Could eating more pie lead to healthier and stronger churches?

Doug Pell says "yes." A longtime Church of Christ elder and retired senior executive from the U.S. defense industry, Pell recently authored Set in Order the Things That Are Lacking: Lessons in Biblical Leadership (Sain Publications).

In this episode, Pell shares the experience he gained from decades in church and corporate leadership and the knowledge he gained from his intense study of biblical eldership for local congregations.

Pell touches on the following themes:

• Why the corporate management model is not the leadership model that the Lord chooses for his church
• Why biblical leadership is harder than anyone imagines, but perhaps not as hard to attain as congregations might think
• How congregational leadership must happen in living rooms, not elders' meetings
• Why deacons and wives may be the most important people to a congregation's eldership
• And what does pie have to do with congregational health?

Link to Set in Order the Things That Are Lacking: Lessons in Biblical Leadership

Donate to support this ministry of "information and inspiration" at christianchronicle.org/donate

Send your comments, ideas, and suggestions to podcast@christianchronicle.org

Learn more about the new book, Why Aren't Christians More Like Jesus by Michael Clemens at whyarentchristiansmorelikejesus.com

52nd Annual Caribbean Lectureship in Barbados this July 13 - 16, 2025. Learn more and register at caribbeanlectureship.com.

Freed-Hardeman University graduate degrees in New Testament or Old Testament at fhu.edu/chronicle.

For Christians who are Black, life in the Church of Christ in the United States is an experience that is formed by the experience of being Black. In other words, each human being encounters life (and church) through her or his experiences. Likewise, the world (and often the church) perceives human beings through the assumptions that form about certain groups of people.

Barron Jones (host of the Unfiltered Crossroads Podcast and the preaching team at Holgate Street Church of Christ in Seattle, Washington) talks about why being Black in the Church of Christ in the United States is a unique experience that often leaves Christians who are Black feeling isolation and pressure among their own brothers and sisters in Christ. Jones makes the case that a relentless pursuit of the gospel and the truth will well serve all Christians now.

Read Barron Jones's Christian Chronicle op-ed, "Stuck in the middle with Jesus: Why Black Christians in America feel alienated from cultural camps on either side - and what comes next"

Donate to support this ministry of "information and inspiration" at christianchronicle.org/donate

Send your comments, ideas, and suggestions to podcast@christianchronicle.org

Learn more about the new book, Why Aren't Christians More Like Jesus by Michael Clemens at whyarentchristiansmorelikejesus.com

52nd Annual Caribbean Lectureship in Barbados this July 13 - 16, 2025. Learn more and register at caribbeanlectureship.com.

Freed-Hardeman University graduate degrees in New Testament or Old Testament at fhu.edu/chronicle.

In the United States, the mood about immigration carried a new administration to power in Washington, D.C. Since then, the news media has reported sensational stories of law enforcement arrests around, or in, faith-based ministries and houses of worship.

How does this affect Church of Christ congregations and ministries that are active among immigrant neighbors in their communities? Do they have any reason to fear that law enforcement may target them and their own members and neighbors? What should they do when the law of the Christ and the law of the land seem to contradict each other?

In this episode, immigration attorney Isaul Verdin, former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief counsel Paul Hunker and Bible professor and Church of Christ minister Dr. Jeremie Beller help church and ministry leaders understand the biblical mandate for immigrant care, the laws of the United States, and what to do when the Bible and law enforcement are at odds.

Donate to support this ministry of "information and inspiration" at christianchronicle.org/donate

Send your comments, ideas, and suggestions to podcast@christianchronicle.org

Learn more about the new book, Why Aren't Christians More Like Jesus by Michael Clemens at whyarentchristiansmorelikejesus.com

52nd Annual Caribbean Lectureship in Barbados this July 13 - 16, 2025. Learn more and register at caribbeanlectureship.com.

Freed-Hardeman University graduate degrees in New Testament or Old Testament at fhu.edu/chronicle.