The Leadership Podcast
By Sim Dendy
The Leadership PodcastMar 21, 2022
What do we know about leadership?
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.
Relaunching the Leadership Podcast: We believe the Church needs the best leaders
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: The challenges of creating and leading a movement
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: Is your Church Revival Ready?
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'.
Cormac Hollingsworth: Is faith leadership relevant in today's society?
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: Are churches in danger of becoming social providers and forgetting their mission?
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: Carl Beech – Working in the Forgotten places, Permacrisis, Warm Welcome
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.
Leadership Lesson: The Secret Power of Spreadsheets, Stormtroopers and Creative Discipline
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 - How to show others the way to God
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 - Building a city without walls
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.
Abby Guiness - The Importance of Family in Leadership
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.
Leadership Lessons 6: Tim Morfin - How to lead from our weakness
In this last episode of our series on Leadership and Justice, Sim and Ed take a look back at the interview with Tim Morfin, and discuss:
- How do we stay humble and focussed as leaders?
- Leadership and vulnerability - How do we do that as leaders and maintain credibility?
- How to draw a balance between maintaining vision and the day to day grind of working towards it.
To hear more of TLG’s inspirational story, you can get your hands on a copy of Tim’s book ‘Out of the Ordinary’ for free here.
We’ll be back in the new year with a brand new series.
Tim Morfin: Transforming Lives for Good
Tim is the award-winning founder and Chief Executive of TLG who was recognised as the Sunday Times Best Charity Leader in 2019. Under his inspirational leadership, the organisation has grown from a small church project to a national movement of churches across the UK. With his previous experience of organisational development in a large multinational company and his comprehensive understanding of the charity sector, he has pioneered TLG as a dynamic organisation known for it’s innovation and development of leaders. Tim is an author, popular speaker and advisor, continually sharing his passion for the Church to be active in every community, bringing hope and a future to struggling children.
To hear more of TLG’s inspirational story, you can get your hands on a copy of Tim’s book ‘Out of the Ordinary’ for free here.
Leadership Lessons 5: Debra Green - Working in Partnership
Have you ever wanted to partner with another organisation but haven’t been sure how to go about it or been worried that your offer to collaborate will be abused or taken advantage of?
In this episode Sim and Ed look back at the interview with Debra Green and take a deeper delve into some of what Debra spoke about:
- The importance of collaboration and how to do it well
- How to strike a balance between prayer and action
- How do you make sure that you get competing priorities of leadership and family life in the correct balance.
Don’t forget to check out all the resources and book recommendations on the Leader’s Hub
Debra Green: How collaboration and prayer can redeem communities
Debra is the National Director and Founder of Redeeming Our Communities (ROC) which brings organisations together towards the work of social transformation.
In this episode Sim and Debra talk about balancing leadership with family life and how she juggles leading a major charity with family life, and how God spoke to her on her wedding day and how that led to her becoming a Christian.
Debra also shares about what it was like growing up as a woman leader in the church and breaking through some of the barriers to being in that space and how she’s now viewed as a pioneer, trailblazer and mentor of women in leadership.
Debra talks about the balance between prayer and action and how praying for the police and and against crime has led a 75% reduction in anti-social behaviour in Bolton, and the power of bringing organisations and services in the community together to provide solutions and share resources.
Check out the work of ROC on their website
Bonus Episode: Just Leadership with Simon Barrington and Justin Humphreys
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!
Leadership Lessons 4 - Mike Royal: How do I bring lasting change?
*Updated Audio* There were some issues in the original audio with Sim and Ed talking over each other, that has now been rectified!
In our first Leadership Lessons episode of season 2, Sim and Ed look back at the interview with Mike Royal and take a deeper look at some of the issues raised, including:
- How as leaders do we have stamina to continue to tackle big issues of justice.
- How do we avoid performative ally-ship, and make sure we are not just virtue signalling.
- The value of pushing into discomfort and bringing lasting change.
You can check out all the books and thinkers mentioned in the episode on the Leader’s Hub
Mike Royal: How to educate ourselves on the issues of racial justice
We’re back with our second season on Leadership and Justice. This season we’ll be hearing from 3 new interviewees on how to lead consistently in an inconsistent and unfair world.
October is Black History Month so we start this season talking to Mike Royal, the Co-chief Executive of Cinnamon Network and is recognised as one of the top black male Christian leaders having an impact in the UK.
In this interview we hear from Mike about how coming to faith gave him hope as a young black man and how that then led him to start TLG and go on to lead Cinnamon Network and inspire the church to get involved in social justice. Mike also spoke about and challenged us on racial justice following the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, and how he sees last year as the most important year for Racial Justice in his lifetime.
Login to the Leader’s Hub for free to get links to all the people, books and resources that Mike mentioned to start hearing more from black thinkers, or check out the following on social media:
Anthony Reddie - Twitter: @AnthonyGReddie
Selina Stone - Twitter: @SelinaRStone
Mike Royal - Twitter: @_mikeroyal
Do check out Cinnamon Connect if you’re looking for tools and resources to serve your community.
Leadership Lessons 3: Patrick Regan - How to develop resilience
Have you ever wondered just how other people manage to be so together and sorted? We loved the interview with Patrick Regan, where he explored just that, and how in reality what most people are projecting is not what's really going on. How do we deal with tough times? And, perhaps more importantly, how do we emerge from them better, bouncing forwards with the strength and learnings having endured them, rather than wishing we could bounce back to how we were before?
In our final leadership lessons episode of Season 1, Ed and Sim take a deeper look back at the interview with Patrick Regan, and explore their own experiences of resilience - looking at The Resilience River exercise and sharing what keeps their resilience levels high. We also discuss values and priorities, learning to be vulnerable as a leader and the idea of leading from our own weakness.
We’ll be back in a few weeks with a new season focusing on Leadership and Justice with three more interviews. In the meantime, please subscribe and share the podcast with others. Do follow us on social, so we can let you know when the next season drops and check out the resources on the free Leader's Hub.
Patrick Regan: How to develop resilience
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.
Leadership Lessons 2 - Dr Kate Middleton on how to lead with a balance in relationships
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.
Dr Kate Middleton: How to face chaos, uncertainty and challenge
We talk to Dr Kate Middleton about how to lead in a crisis like the global pandemic we continue to live through, the effect that can have on our mental wellbeing, and how one of the most important things is to look after ourselves through it so that we can support others.
Dr Kate Middleton is a psychologist with a particular interest in the way our emotions effect us. She’s passionate about helping people stay emotionally healthy in spite of what life throws at them, making sure they reach their full potential. She’s a church leader and author, and project leader of Headstrong, an online wellbeing space for young people, which was created in partnership between Mind and Soul Foundation and Youthscape.
Dr Kate Middleton spends a lot of time explaining that she’s not married to Prince William, but does enjoy reading about her good dress sense in the newspapers!
Leadership Lessons 1 - Dave Smith: "My best gift... is a healthy and wholesome me"
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
Dave Smith: Be Intentional
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!
Teaser: What is The Leadership Podcast?
Sim and Ed discuss why we've started The Leadership Podcast, and what you can expect from the first episodes