How do others describe you?

Many of the people I work with describe me as funny and intense.

My daughter describes me as “real big.”

My son describes me as “always around.”

I can identify with all of the above. My intensity and explosiveness played a major role in my life when I was younger, and at times that’s still a part of my personality. My aim over the last several years is to convert those things into healthy passion and curiosity.

Sphere of Influence:

Bend, Oregon is where I live and work as one of three senior pastors at Westside Church. Bend is a city of around 100,000 people and has been growing rapidly over the better part of 20 years.

Bend is an interesting case study when it comes to new-found American work rhythms, classism and politics. What once was a very small mill town with generational families has become a tourist hot-spot attracting folks from large cities that want to work from home and hike/bike/swim/ski at a moments notice. The economic and political shift over the last couple decades has been dramatic.

More specifically, my influence is at a large evangelical church in the area.

What fuels your leadership?

It all starts with my Dad (pictured above).

My dad dedicated his life to ministry around 36 years ago and he’s dedicated the last 34 of those years to one church in the tiny, 400-person town of Glendale, Oregon.

My dad has had a dramatic impact on me for classic reasons, but he fuels my ministry today because he is the living example of how someone can be incredibly faithful, but wracked with shame due to being raised up in a movement that has much distain for mental/emotional health and the mysteries of scripture.

Having spent so much of my own time in ministry mimicking that system, I’m on a journey to discover how my poor leadership can be redeemed and how I can help lead the church of the future in a healthy fashion.

What’s the question you’re asking?

I’m asking all kinds of questions, to be sure, but the biggest one is “How can I leave a legacy that points to the long pilgrimage of faith?”

What will my children and family understand of Jesus when I’m gone? Will it be an understanding grace and peace?

Why JOH and why now?

Because I’m a product of the evangelical machine that creates and elevates young, white men that use personality and charisma to build our churches and faith-centers in unhealthy ways.

My relationship with Christ and with those I’m commanded to care for has been far more shallow than I could have ever imagined, and as I embark on many years of senior pastoring with two other white men (also the sons of pastors, no less) I want to use any resource possible to understand how I got where I am and how to use my influence to elevate the voices that should be heard above mine.

Basically, I don’t know what I don’t know. I’m finally curious enough to start asking the right people.