We've all been there. Sunday is coming and you're running out of time, energy, and inspiration. You're searching for a killer illustration or a video to punctuate your point, but nothing is hitting the mark. You need RESOURCES, but you don't know where to look.

Open.Life.Church was created for you! There are literally thousands of FREE resources that have been created not only with Life Church in mind, but with churches around the country and around the world in mind, too.

Whether you need some help with graphics (they have those), a worship song to punctuate a point (yep!) or even a full sermon outline (check and check!) Open.Life.Church has you covered. Take what they have and make it your own or simply copy and paste--it's totally up to you! Their heart is to provide the resources, not control what you do with them.

On today's podcast, we talk to Kyle Kutter who heads up the Open Team at Life.Church. Kyle shares his heart and the heart of Life.Church for equipping churches around the world and the guiding principle behind the Open Network: irrational generosity.

You don't want to miss out on this conversation or the goodiesthat are waiting for you. Enjoy!!

Gary Hanson, Campus Pastor at Meredith Drive Reformed Church, is an introvert. He and Jonny are the campus pastors at the two Meredith Drive Church locations in Des Moines and in Johnston, IA. They are quite opposites in personality. Loud and quiet, talker and thinker, jumper and planner. You can guess which is which!

Today Jonny and I have a conversation with Gary about what it's like to be in ministry and be an introvert. As Gary says, most people think of pastors as people persons, extroverts who love to be in the limelight. That is NOT true - because so many pastors are planners, administrators, thinkers, creative, crave alone time, and are anything but extroverted.

The truth is, the extroverts desperately need the introverts in order to finally get anything accomplished, and the introverts likely only mildly need the extroverts, just to remind them that there are others in the building. :-)

Gary and Jonny get pretty honest about their friendship and working relationship. Then we all try to draw some encouragement from the well for the pastors who might be introverts, but who wish they weren't - they wish they were more outgoing... and why that is the wrong direction to think!

Enjoy this first episode ever about introverted pastors! Quietly tell a friend about it...

​Today we have an interview with a small church pastor that you do NOT want to miss!

Ernesto Alaniz is a pastor of a multi-cultural church plant in Flint, Michigan, which he loving refers to as "one of the most miserable places to live in the United States... according to Forbes Magazine."

Ernesto talks to us about his life in ministry--from attending Moody to pastoring a mega-church in the suburbs to selling everything he had and moving to India, and all the way back to Flint. It's a wide-ranging conversation and Ernesto's passion for ministry is palpable in every word. You don't want to miss it.

You can find Ernesto at www.FlintCityChurch.com and on Facebook as Ernesto Alaniz.
 
Thanks for your support of 200churches. We hope you'll be encouraged by this episode! 

Everybody talks about church health, but there are a lot of myths that persist about what really makes a church healthy. Is it how many people show up? How much money is in the bank? How many volunteers you have? Well, all of those things can be related to the health of a church, but they're not the main thing.

In this episode, Jeff and Jonny talk about the foundations of a healthy church, ministry, and even pastor. We believe that it really boils down to ONE thing played out in three different areas. At first, you may be surprised, but we're convinced that by following the greatest commandment, we can have truly healthy churches.

Dave Jacobs joins us from SmallChurchPastor.com! If you would like to improve yourself as a pastor, email Dave at dave@smallchurchpastor.com and get connected with his focused coaching program for pastors of smaller churches - Dave is experienced and effective!

​You know the feeling of getting together with an old friend? How no matter how long it's been since you last saw each other, once you're sitting down and talking it's like no time has passed at all? That's how we feel this week having Dave Jacobs back on the podcast! Dave has been a regular guest since the earliest days of the podcast and we're so glad to have him back on today!

Today Dave is sharing about how the coaching principles he's learned over the past 6 years can help you in your pastoral ministry! You don't have to be a coach yourself to take advantage of Dave's wisdom--this is stuff that will help you today as you lead meetings, lead people, and lead your church.

You won't want to miss out on this episode with Dave so listen right now! We know you'll be encouraged and challenged.