Todd Hiestand

The Ol’ Pastor Swap

June 25, 2009 // No Comments »

This weekend I am swapping pulpits with Rev. Greg Holston of St. Matthew United Methodist Church in Trevose, PA.  St. Matthew is a predominately african-american congregation in our town that we partner with on occasion.   Pastor Greg will be preaching at The Well, which I will be very sad to miss. I heard him preach at our combined Easter Sunrise service and he was awesome.  He has a great handle on the scriptures and the gospel and preaches it with a ton of passion.  I know The Well will be blessed and challenged by him this weekend. 

Part of the deal is that I get to head over to preach to his community.  I’m tremendously excited about this as I love being given the opportunity to speak into other communities of faith.  I’ll be preaching on the topic of personal / corporate vocation which will fit quite well with my place in life these days. 

One of the values we have at The Well is that of “unity” with the wider body of Christ and I am excited to see us expressing it in this simple way.  If you have never done this kind of thing in your church, suggest it or if you are the pastor, just make it happen.  I think its a great way to say “we are all one body on mission together.”  

Also, its always helpful for communities to hear the scriptures spoken from someone who lives in the midst of a different environment.  While there is some overlap for sure,  there is no question that the lives that Pastor Greg’s people are living have somewhat different narratives and questions than the people at The Well.  I’m excited to be able to speak into their community from my experience and he into ours. 

Of course, since the baby has come I haven’t preached in about 7 weeks so I’ve got to figure out how to do this again…

Posted in Faith & Theology, Missional Leadership, Pastoring, The Well

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

The Next Steps for The Well

May 12, 2009 // No Comments »

May 12, 2009

Dear Church Family,

During our worship gathering on Sunday we took a break from our regular sermon series in order to look back at the early dreams and passions of The Well and to celebrate how God is making these dreams a reality. (You can listen to the audio on the church website here: http://church.thewellpa.com/podcast/the-history-next-steps-for-the-well/)

The Well has four foundational values:

• Discipleship (we are a community of people becoming more and more like Jesus)
• Justice/Evangelism (we reach out and share the love of Jesus with others, especially those on the fringes of society)
• Locality (we are locally embedded in our neighborhood, especially through the use of our building)
• Unity (we are connected to the historical and global Church)

On Sunday we focused on three of these four values, and how God continues to bless our desire to serve in these areas. Below is a quick overview:

Discipleship: God has been actively working in the lives of the people in our congregation. It’s clear that his Spirit is present and active among us. We believe that it is now time for us to become even more intentional about allowing God to form all of our lives into the image of Christ. We seek to enrich our environment in a way that will help people discover practices and relationships that foster Christ-likeness. This summer we will begin a very intentional time of searching and seeking in order to more fully understand the next steps before us. If being part of this process interests you, please e-mail Shanna (splatt20@hotmail.com).

Justice/Outreach: Over the last few years God has given us wonderful opportunities to serve our local community in things such as the missions trip to Lower Bucks County, meeting specific local needs, and partnering with local community services organizations. As we continue serving in those ways we are making intentional steps to reach outside ourselves. God has planted a desire among many in The Well to serve our neighboring community of Bristol. From June 7 to August 23, we will meet in Bristol for informal Sunday night worship gatherings. We will meet at Brian and Dorie Morgan’s house (922 Spring St, Bristol, PA) at 6 pm for a potluck dinner, followed by music and discussion from 7 to 8. Once a month, we will also do a service project in the community of Bristol. We pray this will be an awesome opportunity to worship God in an intimate setting, grow close with friends and neighbors, and serve in the most depressed part of Bucks County. For now, this is a summertime program, but we will pray as to how God is leading us in the future. For anyone interested in serving the people of Bristol, there will be a meeting after church on May 24. If you have any questions, please contact Gary Alloway (garya@thewellpa.com).

Locality: Our prayer is that our building would serve as an important means of blessing and partnering with our local community. We have certainly seen God honor our prayers, as he has allowed us to use our building to minister in exciting ways. We now see the need to hire a Building Ministry Coordinator to continue our faithful use of this resource by finding new opportunities for our community to serve others through use of our space. Our goal is to have the Coordinator in place by August in order to prepare for fall programming. We will also be undergoing some renovations to our bathrooms and coffee bar as well as adding another classroom. We are currently in the midst of estimating costs and exploring grants to fund this position and the renovations. If you are interested in helping with the planning process, writing grants, or doing renovations please contact Todd Hiestand (toddh@thewellpa.com).

Our journey the last twelve years has been much like a hike. Our dream was to walk this journey in step with the Spirit. There have been some peaks, some valleys, and some great stories of God working in, among, and through us. For the last year or so we have sensed that God has brought us (organizationally speaking) to a peaceful clearing on the trail. This clearing has been a place of much needed stability and rest. We’ve been able to catch our breath, roast a few marshmallows on the fire, and throw the frisbee around a bit. As nice as it is, we do not desire to stay in the clearing for too long. It’s time to continue on our journey. So we walk forward in faith, believing that God will continue the good work he started in us twelve years ago.

As always, we invite conversation and discussion about these decisions. We also ask you to join in prayer with us as we ask God to lead and direct these goals. As each of these areas proceeds there will be opportunities to participate with your time, ideas and finances. If you have questions, concerns, ideas or just want to hear more, please do not hesitate to ask.

The Ministry Leadership Team at The Well,

Gary Alloway, Shanna Cummings, Todd Hiestand, Patti Pearson, Anna Pelger, Phil Wood

Posted in Community, Missional, Missional Leadership, Pastoring, Suburbia

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

Spiritual Formation and the Image of God

April 23, 2009 // No Comments »

This quote comes from the newest book on my shelf…

“Christian formation involves awaking from the dream that we are God and remembering our true identity, our ‘beloved-of-God-in-Christ” identity, and then saying yes to the pain associated with the mortification of our false self. Dethroning the false self is a pillar of spiritual direction – and a primary cause for the busyness and anxious swimming that distracts us from enjoying the water…”

Gary Moon and David Benner in the book Spiritual Direction and the Care of Souls

I’ve spoken with enough Christians about the image of their “selves” to learn that this thought that the authors share here is far too often overlooked.  I’ve a believer in the effects of the fall and sin. But I also think that in emphasizing this sin, sometimes we miss the fact that we are beautifully created in the image of God.  Our identity is not merely that we are sinners saved by grace. But more so, our identity is wrapped up first in being people who are  images of a perfect God.  At the core of us is this image.  Granted, this core is destroyed, cracked and broken by sin. Thankfully we have good news in the believe that it is Jesus who is making all things, including us, new.

One page 19 the authors write,

“Perhaps it should not be surprising to hear Christians described as “forgiven sinners” instead of beloved children of God on a transformational journey that will lead to restoration of the image Dei and spiritual union.”

Intentionally entering into the process of the re-formation of this image is a critical part of the Christian life.  I think far too many of us are content with living a rather broken existence.

Of course, this “process” is the big question for churches and communities of faith.  How do we help each other enter into this?

It’s become clear (to me at least) that a one-size-fits-all approach just doesn’t fly.  We just can’t have 6 classes on discipleship and expect that people will come out the other side all fixed. This is especially true considering we all come in with different experiences, sins and stories that generalized dispensing of information simply cannot address.

At the same time, we’ve learned that leaving spiritual formation to a totally organic process doesn’t go too far either.  At The Well we’re in search of (and have some ideas on) a hybrid of the two.  I think what churches need is a way to intentionally invite people into a life of Spiritual Formation while at the same time not having a one-size-fits-all approach.

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

My Interview at The Idea Camp

April 22, 2009 // 1 Comment »

When I was at The Idea Camp in LA I had the privilege of sitting down with Cynthia Ware and talking a bit about our church and our mission. Disclaimer: I’m bad with dates off the top of my head so i don’t know that the years in this interview are totally correct. :)

The Idea Camp – Todd Hiestand from The Idea Camp on Vimeo.

Posted in Missional, Missional Leadership, The Well

Sway by Ori and Rom Brafman

April 21, 2009 // No Comments »

Some of you might know the Ori Brafman from the very good book, The Starfish and the Spider.” Since I loved that book so much I figured I would give this one a try. This did not disappoint. Sway is subtitled “the irresistible pull of irrational behavior.” You could rephrase that as, “why smart people do stupid things.”

Not only was this book was as readable as a Malcolm Gladwell book (that’s very readable if you don’t know who Malcolm Gladwell is), but it was extremely helpful and insightful. Telling lots of stories, they gave me some language and perspective to understand why I and other church leaders often make dumb decisions.

One thing he writes struck a significant chord with me,

“The more meaningful a potential loss is, the more loss averse we become. In other words, the more there is on the line, the easier it is to get swept into an irrational decision.” (22)

The most significant loss we had at The Well in recent years was when my co-pastor, Brad Jackson, had to move on from the community earlier than expected due to financial reasons. Looking back, this was the right decision for us and for him.  Hard, but right.  It’s clear to me that God wasn’t absent in this process.

But, I have also realized that we waited too long to make this transition. By waiting to act as long as we did , we ran the financial resources of the church down further than we should have. This put The Well in a precarious financial position for the next year or so. (Basically, when we he left, we had no money.  Obviously we have recovered well since then.).

Some might take the opinion that we were idiots, or worse, selfish. Perhaps we were. But I don’t think that’s the what happened. Sway gave me language to describe what I’ve always felt about this situation.   What really happened is that we were so emotionally invested in this community that we were blinded to the road we were on. We were just convinced that we could turn it around. And, like someone who is holding onto a stock that keeps dropping in price and eventually has to sell their fortune for 29 cents a share, we too held on too long. It’s not that we were stupid. It’s not that we were selfish. It was all done with great intentions and perhaps a little naiveté.  But, if nothing else it has served as a great learning experience.  This experience has been valuable. It really makes me step back from decisions and try and see them in a more objective light.

Again, Sway helped give me language to understand this part of our story in a way that I haven’t been able to put my finger on in the past.

Of course, this whole post assumes that I am a smart… hmm…

Posted in Book Reviews, General, Missional Leadership

Church, Where is Your Money Going?

March 25, 2009 // 2 Comments »

Letting this quote from Brennan Manning sink in a bit today,

“To me, the lack of credibility of the Christian church in America is that we are not professional lovers of God and people.  We’ve got this carrying of the Bibles, saying “Praise Jesus!” and we don’t love one another.  We don’t reach out and extend ourselves. Tell me the amount of money in your local church that is devoted to, first, the quality of faith of the people and, second, the assistance of the poor.  Tell me those two things and I will tell you what I think of your church”

Preach in Brennan!

Our leadership team is in the midst of asking some important questions around these very two important issues.  It’s my guess that most churches do okay with the first one.  That’s where most of our staff is allocated.  Our staff make up a significant portion of most of our budgets so one could say that we are putting a good amount of money into the quality of the faith of the people. This is a good thing.  I am a fan of staff because I think this is an important part of our mission.

But what about the poor?  What about those less fortunate? What about those people on the other side of the tracks?

What’ the best way to use money so that the poor are actually helped?

Where are we unnecessarily putting money?

Where do we need to be putting money that we are not?

All good questions. Sometimes I think its too easy to get caught up in asking questions taht are hard to answer and we never actually act on anything because we are so busy asking questions and critiquing.

By the way this quote from Brennan Manning comes from some dialogue that takes places in the book The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership for a Third-Culture Church by Dave Gibbons.

Posted in Faith & Theology, Missional, Missional Leadership, Money & The Church

Three Questions that Become Answers (2)

March 24, 2009 // No Comments »

I’m working through three questions from Dave Gibbons from the book the Monkey and the Fish (I posted question #1 on Sunday night) “What is my pain” is the second question that Gibbons suggests that we ask as we seek direction for our lives and for our church. He writes about how some of the most important moments in our lives come through pain. The easiest example is that of Jesus. Salvation came through brutal death on the cross.

Our world of comfort however, seems to not like or value pain so much and we would do well to consider it more carefully.

He writes,

“I think South American and Easter countries can help us with our theology and lifestyle. They not only think of resurrection day but also have a theology of suffering and pain. It’s not just about the resurrection; its about Via Dolorosa – the way of suffering. Its about the journey of pain to the cross.

It seems that we’ve done a good job of domesticating the gospel in the west by thinking that following Jesus is all about the good life, being fulfilled and being happy (overstatement i know, but there is some truth to this).

But, Dave is getting at the fact that the pain that we carry with us is often the very thing that God uses to bring hope to others.

He writes,

“Personally, as I’ve periodically inventoried my life, I’ve listed all the painful moments, the moments of sadness and suffering involving the people in my life. My parent’s divorce. My mom’s death at the hands of a drunken driver. My being told in college at a Christian University that i couldn’t see my girlfriend because I was Asian-American and she was Caucasian. Friends who’ve left me feeling betrayed or disillusioned. I’ve realized again and again that my pain was a gift from God. As I’ve met people around the world and shared my pain with them, it is the pain that draws people in, far more so than my limited talents, skills, and accomplishments. It disarms all the things that can be used to divide us – race, economics, culture, politics, nationalism, dogma, language.”

he finishes this section by saying,

“It’s worth remembering ourselves that Jesus didn’t come from a line of professional clergy and had no social pedigree. He came from real, flawed people who weren’t necessarily proud of their past and didn’t like their pain, but he embraced them and, by faith, saw something far better come from them.”

Amen to that.

So, what is your pain?

Posted in Book Reviews, Faith & Theology, Missional Leadership

Pastor, How Do You Spend Your Week?

March 23, 2009 // 1 Comment »

We’re interacting with Ken Callahan’s book, “Effective Church Leadership” here. I’ve done him the favor of re-titling it Organizational Leadership for Missional Churches without asking him.

He’s talks a bit about re-imagining the way pastors spend their time. In a churched culture, we were taught that most of our time could be spent studying, parsing verbs and keeping track of the inside workings of the church. he writes,

” [In interviews of pastors I learn that] The initial locus and primary focus of their work is in their offices. TIme-management studies again and again have confirmed that pastors invest a large percentage of their time in their offices – in meetings, in doing administrative work, and in taking care of administrative details…

I am not proposing that pastors eliminate their offices. That would miss the central point. Pastors continue to spend so much time in their offices simply because it is a familiar and habitual behavior pattern that has been nurtured and reinforced for many, many years. And the foundation underlying that behavior pattern is an understanding of the nature of leadership that is no longer helpful.” (16)

As I have sought to re-learn how to spend my time as a pastor I can confess that this is true. It’s much, much more natural for me to sit behind my computer most of the week doing “helpful” things that do help our church. But, sometimes these “helpful” things aren’t the “best” things for the mission of our congregation. I am 6 years into the process re-learning what it means to be a pastor in a missionary context.

Not to build him up unnecessarily, but over the past few months, I have been inspired and encouraged by my good friend JR Briggs who has been living this out amazingly well.  His stories of interacting with his geographical community are awesome and if you want to know what it means to engage your local context, he’s a good one to learn from.

This poses some questions,

• How should a missionary pastor be spending his / her time?
• What kinds of places should a pastor be going?
• Who should he be having conversations with?
• Is your church leadership teams/boards giving the pastor the freedom to reimagine their role? This is an important piece of the puzzle as many pastors want to do this, but the expectations laid down by their boards are in direct opposition to it..

As a bi-vocational pastor, this approach to my time takes on a different form. I’m putting together a typical week for me and I’ll be posting that in the near future….

Posted in Book Reviews, Missional Leadership

Missional Organizational Leadership

March 19, 2009 // 5 Comments »

Over the last few weeks during my travels I’ve been devouring the book, Effective Church Leadership by Ken Callahan.  Now, in the circles of pastors that I run, this isn’t typically on the top of anyone’s reading list. But, it should be.

I’ve come to the conclusion that this book needs to be reedited and reprinted and retitled as: Organizational Leadership for Missional Churches”  (I’m convinced this book is so important and helpful I am in the midst of seeking to convince the author to do just that).

Dr. Callahan is able to do something that is, unfortunately, rare. He’s able to give helpful organizational leadership principles, guidance and advice to churches and pastors who are trying to understand how to lead communities of faith in our post-Christian context.

Now, this is what makes this book amazing to me: Ken wrote this book in 1990. Yes, 1990.  For some frame of reference, that’s 8 years before the landmark book Missional Church by Darrell Guder was published.

Keeping that in mind, read some of the quotes from this book:

“In our time, a new understanding of the nature of leadership needs to be grown forward.  We need a foundational understanding that the focus of leadership will be in the world, not in the church.” (21)

“A mission outpost is more of a people than a place.  It is a grouping-a team of people-gathered at the front lines of human hurts and hopes.” (28)

“The missional leader understands that to be faithful is “to be faithful to the mission,” not to success.  Indeed, the missional leader redefinds success as mission. For the missional leader, one does the mission for the sake of the mission.  If, as a by-product, there is success (as the world defines success, such as church growth), the missional leader praises God and continues in faithfulness to the mission. The leader does not allow the success of growth to alter his or her mission.” (83)

“The missionary pastor’s second task is, in a relational way, to construct new communities of reconciliation, wholeness, caring and justice.” (200)

This sounds like some of the stuff I heard at the last two conferences I was at over the last few weeks.  Oh, and by the way Ken is somewhere around 75 years old.  He’s no hip young pastor with a soul patch and cool black framed glasses and a shaved head.  Frankly he’s old. But frankly, he gets it and is saying things that said pastor(s) need to listen to carefully.

Much of this book is spent working through key issues that churches just like mine need to think through carefully if we are going to have any longevity.  The issue isn’t making our organizations institutional and bureaucratic. Rather the emphasis is exactly the opposite. Its about leading and sustaining missional (mission focused) churches. The main topics Dr. Callahan writes about are mission, leadership and decision making, and organization. (Coincidently, these are the topics that I hear my fellow young pastors begging for more education).

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be interacting with some of the topics in his book because  a) I believe this information needs to be shared b) because it’s been so helpful to us at The Well and c) because I think you should buy the book.

If you do buy the book, or have read the book, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Posted in Book Reviews, Faith & Theology, Missional Leadership

Generosity and Fear

February 16, 2009 // 9 Comments »

We are living in a time where fear and despair are the overwhelming attitudes. Whether we’re talking about our personal financial situations or our national financial situation or our world’s financial situation these attitudes are prevalent. Fear. Despair.

But as those who profess faith and resurrection, we can’t succumb to fear. We can’t ignore the problems of the world, but we can’t let fear be our master.

We are not people of fear.
We are not people of despair.
We are not a people of obligation.

Fear leads to selfishness.
Despair leads to self-preservation.
Obligation leads to legalism.

We are people of hope.

Hope that comes from grace.
Hope that comes from resurrection.

Hope leads to freedom.
Freedom leads to Generosity.

Let us be a people of freedom.
Let us be a people of grace,
overflowing in generosity.

Posted in Faith & Theology, Featured, Missional Leadership, Money & The Church

The Wait is Over

December 21, 2008 // 2 Comments »

This is a short writing i did as I wrote my sermon for this sunday. I turned this into a reflective slideshow which you can view here.

Immanuel.

God is with us.

Wait.

Stop.

Listen again…

Immanuel.

God is with us.

God. Is. With. Us.

Wait.

God is with you.

Sure.

But God is with me?

Yes.

Really?

Yes.

You don’t need to come to Jesus.

He’s has come to you.

He has pursued you.

Loves you.

Yes, you.

The wait is over.

Posted in Faith & Theology, Featured, Sermons, Theologyish

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

Surprised by Scripture

December 15, 2008 // 1 Comment »

I never cease to be amazed at how scripture surprises me. Over the last two years we’ve preached through Exodus, Acts and now we’re finishing up Ephesians.

Each of these books (especially Exodus and Acts) have had some seemingly difficult, boring or irrelevant passages in them. Exodus and Acts had more because they are narratives. Each time I would come to one of these passages I would get frustrated that I had to preach it. But, like I said, the scripture never ceases to amaze me. I have found that out of those passages come some of the most amazing truths, stories and thoughts about faith and mission.

Yesterday morning at church I had the “privilege” of having one of these difficult passages again. This time it was Ephesians 6:1-9. Yeah, just what I wanted to do was speak about slaves, children and also go back to last weeks topic of submission.

But, like I said, I am always amazed at how the scripture comes alive when you wrestle with it and engage it deeply. This is especially true when you do it in community.

I was able to work through this passage with three gifted women in my community and they actually helped me preach it yesterday and I can honestly say that I really love this passage. I’d consider it a real privilege to preach it again.

If you are interested, you can listen here. Anna, Shannon and Shanna really did a great job of picking up my slack!

Posted in Faith & Theology, Featured, Sermons, The Well

Talking About Money in the Church (Part 3)

December 8, 2008 // 6 Comments »

Over the last few weeks I’ve been writing a bit on how I have been talking through 2 Corinthians 8 with our community during our offering time. (You can read the others posts here) The last two time we covered verse 1 and verse 2.  This week we get to verse three. Here they are (vs. 1-3)

1 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability…

Verse three made me reflect a bit on how we are prone to not necessarily give more than we are able but to spend more than we are able.  We’re in a much different world than that of the Macedonian churches. 

So, in light of this, I took the liberty to re-interpret these verses for our setting. This is what I came up with: 

1 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the American churches. 2 Out of the most easy-going comfort, their overflowing joy and their extreme wealth welled up in rich consumerism. 3 For I testify that they spent as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability…

I think while this may sound harsh, it hold some truth for the whole of the culture in the American Churches.  A few clarifying thoughts on my word choices:

• Easy-going comfort:  its a fact that most Americans live better than most Kings and Queens throughout history.  I’m not big on making light of the daily hardships we face, I think they are legitimate. But, the fact of the matter is, is that we live extremely comfortable lives.
• Extreme wealth: visit the website www.globalrichlist.com and try and argue that you/we don’t live in extreme wealth. 
• Rich consumerism: The death of the Wal-Mart worker is an extreme, but vivid, example of this.  Friends, this doesn’t only touch non-Christians.  It’s deeply rooted in you, me and almost every one of the members of our congregations.
• Spent more than they were able, even beyond their ability: This one punches me right in the face. How quickly are we to go into debt to get “stuff” while all too often we would call it irresponsible to go into debt to help someone.  

My point is this, I believe that we generally want to be generous people.  I really do.  We generally want to make a difference with our lives and the resources that God has given us.  But we live in a culture that teaches us exactly the opposite and the reality is that sin and those messages from our culture (which i would argue also come from sin) cloud and distory the image of God that is inside of us.   

As Francis Chan writes in his book Crazy Love:

If life is a river, then pursuing Christ requires swimming upstream. When we stop swimming, or actively following Him, we automatically begin to be swept downstream.

Friends, when it comes to generosity, stewardship and consumerism, we’re swimming upstream.

Posted in Faith & Theology, Featured, Missional Leadership, Missional Living, Money & the Church Series, Suburbia

Leaders, We Need to Get Out of the Way

December 4, 2008 // 4 Comments »

One of the great things about a church community is the different gifts and callings that individuals have within it.

God has given some people a knack for thinking and academics.

God has given some an intuitive and uncanny ability to lovingly listen to needs of others.

God has gifted others with an ability to organize people and “get things done.”

Others have an uncanny ability to think way outside the box and push boundaries and question the status quo.

Still others pray and are deeply spiritual in ways that I only dream.

Far too often leaders respond to each of these by trying to balance the amount of emphasis we give to each of these important things.

Wait, what did I say? Hear me out here.

Balance make me feel like a leader is giving just enough emphasis to appease while not really giving it all it needs.

I think we need to stop seeking to balance the different passions and instead seek to have all of them emphasized like crazy.

Those who think need to strongly advocate that we intellectually understand our faith.

Those who listen well must listen well and call and teach us how to do so.

Those who organize need to do just that.

Those who push, must keep pushing (even when it drives the organizers crazy).

Those who pray must pray and teach us all to pray.

But, what usually happens is that the “leader” controls the discussion and tries to give ample time to each.

When everything goes through one leader, balance means cursory attention is all that can be given. Its like putting a ton of cars on a two lane road. Traffic can only move so fast, no matter how important the people’s destination is. Perhaps the road system is the problem.

Perhaps the “leader” needs to get out of the way and let each of these people advocate for what they are passionate about and stop being cause of the bottleneck.

Far too often these people get frustrated that their area of expertise isn’t emphasized enough. Is this because they haven’t been given the freedom to advocate for it? Or because one person is holding the key to the attention of the community?

Of course, leaders aren’t the only culprit here. When someone stands up and advocates for something that is not your passion. How do you respond? Are you frustrated that your thing isn’t being spoken about? Or, do you realize that you are lucky they are advocating for that idea. Of course, at the same time they are lucky you are advocating for your idea.

That’s the beauty of community.

Each person brings their gifting and passion to make the community more whole.

This is most effective when each person is able to passionately evangelize their idea while at the same time realizing that if the community only lived out their idea, it would be incomplete.

So, let’s pretend you are passionate for social justice and I am passionate for corporate worship?

I hope you’ll encourage me to advocate for corporate worship, realizing that if I do, your advocating for social justice will be that much more complete.

There is diversity in community.

I need you and you need me.

We both need humility.

Humility doesn’t say that I fall on the sword and don’t talk about what I am really passionate about.

Humility says that I advocate for what I am passionate about while realizing that I am only a piece of the puzzle.

Oh leaders, humility means you don’t get to control everything yourself.

Oooh, that’s scary.

Posted in Faith & Theology, Featured, Life in Community, Missional Leadership

Mental Illness & The Church

November 26, 2008 // 2 Comments »

For the last five years I have had a friend named Michael who has been part of my life. We’ve lost touch recently touch due to some circumstances but his friendship has been one of the more challenging experiences of my life. See, Michael is a paranoid schizophrenic. He hears voices. He called my phone one day cause his therapist told him he should try out our church. The therapist thought it was a “wellness” church. I thought that was kinda funny but I obviously reached out to him.

However, I’ll admit that this is one of the hardest friendships I have ever had. Why? Because frankly he doesn’t have much to offer back. He’s very needy and very high maintenance. He can’t drive. And is only semi-functional in society. But, at the same time, he’s got so much to give. He’s the most loyal friend I have ever had. He loves my kids. Loves my family and prays for me everyday.

I’ve learned from my friendship with Michael that we can get rather consumer oriented in our friendships and that friendship demands that I ask nothing of him.

Another thing I have learned is that the mentally ill have little place in the church as we know it. We have not categories for them. They scare most people but that is mostly because of ignorance and lack of understanding. This needs to change. The church should be the place that those who are mentally ill can find hope, community and help.

I say all this because I want to introduce you to my good friend Mark Licitra who is part of The Well and has started a new blog on the this very topic. It will be a discussion on “Mental Illness and Christianity.”

He’s a quote from his first post:

I am more convinced than ever that mental illness is the biblical leprosy of our time, that there is no group of people more relegated to the margins in our society (altough I think the aged among us fare only slightly better). The purpose of this blog is to start people talking about mental illness, and to re-introduce an ignored (intentionally or unintentionally) group of people to a Church who is called to care for the broken.

Go, check it out here. Bookmark it and subscribe to it. I’m convinced it will be worth your time.

Now, I’ve got to go call Micheal…

Posted in Faith & Theology, Featured, Missional, The Church

Talking About Money in the Church Part 2 (II Cor. 8)

November 24, 2008 // 1 Comment »

At The Well we have been focusing on 2 Corinthians 8:1-13 during our offering time (which i talked about at greater length here). If you haven’t read/studied this chapter, I encourage you to do so. For us, this has been a really helpful narrative to filter our understanding of stewardship, generosity and giving through.

Here is the section of Chapter 8 that we have been looking at:

8:1 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. 5 And they went beyond our expectations; having given themselves first of all to the Lord, they gave themselves by the will of God also to us. 6 So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. 7 But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you1 —see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

2Co 8:8 I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

2Co 8:10 And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. 11 Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. 12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.

2Co 8:13 Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. 14 At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, 15 as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”

We’re taking a look at a verse/thought a week and taking it in slowly.

Last week we looked at verse 1: And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.

We basically spent some time together thinking about the amazing gifts that we have been given as individuals and as a community. If you think long, the list goes on and on. I remember one night in youth group during an all-nighter we were given the assignment of taking an hour and writing down all we were thankful for. This seemed like an monstrously impossible task.

But i wrote for about an hour and a half.

This isn’t an exercise to make guilt you into giving.

No, giving flows from a grateful heart.

It’s this kind of exercise and thought process that can make giving a joyous and exciting moment.

Of course, we aren’t only talking about giving money. We’re talking about holistic generosity. Gererosity that flows from thankfulness into all aspects of our lives. With our kids. With our friends. With our neighbors. In our workplaces. Yes, even with our enemies…

My good friend Tom Ward writes a good post about generosity here.

Posted in Faith & Theology, Featured, Missional Leadership, Money & The Church, Money & the Church Series

Talking about Money in the Church (Part 1)

November 20, 2008 // 2 Comments »

This is the first in a series of posts about giving, money and the church. You can follow this series of posts here. 

For the last couple years, a little passion of mine has been this topic of talking about money in the church.  You see, for most churches this is one of those things that we just don’t talk about publicly.  We don’t want to offend anyone. In fact, we’re often slightly embarassed by the idea of “taking an offering” or taking a “collection.”  

Many churches, including mine early on, respond to this feeling in a few well intentioned, yet unhelpful ways:

• We ignore the topic all together and “trust God that he will provide.”
  What we’re really doing when we do this is we’re saying that what you do with your money is not a matter spiritual formation and keeping you happy and comfortable is more important than anything else. 
• We put a “box in the back that you can give to if you want to.”
  What we’re really doing here is making it as hard as possible to give. We’re still making sure we don’t offend anyone and that is our biggest priority.
• We do the offering but give it passing mention during a song. 
  What usually happens here is the worship leader will saying that during the next some some ushers will be by with the offering. It’s usually mumbled and not really communicated well. This, again, is because we’re embarrassed by it and don’t want to offend you. The message here is that its not really that important.
• We say you don’t have to give if you are a visitor.
  This is very well intentioned and even true. They don’t have to give. And you just guarenteed they won’t. But, what you’ve really just said to them is that we can get by without you and that your gift to us isn’t really that important to us. The fact is, there are visitors in your community all the time who are probably really moved and blessed by your community and they want to give. We need to let them.

It’s true that the church has become known for “just wanting my money” but I am compelled to argue that this isn’t because we asked people to give, its mostly because we don’t do anything but that. We’ve become so obsessed with survival that we’ve forgotten about mission and just started badgering people for money.

I’ve become convinced that the church needs to get better at talking about money clearly, passionately and even prophetically. So, here are some reasons why I’m a proponent about taking offering.

• It’s great accountability for mission. 
  Each week I or another pastor have to stand up and invite people to give to our mission. When you have a compelling mission where people’s lives are being changed, that’s pretty easy. But, I can’t imagine what it would be like to stand up and invite people to give to something that isn’t doing much good for others or the gospel. The day all our budget/offering is doing is taking care of ourselves and maintaing a nice country club environment is the day I stop taking an offering because I would not be able to do it with integrity. This idea makes me stay focused on leading us to really live out our mission. Heck, if we aren’t living out our mission we may as well stop existing.
• It’s an opportunity to teach whole life discipleship.
  Each time I stand up to lead our community in the offering I pray the same thing: “God make us a generous people.” I am sure my community is sick of hearing it by now but that’s what I hope for. The passing of the plate is a reminder that we are called to be generous in all parts of our lives, of which finances are a major part.
• I love the weekly liturgical act of coming together to share with others.
  I think its a powerful statement when we stop and emphasize giving as part of our worship service. It’s not in the midst of a song. It’s not embarrassingly communicated. It’s hopefully not mumbled. It’s its own part of the service. Often before we pass the baskets we’ll take a few moments of silence to pray that God would make us generous people. Hopefully this liturgical act is a powerful statement that we think this is a big deal. Also, in our context, most people don’t get paid each week so its not realistic to expect that people will give every week. Some people write one big check a year, others that work on sales give more randomly when they get paid, others give monthly and some do give each week. Some people even give by electronic deposit. In spite of this, I believe its a valuable liturgical practice to remind us that the resources that we have been given are awesome opportunities to bless others.
• It is counter-cultural. 
  In our culture we aren’t supposed to talk about God, politics or money. This is usually become they are seeing as “private” matters. So by not taking an offering we’re basically saying that the culture is right and that money is relegated to a private sphere of life. I just don’t believe that’s true. Our taking an offering each week is an opportunity to say that how you handle your money is an issue that effects more than just you and we’re going to talk about it.
• It’s an opportunity for people to practically share in our shared mission. 
  We talk about “shared mission” all the time at The Well. Because that’s what it is. Part of the problem with offering is that it is often presented as “you give money to us.” That’s not what’s happening. At least I hope not. I hope what is really happening is that “all of us give financially to our mission together.” The first sounds like the congregation is a passive giver to the leadership who is doing all the “ministry.” The second sounds better becuase it says, “we are bringing our money together to get this mission that we share accomplished.”
• It’s an opportunity to thank each other.
  Notice, I didn’t say its an opportunity for me to say thanks to you for serving me. Again, that’s not what it is. It’s an opportunity for us to say thanks to each other for sharing together in this mission together. Yes, that’s a lot of “togethers” but I am trying to make a point. Sometimes during our offering I’ll allow people to stand up and thank someone for how they have been a blessing to them and the rest of the community. This is really a beautiful picture of us saying thank you to each other and stating clearly that we are in this thing together. Or what I’ll sometimes do is say, “On behalf of all of you I want to say thanks to all of you for being so generous with your finances towards our mission.”

Okay, I’ll stop here. Over the next few weeks I’ll be doing weekly posts on the topic of giving from II Corinthians 8. I’ll also be forming some thoughts on more helpful ways to talk about money than guilt, scolding and manipulation (Because, that’s what usually happens when I hear someone lead the offering).

It should be noted that a lot of my thoughts on giving have come from my good friend Joe Myers and his mentor Kennon Callahan.

Posted in Faith & Theology, Featured, Missional Leadership, Money & the Church Series