Rodney Arnold, Lead Pastor of OneLife Church, joins me for episode eighteen of the Preaching Donkey Podcast.

He shares his experience planting a church in Knoxville, TN in 2009. He has some incredible insights for aspiring church planters on how to cast a compelling vision to your launch team and keep that vision alive.

We also dive into sermon prep including the importance of using tension and asking questions to make the sermon more of a dialogue than a monologue.

Rodney also shares how he intentionally pours into the next generation of preachers and speakers by developing up and coming communicators.

There is a TON of insights and practical tactics in this episode. I think you're really going to love it!

Should we plant new churches or revitalize existing ones?

Spoiler alert: both have challenges and both have advantages. However, church planting is not for everyone just like revitalization is not for everyone.

I've been directly involved with church revitalization and have also been loosely involved with church planting. I know enough about both to know that either option requires a commitment to stick it out through set backs and wins alike.

In this episode, we'll explore this question by looking at the pros and cons of both church planting and revitalization because there are definitely challenges and advantages to both.

If you are exploring a calling to do either, this episode will give you some things to consider on both sides.

A great deal has been said the last couple weeks about Ravi Zacharias and his abuse allegations, subsequent investigation and fallout.

Much lies in the wake of his sin... countless abuse survivors, a tattered reputation of RZIM and the frustration and sadness many Christians feel about yet another fallen leader.

I released a video last week giving my thoughts on how we can respond to this situation and work to protect against abuse in our own churches and organizations.

Some responded to that video by saying I should not talk about Ravi Zacharias because:

1) He cannot defend himself.
2) It damages RZIM.
3) It damages the reputation of Christianity.

I feel it's important to respond to these critiques because I want to shed light on the importance of talking about these things in light of the potential dangers.

I think the results of NOT talking about it are far more damaging.

I'll explain everything in this video.

On this episode, I'm joined by Eric Skwarczynski, host of the Preacher Boys Podcast, who shares from his experience of interviewing dozens of survivors of church-related abuse.

He gives solid principles to help protect your church from abuse and predatory people who wish to do harm. He also discusses the importance of accountability and good policy in abuse prevention.

Finally, we discuss how to respond if allegations of abuse are brought to light or if you suspect something is going on in your church that is inappropriate.

These are important realities that every church leader should aware of and prepared to handle. We'll get into all of it in this episode.

If you've been following the Ravi Zacharias investigation into, what is now, multiple abuse and sexual misconduct allegations, you know how troubling this situation is for so many.

Zacharias' organization, RZIM, was the foremost organization for providing world-class Christian apologetics resources. And Ravi sat atop that organization as a beaming example of how to engage skeptics with thoughtful, considered answers to some of the toughest theological and spiritual questions.

This is why this fallout and subsequent investigation has been so horrendous for us to discover over these last several months because it shatters the trust and confidence we had in Zacharias and RZIM as authoritative figures in Christianity.

This is why it is so important that we learn what we can from this awful situation in hopes that we may prevent these sort of abuses from happening under our watch.

In this video I walk through the findings from the independent investigation into RZIM and the actions of...

Ron Edmondson joins me for episode fourteen of the Preaching Donkey Podcast. He shares his experience of leading with vision, creating culture and the importance of words when preaching or casting vision.

The President of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), JD Greear, is also the Lead Pastor at the Summit Church in Durham, NC. They have launched an inquiry into the past actions of one of their pastors, Bryan Loritts.

Matt McClure joins me for episode twelve of The Preaching Donkey Podcast. He shares his perspective as a youth pastor on how to relate and speak to teenagers and the changing metrics for success in student ministry in light of the pandemic.

Josh Duncan joins me on episode eleven of The Preaching Donkey Podcast to discuss his church planting journey as well as his experience with revitalizing a church. He shares about the hardships and struggles of ministry and how to love your family through tough times in ministry. We also dive into the importance of using tension in sermons and intentionally NOT resolving the tension.

Brandon Cox, pastor of Grace Hills Church in Arkansas, joins me for episode ten of the Preaching Donkey Podcast. He shares about the importance of communicating with the whole person, planning ahead and working with your team!