For most pastors, there has never been a year filled with more turmoil, tension, criticism, and anxiety than 2020. Our congregations were divided by politics, masks, in-person gatherings, and the appropriate reactions to racism in our country. Pastors struggled with preaching through cameras to invisible congregations while making impossible decisions, where any choice would disrupt half the church. 2020 was filled with leadership anxiety, and many of us were never fully equipped to manage it well. In this episode of Craft & Character, author and pastor Steve Cuss talks with Steve Carter about his book Managing Leadership Anxiety. They review what anxiety actually is and how to best take care of your personal struggles while shepherding your congregation through worry and anxiety.
Steve Cuss grew up in Perth, Western Australia, and came to the United States to study theology. He and his wife Lisa have two sons and a daughter. Steve holds a Master of Divinity from Emmanuel Christian Seminary and is a spiritual care professional in the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. Since 2005, Steve has served as Lead Pastor of Discovery Christian Church in Broomfield, Colorado. DCC is an innovative and entrepreneurial church that intentionally welcomes spiritual seekers and skeptics and is passionate about partnerships that break the local and global poverty cycle.
Steve previously served at a megachurch in Las Vegas, as a chaplain at a level-one trauma hospital, on a ranch for struggling teens, and as a youth minister in the Appalachian region. His passion is to help leaders notice, name, and move through the pressures and anxieties inside them and around them to encounter the grace of God in deeper ways and build healthy team cultures. When Steve is not working, you can find him laughing with his family, knee-deep in a trout stream, or trying a guitar he cannot afford at a local music store.
Steve Carter is the Lead Pastor at Christ Church of Oak Brook and is helping to champion the Preaching Institute to equip pastors on how to preach hospitable and transformational messages. Steve hosts the Craft and Character Podcast, which ignites preachers to grow in their craft while always intentionally working to have their character lead the way. He has also authored two best-selling books, Grieve, Breathe, Receive, and The Thing Beneath The Thing. Steve lives outside Chicago with his wife, Sarah, and their two kids. When Steve isn’t hanging around with his family, friends, or church community, you will probably find him watching a University of Michigan football game.
