The Biblical Leadership Show

Starting Acts: Leadership Lessons From The Early Church

• Tim Lansford and Dr. Dean Posey • Season 5 • Episode 101

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New chapter, fresh playbook. We close the long trek through John and step into Acts with a simple goal: translate the early church’s momentum into practical leadership you can use this quarter. Between holiday chuckles and a milestone anniversary, we trace how Luke documents a team that loses its founder’s physical presence and still accelerates—with planning, empowerment, and courage.

We break down the structure of Acts and zoom in on three big takeaways. First, succession planning isn’t a luxury; it’s mission insurance. Acts 1 shows a team staying put, praying, naming replacements, and protecting continuity. We unpack why 70% of organizations still avoid real succession—fear of losing control, time pressure, or anxiety about new strategies—and how to build a plan that preserves the mission while giving future leaders room to adapt tactics. Second, Pentecost becomes a modern operating principle: empowerment beats busyness. Annual retreats, quarterly huddles, and clear roadmaps energize teams to move from cautious to public, from talk to execution.

Finally, we sit with a small but potent detail: Jesus’s brothers appear in the upper room after years of doubt. That’s a masterclass in discernment. Some teammates are late adopters who turn into anchors; others resist the core and need a gracious off‑ramp. We share ways to tell the difference, then show how to turn brainstorms into action plans with owners, deadlines, and visible follow‑through. Because nothing erodes trust like a meeting that produces no change, and nothing scales culture faster than promises kept in public.

If you lead a church, a crew, or a company, this conversation connects Scripture’s leadership DNA to your next planning session—succession, empowerment, alignment, and accountability. Subscribe, share with a leader who needs clarity, and leave a review telling us the one meeting you’ll add to protect your mission next year.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh now yeah already welcome welcome welcome well guy Tim what's going on goodness it's uh episode one hundred and one oh one it's like we're starting fresh oh my goodness one hundred and one is that good that's very exciting it's like a new chapter it is it's like a new chapter so thank you so much for joining us again this week you know it's uh getting close to Christmas like a week away it is getting close to Christmas can you believe it I I it's hard to believe yeah but I gotta shout out to my pride because tomorrow is our 48th anniversary fun times fun times uh well yeah 48 years 48 years I mean very impressive we met in kindergarten got married in third grade exactly right past life you know you're only 23 like me right that's yeah that's exactly right so yeah um yeah well congratulations thank you so much that's awesome thank you so much uh congratulations to the missus because I know she'll be listening so yeah she is um she definitely needs congratulations yeah yeah yeah yeah well I I congratulate my wife all the time so that's good that's really good I'm I'm behind you though you know we got it's almost it's almost time for our year-end dad joke extravaganza so any of our listeners out there please send your dad jokes uh they don't even have to relate to new year's just anything that you can think of yeah we started getting some dad jokes in that's pretty exciting so yeah and and um we've got a lot of Christmas dad jokes here in the next two weeks but on New Year's let's see it's gonna be the 30th which is the 34th New Year's Eve Eve right um we'll do a complete dad joke extravaganza and uh it's gonna be so much fun so if you like dad jokes hang out with us if you don't well we'll see you after the first of the year exactly right oh so it works it works doesn't it it works really really good well can you know one of the big things here and I know you got dad jokes just going over there but I've got to say we made it through John. We made it through the book of John yes it only took us 48 weeks yeah we're gonna start the book of Acts today and it's amazing wow yeah that is really good and uh the book of Acts is such an amazing book about the history of the early church and um just how it all came about about Paul meeting Luke and then Luke uh following you know he was a disciple of Paul and traveled with him and and then he he was a doctor he he was a brilliant man and and then he did a lot of research and uh he wrote the book of Luke and then the sequel was the book of Acts and so the book of Acts is like the best written record we have of the life of the early church um after the ascension of Jesus and uh it it got some amazing leadership um principles there. Um you can break down the book of Acts into some categories so you know you have chapter one through normally six or so is is really focused on Peter. And then you have uh chapter six and seven is uh Stephen and the martyr of the you know my kids right now are going six yeah I know I know that's how it is and then I've got my brain trained right and then uh Philip if you have kids you understand just went down what that down exactly right we had to work that in just for our younger audience anyway so and then um uh Philip now in chapter six we'll get to that um hopefully today maybe next week but in chapter six huge leadership principles because the church was growing so rapidly that the apostles couldn't do all the work um and so they empowered others seven others and the people picked them to can carry on a certain part of the job and um and so that's a significant shift in the story in the early church and as a result of empowering others to do leadership the church continued to grow. So we'll get to that and the leadership principles about that. And that's really in chapter six in in chapter seven um you have uh Philip um in chapter you know six seven eight that there and then you have uh apostle Paul is uh introduced in chapter really at the end of chapter eight really chapter nine uh you have uh another story about uh Peter and then almost the rest of the book is uh focused on the missionary journeys of Paul and so those are that's the basic outline of that and we're gonna focus on really the first part of that book today and the second part of that or the last part of the book next week um but we can just get right into it after we have a couple of dad jokes you know of course I was like wow he's gonna go straight into it we're gonna go straight into it no crazy no that's just so random there's no way I'm gonna do that. Well hey if you're just joining us just so you know and if you've been hanging out with us the first hundred episodes you know but if it's your first episode uh what we do is we talk a little bit about the biblical talk a little bit about the leadership principles that you can take away from that and then we throw dad jokes in because we like dad jokes we can and we can and it's our show right so uh yeah so welcome yeah so you know it's it's winter time and up in the northern part of the country there's a lot of snow I have a sister who lives in Colorado and and uh you know they had snow in San Antonio my goodness that is crazy but anyway so here we go where do snowmen keep their money where do snowmen keep their money I don't know in snow banks okay I'll get that one yeah that's good there we go uh okay here here's another one here we go um what do you sing at a snowman's birthday party um don't know freeze a jolly good fellow yeah that's that's another one okay okay here's one last one then we'll get to the book of Acts unless you have some oh I mean I I didn't okay so so this time of year most people you know some people don't put up their Christmas tree till like right before Christmas a lot of people already have their trees up you know it's middle of December um so what's a Christmas tree's favorite candy ooh favorite candy yeah what's a Christmas tree's favorite candy um good question ornaments all right okay let's go on why'd the tree go to the barber this is a pretty simple I think I've heard this one why did the tree go to the barber I don't know it needed a trim it needed a trim one more what do you think what do you get when you cross a snowman and a dog don't know frostbite I need some buttons over here okay good all right no problem so now you know why we need you to send us some dad jokes you just wait until you just wait until uh Christmas I mean New Year's Eve show yeah um okay so yeah we we uh I told this joke to my mother-in-law um last night she was over at our house wrapping presents and um so what do Santa's elves listen to while they're working um uh rap music I knew that one I think I've shared that last year too yeah okay yeah I like that one okay so let's get into Acts chapter one so let's just talk a little bit about the the how that's the whole story of that uh and so we see at the end of the gospel of you know Matthew Mark Luke and John uh that Jesus was uh crucified he was resurrected he appeared to people he was on the earth for 40 days and then on the 40th day um he gathered his disciples together he gave them some last instructions say hey wait in Jerusalem until you know the power of the Spirit comes upon you they didn't really know what that meant they were still thinking that he was going to establish an earthly kingdom overthrow the Roman government those kind of things they really didn't comprehend um what the the mission was or the vision of Jesus they really didn't at that point but they were obedient to that and so they uh went to a room there in Jerusalem and they uh prayed and searched the scriptures for ten days now here's a here's a let's just stop right there and and talk about the leadership principle in that because we see from the the the biblical story in Matthew Mark Luke and John that Jesus with was with these twelve men now there's eleven because Judas uh hanged himself and so in chapter one we see them replacing Judas um with another person and um and so you have these twelve people and um Jesus had been training them uh teaching them empowering them and give him a specific mission he he had done that for three years and I know we've talked about it on the show before but Jesus had a secession plan. He knew he wasn't going to be there forever he wanted his ministry mission to continue after he was gone and and so I know that you've dealed with this Tim a lot in your leadership seminars when you speak around the country so could you share just a little bit about the importance of a succession plan. I know that's big in the church. I know some churches don't really think about that because they think the pastor's going to be there forever but it's so important in businesses and other things you know you've got to have some a plan for what's going to happen after. What has going to happen if okay so just jump in there and share it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah I think that uh you know I I get this and we we talk about this and in all our associations and and we've talked about it the church and all this stuff it's is to have that succession plan in place because you have to have that continuation of leadership right and and that mission protection. So this is our mission so how are we going to carry that through you know and you've seen this many times with big companies where um you know somebody starts a company and then next thing you know it'll take Steve Jobs right he started the company had a mission he had a vision he he did this and then ended up getting voted out and the mission sort of wavered so I mean somebody had to carry that through it went down different paths. But if you if you start your succession planning early enough then you get people that that know where the ship's headed that are on the same page of where the ship's headed and you know if something happens where where you know you need to take a break or you go on vacation for a month to travel the Amazon or walk across the mountains you know on mountaintops for a couple months you know you you're not going to be side railed and stuff. And then and I think that's one of the things that most people do especially in associations we do that is is we don't know where where the ship's going after a lot of our associations they're one year. You know you sign up you're on the the the board or the committee as the chair for one year. I'm just rolling well I've still got you know another few months of uh being the education chair for NHB right and but at that same time we've we're I've got the two other people that are behind me part of my meetings. They're part of where we're going because it's it's a continued process. It was a continued process the the leaders before me and the leaders after you and that that's helps you c you know not lose the momentum not have to start over every time that you have a change of leadership and I think that's so important to keep that so you can keep that that that that pipeline filled and and to know that everybody's working towards that bigger goal.

SPEAKER_03:

So yeah and so um how many times in your speaking have you run across companies that don't have a succession oh I'd probably say it's it's well into uh 70 plus percent of the time yeah I mean most people do not have a succession plan in place.

SPEAKER_00:

I talk to them every time about it.

SPEAKER_03:

And do you have a reason is there a consistent reason why do they think that just do they is it like well I'm gonna be here forever or you know I don't know if I trust people enough to carry on at the same quality of work or the same mission or is there a consistent reason why that doesn't happen?

SPEAKER_00:

Well I think it's multiple I think sometimes people are afraid to give up their their inner thoughts because when you when you create a succession plan you sort of got to lay all the eggs on the table and say here's where we're going right and a lot of people don't have that they they feel like they're losing their power and this goes to delegation this goes to leadership and all that across the board but I mean and and sometimes people just don't have time because once you lay out a succession plan well then it's your job to mentor your job to actively bring these people into all your meetings and make sure they're part of everything. And some people don't like that you know they just want to get it done get done get on down the road and and be there and and uh so I think there's a there's a you know multitude of things where they don't want to but I I will tell you that most people do not have a succession plan. Most of the associations that I work with most of the uh the companies I work with that we we that's one of the biggest things we talk about leadership is I need to come back and and help you guys put this succession plan together because uh this is something you have to have in place going forward to be successful. I mean you can be successful but to carry on that mission you have to have it in place.

SPEAKER_03:

And so there's one thing about mission there's one thing a a different thing about strategy. Yeah right and so maybe there the people that don't do this are concerned maybe I want the same strategy. I want the same you know focus and you know you're gonna have a different person come in um who could be very very intelligent they've been in the company a long time but they look at it a little different so their strategy might be the mission might be the same.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_03:

But the strategy might be a little different and people just might be hesitant to say no I want everything the exact same. Right. Okay. Um and that's unfortunate because you've got some great companies that if you don't have a great succession plan, uh they're not going to last very long after the main person steps aside.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And I think that as long as you're you're setting it up right, succession plans are designed to get the fundamentals in there, right? To keep the fundamental success that you've had in place, you know, everybody's gonna bring their own personality to it. You can add things you can change things a little bit right but as long as you have that core going forward the company's going to be heading in the right direction. Then you bring in some of your stuff that you uh you do and you test the waters with new things because you don't want to put everybody in a box you know uh I'm I'm on the ladder on some stuff and I'm already working on trying to revamp a whole lot of stuff that I have coming up in some of my uh positions. Uh but I mean that's what I am I'm a change agent. I like change. I like I see things that are slightly broke and I'm gonna work on fixing them. But I'm not gonna just implode the whole thing and rebuild it. I'm gonna change what is there that's broken but we're still gonna have our forward print forward moving principles that we're gonna stay in they're gonna stay intact.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. What a great a great uh uh lesson right there. So so that's really in chapter one in in the book of Acts so we have a succession plan they they follow what Jesus said they stay in Jerusalem they pray read scripture and and then in Acts chapter two we see a a very powerful uh event happen on the day of Pentecost which was a huge Jewish uh holiday anyway and we read that the Holy Spirit uh came on them with power um and and so tongues of fire tongues of fire and um and so that's a whole lesson that we don't have time to get into right now but here's the thing after that uh event um the they were empowered to really share the message um publicly uh before they were hiding in a room um they were concerned about their own lives uh but they were empowered and there was 120 of them we read um and so the two real principles I want to uh get to uh in our time remaining uh with with chapter two and and that is how many uh times are let's just say how important it is to get your people together to to to pump them up to equip them to empower them to just uh you know rah rah rah thank you so much for what you're doing let's go out and make next year better um I know some companies do that really really well and other companies don't do that um and and so in your experience with dealing with you know contractors home builders around the country um you know you've you deal with some really big companies and some small companies um how consistent is it about having a like an annual meeting of your employees or your staff or anything like that I remember we used to have an annual retreat for our staff yeah and we would say okay this is kind of where we're going the next year and I would have my Sermons planned out for a year in advance. I didn't write them, but I had all the themes and everything in a year in advance. I'd give it to my staff and say, hey, this is where we're going. Let's talk about how all this is gonna, you know, how we're gonna do different things at like Christmas time, Easter time, what's gonna happen in the summer. So everybody's on the same page. So in your corporation, in your building uh experience, how does that work in the building um business?

SPEAKER_00:

You know, everybody has a desire to have that organization in place to be able to go through those oh quarterly meetings, yearly meetings, and all that. But a lot of times it just really depends on what time they have. You know, I see a lot of things that get picked over because we're busy, we don't have time to do that. You know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. We're moving. I don't need to work on marketing dollars, I don't need to work on my website on and I need to work on meetings, and we don't have to have raw-rah. We don't have time for those raw-rah meetings. We just need to go. We need to uh do do it. But then ultimately, you know, the the business looks like a roller coaster sometimes for some companies as well. Now, I'm not saying some people go from from zero to you know the moon, right? You know, they're they're still going up to this day, but at the same time, a lot of people they hit like the we're we're in a slow time right now with coming off the government shutdown a while back and interest rates not knowing where they're at with the Fed and and uh so everybody's sort of coasting through the holidays. So now everybody's banking on first year. Oh, we're gonna go, but I mean what if it doesn't? You know, then you've got to start, you know, pre-planning a little bit. And I think that's why it's important to have these meetings, figure out where you're at, figure out what you need to do to move forward, figure out who's in charge of doing what, not just uh, you know, we always say it, we said on the show many times, be proactive, not reactive. And I think that's one of the biggest things that you want to do in business.

SPEAKER_03:

So yeah, and so if you have not had a calendar planning for you know 2026, gosh, it's already 26, right? It is uh if you don't have that and you're the head of the company or maybe you're vice chair or something like that, um, I I would encourage you to somehow um someday in 2026 have a a one-day retreat, one day something, half a day something, uh off site if possible, just to get your people together, encourage them. Um you know, encouragement goes a long way. And uh they might not have any new information, but just to help people realize how important they are, how valuable they are uh to the organization, and uh say, hey, no, this is important. We're gonna get together, we're gonna have a staff retreat, um, we're gonna have a corporate meeting or whatever, and we're just gonna reemphasize um what we're doing. Uh and so everybody's on the same page. And I just want to say thank you for doing a great job last year. And I'm not talking about a Christmas party, you know, that's just that's kind of a fun. No, this is like a uh brah rob, thank you so much. Uh keep doing a great job, and uh let's make next year even better than this year. And and uh you might not have had that planned yet for 2026, but I encourage you at some point to put that on the calendar. Uh there will be benefits from it. As long as you keep doing it year after year, people look forward to that, uh, that'll be really, really good.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah, I I agree. And and you know, and there's ways to go about it to make it fun, you know, don't make it monotonous where people are just dread to go. I've I've been through some of those where people are just rolling their eyes, right?

SPEAKER_03:

So, oh my gosh, when is this gonna be over?

SPEAKER_00:

So, I mean, really, if if you go through and and you bring the information and and and I I going through this within one of my associations, and and every year we have a brainstorming and where we're gonna go and and a leadership retreat and all this stuff, but then we don't do anything with the information we did last year, and the year before we keep having one, but then we don't do the information. So I'm working on trying to compile the last four years that we've done this and actually make something where we can have an action plan to move forward on this. And uh, so I've taken it upon myself to uh volunteer that uh to put that in place because I I uh you know I do this with companies, but I'm like, all right, we're doing it in this association, and I do this for companies, but I always have an action plan. It's not just brainstorming, but what are we gonna do with this information?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, so if you have a brainstorming session, uh an annual meeting or whatever, and you get a lot of great ideas, and you literally do nothing with it. You talk about losing trust in your people. Yeah. Um they'll think that was a waste of my time. I'm just uh I, you know, I might go next year, but my mind's not gonna be in the meeting. Um, and so that's uh such an important thing to have those goal setting meetings or have those kind of things and then follow up uh afterwards and hold people accountable to get stuff done.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Yeah. Yeah. And and you know, we we did the same thing from surveys, you know, these surveys I used to partner up with a survey company and send out these employee satisfaction surveys and customer satisfaction surveys, and they wouldn't do anything with information. I'm like, it's worse to do the survey than it is not to do anything and pretend it never happened. Yes. Because now people are expecting it. Yeah, they're expecting no action, then it's it's worse than what it yeah, if it just would have gone, oh, okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, let's get to this last principle in uh Acts chapter, this is really in Acts chapter one, but it's at the beginning of the book, and so we see something very, very significant um in um in Acts chapter one. And um, what we read there is that when the uh disciples, after they left, after Jesus ascended, uh they went uh back to Jerusalem, um, they were in the upper room, all the disciples were there. And this is what we read in chapter one, verse 14, and this is very, very significant. Um, all these were with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and then the last three words, and his brothers. His brothers, huh? His brothers. So when we read the Christmas story, it does say that G that Mary had the her firstborn son. There's several places in the Bible that talk about and give the names of Jesus' brothers. Well, the reason that's so significant is because back in John chapter seven, verse five, we read these words. And and then um uh they one of the brothers says, uh, uh if you do these things, show yourself to the world. And then it says this in verse five. For not even his brothers believed in him. So we don't know exactly when that happened, uh, that his brothers, I mean, they grew up with him, but they didn't believe he was the Messiah. Um, and then and it's very clear here in John chapter 5. So we don't know how many years of Jesus' ministry that was. We can't, it's hard to tell. But then after the resurrection, they were in the room with the other disciples because they believed in what he uh he was doing. They believed in the mission. So so the leadership principle is, you know, some of your people might it might take them a little longer to get on board with the vision and the mission. Now, some people you just gotta let go because they just don't want to follow it. But there's some people that that are good, good people.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh they're just a little slower to to say, oh yeah, I get it now. I understand why this is so important. And um, and that's exactly what we see here in um with Jesus Brothers. And so the leadership principle is you've got to be very discerning, wise to know which is what. I mean, which person is it that's just not catching on and you just need to let them go. And what person is just gonna slow, and once they're once they catch on, they're gonna be huge, huge supporter of yours. And it just takes a wise leader to know the difference because you don't want to let go of the wrong people. Um, you know, I've made that mistake. Uh, you know, sometimes I've I've had to let people go for reasons, and it's like, mm, shouldn't have done that. Um, but um that just right there, and and uh so the Jesus' brothers were huge followers. Um once they saw the mission, um uh they were they were just massive supporters. So anyway, any any comment on on that? It's just uh you gotta have be discerning, you know?

SPEAKER_00:

No comment.

SPEAKER_03:

No comment. Okay. Let's just leave it right there. Let's just leave it right there and get some bad jokes because we're almost out of time.

SPEAKER_00:

We are we're almost out of time.

SPEAKER_03:

So let's just get some bad jokes in here. Um okay. Why did the tree need to take a nap?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh probably haven't heard this one. I have not, I don't think. For rest. For rest.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, this one I I had pulled up as a joke, but it actually made me uh um uh think about it. It was like logical and a joke at the same time.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00:

Why is December such a cool or cold month?

SPEAKER_03:

Uh if you're in Australia, it's not, so I don't know. It's true. It's true. Okay, why?

SPEAKER_00:

Because it has burr in the name. Oh gosh. Yeah, that's definitely but I thought about it. I'm like, January, December, November, October. July? July is not a cold month, right? So anyway.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, let's just say is there any um any other dad jokes that we can um that we can just kind of throw out today? Um, here we go. Uh getting close to Christmas. So here's here's a Christmas one. Okay. One of my favorite uh Christmas cookies is gingerbread. Gingerbread cookies. Like gingerbread man, you know, those kind of things, gingerbread lake, whatever. I just like gingerbread cookies. So, what does a gingerbread man use when he breaks his leg?

SPEAKER_02:

I think I know it. Say it. Iceling? Oh, that's close. How about a candy cane? Oh I don't know.

SPEAKER_00:

I think I like mine better. Icling. Icling. Iceling. Because you patch it with icing, so it's iceling.

SPEAKER_03:

I I get it. I get it. Do I need to explain it again? I don't like it, but I get it.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I got one more from you. Okay, why are Christmas trees bad at knitting?

SPEAKER_03:

Because they lost all their needles.

SPEAKER_00:

They always drop their needles.

SPEAKER_02:

There we go.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. One more from you, and then we'll let these fine people get out of here.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, so uh went to the store, you know, it's uh some people like cranberries. Um I like uh I like cranberries, you know, Thanksgiving, Christmas, whatever. But I dropped a really heavy box of berries on my foot yesterday. Right. Yeah. And it's so bad I can barely walk. Oh, yeah, that's definitely a sleeper.

SPEAKER_00:

Please send in some dad jokes. All righty. Well, save them up. We got lots more dad jokes coming up.

SPEAKER_03:

So we do.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Okay. All right. Well, thank you guys for uh hanging out with us. We finally made it through John. I'm so I feel so liberated that we made it through.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, episode 101. Thank you for starting this new chapter with us.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh we roll into uh you know we almost timed it perfect going into the new year, right? So it would have been good. But other than that, check us out biblical leadership show.com. Send us your dad jokes as we prepare for our New Year's Eve show. New Year's Eve Eve show. And uh other than that, Dr. Pete, take us out. Happy anniversary. Yeah, thank you so much. Hey, thank you so much. Make it a great day. Make it a great day.

unknown:

Well

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Dr. Dean Posey

Host
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Tim Lansford

Host