Discipleship | The Austin Stone Summer Conference
Posted by Todd Engstrom in austin stone, discipleship, leadership on June 13, 2009
I’m on a panel called “Making Disciples in the Church” for The Austin Stone’s Summer Conference.
Below are the questions I’m being asked (phrased from the point of a facilitator).
Section 1
- How did you start making disciples?
- How did you find the person you are discipling?
- What prompted you to be intentional with that person?
- How did you do it?
- What did you say?
- What were the requirements on that person? Expectations?
- How did you ‘disciple’ them?
- What did the actual day in and day out with that person look like? How long?
- What was the result?
- How do you judge the success of that?
Section 2
- How do you identify people to be intentional with?
- Where should I look to find these people?
- Do I need to be in a discipleship relationship myself?
- What’s the balance between building relationship and speaking truth?
- What if it doesn’t seem to be working out?
- What if they are totally different from me?
- Where’s the line between grace and discipline?
- What do you actually ‘do’ with them?
- How intentional do I have to be?
- How do you make a disciple if someone doesn’t want to be a disciple?
- When and how do I utilize off-ramps?
What would your responses be? I’ll post mine soon…
Today is Baby Day!
Posted by Todd Engstrom in personal on June 10, 2009
Today, by God’s grace we will be welcoming Hudson Noah Engstrom (AKA The Deuce) into the world!
You can find our updates here.
Please pray for our family today!
Today Was a Great Day
Posted by Todd Engstrom in austin stone, pastoring, personal on June 9, 2009
Every once in awhile, you have an absolutely outstanding day, and God’s faithfulness is overwhelming. Today was one of them. Here’s the rundown:
- Donuts with my wife and son
- Sermon prep
- Meeting discussing future vision of some specific ministry and my role in it
- Developing a staff training for social media engagement with a few folks
- Staff prayer time where we prayed for our children and that our faith would be like theirs
- Strategy Team meeting with men I would take a bullet for
- Interview with a potential resident in our newly-minted residency program
- Finish sermon prep
- Preach the gospel to a room full of college students excited about a movement at The University of Texas
- Go home to spend time with wife, son, and in-laws who just arrived
- Pack my bags for the hospital in anticipation of the birth of my second son
All I can say is that God is absolutely gracious, sufficient for my endurance, and fully able to accomplish more that I can imagine. King Jesus is good to me!
Pastoring a Wedding
Posted by Todd Engstrom in pastoring, personal on June 5, 2009
I’ve really grown to enjoy the role of officiating weddings as a pastor. I’ve had the opportunity to perform a half-dozen weddings over the last year–some for old friends, some for new friends–and I am consistently reminded of God’s grace in my life to bring me such an amazing woman. Additionally, the symbolism of the wedding ceremony only gets richer with each iteration, and I am consistently finding myself dwelling on different aspects of Christ’s character at different points throughout the typical weekend.
There’s always a little bit of awkwardness that goes on too…I tend to get some strange looks as I am introduced to parents as “pastor”. They’ve got the “I’m pretty sure you just graduated high school…how can you possibly be performing a wedding?!?” face on, and it is generally an fun interaction. It’s also a little strange to perform “pastor” duties like praying for meals and such, and I still don’t know what the proper protocol is when I just want an ice cold fermented beverage at the reception.
The best part, hands down, though, is watching the groom catch the first glimpse of his bride as she walks down the aisle. Maybe it’s because I wept like a baby at my wedding, but I’m always hoping the groom sheds a tear in that moment when he locks eyes with his gorgeous bride.
Sorry to be sappy, but I’ve got a wedding tomorrow…
Spontaneous Emergence and Connectivity | Alan Hirsch meets Seth Godin
Posted by Todd Engstrom in assimilation on June 2, 2009
I came across this quote today from Alan Hirsch, and thought it dove-tailed nicely into my thoughts on assimilation as connectivity.
Most change in complex systems is emergent; that is to say it comes about as a result of the free (and often informal) interactions between the various ‘agents’ in the system. In an organization the agents are people—themselves complex systems. Complexity theory suggests that when there is enough connectivity between them and the complexity reaches a critical point, emergence is likely to occur spontaneously.
In a rapidly growing and complex organization, the function of connectivity creates the framework for the emergence of new systems. We’ve seen this happen in the context of The Austin Stone, with a variety of new and fresh ideas, opportunities, and missional communities doing some really great ministry.
As an assimilation ministry in a missional context, one of the best things we can advocate for is establishing connectivity in the complex system that fosters emergence, which in turn facilitates connection for individuals pursuing mission.
Connect
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