65 | Dr. Dharius Daniels – Consistent Leadership

Summary

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GrowLeader Podcast Episode 65 | Dr. Dharius Daniels – Consistent Leadership

Date: November 4, 2024
Host: Pastor Chris Hodges
Guest: Dr. Dharius Daniels
Theme: Consistent Leadership: Practical Habits and Disciplines for Effective Ministry

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Episode Overview

This episode features Dr. Dharius Daniels, a seasoned pastor, church planter, and leadership thinker, as he joins Pastor Chris Hodges for an in-depth conversation about leading with consistency and intentionality. The discussion covers Dharius’ journey in ministry, habits for consistent growth, effective sermon prep routines, developing a leadership voice, and a unique approach to men’s discipleship. The tone is conversational, candid, and rich with both personal stories and actionable advice.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Highlands College and the Value of Practitioner Leadership

• Chris Hodges shares the Highlands College distinctives: learning not only from excellent faculty but also from leading practitioners (e.g., Craig Groeschel, Cece Winans).
• Dr. Daniels reflects on visiting Highlands:
  “It's literally, I feel like the Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon's Temple...my breath was taken away.” (02:19)

2. Dr. Dharius Daniels’ Background & Ministry Journey

• Origin Story: Grew up in small-town Mississippi (Kill Michael, MS), son of a bivocational pastor, and intended to be a lawyer before feeling called to ministry.
• Education: Millsaps College (Political Science/Basketball), Princeton Seminary, later Doctorate from Fuller Seminary.
• Church Planting: Inspired to church plant by Dr. Darrell Guder at Princeton.
  “I felt like this is the Northeast, is a mission field, and I feel called to be a missionary here.” (06:07)
• Current Ministry: Planted and leads multiple locations in NJ and Atlanta.

3. From Preaching to Leadership: Recognizing the Need for Growth

• Dr. Daniels recounts realizing preaching alone wasn’t moving the church vision forward:
  “Disciple making through teaching, preaching across the pulpit was not moving the needle… It was developing people, but it wasn’t developing vision. So I needed to learn the leadership skill.” (07:15)
• Attended Fuller for further leadership development.

4. Communication: Message vs. Messaging

• Dr. Daniels is called “one of the best communicators” by Pastor Chris. He unpacks his philosophy:
  “The messaging is just as important as the message... The message is the content. The messaging is the delivery system, is the way you deliver it.” (10:03)
• Sticky Statements: Developing memorable phrases framed to stick.
  Ex: “When prayer walks in, worry walks out.” (11:04)

5. Developing Your Own Voice as a Communicator

• Dr. Daniels explains the organic process of finding one’s voice:
  “The voices that I was kind of organically attracted to were some of the voices that God wanted to use to influence and to shape my voice, which is probably a compilation of different influences and kind of my own personality.” (12:25)
• Practical Tip: Listen to many sermons/styles, but expect your own voice to emerge over time.

6. Daily and Weekly Disciplines for Consistent Leadership

• After a health scare (panic attack in 2014), Dr. Daniels built an “ideal week,” inspired by the creation narrative and practical input from other leaders.
• Structured Week:
  • Motionless Monday: Sabbath
  • Tactical & Touch Tuesday: Strategic meetings and leadership touchpoints
    • Five questions for direct reports (How are you? How are your people? How are your projects? What challenges do you face? What do you foresee?) (15:29)
  • Writing Wednesday: Sermon & content creation
  • Thinking Thursday: Creativity and problem-solving; sometimes off-site for perspective

    “I want to use technology for storage, my brain for creativity.” (21:51)

  • Filming Friday: Recording content for church/coaching/programs; always scripted/prepared
  • Semi-slow Saturday: Rest, family time; quieting the soul before Sunday
  • Sunday: Multiple services; “physically and emotionally charged up” from intentional rest (25:43)

7. Sermon Prep, Filing, and the ‘Pantry’ Principle

• Both Dr. Daniels and Pastor Chris maintain robust systems for sermon ideas.

  “Studying is like filling your pantry full of food that you’re going to cook one day.” – Pastor Chris (17:56)

• Strategic study: “I am studying knowing the subjects that I’m going to be teaching about...I’m not just doing random reading.” (19:05)
• Importance of having sermon ideas ‘in the pantry’ for future series or teachings.

8. Discipling Men: The Made Men Program

• Dr. Daniels describes his church’s men’s ministry, “Made Men” — a rigorous, 12-week discipleship intensive.

  “Every man here is a part of our men’s ministry. Every man here is not a made man.” (28:17)

• Structure: 12-week cohort, strict attendance, accountability exams, community service, and active participation.
• Curriculum is intentionally high-challenge, inspired in part by West Point basic training.
• Focus on practical leadership in the family and spiritual headship:

  “We deal with what it actually looks like to lead your home...spiritually, which is where a lot of men struggle.” (30:43)

• Transformation stories: “One lady was just telling me...my husband said, ‘Wait, let me pray for you.’ I was like, who are you?” (31:25)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “When you say something that matters, you should say it in a way that makes it memorable.”
  – Dr. Dharius Daniels (10:03)

• “I want to use technology for storage, my brain for creativity.”
  – Dr. Dharius Daniels (21:51)

• “Studying is like filling your pantry full of food that you’re going to cook one day.”
  – Pastor Chris Hodges (17:56)

• “Every man here is a part of our men’s ministry. Every man here is not a made man.”
  – Dr. Dharius Daniels (28:17)

• “Disciple making through teaching, preaching...was not moving the needle… I had to learn the leadership skill.”
  – Dr. Dharius Daniels (07:15)

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Important Timestamps

• 02:19 – Dr. Daniels’ first impressions of Highlands College
• 06:07 – Church planting in Princeton/Northeast
• 07:15 – The need for leadership growth, not just preaching
• 10:03 – Messaging vs. message; sticky statements
• 12:25 – Finding your voice as a communicator
• 15:29 – Week structure and direct report questions
• 17:56 – Filing sermon ideas and the ‘pantry’ metaphor
• 21:51 – Using technology for storage, brain for creativity
• 28:17 – Description of “Made Men” and high-challenge discipleship for men
• 30:43 – Leading family spiritually as a man

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Episode Flow & Tone

The conversation is lively, practical, and honest, with both Chris Hodges and Dharius Daniels sharing from personal experience and encouraging leaders to pursue healthy rhythms, self-leadership, and intentional spiritual growth. There’s a strong undercurrent of humility and the desire to learn from others, regardless of their background or context.

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Summary for Listeners

This episode offers a masterclass in consistent leadership, highlighting how discipline, intentional structure, thoughtful communication, and real accountability foster transformation. Dr. Dharius Daniels’ personal testimony and practical systems provide a blueprint for any leader eager to grow — in preaching, leading, or discipling others. The “Made Men” program in particular offers an inspiring model for ministering to men in a way that genuinely changes lives and families.

Key Takeaways:

• Consistency requires structure and margin
• Great communication is both content and delivery
• Leaders grow by learning from both success and discomfort
• Discipling men requires challenge, clarity, and accountability
• Always be filling your ‘pantry’ with insights and ideas — and know where to find them when needed

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For further resources and to watch Dr. Daniels’ chapel message:
Visit the Highlands College YouTube Channel and growleader.com/podcast.

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Transcript

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

He could have said, come, be my disciple. He says, come follow me and I'll make you a fisher of men. What you just did with fish. If you follow me, I'll show you how to do that with men. Because when you say something that matters, you should say it in a way that makes it memorable.

[Matt]

Hey, everybody, and welcome to the Grow Leader Podcast, where we grow leaders that grow churches by helping them reach their full potential. So glad to have you with us today. My name is Matt. If you're brand new to us, we're glad to have you here, sitting right beside the chancellor of Highlands College. You have your chancellor jacket on.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah. Because today is chapel. And anyway, I kind of like dressing like this anyway. Good. I've heard some pastors call my. My sport coats the Birmingham Blazer, which.

[Matt]

Which fits for us because our local college, their mascot is the Blazers. And so it's a. It's great. That is your Birmingham Blazer. You're doing great.

[Pastor Chris]

I like the Birmingham Blazer. And we had amazing, amazing chapel service today. In fact, it wasn't just the chapel service. One of the distinctives of Highlands College is that we have an in residence program so that our students aren't just learning from our very, very excellent faculty and staff. But I personally believe that students need more than theoreticians and just a bunch of smart people. They need practitioners. And not even just practitioners, but the industry leaders. And so we bring in people like Craig Groeschel and cece Winans and Chris Tomlin and Bobby Gruenwall, who created the YouVersion app, and many, many, many others. Dr. Henry Cloud. Others. To bring in an expertise and really rub shoulders with our students so they not only speak in the chapel services, but they also teach in our classes and spend time with students. And today I have a very, very dear friend of mine, someone that I have just the utmost respect for. And that is. I call him the real triple. Triple D. You know, it's not Diners Drive ins and dives. It's Dr. D. Darius Daniels. Welcome, my friend.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

I'm excited to be here. Triple D. I'm going to take it. Yes. I'm going to take it. This has been. It's been an amazing day.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah, Tell. I mean, they always hear from me what I think about it, but of course, I'm attached to it, but just kind of download the experience to those that are listening right now.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Literally, I think it was 2021 when I came and this was. Highlands College was a vision, and I knew it was gonna be great. But to Come and to see it today and not just see the facilities, but to experience the environment, the enthusiasm of the students, the community that's being built. It's literally, I feel like the Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon's Temple in First Kings 10 is like my breath was taken away. Like, I knew it was gonna be great. I just didn't know it was going to be this great. And like, this is something I'm literally walking around. I was like, so how much money am I going to give to this? I got to give to this. You can't. When you see something like this, you see God's hand is on this, and you just want to get behind it and invest in it and have a small part to play in what God's doing here. It's. Well, it's amazing.

[Pastor Chris]

We're very proud to have you as a professor in residence, an influencer in residence, we're calling it, with your day here. And you're a very well educated person yourself. And of course, you know the philosophy of how we train students here, that we're not only giving them great academic instruction and this bachelor's degree, but also just pouring into them from this mentoring standpoint. Let people get to know you a little bit. So let's just say there are some pastors, I can't imagine someone listening who didn't know who you were, but kind of give us the quick resume of not only your church life, how you were raised, but also your education.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yep. So long story short, grew up in a small town. Right now it's 500 people. It's like 800 people. And I grew up there. Kill Michael, Mississippi. Literally one doctor. Seriously, like the town doctor. If he wasn't at the clinic, you.

[Pastor Chris]

Just go to his house. That's great.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

So I grew up there, went to a small liberal arts school in Jackson, Mississippi. Played basketball there called Millsaps College. Had all intentions of being a lawyer major's political science. Gonna go into about sophomore year. God started tugging on my heart about ministry. My father was a pastor. He's bivocational. Well, during the day, pastor in the evening. It's just a direction I didn't want to go. He was a great example. I didn't have interest in it. And long story short, by the time my senior year came around, I surrendered law school as an Isaac and made a decision. I was going to spend the rest of my life serving God and serving his church. And my dad told me something. He said, part of your call to ministry is a call to preparation. And that is what made me make the decision to say, hey, okay, my next step's gonna be seminary. So went to Princeton for seminary, got inspired with this professor.

[Pastor Chris]

What was that experience like going to an Ivy League school for seminary?

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

You know, it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, because I think one thing people need to know about Princeton, it is a seminary versus the divinity school, and.

[Pastor Chris]

At one time, one of the best.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

100% in the nation. So it is not as it is. I wouldn't put it in the same category as some other institutions that are divinity schools where you may have people there who are studying religion for different faiths, being a Christian. So creed is a requirement for admission there. So it was. I had some really great professors, and it was one professor that was actually responsible for my inspiration to be a church planter.

[Pastor Chris]

Really?

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yep. His name was Dr. Darrell Guder. And I was sitting in his class, and he inspired me to be a church planter. And I took. As a matter of fact, when I. Here's how things worked full circle a few years ago, I was an adjunct professor there, and it was because of him that I became an adjunct professor. I worked in his department, hopefully trying to inspire students to do the same thing that he did for me. And long story short, I got inspired to plant a church. We planted it a year after I graduated from seminary there.

[Pastor Chris]

And didn't you plant it right there in the Princeton area?

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Sure did.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yep. I felt like a. Because I came from Mississippi, and I'm looking around and I was like, I feel called. I feel like this is the Northeast, is a mission field, and I feel called to be a missionary here. So we're going to plant it right here. And that's what we did. And we were there with a location in Central Jersey, then South Jersey for about 15 years or so. And in 2022, we planted in Atlanta, Georgia, and that kind of became headquarters, obviously skipping over a number of details. And so now we've got our loc. We will have two really soon in Atlanta and two in New Jersey. And we're just trying to steward it. Well, that's awesome.

[Pastor Chris]

That's awesome. But you also went to Fuller for your doctorate. Talk about that just for a second.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yeah. I think I was in the. I don't know. I may have been, like, three years into the church plant. And I realized that, long story short, I want to frame this the right way, but I realized the vision that God had put in my heart for our church could not be manifest. I couldn't preach my way into that vision. There's no amount.

[Pastor Chris]

Explain that. You lost me there.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Go ahead. So. Meaning that disciple making through teaching, preaching the gospel across the pulpit was not moving the needle in terms of the vision God gave me for the church. It was developing people, but it wasn't developing vision. So I needed to learn the leadership skill.

[Pastor Chris]

Okay. Wow.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

That. I couldn't. I couldn't preach our way there. I had to learn to lead well. And I saw that was kind of the ceiling that was keeping us from scaling the vision God had given me.

[Pastor Chris]

So I want to come back to that, because I think you're an exceptional leader now. But the fact that you say, you know, the preaching was natural. Is that what you were saying? The preaching? Like, I can do that. The leading's another thing. Let's come back to that. Because we're the Grow Leader Podcast, and we help churches reach their full potential.

[Matt]

We believe in leaders growing.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yeah.

[Pastor Chris]

We want to. We think when leaders grow and when leaders get better and churches get better, then the Great Commission happens. So I want to come back to that. But you are an exceptional communicator, and I don't throw that out just to flatter you. I genuinely believe you're one of the best at just taking thought. Just the way you develop it and the way you communicate, it's masterful, my friend, what you did today in chapel. In fact, if you guys want to see what Darius did today in chapel, we have all this on our YouTube channel for the college. It was just so good. I want you to help the pastors that are listening. Is there anything. I mean, is this just a gift and I can't teach it to you, or what can you teach about message prep and message delivery?

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yep. So in terms of the delivery, I can start there.

[Pastor Chris]

Okay.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

I think now, I learned this from Jesus. Right. So take notes when somebody says, I learned this from Jesus, I learned this from Jesus.

[Matt]

Stop right there.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Not, like, personally, but, like, Jesus didn't. Jesus didn't sit down and tell me this, but I'm watching how he communicated. So my passion. Let me say this passion for communication happened in. I was 19 years old. It was right around the time I was getting called to ministry. I went through just a really rough season in college, and my friend invited me to this Bible study PC. It might have been 12 people at the Bible study, and most of us were college students, so we broke. But this man, the way he taught, and I'm not even talking about, like, passion. His name is Keith Quinn, he taught his preparation, the persuasiveness. It, like, literally, he rocked my world with words. And I just knew. I went in that Bible study feeling bad each week. And each week, it was like he was teaching me out of that sunken place. And so I think that's part of what God used for my calling. And I said, what Keith Quinn did for me, I want to do for other people. I want to rock their world with words. And so I became super intentional about it. And here's what I saw, that the messaging is just as important as the message.

[Pastor Chris]

Okay, break.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

The message is the content. The messaging is the delivery system, is the way you deliver it. And it is something I saw with Jesus. Let's take something just as simple as him inviting Peter to be an apprentice and a disciple of his. He could have said, come, be my disciple. He says, come, follow me, and I'll make you a fisher of men. What you just did with fish, if you follow me, I'll show you how to do that with men. Because when you say something that matters, you should say it in a way that makes it memorable. So I started working on what I call sticky statements.

[Pastor Chris]

Okay.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

How can I frame thoughts in a way, like, with phraseology? If it's something that matters, how can I say it in a way that makes it memorable? And that's something I probably started working on.

[Pastor Chris]

And is that just sitting there, just thinking about it, or have you developed some techniques and some.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

I've developed some frameworks, some hacks. You know, basically, I've developed some frameworks. So, like, one example would be. So, like, I feel like if you come up with one framework, you can come up with some others. Right. So one framework is. I call it the walk in, walk out framework. When blank walks in, blank walks out. So I can do that. So if I can say. If I can say, hey, when prayer walks in, where he walks out, so you can fill in those blanks with those words. So there's some frameworks that I've developed, and then just over time, I think some of it becomes easier and a little more natural. So I probably think that's one of the most important things to me. Obviously, the message is important, but I work really hard on the messaging.

[Pastor Chris]

Go ahead, Matt.

[Matt]

How did you. Because I've seen you environ. First of all, one of the things I love about you is you're the exact same at this table as you are in an arena with 16,000 students.

[Pastor Chris]

Okay.

[Matt]

The communication, tone, rhythm. But you definitely have found your own voice in Communication. And I think that a lot of times, you know, imitation is the first step to creativity. But for both of you. Pastor Chris, I'd love to know for you, too, for the communicators, what are some things that you went through to kind of develop your own voice?

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Because you.

[Matt]

You don't get loud. In fact, you have such a conversational volume when you speak, everybody leans in like, okay, what's he going to say next? Where did you learn that? How do communicators continue to find their own voice when they do communicate?

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Well, I think one of the things that you just said, I don't think I started out with my own voice, if that makes sense. You know, probably none of us did, but I do think there's something super unique about the voices you're attracted to. Does that make sense? So even though I didn't start out with my own voice, I wasn't attracted to everyone else's voice. I didn't try to emulate everyone else's voice. And what I realized is that the voices that I was kind of organically attracted to were some of the voices that God wanted to use to influence and to shape my voice, which is probably a compilation of different influences and kind of my own personality. So I just think it's not something I could say that when I look back, I tried to find my own voice. I feel like I just woke up one day and I'd found it, if that makes sense.

[Pastor Chris]

And they definitely. The people you listen to. Definitely. And you obviously listen to a lot of sermons, not just. Not just preparing them yourselves. Right. I mean, that's what I do. I probably. I probably listen to 15 to 20 sermons a week.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yeah.

[Pastor Chris]

How many do you listen to? I mean, not that many.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

I would probably say at this point, I'm probably listening to one to two.

[Pastor Chris]

Okay. Yeah. But I mean, I think it's a great. Especially for those who are trying to develop speaking is just like, you know, have a lot in the download side of this, and you'll be attracted to certain styles. And I have a few that I could never do it, but I still like listening to them when I'm listening to them, thinking, I could never do that. So I'm just enjoying enjoying that.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

But.

[Pastor Chris]

But in all of that, it still comes down to what your, you know, your daily disciplines, you said, I. I spent a lot of time. Have this. This process. Talk about when it is. I mean, probably one of the biggest questions I get from pastors, especially when we're in the roundtable setting and You've been in some of my, my roundtables is, is they want it broken down to what time is it every day. What did you do before that? What did you do after that? Can you, can you, can you talk about your disciplines a little bit? Because I think personally knowing you the way I know you, I think it's one of your greatest gifts is that you're a very principled and very disciplined person. So talk about your daily disciplines and where sermon prep fits into your day.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yeah. So long story short, I think at chapel today, I told the story about an incident that I had in 2014, that panic attack. Right. So after that I just went through some time with therapist and coach. And what I ended up creating was something called an ideal week based off of the creation narrative. God did certain things on certain days. And then we were in a roundtable one time around and God had orchestrated this. He's so sovereign. And you were talking about, I think somebody asked you a question, PC about like your week and you were like, you'd be really bored. Like, you would be very unimpressed or something like that. If I told you in my week, he's like, cause I do the same thing pretty much for the most part all the time. And so that's when I went to the book of Genesis and I said, hey, God did certain things on certain days. This is how I'm about to align my life. And literally that's what I've got. Like, I got a whole framework for it.

[Pastor Chris]

Can you share it?

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yeah. Motionless Monday. So Monday is my Sabbath. Tactical. And touch Tuesday. So Tuesday is I'm using the part of my brain that's strategic for meetings. So I'm meeting with my senior leadership team. I'm meeting with my directional leadership team. Part of that is leadership development. That's what I call touch. And then I'm doing a few one on ones. I'm touching my direct reports and it's a framework for that meeting. How are you doing? How are your people doing? How are your projects going? What challenges do you currently face? What challenges do you foresee? So those are the five questions I'm asking. My direct reports on Tuesdays and then it's writing Wednesday. So Wednesday is dedicated to writing the content for sermons and things.

[Pastor Chris]

How many of you, how many are you working on at one time?

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Sermons? Yeah, I'm writing one on Wednesday, but like, God knows how many swirling around my head. And sometimes when I'm writing one for, let's say this coming Sunday, I might get a thought for the next Sunday.

[Pastor Chris]

Exactly.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

And I start writing that so that I'm not starting from scratch the next day.

[Pastor Chris]

I think that's one of the things pastors miss is study doesn't just have to be for the next thing you're doing. When you read the Bible and you get a thought, the main thing is to get it somewhere where you can find it whenever that week rolls around, because you'll be in those places where you're studying. You're thinking, oh, wait a minute. Like three weeks ago, I was inspired. I saw that verse. I was doing that this morning. I read a verse this morning out of Philemon. I mean, I mean, I know it was in, you know, the One Year Bible and I'm reading Philemon and as a verse. How do you read the One Year Bible every year for 30 years and still see something? That's the beauty of God's word. But there was a one little sentence in there about it said something like, the importance of sharing your faith to be able to experience the fullness of the goodness of God. Like share. I never attached sharing my faith with knowing all that God has, man. That's why I wrote that down. So, I mean, next time I'm going to talk about sharing our faith, which is. I don't even know when that is.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yeah.

[Pastor Chris]

But I filed it, put it in a place, you know, on evangelism or sharing our faith.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yeah.

[Pastor Chris]

So next time when I'm studying it, it's sitting there, waking, waiting for me. Yeah.

[Matt]

And you've even described it as a metaphor. It's a cupboard. Can I keep the cupboards stopped all the time.

[Pastor Chris]

Where.

[Matt]

When I need something, I know where it is. I think both of you probably have great filing systems, like, personally that you're using.

[Pastor Chris]

Yes. Studying. Studying is like filling your pantry full of food that you're going to cook one day.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

I like that.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah. So. And the fuller the pantry is, the less you have to shop.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yes.

[Pastor Chris]

Whenever you are actually preparing a message. But go on. I could talk about this all day.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

I just took that. I just took that. I'm using that. I love that.

[Pastor Chris]

That's so good.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yeah, that. That was like a mindset shift for me. Just fill the pantry.

[Pastor Chris]

Fill the pantry.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yeah. You don't know when you're needing.

[Pastor Chris]

The secret to the pantry is you gotta be able to know where to find it. Whenever you do want to talk about sharing your Facebook, I'm still Amazon Prime.

[Matt]

I'm like, I need this in two days.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

When's the show?

[Pastor Chris]

Exactly. All right, so you're doing most of your sermon prep and studying on Wednesday. And is that an all day? What does that look like?

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

It actually doesn't take me all day because here's the thing that I do when I take some time off in the summer. So let's say if I took some time off in the summer, 20, 25, which I do my summer sabbatical, close to the end of the summer, I'm working on my preaching calendar for 26.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

And so I have never, like, mapped out an entire year in the summer. I don't do that. But whatever comes to me during that time, I'm mapping out.

[Matt]

That's great.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

So in my study, it's reverse engineering. I am studying knowing the subjects that I'm going to be teaching about. So if I know I'm going to be teaching on the Holy Spirit, I'm doing what I call strategic study. I'm not just doing random reading. What is it? I am studying strategically, knowing, hey, let me fill my pantry.

[Pastor Chris]

Exactly.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

With insight and revelation on the Holy Spirit. So that when I sit down on Wednesdays, when it's time to do the series and I sit down on Wednesdays to write, I have a pantry I can pull from. I'm not.

[Pastor Chris]

That's exactly.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

I'm really organizing content and not necessarily creating content. So it takes me, you know, probably three, four hours.

[Pastor Chris]

That's awesome.

[Matt]

But you stack the dominoes, as you would call it. You already know where you're going.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah. Even if you don't know what series it's going to be called thematically. I know.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yeah.

[Pastor Chris]

In February, we're going to do something around relationship. So every time I study and something comes. Relationships, then I'm just going to go throw it in the pantry, you know, section of the pantry where I can find that. So when February rolls around, you know, the way I say it is, is I don't. I don't really study outside of what I've already studied. I can just. I'm actually drawing from my own, you know, the. The gold that I've mined and stored somewhere. So. All right, so we have writing Wednesday.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Writing Wednesday, thinking Thursday.

[Pastor Chris]

Okay.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

And that is just the day that is dedicated just to think. Now, one Thursday a month, I'm gonna step into what's called a creative meeting, where my team is gonna present me ideas and I do our all staff one Thursday a month, which is more pastoral development with them. But other than that, it is a time where I am thinking through most of the time, organizational challenges at home, I'M at home.

[Pastor Chris]

Okay.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yeah, I'm at home or somewhere else I wanna be.

[Pastor Chris]

Okay.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yeah, it could be topgolf. It could be whatever. I've learned this thing recently called spiritual temperaments and sacred pathways. And even though I'm not a naturist environment changes opened me up mentally in a different kind of way. So sometimes I have to, like, get away from my home.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah. I've heard it said, change of pace plus change of place equals a change of perspective.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yeah.

[Pastor Chris]

So just mix it up a little bit.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

So that's it. Is. Hey, is there any work? I just need to catch up on any problem we're dealing with organizationally or if it's not problem, where do I want to get ahead? Initiatives change.

[Pastor Chris]

Now, do you go in with an agenda in mind, like, I know what I'm going to think about, or do you just let it just come to you?

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

It's kind of a little bit of both. So, generally speaking, there are things I have like this app, and on this app I have what's called a master list, because my philosophy is I want to use technology for storage, I want to use my brain for creativity. So I don't want to say that again.

[Pastor Chris]

Say that again.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

I want to use technology for storage, my brain for creativity, so I don't want to have to try to remember what problem I need to solve, what initiative I need to flesh out, what resource I want to create. When I get that, I got something called a master list, I just dump it in there. So when I'm going into thinking Thursday, I'm pulling some things off of that list, if that makes sense. And I don't always know going into Thursday what I'm going to work on. But I know it's going to be something on that list that I'm going to give attention to.

[Pastor Chris]

Probably an area that most pastors don't do and they probably should do. Right. Is actually they're so busy doing the next thing that they know is coming that they don't take time just to pause and think. Wouldn't you agree? I mean.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Well, I know it's important. It's important for me because I feel like I was always. There was a season where I was always reacting.

[Pastor Chris]

Yep.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

And I felt like a firefighter and not a visionary. So I'm always putting out fires, but I wasn't dreaming and building and getting ahead. And so I know for me it's been a game changer.

[Pastor Chris]

That's awesome. Okay, we have thinking Thursday.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yep. And then I have filming Friday. And So Friday is when I'm gonna do all of my filming. So if it's Bible studies, if it's curriculums for the church, if it's programs for content, for my coaching programs, everything's gonna be done there. So I go from 12 to 1, I take a break from 1 to 2, then I go from 2 to 3:30, and then I go home. If it's football season, I'm taking a nap, and then I gotta go to my son's game Friday night. If it's not football season, then I'm just kind of with the wife or with friends.

[Pastor Chris]

On Friday night, when you do filming, are you using teleprompter? Do you take the time to script, or can you just do it just off the cuff?

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

No, it is not off the cuff.

[Pastor Chris]

Okay. I can't do that.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yeah, it is not off the cuff.

[Pastor Chris]

Matt spent a lot of time putting things into script and writing it in a way where. Where it's not how you read, it's how you speak. So it feels natural. 100%, man. It'll save you so much time in the studio if you do it that way.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yes. Yeah. And I feel better about the quality of what I'm producing when I'm prepared and organized, et cetera. So that's Friday, and then I've got semi slow Saturday. And it means if I've got an event or something like that at the church, then I participate in that. But other than that, Saturday's just kind of semi slow. I'm watching football games. Or if there's something I need to do before Sunday, I'll do that. But other than that.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah, I call it quieting my soul. I like that right before because really, the energy and the emotion and the spiritual focus and all of that that it takes to, you know, to serve people well and serve God well on a Sunday, man, if you don't come in replenished in some way. And I think the only way to really do it is just not to have a crazy full Saturday. In fact, I even have to think about, you know, the types of foods that I eat on a Saturday. It's probably the only day you think. You think about it every day, obviously, and I obviously don't. But I'm probably more like Darius Daniels on Saturday when it comes to my eating. Because even, like, dairy stuff and all that is not good for, you know, your voice. And so I'm really. It's the only day I'm kind of conscious about it, but. But it is, I think. But I Never thought about it in the concept of semi slow. Just, man, I'm just got to. I've got to. I got to make sure I'm paced well so I can leave it all out on the field on Sunday. So talk to us. What does Sundays look like?

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Sunday's a marathon right now for us, our Atlanta location. So it is. I've got a service at 8:30, 10:00', clock, 11:45, 1:30. So that is. That's every Sunday right now.

[Matt]

That's right.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yeah. That's a day. But I mean, it's cool. I think one of the things that helps is Saturday because I am, like, physically, I'm recharged, but also mentally PC, I'm not dealing with a lot of stuff that's gonna take me out of a positive vibe. I want to come in Sunday full of faith, excited about what God is doing, et cetera. So I feel like I'm emotionally charged up, as you know, as well.

[Pastor Chris]

So, guys, please go listen to some of the messages. You can find them. Of course, you can find them on all the places where messages are. I want to spend the last few minutes talking about a part of your church. I always say that every church, every church has something that they do better than you. So no matter what size the church is, I'll go try to find the one best practice of that church that I think separates them from everybody else. And I think when you go into other churches with that attitude, by the way, too, that, man, they can teach me something. And going to every leader and saying, look, they may not be able to teach me everything, but they can teach me this because there is a best practice. And I always say, darius, they're better than we are at that. For now. I like that because I'm going to learn it and come and try to perfect it, and then they'll come learn it, relearn it from me. But I think one of the best things you guys do is your discipleship to men. I mean, I know enough about this. We were talking about it at lunch today that you. In fact, I asked you straight up, I said, what is the best thing you guys do? And you said, man, PC we can disciple some men. Just give us a little nugget. We don't have a whole lot of time, but give us a little taste of what that looks like. Because I think this is something that I think the church needs to be involved more. And that is just organic discipleship. Talk about it a little bit.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Yeah, and so what I'm talking to. Talking about specifically as it relates to what we do with men is. And I won't get into why, but there was this event one time that I was a part of, and it was a number of different, like, tribes and sects there. And it came to me, I said, man, I think we're under challenging men. Yep, we're under challenging men because if they'll do some of this stuff, they'll. They will commit. And so what I didn't want to do is I didn't want to make men who were not ready for a next level kind of commitment feel that they had to rush their process and their spiritual journey. Yet there were men who needed to be challenged more and were ready. So my thought process was, how, besides what we're doing in small groups and things of that particular nature, how can I reach inside the community of faith and pull out men who are ready to be challenged to go deeper? So the name of our men's ministry is called Made Men, based on Genesis 1:26. We believe males are born, men are made. So PC, I created this 12 week intensive discipleship training for men. We call it basic training. But what we tell the men, hey, every man here is a part of our men's ministry. Every man here is not a made man. And what we mean by that is we wanted to say, hey, we want to be made in the image and likeness of God. So we created this 12 week process discipleship journey. And I got inspired a little bit from it by my son's experience at West Point. And I said, hey, this isn't army basic training. This is for Navy Seals. So I created this curriculum. It is 12 weeks, 12 weeks in a row. You only get to miss one. We only open it up once a year. If you miss more than one, you can't finish the cohort. You gotta do it again next year. I love that every man that's on virtual, it's on zoom. Your camera has to be on. If your camera is not on, they're gonna warn you one time, then they're gonna kick you out of the zoom room. You must come on on time. If you come in a minute late, you're not gonna be allowed in the zoom room. And when we break out in small groups to discuss the content, every man has to contribute. Cause as a man, you gotta show up and you gotta know how to speak up. And then at different points in the program, we have accountability exams where they have to take exams to make sure they've comprehended the content. It's open book, but You've gotta take the exams so that we make sure that you're comprehending the content. And then there's a community service hour component.

[Pastor Chris]

There you go.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Where you gotta complete, I think about 30 hours of community service. Come on, man. So this last cohort we had, I don't know, maybe. And we want the completion rate to be small. We maybe had, I think maybe like a thousand men sign up this last time and 300 and something finish. I think the year before that we had like 2,000 sign up and maybe 600 or so finish. I can't remember what the numbers were before. So we just finished our cohort. But what I want to say to, like, the moms and the. The wives in our church is give them to me for 12 weeks. And we can't change everything in his life in 12 weeks. But if he leans in, we will give you back a different man.

[Pastor Chris]

And of all the things. I know we only have like a minute or so, but of all the things that's in those 12 weeks, what is the one thing that you that is resonating the most or that needs to be changed the most or that you feel the most proud of? Of all the things you're working on.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

The man in his family, that's one of the problems a man and his family, because we deal with what it actually looks like to lead your home.

[Pastor Chris]

Let's go.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

Particularly in the area spiritually, which is where I found a lot of men struggle because sometimes they don't even feel like they're in the same place spiritually as the wife is. And so dismantling the view that you have to know more scripture than her to lead spiritually. So I feel like that is where we get the most feedback from men and we get the most feedback from wives about the like, one lady was just telling me not too long ago, she was like, I was getting ready to leave the house, and my husband said, wait, let me pray for you. I was like, who are you?

[Pastor Chris]

I love that. I love that. We need to get you back on just to unpack that whole thing, man. We love it, bro. I love you. I appreciate you so very much. And we have to stop for today because you're due in a class here today for some of our students. And thank you for serving our students here today, too. We're proud to have you as a professor in residence at Highlands College.

[Dr. Darius Daniels]

I'm honored to be here.

[Matt]

Then we'll make sure we link to all things Dr. Darius Daniels in the show notes. Check those [e-mail] podcast we're so grateful you're here today. Hey, don't forget Grow Leader Conference is coming up in the summer. We just sent out registration links. Check and see if there's room. We'd love to have you here and if not, be looking for a regional in a city near you. Grateful you were with us today. We'll see you next time on the Grogan your podcast. Hey everyone. Thank you so much for listening to this episode and also a big thank you to all of our partners that help make the Grow Leader podcast happen. For over 80 years, Wesleyan Investment foundation has helped churches with their borrowing and investing needs. Whether you're dreaming of new opportunities or seeking wise resource management, we think WIF can help you. You can learn more about [e-mail] for over 30 years, One Hope has partnered with churches and ministries to impact the lives of children and youth with the message of the Gospel of Christ. Through collaboration with local communities worldwide, One Hope has reached over 2 billion young people in 112 countries. Discover how you can partner with [e-mail] if you're looking for ways to know your people better and also grow your church at the same time, you need to know about Studio C. Studio C combines strategy, technology, and communications to maximize church member engagement. You can bridge the engagement gap and transform your church's impact with Studio C, and you can learn more about [e-mail] growleader.