In this season finale of the Church Staff Book Club, Jonathan Malm and Jason Young wrap up The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero with Chapter 9: "Endings and Beginnings." If you're holding onto something that needs to die — a program, a role, a relationship, a season — this conversation is for you.

What We Cover in This Episode:

• Why leaders are wired to add things and terrified to end them
• How "keeping the peace" often just delays pain and elongates it
• The subtle drain of holding onto something past its season
• Why endings feel like failure — and how to reframe them as release, obedience, or completion
• Jonathan's exercise for SundaySocial: "What would we build if we started today?"
• Why endings are actually a vital part of your spiritual formation
• How to love people through an ending... before, during, and after
• Why messy endings are normal, and what to do when you're in one
• Don't bypass the grief... what it means and why it matters

We Finished Reading: The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero Tune in next week to find out what book we're reading next!

Key Quotes from This Episode:

"Every new beginning starts from some other beginning's end."

"Endings feel like loss, even when they're right."

"It's less about quitting and more about releasing. Less about defeat and more about obedience."

Connect & Subscribe:

📱 Follow us on social media and join the conversation

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss a chapter

📚 Grab The Emotionally Healthy Leader and read along with us

In this episode of the Church Staff Book Club, Jonathan Malm and Jason Young dig into Chapter 8 of The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero: "Acknowledging Power and Boundaries." Jonathan calls it his favorite chapter in the book and possibly the one that explains more of what goes wrong in churches than any other.

🎧 What We Cover in This Episode:

• Why "unexamined power becomes harmful power" and what to do about it
• The 6 sources of power every church leader carries (whether they know it or not)
• Why the Me Too movement is really a story about unacknowledged power
• How megachurch pastoral abuse happens and why it's not just a megachurch problem
• The blurry lines between pastor, friend, boss, and discipler and why they matter
• Why pastors are so lonely (and why it's actually structural)
• What healthy boundaries actually look like in church staff relationships
• Why "no" is a complete sentence and why ministry leaders can't seem to say it

📖 We're Reading: The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero Follow along chapter by chapter with us each week!

💬 Key Quotes from This Episode:
"We don't talk about power because it feels dirty. We talk about humility because it feels clean."
"Unexamined power becomes harmful power."
"Every yes and no has a cost."

🔗 Connect & Subscribe:
📱 Follow us on social media and join the conversation
🔔 Subscribe so you never miss a chapter
📚 Grab The Emotionally Healthy Leader and read along with us

In this episode of the Church Staff Book Club, Jonathan Malm and Jason Young dig into Chapter 7 of The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero: "How to Build an Emotionally Healthy Team." This is the chapter where everything gets practical, not just for you as a leader, but for the people you lead every single day.

🎧 What We Cover in This Episode:

• Why you're a thermostat, not a thermometer, and what that means for your team
• The "cage the tiger" principle and why we avoid it (and shouldn't)
• Why values on the wall mean nothing without a leader who lives them
• The difference between ignoring someone's faults and making allowance for them
• How to address the elephant in the room without blowing up the team
• Why healthy conflict actually strengthens culture, not weakens it
• What a genuinely healthy church staff culture looks like in practice
• Jonathan's take: should churches under 1,000 stop hiring specialists?

📖 We're Reading: The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero Follow along chapter by chapter with us each week!

💬 Key Quotes from This Episode:

"Culture is what people experience, not what you announce."

"Who you are becomes the culture."
"When you avoid conflict, you actually weaken the culture."

🔗 Connect & Subscribe:

📱 Follow us on social media and join the conversation

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss a chapter

📚 Grab The Emotionally Healthy Leader and read along with us

In this episode of the Church Staff Book Club, Jonathan Malm and Jason Young dig into Chapter 6 of The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero: "Planning and Decision Making." This is where all that inner work finally meets real life... how you actually lead, plan, and make calls that shape your church and your team.

🎧 What We Cover in This Episode:

• Why fast decisions often bypass the deep discernment your ministry actually needs
• What gets lost when church leaders make decisions in isolation
• The difference between doing things for God vs. doing things with God
• Why community slows you down and why that's exactly the point
• How to approach decisions with indifference (and why that's a superpower)
• Why emotions are data, not directives and how that changes everything
• The danger of mistaking a good idea for a God idea

📖 We're Reading: The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero Follow along chapter by chapter with us each week!

💬 Key Quotes from This Episode:

"Just because it's good doesn't mean it's from God."

"Listening is leadership."

"God's guidance is often in line with peace, not pressure."

🔗 Sponsor: Lobby Labs A community and coaching group built for guest services, first impressions, and connections leaders. Learn from high-level churches, solve problems faster, and find margin to actually hear from God. lobbylabs.co

🔗 Connect & Subscribe:

📱 Follow us on social media and join the conversation

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss a chapter

📚 Grab The Emotionally Healthy Leader and read along with us

In this episode of the Church Staff Book Club, Jonathan Malm and Jason Young dig into Chapter 5 of The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero: "Practice Sabbath Delight." If you've ever felt guilty for resting, struggled to stop working, or wondered why rest never actually restores you... this conversation is for you.

🎧 What We Cover in This Episode:

• Why Sabbath is more than a day off and what actually restores your soul
• How our addiction to productivity is quietly destroying our leadership
• The lies church leaders believe about rest (and why we keep believing them)
• Why identity tied to work is a red flag and how Sabbath exposes it
• What happens to your team when you lead from depletion vs. replenishment
• How to start small: a practical 2-hour Sabbath practice anyone can try this week
• Why practicing Sabbath is actually an act of rebellion against hustle culture

📖 We're Reading: The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero Follow along chapter by chapter with us each week!

💬 Key Quotes from This Episode:
"If we do not choose rest, exhaustion will choose us."
"Sabbath is God's weekly rescue plan... a declaration that God runs the world, not me."
You're not being unique by being a hustling leader. What if you rebelled against that?"

🔗 Connect & Subscribe:
📱 Follow us on social media and join the conversation
🔔 Subscribe so you never miss a chapter
📚 Grab The Emotionally Healthy Leader and read along with us

Key Topics:

• Leadership formation through marriage and singleness
• Integrating personal relationships with ministry
• The role of relational intimacy in leadership
• Historical perspectives on single leaders in church history
• Practical tips for nurturing meaningful relationships in ministry

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Introduction
• 00:28 Purpose of the podcast
• 1:07 Leadership development through marriage and singleness
• 4:24 Navigating traditional views of marriage and ministry
• 10:03 Building intentional time with friends and spouse
• 16:21 Historical prominence of single leaders
• 21:46 Authentic intimacy and community in leadership

Resources & Links:

• The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero
• LobbyLabs.co - Church Leaders Community & Coaching
• Follow Jonathan on Instagram
• Follow Jason on Instagram

Subscribe for more insights on aligning personal health with ministry impact!

In this episode, Jonathan Malm and Jason Young dig into Chapter 2 of The Emotionally Healthy Leader, unpacking one of the most uncomfortable (and most necessary) conversations in church leadership: the parts of yourself you'd rather not look at — and why those are exactly the parts that matter most.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• What "the shadow" actually is — and how it quietly shapes every decision you make as a leader
• Why the cave you fear to enter might hold the breakthrough your leadership needs
• How your family system growing up is still running in the background of how you lead today
• Why the shadow shows up differently under stress than in everyday leadership moments
• Common ways the shadow surfaces in church leaders — from conflict avoidance to perfectionism to shutting down contrary opinions
• Practical tools to start facing your shadow, including naming your emotions, using a genogram, and seeking trustworthy feedback
• Why shadow work isn't optional if you want sustainable fruit in your ministry

Jonathan gets personal about his "not yet" defense mechanism, Jason shares how a strength can quietly become a shadow, and both of them make the case that what you refuse to see will eventually lead you.

🔗 Want a community of trusted leaders around you? Check out LobbyLabs.co — the coaching community for guest services and connections leaders.

Jonathan Malm and Jason Young kick off their discussion of Peter Scazzero's The Emotionally Healthy Leader by unpacking the four telltale signs that a church leader is running on empty — and why most of us don't even realize it's happening.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why 95% of leaders think they're self-aware — but only 10–15% actually are
• The difference between holding binoculars and holding a mirror — and why it changes everything about how you lead
• Why prioritizing ministry over marriage (or key relationships) is a losing strategy for everyone — including your church
• How "doing too much for God" can actually be a sign you're running from something
• What Sabbath really means — and why a day off isn't the same thing
• How to tell the difference between an issue worth addressing and unnecessary chaos you're creating yourself

Plus, Jonathan gets honest about reading Scripture just to find content for SundaySocial, and Jason shares the sobering research on what's actually driving burnout in church staff.

Whether you're a pastor, a church staff member, or a volunteer leader, this episode will challenge you to stop pointing the binoculars outward and take an honest look in the mirror.

📖 Reading along? Pick up The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Peter Scazzero wherever books are sold.

In this final episode of Season 1, Jonathan Malm and Jason Young wrap up The Come Back Effect by diving into one of the most overlooked principles in church hospitality: volunteer significance. It's not enough to build smooth systems and polished experiences. If the people delivering that experience don't feel meaningful in what they're doing, guests will feel it too.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why treating volunteers as tools to get things done quietly destroys your team culture
• How one volunteer turned down a higher-paying job because his volunteer role meant that much to him
• What it looks like when a volunteer truly owns their role and how that transforms guest interactions
• Practical ways to help your team see that even small moments of hospitality carry eternal weight
• Why accountability is actually an act of care — and how to have those hard conversations with volunteers
• How to build a culture where significance is celebrated, not just results

Whether you lead a guest services team, a small group, a kids' ministry, or a choir... this episode will challenge and encourage you to pastor your volunteers, not just manage them.

📥 Download the free The Come Back Effect Toolkit at churchstaffbookclub.com

📖 Next season: The Emotionally Healthy Leader starting next week!

In this episode of the Church Staff Book Club Podcast, Jonathan Malm and Jason Young unpack Chapter 9 of The Come Back Effect and explore a crucial leadership question:

👉 Are you leading your church with policies that control… or values that create trust?

While policies protect systems, values protect people. And when it comes to church hospitality, volunteer culture, and guest experience, that difference changes everything.

In This Episode, We Discuss:

• The difference between values vs. policies in church leadership
• Why policies often default to “no” and values allow more “yes”
• How Disney prioritizes values (and what churches can learn from it)
• Why volunteers freeze under policy-heavy environments
• How values empower volunteers to make better real-time decisions
• Signs your church may be leading with policy instead of care
• How to create clear, practical ministry values your team can actually live out
• Why values humanize rules without creating chaos

Key Takeaways:

✔ Policies create consistency

✔ Values create trust

✔ Policies protect systems

✔ Values protect people

When your volunteers understand what matters most, they won’t need a rulebook for every scenario. They’ll respond with wisdom, care, and clarity.

And in church ministry, response matters.

If you lead volunteers, oversee guest services, or want to improve your church’s first impressions, this episode will help you build a culture that’s aligned, empowered, and intentional.

📘 Book: The Come Back Effect

🎧 Podcast: Church Staff Book Club

🤝 Sponsor: First Impressions – Helping churches create meaningful guest experiences (firstimpressions.church)

“Just okay” hospitality.

Most churches don’t have bad hospitality… they have forgettable hospitality. And “good enough” doesn’t usually offend anyone—

it just silently convinces guests not to come back.

In this episode, we talk about the difference between excellence and perfection, why churches unintentionally settle, and how to make small upgrades that build trust and help people feel seen, safe, and truly welcomed.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why average experiences rarely inspire return
• The difference between excellence vs. perfectionism in church hospitality
• 5 common reasons churches settle for “good enough”
• Why hospitality is about the welcome, not the production value
• Small, practical upgrades that make church feel intentional (without a bigger budget)
• How volunteer presence, warmth, and consistency create memorable moments
• Why guests decide to return based on trust, not polish

Key ideas from this episode:

✅ Excellence isn’t fancy.

✅ Excellence isn’t expensive.

✅ Excellence is care.

People don’t return because everything was flawless—

they return because something felt intentional.

Sponsor

First Impressions helps churches create meaningful connections with guests—from first-time visits to lifelong discipleship.

Conferences, Academy training, coaching, systems, and proven follow-up strategies: firstimpressions.church

Next Steps

📘 We’re nearing the end of The Come Back Effect. Chapter 9 and Chapter 10 are next, then we’ll move to a new book.

Have a recommendation for what we should read next? Drop it in the comments or message us on social media.

👍 If this episode helped you, like, subscribe, and share with your staff or volunteer team.

💬 Questions about hospitality, guest experience, or volunteer leadership? Leave a comment—we’d love to interact.

See you next week!

In this episode of Church Staff Book Club, we unpack Chapter 7 of The Come Back Effect and explore why everything communicates, from signage and cleanliness to sound levels, scent, and even the paper towels in the bathroom. Guests notice details that insiders overlook, and those details shape whether people feel welcome, safe, and like they belong.

🎯 In this episode, you’ll discover:

• Why guests interpret details differently than regular attenders
• How small details communicate care, preparation, and belonging
• The five senses framework for evaluating your church experience
• How signage, sound, and cleanliness influence guest comfort
• Why insiders stop seeing what outsiders feel
• A simple weekly strategy to improve your church experience over time

🧠 Key Insight:

Hospitality isn’t about big moments. It’s about doing the small things well, consistently.

🙌 Whether you’re a pastor, volunteer leader, or guest services team member, this conversation will help you see your church through fresh eyes and create an environment where people feel at home.

📥 Download the Detail Walk Checklist: churchstaffbookclub.com

📚 Book featured: The Come Back Effect by Jason Young & Jonathan Malm

🤝 Sponsored by: First Impressions... helping churches create meaningful guest experiences.

In this episode of Church Staff Book Club, we explore Chapter 6 of The Come Back Effect and talk about one of the most overlooked aspects of hospitality: how you respond when something goes wrong. From check-in meltdowns to crying babies in service, coffee spills, seating issues, and missed expectations, the question isn’t if mistakes will happen, it’s how prepared your team is to respond with empathy and warmth.

🎙️ You’ll learn:

• Why recovery is an emotional skill, not just a logistical fix
• How to empower volunteers to act without always needing a manager
• The difference between solving a problem and addressing a feeling
• Why silence or inaction ruins trust faster than the mistake itself
• How celebrating “off-script” hero moments builds a recovery culture
• What to say when a guest is frustrated and how to still win them back

🙌 Whether you’re a pastor, team leader, or volunteer, this episode is packed with real-life stories, actionable ideas, and powerful reframes that will help you create wow moments even when things go sideways.

📚 Book featured: The Come Back Effect by Jason Young & Jonathan Malm

🔧 Sponsored by: First Impressions — helping churches welcome guests from first visit to lifelong discipleship.

Whether you’re a church staff member, guest services leader, or volunteer, this conversation will help you:

• Understand how guests emotionally experience your church “scene by scene”
• Map the guest journey to improve hospitality and clarity
• Train your volunteers to guide, not just greet, people
• Eliminate confusion and frustration from first-time experiences
• Become a helper in someone’s story, not a hindrance

📘 Get the book: [The Come Back Effect by Jason Young & Jonathan Malm]

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

💬 Drop a comment or DM us with your biggest church hospitality question!

In this episode of the Church Staff Book Club, we break down Chapter 4 of The Come Back Effect and explore why presence beats performance in church hospitality. From the parking lot to the pulpit, your guests can tell when you’re distracted, rushed, or multitasking... and it matters. Whether you’re a pastor, volunteer leader, or on the greeting team, this conversation will help you lead with empathy, margin, and emotional awareness.

🎙️ In this episode, we cover:

• Why multitasking is the enemy of hospitality
• How body language (even your feet) tells people if you’re really listening
• The 4 biggest distractions that prevent us from being fully present:

  → Pressure, Pace, Performance, and People

• What to say when you do need to exit a conversation gracefully
• Why Sunday morning presence starts with weekday connection
• The difference between service and true hospitality
• How to train your team to slow down and show up for guests

📚 Book featured: The Come Back Effect by Jason Young & Jonathan Malm

👥 Who it’s for: Guest services teams, church staff, pastors, volunteer leaders, and anyone shaping the Sunday experience.

🛠️ Practical + relatable content for churches of all sizes. No book reading required.

💬 Question for you:

Have you ever felt like someone wasn’t really listening? How can we make sure our guests never feel that way?

👍 Like | 🔔 Subscribe | 📣 Share with your team

In this episode of the Church Staff Book Club, we unpack Chapter 3 of The Come Back Effect and dive into the challenge of creating welcoming church experiences. Not just for the crowd you already have, but for the guests God is sending your way.

🎯 Whether you’re a guest services leader, pastor, or volunteer, this episode will challenge how you think about hospitality, spiritual assumptions, church culture, and guest comfort.

🎙️ We discuss:

• Why some “welcoming” experiences actually make guests uncomfortable
• The difference between demographics and psychographics (and why both matter)
• How churches accidentally create experiences for staff instead of visitors
• What foot-washing and awkward song lyrics can teach us about cultural assumptions
• How to spot your real “target” guest and why specificity increases impact
• Why signage, language, margin, and pace make or break the guest experience
• The difference between hospitality and service (and why your church needs both)

👥 Who this episode is for:

Church staff, guest services teams, worship leaders, communications directors, hospitality teams, volunteer coordinators, and pastors who want to build a culture that makes people feel seen, known, and comfortable from the parking lot to the pew.

📚 Book featured: The Come Back Effect by Jason Young & Jonathan Malm

🎧 Subscribe for a new chapter each week as we walk through powerful leadership books so you never have to learn to lead alone.

💬 Question for you:

What’s one moment in your church that might accidentally make a guest uncomfortable? How could you tweak it to show care?

👍 Like | 🔔 Subscribe | 📣 Share with your team

In this episode of the Church Staff Book Club, we dive into Chapter 2 of The Come Back Effect to unpack why church culture isn’t built by greeters... it’s built by everyone. From volunteers and tech teams to senior pastors and worship leaders, your guest experience reflects what people feel before they hear the sermon.

🎙️ In this episode, we cover:

• Why “culture is what people whisper in the lobby”
• A powerful story about hospitality in rural Guatemala
• How unspoken behavior builds or breaks your church culture
• Practical ways to help people linger after church (and why it matters)
• Why the “production mindset” may be killing your margin for meaningful connections
• How to reinforce culture through stories, not just slogans

🛠️ Plus: We explore real, tactical solutions to shift a church culture—from service speed to bounce houses.

📚 Book featured: The Come Back Effect by Jason Young & Jonathan Malm

👥 Great for: Guest Services teams, volunteer leaders, church staff, pastors, and anyone shaping the Sunday experience.

💬 Leave a comment below:

What’s one small shift you could make to help your church feel more welcoming?

👍 Like | 🔔 Subscribe | 📣 Share with your church team

You’ll hear:

• Why great systems alone don’t create great experiences
• How to help volunteers lead with empathy, not just efficiency
• Why church leaders sometimes feel like cogs and how to fix that
• What it means to be an “emotional bodyguard” for your guests

Whether you’re a solo pastor or on a big team, this episode will help you reframe how your church welcomes people and why that feeling matters more than you think.

📚 Book: The Come Back Effect by Jason Young & Jonathan Malm

💬 Let us know what stood out. Tag us on social or send us a message!