Episode 16: Assess Your Current Ministries

Our Guest for this Episode – Pastor Darrell Delaney: 

Pastor Delaney has over 15 years of youth ministry experience, and has been pastoring at Madison Church for over 4 years. During that role, he has been working with Dr. Mike Johnson and our international coach on the importance of defining the church’s own “discipleship pathway” for the congregation to go deeper in their walk with Christ.

Recommended resources:

Episode 15: Church, Know Yourself

Our Guests for this Episode – Cally Parkinson and Nancy Scammacca Lewis: 

Cally Parkinson is the director for REVEAL, an initiative that utilizes research tools and discoveries to help churches better understand spiritual growth in their congregations.  To date REVEAL has served over 2000 churches and surveyed 500,000 congregants. Cally is the author of Rise: Bold Strategies to Transform Your Church, which covers REVEAL’s latest findings about eight church archetypes. Cally has also co-authored four books with Willow Creek’s former Executive Pastor, Greg Hawkins, describing insights from REVEAL.

Cally previously served as the director of communications at Willow Creek Community Church, a role she took on following a twenty-five-year career at Allstate Insurance Company. At Allstate, she held a number of different director- and officer-level positions in strategic planning, research, finance and communications.  She has a BA in languages from Depauw University and a master’s degree from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. Cally and her husband, Rich, live in the Chicago suburbs and have two grown children and two grandchildren.

Nancy Scammacca Lewis joined the REVEAL team as lead statistician in 2008. Since then, she has mined the depths of the REVEAL dataset for insights that can help churches get their congregants moving and become more vibrant in fulfilling their mission. She was a contributing author for Rise: Bold Strategies to Transform Your Church.

In addition to her work with REVEAL, Nancy conducts research projects in education and the social sciences. Her work has been published in several major education research journals. She holds a PhD in quantitative methods from the University of Texas at Austin, a master’s degree from Wheaton College, and a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University. Nancy also is an ordained deacon in the Anglican Church in North America and served on the pastoral staff of two churches for more than 10 years. Nancy and her husband, Randy, live in the Chicago suburbs.

Recommended resources:

Episode 14: Personally Own It

Our Guest for this Episode – David Hsu: 

David Hsu is the Senior Pastor at West Houston Chinese Church (WHCC) and has been serving there for 24 years. He immigrated to the US from Taiwan when he was 14, and grew up in Boston, MA.  He studied engineering at Tufts University and was a computer chip designer before going to Dallas Theological Seminary for his ThM in pastoral leadership. David joined WHCC as the English minister, working mostly with youth while WHCC was a new church plant in 1993.  David, fluent in both Mandarin and English, became the Senior Pastor in 2001 and has led the church to plant multiple churches, including three in the Houston area (Katy and the Woodlands) and one in East Asia. David and his church are actively involved in global missions, and he has a heart for Asian-American issues between the generations, and for spiritual formation of those in the ministry. He is a graduate of the Spiritual Direction Institute with the Cenacle sisters, and have went through personal coaching with Dr. Mike Johnson. His church has been part of Ascending Leaders’ DiscipleOn cohort as they seek to develop a discipleship culture.

David’s wife Cheryl is a teacher and a graduate from DTS with a MA in Christian Education. David met Cheryl on a short-term missions trip to the Philippines with Campus Crusade, and they have two children: Nathan, a senior at UT Austin, and Hannah, a freshman at Trinity University. For leisure David enjoys reading, running, fishing, and following Boston area sports teams.

Recommended resources:

Episode 13: Preach It

Our Guest for this Episode – Clay Warren: 

Clay Warren is the Senior Pastor of Tacoma Christian Reformed Community Church. He grew up in Northeastern Colorado and graduated from Denver Seminary in 1989. He has lived in Washington since 1991 and has had the privilege of serving youth in three different churches for over 30 years, the last 16 of those years as the pastor of student ministries at TCRCC. He was called to be the Senior Pastor in June 2013. He and his wife, Naomi, have two adult children, Danielle and Chad, who are both married and actively serving the Lord. He also serves on  the Board of Directors for the El Sauzal Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that supports the El Sauzal Orphanage in San Antonio de las Minas, Mexico.

Recommended resources:

Episode 12: Persevering Eradicates Inoculation

Ken was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Mi. He has been married to Kinita for 23 years, and they have been blessed with four children. Ken enjoys spending time with family, making home improvements, landscaping, and biking. He graduated from Reformed Bible College (now Kuyper College) in Grand Rapids with a Bachelor of Religious Education. Since 2011 he has been the Executive Director of Ministry at Madison Church – Square Campus in Grand Rapids, MI. Ken has worked with Mike for the past four years to increase to grow disciples at Madison Church.

Read any of the books/resources that were recommended in the episode:

Episode 11: Naming the Faith Stages

In this episode, we take a deeper look at the names of the stages of faith. How do we name them in a way that helps churches move people forward through these stages while still showing them the value of the stage they are at? 

Read any of the books/resources that were recommended in the episode:

Episode 10: Ten Steps Toward a Clear DisciplePath Overview

Our Guest for this Episode – Mike Johnson: 

Mike is about the intentional formation of people. Over the last fifteen years he has focused on the formation of people through innovating, creating, writing, coaching and teaching. Ten years ago he planted the ministry Ascending Leaders.

In 2004 Mike received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Seminary. Prior to this Mike worked as a CR church planter and pastor in Missouri City, Texas. Mike and his wife make their home in Sugar Land, Texas. Their two children are married and live in the area. They are all employed in the field of education.

Read any of the books/resources that were recommended in the episode:

Episode 09: Why Care?

Our Guest for this Episode – Bob Johnson:

Bob has served as the executive pastor at Chapelwood United Methodist Church for 14 years, where he has led lay and staff teams related to discipleship. He shifted focus to bring more attention to the church’s discipleship-related strategic goals. He has recently joined Ascending Leaders as an adjunct consultant/coach.Bob is working on a book (unpublished) entitled: “The Genesis Project: The WHY of Discipleship.”

Episode 08: Faith Stories by the Discipleship Stages

Our Guests for this Episode – Andy Sytsma and Randy Wester:

Andy Sytsma is a life-long learner and student of discipleship. Currently, he is working with Mike Johnson to help his church implement a discipleship pathway. One of the tools that has helped bring transformation in his own life and in the life of his congregation, especially in the latter stages, has been Faithwalking. But he is excited to supplement this with processes at every stage. Andy serves as pastor of New Life Christian Reformed Church in Spring, Texas and also serves with Resonate Global Mission as a Local Mission Leader for Texas. His passion for discipleship and the local church is matched only by his love for church planting. Andy grew up as a missionary kid in Japan and has served churches in Michigan, Seattle and New Jersey. He is married to his wife Jacie and blessed with two teenage children, Natalie and Caleb.

 

Randy Wester is currently leading a team that is developing the discipleship pathway New Life Church will use to grow disciples. Randy has assisted Pastor Andy Sytsma with developing and implementing prior discipleship programs at New Life, which have used some of Ascending Leaders materials and methods. Professionally, Randy is the Vice President of Quality at TechnipFMC, a major oil and gas service company. He serves on the boards of two non-profit organizations, the Old Town Spring Heights Community Association and Square Inch Houston, that exist to foster social and spiritual renewal in their communities. Randy also chairs the Industry Advisory Board for the Subsea Engineering program at the University of Houston. Randy and his wife Tari are blessed with two daughters and two grandchildren.

Episode 06: Deep Sacrifice

Our Guests for this Episode – Joel and Patricia Hogan:

Joel and Patricia Hogan have served with Christian Reformed World Missions for 33 years. Additionally, they have spent 17 years as missionaries in the Philippines and 16 years in Grand Rapids, and for most of that time Joel served as Director of International Ministries. They have been blessed with four children and 11 grandchildren. Joel and Patty are Spiritual Directors and are committed to helping people to grow in intimacy with the Lord.

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