Carey Nieuwhof's Most Downloaded Podcast from Last Year Was Just Re-Aired—and I Was on It!

Carey's news was one of the most humbling emails I've ever received. He said that his most popular podcast for 2017 was NOT his interview with North Point's Andy Stanley, Hillsong's Brian Houston, Life Church's Craig Groeschel or some other really well known pastor. Instead, it was Carl George and me talking about our hot off the press book How to Break Church Growth Barriers.

If you listen to the Carey Nieuwhof podcast (I listen to it more than any other podcast, and strongly recommend it), then you know he has a long queue of terrific guests. Now he just did his first-ever re-broadcast. It was our How to Break Growth Barriers. Here's the podcast link.

Why the popularity? That doesn't make sense.

I thank God for His favor. But I think we can also discern a message: a lot of church leaders today want to win. They want to populate heaven. They want to reach more unchurched people. They want to avoid blocking something that God may want to do through their church.

Those are healthy goals. They imagine that a church can be healthy AND it can also want to grow. More than half the book is what's inside the leadership's head: are you a minister or a minister maker? are you a caregiver more than a maker of other caregivers? are you a shepherd more than a multiplier of other shepherds? The final third is on actual structures and systems needed to break growth barriers.

Please take a listen at the link above, and decide for yourself. Carl George and I did a lot of podcasts for the book, and I believe this one--thanks to Carey's interview skills--was our best.