Environments shape everything—how we lead, how we grow, and how we impact others. Hosted by Lindsay Martin, Field Notes for Transformation is your go-to resource for cultivating impactful teams and ministries. Through practical insights and inspiring stories, this podcast equips you with the tools to create transformative environments. Whether you’re leading a ministry or nurturing a team, these field notes will help guide your journey.
Holding the Mission, Changing the Method: Mission Design with Aaron Abramson
What happens when the methods that once worked for ministry no longer work the way they used to?
In this episode Lindsay talks with Aaron Abramson, CEO of Jews for Jesus and author of Mission Design, to explore what it looks like to lead a legacy ministry through change without losing sight of its mission.
Aaron has spent 26 years with Jews for Jesus, moving from volunteer to organizational leadership. Along the way, he discovered that staying faithful to the mission sometimes means being willing to rethink the methods.
Aaron also shares what it takes to build a culture where teams can admit when something isn't working, learn from failure, and try again, and why leaders shouldn't wait for a ministry to decline before they begin innovating.
At the heart of the conversation is a question every ministry leader eventually has to wrestle with: How do we remain faithful to our mission while becoming flexible enough to respond to the world around us?
Takeaways
Listen before you design. Start with people, not programs.
Measure what matters. Look for fruit and depth, not just activity.
Prototype, learn, adapt. Small experiments can prevent big mistakes.
Hold the mission tightly; hold the methods loosely. Faithfulness sometimes requires us to change.
Episode field note:
Ask better questions, get uncomfortable and embrace the mess.
Don't be afraid to ask questions that unsettle you. Get close to the people you're trying to serve, even when it makes you uncomfortable. Listen, learn, and let what you discover shape the design.
Then give yourself permission to experiment. Prototype. Try something that isn't perfect. The messiness of the process is where learning happens.
You might just discover a new way of doing ministry that makes you wonder, “How did we not think of this before?”
Resources and links
Aaron’s book, Mission Design with @IVPress
Aaron's Website: Jews for Jesus
Follow SLI: @spiritualleadershipinc
This episode is brought to you by Spiritual Leadership, Inc
Head to spiritual-leadership.org to take a look at resources for ministry leaders.
21 Jul 2026
When Work Hurts and Finding God in the Middle of it with Meryl Herr
Have you ever wondered, “If this is what I'm called to do, why does it hurt so much?”
Work can shape us, stretch us, and give us purpose. But it can also leave us disappointed, disillusioned, discouraged, or devastated. And when our work is connected to our sense of calling, work hurt can feel deeply personal.
In this episode Lindsay connects with Meryl Herr, author of When Work Hurts, to talk about the pain we experience in our work and what faithfulness looks like in the middle of it.
Meryl helps us name the different ways work hurt shows up and invites us to consider how our work can become intertwined with our identity and our sense of worth.
Takeaways
The four kinds of hurt and why knowing which one you’re experiencing matters.
How naming our work hurt can be a first step toward healing and resilience
What everyday faithfulness looks like in the middle of hardship
Practical ways to practice job crafting and reclaim agency
The danger of conflating our worth with our job
Why dealing with our work hurt is an important part of faithful discipleship
Episode field note: Meryl suggests we deal with our work hurt.
Chances are, you have work hurt. Take some time to reflect on your work hurt. What happened? What did it stir up in you? Try using the four categories we talked about (disappointment, disillusionment, devastation, and discouragement) to help you name what you've experienced. And then bring it to God.
Being a leader means going ahead of the people you're leading in the work of your own healing.
Resources and links
Meryl’s book: When Work Hurts
Meryl’s website: https://merylherr.com/
Follow SLI: @spiritualleadershipinc
Head to Spiritual Leadership, Inc to take a look at resources for ministry leaders.
11 May 2026
Leading in the Direction of Relationship with Wendy Hu-Au
Summary
In this conversation, Pastor Wendy Hu-Au invites us into the story beneath the title—her unexpected and deeply formative journey into serving as senior pastor at Metro Hope Church. What emerges isn’t just a leadership story, but a picture of what happens when faith is lived in real community.
We talk about the early moments that shaped her, the people who formed her, and why she’s so drawn to the idea of microchurches—not as a strategy, but as a way of being with people. Wendy keeps bringing us back to this: transformation happens in proximity, in honest relationships, in showing up.
She names the tension of leadership with refreshing honesty—the vulnerability it requires, the questions it surfaces, and the courage it takes to stay open when easy answers aren’t there. And woven throughout is this quiet but steady conviction: the church has a role to play in pushing back against what diminishes people and partnering in what brings life.
Takeaways
The gospel has to touch real life, or it’s not good news yet.
Faithful leadership stays open, even when the answers have not been revealed yet.
Resisting empire involves creating inclusive spaces for marginalized voices.
Episode field note: Leading Without All the Answers
There’s a moment in leadership most people try to avoid, but most of us live in: I don’t know.
The world is not getting simpler. And leadership that depends on certainty is going to keep collapsing under the weight of real life.
Maybe faithful leadership isn’t about closing the gap between question and answer. Maybe it’s about becoming the kind of person who can stay in the gap—and not leave others there alone.
Resources and links
Hope Metro Church NYC
Apex for Youth
Follow SLI: @spiritualleadershipinc
Head to Spiritual Leadership, Inc to take a look at resources for ministry leaders.
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
13 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
4 ratings
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