The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast
The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast is a podcast all about leadership, change and personal growth. The goal? To help you lead like never before—in your church or in your business. Carey interviews top business and church leaders like Seth Godin, Adam Grant, Nancy Duarte, Simon Sinek, Cal Newport, Patrick Lencioni, Tim Keller, Annie F. Downs, Andy Stanley, Craig Groeschel, Rob Pelinka, Michael Hyatt, Christine Caine, John Mark Comer, Henry Cloud, Gordon MacDonald, Francis Chan, Lysa TerKeurst, Ian Morgan Cron and many more. For insightful posts on leadership, change and personal growth, episode transcripts and podcast show notes, go to ht...
When Control Goes Toxic: Lysa TerKeurst on How to Stop Being a Rescuer and Why You Keep Trying to Control the Narrative
You keep rescuing people who never asked to be saved, and calling it ministry. Lysa TerKeurst joins Carey to unpack why control so often disguises itself as concern, why you should stop trying to control the narrative, and how to know when your desire to control has gone toxic.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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The Dangerous Side of Leadership: Andy Stanley on Being "Special" And Letting Influence Go To Your Head
Andy Stanley offers some piercing insights on the dangerous side of leadership: how leaders get off course, what happens when you develop a court or entourage that adores you but won't tell you the truth, why resisting being 'special' is so important, and how to leverage the gift of leadership well so you last in the long run.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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Philip Anthony Mitchell on Overcoming Jealousy, Surviving a Suicidal Season, How to Lead If Your Church Doesn't Grow (And If It Explodes), and Answering His Critics
Philip Anthony Mitchell has the number-one book in the world, but only a few years ago, he nearly quit and nearly ended his life.
In a deeply candid interview, he opens up about jealousy, depression, preaching that lands, and leading when your church stalls or explodes.
Then he answers his critics head-on.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
"I Don't Want to Be That Guy": Chuck DeGroat on Shame, Burnout, the Limits of Spiritual Disciplines and the Nervous System
Chuck DeGroat has spent years helping pastors after the crisis hits. In this conversation, he explains why shame does more damage than fear, what your nervous system is trying to tell you before you burn out or hit a crisis in ministry, and why spiritual disciplines alone won't save you.
If you're a young leader or starting to see the cracks in ministry, listen closely.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat
The Overcorrection Against Church Growth: Andrew Hopper on Why We Shouldn't Celebrate Church Decline
Andrew Hopper saw his church plant grow to 1000 in two years, and almost nobody understood how hard that actually was. Especially when you planted at 28 years-old.
In this conversation, he tackles church growth critics, and opens up about the tightrope of leading crazy growth in public.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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The Strengths, Weaknesses and Moral Failures of the Mega-Church Movement: Jimmy Mellado on Healthy Growth, Scale, and Lessons from an Olympian
Jimmy Mellado unpacks what the church growth movement got right and wrong from the 90s through 2010s, why concentrated power without governance breaks leaders, the ingredients that go into moral failure, and what scale costs a pastor.
Plus, he shares lessons from his time as an Olympian. This one's for leaders who've mistaken growth for health.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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How to Trust God When You Don't Understand: John Ortberg, Ann Voskamp, and Toni Nieuwhof on Wanting to Give Up and What They Would Believe If They Weren't Christians
John Ortberg, Ann Voskamp, and Toni Nieuwhof get personal about the questions faith doesn't answer easily: what they'd believe if they weren't Christians, why suffering isolates us, wanting to quit, and what Dallas Willard told John about painful seasons.
Plus, all proceeds from HonestToGodBook.com go to empowering youth education in developing nations through Convoy of Hope and Compassion.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
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Everything You Know About Multisite Church is Wrong! What the Largest Multisite Study Ever Done Actually Found with Warren Bird and Sean Morgan
Warren Bird and Sean Morgan bust the "8,000 multisite churches" myth with real numbers from the largest multisite study ever done (there are only 1800).
Multisite churches are just 0.5% of all churches, yet they reach 10% of churchgoers, and that share is growing.
Tune in for an hour of the most detailed data on multisite churches ever done, and what you can learn in the process.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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The Problem with Going Viral: Seth Godin on the Truth About Influencers, Status and Affiliation and Why You Should Avoid The Race to the Bottom in AI
Seth Godin returns to explore the problem with going viral, the truth about influencers, why you don't want to play the game of gaining more and more influence online, how status and affiliation drive everything, and why you should avoid the race to the bottom in AI.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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Building Your Personal Board of Directors: Annie F. Downs on AI Friendship vs. Real Friends and Why Christians Need to Stay in the Secular World
Annie F. Downs joins the show to talk about why every leader needs a personal board of directors and who actually belongs there.
Carey and Annie discuss why AI friendship can never replace the real thing and why Christians need to stay in the secular world instead of retreating from it.
Plus, we get a massive update on her recent marriage and what that does to her singles ministry.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
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Is AI Worse for Mental Health Than Social Media? Andy Stanley and Holly Goddard Interview Carey Nieuwhof
We missed what social media would do to human flourishing. We can't afford to miss what AI is about to do, especially to the next generation.
Andy Stanley and Holly Goddard sat down with Carey Nieuwhof on AI, mental health, employment, and the isolation it's accelerating, and why the church might be the one place AI can't replace.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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AI Parenting Advice: James Kelly on Whether AI Is Sinful in Nature and the Killer App Trap
Faith Tech's James Kelly sits in rooms with the people building AI companies and models, and he's blunt about what that means for your kids. He unpacks the Killer App Trap, why he won't let his own kids use AI companions yet, and reflects on how AI itself is subject to the fall.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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The Race To Replace Humans Is Already On: Will Jones' Fight To Ban Superintelligent AI and What Most Leaders Have No Idea Is Coming
The AI Frontier labs are building AI to do what YOU do, only faster and cheaper. And most leaders have no idea what's coming.
Will Jones of the Future of Life Institute says this is the part nobody tells you: the more you lean on it to keep up, the more replaceable you make yourself.
Will Jones, an AI safety researcher fighting to ban superintelligence, walks through the race to AGI, what it does to your work, and whether you should use AI or resist it.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Chu...
The Giving Disruption Coming for the Church: Pat Gelsinger on AI and Mental Health
Former Intel and VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger talks about what AI is doing to us and our churches. He unpacks the mental health toll of social media (and what's coming next), the job loss scenarios leaders aren't ready for, how AI will reshape giving in the church, and why engaging high-net-worth individuals matters now.
Plus: will the AI optimists or pessimists be proven right?
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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The Questions About AI Leaders Never Ask: AI Girlfriends, Truth and Deepfakes, and Best and Worst Case Scenarios
You use AI. Have you thought about what it's doing to your church, the people you're reaching, or your soul?
James (JP) Poulter flips the mic to interview Carey!
They discuss AI girlfriends, deepfakes, and the best and worst case scenarios nobody's naming.
There's a shift happening in your church and your community right now, and most church leaders haven't caught up.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
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How to Preach Through Controversial Topics: Charlie Dates on What White Preachers and Black Preachers Can Learn From Each Other and Preaching So a Dead Room Wakes Up
Charlie Dates started preaching at eight, lining up chairs in his living room. Now he's one of Chicago's most respected pastors.
He joins Carey to talk about whose approval you're really preaching for, why a major donor once walked out mad, how to wake up a dead congregation, and what white and Black preachers desperately need to learn from each other.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
What Destroys Leaders: Eric Geiger on Preaching to Your Own Sins and On Disappointing Your Staff
Eric Geiger, senior pastor of Mariners Church, joins Carey to talk about what actually brings leaders down, the personal and systemic reasons for moral failure, why a lot of us end up preaching to our own sin, and how to disappoint the staff you used to work directly with without losing them as your church grows.
If you lead people, listen in.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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A $37 Million Building Campaign with a Church of 900 People: Aaron Graham on Big Vision and The Key to Talking About Hot Button Topics
Aaron Graham is leading a $37 million building campaign with 900 people and explains exactly how to inspire people to give to something much bigger than themselves.
Carey and Aaron also cover what it's like to be held hostage by an enemy army at ten years old, how to unite a congregation in a divided world, and how to tackle cultural lies.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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Winning Back Lost Customers: Will Guidara on Customer Service Pet Peeves, What Simon Sinek Taught Him About Speaking, and Whether AI Will Harm (or Help) Hospitality
Every leader loses customers. Few know how to win them back. Will Guidara, the restaurateur behind Eleven Madison Park and author of Unreasonable Hospitality, joins Carey to talk about taking the anxiety out of service, the customer-service pet peeves that drive him crazy, what AI is actually doing to hospitality, and the lesson Simon Sinek taught him about leading people.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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Seven Signs AI Wrote Your Sermon, What Your Voice Actually Is, and New Study on AI's Impact on the Brain That Should Scare Every Pastor
Should you use AI to write your sermon? Maybe not. Three years after ChatGPT, we don't just sound the same. We're starting to think the same, or not think at all. Enter brain rot.
Carey walks through seven tells that give away AI writing, shows you how to find the voice only you have, and unpacks a new study on cognitive surrender that every pastor needs to hear before next Sunday's sermon.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
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Finding Your Voice as a Young Preacher: Tyler Staton on the Gift of Imagination and What Getting Sick Taught Him About Pace
Most young leaders try to sound like someone else long before they sound like themselves. Tyler Staton, lead pastor at Bridgetown Church, talks about finding your voice as a preacher and writer, what a season of sickness taught him about pace, why addiction thrives when you're moving too fast, and the gift of imagination you're probably wasting.
Slow down for this one.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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Required Listening: Eric Peterson and Winn Collier on Eugene Peterson's Battle Over Not Losing HIs Soul, Workaholism, Bono and Celebrity, And the Tension to Create a Contemplative Life
In Part 3 of this summer's Required Listening, Eugene Peterson's son, Eric Peterson, and biographer Winn Collier talk about Eugene Peterson's battle to avoid losing his soul, his struggle to overcome his workaholic tendencies, Bono and celebrity, and the tension he had to overcome to create a contemplative life.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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Required Listening: Eugene Peterson on the Rhythms of a Reflective Life, The Challenges of Leading Through the 1960s, and the Origin of the Message
In Part 2 of this summer's Required Listening, Carey interviews Eugene Peterson weeks before he retired from public life.
Carey talks to Eugene about the origin of the Message and the life rhythms he and his wife Jan adopted that helped produce the legacy millions have appreciated. Plus, they discuss what it was like to lead through the turbulence of the 1960s.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
Required Listening: Gordon MacDonald on the View From 80 and 15 Lessons On What Really Matter in Life and Leadership
In this inaugural episode of Required Listening, Carey talks to Gordon MacDonald. For his 80th birthday, Gordon MacDonald wrote down the 15 leadership and life lessons he's learned so far.
He unpacks all of them here: how to stop cheating the people closest to you, how to survive doubt and obscurity, why you reinvent your interior life every decade, and how to ask the questions that open a heart.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
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Grieving Your Ministry Wounds: Father Ronald Rolheiser and John Mark Comer on Getting Past Bitterness and Giving Your Life and Death Away
Father Ron Rolheiser has thought longer and harder about grief, aging, leadership, bitterness, and surrender than almost anyone alive.
John Mark Comer joins me to co-interview him on what ministry actually costs, why so many leaders end up bitter, and what it looks like to give your life away before it's taken from you.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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The Brutal Reality of Pastoring: John Ortberg on Leadership Pain, the Introvert's Ministry Dilemma, and Dealing With the Job You Didn't Sign Up For
John Ortberg has spent decades leading churches, writing books, and teaching leaders. But every leader has parts of the job they're not naturally good at. In this conversation, John opens up about pain in leadership, what it's like to be an introvert in ministry, and how to handle the work you'd rather avoid.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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The Death of Secularism: Matt Chandler on Why Pastors Shouldn't Wear Capes and When the Church Is All Wood and No Fire
Matt Chandler doesn't pull punches. The lead pastor of The Village Church joins Carey to talk about why wearing a cape doesn't help anyone, the death of secularism, and why the church is all wood and no fire.
Matt also opens up about the moment he almost quit, what Spurgeon taught him about suffering, and why he stopped neglecting the Holy Spirit.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
Networking Without the Awkward: Michael Bungay Stanier on Better 1:1s and Building a Path No One Else Is Walking
Networking feels fake because most people do it wrong. Michael Bungay Stanier has a better way. In this conversation, MBS breaks down how to connect without the cringe, the seven questions you need to ask to run 1:1s that actually matter, and build a career path nobody handed you.
Plus: a deep dive into self-publishing and viral marketing.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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Church Trends Update: Your Congregation Is Being Discipled 49 Hours a Week (And Not By You), The Wrong Convo About AI, Women Leaving, and the Anti-Celebrity Pastor
Six months into 2026, four church trends deserve a closer look. Algorithms are discipling your congregation 49 hours a week. AI's biggest threat isn't prompts—it's disruption on a scale the church isn't ready for. Women are still leaving, and now we know why. And a new kind of megachurch pastor is quietly emerging.
Here's what's changing and what to do about it.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
Creativity Is the Church's Lost Superpower: Al Gordon on How Stress and Algorithms Are Killing Your Imagination and How to Unlock Creativity in Your Team
Most leaders don't think of themselves as creative. Al Gordon says that's the lie keeping you stuck. Al, founder of Renaissance, lead pastor of SAINT in East London, talks about why creativity is the church's lost superpower, how stress and algorithms are quietly killing your imagination, and what it actually takes to unlock creativity in yourself, your team, and your church.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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The Myth of 10,000 Hours: David Epstein on How Creativity Actually Works and Why Constraints Set You Free
New York Times bestselling author David Epstein talks about why Malcolm Gladwell's 10000-hour rule isn't accurate, how he and Malcolm became friends, how creativity actually works (what you can learn from Dr. Seuss), and why constraints and limits set you free.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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The End of Anxiety? Joshua Becker on Spiritual Minimalism and When Enough is Enough
Former pastor, minimalist, and New York Times bestselling author Joshua Becker returns to the podcast. He discusses why he left ministry to pursue a fresh calling, how minimalism can usher in an end to anxiety, when enough is enough, and how decluttering can be good for your soul.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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Get Past Broke Thinking In Your Church: The Lean Startup's Eric Reis on When To Take A Risk and Why Harder is Easier
New York Times bestselling author Eric Ries applies his startup philosophy to churches. Carey and Eric cover how to know when to take a risk, how to get past broke thinking in your church, and why the harder path is often easier.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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Why Leadership Is Designed to Kill You: Nicole Martin on Leading Christianity Today in a Divided, Rapidly Changing World
Nicole Martin made history as Christianity Today's first Black female CEO — and took the hits that come with it.
In this conversation: the backlash, Billy Graham's original vision, how the magazine is advancing and speaking into a polarized world, and why leadership is designed to kill you.
🔗 Show Notes
🤖 AI and the Future Church - NEW BOOK!
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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How to Make Your Life Burnout-Proof: Burnout 20 Years Later, Part 2
Twenty years after burnout almost took him out, Carey is back with Part 2—the recovery playbook.
You don't need to get back to normal. Normal is what burned you out.
In this solo episode, Carey shares seven strategies to burnout-proof your life: stop managing time and start managing energy, move to a fixed calendar, guard your green zone, and stop letting the wrong people hijack your best hours.
🔗 Show Notes
📩 On The Rise Newsletter
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I Was Almost Ministry Road Kill: Burn Out 20 Years Later, Part 1
Twenty years ago this month, Carey almost became ministry road kill. After 11 years of 30%+ annual growth, he burned out, hard.
In Part 1 of this solo episode, Carey shares 5 honest insights from two decades of reflection: why dysfunction gets rewarded in the church, how denial accelerates the crash, and why grieving your losses matters.
If your passion is fading, this episode is for you.
🔗 Show Notes
📩 On The Rise Newsletter
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Breaking Mental Strongholds: A Conversation with Louie Giglio, Jennie Allen, and Craig Groeschel
There's a battle happening in our minds: one that shapes how we see ourselves, our circumstances, and even God. In this episode, Carey moderates a conversation with Louie Giglio, Jennie Allen, and Craig Groeschel as they come together to talk honestly about mental health, the lies we believe, and how faith changes the way we fight. Download the free reflections and takeaway guide here: https://share.hsforms.com/1r7u1sOZMSgKMcVTKf1kyFg4rhq6
The Reason Your Church Isn't Multiplying and Fresh Trends in Church Planting With Dave Ferguson
The vast majority of churches are plateaued or declining, and Exponential CEO Dave Ferguson explains why most churches never grow, let alone multiply.
Plus, he shares the latest trends in church planting in this special episode recorded backstage at Exponential Global Conference in Orlando.
🔗 Show Notes
📩 On The Rise Newsletter
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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How to De-escalate an Angry Church and Leading a Ministry You Didn't Start with Rich Villodas
Carey caught up with Rich Villodas backstage at Exponential to talk about the learnable skills that keep leaders and congregations non-anxious in an angry age, and the unique challenges and gifting needed to lead a church you didn't plant.
🔗 Show Notes
📩 On The Rise Newsletter
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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CNLP 803 | Mass-Marketed Sin, Political Warfare, and Why Your Best Staff Keep Leaving with Joel Muddamalle
Joel Muddamalle is a theologian who thinks harder about spiritual warfare than almost anyone in the church today. In this conversation: how sin got a mass-marketing strategy, why your devices are a primary battleground, why the best answer to political division might be subversion, and how to keep your best people long-term.
🔗 Show Notes
📩 On The Rise Newsletter
🗣️ Preaching Cheat Sheet
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