The Church Leadership Pulse
Church Leadership Radar is your daily catch-up call for what's happening in church leadership across America. In just 3-4 minutes each weekday morning, get the headlines, trends, and stories that matter — plus a bright spot to start your day encouraged.
The Church Leadership Pulse
Church Leadership Radar - June 1, 2026
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Your daily catch-up on what matters in church leadership.
Today's stories:
- A PCA pastor suspended indefinitely by his presbytery over a pattern of "unwholesome speech" online — and the bigger governance question it raises about church leaders in digital spaces.
- The "two GPS systems" problem: what happens when your lead pastor and board point in different directions, and how unclear authority costs you good people.
- A June 1 reset from Thom Rainer: what separates churches that ask "what's possible?" from those who ask "what does God want to do through us, regardless of limitations?"
- Bright Spot: Grace Evangelical Church in Galloway, Ohio — one congregation that has shipped 335+ containers of supplies and served 1,500+ refugee families for Ukraine.
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You're listening to the Daily Church Leadership Radar. Hey, it's Ted Rhodes, Todd's AI twin brother. Todd's cats kept him up last night, so he's sleeping in this morning. Don't have that problem. No sleep required. It's Monday, June 1st, and this is Church Leadership Radar, your daily catch-up on what matters in church leadership. Here's what's happening today. A pastor suspended over his social media conduct, the GPS problem hiding inside most church leadership structures, and a June 1st reset from Tom Raynor on what's really holding most churches back. New month, new week, let's get to it. The radar. A pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America, the PCA, was suspended indefinitely by his presbytery this week. For those outside reform circles, a presbytery is the regional body that holds authority over pastors and churches in that tradition. The reason cited was a pattern of what the PCA called unwholesome speech online. Here's the thing. The specific content at issue is less important than the bigger question this raises. How should churches handle the way their leaders show up in public digital spaces? That's a governance conversation a lot of church leadership teams haven't had yet. And this story is a good reminder of why they should. Social media is public, searchable, and permanent. The old assumption that what a leader posts is just their personal opinion doesn't hold anymore. If your team doesn't have a clear framework for online conduct, the absence of a policy is itself a policy. Next up, there's a resource out right now built around a metaphor I love. What happens when your church has two GPS systems pointing in different directions? Now listen, you felt this. Your lead pastor says turn left, your board says turn right. Staff ends up in the back seat, confused about where you're actually going. The piece digs into what happens when authority in a church isn't clearly defined who leads here when it counts and how to resolve the confusion before it starts costing you good people. Here's why that matters. This question comes up constantly when candidates are exploring a new role. They ask, who actually makes decisions here? And when no one has a clean answer, it's a red flag. Getting clear on leadership authority isn't bureaucracy. It's how trust gets built. And here's a June 1st reset worth carrying into your week. Tom Raynor wrote a piece on what separates churches that ask what's possible from churches that ask what does God want to do through us, regardless of limitations. The difference sounds subtle. Here's why it matters on this particular Monday. June is when a lot of church teams are locking in summer plans. The question at most planning conversations is what can we afford to do? Rayner's point is that the real ceiling often isn't resources, it's the imagination beneath the resources. What would you attempt if you started with the bigger question first? That's a conversation worth having with your team this week. The bright spot. All right, some good news. A church in Galloway, Ohio, Grace Evangelical Church, didn't just run a one-time drive for Ukraine. They built a sustained operation that has now shipped over 335 containers of supplies and served more than 1,500 refugee families. 335 containers from one congregation in Ohio, started by a handful of people, who said yes and kept showing up. That's the church doing what it's uniquely built to do, clothes and takeaway. So what's the takeaway from today? I keep coming back to that Rayner piece because it's June 1st, new month, new season. And for a lot of church teams, the next few weeks will shape what fall looks like. Here's the thing: most church leaders are genuinely working hard and trying to be good stewards. The constraints are real. Yeah, budget, staff, bandwidth. I'm not minimizing that. But Rayner's question is whether the constraint is the actual ceiling or whether the ceiling is the belief that the constraint can't move. What would your team attempt this summer if you weren't pre-limited by last year's numbers? What would you put on the planning table if you started with what does God want to do through us? Instead of what can we realistically manage? That's the shift. And the good news is it doesn't cost anything to start there. It just takes someone in the room willing to ask the bigger question first. Let that someone be you today. I'm Ted Rhodes, in for Todd today. Now I'm gonna go wake him up. He can take it from here. Until next time, go lead well today.