The Flourishing Pastor

Artie Lindsay on James 2 and Faith and Works

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 07:00:17 +0000

In this conversation with pastor Artie Lindsay, co-lead pastor at Tabernacle Community Church in Grand Rapids, MI, we explore a sermon he preached on James chapter 2, on faith and works. As C.S. Lewis once commented, we often imagine “good works” as something different than “good work”–but this is not according to our Lord’s example. Artie makes this uncommon connection in the sermon he delivered, applying this famous text in James to the work lives of his congregation.

Matt Rusten serves as the president of Made to Flourish. Previously, Matt pastored at churches in Kansas City, and Madison, Wisconsin. He received his Master of Divinity degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Doctor of Ministry in Faith, Work, Economics, and Vocation at Fuller Theological Seminary. Matt’s book about pastoring with congregants’ work in view releases from InterVarsity Press in Spring 2026.

***Get Free Books*** Many Christians say their churches don’t prepare them for the challenges and opportunities of daily work. We call this the Sunday to Monday gap — a disconnect that can cloud our sense of God’s purpose in the world and our place in it. To help church leaders bridge that gap, we’re offering a free box with practical books, including The Flourishing Pastor by Tom Nelson, and the latest issue of Common Good magazine. Get yours at madetoflourish.org/box.

Jim Davis on Jeremiah 29 and Blessing the City Through Our Work

Tue, 15 Jul 2025 07:00:48 +0000

Especially in the past few decades, many churches have declared their desire to serve the cities where they live—based on the prophet Jeremiah’s words to the exiles 29 to “seek the peace and the prosperity of the City, and to pray for it.” In today’s episode, Jim Davis helps us understand the context of Jeremiah 29, and unpacks how our everyday work can bless the cities where we live.

Ron Edmondson on Bezalel and Oholiab, and Valuing the Work of the Congregation

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 07:00:18 +0000

In this episode, Matt interviews Ron Edmondson, lead pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington, KY, as they discuss a sermon Ron gave on how the work of the people was just as important as his work as a pastor— anchoring his message in Exodus 31:1-6— Bezalel and Oholiab.

Bryan Loritts on Matthew 25 and Work and Justice

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 07:00:21 +0000

In this episode with Bryan Loritts, we’re exploring the theme of work and justice through a sermon Bryan preached from Matthew 25 on the sheep and the goats. Bryan understands this text to be not about the root of salvation, but the fruit of salvation—and it has profound implications for the work we do everyday.

Andrew Arndt on a Biblical Theology of Work

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 07:00:19 +0000

In this conversation with Andrew Arndt, Lead Pastor of New Life East in Colorado Springs, we explore the question — how do you help your congregation embrace a biblical theology of work? That might sound like a dry theme, but Andrew unpacks the biblical story for work in a way that provides concrete applications for everyday discipleship.

***Get Free Books*** Many Christians say their churches don’t prepare them for the challenges and opportunities of daily work. We call this the Sunday to Monday gap — a disconnect that can cloud our sense of God’s purpose in the world and our place in it. To help church leaders bridge that gap, we’re offering a free box with practical books, including The Flourishing Pastor by Tom Nelson, and the latest issue of Common Good magazine. Get yours at madetoflourish.org/box.

Chris Brooks on Proverbs and the Pitfalls of Work

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Chris Brooks, lead pastor at Woodside Bible Church, a large multisite church in Detroit, MI, talks through a sermon he preached from the Proverbs on work. Chris unpacks three destructive behaviors that keep us from God’s purpose for our work, and how God’s wisdom reframes our perspective on his purpose for our labors.

Rich Villodas on Colossians and Work as Ministry

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 07:00:00 +0000

Rich Villodas has a passion to teach and equip God’s people to live on mission with him right in the places they already are–especially in their daily labors. In this conversation, Rich walks through a sermon he preached on Colossians 3:23-24, where he reframes everyday work as full-time ministry.

Charlie Dates on Salt, Light, and Everyday Work

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Matt interviews Charlie Dates as they discuss a sermon he preached on Matthew 5:13-16, on Jesus’ message about salt and light. It’s a familiar text for many people, but Charlie finds fresh ways to apply this familiar biblical text about our identity as salt and light to people’s everyday work.

Welcome to Season Two of The Flourishing Pastor Podcast

Tue, 27 May 2025 17:15:00 +0000

Welcome to season two of The Flourishing Pastor podcast, now hosted by Matt Rusten.

This season, we’re exploring what it means to preach to the people in our pews who spend the majority of their week at work — whether that’s in an office, a warehouse, a kitchen, a classroom, or in the unpaid roles of caregiving, volunteering, or community leadership.

Through conversations with thoughtful pastors from around the country, we’ll look at how the preaching ministry can become a powerful means of connecting the Word of God to the real, everyday lives of people in their work. Each episode is anchored in a specific sermon and text of Scripture, giving us a grounded, practical look at how pastors are helping their congregations live out their faith where they labor.

The goal? To help pastors steward the pulpit more intentionally — so that the unchanging truth of Scripture can shape and form people not just on Sunday mornings, but in the Monday-to-Saturday realities of their calling.

The Flourishing Pastor podcast is brought to you by Made to Flourish, a national nonprofit that empowers pastors and churches to integrate faith, work, and economic wisdom for the good of their communities.

Tom Nelson on Ecclesiastes and the Purpose of Work

Tue, 27 May 2025 17:15:00 +0000

In this episode, Tom Nelson discusses a sermon he gave in the book of Ecclesiastes— touching on a question many people feel deeply—is work meaningless? Ecclesiastes is written in the voice of the critic, punching holes through easy answers for life. Tom’s sermon addresses the angst that many people feel when they think about their work, and how God can reframe our labor even when it feels as fleeting as smoke.

Start with the Ending

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Despite the chaotic TV version, succession is something leaders should start from the very beginning. It's not something just for retirement-age pastors and organizational heads. It's for leaders, at every career stage, who want to finish their work well. In this episode of The Flourishing Pastor Podcast, pastor Tom Nelson talks about the art — and it is an art — of passing the baton from one leader to another. Part of the conversation is a deep dive into the challenges leaders face in the latter parts of their careers, including why so many pastoral ministries seem to end in failure or scandal.

As the conversation unfolded, Tom explains three metaphors that guide his approach to pastoral leadership: a battleground, a marathon, and a sacred trust.

Tom Nelson is the senior pastor of Christ Community Church in Kansas City, Kansas, and he's the president of Made to Flourish, a national nonprofit that works with churches and their leaders in the area of faith and work. You can learn more about Tom's work at www.madetoflourish.org, and you can find his new book, The Flourishing Pastor: Recovering the Lost Art of Shepherd Leadership — which is the springboard for this podcast — wherever you buy books.

***Get Free Books*** Christians often report that their churches don’t prepare them for the pressures, opportunities, or challenges of their daily work. At Made to Flourish, we call this the Sunday to Monday gap, an unhealthy divide that can blur our understanding of God’s work in the world — work we’re meant to join. To help close that gap, we want to mail you a collection of practical, theological books — completely free of charge. In this free box, you’ll also get the latest issue of the award-winning Common Good magazine, and for a limited time, Tom Nelson’s book, The Flourishing Pastor: Recovering the Lost Art of Shepherd Leadership. So whether you’re a pastor or layperson, claim your free books at madetoflourish.org/box.

What Is a Successful Pastor?

Mon, 27 Feb 2023 08:00:00 +0000

All leaders have a scorecard, a measure of what success looks like. These can vary, and generally, they're neither right nor wrong: Numeric growth, influence reach, facility upgrades. But for pastors — especially those prone to a "visionary" leadership style — it can be all too easy to develop a faulty or distorted scorecard, to measure success with cultural markers rather than with biblical faithfulness. Fruitfulness. In this episode of The Flourishing Pastor Podcast, Tom Nelson describes how tracking success in pastoral work can be both essential and fraught. He outlines a healthier way to measure success and looks toward the ultimate goal of pastoral leadership.

How to Equip People for the Work They're Called to Do

Mon, 20 Feb 2023 08:00:00 +0000

For most of us, the word "work" mainly equates to compensation. But fundamentally, according to pastor Tom Nelson, work is far more: It's a vital part of being an image bearer of God, and it's not primarily about whether or not it earns monetary compensation. It's about contribution to God's world, contributions that can take paid and unpaid forms. In this episode of The Flourishing Pastor Podcast, Nelson explains how this integral view of work transformed the way he pastors, including a significant pivot in what it looks like to equip people for the work of ministry. It all started with a pastoral confession.

As the conversation unfolds, Nelson talks about the nature and shape of the faith and work movement.

He also describes five consequences of perpetuating a Sunday to Monday gap.

Culture Is the Strategy

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 08:00:00 +0000

The management guru Peter Drucker said famously that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” His point? Building a culture within an organization or company is really important. Despite the ubiquity of Drucker’s maxim, healthy organizational and institutional cultures — even among churches and church staffs — are often at a minimum. In this episode of The Flourishing Pastor Podcast, Tom Nelson delves into the work of building healthy culture within churches and organizations. As the conversation unfolds, Tom discusses the place of mission statements and core values, and how leaders can reinforce them by embodying them.

Faithful Presence Wherever You (and Your People) Are

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Do the math and you'll find that most of your time, if you subtract sleep, is spent working, whether paid or unpaid work. If this is true of pastors and leaders, how much more so is it for the people you lead? In this episode of The Flourishing Pastor Podcast, Nelson explains and explores the concept of faithful presence as developed by scholar James Davison Hunter. He shows how the faithful presence approach to culture reflects a biblical model — with real-life implications for pastors and leaders. As the conversation unfolds, Nelson also addresses the importance of what he calls vocational discipleship, that is, preparing Christians for how and where they spend the majority of their lives.

Tom Nelson is the senior pastor of Christ Community Church in Kansas City, Kansas, and he's the president of Made to Flourish, a national nonprofit that works with churches and their leaders in the area of faith and work. You can learn more about Tom's work at www.madetoflourish.org, and you can find his new book, The Flourishing Pastor: Recovering the Lost Art of Shepherd Leadership — which is the springboard for this podcast — wherever you buy books.

***Get Free Books*** Christians often report that their churches don’t prepare them for the pressures, opportunities, or challenges of their daily work. At Made to Flourish, we call this the Sunday to Monday gap, an unhealthy divide that can blur our understanding of God’s work in the world — work we’re meant to join. To help close that gap, we want to mail you a collection of practical, theological books — completely free of charge. In this free box, you’ll also get the latest issue of the award-winning Common Good magazine, and for a limited time, Tom Nelson’s book, The Flourishing Pastor: Recovering the Lost Art of Shepherd Leadership. So whether you’re a pastor or layperson, claim your free books at madetoflourish.org/box.

Pastor, Don't Fake It (Or: How to Be a Whole Person)

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 08:00:00 +0000

You've heard that pastors and leaders should walk their talk. What is at the heart of that advice? Not perfection, but a consistency that reveals a life of wholeness. In this episode of The Flourishing Pastor Podcast, Nelson describes how a bifurcated — or fake — life can be ruinous for pastors and leaders, and how the path to wholeness is comprehensively personal and communal. The conversation unfolds into a deeper look at the Christian virtue tradition and its role in the pursuit of wholeness.

Tom Nelson is the senior pastor of Christ Community Church in Kansas City, Kansas, and he's the president of Made to Flourish, a national nonprofit that works with churches and their leaders in the area of faith and work. You can learn more about Tom's work at www.madetoflourish.org, and you can find his new book, The Flourishing Pastor: Recovering the Lost Art of Shepherd Leadership — which is the springboard for this podcast — wherever you buy books.

***Get Free Books*** Christians often report that their churches don’t prepare them for the pressures, opportunities, or challenges of their daily work. At Made to Flourish, we call this the Sunday to Monday gap, an unhealthy divide that can blur our understanding of God’s work in the world — work we’re meant to join. To help close that gap, we want to mail you a collection of practical, theological books — completely free of charge. In this free box, you’ll also get the latest issue of the award-winning Common Good magazine, and for a limited time, Tom Nelson’s book, The Flourishing Pastor: Recovering the Lost Art of Shepherd Leadership. So whether you’re a pastor or layperson, claim your free books at madetoflourish.org/box.

Jesus' Great Invitation and Your Everyday Leadership

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Absolutely, teaching and acquiring knowledge about the Bible and theology is vital for healthy churches. Yet it *is* possible to possess a lot of Bible information and still be spiritually and theologically immature — both for the the people in the pews and the person in the pulpit. Pastor Tom Nelson knows this reality, because he lived this reality. But if maturity is more than acquired information, what is it? In this episode of The Flourishing Pastor Podcast, Nelson discusses the idea of apprenticeship with Jesus and how the great invitation of Matthew 11:28 has changed both his personal life and how he pastors, leads, and teaches.

***Get Free Books***

Christians often report that their churches don’t prepare them for the pressures, opportunities, or challenges of their daily work. At Made to Flourish, we call this the Sunday to Monday gap, an unhealthy divide that can blur our understanding of God’s work in the world — work we’re meant to join. To help close that gap, we want to mail you a collection of practical, theological books — completely free of charge. In this free box, you’ll also get the latest issue of the award-winning Common Good magazine, and for a limited time, Tom Nelson’s book, The Flourishing Pastor: Recovering the Lost Art of Shepherd Leadership. So whether you’re a pastor or layperson, claim your free books at madetoflourish.org/box.

Leading Through Crises Requires (True) Integrity

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 08:00:00 +0000

King David shepherded his people according to the integrity of his heart. Leadership flows from who the leader is — or is not — on the inside. What does this mean for how you understand integrity, and what does it mean for how you approach leadership? In this episode of The Flourishing Pastor podcast, Nelson continues unfolding Psalm 72:78 as a framework for leaders and leadership. As the conversation develops, Nelson explains that times of crisis or concentrated tension within church, organizations, or companies requires even more from the leader's interior life.

***Get Free Books***

The Best Leaders Know How to Follow

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 08:00:00 +0000

We often have a lot of different paradigms for leadership, many of which are good and helpful. But first and foremost — according to pastor Tom Nelson — leadership is followership. It may seem paradoxical, but it's a consistent thread in Scripture: Those who lead well, follow well. In this episode of The Flourishing Pastor podcast, Nelson unpacks this dynamic and explains what it looks like for him — and what it can look like for you. As the conversation unfolds, Nelson explains why he sees Psalm 23 as a paradigmatic leadership text.

Further topics include the importance of self care and friendship for long-term, healthy, and effective leadership.

More about The Flourishing Pastor podcast:

Flourishing for individuals and churches alike is about far more than leadership tips or strategic plans. Instead, when we read in the Scriptures that King David shepherded the people of Israel with integrity of heart and with skillful hands, part of what we’re reading is a dynamic, multilayered framework in which both leaders and those they lead can get beyond just surviving. Over the course of 10 conversations, pastor Nelson looks into what he has called “the lost art of Shepherd Leadership,” and how recovering it can help leaders and the work they lead flourish.

*** Get Free Books ***

Three Ways Pastors Get Lost, and How to Flourish Again

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 19:33:14 +0000

It's no secret that not all pastors are flourishing, and certainly not all churches are flourishing. Is there a way to move into a flourishing reality? That's what pastor Tom Nelson discusses on the first, extended episode of "The Flourishing Pastor" podcast.

Here’s the reality: Flourishing for individuals and churches alike is about far more than leadership tips or strategic plans. Instead, when we read in the Scriptures that King David shepherded the people of Israel with integrity of heart and with skillful hands, part of what we’re reading is a dynamic, multilayered framework in which both leaders and those they lead can get beyond just surviving.

Starting with this episode, and over the course of 10 conversations, pastor Tom Nelson will look into what he has called “the lost art of Shepherd Leadership,” and how recovering it can help leaders and the work they lead flourish.

Will you join along?