Authentically leading and empowering others to flourishing life in Christ
All in Leadership
At FCA last week, someone asked me why I do what I do. Years ago, God formed a life mantra in me — to authentically lead and empower others to flourishing life. And that conviction has shaped everything: ministry, officiating, sports announcing, developing interns, training younger leaders. Leadership isn’t measured by what you build but by who you develop. Your greatest legacy won’t be your accomplishments—it will be the people who learned to lead because you showed them how.
Chris Berman used to say, “Nobody circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills.” Leadership works the same way. Great leaders don’t withstand pressure because they’re strong—they withstand it because they’re surrounded by the right people: encouragers, wisdom-givers, and truth-tellers.
Ministry requires vulnerability — and vulnerability attracts warfare.
Every time you preach honestly, share part of your story, or sit with someone seeking wisdom, you’re opening a sacred part of your heart. And the enemy often waits for that exposed moment after you pour out to whisper lies, stir doubt, and attack what God just used. 1 Peter 5 gives us a roadmap for how to guard our hearts in those moments.
Ministry was never meant to be done from a place of polish. It was meant to be done from a place of brokenness and dependence.
In a world that celebrates strength, God grows leaders through surrender. In a culture that rewards image, the gospel works through honesty. And the more I lead, the more convinced I become that ministry isn’t a museum for the already-put-together — it’s a research hospital where people are healed, trained, and sent.
You don’t have to be polished to make an impact. You just have to be dependent.
We’ve said it for years: You can Belong before You Believe. But if we’re really going to reach the One, this can’t just be a phrase we nod along to — it has to shape how we lead, listen, and show up for students. In a generation weighed down by anxiety, comparison, and performance, belonging isn’t a soft idea; it’s a spiritual strategy. Because when students truly belong, belief is never far behind.
I’ve spent the last year and a half fully engaged in pastoring here at home, but this season feels like a call to give again—to add something to the world through words. I’m convinced this is a season to contribute, not just consume—to offer a voice that helps others slow down, refocus, and run after the one God has placed in front of them.
April 14th always brings with It a wave of texts, posts, and messages that always overwhelm me with gratitude for the many people that I have been so blessed to have in my life. To all those that sent those messages - thank you. You are a blessing to me and I’m so grateful for you.
Have you ever stopped to notice what you spend your time doing? I think we could learn far more about what we believe and the priorities we have put in place simply by examining the things that we give our minutes to each day and each week.
If God has gifted you, appointed you, and called you, then be faithful to do that. No doubt it will look different in different seasons. For sure it will get altered by a pandemic, but that doesn’t mean that it has changed because of a pandemic.
After years of trying to figure out what was going to work for raising up leaders, we dedicated to three shared things that would aim to help form and forge our student leadership team. These three elements, contoured for your context will help you start a Student Leadership Team of your own.
There are a whole slew of resources, books, podcasts and conferences directly intended to address leadership questions, tensions, and issues from the front seat of the organization. But what about the backseat? What about the perspective from the person who isn’t driving the organization? That and other questions inform why we are starting a podcast.
Today, I was reminded that sometimes the inconvenient and unexpected produces the fertile soil for diving appointments to present themselves. The question comes down to whether or not we will capitalize on those moments when we discover them or let them slip into oblivion into the basket of potential.
No matter the season you find yourself in, your capacity to lead is only amplified when you have made the space to stay filled up.
