The Leadership Podcast

Listen in as Sim introduces his brand new co-host, Ed Perry.

Having worked for Alpha International and now the founder of a growing communications and digital consultancy, Ed brings a fresh perspective on leadership from the world of Christian business. Ed shares his thoughts on the importance of partnership working and learning from one another so that everyone benefits.

In this new series, Ed and Sim will be exploring what healthy leadership looks like, and by asking hard, honest questions, consider how Christian leaders can better protect themselves from burnout and breakdown to thrive in a tough arena.

Join Sim and Ed as they introduce the brand new second series of the Leadership Podcast.

In this episode, our hosts explore the unhealthy and unrealistic expectations on church and Christian leaders, and how it has fueled their desire to create a podcast where vulnerability, brokenness and tough topics can be discussed.

As increasing number of leaders are buckling under the pressures of individualism, temptation and fear of failure, come and find a community intent on nurturing healthy and honest leadership values.

Anne Calver is an inspirational speaker and visionary leader who has a real heart for the Church and how it can be released. She leads the Unleashed Church movement, a radical network of church communities calling people into a new kind of family that seeks to be like the Early Church in the book of Acts.

In this episode, we hear about her personal struggle to start a family and what she learnt through her experiences; the way God has led her through a variety of seasons into her current role, and her passion for the Church and its future.

Steve Uppal, along with his wife Esther, have been the senior leaders of the multi-cultural and multi-campus All Nations Church since 2001.

Steve is also recognised as the Apostolic leader of the growing All Nations Movement which gathers churches and leaders together with the vision of turning nations back to God through prayer, church planting, repurposing existing churches and equipping leaders.

He has authored a number of books, with his most recent release entitled 'Revival Ready – Rethinking Kingdom, Discipleship & Church'.

Describing himself as a ‘lapsed catholic’, Cormac is passionate about politics and policy and the intersection with faith. When he's not serving on Gordon Brown's team, helping to develop policy and financial reform, he works in the City. He has sat on various boards and committees, including chairing the Hope not Hate campaign for ten years.

He has an incredible story of his journey away from faith into politics which helped him rediscover his faith once again.

Joy Blundell oversees Social Justice and Influence at Alive Church, a multi-site church in the East of England, and is Location Pastor of Alive Lincoln North with her  husband Paul.

She has a heart for the restoration and transformation of cities through the mobilisation of the local church and seeing people find wholeness and purpose in Jesus.

Joy is the founding Director of  Acts Trust, a Lincoln-based charity connected to Alive, which has the aspirational vision of poverty alleviation in the city.

Carl Beech is a leader who likes to let his actions do the talking! He is President of Christian Vision for Men and as part of that role he founded The Gathering in 2014 in Swindon, which now attracts around 2000 men each year. He has written a number of books, writes regularly for a variety of magazines and hosts several podcasts.

As a habitual pioneer, Carl founded Edge Ministries which supports some of the most forgotten people in his local area and aims to bring transformation to forgotten places as Carl and his team share with them the love of Jesus. He has also been living alcohol-free for over a year and is passionate about plants.

In this podcast, Carl talks about how God broke his heart for the men and their families in his local community. He considers his experiences of how vision often moves to mission through a slow and repetitive process, and how both he and the projects have been refined along the way.

Carl looks at the wealth of work with which he is involved and how his digital presence reflects his in-person character. 

In this Episode Ed and Sim reflect back on the last three interviews from this series with Abby Guiness, Chris Rogers and Lucy Grimble and pick out some of our key learnings from each of them - thinking about how we can put them into practice in our own lives.

Lucy Grimble is a song writer and worship leader with a heart to create space for people to encounter the love of God. She writes songs that carry a message of freedom, hope and identity. Based in London, Lucy’s latest album God’s Heart Explodes was released in 2020.

In this episode we hear from Lucy about her story, how she leads others in worship, and how she keeps her creativity fresh.

She shares with us how she sees worship as an act of service and the responsibility worship leaders have to show others the way to God. She shares her thoughts on how to lead creatives, and her advice for church leader on how to best interact with your worship team.

Finally she looks forward to Spring Harvest with excitement for what God will do there.

Cris Rogers is Rector of All Hallows Church Bow in East London and Chair of the planning group of Spring Harvest. He is also an author of several books and runs a podcast called We Are Making Disciples.

In this conversation we explore with Cris his experiences of leading church through COVID, we hear about his passion for leading people in the ways of Jesus, and how he likes to see us like cracked pots carrying the glory of God but leaking everywhere we go.

We also hear what it means to be part of the planning group at Spring Harvest, and what’s in store for this year’s event.

This season we are partnering with Spring Harvest, the well-known national Christian event that takes place in the UK every Easter. Sim personally got some of his first leadership opportunities at this event and across this season on the Leadership Podcast, we’ll be talking to some of the inspiring people that lead the event.

This season we are partnering with Spring Harvest, the well-known national Christian event that takes place in the UK every Easter. Sim personally got some of his first leadership opportunities at this event and across this season on the Leadership Podcast, we’ll be talking to some of the inspiring people that lead the event.

Abby Guiness is the director of Spring Harvest and is responsible for putting on this event every year. As well as directing Spring Harvest, she’s a published author, engaging speaker and experienced performer, particularly in theatre and presenting audio books.

She’s about to return to work after having her 3rd child, but she kindly took some time out to talk to us about family, her role at Spring Harvest and some tips on Leadership.

Surprise! We couldn't do a season on Leadership and Justice without talking to Justin and Simon who have just launched new book called "Just Leadership." Sim talks to them about the book, why they wrote it and we give you an opportunity to get a free copy - follow us on social to find out how!

We talk to Patrick Regan about how to develop resilience, the importance of knowing our own values and priorities, and being grateful for what is good in our lives and our world.

Patrick Regan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Kintsugi Hope, which came about following a series of personal trials and ill health which affected Patrick and his family. Prior to that Patrick founded and led XLP, an urban youth charity for over 20 years.

Patrick has travelled to over 40 countries working with and on behalf of the poorest communities and is a regular contributor on TV and Radio on the subject of justice and wellbeing. He has received the Mayor of London Peace Award and was also awarded an OBE from her Majesty the Queen for services to young people.

Sim and Ed look back over what Dr Kate Middleton said about finding the right balance in relationships with the people you lead and might also be friends with and look at how you can manage that. We also look at how to maintain a spiritual connection alongside serving in church.

In our first Leadership Lessons episode we re-visit what Dave Smith said regarding our health and the impact not looking after it can have on those around us. Sim and Ed delve deeper into that and take some of your questions including: 

- How to assess the different aspects of wellbeing

- The personal things we do that have an impact on our own wellbeing

- How to find time to retreat as a church leader - and deal with guilt associated to that

- Numbers in church! How to be focused on the process and not the outcome

We welcome Dave Smith to the podcast who challenges us to be intentional with our Christlikeness, Wellbeing and Health, to make small steps now that so that we can look back in a few years and realise how far we've come. 

Dave Smith is the Senior Pastor of Kingsgate Church Peterborough, and author of God's Plan for your Wellbeing, a book offering 50 daily readings to help us reflect on how God sees our wellbeing.

Dave is an avid Manchester City supporter; he also loves to read, cycle, and spend time at the gym, which is where he gets the best opportunities to share his faith. In 2013, KingsGate celebrated its 25th anniversary, and all these years later, Dave is as excited as ever at all that lies ahead – the best is yet to come!

Sim and Ed discuss why we've started The Leadership Podcast, and what you can expect from the first episodes