Summit Podcasts: BACK40, Sermon Audio, and Leadership Night

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The official podcast network of Summit Church. Here you will find The Back40 Leadership Podcast, Sermon Audio, Leadership Night, and much more.

  1. 1d ago

    The Kingdom - Week 2: Mustard Seed & Yeast

    This week Pastor Mel preached the second message in our series called The Kingdom, working from two short parables in Matthew 13, the mustard seed and the yeast. Both begin with something almost too small to notice, and Jesus uses them to show what the kingdom of heaven is like and how it actually grows. Mel drew out four points. The kingdom starts small but grows far beyond what its beginning would suggest. It works from the inside out, the way yeast moves through dough, which means real change begins with a new heart rather than improved behavior; Mel tied this to Ezekiel 36, where God promises to replace a heart of stone with a heart of flesh and put His Spirit within us. The kingdom changes everything it touches, illustrated by the vision in Daniel 2 of a stone that becomes a mountain and fills the whole earth. And a transformed life becomes a shelter for others, echoing the birds that come to nest in the branches of the grown tree. Along the way Mel addresses why Jesus taught in parables, why the mustard seed is not a lesson in botany, and why God is far more interested in a surrendered heart than in outward rule-keeping. Jesus says the kingdom begins like a mustard seed, the smallest of seeds. Mel admitted, "we're not impressed with small starts." Where in your life have you dismissed something as too small to matter to God? What might change if you actually put that small thing in His hands?Jesus compares the kingdom to yeast working quietly through dough. Mel contrasted this with our preference for "outside-in transformation, because we like to measure things." Where are you tempted to work on the outside — behavior, image, effort — while the inside stays the same?In Ezekiel 36 God promises, "I will give you a new heart... and I will put my Spirit in you." Mel pointed out the order: heart first, then obedience, which is the reverse of religion. What would it look like this week to ask God to change your heart rather than just your habits?Mel said Jesus is not interested in making your life "one percent better," but in "taking a dead man and bringing him to life." He warned that a watching world often is not drawn to us because "we lack leaven in our stories, we are largely untransformed." If someone watched your life for a month, would they see evidence of real transformation, or mostly a nicer version of the old you?The grown mustard tree becomes a shelter where "birds of every sort" find rest. Mel asked directly, "Do birds of every kind find shelter in your life, or does everyone in your life look exactly like you?" Name one person unlike you that God might be inviting you toward this week, and take one concrete step to widen your table.

    The Kingdom - Week 2: Mustard Seed & Yeast

  2. Aug 2

    The Kingdom - Week 1: Wheat & Weeds

    This week Pastor Mel opened a new series called The Kingdom with the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds (Matthew 13:24-30, with its explanation in 13:36-43). A farmer plants good seed, but while everyone sleeps an enemy sows weeds among the wheat. When the servants offer to pull them, the farmer refuses and says to let both grow together until the harvest. Here is the tension: there is a weed called darnel — a "false wheat" — that is nearly impossible to tell apart from the real thing until the very end. So how do we live faithfully in a field where wheat and weeds grow side by side? Mel reads the parable on two levels. First, personally: the weeds are the things that quietly grow up in our own lives and choke out what God planted. Second, and more soberly: the field is the world, and it holds true faith and false faith together, which is exactly why we are so slow to judge — "we can't tell. So often we can't tell." Jesus' own interpretation ends with a final separation at the end of the age, when "the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father's kingdom." Mel turns to 1 Corinthians 5 to sort out what judgment is and isn't ours, and closes with the story of a student told to study a single fish — "Look at the fish" — calling us past a surface faith to truly know Jesus. 1. The farmer refuses to rip out the weeds and says to let both grow together until the harvest. Where in your life are you tempted to force a verdict — on yourself or on someone else — that God may be asking you to leave to the harvest? 2. Mel describes the weeds in our own lives as the things that quietly grow up and steal our time and attention from God. What is one weed that has taken root in yours, and what would it look like to name it honestly this week? 3. On judging others, Mel said, "We judge, but we're gonna judge with the best in mind and the best in prayer... with open hands generously." How is that different from the way you are tempted to judge people? Where do you need more open hands? 4. Jesus says the field is the world and the harvest is the end of the age, when "the righteous will shine like the sun." Does the reality of a final sorting comfort you, unsettle you, or both — and why? 5. The message closes with "Look at the fish" — the call to stop settling for knowing about Jesus and to actually know him. Name one specific way this week you will slow down and truly look at Jesus, rather than rushing past him.

    The Kingdom - Week 1: Wheat & Weeds

  3. Jul 26

    Prepare the Way - Week 4 Discussion

    Mel, Joel, and Michael discuss the finale of the Prepare the Way series - Pastor Christina's message on calling. They dig into why God's call rests on relationship with him rather than our talent or gifting - which means everyone is called, both liberating and terrifying - how a vocation differs from a calling, and the humbling truth that God works in spite of us, not because of us. No savior complex, just stewardship. From there they walk Christina's three obstacles to calling: shattered expectations (Moses' failed first attempt, and Christina's own five-year ache when she pictured rescuing orphans overseas but was called to children's ministry), inadequacy ("who am I?"), and authority ("I AM WHO I AM," Matthew 28), anchoring it all in a God who is faithful and true. They close where Christina did, in Exodus 2 - your calling was never about you, but about the people God intends to rescue, including the one who is hardest to love.

    Prepare the Way - Week 4 Discussion

  4. Jul 24

    BACK40 E126 - Grace and Guardrails, Knowing When to Leave, Politics and Conspiracy

    Mel and Michael discuss how to hold grace and truth together. Is all sin equal? When does genuine love for a person actually require a firm, non-negotiable boundary? From there the conversation moves through three arcs. First, grace and guardrails — why some offenses carry stakes so high they demand a policy with no exceptions, why a good shepherd will protect their flock, and why redemption is never a reset to zero. Second, knowing when to leave — how to tell God's call to stay and suffer from simple pride or fear, and why pain is not an indication that you're outside of God's will. Third, politics and conspiracy — how to pastor someone gripped by anxiety and outrage, why that work happens one-on-one and not from the platform, and how Mel decides what is worth addressing publicly (including his own statement to the church on the U.S. strike in Iran). Grace and truth, held together, all the way through.

    BACK40 E126 - Grace and Guardrails, Knowing When to Leave, Politics and Conspiracy

  5. Jul 22

    Prepare the Way - Week 3 Discussion

    This week's message worked through Exodus 40:34-38 - the cloud and the fire settling over the tabernacle - inside the Prepare the Way series anchored on Isaiah 40:3. The central flip: we usually ask God to prepare our way, to make our path straight and our lives easier, but Scripture invites us to prepare his way instead, to clear the obstacles so God can move freely in and through us. Mel, Joel, and Michael work through what actually blocks that movement - pride that contends with God's lordship, comfort and complacency, and distraction in an age of information overload - before turning to Exodus 40's picture of Israel moving only when the cloud lifted, tents pitched in line of sight, ready to break camp at a moment's notice. They do not shy away from the hard parts: the fear that keeps us settled, the way success dulls our watchfulness, and how God redeems even the decisions we make without him.

    Prepare the Way - Week 3 Discussion

  6. Jul 18

    Leadership Night - The Importance of Mentoring

    This week on Leadership Night, Pastor Mel teaches on the importance of mentoring — why most leaders underestimate it, and what it costs us to try to go it alone. He opens with a reminder that the Global Leadership Summit is coming to Summit Church on August 6th and 7th, then makes the case with the data: employees who receive mentoring are promoted about five times more often, roughly three-quarters of executives credit mentoring as key to their careers, and mentoring quietly drives retention along with real cultural and financial benefits for an organization. From there Mel gets practical about how to actually find a mentor. First, go find one — aspire rather than settle, be a "big game hunter," and don't limit yourself to a single person; pursue different mentors for the different areas you want to grow. Second, look for what a prospective mentor is genuinely passionate about. Third, be willing to ask — ask many people, and don't ask the first time you meet them (he tells of pursuing Dan Reiland, considered one of the first executive pastors in the country, and fighting to get a single hour on his calendar). Fourth, evaluate the relationship honestly. He names his own mentors along the way, including Pastor John Nuzzo of Victory Family Church. Then he turns the whole thing around: you weren't made only to find a mentor — you were made to become one. His warning lands hard for anyone winning right now but pouring into no one: that kind of success has a short shelf life, because nothing is being replicated. The challenge is to measure your leadership not by what you're building, but by who you're raising up.

    Leadership Night - The Importance of Mentoring

  7. Jul 18

    BACK40 E125 - Wrongful Certainty, What to Confess, Trusting Grizzly Bears

    Mel, Joel, and Michael wrestle with a question that sounds simple and turns out to be anything but: we tell leaders to be convictional, but is conviction really the same thing as certainty? What happens when a leader's certainty quietly outruns the evidence — and how would you ever catch that in yourself, from the inside? The conversation moves from character and maturity to why leaders hide. They talk about pride and the refusal to change your mind, how audiences accept sounding certain as being certain, and the insecurity that makes us want to look sure even when we're not (with a nod to Moses leaving the veil on so no one would see the glory had faded). Along the way they land on a grizzly-bear picture of trust and character: you can only trust a person as far as their proven character warrants, and you shouldn't be shocked when someone acts out of the character they've already shown. From there they discuss vulnerability, accountability, and confession. Not as punishment, but as a pathway back to health. They contrast honest transparency with the performative "pay attention to me" kind, make the case for living above reproach, and reframe accountability as something that's genuinely for your good. Mel closes with the story of a well-known pastor who secretly hid a drink until the Holy Spirit confronted him with why he felt he had to hide it — and who, by confessing and receiving grace, found years of renewed fruitfulness. The takeaway: confession is a doorway forward, not a death sentence.

    BACK40 E125 - Wrongful Certainty, What to Confess, Trusting Grizzly Bears

  8. Jul 14

    Prepare the Way - Week 2 Discussion

    Mel, Joel, and Michael unpack Week 2 of the Prepare the Way series - Pastor Mel's message on blessing and obedience. They start by challenging how we use the word "blessing." In the Western world we've tied it to what we own - the car, the bank account - but tracing it back to the Hebrew (barak, which also means to kneel) and the Greek (makarios), the trio lands on a different definition: blessing is God's presence, being with him, not what he can give us. Next they talk about discerning good things that draw us toward God from ones that pull us away, the rich young ruler whose "blessings" hardened his heart, and Jesus' words in Luke 11: blessed are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice. Blessing, it turns out, is bound up in obedience. The back half turns to 1 Samuel 15 and King Saul - sparing what God told him to destroy and dressing it up as worship. Mel names the ways we disguise disobedience in spiritual language ("you don't have a prayer chain, you have a gossip chain"; "I'll pray about it"), why there's no such thing as partial obedience, how the things we neglect today get handed down to the people who come after us, and the difference between humility and insecurity that sat at the root of Saul's downfall. A candid, wide-ranging companion to the Prepare the Way message - with a few classic BACK40 detours along the way. If it helps you, share it with someone.

    Prepare the Way - Week 2 Discussion
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The official podcast network of Summit Church. Here you will find The Back40 Leadership Podcast, Sermon Audio, Leadership Night, and much more.

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