If you befriend your death, you can befriend any hardship or loss. I coach, teach, and speak about what changes when leaders stop pretending they have forever.
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Rev. Dr. Seth David Clark has spent over 20 years working where leadership gets complicated. He is the lead pastor of First Baptist Church of National City, a multicultural and majority-refugee congregation in Southern California. He also served as a hospice chaplain during the COVID-19 pandemic, sitting with dying patients and their families. That work changed the way he thinks about everything else. Death matters because life matters. Seth calls this approach mortality-aware leadership: the practice of leading with the knowledge that your time is finite and using that knowledge to make better decisions, build stronger teams, face loss and change with greater courage and resilience, and leave something worth leaving.
He is finishing a PhD in Leadership Studies at the University of San Diego (expected 2028). His research examines what happens to powerful leaders when they retire: how they rebuild identity, what they do with their influence, and whether relevance survives the title. His scholarly work centers on leadership science but isn't afraid of philosophy and theology, from Aristotle's virtue ethics and Machiavelli's realism to Thomas Merton's true self mystical theology. He writes across religious ethnography, Christianity and Buddhism, and vocation and meaning-making. The through-line is that what is most real, the life and death stuff, impacts the everyday.
In 2025 he founded Life, Death, and Leadership (LDL), an executive coaching and leadership development practice. In addition to the best leadership theory and organizational practice have to offer, Seth's main assertion to leaders is that if you befriend your death, you can befriend any hardship or loss. Leaders who do this work stop confusing fear with strategy, and it shows in how they decide and what they finish. Across two decades of ministry, coaching, teaching, and speaking, Seth has served over 10,000 people on five continents.
He holds a Doctor of Ministry from Columbia Theological Seminary, a Master of Business Administration from Western Governors University, a Master of Arts from Bethel Seminary, and a Master of Theological Studies from Boston College. He has taught in university classrooms, graduate seminars, and seminary courses (some in Spanish). Seth is the author of three books (one of which hit Number One in its Amazon category) with a fourth forthcoming. He's also a Board Certified Coach and an ordained American Baptist minister.
When not working hard for his clients and students, Seth takes joy in spending time with his partner of over twenty years, Mrs. Clark, and their two kids. And if you couldn't tell by the website, he's also a lover of the woods. So, you may find him hiking on a mountain path or meditating under a nearby tree.
I write and teach about what happens when leaders take their own death seriously, and how that changes everything about ethics, power, and practice. My work draws on Aristotle, Machiavelli, Stoic philosophy, and contemplative theology to ground modern leadership science in ancient wisdom. I guest lecture, advise dissertations, and occasionally co-author. If you are thinking about bringing someone into your classroom, conference, or research project, reach out.
Inquire →One-on-one work for executives in transition, grieving, or caught between who they were and who they need to become. Grounded in adaptive leadership theory, virtue ethics, decision-making psychology, and the simple fact that your time is finite. Leaders who do this work stop avoiding what scares them, make decisions they can stand behind, and find a way of leading that survives the next crisis. Three months or more. In person or online.
Book a Discovery Call →Dying. Failing. What leaders actually owe the people around them. Talks and workshops grounded in leadership science, hospice and hardship, and wisdom that cannot die. Audiences leave with greater clarity, deeper courage, and more spacious resilience to take on the tasks at hand. Every talk is shaped to your context. Half-day, full-day, and multi-day formats.
Inquire About Speaking →I also offer spiritual direction, serve on boards, and may be interested in short-term fractional executive work. Let's talk.
What is beneath the surface of your leadership. A book about mortality, identity, and the stories you inherited about power.
#1 in its Amazon category. A funny, theologically serious book about what it means that Jesus had a body. If God became human, God pooped. What does that change?
Amazon →Stories of hope along the San Diego-Tijuana border. Published by Judson Press, 2022.
Judson Press →A children's book about God's love: the kind that has no limits and no conditions.
Amazon →Mortality awareness, masculinity, and what it costs to lead with vulnerability.
Listen →Mortality awareness, leadership, and why most people avoid the one conversation that would change everything.
Listen →How admitting your mortality changes what you actually care about: values, loss, what your work means.
Listen →On the Border Church, adaptation, and what it looks like when a congregation meets at a wall.
Listen →Coverage of Border Church gatherings amid border restrictions and what communion looks like across a wall.
Read →Karla's story: the crossing of hurt and hope. Excerpted from Church at the Wall.
Read →Editorial photograph from the last Border Church service at the border wall.
View →A self-paced course on mortality-aware leadership. What changes about your decisions, your relationships, and your legacy when you stop pretending you have forever.
Learn More →24 lessons on ethical persuasion, pre-decision influence, and wielding power without losing yourself. Built for C-suite executives and entrepreneurs.
Learn More →Four Stoic scripts for young leaders. What the ancients knew about fear, failure, adversity, and using mortality as a tool for perspective.
Learn More →Contemplative practices rooted in Christian spirituality. Free on Insight Timer.
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Seth has spoken to organizational retreats, graduate classrooms, conference audiences, and congregations across the United States and Latin America. His talks are research-grounded but personal. He does not give motivational speeches. He tells the truth about mortality, failure, and what leaders owe the people who follow them. Audiences leave with language and frameworks they actually use. Every engagement is built around the needs of your organization, audience, and moment. Half-day, full-day, and multi-day workshop formats available.
Mortality-aware leadership is the practice of leading with the knowledge that your time is finite and using that knowledge to make better decisions, build stronger teams, face loss and change with greater courage and resilience, and leave something worth leaving. It draws on hospice experience, Stoic philosophy, virtue ethics, and modern leadership science. Seth David Clark coined the approach and teaches it through coaching, courses, and speaking.
Rev. Dr. Seth David Clark is an executive leadership coach, scholar, pastor, and speaker based in Southern California. He is the founder of Life, Death, and Leadership (LDL), lead pastor of First Baptist Church of National City, and finishing a PhD in Leadership Studies at the University of San Diego. He holds a Doctor of Ministry, an MBA, an MA, and an MTS, and is a Board Certified Coach. He has served over 10,000 people across five continents.
Coaching engagements run three months or more, in person or online. Seth works one-on-one with executives in transition, grieving, or navigating high-stakes decisions. The work is grounded in adaptive leadership theory, virtue ethics, and decision-making psychology. Sessions are confidential and structured around the leader's actual challenges.
Seth speaks on mortality-aware leadership, what hospice taught him about power, virtue ethics for leaders under pressure, identity and retirement, and leading across cultural and geographic divides. He offers half-day, full-day, and multi-day workshop formats for organizational retreats, conferences, graduate classrooms, and congregations.
Seth is the author of three books with a fourth forthcoming: Your Immortality Project (forthcoming 2026), Jesus Pooped (2025, #1 in its Amazon category), Church at the Wall (Judson Press, 2022), and God Loves You All the Way (2022), a children's book.
You can schedule a call directly at this link or email lead@sethdavidclark.com. Seth is available for events across the United States and Latin America.
Coaching, speaking, board work, research collaboration, or something else entirely. I am interested in hearing what you have in mind.