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Join Lead Time+ to continue the conversation
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Rev. John Kunze has served Messiah Church and School in Lincoln, Nebraska, for more than 25 years. In this candid conversation, he explains why large congregations face unique ministry challenges—and why he believes their experience, ideas, and missional perspective are often missing from Synod-wide conversations.

John, Tim, and Jack discuss representation at LCMS conventions, the growing complexity of Synod governance, pastoral formation through the SMP program, and the financial and relational realities of leading a large church and school. John also shares a remarkable story of reconciliation with a pastor who once publicly criticized his ministry—offering a hopeful picture of what confession, forgiveness, trust, and genuine unity could look like across the LCMS.

The episode ultimately asks a much bigger question: Can the LCMS stop fighting over ministry differences long enough to learn from one another and reach more people with the Gospel?

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Care about the future of the LCMS?
Join the LCMS Current! (LCMS Current Events Newsletter)
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To learn more, visit uniteleadership.org

Stay up to date by joining the LCMS Current!
(LCMS Current Events Newsletter)

What if your congregation doesn’t need to manufacture more missionaries—but simply learn to recognize the people God has already placed there?

Tardelli Voss joins Tim Ahlman and Jack Kalleberg to share what is happening through the Lutheran Mission Society San Diego. In just three years, the society has begun working with more than 50 everyday missionaries and helped launch over 20 ministries across San Diego and Tijuana. These aren’t all traditional church plants. They include ministries emerging in neighborhoods, jails, military communities, immigrant communities, and even a potential karate-and-catechism class.

Learn more about the Lutheran Mission Society San Diego and support its work at https://www.sdlutherans.org/

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Care about the future of the LCMS?
Join the LCMS Current! (LCMS Current Events Newsletter)
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To learn more, visit uniteleadership.org

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Join Lead Time+ to continue the conversation
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Why are faithful families quietly leaving the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod—even when their children still love Jesus, worship faithfully, and raise their own families in the Christian faith?

Former LCMS President Rev. Dr. Jerry Kieschnick joins Tim Ahlman and Jack Kalleberg for a candid conversation about the future of the LCMS. Jerry shares the message he prepared—but was not given the opportunity to deliver—at the 2026 LCMS Convention. It begins with the story of one LCMS family whose four adult children remain committed Christians, yet none will attend an LCMS congregation.

Can the LCMS remain deeply confessional while becoming more relational, charitable, and missionally focused? Join the conversation—and help us pursue courageous, faithful dialogue for the future of the church.

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Care about the future of the LCMS?
Join the LCMS Current! (LCMS Current Events Newsletter)
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To learn more, visit uniteleadership.org

Lead Time was asked to remove our recent conversation with Casey Salminen concerning Concordia University Ann Arbor. We have done so.

In this personal response, Tim Ahlman addresses the decision, acknowledges what he does and does not know, and reflects on the sadness of conflict and litigation among fellow Christians. He emphasizes that the story of CUAA is complex, that no one should be reduced to either hero or villain, and that he continues to pray for Concordia University Wisconsin and Ann Arbor, their leaders, and everyone affected.

But this response is also about something larger: Should difficult matters within the church be discussed publicly? Tim explains why Lead Time has sought to elevate the voices of pastors, commissioned workers, and lay leaders—even when their stories are uncomfortable.

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Care about the future of the LCMS?
Join the LCMS Current! (LCMS Current Events Newsletter)
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To learn more, visit uniteleadership.org

Lead Time was asked to remove this conversation with Casey Salminen concerning Concordia University Ann Arbor. We have done so.

In this personal response, Tim Ahlman addresses the decision, acknowledges what he does and does not know, and reflects on the sadness of conflict and litigation among fellow Christians. He emphasizes that the story of CUAA is complex, that no one should be reduced to either hero or villain, and that he continues to pray for Concordia University Wisconsin and Ann Arbor, their leaders, and everyone affected.

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Care about the future of the LCMS?
Join the LCMS Current! (LCMS Current Events Newsletter)
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To learn more, visit uniteleadership.org

Stay up to date by joining the LCMS Current!
(LCMS Current Events Newsletter)

What if words Christians use every week—like law, preach, prophecy, confess, obey, sanctification, and sacrament—do not always mean what we assume they mean?

Rev. Dr. Mike Middendorf joins Tim Ahlman and Jack Kalleberg to examine how these familiar theological terms are actually used in Scripture. The conversation challenges the idea that preaching belongs only to pastors, prophecy primarily predicts the future, confession is mostly about admitting sin, and sanctification begins with what Christians accomplish.

They also explore law and Gospel, the priesthood of all believers, Zionism and dispensationalism, the biblical meaning of Israel, the relationship between pastors, elders and deacons, and why careful exegesis matters for the life of the church. Throughout the conversation, one concern rises above the rest: when Christians misunderstand biblical language, the richness of the Gospel can become obscured.

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Care about the future of the LCMS?
Join the LCMS Current! (LCMS Current Events Newsletter)
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To learn more, visit uniteleadership.org

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This story simply must be shared.

Carter Nath was already serving his rural Iowa congregation when its pastor announced his approaching retirement. As two neighboring Lutheran Church Missouri Synod churches searched for a path forward, Carter was willing to pursue pastoral formation and continue serving the people and community he loved. Then he learned that his age could prevent him from entering the Specific Ministry Pastor program.

Carter joins Tim Ahlman and Jack Kalleberg to tell the deeply personal story behind an approaching church closure—and to explain what is truly lost when a rural congregation disappears. This is not merely a conversation about institutional policy. It is about people, communities, pastoral formation, and whether the LCMS can develop faithful local leaders before more Gospel outposts reach their final Sunday.

Carter’s story deserves to be heard by anyone who cares about rural ministry, the pastoral shortage, and the future of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

If you have a story to share, email: tahlman@cglchurch.org

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Care about the future of the LCMS?
Join the LCMS Current! (LCMS Current Events Newsletter)
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To learn more, visit uniteleadership.org

Join Lead Time+ to continue the conversation: https://app.echometric.org/go/lead-time-plus-audio

Learn more about Lead Time+: https://www.uniteleadership.org/support/leadtimeplus

In a hyper-political, post-Christian culture, what is the church actually called to do? Should Christians retreat from the world, fight to reclaim the culture through political power, or continually adapt the church’s message to fit whatever society currently values?

Minnesota South District President Lucas Woodford joins Tim Ahlman and Jack Kalleberg for a wide-ranging conversation about faithful ministry in a rapidly changing America. They explore the dangers of allowing the church to be co-opted by political parties, the difference between healthy contextualization and reshaping Christianity around a target market, and why modern secularism may be less atheistic than it is a return to ancient paganism.

Lucas also explains why Christians are not called to evangelize a collapsing culture, but to bring the hope of Christ to the people living within it. The conversation examines Lutheran worship, cowboy and culturally specific churches, the work of the Holy Spirit, pastoral formation in the LCMS, institutional adaptation, and what it means to be “in the world and of the Word.”

The culture may be changing—but the Word of God still works. Where the Word is sown, its culture is grown.

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Care about the future of the LCMS?
Join the LCMS Current! (LCMS Current Events Newsletter)
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To learn more, visit uniteleadership.org