Author: Todd Engstrom
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Forerunning, Not Competing
Ministry conversation slides too easily into who is growing fastest and reaching widest, and I do not want to play that game. A forerunner goes down the course first, not to compete but to test the ground and prepare the way. It is quiet work, but it matters deeply, and like Paul I would rather…
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Lost and Led: Learning to Trust Jesus in the Unknown
Even the best human guide will eventually fail us, or give good counsel at the wrong time. I learned that standing lost in the lobby of my daughter’s dance competition, the only dude in a sea of ladies. Jesus is the one guide who is always leading, and even when He seems silent, He is…
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The Deadline Dilemma in Ministry
Ministry tends to explain its fluid deadlines as prioritizing people over projects. I wonder whether it is less about prioritizing people and more about avoiding accountability, because deadlines force clarity and reveal priorities, and that kind of exposure is uncomfortable.
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Thinking Out Loud: Groundbreaking
Groundbreaking ceremonies have always struck me as funny, a circle of people in nice suits and hard hats shoveling a bit of dirt. But when we launched the Greater Austin Mission Society it was a good meeting and not much else, and I found I still wanted some way to mark it.
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One Body, Many Parts
The body of Christ is not a theoretical concept, it is a living reality, and it is at work Monday through Saturday in coffee shops and living rooms and late-night phone calls. We need each other every day, and not only to accomplish things, but to give out of our lack of capacity and ability…
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Nostalgic Novelty
The pull toward old things right now is not nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake, because we are incapable of reproducing the old thing exactly. It is nostalgia with a twist, and it bridges the tension between progress and rootedness. I expect to see more of it in the church, in a movement toward liturgical traditions and…
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Hope that Does Not Put Us to Shame
A quarter of my support-raising time had passed and the polite declines were coming in, and what surprised me was the shame. If my struggle produces shame, I am not actually suffering well, because I am measuring my experience against my own expectations rather than God’s promises. Hope does not put us to shame.
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Coherently Incoherent
My calendar makes as little sense as the phrase coherently incoherent, and I have wanted my life of faith to look more strategic than it does. Abraham went out not knowing where he was going. Maybe faith is not about knowing what to do, but knowing who we serve and why we keep moving.
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Meekness, Humility, and Humiliation
A friend once encouraged me to ask God for meekness, and I would tell you to be careful what you pray for. Meekness is not weakness, it is strength under control, and God seems to produce it through being humbled, which sometimes means humiliation. Support raising has been the instrument in my case.
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From Faith, By Faith, and For Faith
Leaving The Austin Stone has raised a question I cannot avoid: how much of what I saw happen had nothing to do with me? I never realized how much I trusted the horses and chariots of men. What God did came from faith, the unknown ahead is walked by faith, and the whole point is…
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Some of My Writing Posted Elsewhere
I am rebooting my discipline of writing in 2025, which means dusting off a blog that has not been used in a decade. I have not been entirely disengaged in the meantime, and these are five pieces I published elsewhere, at Saturate, Sent Ones, and The Equipping Group.
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2025 Theme: Patience and Presence
My two words for 2025 are patience and presence, and both cut against how I usually operate, because I tend to run with a pretty high motor. Patience is not passivity, it is an active trust in God’s sovereignty, and presence rather than activity is often where transformation begins.