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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: Category: general
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.

Jul 21, 2022

In contemporary culture, people who identify as LGBT have a clear narrative. Their lives became better after they “came out” as lesbian, gay, or transgender. Society should celebrate with them. Individuals who don’t are “homophobic” and “transphobic.”

ReStory Ministries believes that the coming-out narrative is not the only story. They believe people find true life when they give their hearts to Jesus Christ and live out sexuality according to biblical norms.

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I’m talking to Linda Seiler and Joe Dallas about this second story. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Linda Seiler, Ph.D., is executive director of ReStory Ministries, which helps Assemblies of God churches more effectively minister to LGBT persons and their families. Joe Dallas is a board member of ReStory, a Christian counselor, and author of numerous books on LGBT topics.

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This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you the ReStoried 2022 Conference. This year’s theme is “Beyond LGBT — Stories of Redemption, Tools of Ministry.”

ReStoried 2022 is a one-day conference about effective ministry to LGBT people. It meets on Saturday, September 24, at Central Assembly in Springfield, Missouri.

Visit ReStoryministries.org/ReStoried22 for more information and to register.

Jul 7, 2022

When it comes to planting and revitalizing churches, rural America is a forgotten field. It faces a variety of demographic and economic challenges, and the rural pastorate often means bivocational ministry in small congregations. In consequence, rural ministry is not an option for many would-be pastors.

Gerad Strong thinks it should be. I’ll be talking to him about effective ministry in small rural churches in this episode of the Influence Podcast. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Gerad Strong served as lead pastor of Bethel Church in Rapid City, South Dakota, before becoming director of Discovery and Development for the Church Multiplication Network in Springfield, Missouri. He pioneered Bethel’s use of multisite models to serve rural churches in his region, and is author of The Forgotten Field: Using Multisite Models to Reach and Revive Rural Communities with the Gospel, published by Baxter 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.

Jun 30, 2022

Independence Day commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The Declaration is a legal brief, making a case that “these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States.”

The Declaration also makes theological claims, however. It begins with reference to “the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God entitle [the colonists].” It ends with the signers appealing to “the Supreme Judge of the world” and expressing “a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.”

But its most important theological statement is this: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I’m talking to Prof. Thomas S. Kidd about religion and the American Founding. Specifically, I’m talking to him about the faith of Thomas Jefferson — the Founding Father who drafted the Declaration of Independence. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Thomas S. Kidd is Research Professor of Church History at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., and a Senior Research Scholar at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion. His most recent book is Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh, published this year by Yale University 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.
Jun 16, 2022

“Our culture has become highly skilled in pointing out the problems [of masculinity], but, beyond public service campaigns and news headlines, we haven’t developed the same expertise in helping men solve those problems,” writes Chase Replogle. “We have lost the wisdom by which men become better, by which they mature into a better manhood.”

In this podcast, I talk to Replogle about how to find that wisdom again. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Chase Replogle is pastor of Bent Oak Church in Springfield, Missouri and author of The 5 Masculine Instincts, published by Moody.

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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.

Jun 9, 2022

On May 2, 2022, Politico made headlines when it leaked the draft of a Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

That draft overturns Roe v. Wade, a 1973 decision, which together with Doe v. Boltoneffectively legalized abortion throughout a woman’s pregnancy. And it returns regulation of abortion to state legislatures, rather than federal courts, which is where the matter lay prior to 1973.

A decision overturning Roe would be a momentous legal event, but would it change the way Christians minister to women who are considering abortion?

That’s the question I ask Cindi Boston in this episode of the Influence Podcast. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Cindi Boston is vice president of Heartbeat International. Founded in 1971 to provide alternatives to abortion, Heartbeat International is the first network of pro-life pregnancy resource centers in the U.S. and the largest such network in the 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.

Jun 2, 2022

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the central claim of Christian theology. As the apostle Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 15:14, “if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” But is belief in Christ’s resurrection a matter of faith only, or can it also be demonstrated historically?

That is the question I ask Dr. Gary Habermas in this episode of the Influence Podcast. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Dr. Gary Habermas is Distinguished Research Professor and chair of the department of philosophy at Liberty University. He is the author or coauthor of more than 30 books, most recently, Risen Indeed: A Historical Investigation into the Resurrection of Jesus, published in 2021 by Lexham Academic. Habermas is widely considered the nation’s foremost apologist on the historicity of Christ’s resurrection.

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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.

May 5, 2022
“Life is like walking downhill over the rocks,” writes Chris Maxwell. “The slopes and sharp rocks remind us of danger.” Consequently, he goes on to say, “Healthy equilibrium isn’t staying away from the downhill slants or the harsh drops; it is gaining a better perspective on obtaining and maintaining stability there.” In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I talk with Maxwell about how pastors — and the churches they lead — can get and keep spiritual and emotional equilibrium. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Chris Maxwell is director of Spiritual Life and campus pastor at Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, Georgia, and an ordained minister with the International Pentecostal Holiness Church. He is author of Equilibrium: 31 Ways to Stay Balanced on Life’s Uneven Surfaces, published by True Potential.

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This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of MEGA Sports Camp.

MEGA Sports Camp outreaches create connection between your church and community and introduce kids to a life-changing relationship with Jesus. This year, choose from two great sports-based themes for your next VBS outreach.

Visit MEGASportsCamp.com for more information.

Apr 28, 2022
On January 6, 2002, reporters for the The Boston Globe began publishing a series of stories about clergy sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. Their revelations went on to garner a Pulitzer Prize and shine a spotlight on similar scandals in other dioceses. Evangelical churches weren’t immune from criticism either, and not just on the topic of clergy sexual abuse. The past few years have revealed scandals among some of America’s best-known and largest ministries, ranging from sexual abuse to financial fraud to spiritual abuse.

In Faith-Based Fraud, Warren Cole Smith writes, “The problems I recount in this book are not organizational problems that can be solved with new regulations and procedures. The problems are spiritual and theological ones that merely manifest themselves as organizational problems.”

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I talk with Smith about what churches should learn from religious scandals. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Warren Cole Smith is president of MinistryWatch, whose purpose is to be “an advocate for transparency, accountability, and the renewed credibility of Christian ministries.” He is author of Faith-Based Fraud: Learning from the Great Religious Scandals of Our Time, published by WildBlue Press.

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This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of MEGA Sports Camp.

MEGA Sports Camp outreaches create connection between your church and community and introduce kids to a life-changing relationship with Jesus. This year, choose from two great sports-based themes for your next VBS outreach.

Visit MEGASportsCamp.com for more information.

Apr 22, 2022
The American Muslim population is growing. According to Pew Research Center, there were 2.35 million Muslims in the U.S. in 2007 and 3.85 million in 2020. Pew estimates that by 2050, there will be 8.1 million Muslims in the U.S.

“This represents a significant mission field,” writes Christina Quick in her profile of Lynda Hausfeld in the spring 2022 issue of Influence. “Yet many Christians are hesitant to reach out to their Muslim neighbors.”

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I talk with Mark and Lynda Hausfeld about how to share the gospel with Muslim neighbors. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Mark Hausfeld is vice president for Institutional Innovation and director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Trinity Bible College and Graduate School in Ellendale, North Dakota. Lynda Hausfeld is founder and director of Say Hello: Serving Muslim Women, a ministry of Assemblies of God World Missions. Both are ordained AG ministers.

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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.

Apr 14, 2022

Leading change is one of a pastor’s most important jobs.

The changes pastors lead are spiritual, moral, and missional in nature. In other words, they help people come to Christ (spiritual), become like Christ (moral), and go out as witnesses to Christ (missional).

The changes pastors lead are also organizational. In other words, pastors help congregations change their methods and structures to make sure that the means of ministry actually accomplish its spiritual, moral, and missional ends.

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I talk with Mike Clarensau about how pastors can lead congregational change in collaboration with church members. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Mike Clarensau is an ordained Assemblies of God minister, church consultant, and author of several books. His new book is Subject to Change: What People Want Their Pastor to Know Before Asking Them to Change, published by Arrows & Stones.

My conversation with him is coming up after a brief word from our sponsor.

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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.

Apr 7, 2022
“Imagine a steep and deadly cliff,” write Shayne Moore, Sandra Morgan, and Kimberly McOwen Yim.

“Today, most churches and nonprofit organizations working in anti-human-trafficking efforts are focused solely on the victims who have already fallen or been thrown off the cliff of modern slavery.”

Unfortunately, the authors continue, “we will never end human trafficking and modern slavery with this as our only strategy. Together, we must erect an impervious fence so that women, men, and children never fall off the cliff in the first place.”

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I talk with Sandra Morgan about how the church can help do this. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Sandra Morgan is director of the Global Center for Women and Justice at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, California. An ordained Assemblies of God minister, she serves as co-chair of the World Assemblies of God Commission on Sexual Exploitation, Slavery and Trafficking. She is co-author of Ending Human Trafficking, published by IVP Academic.

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This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of MEGA Sports Camp.

MEGA Sports Camp outreaches create connection between your church and community and introduce kids to a life-changing relationship with Jesus. This year, choose from two great sports-based themes for your next VBS outreach.

Visit MEGASportsCamp.com for more information.

Mar 10, 2022

The Israelite destruction of the Canaanites, found in biblical passages such as Deuteronomy 7:1–2, presents a conundrum to Christians. Here’s what that passage says:

"When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations — the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you — and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy."

Here’s the conundrum: On the one hand, the Bible is inspired and inerrant, and the God it presents is morally perfect. On the other hand, the commandment to destroy the Canaanites seems genocidal. How can a morally perfect God issue such commands?

That’s the question I ask Prof. Charlie Trimm in this episode of the Influence Podcast. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Prof. Trimm is author of The Destruction of the Canaanites: God, Genocide, and Biblical Interpretation, which comes out March 15 from Eerdmans Publishing Company. He is associate professor of biblical and theological studies at Talbott School of Theology in La Mirada, California.

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This episode of the Influence podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of Reclaim His Promises: A Nehemiah Study Journal.

Many women feel they don’t have enough time or knowledge to study the Bible effectively. Reclaim His Promises is designed to make it simple for everyone to engage with God’s Word. It helps you unpack and apply the life-impacting truths found in the story of Nehemiah through engaging Scripture readings and guided journaling.

Visit MyHealthyChurch.com/Reclaim for a free chapter.

Mar 3, 2022
“Recent studies of Pentecostal origins have demonstrated that eschatology and pneumatology were inexorably connected in the historical development of Pentecostal theology,” writes Prof. Daniel Isgrigg. Why? Early Pentecostals “believed that the Holy Spirit was being poured out because they were in the last days” [emphasis added]. Spirit baptism, then, was a sign of the end times.

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I talk with Prof. Daniel Isgrigg about what the Assemblies of God teaches about the end times. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. (The AG is publishers of both the magazine and the podcast.)

Daniel Isgrigg is an ordained AG minister; assistant professor and director of the Holy Spirit Research Center and Archives at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and author of Imagining the Future: The Origin, Development, and Future of Assemblies of God Eschatology.

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This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of MEGA Sports Camp.

MEGA Sports Camp outreaches create connection between your church and community and introduce kids to a life-changing relationship with Jesus. This year, choose from two great sports-based themes for your next VBS outreach.

Visit MEGASportsCamp.com for more information.

Feb 22, 2022

In the middle of the twentieth century, two theological ideas began to reshape Protestant worship. The first focused on how churchgoers could experience the manifest presence of God. The second focused on how churches could overcome the gap between themselves and the people they were trying to reach. In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I talk with Prof. Lester Ruth about those two theological ideas — presence and power. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Lester Ruth is research professor of Christian worship at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. He is coauthor, with Lim Swee Hong, of A History of Contemporary Praise & Worship, published in November 2021 by Baker Academic.

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This episode of the Influence podcast is brought to you by the Next Generation Leaders Conference.

No matter what age group you work with, or what programs you utilize, we are gathering together for the next generation who are at the heart of our ministries. Join us this March in Orlando, for a leadership conference for those shaping the Next Generation, through kids, youth, and family ministry!

For details and registration, visit NextGen.AG.org.

Feb 17, 2022
Two years after Covid arrived in the United States, the pandemic seems to be winding down and normalcy seems to be returning. Even so, the pandemic and the governmental responses to it were incredibly disruptive. So, what does the new normal look like for churches? Specifically, where is the Assemblies of God headed now?

Those are the questions I ask Doug Clay in this episode of the Influence Podcast. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Doug Clay is general superintendent of the Assemblies of God and publisher of Influence magazine.

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This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of MEGA Sports Camp.

MEGA Sports Camp outreaches create connection between your church and community and introduce kids to a life-changing relationship with Jesus. This year, choose from two great sports-based themes for your next VBS outreach.

Visit MEGASportsCamp.com for more information.

Feb 8, 2022
Every Pentecostal knows that William J. Seymour was the leader of the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles, California. The revival that happened at that mission from 1906–1909 played a central role in the history of early Pentecostalism. Even after revival fires cooled, however, Seymour continued to lead the mission until his death in 1922, and the church continued to meet until the death of his wife, Jenny Evans Moore in 1936. What lessons can Pentecostals learn from Seymour’s leadership of this storied church both during and after the revival?

That’s the question I ask Prof. Mel Robeck in this episode of the Influence Podcast. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Mel Robeck is senior professor of Church History and Ecumenics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and an ordained Assemblies of God minister. A leading historian of early Pentecostalism, Robeck is author of The Azusa Street Mission and Revival.

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This episode of the Influence podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of Reclaim His Promises: A Nehemiah Study Journal.

Lots of women feel like they don’t have enough time or knowledge to study the Bible effectively. That’s why this study is designed to make it simple for everyone to engage with God’s Word. Reclaim His Promises helps you unpack and apply the life-impacting truths found in the story of Nehemiah through engaging Scripture readings and guided journaling.

Visit MyHealthyChurch.com/Reclaim for a free chapter.

Jan 27, 2022
Pastors often hear complaints about church from members of their congregations. These negative comments can create a doom-and-gloom mentality among church leaders, as if everything in their congregation is going wrong. According to The Congregational Scorecard, a new report from Grey Matter Research & Consulting and Infinity Concepts, the reality is quite the opposite. “[T]he vast majority of American evangelical Protestant churchgoers are actually largely satisfied with their church,” says the report. “An average of 74% of evangelical Protestants do not want their church to change in each of the 14 areas we explored”

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I’m talking to Ron Sellers about what pastors and church leaders should learn from The Congregational Scorecard. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Ron Sellers is president of Grey Matter Research & Consulting in Phoenix, Arizona. He is lead researcher of The Congregational Scorecard: What Evangelicals Want in a Church, published in partnership with Infinity Concepts.

My conversation with him is coming up after a brief word from our sponsor.

 

SPONSOR COPY

 

This episode of the Influence podcast is brought to you by the Next Generation Leaders Conference.

No matter what age group you work with, or what programs you utilize, we are gathering together for the next generation who are at the heart of our ministries. Join us this March in Orlando, for a leadership conference for those shaping the Next Generation, through kids, youth, and family ministry!

For details and registration, visit NextGenConference.AG.org.

Jan 13, 2022

Rod Wilson believes three short statements have power to change the world: “Thank you!” “I’m sorry!” And “Tell me more!” These statements are ways all people, but especially Christians, can live out the meaning of Jesus’ Great Commandment.

“How we relate to others flows from our relationship with God. Love is the action. People are the recipients,” Wilson writes. “Expressing ‘Thank you,’ ‘I’m sorry,’ and ‘Tell me more’ to people is putting words to love. I see you. I notice you. We impact each other. For Jesus, loving God but not loving others is the ultimate contradiction,” he concludes.

I’ll be talking to Rod Wilson about these statements in this episode of the Influence Podcast. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Rod Wilson has worked as a psychologist, pastor, and college president. He currently works with Lumara Grief and Bereavement Care Society, A Rocha, the Society of Christian Schools in BC, and In Trust Center for Theological Schools, as well as maintaining an international teaching and mentoring ministry. He is author of Thank You. I’m Sorry. Tell Me More.: How to Change the World with 3 Sacred Sayings, recently published by NavPress.

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This episode of the Influence podcast is brought to you by the Next Generation Leaders Conference.

No matter what age group you work with, or what programs you utilize, we are gathering together for the next generation who are at the heart of our ministries. Join us tthis March in Orlando, for a leadership conference for those shaping the Next Generation, through kids, youth, and family ministry!

For details and registration, visit NextGenConference.AG.org.

Dec 16, 2021

“At your greatest point of injustice is your greatest opportunity for Christlikeness,” writes Brian Noble. Christ reconciled us to God on the Cross and gave us what Paul calls “the ministry of reconciliation” in 2 Corinthians 5:19. The Church’s job is to urge people to be reconciled to God — and to one another.

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I am talking to Noble about the necessary attitudes and practices of this ministry of reconciliation. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Brian Noble is CEO and executive director of Peacemaker Ministries, as well as executive pastor of Valley Assembly of God in Spokane, Washington. His forthcoming book, Living Reconciled, published by Baker Books, goes on sale January 11, 2022.

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

Most people have access to the Bible, but few regularly engage with it. Bible Engagement Project equips churches with digital Bible study resources to help people of all ages read and understand Scripture so they can become more like Jesus and live radically changed lives. Bible Engagement Project is available in both English and Spanish.

Visit BibleEngagementProject.com to learn more.

Dec 9, 2021

“All of us long for Easy Street,” writes Stephen Blandino. “It’s paved with comfort and lined with safety. It travels through the trouble-free hills of security, and its road signs point to a pain-free destination where blessings abound.” There’s only one problem, he concludes: “Easy Street is a dead-end street.”

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I talk to Stephen Blandino about why Christians — church leaders and church members alike — should stop chasing easy and start pursuing lives that count. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Stephen Blandino is lead pastor of 7 City Church in Fort Worth, Texas, and author of the forthcoming book, Stop Chasing Easy. An ordained Assemblies of God minister, he writes the Make It Count leadership development curriculum for each issue of Influence magazine, where he is also an online columnist.

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

Most people have access to the Bible, but few regularly engage with it. Bible Engagement Project equips churches with digital Bible study resources to help people of all ages read and understand Scripture so they can become more like Jesus and live radically changed lives. Bible Engagement Project is available in both English and Spanish.

Visit BibleEngagementProject.com to learn more.

Dec 2, 2021

New Year’s Day is just around the corner, so now’s a good time to start thinking about your New Year’s resolutions for 2022. What new habits do you want to make in the coming year? What old habits do you want to break?

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I’m talking to Mark Batterson about how to make — or break — any habit.. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Mark Batterson is lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC, a New York Times bestselling author, and a fellow Assemblies of God minister. His new book is Do It for a Day, published this past November by Multnomah.

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

Most people have access to the Bible, but few regularly engage with it. Bible Engagement Project equips churches with digital Bible study resources to help people of all ages read and understand Scripture so they can become more like Jesus and live radically changed lives. Bible Engagement Project is available in both English and Spanish.

Visit BibleEngagementProject.com to learn more.

Nov 11, 2021

Speaking in tongues is one of Pentecostalism’s most distinctive practices. And yet, in his doctoral research, Timothy Laurito found that “a majority of self-identified Pentecostal participants did not feel like they had even been adequately taught about speaking in tongues.” He goes on to argue that this fact “should be of concern for Pentecostals.”

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I’m talking to Timothy Laurito about how pastors and other church leaders can help people understand glossolalia from a multidisciplinary perspective. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Timothy Laurito is an ordained Assemblies of God minister, assistant pastor at Faith Tabernacle in Denton, Texas, and an adjunct professor at Northpoint Bible College and Graduate School. He is author of Speaking in Tongues: A Multidisciplinary Defense, published by Wipf & Stock.

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

Most people have access to the Bible, but few regularly engage with it. Bible Engagement Project equips churches with digital Bible study resources to help people of all ages read and understand Scripture so they can become more like Jesus and live radically changed lives. Bible Engagement Project is available in both English and Spanish.

Visit BibleEngagementProject.com to learn more.

Nov 4, 2021

Early in his ministry, Jeff Leake faced a problem common to growing churches: He needed a new larger building but didn’t have enough money. So he prayed, “God, we have a problem, and it seems that You are not offering any solutions here!”

The thing about talking to God is that He talks back, and Leake felt God saying this to him: “Have you considered that I have a problem too?” God’s problem, it turned out, was that too many pastors were interested in growing their churches and too few interested in reaching their cities.

That encounter with God took Leake on a church-planting journey. In Twelve Trends in Church Multiplication, he talks about different ways local churches can reproduce themselves in new congregations. I’ll be talking to him about this book in this episode of the Influence Podcast.

I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host. Jeff Leake is lead pastor of Allison Park Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which has seven campuses and has planted 31 new churches.

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

Most people have access to the Bible, but few regularly engage with it. Bible Engagement Project equips churches with digital Bible study resources to help people of all ages read and understand Scripture so they can become more like Jesus and live radically changed lives. Bible Engagement Project is available in both English and Spanish.

Visit BibleEngagementProject.com to learn more.

Oct 28, 2021

“Young people are increasingly less likely to be engaged with institutional forms of religious expression,” writes Josh Packard. “Decades-long trends continue: for a large and growing segment of young people, religiosity is increasingly decoupled from institutions, even as they express high levels of religious belief, practice, and identity.”

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I’m talking to Packard about why young people aren’t affiliating with religious institutions. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

Josh Packard is executive director of Springtide Research Institute and former professor of sociology at the University of Northern Colorado. Springtide’s 2021 State of Religion & Young People report, titled Navigating Uncertainty, published October 25 and forms the basis of this conversation.

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

Most people have access to the Bible, but few regularly engage with it. Bible Engagement Project equips churches with digital Bible study resources to help people of all ages read and understand Scripture so they can become more like Jesus and live radically changed lives. Bible Engagement Project is available in both English and Spanish.

Visit BibleEngagementProject.com to learn more.

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