Book David Stone to speak.
Honest, warm, real talks on faith, leadership, and mental health — from someone who's actually lived all three, the wins and the low seasons both.
Real talk from inside the room, not above it.
David Stone is a pastor, elder, ICF-credentialed coach, and leadership developer who's spent his life in the messy middle of ministry and leadership. He doesn't speak from a distance, and he doesn't pretend to have it all figured out. He tells the truth about his own low seasons — the kind you usually cover with a smile — and then points, honestly, to hope.
Audiences remember him because he makes it safe to be human — then hands them something they can actually carry home.
- M.Div.
- ICF-Credentialed Coach (ACC)
- Elder, Sunshine Baptist Church
- Leadership Development, Baptist Student Union at Missouri State
- Co-author, A Book of Prayer for Baptists
- Host, Isolation Kills
- Co-host, Whole: Faith, Mental Health and the Church
The Power of Presence
There's something powerful that happens when someone just shows up for a team.
Drawn from David's TeamCare work bringing care and presence into workplaces, this keynote makes a simple case: presence isn't a soft skill — it's the skill. Before the strategy, before the pep talk, before the fix, people need to know someone's actually there. When presence goes missing, teams quietly drift, people isolate, and your best ones start looking for the door. When it's there, everything else gets easier.
David shows leaders and teams what changes when presence becomes the practice — and how to build it into the way you lead, coach, and care for the people right in front of you.
Built for corporate teams and leadership events, and readily tuned for church, ministry, and wellness audiences.
Leadership that stays human when the pressure is on.
For church conferences, men's events, pastor and staff gatherings, and campus ministry. David preaches in plain English, respects the room, and always goes first with his own story — scars and all.
The Power of Presence
The ministry of showing up. Why being with people in the hard moments preaches louder than words.
Is It Okay to Not Be Okay?
Honesty as a spiritual discipline, and what changes when a leader admits the struggle first.
The Leader Nobody Sees
Character when the lights are off. Staying the same person on stage and at home.
Raising Up the Next One
Developing leaders who outlast you, drawn from years of campus and staff development.
Best fit for: Church conferences and weekend services, men's events and retreats, pastor and staff gatherings, campus and BSU events, elder and lay-leader trainings.
The best leaders ask better questions.
For leadership summits, professional development, offsites, and manager trainings. Practical, warm, and honest about how hard leadership actually is — and people walk out with tools they'll actually use, not notes they'll lose.
The Power of Presence
Why showing up for your team is the leadership skill under all the others. From David's TeamCare work.
Ask, Don't Tell
The coaching habit that changes how you lead. Better questions beat more answers.
The Human Leader
Why vulnerability outperforms bravado, and what it does to a team when the armor drops.
Develop or Stall
Building the next layer of leaders before you're desperate for them.
Best fit for: Leadership summits and conferences, coaching and development events, company all-hands and offsites, manager and executive trainings, nonprofit and faith-based leadership days.
Isolation kills. Connection saves. Let's talk about it.
David hosts two podcasts on the stuff people are trained never to admit: Isolation Kills, his own show on the struggle men hide behind a smile, and Whole: Faith, Mental Health and the Church, co-hosted with Robert Grant. He brings that same honesty — and the same laughs — to the stage.
The Power of Presence
Presence is the opposite of isolation. What it means to truly show up for someone who's struggling.
Isolation Kills
Why the loneliest people in the room look fine, and what it takes to reach for connection first.
Is It Okay to Not Be Okay?
Permission, out loud, to stop pretending. A leader's honesty can save the person next to them.
A Better Kind of Tough
Reframing strength for men handed a broken definition of it. Vulnerability as courage.
Best fit for: Men's mental health and wellness events, workplace wellbeing days, first-responder and trades organizations, church men's ministries, community awareness events, podcasts and panels.
Book David and Robert Grant together.
David and his Whole: Faith, Mental Health and the Church co-host, Robert Grant, can bring the show to your event live. Choose the format that fits your room:
- David speaks, or Robert speaks. One voice, tailored to your audience.
- A joint talk. The two of them on stage together, the same honest conversation listeners know from the podcast.
- A workshop they lead together. Hands-on and interactive, built around faith and mental health.
Two voices on the conversation the church tends to avoid, in the same room. A strong fit for church leadership days, men's ministries, and faith-based wellness events.
Robert also specializes in play therapy and neurodivergent populations. That opens a second kind of event: sessions and workshops for parents raising neurodivergent kids, and for adults navigating neurodivergence in their own lives.
What planners and audiences say
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He lives what he speaks on.
Faith, leadership, and mental health are not just talk topics. They are the life David shares with his wife and their kids, the wins and the low seasons both.
Book David to speak
Tell David about your event and he'll get back to you personally — no assistant, no auto-reply. Rather just talk it through? Call or email direct.