Jack Kalleberg, Executive Director at Christ Greenfield and co-host of the Lead Time podcast, joins Zach for an honest and wide-ranging conversation about pastoral formation, leadership development, and the future of the LCMS. Drawing from his background in finance, the military, and church leadership, Jack introduces the concept of opportunity cost and asks whether current formation models are producing the leaders the church actually needs.
Together, they explore residential seminaries, SMP, online and hybrid pathways, and the role of local congregations in raising leaders from within. Jack reflects on the Koinonia gathering in Las Vegas, the importance of outcomes over systems, and why flexibility and innovation matter for a missional church body seeking to plant, multiply, and sustain healthy congregations.
This episode is a thoughtful, charitable, and substantive dialogue—inviting pastors, lay leaders, and church members to engage the conversation not as a fight to win, but as a shared responsibility to steward the gospel well for the sake of future generations.
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Unite Leadership Collective (ULC)
Leadership development and consulting ministry connected to Christ Greenfield, focused on raising leaders from within local congregations.
🔗 https://uniteleadership.org
Christ Greenfield Lutheran Church (Gilbert, AZ)
Jack serves as Executive Director at Christ Greenfield, a multi-site LCMS congregation committed to leadership development and multiplication.
🔗 https://cglchurch.org
Lead Time Podcast
Co-hosted by Jack Kalleberg and Tim Ahlman, focusing on leadership, formation, and ministry innovation.
🔗 https://uniteleadership.org/podcast
Luther House of Study
Online Lutheran theological education program discussed in the episode as an example of rigorous, communal online formation.
🔗 https://lutherhouseofstudy.org
Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) Program (LCMS)
Alternative pastoral formation pathway referenced throughout the conversation.
🔗 https://www.lcms.org/how-we-serve/mission/smp
Book Mentioned – Gaining by Losing by J.D. Greear
Recommended by Jack as a non-Lutheran resource shaped by Luther’s theology of the priesthood of all believers.
🔗 https://www.crossway.org/books/gaining-by-losing-tpb/
📧 Email:
jkalleberg@cglchurch.org
“Every formation model has a cost—and wise stewardship asks not only what we fund, but what we give up by funding it.”
“The question isn’t whether residential seminaries are valuable—it’s whether our current system can produce the number of pastors the mission actually requires.”
“Healthy governance focuses on outcomes and allows flexibility in systems, not the other way around.”
“Calling often emerges from within a community long before rostering happens—and our formation pathways need to honor that reality.”
“Online formation doesn’t mean watching videos and checking boxes; it can be rigorous, communal, and deeply formative.”
“We don’t need fewer pathways into ministry—we need clearer outcomes and better accountability for forming faithful, capable pastors.”
“Koinonia conversations show that disagreement doesn’t have to mean division when we’re united in Scripture and the Confessions.”
Read Gaining by Losing by J.D. Greear—and thoughtfully engage it through a Lutheran lens. He encourages learning from how other traditions apply the priesthood of all believers, while holding firmly to Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions, asking: What can we learn without compromising who we are?
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