Developing your skills as a preacher is a lifelong endeavor. You never "arrive" and that's part of what makes preaching such a challenging, but incredibly rewarding task.

This is why I love talking about how to find your voice as a preacher. Your voice is the only one God gave you. My voice is the only one God gave me. However, as preachers, it's tempting to try to fit someone else's voice into our own. This results in us being a less effective version of (insert your favorite preacher here).

In this episode, Mike Ash discusses how to find your voice as a pastor and how to best serve your listeners with what God has equipped YOU with. We dive into a plethora of other topics as well including sermon prep, preaching teams, research and study and the various trends and waves in evangelical Christianity over the last few decades.

There is a lot packed into this one, and I know you're going to enjoy it.

When it comes to fulfilling your church's vision and impacting your community, you won't get far without funds.

This is why giving is so important to churches. But the method in which we receive donations has changed over the last few years - especially in these last two years of the pandemic.

In most churches, we've seen a shift from a long-standing tradition of in-person, pass the plate style giving to some form of digital giving online.

There are many benefits to this shift and some cautions. We'll get into all of it in this episode.

It would be fair to guess that someone in your church or someone you know has been going through a deconstruction process.

What is deconstruction and why does it seem like everyone is talking about right now?

And what's the difference between deconversion and deconstruction? And how does this affect our ministries day to day as we're leading our churches?

In this episode, we will dive into all of these questions and aim to get a better understanding of what's going on in our culture right now.

In this episode, Lantz Howard of Champion Hope joins me to discuss how to be calm.

In a season of chaos and stress, as leaders we must manage ourselves well. Self-management and self-leadership include training ourselves to be calm even in times of stress.

As 2021 is coming to a close and 2022 is right around the corner, putting into practice what Lantz reveals in this episode will serve you and your ministry well.

According to a recent article in Christianity Today, worship songs do not last as long as they used to.

Thirty years ago a worship song would be sung in church for a decade or more.

These days, that time is cut by two-thirds or more.

Why has this changed and what does it mean for the way we select songs for our congregations?

In this episode, we'll dive into all of the *fun* surrounding music, worship styles and song selection in church.

A recent Barna survey revealed that 38% of pastors want to quit ministry. Many of them would if they had any other way to make a living.

What has led to this trend? Why are so many pastors burned out, tired, frustrated and wanting out?

There are many facets to this, and we'll dive into all of it in this video.

I was a youth pastor for several years and I still believe this to be true: If you can communicate clearly with teenagers and children, you can communicate with anyone.

Kids and students only pay attention if you have something worth listening to. And by the way, this is actually the case with adults too - it's just that adults are more subtle about ignoring you.

So whether or not you speak to students on a regular basis, knowing how to communicate truths to them is vital.

This is why I'm so excited to have Kyle Smith on the podcast this week. He's been in student ministry for nearly two decades and has a lot to say about how to speak to students effectively and what leads to life-change in students.

I know you're going to enjoy this one! Be sure to let me know what you think of today's episode.

You may have noticed, but over the last few years, there has been a number of influential Christian leaders renounce their faith, or "deconstruct" as some call it.

Deconstruction has a spectrum. For some it means a complete abandonment of Christian thought and practice, while for others it's merely a departure from some tenants they used to hold and believe.

The latest in this trend is Kevin Max of DC Talk. He let his followers know in a recent tweet that he has been on a decades long journey of deconstructing but still believes in the "Universal Christ."

In this episode, I walk through these recent departures from faith and see if we can drill down on some root causes, what we can do about it in our churches, and what lessons we can learn as pastors and church leaders.

What's the most important attribute a pastor can have? Some might say competence - they have to know what they're doing.

Others might say charisma - they're charming and dynamic enough to speak persuasively and powerfully.

While I agree that competence is important and charisma definitely helps, there is an attribute that is more important than either of those: character.

This is sobering: If we are not people of character, our ministries will suffer for it.

In this episode, we explore the importance of character, how it relates to preaching, and why it's so important to get it right.

Celebrity pastor culture is everywhere and it affects a lot of church life and culture. What caused it? How dangerous is it? These are questions I wrestle with a lot.

And I'm not the only one.

The Instagram account, PreachersNSneakers, took social media by storm a few years ago by pointing out the amount of money celebrity pastors were spending on their shoes.

Ben Kirby, the creator of the account, never meant to do anything more than bring attention to this part of celebrity pastor culture, but it struck a chord with so many.

Some pastors came out in support of his work, others were offended that he'd point it out. Others were glad to know their pastors were fitted with $1500 shoes.

In this episode, we're going to dive into the challenge of celebrity pastor culture and see what lessons we can learn moving forward as preachers and church leaders.