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Influence Podcast

The Influence Podcast is a collection of inspiring and challenging conversations, aimed at empowering the entire spectrum of church leadership, from lead pastor to lead volunteer. It is a chance for you to hear from the premier voices in church leadership…voices who are redefining what church leadership looks like. It's the audio companion to Influence Magazine, a resource full of practical tools, informative news and powerful biblical principles. Visit us online at InfluenceMagazine.com
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Now displaying: September, 2022
Sep 29, 2022

“Countless pastors, preachers, teachers, and ministry leaders are dismayed at the dysfunction engulfing the church and the wider culture,” write Matt Kim and Paul Hoffman.

“Every day, headlines reveal a world divided across ethnic, class, sex, and political lines. We are simultaneous a nation and a church with comparable cavernous disagreements. Make no mistake: these chasms are expanding and feel increasingly insurmountable.”

Even so, Kim and Hoffman go to write, “We are convinced that all gospel heralds now have a greater opportunity to intentionally and winsomely use their platforms to proclaim the Holy Scriptures in a way that promotes reconciliation and unity.”

I talk with Hoffman about how to do that in this episode of the Influence Podcast. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Paul Hoffman is senior pastor of Evangelical Friends Church of Newport, Rhode Island, and coauthor with Matt Kim of Preaching to a Divided Nation, published by Baker Academic. They also coauthored the topically related cover story of the summer 2022 issue of Influence magazine.

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This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of Bible Engagement Project.

Bible Engagement Project gives churches access to a library of kids curriculum and small group resources all in one subscription.

Visit BibleEngagementProject.com to download sample lessons.

Sep 23, 2022

“When the enemy takes a run at your church, he won’t do it through those who attend it; he will do it through those who lead it,” writes Chris Sonksen. “One of his most effective plans against the local church can be summed up in one word: Leaderdrift.”

I talk with Sonksen about what leaderdrift is and how to stop it in this episode of the Influence Podcast. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Chris Sonksen is an ordained Assemblies of God minister with extensive ministry experience as a senior pastor and church consultant. He is founder and CEO of Church BOOM, a coaching agency for churches and leaders, and author of Saving Your Church From Itself: Six Subtle  Behaviors That Tear Teams Apart and How to Stop Them, published recently by Baker Books.

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This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of Bible Engagement Project.

Bible Engagement Project gives churches access to a library of kids curriculum and small group resources all in one subscription.

Visit BibleEngagementProject.com to download sample lessons.

Sep 15, 2022

Many Gospels circulated in early Christianity. Everyone knows about Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but what about the Gospel of Peter or the Gospel of Thomas? Why were some Gospels included in the New Testament but not others?

Scholars such as Bart Ehrman reduce the debate to politics: “one of the competing groups in Christianity succeeded in overwhelming all the others,” he writes.

“This group became ‘orthodox,’ and once it had sealed its victory over all of its opponents, it rewrote the history of the engagement — claiming that it had always been the majority opinion of Christianity, that its views had always been the views of the apostolic Churches and of the apostles, that its creeds were rooted directly in in the teachings of Jesus. The books that it accepted as Scripture proved the point, for Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all tell the story as the proto-orthodox had grown accustomed to hearing it.”

But is politics the real explanation for why those four Gospels were canonized? Or is there a deeper reason?

That’s what I’m discussing with Prof. Simon Gathercole in this episode of the Influence Podcast. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Simon Gathercole is professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of Cambridge, editor of New Testament Studies, and coeditor of Early Christianity. His new book is The Gospel and the Gospels: Christian Proclamation and Early Jesus Books, recently published by Eerdmans.

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This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of Bible Engagement Project.

Bible Engagement Project gives churches access to a library of kids curriculum and small group resources all in one subscription.

Visit BibleEngagementProject.com to download sample lessons.

Sep 8, 2022

“Ordinary people are the primary way God has worked in and through the world over the centuries,” writes Katelyn Beaty. “More and more, though, it seems that a lot of us aren’t content to be ordinary Christians.” Instead, we want to be celebrities.

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I talk to Beaty about how the desire to become a celebrity, or the need to follow one, hurts the Church. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Katelyn Beaty is a writer, journalist, editor, and keen observer of trends in the American church. Her new book is Celebrities for Jesus, published in August by Brazos Press.

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This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of Bible Engagement Project.

Bible Engagement Project gives churches access to a library of kids curriculum and small group resources all in one subscription.

Visit BibleEngagementProject.com to download sample lessons.

Sep 1, 2022

“Ever been in a season of life that seemed to lack forward momentum?” asks Jeffery Portmann “You’re doing everything you can to experience growth, maybe even repeating what’s worked before. But then there’s a moment … where what you expected, hoped, and prayed for just isn’t happening.”

Portmann calls this experience “delayed destiny.” In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I talk to him about delayed destiny using the biblical example of Joseph. We talk about what hinders and what helps in such moments, and we also talk about how God uses those seasons for our benefit. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Jeffery Portmann is an ordained Assemblies of God minister and director of the Church Multiplication Network, the AG’s church-planting agency. He is author of Delayed Destiny: Embracing Slow-Motion Growth in a Fast-Paced World.

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This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of Bible Engagement Project.

Bible Engagement Project gives churches access to a library of kids curriculum and small group resources all in one subscription.

Visit BibleEngagementProject.com to download sample lessons.

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