Practical conversations for small and midsize church leaders.
Hosted by Dale Sellers, Executive Director of 95Network and former small church pastor, the 95Podcast addresses the real challenges pastors face every week—from church health, leadership clarity, to the everyday realities of leading without large staff or large budgets. These are straightforward conversations rooted in experience, not theory.
New episodes release every Tuesday wherever you listen to podcasts or delivered straight to your inbox.
Volunteers and servers inside a local church don’t exist to fulfill a leader’s vision or ministry. In fact, as leaders in the church, we are called to equip people (saints) to find and fulfill their ministry.
It’s your responsibility to make sure you are healthy in every arena of life. Leave it to chance and you will discover the consequences are often overwhelming.
Although hearing the truth sometimes really hurts, not honestly evaluating your ministry effectiveness can lead to a ministry on life-support.
Hope is not a strategy. It’s so important to take seriously the responsibility of setting goals for how you would like to live the final quarter of life.
There is so much misunderstanding about how the pastors housing allowance works. Even most IRS agents aren’t clear on how it was originally designed to help pastors.
One of our most important desires should be to help people “know Jesus” and then to help “others to know Him” too. Far too many church leaders view discipleship as an “optional” ministry focus that gets buried in a long list of other priorities.
Church planters are taking the time to research a specific community to understand its cultural makeup before planting a specific model of church.
The pathway to finding God’s ultimate purpose for your life is often filled with a series of opportunities for faithfulness. Walking through the open door in front of you often leads to other open doors to be discovered.
Having a clear understanding of your mission, which describes “why” you exist as an organization, is a must for anyone to have long term success.
It’s been said that there are 7 keys moments in a person’s life that lead them to commit their lives to Jesus. . . You never know what stage a person is at that you share the Gospel with.
Finding the place of serving in your passion that intersects with meeting a real need will result in making a big difference in the world.
Karl Vaters has an international impact in the small church space through his books, conferences, podcasts and teaching materials. His passion for the small church as well as the small church leader is contagious.
Equipping can’t be reduced to a weekly performance; it requires presence, relationship, modeling, and shared life.
“If you got a pulse, he’s got a purpose for you.” Retirement isn’t the end of ministry; it’s a new season with fresh opportunities to serve, mentor, and impact the kingdom.
Self-awareness protects leaders from self-deception. Honest feedback is a guardrail for character and culture.
Build discipleship around practice, not just information. People grow through doing, feedback, and repetition in relationships.
Prayer is the engine, not the accessory. Easter effectiveness is not primarily about production, but about God’s presence.
Start with alignment, not content. Kevin begins sermon prep by praying, seeking God’s direction, and dealing with “known sin” to remove spiritual and emotional friction.
Less Is More—With Intentionality. Doing less with your whole heart is better than doing more and being worn out. Fewer tactics executed with great intentionality will be more effective than an overwhelming production.
Have the Conversation Before There’s a Problem. You can’t wait for something negative to happen before talking to volunteers. Schedule regular check-ins not just about their area of service but about their lives.
The personal God gets personal with us. Biblical counseling explores the active, desiring heart beneath behavior and connects it to Christ’s finished work and the Spirit’s present ministry.
America’s churches are over-inspired and under-trained. People hear great messages but don’t know how to actually do ministry. The solution is creating workshop environments where people learn by doing, not just listening.
With a possible 160,000 churches facing pastoral transitions in the next decade, there’s a critical shortage of developed leaders ready to step into these roles.
