The Center For Executive Leadership

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The Center For Executive Leadership

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Ministry to professionals helping them deal with the difficulties of life.

Provides free audio messages, a weekly blog, inspirational events, counseling services, thought-provoking books, and group Bible Studies.

10/14/2026

Ecclesiastes Part 2: How Much Is Enough?

Why are we always looking for more? No matter how much we already have, we keep scanning the horizon for the next thing, certain it will finally be enough.

In Part 2 of the Ecclesiastes series, Richard sits with a man who actually got to test that idea all the way to the end. Solomon built the houses, planted the vineyards, and denied himself no pleasure his eyes desired. If more really is better, he should have been the most satisfied man who ever lived.

Instead he called all of it “striving after wind.” And here is the question his words press on each of us. Could it be that our hunger for more is not really about things at all, but about the heart?

👉 Listen in, and ask yourself honestly: how much is enough?

📺 Watch on YouTube:
👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEK_5k7WEms

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts:
👉 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reliable-truth/id1437310164

🎙 Listen on Spotify:
👉 https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/richard-e-simmons-3/episodes/Ecclesiastes-Part-2-How-Much-Is-Enough----Richard-E--Simmons-III-e3q6he7

10/12/2026

What Happened at Cornell?

Cornell University is under intense scrutiny after a former student’s lawsuit alleging a horrific assault by a group of fraternity men. It is a deeply troubling story. But in this week’s blog, Richard sits with the harder question underneath it.

How do young men with every advantage, admission to an elite university, bright futures, real talent, end up allegedly capable of something like this? One writer put it plainly. Fraternities do not make young men monsters. These men arrived on campus with their character already formed.

We have built a culture that prizes achievement over character, that treats success as the highest good and leaves moral formation as an afterthought. Scripture warns us that whatever a man sows, he will also reap.

So the question this story leaves with every parent, church, and school is a sobering one. What are we doing to form the young men we are sending into the world?

👉 Read the full reflection:
https://richardesimmons3.com/what-happened-at-cornell/

10/07/2026

Ecclesiastes Part 1: Searching for True Meaning

What is your life actually about? What are you really trying to accomplish?

If we never stop to ask those questions, we may be living far less thoughtfully than we think. This week Richard begins a new series on one of the most honest books in the Bible, Ecclesiastes, written by a man who had wealth, power, pleasure, and wisdom beyond anything most of us will ever know.

He tried all of it in his search for meaning. And what he concluded is both sobering and strangely freeing. Real, lasting enjoyment is not something we can manufacture on our own. As he put it, who can eat or find enjoyment without God?

This is Part 1, and it will leave you looking at what you are chasing a little differently.

📺 Watch on YouTube:
👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5ec8jRvS2w

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts:
👉 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reliable-truth/id1437310164

🎙 Listen on Spotify:
👉 https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/richard-e-simmons-3/episodes/Ecclesiastes-Part-1-Searching-For-True-Meaning---Richard-E--Simmons-III-e3pthfg

10/05/2026

Saving Your Marriage

Years ago a couple sat across from Richard whose marriage looked like it was headed for divorce. Today, they are still together and doing well.

In one of their sessions they walked through a handful of things that made the difference, and Richard shares them in this week's blog, because so many marriages are quietly struggling right now.

Most of it came down to three things. Letting go of the anger and bitterness we keep score with. Laying down the selfishness that insists on its own way. And choosing, day after day, to show love through actions and not only feelings.

Here is the hope to hold onto. Broken does not mean beyond repair. With God's help, what feels damaged today can become a testimony tomorrow.

👉 Read the full reflection:
https://richardesimmons3.com/saving-your-marriage-2/

09/30/2026

Brave Hearts, Strong Arms (Live at the Men's Breakfast)

A few weeks ago nearly 400 men filled the room for one of The Center's Men's Breakfasts, and Jerry Leachman gave a message worth hearing. This week's episode is that talk, recorded live.

Jerry read from Deuteronomy 6, where God tells us to impress His truth on our children, to talk about it at home and along the road, when we lie down and when we rise. It is a sobering reminder of how much of what we believe we are quietly handing to the next generation, whether we mean to or not.

Drawing from his new book, Brave Hearts, Strong Arms, Jerry makes a powerful point. This is not about being a perfect man. It is about being a committed one. Showing up, staying in the fight, and playing for a Head Coach who never leaves the field.

📺 Watch on YouTube:
👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDQB9ZqJsvA

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts:
👉 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reliable-truth/id1437310164

🎙 Listen on Spotify:
👉 https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/richard-e-simmons-3/episodes/Brave-Hearts--Strong-Arms-Locker-Room-Talks-for-the-Only-Game-That-Matters---Jerry-Leachman-e3pft38

📘 Get Jerry's book, Brave Hearts, Strong Arms:
👉 https://richardesimmons3.com/product/brave-hearts-strong-arms-locker-room-talks-for-the-only-game-that-matters/
Also on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1939358469

09/28/2026

Morality and Science

Bertrand Russell was one of the most famous atheists who ever lived, a brilliant thinker who placed enormous confidence in science and human reason. Yet when it came to the question of right and wrong, he made a striking admission. "I do not know the solution."

Albert Einstein said something similar. Science, he argued, can describe the world as it is, but it can never tell us how we ought to live. "Every attempt to reduce ethics to a scientific formula must fail."

In this week's blog, Richard looks at why two of the greatest minds in modern history came to the same conclusion, and what it means for us. Science has given us extraordinary gifts, but it was never designed to answer our deepest moral questions. So where does our sense of right and wrong actually come from?

👉 Read the full reflection:
https://richardesimmons3.com/morality-and-science/

This blog comes from Richard's book, Reflections on the Existence of God.

09/24/2026

Brave Hearts, Strong Arms (Part 2)

Last week's conversation with Jerry Leachman struck a nerve with a lot of men. This week Richard picks it right back up.

In Part 2, Richard and Jerry go deeper into the message behind Jerry's new book, Brave Hearts, Strong Arms. It is not a book about being a perfect man. None of us qualifies for that. It is a book about being a committed one. Showing up. Staying in the fight. And playing for a Head Coach who never leaves the field.

If you have ever felt like you are failing at the impossible job of having it all together, Jerry's words will feel like fresh air.

📺 Watch on YouTube:
👉 https://www.youtube.com/

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts:
👉 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reliable-truth/id1437310164

🎙 Listen on Spotify:
👉 https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/richard-e-simmons-3/

📘 Get Jerry's book, Brave Hearts, Strong Arms:
👉 https://richardesimmons3.com/product/brave-hearts-strong-arms-locker-room-talks-for-the-only-game-that-matters/
Also on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1939358469

If you are local, Jerry speaks at The Center's free breakfast this Friday, September 25, at The Country Club of Birmingham:
👉 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bcc-breakfast-and-livestream-with-jerry-leachman-friday-sept-25-2026-tickets-2001013980682

09/21/2026

What Is Your Ultimate Hope?

Imagine coming home to find your carport door smashed in and almost everything you own gone. Nearly one hundred percent of it, loaded into a van and driven away. Now imagine standing in the front yard, whistling and laughing.

That is exactly what happened to Jerry Leachman, just three weeks after he and his wife Holly had given everything they owned to God. This week's blog is Jerry's own account of that night, taken from his new book. And what unfolded next, when a sheriff and his grieving partner walked through the door, is unforgettable.

At the heart of it is a question worth asking yourself. Where is your ultimate hope? Anything we build our lives on in this world can be taken from us. Jerry and Holly discovered the one thing that never can.

👉 Read the full reflection:
https://richardesimmons3.com/what-is-your-ultimate-hope/

Jerry will be speaking at The Center's free breakfast this Friday, September 25, at The Country Club of Birmingham. Register here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bcc-breakfast-and-livestream-with-jerry-leachman-friday-sept-25-2026-tickets-2001013980682

09/16/2026

Brave Hearts, Strong Arms (Part 1)

Most men are quietly worn out from pretending they have it all together.

This week Richard sits down with his friend Jerry Leachman, a former NFL chaplain, for the first of a two-part conversation about Jerry's brand new book, Brave Hearts, Strong Arms. It was drawn from years of heartfelt locker-room talks, blending the grit of the game with the truth of Scripture. Forty-six short chapters, written to be read one talk at a time.

The heart of Jerry's message is that it is not about being a perfect man. It is about being a committed one. Showing up. Staying in the fight. Playing for a Head Coach who never leaves the field.

If you have ever felt the pressure to have it all figured out, start here. Then come back next week for Part 2.

📺 Watch on YouTube:
👉 https://www.youtube.com/

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts:
👉 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reliable-truth/id1437310164

🎙 Listen on Spotify:
👉 https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/richard-e-simmons-3/

📘 Get Jerry's book, Brave Hearts, Strong Arms:
👉 https://richardesimmons3.com/product/brave-hearts-strong-arms-locker-room-talks-for-the-only-game-that-matters/
Also on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1939358469

09/14/2026

Coming To a Decision

For fifty years Richard has sat across the table from men wrestling with faith. The hard questions were expected. Does God exist? Can the Bible be trusted? What surprised him was something else entirely.

Years ago a close friend listened as Richard explained the Christian faith, then said something hard to forget. "I am sure that what you have shared with me is the truth, but I am going to stay on the path I am on." He recognized it as true, and chose to walk away from it anyway.

Why do we so often look truth in the eye and then go the other direction? In this week's blog, Richard shares what he believes is really going on beneath the surface, and it is rarely a lack of evidence.

Because in the end there is no neutral ground. The question is not only, "Is Christianity true?" The deeper one is, "If it is, what will I do about it?"

👉 Read the full reflection:
https://richardesimmons3.com/coming-to-a-decision/

Address

200 Union Hill Drive Ste 200
Birmingham, AL
35209

Telephone

(205) 789-3471

Website

https://thecenterbham.org/

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