Home Podcast John Townsend: Pastors Have Needs and That’s a Good Thing

John Townsend: Pastors Have Needs and That’s a Good Thing

Dr. John Townsend

Dr. John Townsend is a leadership consultant and psychologist. He has written or co-written over 30 books, selling 10 million copies. John is the founder of the Townsend Leadership Program and the Townsend Institute for Leadership and Counseling. He speaks regularly on leadership and success. He and his wife Barbi live in Newport Beach, California, and have two sons, Ricky and Benny.

Key Questions for Dr. John Townsend

– How can pastors balance the calling of self-sacrifice and their own needs?

– What kinds of relationships do your typical pastors run into consistently?

– What are the “relational nutrients” pastors need?

Key Quotes from Dr. John Townsend

Neuroscience is basically catching up with what the Bible’s been saying all along about [leadership, performance, and optimization].”

“One of the things you find out in the Bible is that needs are a good thing…you need to need.”

“In life, and especially in leadership, there are the people who are the gains and the people who are the drains.”

“There are seven types of people every leader encounters: coaches, comrades, casuals, colleagues, care, chronics, and contaminants.”

“People who don’t have long-term nurturing relationships where people are giving back to them, have more relationship problems, more career problems, more psychological and emotional problems, more medical problems, and a higher rate of mortality.”

“Just like our body needs bio-nutrients, our brains need relational nutrients.”

“Are you bottom-heavy? Have you got a lot of ‘chronics’, and a lot of ‘care’, and a lot of ‘contaminants’, and is that sapping your energy and your productivity for your vision in life?”

“Who’s mentoring you? Who has expertise in church growth, spiritual growth, organizational growth, emotional health, financial health, family, workout, whatever…We all need coaches and mentors and guides.”

“Every leader has got to build their ‘comrade’ life team.”

“The moth comes to the flame. Leaders have a flame, they have energy, they have vision, they have wisdom. It’s not their fault they’re attracted to you, it’s our fault that we let too many of them in.”

Mentioned in the Show:

People Fuel
People Fuel in a Box (coming soon)
DrTownsend.com
4 Quadrants of Relational Nutrients Card
Genesis 2
Ecclesiastes 4
Matthew 26
2 Corinthians 6
1 Peter 4:10
Proverbs 24:3

Other Ways to Listen to this Podcast:

► Listen on Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-churchleaders-podcast/id988990685?mt=2

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► Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3NOo1CepdPQog17rmL7DuT

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Jason serves as the Chief Strategy Officer at PastorServe, a ministry committed to strengthening the Church by serving pastors through personal coaching and church consulting. He also hosts FrontStage BackStage, a podcast and YouTube show, that helps pastors embrace healthy, well-balanced leadership as they develop a sustainable rhythm for life and ministry. Prior to joining the PastorServe team, Jason served as Vice President of Ministry Mobilization at Outreach, Inc., and as the Executive Director of the National Back to Church Sunday movement. Additionally, Jason served for nearly two decades in pastoral leadership, primarily as a lead pastor, in several contexts, including church plant re-launch, multisite church, multiethnic urban church, and an established suburban church. His experience as a lead pastor has provided numerous opportunities to coach and mentor pastors across the country. Jason and his beautiful wife, Monica, are the proud parents of six children and live on Anastasia Island, Florida. @jasondaye