Rich Villodas succeeded Pete Scazzero at New Life Church in 2014. Successions like that rarely go well, but this one did.
Rich explains what he and Pete did to make it work. Rich also explains what’s wrong with western Christian spirituality, how to rethink sex and race as part of spiritual formation and how to live a more deeply formed life toward spiritual maturity.
Welcome to Episode 375 of the podcast. Listen and access the show notes below or search for the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and listen for free.
Plus, in this episode’s What I’m Thinking About segment, Carey talks about two questions every leader needs to be asking about 2021.
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CONVERSATION LINKS
The Deeply Formed Life by Rich Villodas
Pursuing God’s Will Together by Ruth Haley Barton
The Genesee Diary by Henri Nouwen
H3 Leadership with Brad Lomenick podcast
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INSIGHTS FROM RICH
1. Maturity is key to successful succession
When asked what made Rich’s succession into lead pastor at New Life Church successful, Rich said that the maturity of his founding pastor, Pete Scazzero, made the biggest difference.
Before, during, and after the transition, Pete was regularly seeing a counselor to answer the questions:
Who am I apart from this position?
Who am I apart from the attention I’m going to get?
Rich is going to start getting a whole lot more attention than I’m going to get from our congregation, how will I handle that?
If Pete wouldn’t have worked through these questions personally, the transition probably would not have gone as smooth as it did.
2. Many Christians are falling into the false belief that, “God is only with someone if they agree with me”
Many Christians are falling into the trap of thinking that God only loves the people that agree with their own ways of thinking. This is only getting worse with the added pressure of the upcoming election. In response to this, Rich quoted Ann Lamont when she said, “You know you’ve made God in your image when God hates all the people you hate.”
This is happening all over in American churches. Rich warns that this is a self-referential way of living in the world, which is not Christian at all. This mindset sets “me” at the center of everything.
If we want to reach the people who believe differently than us, we need to open the door to the reality that God loves them, too.
3. If we’re going to have a productive conversations around race, we need to approach it on these 6 levels
- Theological – What does scripture say?
- Historical – Where have we been historically?
- Sociological – What are the sociological data that we need to pay attention to?
- Ecclesiological – What’s the church’s response?
- Formational – What life do I need to engage the conversation?
- Political – What does this look like in the public sphere?
If you’re not having those conversations on those layers, you’re going to have a pretty limited myopic view of this massive issue.
Quotes from Episode 375
We are formed to believe that God is only in the places and with the people that mirror our belief systems. @richvillodas Click To Tweet We can either be in the world for God, or in God for the world. – Robert Mulholland Click To Tweet To be in relationship with God is to confront ourselves. @richvillodas Click To Tweet Any genuine encounter with God is going to lead to an encounter with ourselves. @richvillodas Click To Tweet We often use God to run from God. And, we use God to run from ourselves. @richvillodas Click To Tweet The differentiation of any church is dependent upon the person who is shaping the culture most. @richvillodas Click To Tweet Spiritual formation often begins and ends at behavior modification. @richvillodas Click To Tweet Praising God and lamenting are not mutually exclusive. @richvillodas Click To Tweet Most pastors don't do the inner work that make succession successful. @richvillodas Click To Tweet There's a significant correlation between the lack of spiritual rhythms and the deep anxiety and purposelessness that people feel. @richvillodas Click To Tweet The greatest gift that leaders can give themselves in this moment is the gift of Sabbath. @richvillodas Click To Tweet Time off won't heal you when the problem is how you spend your time on. @cnieuwhof Click To TweetRead or Download the Transcript for Episode 375
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Next Episode: Jon Gordon
Jon Gordon helps leaders stay positive, and realized most people spend their entire lives dealing with what he calls the “5 D’s”—Doubt, Distortion, Discouragement, Distraction and Division. Jon explains how each works, how to combat them, and how business and faith leaders need a message of hope that began in the Garden of Eden.
Subscribe for free now so you won’t miss Episode 376.
