Today we are talking about Solitude and Silence or what we call Unhurried Time with God. But this is not just a “you should do it” talk. We are going to share stories from our own lives. From early on in our own experience and one from within the last month.

We share these with you so you can see how we started out. We were in our late 20s and were just beginning our process of solitude and silence.

Many of us unconsciously resist solitude because we don’t actually want to...

Curiosity is one of the most important qualities in a good leader. We’ve seen the fruit of that counsel in our life and work. Today we share a conversation that Alan enjoyed with Casey Tygrett about his new book, Becoming Curious: A Spiritual Practice of Asking Questions.

As a spiritual director, I (Alan) have a bias for asking good questions. I love what Casey has written here, and it was a pleasure to interact with him about the journey that led to this book. We need to learn to...

“As a holy listener …. I have to put myself out of the way, to become humble in the true sense of knowing my place in the order of God’s creation …. above, all, I must be reverent, for I am entrusted with something precious and tender.” (Margaret Guenther)

This is the essence of spiritual direction. Enjoy a conversation between Gem Fadling and Beth Booram, who is a seasoned spiritual director. Here are the questions discussed:

• How do you meet with God? What...

We’ve said before that at the heart of all we do is people. Where are the people? What do they need? How can we help them take their next step? One model we’ve used over the course of our lives is The Critical Journey by Janet Hagberg and Robert Guelich.

Listen in as we describe the six stages in a life of faith. It is so helpful to see where you are in your journey. It can help you feel validated and understood. It can also help you to see where others are in their journey and...

In today’s episode, we share a recent phone conversation I (Alan) had with Pete Scazzero. We focused especially on his most recent book, The Emotionally Healthy Leader. It came out when I was writing the first draft of my latest book, An Unhurried Leader. I purposely waited to start reading it because I had a sense that there would be many points of resonance. I wanted to give voice to what was on my heart before hearing what God had put on Pete’s heart.

I was right. I think...

Most of us know how to teach for information, but how do you lead a team or group for transformation? On this week’s podcast we will share with you our approach and our methods, drawing on our 25 years of experience. We are talking about Leading for Transformation.

Here are a few bullet points from our conversation:

• The importance of preparing who you are.
• Spiritual leadership as hospitality. Holding space for others.
• Making space for spiritual practices &...

In this podcast, I'll share a little personal story about my own daily engagement with scripture in my spiritual journey. I want to talk a bit about unhurried ways I’ve been seeking to come to the Bible in recent years.

Last Spring, about 15 months ago, I began engaging a chronological Bible reading plan. I hadn’t ever read through the Bible that way and thought it might be a life-giving practice for me.

Basically, what I did was listen to the chapters for a particular day while...

I’m sitting here in my room at the Prince of Peace Abbey in Oceanside, CA on a cool and beautiful Tuesday morning. Gem and I are here for our monthly solitude retreat. I’ve enjoyed hundreds of days like this over the last 27 years. It’s a life-giving rhythm that we both would say has saved our lives, saved our marriage, saved our ministry. And it’s a major element of our ministry to others these days with Unhurried Living.

I wanted to write a bit about this experience...

Since we are in between Season 1 and Season 2, Alan and I decided to provide you with a couple of mini-episodes. Today, I am going to walk you through a spiritual practice I’ve developed called, “SLOW.” It is an an acronym for STOP, LINGER, OBSERVE and WONDER.

SLOW is a practice you can engage, in just a couple of minutes at any point in your day. It’s a helpful process of re-focusing and re-engaging.

It’s very difficult to be truly productive when you feel...

“We need not have a position of influence to be a person of influence.”

Join Alan and Gem as they wrap up Season 1 with a conversation on Alan's book, An Unhurried Leader. A few highlights:

This isn’t a book just for people who are in organizational leadership roles. Leaders are influencers. God entrusts to each of us the privilege and responsibility to be persons of kingdom influence wherever he has planted us and in whatever relationships we find ourselves.

One chapter is...