Pooped Pastors » Interviews

Restoring the Soul – Michael Cusick on SBE

Erik Guzman — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:59:18 +0000

If you’re a pastor and you struggle with sexual addiction, you know how hard it can be to come clean about your problems to those closest to you. You may want to get help, but you have a good chance of losing your livelihood if anyone ever found out. It’s a dark trap in which many Christian leaders find themselves.

If you can relate, take a break from looking at porn on the Internet and join us for Steve Brown Etc. with Michael Cusick.

For years, Michael led a hidden life that consisted of prostitutes, pornography, alcohol abuse, massage parlors and adultery. Today Michael has been clean for 15 years and he’s the founder and president of Restoring the Soul, an organization that exists to provide life changing soul care to Christian leaders. He’s also featured in the documentary Somebody’s Daughter: A Journey to Freedom from Pornography.

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality – Pete Scazzero on SBE

Erik Guzman — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:11:38 +0000

From the outside, it looked like Pastor Pete Scazzero was on top of the world. The church he planted in New York was filling up with people (many of them new Christians) and the atmosphere was electric.

However, on the inside, Pete was secretly dying. Then he hit the wall.

Don’t miss Pete Scazzero on Steve Brown Etc. as he talks about moving past manic religious activity to emotionally healthy spirituality.

Pete Scazzero is the senior pastor of New Life Fellowship Church in Queens, New York and author of Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and The Emotionally Healthy Church. Visit EmotionallyHealthy.org for more info and helpful resources.

Jim & Casper Go to Church – Jim Henderson on SBE

Erik Guzman — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:01:24 +0000

Jim Henderson bought an atheist’s soul on eBay, then he took him to church. That’s show-worthy enough, but Jim wasn’t trying to convert this guy. He wanted to see church through the eyes of an outsider. Jim found the experience so enlightening, he started going through atheists like a bag of chips.

Join us on this edition of Steve Brown Etc. as we talk with Jim Henderson about what he learned when he hired atheist, Matt Casper, to visit 10 churches with him and report on his reaction.

Jim Henderson is the co-founder and executive director of Off The Map and author of Jim and Casper Go to Church: Frank Conversation about Faith, Churches, and Well-Meaning Christians. Go to ThePracticingChurch.com to find out what Jim is doing with all this fancy atheist knowledge he’s getting.

The Great Emergence – Phyllis Tickle on SBE

Erik Guzman — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:06:41 +0000

Borrowing an image from Bishop Mark Dyer, Phyllis Tickle often says that every 500 years, the Church cleans out its attic and has a giant rummage sale. Join Phyllis Tickle on this edition of Steve Brown Etc. as we discuss the current purging, what’s on the table and the treasures we’re rediscovering in the process.

The implications for your ministry are staggering.

Phyllis Tickle is the founding editor of the Religion Department of Publishers Weekly and the author of The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why.

Go to TheGreatEmergence.com for a video discussion of the book and a free study guide.Phyllis Tickle on SBE

Leading with a Limp – Dan Allender

Erik Guzman — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:15:27 +0000

As a leader in the Church, you simply have to listen to this interview with Dan Allender. Here’s something he said to whet your appetite…

“What [posturing] leads to is this dual life. Who I am before you, I know I am not behind your back. And so the discrepancy, that sense of contradiction, I think is an acid that eventually literally tears away at the very fabric of faith for most leaders.”

And get this…

“I think if you were to peer into many leader’s hearts, they remember believing. They remember the first love. But in one sense, the posturing has so eroded something of their own capacity to be real and to be alive…that they’ve become somewhat robotic and certainly distant. And that kind of leadership never is a person that you would want to deeply follow.”

Dan Allender is the President of Mars Hill Graduate School and Professor of Counseling. He’s the author of a bunch of books, among them, The Wounded Heart: Hope for Adult Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse.

Join Steve as he talks with Allender about his book, Leading with a Limp: Turning Your Struggles into Strengths.Dan Allender and Steve Brown