The Biblical Leadership Show
Inspiration. Wisdom. Leadership from a Higher Perspective.
Welcome to The Biblical Leadership Show, your go-to resource for discovering timeless truths from Scripture that empower leaders to inspire, influence, and impact their world. Hosted by Tim Lansford and Dr. Dean Posey, this podcast takes a deep dive into the Bible’s profound lessons on leadership, bringing fresh perspectives to timeless principles that resonate in today’s fast-paced, ever-changing world.
Each episode is packed with:
- Powerful Biblical Insights: We explore the leadership styles of biblical figures like Moses, Esther, David, and Jesus, extracting practical strategies for overcoming challenges, building trust, and creating lasting impact.
- Real-World Applications: Learn how to integrate biblical leadership principles into your workplace, team, or organization while navigating the complexities of modern leadership.
- Inspiration for Growth: Whether you’re a seasoned leader or just stepping into a leadership role, our content is designed to motivate and equip you to lead with integrity, compassion, and vision.
- Stories and Wisdom: Hear personal stories and guest interviews that highlight how biblical leadership transforms lives and businesses.
Leadership isn’t just about titles or power—it’s about serving others, making wise decisions, and leaving a legacy of faith and purpose. Through relatable discussions, actionable takeaways, and encouragement rooted in Scripture, The Biblical Leadership Show provides the tools and insights you need to lead boldly and faithfully in every sphere of life.
Whether you’re leading in the boardroom, the church, your community, or your home, this podcast is for you. Together, we’ll navigate the intersection of faith and leadership, bridging ancient wisdom with modern relevance.
New episodes drop every Tuesday. Subscribe now and lead with purpose, faith, and courage!
The Biblical Leadership Show
Prophetic Power: Leadership Clarity, Nahum and Zephaniah's Insights, and Classic Dad Humor
Ever wonder what your cat thinks about the cold weather or why sometimes our studio buttons seem to have a mind of their own? Our latest episode of the Biblical Leadership Show kicks off with these quirky musings before diving into the wisdom of minor prophets Nahum and Zephaniah. Discover how these ancient voices offer a masterclass in leadership, teaching us the power of concise and direct communication. We promise you'll leave with insights to enhance your leadership vision by aligning your words with clarity and purpose.
Clear communication can make or break leadership, and we've got the stories to prove it. Using real-life examples and biblical narratives, we explore the strategies for ensuring your message lands as intended. Find out how maintaining a singular vision can prevent chaos in any organization, inspired by the cautionary tale of Nineveh. Plus, we’ll share practical tips on seeking feedback from trusted colleagues to avoid misunderstandings and keep your team unified and focused.
Leadership isn't all serious; humor plays a crucial role in making connections. Drawing parallels from the era of King David and King Solomon, we reflect on leadership focus and the importance of staying true to core values. As societal changes accelerate, it's easy to lose sight of what matters. So we lighten things up with classic dad jokes, including why a spoon might show up at a party dressed as a knife. Visit our website for more community interaction, share your favorite dad jokes, and remember to end your day with a laughter-filled smile.
uh-huh now, yeah, uh-huh, yeah, come on, come on, all righty welcome. Welcome, welcome To another exciting episode of the Biblical Leadership Show.
Speaker 2:Hey Tim, how you doing? Hi there, dr Posey.
Speaker 1:How are you today?
Speaker 2:I'm doing really, really good. I'm doing really good, but you know I'm having a problem at home with our cats. Yeah, you know this weather, this cold weather is just no. Dogs don't mind, they'll go outside. Cats they don't mind, they do not like the cold weather.
Speaker 1:So you know, I'd like for them to go outside but I think our cat has a bad case of cat fever. Oh boy, oh yeah, let's see, let's just start right off the bat with a bad dad joke. Where are your buttons? Oh, the buttons are not working. The buttons are not working. That's fantastic. That is fantastic. I did a little rearranging in the studio and our buttons I don't have them lit up here.
Speaker 2:I don't know. That's probably good for me.
Speaker 1:Maybe not good for the audience. Yeah, exactly right, they're not even working.
Speaker 2:You're pressing them, they're doing nothing I know there you go Well. So much for show prep.
Speaker 1:There you go. I missed the buttons right.
Speaker 2:Oh well, I'll have to get the buttons all in place and ready to go for next show, next show, okay, well, let's just move on. So how have you been? I've been good, good.
Speaker 1:Just, you know, it seems like I'm still trying to get going after the holidays. I don't know, it seems like I'm still trying to get going after the holidays. I don't know. As you know, we were talking. It seems like it's a ramp-up process. It extended a little bit more this year, you know, into the mid-January. You know I came off a vacation and I got a little crud and it was like down, and then it was like playing catch-up, and now it's going into the end of January. It's crazy, it's crazy.
Speaker 2:It is crazy and you know the sickness, the flu or something's going around, and then you know you had all that mess in the southern part of the United States with snow on the beach.
Speaker 1:Right. Oh, my goodness, I know it's crazy. It would be crazy.
Speaker 2:There might have been a snowman on the beach there was, people were. It would be crazy. There might have been a snowman on the beach, there was. People were doing snow angels on the beach right, and it is cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, once in a lifetime yeah, I was watching those videos last weekend. It was amazing that they had those right yes, and we lived in Atlanta.
Speaker 2:That's where I went to seminary and it's so many hills in Atlanta and all the traffic I can't imagine with that ice and snow. People just had to shut down.
Speaker 1:They don't even have a clue.
Speaker 2:You know no, unless there's some transplants living there.
Speaker 1:That probably got out. You know a handful of people.
Speaker 2:But I mean that was a substantial amount of snow in. Houston and all that stuff. It was pretty amazing.
Speaker 1:But here in Texas, you know, and in our neck of the woods up here we didn't get much, so we just got some cold weather, but we're all warm and stuff now we're getting warm.
Speaker 2:You know it's about freezing, it's good.
Speaker 1:But anyway, we're going to talk about some stuff today we're going to talk about this biblical leadership show stuff right. Yes, we're going to talk about it. We just need a show about nothing. We need to go back to the Seinfeld days and do a show about nothing, right? Wonder how that would work. Right, what's our show about nothing?
Speaker 2:It's about nothing. Well, it is about something. Today, we're still continuing our leadership lessons from the books of the.
Speaker 2:Bible and today we're talking about two of the minor prophets. So before we get to Nahum and Zephaniah, let's just talk about the difference between a major and a minor prophet. So in the Old Testament you actually have 17 prophets, five major prophets and 12 minor prophets, and the difference basically is the length of the book. It's not about the content of the message or anything like that, it's the length of the message. So there's five major ones and 12 minor ones, and today we're talking about two of the minor prophets. There's some similar themes, even though they were spread apart by a number of years. There's similar themes in those two books of Nahum and Zephaniah and so we're going to focus on that and we hope that people can learn, take some valuable insights from these books about their leadership style and their leadership priorities here this year.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I'm excited Now. These books were very short, right, very, very short, very very short, and I guess that's. You know, as you said, that's the minor profit thing, part of the minor profit, but I mean we, you know I.
Speaker 2:Short but powerful. Short but powerful, right, yeah, you know. Short and direct to the point.
Speaker 1:And they were sort of overlapping in a way, or similar in a way. How about similar? Well, similar.
Speaker 2:They have similar themes and that is, you know there's going to be some destruction coming to the country and their focus was to turn the country back towards God. But let's just focus on what you just said, short and to the point. I think that's a quality of a good leader. Is sometimes leaders beat around the bush. Now I'm not saying be so blunt that it just comes across as callous. But when we're in a staff meeting or we're trying to put out a memo, we need to be clear. So it's not easily I mean, it's not misunderstood.
Speaker 2:And sometimes you get these memos that are like two pages long and you're thinking what are they really saying? It could be said in like two or three sentences, be said in like two or three sentences. And so to me I mean that's a skill, because you don't want to ramble, you don't want to do that, and so, and here in these two prophets and in the minor prophets I'm not saying any of the prophets ramble, but these prophets they had a couple of chapters. They got right to the point. There is one God. You've all turned from it. You need to turn back or this destruction is going to happen. And they never left it. With the destruction. There's always hope at the end of the book, but I think the point that is good before we even get into the content, was a great leadership lesson as far as how, when you're communicating to your staff or you're putting a memo out to your company or whatever, is it a long one or is it kind of directing to the point, so every word matters.
Speaker 1:It does.
Speaker 2:Whether you use adjectives, adverbs, whatever, every word matters and you want to be able to communicate your message clear and concise so that people understand it. There's no misunderstanding. But you don't have to be rough about it, you don't have to be. You can be compassionate about it, you can be gentle, but you can not be so wordy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that's one of the things that I teach in leadership. A lot is just if you can not be so wordy, yeah, and I think that's one of the things that I teach in leadership. A lot is just if you can say, if you can get your point across in fewer words and doesn't look like you're rambling on, you're a more powerful communicator. People are going to have the perception that you're a more powerful leader than if you're just rambling, because as you ramble, it feels like that you're trying to fill in or you don't know and you're you're indecisive and and uh, I've always been. I've worked with many of my coaching clients just to try to cut down the amount of words, cause I have some very detailed people that you know like. Like my wife, she tells very long stories, right, but I mean you had to work with her to to her emails. I'm like no, we can say that in one paragraph, not five paragraphs you know, and.
Speaker 1:I just come across. You know much more powerful and even you know we're talking about the English. You know, one of the things I taught this the last week was about punching, you know, emphasis on a word. I can say the same sentence and, depending on the word that I put the punch emphasis on, the whole sentence can read totally different. Right, sort of like I didn't go to the store. It's a planned statement instead of I didn't didn't go to the store or I didn't go to the store, whatever word you put that emphasis on is going to really stand out. So if you're doing reviews or communication or meetings or something, you got to be careful of the words that you're punching, because you can take an ordinary sentence and it can read five different ways depending on every word that you punch in that sentence.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so one of the things that might be helpful if you have an administrative assistant or just someone that you really trust in your organization, if you're putting out a memo or you're going to say something at staff meeting, why don't you just take that person aside maybe a day before and say this is what I'm thinking about saying. What does that say to you? How do you interpret it? And if they're interpreting it like, oh, I didn't realize that that's what's coming across in my message, why are you yelling at me?
Speaker 2:That's exactly right. Am I fired? What? Oh, I'm losing my job tomorrow. So it's important to think just because you're saying it, that's not what people are hearing. Right, you want to be able to make sure that people are hearing what you're saying, because if they're not, it's confusing. And if you have a, let's just say you have a team of 10 people on your staff and you have a marketing person, you have an accounting person, you have a receiving person, a you know whatever, and they hear you say it, but they all get a different message then it just creates chaos.
Speaker 2:So you got to be sure that and you could ask them okay, what does this mean? You put out the memo, or you say in a staff meeting, or whatever, what does that mean? What did you hear me say? And make sure, yes, that's exactly what I was trying to say, that's exactly. Oh, no, that's not what I was saying. This is what I'm trying to say, oh, okay, so you want to be sure that it's very clear and these two prophets, it's a very clear message. You know, hey, speaking to the Northern Kingdom, to the Southern Kingdom, you know you've turned away from the one true God. You need to turn back, or destruction's coming. And they didn't turn back, destruction came, and it was a tragic part of Jewish history, just a tragic part.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I like it. Yeah. So, thinking about that, I think one of the things we can get from both of these prophets is that vision and mission were like okay, let's turn back to the fact that we have one God. We don't have a bunch of gods. We don't worship one person, one God in the temple and then another God in our daily lives. We worship one God all the time, and so just think about that from a leadership point of view. You don't have more than one vision. You have one vision.
Speaker 2:Make sure everybody has it. You have a vision on Monday, it's the same vision on Friday, it's the same vision in your emails, the same vision in your marketing. Everything is the same and making sure everybody's on board with that. And sometimes we run into situations where not everybody's on board with that.
Speaker 2:And that's exactly what we read in the Old Testament. Not everybody was agreeing with that, especially some of the leaders, or lots of leaders, and it just created chaos in the country and downfall of the nation. So just tragic. When not everybody's on the same page, it does create chaos in the organization.
Speaker 1:Right, so the similarness of these stories, right, Nineveh. One of them was about Nineveh and the other one was they didn't really say it, but they hinted right, correct?
Speaker 2:Is that the way I interpret it? So in Nahum it's about Now. Just think about this. He's talking about Nineveh, the destruction of Nineveh. Well, let's go back maybe 100 years from this particular prophet and go back to a podcast that we had several weeks ago about Jonah. So, if you remember and if not, go read the book of Jonah. It's a very short book, but he was challenged by God, invited by God, to go to the city of Nineveh and preach repentance. He didn't want to do it, so he ran away from God, got swallowed by a whale and then the whale kicked him out on the shore. He went to Nineveh, he preached and the whole city repented.
Speaker 1:They did right.
Speaker 2:The whole city repented and it was a large, large city. Well, here we have, maybe 100 years later, and the city has turned.
Speaker 1:Returned to their wickedness right Returned to the way where they were.
Speaker 2:And so now Nahum is coming in and saying hey, you're gonna fall.
Speaker 2:You know, you repented you were doing great, you didn't keep it up, and so now you're facing the consequences of those decisions, and that eventually happened. The Babylonians came in and conquered the Assyrians and destroyed Nineveh, and so I think the message that I got from that, from a leadership point of view, is we need to keep constantly focused on the vision, on the mission. We can constantly focus on those two things, because it's so easy if we're not focused on that, reminded of that, held accountable for it. It's easy to turn away from that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I sort of get that too, that through that God's justice he's sort of saying that no empire is above accountability. We're going to hold you accountable, we told you, and then you went backwards, and then we're going to hold you accountable for your actions, and that's why the fall and the violence and all that stuff has to take hold and be rid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and just think about that with an organization. It could be a mom-and-pop restaurant, it could be a corporation, whatever it may be, that just doesn't stay focused on their main mission and over time it might happen instantly, but over time it begins to deteriorate. You start making bad decisions and then it's like the domino effect it just keeps happening and happening, and happening. That's exactly what happened with the people of Nineveh, and it was the leaders who caused that tragically. And so there's so much dependent upon good leadership and the people of Nineveh. They had repented. A hundred years later they were back to the way they were, and so obviously it didn't take a hundred years. But for this instance, it is For your company. How long does it take for you to get off track if you don't focus on what you're all about?
Speaker 1:It doesn't take long. It doesn't take long at all. So, yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, for example, I mean, you're in a construction business, you build amazing. Oh my gosh, I am.
Speaker 1:I forgot this week. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I mean, but if you started to think, you know what? I think we want to start selling motorcycles, Do you know?
Speaker 1:selling motorcycles, do you know?
Speaker 2:Sounds like a great idea, you got a great idea, but if you started doing that, your construction business eventually going to just collapse because you've moved away from your purpose, your vision and so I think that's part of a good leader keeps focus on the mission. What's the vision? What's the mission? What do we hear about? You know?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And the next one, zephaniah. They talk about, you know, sort of similar stuff, repentance and warning of God's judgment coming. You know and knowing it's the day of the Lord and it's a major theme as well. You know it talks about. You know some of the different things and coming out and helping the oppressed as well, right.
Speaker 2:Correct and the difference between these two.
Speaker 2:The message was very, very similar, but they're talking about two different parts of the country, so in Nahum they're talking about the Northern Kingdom, and then in Zephaniah they're talking about the southern kingdom, and so Nahum is talking about the northern kingdom, the Assyrians they were conquered by the Babylonians, and then the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem in 586 BC, tore the city apart, took a bunch of people into exile, and so we see that similar message, similar focus to say, hey, go back to the one true God, go back.
Speaker 2:And if we actually look at history from the time of King David, then you had his son, king Solomon. The real problem started with King Solomon. I mean, he was an incredibly wise person, very wise person, but he was led astray to not just worship the one true God of his father, david and his ancestors. He started worshiping other gods and then, when he died, the kingdom split into the Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom and over time it just snowballed until they finally were so far away from the one true God that the kingdoms just collapsed. They were conquered by other countries, and so it's just a tragic story that took hundreds of years to happen. But I think the message is so profound that leadership is so important to stay focused on what you're about.
Speaker 1:And I don't think it was everybody, right, I mean, because a lot of people were oppressed, right, yes, exactly right. It was more the leaders and the kings and that upper echelon of stuff that was going through and keeping the people down. You know, and it's just one of the things that you know had to be, you know they have to have accountability.
Speaker 2:Correct, and so there was still in both the northern and southern kingdom. There was the poor, the oppressed, the widows that were being ignored, and that was part of the prophet's thing is saying hey, you have forgotten your very own people. You're so focused on yourself that you have forgotten your people, and so I think it's. Another good leadership lesson is that we need to make sure that everybody in the organization knows how important they are, that we don't forget somebody.
Speaker 2:You know the person that cleans the toilets in your organization needs to not just be forgotten. You know, oh, that's Joey. You know we don't have to worry about Joey. No, you need to worry about Joey. You know he's a person, he's important to the organization. He might not be doing the same job as your vice president, but everybody's important. And I think they lost that message in that country and over time it just caught up with them and you know they paid the consequences for it.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's sort of like that groupthink. You know, as you groupthink you get more and more people involved in stuff and it just blossoms, especially over 100 years. You know, Think of how much has changed in our country over the last 100 years.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness, just night and day country over the last hundred years. Just night and day. Just think of the. Yeah, just so much has happened since 1925.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, wow, I've talked to a few people that were, you know, older, you know, and and and had conversations like man, that's just amazing what you said, cause I mean our lives, I mean what we've seen, but I mean a full, you know, full hundred years. That's a huge difference, you know.
Speaker 2:Yes yes, and so you have that. And just think, you know, king David, we're talking maybe 400 years later. Well, that's the age of our country. You know, we're a young country compared to other countries in the world, and so over time things happen and you get distracted. But it can happen in a matter of a year or two. In a business it can. You don't know about the economy, you don't know about interest rates, you don't know about your ability to borrow money or whatever, and you've got to be sharp and stay focused.
Speaker 1:Speaking of sharp, yeah, I was going to say I think at this point we probably should just roll into some dad jokes Okay here's what I was just about to say but see, your buttons are not working, so I have, so free reign right now. And I don't want to touch it because I'll take the system down or something by trying to figure out what button I need to get my.
Speaker 2:So if we go dark, it's not on you so.
Speaker 1:I'm not even going to touch them.
Speaker 2:I'll do it myself, right. Okay, speaking of sharp, why did the spoon come to the party dressed as a knife?
Speaker 1:Because he didn't. I can't say it.
Speaker 2:No, don't say it. Oh, you're almost laughing. I wish y'all could see this. Tim's almost on the floor.
Speaker 1:He's laughing so hard. Well, I'll just say it Okay, let's just move on. Oh, my construction side just almost came out there. No, let's don't go there.
Speaker 2:Okay, because the invitation said to come sharp.
Speaker 1:I like my answer better, bum-bum-bum. Yeah, I like my answer better yeah we'll skip your answer until we're off the air. Oh my gosh, what's a pirate's favorite letter? You would think it's R, but it's really C. They truly love. Oh yeah, wow, but it's really C they truly love, wow, wow wow, you understand if you haven't been listening to the last couple of shows. Dr Posey got this dad joke.
Speaker 2:You know calendar and 365 dad jokes I do and I just say my kid. So he's over here pulling pages off of all the ones he used. So he doesn't like this dad joke.
Speaker 1:You know calendar and 365 dad jokes I do. So he's over here pulling pages off of all the ones he used. So he doesn't like right. So he's over here looking at them and going through them. So it's pretty exciting. He's got, you know, like five pages laid out. He's got this whole wall plastered with dad jokes.
Speaker 2:I should just put them on the whiteboard. Yeah, you can put them on the whiteboard.
Speaker 1:I got the whiteboard all up there for you, so we just need to write a whole bunch out.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think that would be awesome and you can magnetic right there and keep them right there. I think that would be so awesome and when we get the video going we could just show and just scroll through them. That would be so good.
Speaker 1:Uh-huh, I like it.
Speaker 2:What? So? You know I've been trying to decide whether to grow a beard or not. You know, sometimes that's cool and you know I really tried to grow a beard early in life. It just didn't work. I mean, I didn't start actually having to shave until I was like in college. So I thought, well, maybe I'll just let it grow on me.
Speaker 1:Ba-dum-bum-ch bam. I'd have to have got you the button on that one that was a bad one what's the best way to watch a fly fishing tournament?
Speaker 2:go sit in the stream live stream hey, I almost got it.
Speaker 1:Alright, give us one more and we'll get the people out of here. Yeah, why?
Speaker 2:not Okay, so I've always tried to go the extra mile. With every job I work Turns out my Uber customers don't appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Bun bun bun One more. Why don't appreciate it One more? Why don't eggs tell jokes?
Speaker 2:Why don't eggs tell jokes? Because they're too hard to crack.
Speaker 1:They would crack each other up.
Speaker 2:Oh close.
Speaker 1:Nice, Pretty good. I'm close. I do the applause button. You got it All right. Well, we appreciate you hanging out with us today. Come back and talk to us next week. Yeah, what you got. I just got one more. Oh my gosh. Yes, let's do it.
Speaker 2:So you know, sometimes I listen to like orchestra music.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Or you know, sometimes you go to the Bass Hall and listen to the orchestra. So well, I heard there was a fight between the trombone and the flute.
Speaker 1:I don't know this one.
Speaker 2:Well, I bet the flute would win. Alright check us out.
Speaker 1:Biblicalleadershipshowcom. They're logging off at this point anyway.
Speaker 2:They're in off at this point anyway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they have already lost. They're in the gym working out, going. Okay, next exercise. Hey, check us out biblicalleadershipshowcom. Send us prayer requests, send us some good dad jokes as we always ask.
Speaker 2:We do have people send us some good dad jokes I get some good ones from my family. You do get some good ones from my family. You do get some good ones from your family Like this one. What do you call a mouse that swears? I don't know A cursor.
Speaker 1:Nice, I'd give you some applause on that one.
Speaker 2:I like that one. Let's go out with that.
Speaker 1:That's a good one to go out on. Check us out BiblicalLeadershipShowcom Tim Lance for Dr Dean Posey and take us out. Make it a great day.
Speaker 2:Thank you guys.
