By Andy Hale
This week’s episode of the CBF Podcast Conversation features Dr. Matt Cook, Director of the Center for Healthy Churches, who brings more than 30 years of ministry leadership to the challenge of navigating church life in polarized times. In a culture where division has become the norm, Matt offers a scripturally rooted, deeply practical vision for how churches can choose connection over conflict—and formation over fragmentation.
Matt unpacks the R12 framework he’s developed for congregational resilience, based on Romans 12. It includes six transformative habits that invite churches to move beyond fight-or-flight responses and into spiritual maturity, empathy, and healthy dialogue. Through stories, tools like the Congregational Risk Assessment, and insights from both social science and scripture, Matt provides a hopeful roadmap for leaders who feel stuck in the chaos of political or relational strain.
Whether your church is navigating subtle tensions or outright conflict, this conversation offers grounding wisdom and actionable practices to lead with courage. As Matt reminds us, churches don’t have to be reactive or avoidant—they can become communities of healing, humility, and faithful witness in divided times.
Listen now and explore the R12 resources at chchurches.org
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CBF’s podcast shares stories from across the Fellowship and innovative practices of those working to renew God’s world. The vision is to share ideas, stories, and innovations from ministers, authors, and practitioners.
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Sponsorship
This podcast is presented by:
- Baylor’s Garland School of Social Work: Social workers can be found addressing the full scope of the human experience in churches, schools, prisons, government agencies, senior living centers, nonprofits, and Fortune 500 companies.
- Baptist Seminary of Kentucky: BSK equips leaders through their Homegrown Initiative, offering ministry leaders training and growth that fits into their busy schedules.
- The Gardner-Webb School of Divinity: The Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity aims to equip, nurture, encourage, and support men and women for their very best service in the Kingdom of God.
- The Center for Congregational Health: Strengthening congregations through consulting, leadership coaching, and intentional ministry.
- The Baptist House of Studies at Union Presbyterian Seminary: Exists by God’s grace to educate, inspire, and support generations of bold, faithful servant leaders as they seek actively to participate in God’s mission in the world.
- Community Transformation Center: Through educational opportunities, community conversations, and research initiatives in collaboration with universities and local leaders, PBACTC is at the forefront of integrating spiritual care into holistic community development.
- Creation Justice Ministries: Creation Justice Ministries equips churches to turn conviction into faithful action with Scripture-based resources, worship guides, and community support to pursue environmental justice and care for God’s creation.
- Dawnings: Through prayerful discernment, storytelling, and collaborative visioning, Dawnings helps churches rediscover their calling and imagine their next chapter—guided by trained facilitators and grounded in God’s ongoing story.
- Congregational Ministries Team of CBF Global: Through coaching, resources, and collaborative support, CBF’s Congregational Ministries Team helps churches and ministers cultivate the five traits of thriving—Rooted Relationships, Compelling Clarity, Holy Tenacity, Strategic Agility, and Dynamic Collaboration—for faithful and flourishing ministry.
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Andy Hale is the creator and host of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Podcast. Hale is the Associate Executive Coordinator of CBF North Carolina. He’s also served as CBF’s Church Start Specialist, the founding pastor of Mosaic Church of Clayton, and the senior pastor of University Baptist Church of Baton Rouge. Follow on Twitter @haleandy.