This exercise invites you to ask what it would look like for your primary calling — your identity in Christ — to show up in your secondary callings — your “station in life” (the various situations that make up your everyday existence: your job or school, your relationships, your neighborhoods, your hobbies, etc.).

This exercise asks you to define a certain area of your church’s vision, then invites you into an honest assessment of what aspects of your culture promote that area of your vision, vs. what aspects of your culture work against it.

This exercise will help small groups of people walk through what lies we’re believing and how the good news of Jesus will bring greater peace, joy, and freedom into our lives.

In nearly every realm of ministry & mission, it is easy to rely on our ways: our strength, our plans, our strategy. This exercise is designed to help you take a tangible step in fighting that temptation and reversing that trend to dependence on God.

Humans are inherently relational beings: we are not designed to be alone. Biblically and experientially, “discipleship” and “mission” at their best are relational pursuits. In this exercise, define your relationships in your mission and ministry with categorized roles and then prayerfully bring balance to them.

This exercise asks you to define a certain area of your church’s vision, then invites you into an honest assessment of what aspects of your culture promote that area of your vision, vs. what aspects of your culture work against it.

This four-session course with Bill Clem helps ministers move beyond burnout to long-term flourishing by exploring sustainable rhythms for the soul. Drawing from his own ministry experience and challenges, Clem offers practical guidance to help leaders not just survive but truly thrive in their calling for the long haul.

This five-session course with leadership coach Alan Briggs offers practical, actionable guidance for overwhelmed leaders seeking clarity and balance. Through 15 short teachings, reflection questions, and tangible assignments, leaders will gain wisdom on key issues like decision-making, delegation, rest, margin, and overcoming feelings of failure—equipping them to lead with confidence and intention today.

Gerry Breshears, Professor of Systematic Theology at Western Seminary, helps navigate the roles of women and men in the church biblically and challenges us to value everyone's voice as we serve and teach together.

Tomy Wilkerson, Tampa Director of Underground Network, leads the listener through the journey of discovering your unique design and mission God has prepared specifically for you.

As we step into 2025, the dawn of a new year in our culture is an invitation to dream, plan, and set new goals. As a leader in the church and God's kingdom, I have found this cultural rhythm to be a good opportunity to prayerfully consider what God may desire to do in my life. Whether you embrace these things as a leader or really dislike the trend of new year's goal setting, a new year can still feel both exciting and daunting. 

What if every church followed God’s leading in sending, and were willing to pray and give away our finances, and even our best leaders?

What if we could do so, not in our church’s 20th or 200th year of existence, but in its second year?
And what if we could at least start down that path, not when we have 200 or 2000 people engaged, but when we have 20 people?

Ben Connelly answers these questions and more in this free, online video workshop.

The best definition I’ve heard for burnout is from a researcher who calls it “Voluntary self-exploitation”. Perhaps the most helpful burnout definition for ministry leaders is this; “A syndrome of emotional exhaustion and cynicism that occurs in individuals who do ‘people work’ of some kind”. I asked a group of friends who have experienced burnout,“What did it feel like?” Emptier than empty. Freezer burn. Full, yet completely empty. Depleted mentally and emotionally. Ice skating uphill. Numb. 

In August 2022 my wife and I stepped down from our roll as senior pastors of an amazing congregation we had led for over 36 years. When we started this journey in 1986 we had a desire to build something that would outlive us. At that time the norm in our ministry world was pastors moving every four to five years—often seeking a bigger church with better benefits.

This was the question that Jim Essian, a friend and fellow pastor in my city, asked 15 folks around a table in 2017. This was the third question he asked, with building gusto, after receiving rousing and unified responses from his first two questions: “Who believes Fort Worth needs the gospel?” “YES!” “Who believes that church planting is a way that can happen?” “YES!” Then came the climactic moment: “Who’s ready to plant churches together?” …crickets. No response. The air was sucked out of the room. No one was ready to work together.

Recognizing and stewarding one’s personal strengths and limitations can lead to more faithful and effective ministry.

How do we live in THIS season of discipleship, while preparing for the NEXT one? Do we ever take time to pause, to both zoom in on our hearts and zoom out to assess our ministry efforts? And… what is ‘discipleship’ supposed to look like during the summer, with its ups and downs, vacations, and more!?

Daniel Yang answers these questions and more in this free, online video workshop.

What happens when these universal struggles with mental health and mental illness occur in the context of ministry? The phrase in ministry distinguishes and intensifies the words mental health and mental illness. Experiencing any mental health struggle, from mild depression to bipolar disorder, in the middle of spiritual ministry to others complicates how such mental struggles play out in our lives. If we could experience our mental health issues in a vacuum, if they didn't affect others around us, we could navigate them with fewer complications. That is, in fact, why, at the most intense moments of mental anguish, people are advised, or even forced, to remove themselves from their normal contexts and relationships to a place dedicated to their recovery. 

This experience shaped the past nine years, as I have led national church planting residencies for various organizations. In 2019 and again in 2023, we did a full-scale revision of our residency work. On one hand, The Equipping Group is collaborating with more organizations, churches, and planters than ever before. On the other hand, these revisions came from many lessons learned in training dozens of residents, from many states and beyond, who are now ministering in five countries.

As I reflect on the past eight years and look to the future, I wanted to capture and share five lessons we learned.

Fear and fire shone within this man’s eyes. He sat at a table with fellow Christian leaders. The pastor had asked that I speak to their leadership team about how to follow Jesus in our political moment. It was slowly dawning upon me that by “weapons,” this brother meant physical ones not spiritual.