Why Healthy Leadership Can't Be Rushed: Chris Vacher On His New book The Long Way To Lead

Chris Vacher returns to The Sowers Podcast (episode 127) to talk about his new book, The Long Way to Lead, and the central image that shapes the whole book: a maple tree. A tree only grows outward in healthy ways when it's healthy on the inside first — and Chris believes leadership works the same way.In this conversation, Chris and Matt dig into:+ Why Chris chose a maple tree (and real maple syrup taps on his own property) as the central metaphor for leadership growth+ His definition of leadership: godly influence towards God's agenda+ What leadership isn't — organizational power, positional authority, charismatic personality+ The four dimensions at the "trunk" of leadership: character, competency, credibility, and chemistry+ Why chemistry on a team isn't about being friends, but about whether you make the team better+ The "knots and scars" every leader carries, and a vulnerable story from Chris's own performance review+ The five directions leadership shows up outwardly: spiritual, personal, relational, ministry, and strategic leadership+ How spiritual gifts relate to leadership capacity+ How churches and teams can use the book's discussion questions, the Leader360 process, and the free team kickstart resourcesGuest Bio Chris Vacher spent 20 years in local church ministry leadership in the Greater Toronto Area, serving in worship, multisite, and executive pastor roles in churches of different shapes and sizes. Most of what he knows about leadership he learned in those years, some of it the hard way, from the people he led and the people who led him.In 2022 he began coaching and consulting as his full-time focus, leading to the founding of Clearway Church Solutions, where he works alongside pastors and church teams to build the foundations and frameworks that take a church from vision to strategy to execution. His work with churches across Canada and the United States includes executive coaching, strategic planning, fractional executive pastor leadership, and Leader360, the full-circle feedback process built on the same Five Directions described in the book.He holds a Master of Arts in Leadership from Trinity Western University, where his research focused on how effective leaders actually behave rather than on how they think about leadership. Chris and his wife, Sonya, live in Ontario, Canada, with their four kids.Get the book, team kickstart video, and workshop info: https://www.thelongwaytolead.com https://www.amazon.ca/Long-Way-Lead-P... #ChurchLeadership #PastorPodcast #TheLongWayToLead #ChrisVacher #TheSowersPodcast