Todd Hiestand

It’s Official: I’m Going Back to Starbucks

June 24, 2009 // 12 Comments »

It’s hard to believe but I have been a pastor at The Well for about nine years now. In those years, I’ve served at The Well on a part-time-paid basis. This has been an intentional model for us as it allows our church to have a more diverse staff and leadership. This has served us very well as our other part-timer, the one and only Gary Alloway, complements my gifts really well. I can truly say that being “bi-occupational” has been a great asset to the mission of our church community.

(By the way, I use the term “bi-occupational” instead of “bi-vocational” because I believe that my vocation as a Christian is “witness.” What I do for pay does not change my vocation. My vocation is witness, my job is pastor. Your vocation is witness, your job is… well whatever you do for a living).

The bi-occupational approach to church leadership sounds pretty sexy to a lot of people these days. And, while I am a believer in it, I’ll be the first to admit that it isn’t always easy. The biggest challenge is finding another job/career that can support your family and still make it possible for you to serve your church well.

In these last nine years, I’ve worked at UPS, Starbucks and for the last three years I have been a freelance web designer/developer. I’ll be honest, UPS was a terrible job. I worked midnights there and it was probably one of the darkest times of my life for a few different reason that I won’t get into. Starbucks was a great experience and web designing has been pretty awesome because it has given me an extremely flexible schedule and I love the work.

I am not sure if it’s the “economy” or what but I have not been getting enough design work lately to complement my salary at The Well (which, by the way, is a good part-time salary. They take care us well). So, over the last few weeks my wife and I have been talking about what to do. And it looks like God is leading me back to work at Starbucks part-time.

I’ll still be doing some design work, but now I’ll have less pressure to make so many sales each month. My hope is to find one or two steady clients that I can concentrate on serving and sell some of my template sites that don’t require a lot of set up work.

Starbucks will then be a good base for us to work from each month, especially as the benefits kick in after a few months.

I’ll be honest, this was a very hard decision to come to for many reasons.

First, I lose some of the flexibility of my schedule. Thankfully, I’ll have set hours (only mornings) and will be able to plan my weeks in advance. But, I lose a lot of the freedom that I get from being my own boss. This freedom is nice, but I understand that the freedom that I’ve had for the past three years is pretty unique so I am willing to part with it for the time being to care for the needs of my family.

The second reason it was hard honestly revolved around my ego. On some level it feels like a giant step backwards to head back to the Starbucks world. This is not meant as a slight on Starbucks my any means, I wouldn’t be going back there if I didn’t have a high respect for the company. Being totally honest here, as a pastor of a growing church that is doings some incredible ministry, its easy to fall into the trap of thinking that I am too big of a deal or too important to work as a barista at Starbucks. I’m not really sure how cool it is to show up at pastors conferences and say that you are only paid part-time at your church and you spend your mornings steaming milk. But, when it comes down to it, my family is more important that my ego and, well, if my ego really suffers from this job then maybe my ego needs to be put in its place!

While there are some things that made taking this job hard, there are some very appealing aspects to it.

First of all, I finally get to use my college degree. You see, i got a degree from PBU which Gary and I have recently dubbed “Pre-Barista University.” This is because I have so many friends who have graduated from PBU (Philadelphia Biblical University) end up working at Sbux. Now I get to tell this joke more often! :)

Second, and more seriously, I can’t think of a better connection point to the local community. Starbucks really is a third place. That isn’t just a cliche that they come up with as some marketing jargon. I remember when I ended my employment the first time I worked there I thought to myself, “I could probably start a church with 25 non-christians from my relationships at this store.” No, it’s not because I was preaching all the time (Starbucks is not the place for that and I make great efforts to respect the environment they have there). Rather, it was because I built so many actual friendships with both customers and partners that extended beyond the counter and into the real world. I have dreams of someday seeing The Well plant a church in the area I live so this is a great way for me to get connected to my local community.

Third, Starbucks is just a great company to work for. The workplace is business-like but its also filled with great people. As a pastor, I need a second job that is not going to wear me out emotionally. Starbucks is just that: enjoyable.

Finally, I need the extra cash. By working at Starbucks I can decline the health benefits at the church and essentially give myself a quick raise in that check in addition to the hourly wages from my time at Starbucks.

So here we go. Back to Starbucks. I’m honestly very at peace about the decision. I start tomorrow morning and I’ve committed to being there for at least a year so if you are ever in my area, stop by and you’ll get to best latte you can find in the area…

Posted in General, Life, Missional Leadership, The Church, The Well, Web Design

I Should Write A Blog Post Soon.

June 18, 2009 // No Comments »

But I can’t. I have a lot to say but just not enough time to say it.

In other news I am testing out a blog theme that i am designing for release. What do you think so far?

Posted in Blogging, General

A Short Introduction to NASCAR Fashion

May 30, 2009 // 2 Comments »

Today, my son and I took a (now annual) trip to Dover, DE to see the NASCAR Nationwide Series race. It was a beautiful day and a great race. Since I had a zoom lens, I took the opportunity to take some pictures that give you a little picture of the diverse group of people who attend these races.

Mullet + Stache = Awesome.

This guy is rocking this classic look with total confidence. Well done my friend, well done…

The Mullet II

Add in the Oakley’s with the flames on the side and you’ve got yourself an awesome combination!

Down Home

You can’t see it but this stylish woman is knitting. I wonder if she’s knitting a #88 on a flame pattern. Oh, and I just love this hat.

Unashamed

Where else can you go where sporting a rockin farmers tan like this is not only be accepted, but in style?

Make Sure They Know Who You Root For!

What better way than shaving your favorite drivers number in the back of your head? Makes total sense doesn’t it?

You know you are a redneck if…

…you look anything like this guy.

Free Samples!!!

Of Red Man?!?! Seriously? I know this isn’t fashion but I just had to share this. It doesn’t get any better than this right here. Where else could you go to get a free sample of snuff?

Who Let These Guys In?!

At least we’re wearing the right clothes with our favorite numbers on them. Too bad we don’t have the right hair styles. Maybe next year. While we may not fit in with the fashion I have to say it doesn’t seem to really matter. NASCAR fans are some of the nicest people on the face of the earth. It’s like one big family. I’m afraid to say, many churches could learn a thing or two about hospitality from these people… just saying…

Posted in Life, My Family

The Natural: Cole Hiestand

May 25, 2009 // 1 Comment »

At Bat: Cole Hiestand from Todd Hiestand on Vimeo.

Cole is 5 1/2 and has been hitting like this for about a year and a half. He loves baseball and he asks to play almost everyday. Since we watch the Cubs all the time, his swing is a combination of Derek Lee and Alphonso Soriano. What impresses me most is that I have not really taught him how to swing the bat. He has pretty much learned from watching MLB players.

The only thing I have taught him are my four keys to hitting (which I made up one day while we were playing) in the yard:

1. Elbow up
2. Bend your knees
3. Watch the ball.
4. Whack!

I figure if he gets these down, he’ll be all set.

Posted in Cole & Baseball, Life, Videos

Life with Three Kids

May 19, 2009 // No Comments »

We have three kids in our house.

Three different personalities.

Three different temperaments.

One of them just sits there and sleeps most of the day.

The other two go back and forth between being best friends and wanting to kill each other.

The friends thing is amazingly cute and fun to watch.

The wanting to kill each other thing makes Melanie and I want to jump out of a window.

Who knows what will happen as the third gets moving, talking and into the mix.

It’ll likely a combination of beautiful friendship and complete insanity.

No matter what, this family is beautiful.

And just when we thought things couldn’t get better…

…We just got a dishwasher.

Talk about living the dream.

Now, if we could just find a way to get more sleep…

Posted in Life, My Family

Welcome Elliot James Hiestand

May 13, 2009 // 4 Comments »

For those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter or Facebook you might not have heard that we now have three kids. Elliot James Hiestand was born on Saturday at 12:59pm. As you can tell from the images he’s quite a good looking kid.

Here he is with his two brothers:

Posted in Life, My Family

Church as Family

April 29, 2009 // 4 Comments »

In the next few weeks I’ll be a dad for the third time. This is kind of a strange thing and, despite the size of my beautiful wife’s belly, it hasn’t sank in quite yet. I keep asking her, “are you sure there is a baby in there?” She keeps saying yes. I’ll trust she knows what she is talking about.

We have a number of friends at The Well who have had babies in the last few months and when I look at the size of those kids I realize that it’s been a while since we’ve had an infant in the house. Cole turns 6 this July and Mason came home when he was 10 months (he’s adopted from Guatemala). That whole prospect is a tad overwhelming, to say the least.

Both of our parents live out of town. Her parents are a 4.5 hour drive away in Corning, NY and my parents are a 13 hour drive away in the Chicago area. I am guessing that my parents (or at least my mom) will be flying in to see her new grandchild and I know that Melanie’s parents will come down for a bit to be with us too. That’s one of the beauty’s of a healthy family life. It’s great to have your family be part of these big moments in life. Of course, it’s also nice to have your parents be there when you need some sleep too.

But both sets of parents live so far away and, despite their wishes, they will have to go home. Growing up I had at least one set of grandparents living in the area. This was cool for me because I got to know them well. I am sure this was even cooler for my parents because they had relief when they needed it. It’s nice having family in the area.

Melanie and I used to go home to her house for almost every holiday. Christmas. Easter. July 4th. Mothers Day. Fathers Day. Flag day. Secretary’s day. Any day that we could justify heading home. But, as Cole has started Cole and we’ve started to make some of our own traditions it has not been possible to get home as much. Some holidays were here with just our little family. We love that but it’s nice to have family in the area.

So, over the past few years our church family at The Well has become our family. Almost literally. They have been there for us in the births of our children and when we can’t get home for the holidays we usually celebrate with them. Our kids have some awesome literal aunts and uncles. My brothers and their wives and Melanie’s sister and her husband (in addition to some super close friends of her family that are pretty much brother and sister-in-law except for on paper) are special in our lives. But it’s been awesome to have our kids have a bunch of other “aunts” and “uncles” locally. These close friends serve as our family in the area.

I cannot be sure of how significant it will be for our kids to have other adults that they love, trust and know that they are loved by. But, I know it’s significant and I am pretty sure that we couldn’t place a value on these relationships if we tried. They are, as you say, priceless. Because, somewhere along the way our kids are going to go through something significant enough and, for whatever reason, they’ll need another adult they can talk to. I’m so glad they will have a number of people they can go to.

Its nice to have family in the area.

We’re about to have three boys and I know we’ll need this “family” to navigate the next 20 years (at least).

Of course, these three boys will have two imperfect parents and I know that they will need our church family and our “real” family to navigate these years as well!

(BTW, this is not to devalue our “real” family in anyway. We would be lost without them and we wish they lived closer. But that’s just not the way it is. Rather, this is meant to show just how valuable our church family is. And, if we did have family in the area, I would feel the same about our church family).

Posted in Community, Faith & Theology, General, Life, Life in Community, Missional

343design Redesign

April 16, 2009 // No Comments »

I redesigned my freelance web design portfolio this week. I’m really happy with how it turned out. Take a look: http://www.343design.com. If you know people who are looking for some web work I’d be honored if you sent them my name and site.

Posted in Web Design

Social Networking for Dummies (Advanced Version)

March 20, 2009 // 6 Comments »

So over Christmas this past year I spent some time trying to explain to my family how I spend use the different social networking websites out there. It took some time but I finally resorted to drawing it out on a napkin so it made some sense.  While I participate in an number of different sites, I don’t actaully spend much time on all of them.   Through interconnecting some of these different things I am able to spend most of my time in one or two places while still participating in the others.

Here’s a rundown of the map…

• Twitter feeds my blog with my most recent update in the upper right hand corner.
• Twitter sends my most recent update to Facebook’s status line (so I don’t have to visit Facebook to update my status there).
• Twitter sends my most recent update to the status line of my three Instant Messager programs.
• I connect to my three instant messenger programs at the same time through a program on my Mac called “Adium” which also connects me to Facebook chat (though, i tend to turn that off when I think of it because I have way too many friends on Facebook).
• My blog automatically sends notice of my most recent blog post to my twitter status (which, of course, then ends up on my instant messenger accounts and my Facebook line).
• I e-mail photos from my iPhone to my Flickr account (photo sharing) and then they show up at the top of my blog.

There, I think that about covers it.

Simple right?

Actually, while it might not be simple to set up and it seems really complicated, its really natural for me.

Of course, the bigger question is “why?” Why do all this?  Why share so much?  That’s a great question but the main thing is that I have seen over the last few years the beauty and joy that comes from being able to learn from and speak into so many different people that I would never meet otherwise.

Posted in Blogging, Life

A New Blog Design

March 16, 2009 // 3 Comments »

This weekend on the airplane I got inspired to give my blog a bit of a makeover. I stuck with the same colors and even the same background but really tried to simplify things a bit. I am also writing some longer articles more often so I made a place to highlight those.

I still have some work to do on the sub pages and the sidebars but I figured I would toss it up now and that would inspire me to actually get it done faster and that way you could see the work in progress.

Let me know what you think and what you find that might be broken still.

Posted in Site Updates, Web Design

God of the Moon and Stars

March 10, 2009 // 4 Comments »

Eddie Gibbs introduced us to this amazing song and video at the Ecclesia conference. Its written by a dutch singer and I am not sure if his name. But, its a really moving video.

Posted in Faith & Theology, Featured, Missional, Videos

Paying Attention to What’s in Front of Me

January 29, 2009 // 1 Comment »

Those of you who visit my blog daily, whoever you are, may have noticed that I’m not posting as much as I had been recently. That’s on purpose. I’m doing my best to pay attention to the things that are right in front of me and not spread myself too thin. I often, with the best of intentions, tend to get way too many sticks in the fire and then it gets hard for me to manage them.

So, I’m focusing these days on being faithful to what’s in front of me while still looking intentionally at the future. That means I’ve got to say “no” or “not now” to some things that I really want to say yes to.

For now, my blog is getting a “whenever I get the chance” response from me. Not sure how long that will last really. I’ve been trying to spend more of my nights reading rather than surfing the web so I’m likely to throw a quote up or a book review here and there.

Now would be a good time to subscribe to my e-mail updates (you’ll only get e-mail when I create a post and you can unsubscribe anytime) or if you are a nerd you can subscribe to my RSS feed.

Posted in Blogging, Featured, Life

Thinking about 2009 – A More Disciplined Life

January 4, 2009 // 2 Comments »

I’ve been processing things like resolutions and goals more than ever this year. I’ve been thinking through a lot of different things but the one I keep coming back to is my need for a more disciplined work week.  It’s not that I am totally undisciplined. I mean, if I were there is no way I could run my own freelance design business and pastor at The Well.   But there is a need for me to have more boundaries and guides so that I can be faithful to my responsibilities. 

I currently love my lifestyle. I am mostly my own boss.  Each day I wake up and can choose what I want to work on (at least, mostly) where I want to work on it.   The “what” means I decide if I’ll be working on design work or church work that day. Depending on the week, some days  I need to focus on design work and others I need to focus on church work. Its up to me to figure out how to spend my time.  

Of course, the “where” is the most fun part.  I can’t imagine my life inside a cubicle (sorry those of you who are currently reading this from your cubicle!).  Each day I wake up and say to myself, “Where do i want to work from today?”  Sometimes its my office in the basement but most times its my office in one of the local Starbucks locations around my area. I also can head up to the cool little town of Doylestown and plop down in the local coffee shop or even spend a couple hours in the coolest cigar shop ever (if i have studying or reading to do since there is no wifi there).  

It’s funny, I woke up one day and was complaining to my wife that I was bored with all my “offices.”  She just looked at me and shook her head.  It’s amazing how spoiled one can get…

While this way of life is great, it requires that I find some more discipline.  It’s all too easy to spend my day doing things that are “work” but are not really the things I should be doing at the moment.  When things get crazy at church, its all too easy to forget about design stuff.  When things get busy with my design work, its all too easy to get the small (but important things) at church fall through the cracks.  In all of this, the tyranny of the urgent usually kills me. Bigger, longer term projects keep getting pushed aside because I am only thinking two to three days in advance.   This obviously isn’t good.  

In all of this, its all too easy to let my two jobs invade my personal life and family time.  Not having a permanent office means that my office is wherever I am.  Which, of course, sometimes means my office is my living room.   Which of course, sometimes make the family a little frustrated!

So, over the next couple weeks Melanie and I will be working through a more disciplined schedule together.  So far I have Monday mornings figured out.  This is the time that I am setting aside for scripture reading, book reading, prayer,  reflection, etc.  This is something I desperately need and want to do but its one of those things that doesn’t seem “urgent.”  Once a month during this time I’ll be meeting up with three other pastors who have become such incredible friends and brothers and I can’t imagine living without. (JR Briggs, Tom Ward and LT).  

I’m working out the rest of the week so that I am able to set aside specific time for sermon study, admin work, design work and meetings.  It might be more annoying for people to schedule time with me since Ill have specific times I am available for meetings but I definitely need boundaries so that I can be faithful to all my responsibilities. 

So, here’s to 2009.  

Oh, and my other major goal is to beat my 5 year old’s record in Wii bowling.  He bowled a 263 a week or so ago…

Posted in Featured, Life, My Family

Use Cash, Spend Less. Boo Credit.

December 16, 2008 // 7 Comments »

I read this article on CNN.com today. Bascially it was talking about the shopping habits of Americans this Christmas season.

“Most Americans have put themselves on a budget this holiday season and are sticking to it,” said Phil Rist, executive vice president of strategic initiatives at research firm BIGresearch, in a statement. “Retailers are finding that consumers who pay with cash or a debit card may be less likely to make impulse purchases, but recognize that these shoppers are also trying to put themselves in a better financial situation to spend in the future.”

I don’t get the feeling that the article is pointing out the problems of this approach, but its funny that this is possibly conceived as bad news. At least, I’ve seen this logic used in the past few weeks other places asa a means of saying how we are in trouble. I’ve always said, that we have an economy that is dependent on the people spending money they don’t have is a rather significant problem.

So, stop using plastic and start spending cash. My wife and I are in the midst of transitioning to a cash system and I’m kinda excited to see how much of a difference it makes in the way we spend our money.

Posted in Faith & Theology, Featured, Life, Money & The Church

Design Refresh and New Site Icon

December 11, 2008 // 9 Comments »

The past month or so I have been working a new design job as a semi-long term contractor for design company. I’ve been working hourly so its easy for me to slip into the temptation to work all the time whenever I have a free hour from church or family.  This of course, leaves little time for fun and hobbies. So, I’ve intentionally tried to keep myself from working on paid design work until after 10:00 at night to leave room for hanging out with my wife, reading or working on a hobby.  Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while could probably guess that my blog serves as a hobby for me, and this includes the design aspect of it.  As my brother stated recently, my blog design changes more than the arrangement of my room did when I was growing up. 

Anyways, last night I had some fun refreshing my design and my styling and ended up totally revamping the header of the site.  

The header: One of the things I’ve felt for a while was that the black bar was unbalanced and the header was getting a little unorganized.  So I totally revamped it and simplified it.

New Icon: I added a new logo/icon to represent my theme of missional in suburbia.  Here’s a good test of its meaningfulness: Can you interpret its symbolism?  (Update: I’ve tweaked the icon a bit because it was so similar to another logo for a web hosting company.  I actually like what this one portrays more than the first one. I’ll be posting on why I chose this one soon).

No Picture of Me: I took away the picture of me. I’ve always thought it was helpful to see a picture of an author on the back of a book. For some reason this helpful as I read the book.  I was using that same approach for my blog but I’m up or a change.  If you really need to look at pictures of me, you can go to my facebook page or my twitter account.  On second thought, if you really need to look at some pictures of me, stop everything you are doing, call a counselor and get some help.

No more black bars: I ditched all the black bars that were on the site including the one in the header and the ones in the right sidebar.  I felt they were really “heavy” and enjoy the subtle feel of the grey. 

I would love to hear what you think or if you see anything that sticks out as unhelpful.  

I know that the site doesn’t render perfectly for Internet Explorer 6 but its definitely readable.  Consider this my encouragement for you upgrade already!

Posted in Featured, Site Updates, Web Design

Mailing List Subscription Stupidity

December 3, 2008 // 2 Comments »

This is what you call re-dic-u-lous.

These days, there is absolutely no reason that I should have to wait 10 days for your records to be updated.

Get with it people.

It’s 2008.

Not 1996.

Don’t even get me started on how I got on the list in the first place. I’ve never used their product. 

Marketing is a bit more effective when I am actually interested in your product.

Posted in Featured, Life, Web Design

The Miracles of Technology

November 24, 2008 // 3 Comments »

I don’t share YouTube videos on this blog very often (though, i did design it so they would embed really nicely into the left column here).  But, this guy has totally shared my feelings about technology exactly.  And, if I’m being humble, he is almost as funny as me.

I saw this via Matt Heerema via some guy named Larry.

Posted in Featured, Life, Videos

Moving from Man to Man to Zone Defense…

November 17, 2008 // 4 Comments »

So, in May/June Melanie and I will be switching defenses. We’re going from man on man to zone.  

That’s right. Two kids to three.

Needless to say we’re pretty excited about the transition.    

It’s going to bring about some major changes.  

Cole is excited.  He wants a little sister.  Mason on the other hand, has no clue what’s coming.

Mainly, we need to find a three bedroom apt/house to rent and we need to get a car that will fit three car seats.  

This should all be pretty easy. :)

Posted in Featured, Life

Reflections on the 2008 Election

November 5, 2008 // 7 Comments »

I don’t delve into polictics on my blog alot.  Heck, I don’t delve into politics in my life a lot.  

But, whether you voted for Obama or McCain, tonight was historic.

I had a stream of thoughts as I wanted the events unfold tonight. Here are a few of them:

• I don’t believe that the significance of an black man being elected as the president of the United States can be overstated. 
• John McCain’s concession speech was moving and inspiring. I appreciated his humility and it’s clear that he loves America more than he loves himself.  This speaks volumes of about this man’s character. 
• I appreciated the way that Obama’s victory speech was reverent and  a tad subdued. He could have easily whipped that huge crowd into a frenzy but he didn’t.  That shows he has a sense of humility and respect for what had just happened. 
• I will be praying that President Elect Obama is able to be a man of character, humility and integrity as he takes on a job that is bigger than any single person could ever imagine. 
• I wonder how many of the excited Obama supporters will be quick to leave him when he has to make difficult, unpopular decisions in the coming years. I wonder how they will respond when he screws up and makes wrong decisions (because, he will). 
• I wonder how many Christians who are fearful of Obama will be able to truly pray that he serves our country well and not secretly hope he screws up so they can be right. I wonder if they will be able to admit when he makes good moves (because, he will)
• Obama is not spell checking correctly. I wonder how long it will take for this little red underline to go away as I write his name. 
• Perhaps the most mindlessly fun part of my evening was watching all my conservative-leaning and liberal-leaning facebook status and twitter updates.  

Beyond all these things, I am honored to have watched a very, very significant moment in the history of our country.  Time will tell how Obama handles this monumental challenge and how his policies and stances on issues will effect our nation.  

I pray that he leads this country well and with great wisdom.

Posted in Featured, Life

Aug – October Phamily Photos

November 3, 2008 // No Comments »

It’s been a while since I uploaded pictures to our flickr account. I’ve added a bunch. Here is a sample.

Posted in Featured, Life, My Family