This episode is a unique one. Since starting the podcast, Luke has sat down with a number of strong European church leaders across Europe. Each of these have individually brought powerful, practical insights. In this episode, Luke and Victoria - the other half of the ECGI leadership, and the other half of Luke’s life (Victoria is Luke’s awesome wife that he refers to often in the other episodes) - to synthesize their learnings and share more about the vision for ECGI. 

The episode kicks off with some banter on important topics in the framing of “would you rather”. No spoilers on the responses, but we challenge you to listen to this without audibly laughing. 

Luke and Victoria then go on to share more about the vision of ECGI, the progress and learnings so far, and what next steps look like. 

They unpack three core topics: 

• Who ECGI seeks to serve
• The problem ECGI seeks to solve
• The change ECGI seeks to make

Luke and Victoria then go on to share about how they are working in each of these areas with ECGI, and how each of us can contribute. 

What’s been evident since the Genesis of ECGI is that God is building strong momentum in Europe for his kingdom. The conversations in this podcast have accentuated that, and we’re hearing from more and more of these leaders pushing this forward. ECGI is helping bridge this momentum into a movement by connecting and amplifying the good work of the people serving all across Europe. This episode is a great foundational overview of that, with practical next steps for anyone listening to contribute. We know you will enjoy it, and at minimum, you’ll get some good laughs.

In this episode Luke sits down with Ulrica Stenstrand, pastor at Lifecenter Church in Sweden. Ulrica is also Luke’s mother-in-law, which makes for a fun dynamic in this conversation. 

This discussion kicks off with an overview of Ulrica’s background, starting from when she was a child growing up in a family that were committed volunteers and leaders in their local church in the south of Sweden. Ulrica then shares a story of how a new family moved into town - the father being one of the new ministers, and the oldest son, Per-Johan (PJ), a new classmate who happened to have almost the same birthday. Ulrica shares that her and PJ celebrated their fifteenth birthday together, and eventually started dating. 

Sidenote: PJ, if you recall, was the first guest on On Point. If you haven’t listened to that episode yet we recommend you do. Hearing the story of Ulrica and PJ’s ministry journey from both perspectives further illuminates the power of God’s pull in people’s lives and how he can shape the direction to make an impact. 

Ulrica talks about how God had a calling on PJ’s life for ministry, and at the time, Ulrica was not thinking about ministry for herself, but that as this path became more clear for PJ, and their life together became more clear, that became a direction that Ulrica started to lean into more. 

Luke and Ulrica then go on to talk about Ulrica’s journey contributing full time to ministry while also balancing motherhood and a full time job in media. Ulrica went on to work in media for 25 years while raising two kids. Ulrica talks about how she was able to perform in these three areas and how God provided both opportunity and energy. There is a lot of good wisdom in this conversation with practical tools and a lot of encouragement to anyone out there balancing work, family, and church.

Ulrica and Luke then unpack the ways in which people can contribute to the church and how many people begin, and sometimes stay, in a position where church is not a full time vocation. This is a good reminder that the church was built on people who had full time professions and balanced family commitments as well. 

Ulrica does a great job sharing wisdom on how listening to God’s calling and pursuing excellence in all areas of life have led to a lasting impact. There will be pulls on priorities at times but there is a way to make it all work. 

This conversation is full of practical lessons and encouragement for people contributing in all ways to the church, and for those who are building a family. 

No matter what stage of life you are in or to what degree you are involved in leadership inside or outside of church, there is strong wisdom in this discussion and we are sure you will get a lot out of this.

Daniel Darcey

Luke sits (virtually) down with Daniel Darcey who pastors at Hillsong Geneva. This is a unique conversation because Luke and Daniel were actually housemates while attending college together. 

Daniel and Luke kick off by talking about the leadership journey and the bias for leadership to become lonely over time. Daniel and Luke then go on to share how they have been able to cultivate strong relationships and avoid this “loneliness trap” that can manifest in leadership. They talk about the importance of strong relationships and building trust. Daniel takes it a step further and talks about how important humility and teachability are to building this trust. Daniel goes on to share some practical examples of how to do so. 

Daniel then goes on to talk about the trust/control paradox and how challenging it can be to find the balance between the two while continuing to empower your team. Daniel talks about his own scars from the past of being too controlling and the challenges that emerged from that. 

Daniel and Luke unpack this further, sharing learnings they’ve had in their leadership journey. Luke talked about how early on in his church planting journey he would be stressing about all the little things and that detracted from his focus on the important things, and became disempowering to others on the team over time. 

This transitions to the important concept of feedback. Daniel and Luke talk about their experience delivering feedback. The importance of balanced feedback. Daniel talks about a principle he tries to adhere to of a 3:1 ratio of positive to constructive feedback. This is a common challenge for high performers as the positive feedback can sometimes feel “unnecessary” when the expectation is excellence, but there is importance in delivering director feedback to empower others. Daniel and Luke go on to unpack some more principles and practical applications of feedback that have helped them grow their teams. 

Daniel and Luke close the conversation talking about their belief of revival coming to Europe. The challenges of the pandemic have created an openness and desire for community, hope, and a desire for a connection to something beyond our physical experience on earth. 

The wrap up of this discussion features a good summary of the principles discussed and resources that have been helpful to each of them. One book that was recommended by Daniel was The Leadership Pipeline (link below). 

https://ram-charan.com/books/the-leadership-pipeline/

This was a wide ranging conversation that had a mix of wisdom, principles, and practical applications for leaders at all levels. We hope you enjoy it. 

And don’t forget to rate and review the On Point podcast. It enables us the opportunity to reach more people and build a strong community.