What happens when the "road map" provided by years of theological training meets the messy, unpredictable reality of a local parish? This is a podcast dedicated to uncovering the honest experience of ministry leadership in a time of radical institutional change. Drawing on Stewart Cutler’s research, "Leadership Matters," this episode dives into the heart of what it means to be a Minister today—a role that demands the agility of an entrepreneur, the precision of a manager, and the vision of a leader, often all at once.

We move beyond the "heroic leader" myth to explore relational leadership, asking how ministers can foster cultures of "Direction, Alignment, and Commitment" rather than just "doing it all" themselves.

In this episode, we explore:

• • The "Click" Moment: Why many ministers feel their initial training left them unprepared for the first five years of service.,
  • The Ambidextrous Minister: How to balance the "dominant hand" of maintaining tradition with the "non-dominant hand" of shaping the future.
  • The Power of Vulnerability: Why pastoral supervision and accountability are not just "nice-to-haves" but essential for survival and flourishing.,
  • Raising the Whole People of God: Practical insights into moving from being the "big spiritual bossman" to an enabler of others.

Whether you are in your first five years of ministry, a seasoned leader navigating the Church of Scotland’s "Mission Planning Process," or someone passionate about the future of the church, this offers a space for deep reflection, "analytic memoing," and finding your voice in the silence.

This is an AI created podcast exploring the lessons from that dissertation. You can read it at stewartcutler.com/leadership

I took one whole week off in 2020, even though I know that time off is good for me. So, why? What was going on? And was it just the covid pandemic?

Just like all the adults surrounding them our children had suddenly found themselves at home. School had been closed, along with everything else, and they were grappling with that too. What could we do to help?

Visit stewartcutler.com to join the conversation or leave your thoughts on our anchor.fm page.

Decisions. I've made lots of them over the past two years. But what did I choose? And why? And how has that worked out? Join me as a revisit some of the big ones and the not so big ones that were more important than I thought!

When lockdown began 2 years ago I, and every other church leader in Scotland and around the world had a decision to make: how will we worship? Stewart reflects on his decision to pre-record services at home and what the benefits and costs of that decision were and still are.

Donald Macaskill is the Chief Executive of Scottish Care, the representative body for the care sector in Scotland. Donald has been the voice of the care sector during one of the most difficult years imaginable, advocating for staff, residents and those requiring care at home. We talk about a reimagining of the narrative around ageing and how we can all be involved in changing how we think about the value of older people in our society. twitter.com/DrDMacaskill https://scottishcare.org/blogs/

Michael Harvey is married to Eike and they have three adult children Ben, Kirsty and Lydia. In 2004 Back to Church Sunday was birthed and Michael started to work with churches throughout the UK and eventually throughout the English speaking world and to his surprise started to notice a healing component in mission. He has spoken to thousands of church leaders and congregational members in his Seminars and has to date seen hundreds of thousands of Christians mobilised to invite, resulting in 1 million+ accepted invitations. He launched the first National Weekend of Invitation in June 2018. During the pandemic he launched the Acorn Faith process. He is author of the books Unlocking the Growth, Creating a Culture of Invitation and his latest book is Invitation to Heal. As an itinerant speaker and has a ministry across 18 countries and 5 continents. He is a member of the College of Evangelists

Acorn in the time of the Virus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lcw16Z_y-k0

Acorn Faith Community on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/933478613810194/

Unlocking the Growth and Creating a Culture of Invitation in your Church Books https://www.unlockingthegrowth.com/resources/

https://gohealth.org.uk/shop/physical/the-invitation-to-heal-by-michael-harvey/

This week on ctl-alt-del/church we welcome Lawrence Moore, a mission & discipleship consultant living in Salford, UK. Lawrence says "Jesus didn't come to zap us all off to heaven; he came to change the world - and for the poorest, most marginalised first. I help churches to discover and follow this radical Jesus, and to make Jesus-shaped differences in the places they live and work. Why do I do that? Because people are hungry for those kinds of people and churches. Churches have no business taking up space, time and money unless they're recognisably like Jesus. I'm also passionate about the music of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Bruce Springsteen. And I'm a helpless Apple evangelist - just love their stuff!"