5LQ Episode 295: Terry A. Smith

In this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast, Todd Adkins is joined by Terry A. Smith, pastor and author of The Hospitable Leader. During their conversation, they discuss the following questions: What’s the connection between leadership and hospitality and how important is that? What part did hospitality play in the culture of the early church? What did this look like when you started out both internally inside the church and externally in your community and how did that change through the different stages of growth in the church? How do you instill this in your culture with the average attendee at your church? What are some examples of businesses or churches that get hospitality right? What does it look like for a leader to curate environments? How can this shift toward hospitality affect things like leading meetings and other aspects of ministry that may seem mundane? BEST QUOTES “I love the connection between hospitality and leadership as long as someone doesn’t get confused that it’s about either of those things. It’s really the marriage of the two.” “We had to really work hard to create a hospitable environment in an inhospitable place.” “Jesus ministered in a context of hospitality personally in ways that are almost extreme.” “We took the best practices of some of the leading churches in the country around hospitality and we integrated it into that small building.” “I want you to think about what it would look like for you to reach inside that person’s chest and massage their heart.” “Everybody is in the heart-warming business.” “Everybody is in the business of taking hearts of stone and helping God turn them into hearts of flesh.” “I think Jesus offers a beautiful example of someone who curated environments and connected it to successful leadership.” “Hospitable leadership is a precursor to every other kind of leadership.” “Genuine hospitality is so much more than technique.” RECOMMENDED RESOURCES Lifeway Leadership Podcast Network No Silver Bullets by Daniel Im The Hospitable Leader by Terry A. Smith Onward by Howard Schultz Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace