Tremendous Leadership | Kori Pennypacker | Bible2School

Loneliness, weariness, hyper-focus, and vision are four powerful realities every leader faces—and Kori Pennypacker, CEO of Bible2School, shares how she navigates them with faith and clarity. Drawing from her leadership journey and the mission of Bible2School, she reveals how surrounding yourself with prayerful supporters, prioritizing with discipline, and embedding vision into every communication can transform isolation into impact. Kori also introduces Bible2School’s unique nationwide program equipping communities to bring Bible teaching to public school children off-site during school hours and offers a glimpse into her upcoming book, Backpack Faith.

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Leaders On Leadership With Kori Pennypacker

Everyone, welcome to the show, where we pull back a curtain on leadership and talk with leaders of all ages and stages about what it takes to pay the price of leadership. I have a very special guest. Her name is Kori Pennypacker.

Kori, welcome.

Thanks for having me, Tracy.

You are so welcome. Let me tell you a little bit about Kori Pennypacker. Kori has over twenty years of Christian ministry experience, and she loves to build and lead teams. God has used this passion to help grow the mission at Bible2School, where she serves as the CEO. She is an author, a speaker, and an accomplished leader. Kori is on a mission to help redefine how America thinks about religion during the public school day. Kori, I cannot wait to unpack this topic with you.

I cannot wait to dive in, too, Tracy.

Conquering The Loneliness Of Leadership

I love it. As our audience knows, Charles gave a speech many years ago called The Price of Leadership. We have since transcribed that, put it in one of our tremendous life-changing classics. In it, he talks about the price you are going to have to pay to be a leader and not just a leader in name only.

Kori, the first of those four concepts that he talks about is loneliness. We have all heard the term, “It's lonely at the top.” Heavy is the head that wears the crown, but loneliness is a fact of being a leader. Could you unpack for us what that means to you, maybe in your walk, or perhaps where you went through a season of loneliness, and could advise our audience on how they might deal with it?

Tracy, everybody feels kind of lonely at the top. It is fun to make the decisions and be the final say in things, but sometimes it is very hard because you do not have people to talk to about it. There are confidential things that you cannot say, or even that you feel like saying, “I am a feeler. I am an emotional person. I am passionate. A place where I can process those feelings is not with my coworkers. Sometimes it has to be with other people.”

One of the things that you were saying about walking through a lonely time where you have to make tough decisions, I was a new leader in an organization, and basically, wanted me to talk about things that were fearful or things like that. I remember saying, "I am not going to do that. I do not want to vision cast in a fearful way.” I brought that idea with me to Bible2School because it did not feel right. It did not feel like what God wanted me to do.

I wanted to take what I learned from there and put it into practice here. I came to Bible2School, and there are also factors in the world, as you know, that sell like fear sells. Politicians, fear, fear, and you pay money and donate. With Bible2School, we really take things to the positive. We want to absolutely talk about what God is doing, talk about what God is doing in our ministry. Henry Blackaby talks about in his book, Experiencing God. It changed my life. It said, "How do you get close to God? How do you stay close to God, away from that fear?" It said, "Find where God is working and go there and join Him."

"Find where God is working and go there and join Him."

To me, as a leader, when I was at that lonely place of making a stand, I am not going to go down the dark scare tactic to try to lead people. I am going to say, "You want to come and join us." Everybody wants to join a moving bus, no pun intended, with Bible2School, but "Come join us because God is working here." I use that internally and externally with the organization.

You brought up two great things that I want to tease out. You said you are a feeler. That reminds me of Myers-Briggs. You are typically either an NT, an intuitive thinker, or an SF, a sensor-feeler. I am sure you would skew towards more of an SF. It is interesting that you may feel loneliness in a different way. I am an NT person, so I just look at data. People are like, "You are kind of like Teflon," and I go, "I know because I am an NT." That is a great point that if you are an SF, you may feel loneliness and be more sensitive to it than people who are not.

I got to go talk about it. I got to go process it. My poor husband says, "You've got to get out your words," and I do. That is how I verbally process. That is really not fair to my team because they assume I have already thought it through, and I have already. To process that whole thing about fear or figuring out what the vision should be, or all those things. I got to come to them with at least 90% of everything in order. I can process with them, I am not saying I cannot, but 90% of it, I need to have figured out. That is hard.

That is our responsibility as leaders. The other thing you really hit on is when people use fear to isolate you or make you an outcast, or like you are a fringe, you are one of those Bible, you bet you want Bible in the schools. You are like, I can remember the Bible, like, “I am the only one, the prophets,” “No, there are about 6,000 of you," kind of thing. That fear is a tool used to try to make us feel that we are lonely or alone.

I love that you swapped it and said, first of all, with God, “We are already in the eternal supermajority." I love that you really hit that because sometimes the words that we use, you may feel like you are against the world, but it is you against the world against you and the creator of the world. It totally shifts everything. I really appreciate you saying that. I have not heard it couch loneliness like that before.

God, definitely, when you put it all into perspective, you have the biggest cheerleader, the most powerful person on your side. Satan uses that loneliness and the fear and all those things. They are not of God. That is why I want to be a godly leader and to stay focused on Him.

With God, you have the biggest cheerleader, the most powerful person on your side.

Battling Weariness In Leadership

Beautiful, thank you, Kori, for unpacking that. The next thing my father talked about was weariness. There was a fear, a physical weariness, a spiritual weariness, and he told me very early on, he says, "Tracy, when you lead people, you are going to have to realize that you are going to have some people that do more than is required, but a lot that do far less than what." How do you stay strong, I mean, I look at Moses and the number of thumb suckers that he had to deal with for 80 years. It is like, "My goodness." How do you stay strong, Kori?

Again, back to that safe place. I actually not only have my husband to talk to, but I also have the inner circle around me, and I call them my prayer warriors. They are the ones that really lift me up. Moses had people holding his arms up, right? When you are weary, you do need to be held up and also push your chin up as well, so that you can see up and not be so weary. I definitely stay away from those people who are criticizing or who are doing it a different way.

It is definitely not my way to do it half or do it, "Let's just do this much." I try to really stick with and run with people, and I have been very privileged to be in teams where people are all rowing in the same direction at the same speed, and it is fun to lead that. There are people who are like, "Why are you doing this? Are you really making a difference?" They just love to deflate your balloon, but I just find other people to puff it up again.

I love the murmurers. Get the expanders in there, too. That is beautiful. I love that you hit your inner circle. We are never meant to go through. We are the body. First of all, as believers. In all aspects of our lives, there are other people to help hold our arms up. So true. The next topic he talked about, loneliness, weariness, was abandonment.

His concept of abandonment was hyper-focus. He would tell me, and I would be like, "How did you get so successful?" He is like, "It is a miracle I am successful because most of my time, if I really was accountable for it, I spend on doing things that are a waste of time." His point was, "I need to focus on what I ought to focus on and not what I like and want to focus on."

It is this hyper-focus or singularity. Everything is good. I am sure there are people who come to you with, "This school needs this," or "This is a great idea." There is no shortage of great ideas to further the kingdom. How do you stay focused on the Bible2School and what your mission is, that real niche that you have, when there are so many other great things out there?

The mission is key. With every conversation, with every decision I make, every little tiny thing I do has to be about the mission and things that only I can do, and delegate the rest. I know that that is not a new leadership principle at all. I have to tell you, I am a visual person. I have to write it down. I have a little whiteboard beside me that I am always whiteboarding on. I tell my team, "I cannot think unless I have a yellow pad next to me."

I am old school, and I just have to have visually in front of me the top six things I am going to do that day. Maybe I will get done the top three, and the other three I have got to be like, "I am going to work on those tomorrow." I am okay with that. Some leaders are different that way. They just got the top three. I am like, "Just in case, I am going to get those 4, 5, and 6 done." It also focuses me on what I am learning or what I am going to focus on. It also focuses on me on what I am going to be doing tomorrow as well. I am just the lead. To me, the leader is always thinking 2 or 3 years ahead. I figured I had better start thinking a day ahead as well.

Sometimes you waste time in the morning, "What am I supposed to do today?" No, you already have that figured out. Even if you did not get as much time to wrap up your night, like sometimes I have an hour in the evening to process and plan. Other times it is like, "I am tired, I am done, and I am going to bed." If you already, as you said, are a little bit ahead, you just get up and start going forward with it. I love that. I am like you. I have to write it down because otherwise, who knows? It will be good, but it will be a lot of wasted energy.

I could wander around my desk and do all kinds of things. I am a very much a squirrel person, but it is exciting to me. I love to just dive into the next project and the next project.

Hyper-Focus And Delegation For Leadership Success

I love it. Thank you for sharing that, and delegation is absolutely key. We cannot do it all, and delegate that to vision. Vision is this word where I think a lot of people think, "I am not worthy. I am not a prophet." My dad would say, "Tracy, vision is just seeing what needs to be done and doing it." I am like, "That is a very practical, very pragmatic approach." What does vision look like for you? Mission is critical because it helps you stay focused on where you are. How do you cast the vision for what is to come for Bible2School?

Vision is my favorite thing because I am a passionate person. I just feel the vision. When all those other things you are talking about, loneliness, weariness, abandonment, creep in and get you off the vision, get you off the mission and vision. I really take time to pray. You can call it white space, you can call it whatever you want. I absolutely pray through what the vision is. I just had an email go over emails that are going to go out for our team.

They are always like, "How can we say that?" The vision should be in every single email you have. It should be in every communication you have. That really takes the leader, it takes me to really think through those things because communicating the vision is vision leaks, we know that. We have got to keep pouring it in.

That white space could be when I am getting ready to go out, or it could be when my husband laughs. He is like, "You really do this job all through the week, you know that." When you are thinking, you need to think as a leader, and you need to have space to do that. I spend at least an hour and a half every morning with God before it is quiet. Everybody is not moving around at my house. Not to say that I am any type of special person, but I have to start my morning with God.

I have to have that white space. I have to have that time to pray and talk to Him and really listen to Him. The Holy Spirit really tells you a lot if you are really listening to Him and are quiet. People say, "I do not know how you do that. I do not know how I could do my job without doing that. I am a really big believer in that white space, that prayer space, and then prayer wars around you doing it too.

I love that you pour your vision into every email. I am even thinking about the emails I sent to people today. I love that. "Why did I send you this agreement? Why did I send you this request? Why did I send you this partnership opportunity?" I love that if you just pour that into everything, and what a beautiful way to put it, Kori. I really appreciate that.

It is something that really energizes us. It energizes us, and our vision is how God is working in public schools. That is really fun to tell people because they are like, "God is working in public school." I am like, "Yes, big time."

Bible2School: Redefining Religious Education

We just covered the four. Can you unpack for us what Bible2School is? It’s because I want our listeners to hear all about it.

Bible2School is a nonprofit organization started in 1979 to equip communities to teach the Bible to public school children during their school day, not before school, not after school, but actually during school hours. I know that when I met with you, Tracy, you said, "Wait a minute, how is that legal?”

“Wait, you are not allowed to do that. Separate the church and state.”

Separating church and state is not even in the Constitution. Most people do not know that. What we have is something called release time. It is a release time federal court rulings, and it is upheld by the Supreme Court, which said, “You can release children off-site with parental permission and no tax dollars.” That is where the word release comes from. Those are the three things that make it legal. You can teach religious classes of their choice. It could be Muslim, it could be Jewish, and we are the non-denominational Christian arm of that.

Politicians way back when saw that kids are mind, body, and soul. When they took spirituality and the Bible out of school, they allowed us to do this. They allowed the community to do this. That is what we do. We help people. We make it easy for people to teach the Bible to public school children during their public school day. We deal mostly with elementary-age children, and we have curriculum and coaching, and all the things that you need. It is a plug-and-play. It is a franchise model. This is how we make a difference in the world. This is our vision.

There is a lot of focus now on choice, charter schools, homeschool, and Christian schools, and I support many of them. I am a product of public schools. I go into public schools. I have a lot of dear friends who are public school teachers. It is just so wonderful that they do not have to be at odds with each other. You can supplement what they would get from a Christian school by implementing something like this. For some people, not going to public school is not going to be an option.

Eighty-seven percent of all Christian parents send their kids to public school. They are looking for ways to give kids religious education and are even inviting their friends to come. Fifty-four percent of our children have no church home. Their parents are like, "We do not get to church on the weekends. We have soccer tournaments and all that." This is convenient. They do not have to pick them up or drop them off. It is very convenient for parents.

It is a good thing. It is something that kids need to be truthful. Kids need morals and values infused in them. It is funny. People ask me, "How does the school react?" The school, when they know that this is legal and they are in their legal lane, sometimes we have to kindly educate them because they do not know. When they know that, they are happy to have the support of more Christian adults influencing children for the positive, for the good. We are happy to serve families in that way.

Kids need morals and values infused in them.

We will have the notes where you guys can reach out to Kori to see if it is in. Kori is in the Central PA region near me. There is this in different states, correct, Kori?

Yes, this is a federal court. It is released time for federal court rulings. It is allowed in all 50 states, and our program is in four states. We are in Pennsylvania, Idaho, North Carolina, and Texas, but we are looking to be in every state. We are excited that people are. This is really a movement going on that people, the fastest growing programs that we have seen in public school are release time programs.

Also, what I love, Kori, when you talk to you about it, you educate parents on what their legal rights are for religious freedoms and liberty. I shared with her before we started that I was on a Zoom call, and I heard something, and I was like, "I am not going to say anything, but you are not allowed to do that." I just love the fact that you, not to have it adversarial, but know your rights and your child needs to know their rights too, because otherwise they will get tromped all over. This is something that is at the core of what our country is, the freedom of religious worship.

It is back to that fear thing. When you do know your rights, we call it kindly educating, and we kindly educate educators. I had my son, who came home and said, "My teacher said I was wrong, and I was not wrong.” He said, "What is a word that describes Christmas?" He said, "Jesus." The teacher said, "That is not the right word." I thought, "Wow." I ended up going and talking to her. She was a Christian teacher. She really did not know. She thought that he was not allowed to talk about Jesus for Christmas. She did not know.

You cannot do that. Interesting. That is wonderful. I love that educating, because that is the way it is. They make you feel like you cannot. I wanted to get to that to share with our audience this incredible work you are doing. I hope to get more involved with it, because you know me and Christian education in schools, especially that demographic, that elementary school age, where I forget what percentage of it, when you are aware, that is when you are most open. I love that you hit that demographic. Is there anything else related to the price of leadership that we have not touched on that you would like to share with our audience, because you have been in this for decades?

Sustaining Leadership Through The Power Of Community

I would definitely say that listening to God is really important, spending time with Him. I would say getting all the facts so that you would, like what your dad said, “Get away from that loneliness, get away from that weariness, get away from those abandonment thoughts,” or “Keep that vision going.” I would say having the really good people around you, that is really a gift for me, the other leaders that really pour into you, and then you, in turn, pay forward as well.

I have had that happen to me on several occasions, and I think that is really important in leadership. When you are doing what God has designed you to do with a calling that God has designed you to work through for Him, it is a really great feeling. Even with these prices that we pay, we can go forward because we have seen other leaders do this. Examples of other people really matter. When they come around you and cheer you on, it is very fun when leaders get together. I would say keep leaders around you, keep positive leaders around you.

Jim Rohn would say, "You are the sum of the five people around you." A leader really will be lifted up by the top. I am all about followership. The more exemplary followers you have around you, I think of Jesus with the training of the twelve, that is who makes you, you. That is, you are dealing with the demographic of our next generation of emerging leaders coming up, too. It is just such a beautiful concept. Kori, I just cannot thank you enough. Kori, what is the best way for our audience to get in touch with you? We will have the information in the show notes, but is there a preferred way if people want to reach out to you after this?

They can reach out to me through Bible2School.com. I would be happy to talk with them and grab coffee or whatever we need to do, or if they are interested in what we do in public schools, I would love to talk to them about that, too.

Backpack Faith: Empowering Christian Students In School

That is fantastic. Kori, thank you so much. To our audience out there, thank you for being a part of our tremendous tribe. If you like what you heard, please hit the like button, leave us a review, an honor of a review, and share this with somebody who is also paying the price of leadership or would like to know more about Kori and her Bible schoolwork. As my father said, "You will be the same person five years from now that you are today, except for two things, the people you meet and the books you read." You just met the tremendous Kori. Kori, thank you so much. Speaking about the books you read, tell us about your book coming out.

I have been very blessed to have Focused on the Family and Tyndale Publishing, who will be publishing my book on September 1st, 2026. It is called Backpack Faith: Helping Your Child Confidently Live for Jesus in Public School. I just pray that it is full of information, full of inspiration for parents to know how to disciple their kids, but also to know, as we just talked about, know the facts about their rights, their religious freedoms in school, in the public school, in the public square, and they can live their faith at home and they do not have to check in at the door at the public school. They can live up there as well.

That is amazing. I love it. You do not want to check in at the door. Again, Kori, thank you so much. Thank you to our audience out there. May you all have a tremendous rest of your day. Bye.

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About Kori Pennypacker

Kori Pennypacker has over 20 years of experience in children's ministry and loves to build and lead teams. God has used this passion to help grow the mission at Bible2School, where she serves as CEO. She is an author, speaker, and leader. Kori is on a mission to help redefine how America thinks about religion during the public school day.

Episode 201 - Leaders On Leadership With Kori Pennypacker