
#384: Leadership Lessons For All From The History Of The Black Church with L. Michelle Smith
From Beyond Sunday Worship Leader Podcast by David Santistevan: Worship Leader, Blogger, Teacher
February 28, 2026 · 1h 5m
About this episode
L. Michelle Smith discusses leadership lessons from the Black Church and its impact on developing leaders in various fields.
Something I am so grateful for is the leadership experience I received growing up in the church. From a young age, I got involved in worship teams. I led small groups. I developed skills. I was put on stages I had no business being on. Church wasn’t just a weekly service we attended. It was a leadership incubator. L. Michelle Smith has written a new book called Call And Response: 10 Leadership Lessons From the Black Church. In it she discusses how the Black Church has historically developed high level business leaders. The book borrows from culture, neuroscience, and positive psychology to describe the power of the Black Church and why it has produced so many high level leaders . Whether you’ve grown up in the Black Church or have never even visited, we all have something to learn here. Because if the church stops developing leaders in favor of merely hiring out a professional, performative workforce, we could be in some trouble. This is David Santistevan. You can reach me anytime at david@beyondsundayworship.com As always, thank you for listening. Topics Covered: Why the history of Call and Response in the Black Church matters to us today Leadership development in the local…
People in this episode
Host: David Santistevan
Guest: L. Michelle Smith
Topics covered
- Leadership development
- Black Church history
- Corporate America
- Leadership lessons
- Cultural influence
Keywords
- Black Church
- leadership
- corporate America
- Call and Response
- L. Michelle Smith
- David Santistevan
- leadership development
- cultural influence
Sponsors
Planning Center
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Call And Response: 10 Leadership Lessons From the Black Church
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