March or Die - All Four of His Adopted Kids Fell Apart & He Asked His Church to Fire Him | Pastor Rich Cundall

Pastor Rich Cundall and his wife Laurie adopted four children. Years later, all four were in crisis at the same time and Rich walked into his own board of elders and asked them to decide whether he was still fit to lead. He told them he hoped they would let him go. They said no. And the third reason they gave him changed how he understands leadership: "We need an example of what it looks like to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. What it looks like to be broken and still trust Christ." Sixteen years later, Rich is still the pastor at Hessel Church and he is careful to say that the story does not have a tidy ending. One of the four has been healed. The other three, in his words, are "still working on their testimonies." In this conversation, recorded in front of a live audience at Hessel Church during the NorCal Men's Summit, Rich and Jeremy talk about what it actually costs to lead through adversity: why the church's instinct to hide brokenness forfeits its credibility, why a leader has to build his team long before the crisis arrives, and why Rich believes the very thing you think disqualifies you is the thing God intends to use. "We impress people with our strengths. But we connect with people in our weakness." Hessel Church: https://hesselchurch.org  Hit Subscribe, share this episode with your community, and drop a comment on what landed hardest for you. Want more reinforcement? Subscribe to our newsletter, The Forward Edge, to go beyond the podcast and dig deeper into these topics and more: https://marchordie.substack.com! Join us daily for encouragement and biblical truth with the Mighty Oaks Daily Devotional, you can sign up for reminders: https://mightyoaksprograms.org/daily-devotional or text JOIN to (832) 333-8794 Follow March or Die:https://instagram.com/MarchOrDie https://Facebook.com/MarchOrDieShow https://TikTok.com/March_or_Die  Follow Jeremy:https://instagram.com/jeremystalnecker https://jeremystalnecker.com  Follow Sean:https://instagram.com/seantopgunkennard https://youtube.com/@SeanTopGunKennard  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.