Free To Be: Recent Episodes
Pete Carter & Jamie Lee
In this new series, church leaders Pete Carter and Jamie Lee explore what makes a church an attractive place to be, what unhelpful mindsets and behaviours often get in the way, and how any church - big or small - has the potential to host the presence of God and impact the world.
In the final episode from series 1, Pete and Jamie continue the conversation about the differences between personality-driven churches and five-fold ministry churches. When churches stagnate or struggle to build momentum, the temptation can be to try and "fix" the problem with attractive programmes or initiatives. But often, these solutions are masking the real problem - an absence of the apostolic foundation which allows the other gifts to thrive.
When it comes to continuing momentum across generations of leaders, churches rarely manage to develop succession plans that work. In this episode, Pete and Jamie navigate through the grey areas of this often complex issue that might tell us something about how we view leadership itself.
It's one thing to have experiences of freedom in the presence of God, but how do we actually possess freedom as an internal, daily reality? So often, the things restricting us from living in freedom are not the circumstances around us, but the beliefs we brought in the room with us. In this episode, Jamie and Pete explore the power of mindsets - both healthy and unhealthy - and the importance of identifying strongholds that may be holding us back.
The bible tells us that we're transformed when we behold God's glory, so why is introspection so rife within the church?
In this episode, Jamie and Pete examine the biblical model for transformation - where the abundant life Jesus promised His followers becomes ours as we're increasingly preoccupied with Him - and contrast this with a worrying trend of 'peeling back the layers' in order to find ever more layers of brokenness.
In this episode, Jamie and Pete explore how each one of us is qualified by God to bring others into freedom and destroy the works of darkness. Crucially, our confidence in our God-given authority grants us access to heaven's resources and this is part of the mind-renewal journey we're all on. This is not just for the few; every one of us has a significant part to play.
Why are believers told that we must have someone in authority 'over' us in order for us to be 'safe' to exercise authority ourselves? In this challenging episode, Pete and Jamie uncover a huge misconception that is prevalent throughout the body of Christ that might even be contrary to the teaching of Jesus.
Rife within so many church cultures, false humility robs us of the confidence of 'God in us' that the world needs. In this latest episode of the Free To Be podcast, Jamie and Pete draw on scripture, personal experiences in church and parallels with Pete's background as a doctor to highlight the importance of authentic humility.
In this episode, Jamie and Pete explore the stark differences between churches that operate within control mechanisms and ones that empower & trust their congregation to become mature 'guardians' of the environment. One creates free and powerful people; the other dysfunctional cultures.
Freedom is hugely important to the gospel, and yet many believers struggle to define it, let alone experience it. In this episode, Jamie and Pete explore the essence of freedom, why it's so important and why some churches have it while others don't.
It's a challenging and provocative question, but one that needs to be answered. Drawing on his own personal testimony as a leader who was at one stage disillusioned, burnt out and tired, Jamie Lee is joined by Pete Carter as they discuss what turned everything around for that small market town church as it began to experience revival.