Author: eric@innovativechurchleaders.org

Something remarkable is happening on college campuses across America. After decades of decline, young people are showing up in basketball arenas, getting baptized by phone light, and buying Bibles at record rates.

Thai Lam, Executive Director of Collegiate Day of Prayer, shares what he’s witnessing firsthand—from the Asbury revival to 200 students baptized in a single night at Auburn. The data backs it up: Bible sales jumped from 10 million to 15 million in five years, mostly purchased by young men engaging in Scripture for the first time. But here’s what matters for your ministry: this movement needs the church.

Thai explains how pastors and seasoned believers can adopt local campuses in prayer, bridge the generational gap, and help sustain what God is doing among Gen Z.

Learn about the 200-year history of Collegiate Day of Prayer, practical ways to engage college students, and why churches that fast and pray with young adults are seeing transformation on both sides.

Connect with Thai and get resources at collegiatedayofprayer.org.

THE INNOVATIVE CHURCH LEADER PODCAST AND GIVEAWAYS:

We want to help pastors experience and bring renewal through Spirit-led innovation, reaching new people, and making disciples who make disciples.

Be sure to sign up for our email newsletter at innovativechurchleaders.org/join-us for a chance to win future book giveaways, retreats, cohorts, workshops, and assessments!

Subscribe, Rate, and Review The Innovative Church Leaders Podcast at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or youtube.com/@InnovativeChurchLeaders.

Frank Bealer, CEO of Generis with over 25 years of ministry and leadership experience, served on the executive team at Elevation Church during its explosive growth from volunteer setup crews to leading multi-campus expansion. In this conversation, he challenges common leadership assumptions with practical wisdom for navigating growth, developing teams, and building a healthy culture of generosity.

Discover insights on leading through transitions, coaching your team to reach their potential, and why confidence in your calling matters more than confidence in your skills.Connect with Generis at https://generis.com.

THE INNOVATIVE CHURCH LEADER PODCAST AND GIVEAWAYS:

We want to help pastors experience and bring renewal through Spirit-led innovation, reaching new people, and making disciples who make disciples.

Be sure to sign up for our email newsletter at innovativechurchleaders.org/join-us for a chance to win future book giveaways, retreats, cohorts, workshops, and assessments!

Subscribe, Rate, and Review The Innovative Church Leaders Podcast at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or youtube.com/@InnovativeChurchLeaders.

David Bennett’s journey from gay atheist activist to celibate Christian theologian challenges everything we think we know about ministry to LGBTQ+ individuals. In this raw conversation, David shares how a supernatural encounter in a Sydney pub transformed his life, why he identifies as a “gay Christian,” and what the church gets wrong (and right) about serving the queer community.

David doesn’t offer easy answers. Instead, he introduces a framework of “solidarity and holy fellowship” that refuses to compromise either inclusion or biblical holiness. For leaders navigating these complex waters, this conversation offers fresh language and practical wisdom for creating spaces where people can wrestle authentically with hard questions. He explores his dramatic conversion story and prophetic encounter, why queer people are “sacred gifts” to the church, the idolatry of marriage that damages both straight and gay Christians, how to hold tension between inclusion and holiness without collapsing either side, and why for him identifying as “gay” matters for his witness.

David Bennett is author of A War of Loves and holds a PhD from Oxford in Christian ethics.

THE INNOVATIVE CHURCH LEADER PODCAST AND GIVEAWAYS:

We want to help pastors experience and bring renewal through Spirit-led innovation, reaching new people, and making disciples who make disciples.

Be sure to sign up for our email newsletter at innovativechurchleaders.org/join-us for a chance to win future book giveaways, retreats, cohorts, workshops, and assessments!

Subscribe, Rate, and Review The Innovative Church Leaders Podcast at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or youtube.com/@InnovativeChurchLeaders.

Happy New Year!!

Talking about generosity in church can feel like walking through a minefield. You know people have baggage. You’ve seen the damage done by manipulative teaching. So sometimes… we just don’t talk about it at all.

But here’s what Boyd Bailey reminded us in this conversation with Filipe and Mandy Santos of Echo Church: when we avoid teaching biblical generosity, we’re actually withholding a gift from our people.

Boyd Bailey, founder of Wisdom Hunters and author of The Power of Generosity, shared how his grandmother shaped his entire understanding of generous living, and it had way more to do with presence, time, and hospitality than money. Her generosity gave him security during a difficult season. It gave him attention when he needed it most. It gave him a family Bible with words he still returns to on hard days.

That’s the kind of generosity our people are hungry for.

If you’ve been hesitant to approach this topic, this conversation will give you fresh language rooted in freedom, not fear. 

Let’s help our people discover the abundant life Jesus promised.

THE INNOVATIVE CHURCH LEADER PODCAST AND GIVEAWAYS:

We want to help pastors experience and bring renewal through Spirit-led innovation, reaching new people, and making disciples who make disciples.

Be sure to sign up for our email newsletter at innovativechurchleaders.org/join-us for a chance to win future book giveaways, retreats, cohorts, workshops, and assessments!

Subscribe, Rate, and Review The Innovative Church Leaders Podcast at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or youtube.com/@InnovativeChurchLeaders.

Brenden Brown leads Heirs Church in San Francisco — one of the most unchurched cities in America. In this conversation, he opens up about planting a church across 29 venues in 8 years, navigating a healthy transition from Hillsong, and discovering that identity shapes everything in ministry.

From trading jackets with strangers to praying with Uber drivers, Brenden shares how everyday moments become divine appointments when you see people the way God sees them. He talks about the challenge of ministry in post-Christian contexts, the power of story in evangelism, and why understanding we’re sons and daughters before we’re disciples changes how we lead and serve.

If you’re leading in a hard place or wondering how to help your people live on mission, this episode will encourage you.

THE INNOVATIVE CHURCH LEADER PODCAST AND GIVEAWAYS:

We want to help pastors experience and bring renewal through Spirit-led innovation, reaching new people, and making disciples who make disciples.

Be sure to sign up for our email newsletter at innovativechurchleaders.org/join-us for a chance to win future book giveaways, retreats, cohorts, workshops, and assessments!

Subscribe, Rate, and Review The Innovative Church Leaders Podcast at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or youtube.com/@InnovativeChurchLeaders.

Have you ever realized your relationship with Jesus has become… professional?

That’s what Pastor Bob Reed from CyLife Church outside Houston, Texas had to face. Despite leading a growing church, Bob realized every week was just another message to prepare, another stage to step onto. The Bible had become a textbook instead of a lifeline.

So he did something most pastors would never do – he confessed it to his entire congregation.

That moment of vulnerability became a turning point, not just for Bob, but for his whole church. It launched them on a journey toward real discipleship that’s transformed how they do ministry.

In our conversation, Bob gets refreshingly honest about:

• The painful wake-up call that changed his approach to leadership
• Why small groups alone don’t equal discipleship (and what does)
• How to lead relationally without burning out
• The definition of a disciple that actually works in practice

If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing ministry but missing the heart of it, this episode is worth your time.

THE INNOVATIVE CHURCH LEADER PODCAST AND GIVEAWAYS:

We want to help pastors experience and bring renewal through Spirit-led innovation, reaching new people, and making disciples who make disciples.

Be sure to sign up for our email newsletter at innovativechurchleaders.org/join-us for a chance to win future book giveaways, retreats, cohorts, workshops, and assessments!

Subscribe, Rate, and Review The Innovative Church Leaders Podcast at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or youtube.com/@InnovativeChurchLeaders.

Ever notice how the best leadership lessons often come from unexpected places?

This week I sat down with Samuel Teka from the Diaspora Network, and what started as a conversation about immigrant ministry turned into something that challenged how I think about community, discipleship, and what the Western church needs most right now.

Samuel is a second-gen Ethiopian-American, and he shared this picture that stuck with me: In Ethiopia, there’s an open-door coffee culture where total strangers can walk in and share a meal. It’s hospitality like Abraham showed the angels, and it’s a gift immigrant churches are bringing to our often isolated Western congregations.

What if the mission field that’s come to us has something vital to teach us too?

THE INNOVATIVE CHURCH LEADER PODCAST AND GIVEAWAYS:

We want to help pastors experience and bring renewal through Spirit-led innovation, reaching new people, and making disciples who make disciples.

Be sure to sign up for our email newsletter at innovativechurchleaders.org/join-us for a chance to win future book giveaways, retreats, cohorts, workshops, and assessments!

Subscribe, Rate, and Review The Innovative Church Leaders Podcast at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or youtube.com/@InnovativeChurchLeaders.

In this episode of the ⁠⁠Innovative Church Leaders ⁠⁠podcast, ⁠Mike and Lori McDaniel⁠ share about the ⁠Great Invitation⁠, a ministry focused on providing soul care and support for pastors and church leaders. They discuss the challenges of burnout, the importance of community, and the need for spiritual direction.

From their website: “In a world that demands more, The Great Invitation offers something different: a spacious call back to the presence of God. We create sacred spaces where leaders, missionaries, and teams can be renewed—not by doing more, but by returning to the One who restores the soul.”

🔥5 Key Takeaways:

1. Ministry can be exhausting and isolating for leaders.
2. The Great Invitation focuses on soul care for ministry leaders.
3. Creating safe spaces for healing is essential.
4. Spiritual direction can change the trajectory of ministry.
5. Healthy leaders lead healthier ministries.

THE INNOVATIVE CHURCH LEADER PODCAST AND GIVEAWAYS:

We want to help pastors experience and bring renewal through Spirit-led innovation, reaching new people, and making disciples who make disciples.

Be sure to sign up for our email newsletter at innovativechurchleaders.org/join-us for a chance to win future book giveaways, retreats, cohorts, workshops, and assessments!

Subscribe, Rate, and Review The Innovative Church Leaders Podcast at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or youtube.com/@InnovativeChurchLeaders.