Ascending Leaders Presents: The Discipleship Podcast for Church Leaders

Our Guest this Episode: Harry Vein

Harry retired in 2022 from serving churches throughout the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church for the past 40 years. He served churches in Houston (Chapelwood - my home church), Cleveland (FUMC), Brenham (FUMC), Cypress UMC and Spring Faith UMC.  Throughout his ministry, Harry loved leading people into an intimate relationship with Christ that would lead their faith to come alive. In planning for life in retirement, Harry was trained through Coach Training For Leaders in order to empower pastors, leaders and churches to be all that God created them to be. His passion in ministry is to see lives and churches transformed as people fall in love with Christ and one another. 

Janet Ables is the Minister of Development (Leadership, Curriculum and Women) at CityView Bible Church in Round Rock, Austin, Texas and she also serves as the interim Student Pastor.  She made the “exodus to Texas” just before the pandemic in 2019 and before coming to Texas she served for over 15 years in vocational ministry in California. The bulk of this was within the scope of women’s ministry and adult discipleship.

She’s written 3 Bible-study books, Faith Refined: How God Uses Hard Times to Redefine Our Faith, Deceived: Destroying the lie that we are not enough, and To Know by Name: An Intimate Look at the Names of God.

She’s also the founder and president of the Esther Movement, an organization dedicated to reaching women in vulnerable places with the love of the gospel. And if that is not enough, she is also a recent graduate from the Evangelism and Leadership program at Wheaton College.

Emmanuel Kwizera, M.A. ’23, is a Billy Graham scholar in the M.A. program for Evangelism and Leadership at Wheaton College. He first arrived on campus with his family in 2021 after spending years working in Kenya as an evangelist.

He is originally from Rwanda, the son of missionary evangelists. In 1994, he survived the brutal genocide that ripped the country apart and led to the death of over one million of the Tutsi people, including over 100 of his own family members. Raised in a Christian family, Emmanuel was left wondering how God could have allowed such horror to happen, especially in a country that identified overwhelmingly as Christian. Join Ascending Leaders' podcast to hear what he learned about discipleship and forgiveness.

Listen as Mike Johnson, Founder and President of Ascending Leaders, interviews Professor Wendy Mohler-Seib about engaging practices for online discipleship. Look for ideas you can implement in your setting.

Listen as Mike Johnson, Founder and President of Ascending Leaders interviews Professor Wendy Mohler-Seib about engaging practices for online discipleship. Look for ideas you can implement in your setting.

The big question out there is this: how will churches use internet interaction positively, even after they are back to in person gatherings? Ascending Leaders is most interested in what that will look like to improve discipleship in churches. Thus episode 31 is about A Promising Example of an In-Person/Online Hybrid Small Group. Our guests Jon Harrison and his wife Katie Lee. Jon is the pastor of Greensburg Christian Church in Greensburg, Kansas. Katie-Lee also serves with Jon and others on their church’s discipleship team. 

Jon and Katie have experimented with a Hybrid small group that I want you to hear about. Possibly you can mimic it in your setting or this gives you some new ideas for doing Hybrid discipleship in the future.

The big question out there is this: how will churches use internet interaction positively, even after they are back to in person gatherings? Ascending Leaders is most interested in what that will look like to improve discipleship in churches. Thus episode 31 is about A Promising Example of an In-Person/Online Hybrid Small Group. Our guests Jon Harrison and his wife Katie Lee. John is the pastor of Greensburg Christian Church in Greensburg, Kansas. Katie-Lee also serves with Jon and others on their church’s discipleship team. 

Jon and Katie have experimented with a Hybrid small group that I want you to hear about. Possibly you can mimic it in your setting or this gives you some new ideas for doing Hybrid discipleship in the future.

For this episode of the discipleship podcast --episode 30, Mike is interviewing two men well experienced with the church and technology. They will talk about what may be the technological options for churches out there after they get past the initial surge of bringing ministry online, Mike is interviewing the President & Systems Architect Steve Bauserman and Project Manager Chris Stieb from the ACTS group.

For this episode of the discipleship podcast --episode 30, Mike is interviewing two men well experienced with the church and technology. They will talk about what may be the technological options for churches out there after they get past the initial surge of bringing ministry online, Mike is interviewing the President & Systems Architect Steve Bauserman and Project Manager Chris Stieb from the ACTS group.

Join Mike and Bob a they discuss The Value of Taking the spiritual Temperature in part 2 of our podcast.

Listen to Mike Johnson and his guest Pastor Mike McClenahan from Solana Beach Presbyterian Church as they discuss getting through to lead pastors and solo pastors 1) their need to be on the journey themselves 2) the need to keep discipleship in front of the church and 3) some ways that can be done.

Listen to Mike Johnson and his guest Pastor Mike McClenahan from Solana Beach Presbyterian Church as they discuss getting through to lead pastors and solo pastors 1) their need to be on the journey themselves 2) the need to keep discipleship in front of the church and 3) some ways that can be done.

In episode 28, Ascending Leaders Founder and  President Mike Johnson is interviewing Pastor Matt McClure of Prairie City Christian Reformed Church, Prairie City, Iowa church member Darin Graber, about the effective “Youth Advocate program.” 

A free 90-minute webinar with a focus on congregation-wide discipleship. This webinar was featured as an exclusive live interview with Bill Hull on January 15, 2020. 

In episode 28, Ascending Leaders Founder and  President Mike Johnson is interviewing Pastor Matt McClure of Prairie City Christian Reformed Church, Prairie City, Iowa church member Darin Graber, about the effective “Youth Advocate program.” 

This episode 27 is quite special. Bruce Abbott, our podcast producer, was able to catch Mike quite unaware and ask him some pointed questions about why Ascending Leaders does what it does.

Join Mike Johnson and his guest Terry Looper as they discuss Hearing and Surrendering to God's Guidance in Decisions in part one of our podcast.

Join Mike Johnson and his guest Terry Looper as they discuss Hearing and Surrendering to God's Guidance in Decisions in part one of our podcast.

In this episode, Mike Johnson and Bob Johnson will discuss how helpful it can be to take REVEAL or RENOVO before planning discipleship improvement.

Listen to part 2 of our discussion for church leaders to see the need, possibility and results of discovering their next chapter.

A discussion for church leaders to see the need, possibility and results of discovering their next chapter.

Join us for part 2 of our interview with Debbie Swindoll and Julia Johnson on A Curriculum for Abiding.

Join us for our interview with Debbie Swindoll and Julia Johnson on A Curriculum for Abiding.

In this episode, we talk with Pastor Matt Neely of Parkway United Methodist Church about surprises he has faced in ministry. 

Music: "Perspectives" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

In Episode 14, we talk about step 4 of the 10 Steps Toward a Clear DISCIPLEPATH - Personally Own It and the importance of pastors practicing what they preach. 

For guest bio and free PDF download of "Growing as a Disciple" journal/devotional visit ascendingleaders.org/episode14

In Episode 14, we talk about step 4 of the 10 Steps Toward a Clear DISCIPLEPATH - Personally Own It and the importance of pastors practicing what they preach. 

For guest bio and free PDF download of "Growing as a Disciple" journal/devotional visit ascendingleaders.org/episode14

PART 2: In this episode, we take a look at step three of the ten steps toward a clear disciple path - Preach it, and how churches can implement sermons on the stages of faith into their church. For guest bio and a pdf download of "Example Sermons on the Stages of A Disciple" visit ascendingleaders.org/episode13 

In this episode, we take a look at step three of the ten steps toward a clear disciple path - Preach it, and how churches can implement sermons on the stages of faith into their church. For guest bio and a pdf download of "Example Sermons on the Stages of A Disciple" visit ascendingleaders.org/episode13

In this episode, experienced pastor and discipleship coach Bob Johnson talks with Ascending Leaders’ president Mike Johnson about how the command to make disciples goes back further than the Great Commission. In fact, Bob argues that the reason for discipleship is given in Genesis 1. He calls this “The Genesis Project.” Understanding God’s ultimate “why” for discipleship in The Genesis Project provides that motivation. This is how a church can persevere along a DisciplePath even when it takes years to see results.  

In this episode, we take a deeper look at the names of the stages of faith. How do we name them in a way that helps churches move people forward through these stages while still showing them the value of the stage they are at? Ken Schripsema, Executive Director of Ministry at Madison Church - Square Campus in Grand Rapids, MI, joins us to discuss.

In this episode, Ken Schripsema interviews AL founder Mike Johnson about his book Ten Steps toward a clear DisciplePath. Mike covers how churches can use these steps to help build a discipleship plan and shares advice on doing that. For more information visit ascendingleaders.org/episode10 

In this episode we talk with guest Bob Johnson about why we should care about discipling people to move forward in their faith journey. He shares some insights from his church after taking the REVEAL survey. Hear what he found and what that means to us as church leaders. 

In this episode, we discuss the power of using the discipleship stages to tell your faith story. Pastor Andy Sytsma talks about hosting an evening of faith stories at New Life where he and the staff and church leaders shared their stories with each other. 

In this episode, we take a deeper look at stage 4 in the stages of faith – “Remain in me.” How do we move people toward this place that we all hope all disciples to get to someday, but few do? 

Joel and Patty Hogan, who served with Christian Reformed World Missions for 33 years, join us to discuss.

In this episode, we take a deeper look at stage 3 in the stages of faith – “Come and Be With Me.” How do we move people toward sacrifice? The challenge for churches looking to help move people deeper into and through this stage is that it is about "being" rather than "doing." 

Greg Hawkins joins us for the discussion. He was on staff at Willow Creek for 22 years, and is the co-founder of REVEAL research. He's the author of five books, including Move and More. He's currently on staff at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, TX, working with Senior Minister Max Lucado.

In this episode, we take a deeper look at stage 2 in the stages of faith – “Come and Follow.” How do we move people toward intimacy? 

Richard Blackaby, President of Blackaby Ministries International, and Julia Johnson, Small Groups Director at Grace Fellowship United Methodist Church, join us to discuss.

In this episode, we take a deeper look at stage 1 in the stages of faith – “Come and See.” How do we move people toward belief? 

Pastor Blair Lerner joins us from Grace Fellowship United Methodist Church to discuss.

In this episode, we look at the four invitations of Jesus to his disciples, and four descriptions that describe the growth of a disciple in the modern church.

Making disciples is our mission...but how do we know when we've made one?

And then, how does what we offer, in terms of ministries and programs and so forth, how does that relate and are we actually making disciples? Or are we just busy?

In this episode, we have a conversation with Rev. Matt McClure and Rev. Peter Cammarano around defining discipleship. Both of their churches have done a really good job of this, though the journey there was different for each of them.

A lot of times, churches say it can be frustrating trying to work on discipleship, and we can understand that. When a church doesn't have a clear sense of what we are talking about -- are we all talking about the same thing?

The word "discipleship" isn't found anywhere in the Bible, so where did it come from and what is a useful definition for it? Rev. Dr. Michael Johnson, founder and president of Ascending Leaders, shares why church leaders need to have a clear definition of discipleship, and considers how a church can grow a vibrant discipleship culture that outlasts the character and charisma of their leader.

Free download for this episode: Four Characteristics of an Excellent Definition of Discipleship. Available at www.ascendingleaders.org/podcast.