Spiritual Life and Leadership

Ministry leadership is about more than just growing your church or organization. It’s about participating in God’s mission in the world. But how can leaders know God’s mission or their unique place in it? Faithful ministry leadership is rooted in a life of deep and abiding faithfulness to Jesus. In “Spiritual Life and Leadership,” Markus Watson and his guests explore what it means to be faithful leaders whose ministry flows from their ever-deepening relationship with God.

Spiritual Life and Leadership is a religion podcast hosted by Markus Watson, with 316 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 86. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Markus Watson hosts Spiritual Life and Leadership, a religion show with 316 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

• 

  Spiritual Life and Leadership

  316. How Work Forms (and Sometimes Deforms) Us with Matt Rusten, author of Pastoring for Monday

  Aug 18, 202652 min

  Are your congregants' jobs a distraction from their discipleship, or one of the main places it actually happens? Matt Rusten, president of Made to Flourish and editor-in-chief of Common Good Magazine, joins Markus to explore the theology of work and what it looks like for pastors and churches to help their people see their everyday jobs as spiritually significant. This Episode's Highlights Include: Why the Bible introduces God as a maker before it describes him as holy or merciful What it means that every person in your pews has a "sphere of dominion" in their work How work forms your congregation over time, and how it can quietly deform them Why Jesus used work as the backdrop for most of his parables Why John the Baptist sent tax collectors and soldiers back into their same jobs Practical ways your church can help people connect faith and work: small groups, "This Time Tomorrow" interviews, and pastoral workplace visits Relevant Resources and Links: Pastoring for Monday by Matt Rusten Made to Flourish RELATED EPISODES: 288. Leadership That Smells Like the Gospel, with Jason Jensen 272. Beyond Church Revitalization, with Josh Hayden 247. The Kingdom of God as Present Reality Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking! Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM .

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Spiritual Life and Leadership

  315: A New Framework for the Abortion Conversation, with Angela Weszely

  Jul 14, 202658 min

  Angela Weszely is the founder and CEO of ProGrace and the author of Becoming ProGrace: Expanding the Abortion Conversation Beyond Life Versus Choice. Twenty-one years ago she took a job at a Christian pregnancy center in Chicago and immediately felt the tension between what the organization said it believed and how it actually treated women. That tension became a decade-long journey that led her to found ProGrace. In this conversation, Angela and Markus explore what it looks like for the church to actually resemble Jesus in how it responds to abortion and unintended pregnancy. This Episode's Highlights Include: Angela's journey from a legalistic upbringing into leading a Christian pregnancy organization The four theological frameworks Christians get wrong about abortion: equal value and dignity, political identity over Christian identity, grace, and shared responsibility Why only 7% of women, and 16% of church-going women, ever approach a church before an abortion decision The narrative that shames women and lets partners off the hook What the story of the woman caught in adultery in John 8 actually reveals about grace and systemic injustice What it means to be the beloved, and why that identity changes how we respond to people in crisis The objectification hiding inside the abortion debate Relevant Resources and Links: Becoming ProGrace: Expanding the Abortion Conversation Beyond Life Versus Choice , by Angela Weszely ProGrace Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking! Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM .

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #314

  314. Why Good Leaders Sometimes Make Their Churches Worse, with JR Woodward

  Jun 30, 20261h 2m

  JR Woodward is the National Director of the V3 Movement, a faculty member in the Doctor of Global Leadership cohort at Fuller Theological Seminary, and the author of The Scandal of Leadership: Unmasking the Powers of Domination in the Church. In this conversation, JR and Markus explore what it looks like to lead communities that bring the Kingdom of God to life in the places where we live. THIS EPISODE'S HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: What it means that Jesus's primary message was the kingdom of God, and how that shapes everything a church does Shalom as a holistic picture of human flourishing: restored relationships with God, others, creation, and ourselves The NEAR framework for understanding a neighborhood: Narrative, Ethics, Associations, Rituals The four spaces of belonging and how Jesus inhabited all four: intimate (3–4), personal (5–12), social (20–50), public (70+) Why closed discipleship groups differ from open missional spaces, and why you can't build depth if the door is always open How people often belong before they believe, and how behavior changes before beliefs do How our desires are shaped by whoever we look up to, and how this creates rivalry and division in churches How conflict in a congregation can escalate until one person becomes the target What Philippians 2 teaches about giving up honor and titles as a path to healthier leadership How love of image, institutional self-preservation, and ideology become corrupting forces in church life Oscar Romero as a real-world example of the downward path of leadership V3 Movement's interdenominational church planting training The Doctor of Global Leadership cohort at Fuller Seminary RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS: The Scandal of Leadership , by JR Woodward V3 Movement Fuller Doctor of Global Leadership Program RELATED EPISODES: 288. Leadership That Smells Like the Gospel, with Jason Jensen 272. Beyond Church Revitalization, with Josh Hayden 247. The Kingdom of God as Present Reality Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking! Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM .

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Spiritual Life and Leadership

  313. Embodied Spirituality for Pastors and Leaders, with Mark Scandrette and Dave Kludt

  Jun 16, 202652 min

  Mark Scandrette has spent over twenty years wrestling with a hard realization: knowing a lot about God doesn't mean you're good at following Jesus. Dave Kludt spent fifteen years in pastoral ministry learning that everything, down to how you arrange the chairs in a room, forms people. Together they co-teach a Doctor of Ministry cohort at Fuller Seminary built around two words: integral and embodied. Mark is the founder of Reimagine and author of Practicing the Way of Jesus and The Ninefold Path of Jesus , and a longtime friend of the podcast (he first joined us back on episode 112). Dave is the president of Reimagine's board, a former pastor of 15 years, and Mark's partner in this new cohort, a Substack, and an upcoming podcast. IN THIS CONVERSATION: Why "getting more information" doesn't lead to transformation, and what does What Dave means by an "integral" approach to formation, and why it starts with facing the world's fractures honestly What Mark means by "embodied" formation, and the Learning Lab model Reimagine uses to teach by doing Why the leader of a Learning Lab has to be a participant, not just an expert Moving from a "closed fist" to an "open hand" posture toward your next step Why discomfort with failure gets in the way of formation in many churches How Mark and Dave use the Enneagram as a formation tool, not a personality quiz The "formation edges" Mark and Dave are each working on right now Mark and Dave's hopes for the Fuller Doctor of Ministry cohort on integral and embodied formation RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS: markscandrette.com — Mark's website reimagine.org — Mark and Dave's organization Fuller Seminary's Doctor of Ministry program Books mentioned: Practicing the Way of Jesus , by Mark Scandrette The Ninefold Path of Jesus , by Mark Scandrette RELATED EPISODES: The Beatitudes and Spiritual Leadership, with Mark Scandrette The Spiritual Life of a Leader, with Tod Bolsinger The Neuroscience of Spiritual Formation, with Jim Wilder Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking! Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM .

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Spiritual Life and Leadership

  312. What if Reading Was a Form of Prayer? with Jeff Crosby, author of World of Wonders

  Jun 2, 202649 min

  Jeff Crosby reads about 75 books a year. But in this conversation—his third appearance on the podcast—he's quick to say the number isn't the point. What matters is what reading does to you, including what he calls being "unselfed." Jeff Crosby is a 24-year veteran of InterVarsity Press, current executive with ECPA, and author of World of Wonders: A Spirituality of Reading . RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS: jeffreycrosby.net — Jeff's website, including his books and information on his forthcoming book on music ECPA — Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, where Jeff serves Books mentioned: World of Wonders: A Spirituality of Reading , by Jeff Crosby Every Moment Holy, Vol. I , by Douglas Kaine McKelvey A Diary of Private Prayer , by John Baillie Reading While Black , by Esau McCaulley The Cross and the Lynching Tree , by James H. Cone Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes , by Kenneth E. Bailey Plainsong , by Kent Haruf Eventide , by Kent Haruf Benediction , by Kent Haruf Mere Christianity , by C.S. Lewis The Ragamuffin Gospel , by Brennan Manning A Touch of Wonder , by Arthur Gordon RELATED EPISODES: Episode 194: Saudade, Leadership, and Nurturing the Inner Life, with Jeff Crosby Episode 96: Crossing Leadership Thresholds, with Jeff Crosby Send me a text! I’d love to know what you're thinking! Click HERE to get my FREE online course, BECOMING LEADERS OF SHALOM .

  ListenShow Notes

Recent guests on Spiritual Life and Leadership. Study who booked and why before you pitch.

Based on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:

Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.