Pearson (Season Eighteen Episode 4 Guest)
Author and Consultant
John Pearson is a management and board governance consultant and author of MASTERING MISTAKE-MAKING: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—and What I Learned (with his son Jason Pearson), Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit; and co-author with Dan Busby of four governance books for Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

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Nate Foster | Your Discerning Life Story, Episode 3

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Nate Foster

The Jesus way is clear: hang out with 12 nobodies and then give them the keys.” –Nathan Foster

Nate Foster is the son of Richard Foster, renowned spiritual formation leader and founder of Renovare, where Nate serves as director of Community Life. He shares how his awareness of God’s engagement in his life grew from a lot of quiet reflection. It’s here that he notices God filling the gaps, often most apparent long after the fact and in quiet discernment. He sees the spiritual practices as what we do in the ordinary parts of life, serving our family or reaching out to a neighbor in need. He has quit viewing spiritual practices as only for the super spiritual, and has found renewed joy in wonderful, ordinary places filled with grace. So countercultural.

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.

Steve Macchia (Podcast Host)
Founder and President of Leadership Transformations
Steve is the author of The Discerning Life,  Becoming a Healthy ChurchBroken and WholeCrafting a Rule of Life and several other titles. Steve has over 40 years in ministry and two postgraduate degrees from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Nate Foster (Season Eighteen Episode 3 Guest)
Director of Community Life at Renovaré, Author, Social worker, and Certified Addictions Counselor
Nathan Foster is Director of Community Life at Renovaré and previously served as the Andrews Chair in Spiritual Formation at Spring Arbor University and the Pastor of Spiritual Formation at a Free Methodist Church in Jackson, MI. Nathan is a licensed clinical social worker, a certified addictions counselor, and plays bass in the indie rock band Istra Blue. He is the son of Renovaré founder Richard Foster.

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Eric Peterson | Your Discerning Life Story, Episode 2

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Eric Peterson

God is in everything, in all the details of life, and not just the pleasant ones.” –Eric Peterson

Eric Peterson is the son of Eugene Peterson, author of The Message translation of the Bible, who found his way to faith and pastoral ministry with reluctance. As he reflects on his discerning life, he describes his journey as along a luminous trail, a metaphor based on mountain climbing. Slugging his way up the mountain, he looks back and down and sees headlamps shining on the pathway he and his friends had created. The lights are references to his own discerning life story, always being led by the light, but not always along a straight line. Eric is a man who’s been richly blessed and continues to discern ways to be a blessing to 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.

Steve Macchia (Podcast Host)
Founder and President of Leadership Transformations
Steve is the author of The Discerning Life,  Becoming a Healthy ChurchBroken and WholeCrafting a Rule of Life and several other titles. Steve has over 40 years in ministry and two postgraduate degrees from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Eric Peterson (Season Eighteen Episode 2 Guest)
Pastor and Author
Eric E. Peterson is the founding pastor of Colbert Presbyterian church. His first book, “Wade in the Water”, represents a pastoral perspective on the power of baptism. Peterson lives just north of Spokane with his wife, Elizabeth and their three children. He is the son of Eugene Peterson, author of The Message translation of the Bible.

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The LTI Story | Your Discerning Life Story, Episode 1

Host: Steve Macchia, Guest: Matt Scott

Formation, discernment, and renewal are threads woven into everything we do at Leadership Transformations.” – Matt Scott

Season 18 will focus on life stories shaped around spiritual discernment as a lifestyle, beginning with the Leadership Transformations story, nearly 19 years in the making. Spiritual formation, discernment, and renewal are embedded into everything we are and do as a ministry. And, it all began in the summer of 2002. Steve recounts the dream God awakened within his soul, in the midst of a challenging season of his family, ministry, and personal life. After months of team-based discernment, the ministry of LTI was born. Since our inception on July 1, 2003 God has built a strong foundation and solid ministry to leaders and teams, and we give God be the glory!

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.

Steve Macchia (Podcast Host)
Founder and President of Leadership Transformations
Steve is the author of The Discerning Life,  Becoming a Healthy ChurchBroken and WholeCrafting a Rule of Life and several other titles. Steve has over 40 years in ministry and two postgraduate degrees from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Matt Scott (Season Eighteen Episode 1 Guest)
Creative Director of Leadership Transformations & Minister of Spiritual Formation
With 15 years of local church experience, Matt has served various churches in the area of worship and arts, community life, shepherding, and pastoral ministry. A graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (MDiv) and the University of Mobile (Worship Leadership and Music Performance), Matt has a heart to shepherd people through songwriting, worship leadership, and pastoral care. He and his wife, Kristen, live in Bluffton, South Carolina with their two children, Emerson and Ashton.

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Mitzi Mak

Selah-West Faculty & Emmaus Faculty

Mitzi started her professional life as a high school social studies teacher. She and her husband Jerry then served cross-culturally for ten+ years, living abroad first in India and then Kurdistan, N. Iraq. In addition to being a Spiritual Director, she now serves as a Formation and Care pastor in her local church in Houston, TX. She has graduated from LTI’s Selah Spiritual Direction training as well as LTI’s Emmaus Formational Leadership Program.

Mitzi enjoys engaging conversation, reading fiction, doing jigsaw/crossword puzzles, ocean gazing and exploring the world with Jerry through food and travel.

God has two main callings in Mitzi’s life: to care for those who care for others and to be a guide in helping others have a healthy relationship with the Trinity – recognizing God’s loving presence and activity in their lives and how to faithfully respond.

Selah was a transformative experience for me – allowing the contemplative within to emerge and to beautifully co-exist with my extraverted personality.