Summit Podcasts

October 14, 2026 • Leadership Night

Right Affections, Right Rhythms

Pastor Mel brings 28 years of ministry to a talk for pastors at an ARC gathering at Victory Church in Cranberry, Pennsylvania. Most leaders don’t burn out in a headline moment. They wear down under the slow drip of hurts, disappointments and unmet expectations. What sustains them, Mel says, is their rhythms, and every rhythm is driven by an affection. He walks through the right affections in order (Jesus, your spouse, your kids and God’s people) and the wrong ones that quietly take their place: success, applause, control and comfort. Along the way: a VIP section that didn’t sit right, a six-figure giver who wanted more hymns, and why quantity time with your kids leads to quality time. He closes with 2 Corinthians 4 and a prayer for every leader in the room.

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October 11, 2026 • Sermon Summary

Romans 15:14–33 — Week 25

In our next-to-last week in Romans, Pastor Mel showed Paul reminding a divided church of what it already knew, then opening his heart about his calling: to bring the good news so he could present people to God as an offering. The only thing we can take to heaven is people, and it isn’t our job to save them, only to tell them. Paul took no credit (we are just a hammer in the hand of the master craftsman), kept going from Jerusalem to Illyricum while there was still work to do, and expected the church to be generous. The Macedonians were very poor but rich in generosity, because generosity is about sacrifice, not volume, and it starts with a plan. He closed by asking who we are praying for.

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October 8, 2026 • The Back 40 Leadership Podcast

Episode 131 — God’s Repentance, Disbelief in Hell, Resilience

Mel, Joel, and Michael discuss what Summit would do if a new plague brought back the questions of COVID — why the church would keep its doors open, and what it means to lead when every decision applies to everyone. Then the repentance of God in Genesis 6: the Hebrew word behind the Lord being sorry he made man, and how God can grieve while his plan never changes. Next, why some people say there cannot be a hell — the belief that people are basically good, and reducing God to love while forgetting his holiness. They close on resilience in ministry and marriage — why it is a daily choice and a muscle, why our rhythms follow our affections for Christ, and why you prepare for the storm before it hits.

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October 4, 2026 • Sermon Summary

Romans 14:1-15:13 — Week 24

This week Pastor Mel preached Romans 14:1-15:13, where Paul addresses a church divided between Jewish and Gentile believers over food and holy days. His answer is unity: “Accept other believers who are weak in the faith and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong.” Weak here means immature, not inferior, and the mature are the ones called to give grace, because too often “we want to be right more than we want to be righteous.” Paul then sets a higher standard for Christian freedom. The question is not only whether something is allowed, but whether it will cause another believer to stumble. A mature believer lays down what they have the right to do for the good of others, because “Right relationship is greater than being right.” Paul closes by calling the church to accept each other just as Christ accepted us, so the world would know God’s love.

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September 27, 2026 • Sermon Summary

Romans 13:8-14 — Week 23

This week Pastor Mel preached Romans 13:8-14, where Paul turns from governing authority to the people inside the church. His call to a divided church is love — not a starry-eyed feeling but a sacrificial practice. It’s the only debt worth carrying. Paul sums up the commandments against adultery, murder, stealing, and coveting in one line from Leviticus 19:18, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and Mel shows why love is the antidote: it is hard to sin against someone you truly love. He is clear that this is “not this call to like each other. It’s a call to love each other,” even when we disagree fiercely. Then Paul adds urgency — time is running out. We must throw off dark deeds like dirty clothes, including quarreling, jealousy, and gossip, and clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, making no provision for the flesh.

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September 25, 2026 • The Back 40 Leadership Podcast

Episode 130 — One Side of Hell, Wielding Power

Mel, Joel, and Michael discuss one side of hell that rarely gets talked about — the final realization of how much God loved the people who turned away from him, and why hell is the natural end we were all headed toward rather than a punishment a loving God adds. Then power: the most God-honoring way to use authority, Jesus’ teaching that the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and the difference between leaders people fear and leaders people love. From there they ask how to correct sin without driving someone into secrecy, drawing on Solzhenitsyn’s account of the Gulag. They close on cheap grace — mercy that looks the other way without calling for repentance — and the difference between shame and conviction.

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September 20, 2026 • Sermon Summary

Romans 13:1-7 — Week 22

Pastor Mel preached Romans 13:1-7, the passage on how a Christian relates to governing authority. He makes the case that believers are called to submit to the authorities God places over them — even the ones they did not vote for. Submission to authority is godly, wise, and fair. But he is equally clear that the state’s authority is not absolute: there is a place for civil disobedience when a government commands what God forbids or forbids what God commands. Our conscience both compels obedience and sets its limit. Underneath it all is one steadying conviction — God is in charge of who is in charge — so our worship, and our peace, belong to Him alone, and not to any party or leader.

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September 17, 2026 • Summit Bible Study

Episode 14 · Genesis 6:1-10

This study moves into Genesis 6:1-10 and the events leading up to the Flood. As humanity multiplies, so does its corruption — the sons of God (Seth’s godly line) take wives from the daughters of man (the apostate line of Cain), and godliness mixes with godlessness. We examine why the Lord declares that His Spirit will not strive with man forever, limiting human life to 120 years as both a judgment and a merciful reprieve. We learn about the Nephilim — the “mighty men of renown” who reveal what unchecked power does to the human heart. As wickedness grows until every thought of man is “only evil continually,” Scripture says God was grieved in His heart and resolved to blot out what He had made. Yet Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord — righteous by grace, walking with God in the midst of a fully corrupt generation.

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September 13, 2026 • Sermon Summary

Romans – Week 21: Romans 12:9-21

Pastor Mel preached Romans 12:9-21, the final movement of Romans chapter 12. After eleven chapters of doctrine, Paul turns to the practical shape of life in a divided church — and his prescription for unity is genuine love: costly, sacrificial, and possible only by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Mel walks the passage command by command: really love rather than pretend, and hate what is wrong; delight in honoring one another; never be lazy but serve the Lord enthusiastically, confronting the church’s “spiritual obesity” of endless consuming without spiritual exercise. Rejoice in hope, be patient in trouble, keep praying. Be ready to help and eager for hospitality, blessing those who persecute you. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, live in harmony — never taking revenge but leaving room for God’s justice — and conquer evil with good.

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September 10, 2026 • Leadership Night

Lessons from Jack Welch

Pastor Mel mines six leadership lessons from Jack Welch — the CEO who grew General Electric many times over. Control your destiny, or someone else will. Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be. Be candid — honest to the last ten percent, because clarity is a kindness. Don’t manage, lead, and know the difference. Change before you have to, learning from Kodak, Blackberry, and Blockbuster, companies that had every advantage and vanished anyway. And don’t compete where you hold no real advantage.

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