Todd Hiestand

Field Notes on Bi-Vocational Leadership in Suburban America

May 12, 2013

Confession of Sin: cynicism boiled over with slander, criticism, prayerlessness, and pessimism.

From our gathering this morning at The Well:   Father, you tell us in your Word that whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. We confess that we have frequently relaxed our faith. We have allowed ourselves to become cynical, and our cynicism has boiled over with slander, criticism, prayerlessness, and pessimism. How easily we’ve allowed ourselves to crumple under the stresses of our lives. Forgive us for our smallness of faith. In your mercy, hear us, for Jesus’ sake. Amen. – SILENT CONFESSION – ASSURANCE OF PARDON Leader: Hear these comforting words: If you repent and believe in God’s redeeming mercy, your sins are forgiven. Trust in God’s promises and begin anew your life with God and all people in the name of...

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May 3, 2013

The Problem of Western Cultural views of how to lead and organize

Yep.. Western cultural views of how best to organize and lead (the majority paradigm in use in the world) are contrary to what life teaches. Western practices attempt to dominate life; we want life to comply with human needs rather than working as partners. This disregard for life’s dynamics is alarmingly evident in today’s organizations. Leaders use control and imposition rather than self-organizing processes. They react to uncertainty and chaos by tightening already feeble controls, rather than engaging our best capacities in the dance. Leaders use primitive emotions of fear, scarcity, and self-interest to get people to do their work, rather than the more noble human traits of cooperation, caring, and generosity. This has led us to this difficult time, when nothing seems to work...

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May 3, 2013

A Genuine Question about Teams and Committees in Churches

We’ve been forming some excellent teams at The Well, it’s been beautiful to see them flourish and work. At the same time, I always hear about how “bad” committees are in churches.  I’ve never really been part of one, but apparently there is something annoying about them. So, if teams are good and committees are bad. What is the difference between the two? What defines a team? What defines a committee? How do we keep our teams from turning into those awful things we call committees?

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May 2, 2013

You’ve Been Left Behind

From our good friend, Lesslie Newbigin in his most excellent book Household of God, It is surely a fact of inexhaustible significance that what our Lord left behind Him was not a book, nor a creed, nor a system of thought, nor a rule of life, but a visible community. I think that we protestants cannot too often reflect on that fact. He committed the entire work of salvation to that community. It was not that a community gathered round an idea, so that the idea was primary and the community secondary.  It was that a community called together by the deliberate choice of the Lord Himself, and re-creeated in Him, gradually sought – and is seeking – to make explicit who He is and...

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April 30, 2013

Ecclesiology is the Caboose to Grace

“A systematic theology of grace puts church in its right place. Church is at best the caboose to grace. It is its tail. Ecclesiology, on the other hand, makes church into  the engine.” Paul Zaul, Grace in Practice

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April 25, 2013

Two Ways to Handle Conflict, One That Doesn’t Suck

It’s fascinating how much frustration and misunderstanding is really easily taken care of by honest, open, vulnerable conversation. As a pastor (and a human for that matter), I tend to make decisions that effect people. Sometime these decisions are received well. Other times, not so much. Usually someone is happy while someone else is pissed. It just goes with the territory. When people are frustrated with a decision there are a couple paths they usually take: Path 1: They call me and we talk to me about it. I explain why I made a decision or said what I did. They get perspective on my motivations and the “why” of the decision. I get perspective on how I may have missed some important information or...

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April 19, 2013

The Problem with Using Your Inbox as your Task List

Over the years I have found different ways to be productive and get things done. I have two tried and true methods that have stuck with me for quite a while. I use my email inbox + my Moleskine to manage the things I have to get done. For people who know me, they always find it surprising that I use paper to manage my life. But, there is something that is hard to beat about tactile nature of a physical task list. One of the things I have realized recently is that when I stop using my Moleskine, I move into a “respond only” mode of leadership. This might be described by some as the “tyranny of the urgent.” When I’m doing this I’m...

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April 18, 2013

What does an apostolic leader do anyways?

Over the past 10 years, I think I’ve asked about every one of my pastor-friends the question, “what is it that you do during the week?” or “how do you spend your time?”  I’ve asked because I was sensing that I was not a typical pastor and quite honestly, I did not know what to do. This was long before I heard language of “apostolic leadership” talked about in a positive light. But, over the last two years I have learned that I’m probably more apostolically gifted than I ever would have thought. One of the most helpful things I have read recently was Alan Hisrch and Tim Catchim’s discussion of Pauline Apostles and Petrine Apostles in their book, The Permanent Revolution. To crudely summarize...

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April 18, 2013

The Future of the Gospel is not White, Middle Class and Male

I spent this past weekend at the Inaugural Missio Alliance gathering. Simply put, I loved it. I loved the people, the conversations, the location, the sessions and the town of Alexandria. But mostly I loved the diversity of the speakers. The topic of the weekend was the “Future Gospel”. If the main stage was any indication, the “Future Gospel” is not white, middle class and male.  No, the future gospel is something other than that. Sure there were some good missional household names on the stage like Scot McKnight, Alan Hirsch, etc. But, I think its safe to say that the most powerful voices of the weekend were non-white and non-male.  In fact, I would say that those “household names” were overshadowed by voices that...

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March 19, 2013

Are People Weary about Generosity?

“People are weary of being asked to do the least they can possibly do. People are yearning to measure the full distance of their potential on behalf of the causes they care about deeply, but they have to be asked.”  Dan Pallotta From Dan’s provocative TedTalk

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