Formation with John Ortberg

14 Episodes

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012. The Apple Store Creator on Why the Most Important Thing You Bring to Work Is You ft. Ron Johnson

2026-09-3001:18:34

What if the most important thing you bring to work isn’t your résumé, your expertise, or even your ideas? Ron Johnson helped transform Target, built the Apple Store alongside Steve Jobs, and later became CEO of JCPenney. Across a career spent reimagining some of the biggest names in retail, he came to believe that your most important contribution at work is something no résumé can capture: your inner voice. It’s the perspective you discover when you get still enough to realize what you actu...

011. This Ancient Creed Can Rescue Us From Spiritual Homelessness ft. Glenn Packiam | 011

2026-09-1601:16:22

This year the Nicene Creed turns 1,700 years old, and Glenn Packiam thinks it might be the most important thing the modern church has forgotten how to use. In this conversation, John and Glenn talk about the difference between hope and comfort, how the ancient world considered hope a weakness, and why the Creed's insistence on saying "we believe" instead of "I believe" might be the most countercultural thing a Christian can do today. ABOUT THE GUEST Glenn Packiam is the Lead Pastor of Rockh...

010. A Systems Theory Expert on the Anxiety Running Your Team ft. Steve Cuss

2026-09-0201:33:29

What happens when the person managing everyone else's anxiety is the most anxious one in the room? Steve Cuss joins John for a conversation that starts in a childhood home in Western Australia and ends up inside the emotional wiring of every leader, marriage, and church staff meeting. Steve talks candidly about growing up in a household run by unpredictable anger, the confidence he built on a foundation of fear, and the hospital chaplaincy that stripped all of it away. What emerges is a wor...

AMA01. Predestination, Soul Care, Navigating Church Hurt, and Healing Childhood Wounds

2026-08-1940:52

Since Formation launched, we've talked about giving our listeners the chance to have their questions answered by John. This is that episode. No guest this time, just John and Creative Director, Jackson, working through the questions you sent in when you left a review, on everything from predestination to spiritual abuse to what AI is doing to his own attention span. Want your question answered for the next one? Leave us a review for a chance to ask John anything about spiritual formation or l...

009. Everything You Need to Know About the Next Generation ft. Kara Powell

2026-08-0501:21:45

About the Guest Kara Powell leads the Fuller Youth Institute as its Executive Director, where for more than twenty years her team has tracked how young people are changing across three generational cohorts, from Millennials to Gen Z to Gen Alpha. She holds a PhD in Practical Theology and has helped shape some of the most widely used research on the next generation. AMA Opportunity Leave us a review for a chance to ask John a question on an upcoming episode. To enter, follow the podcast, leave...

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