Are you tired of doing Kingdom things in Empire ways? Let’s discover what it means to do Kingdom things in Kingdom ways.
It will mean holding Christianity to its own claims: That leadership doesn’t have to coerce. That truth and love can coexist. That the Church can bless the world. That hierarchies can not only be flipped, they can be demolished. That the Gospel is actually Good News. That the Kingdom is truly powerful…in a very peculiar way. This exploration will invite us to live as if the Kingdom of God has its own integrity. This life will transform our leadership, our faith, our work, our Church. We’ll discover that we can be as human as Jesus.
The Vulnerable Pastor: How Human Limitations Empower Our Ministry
Understanding our human constraints makes our ministry more sustainable and guards us against disillusionment and burnout. We don't have to have it all together. Recognizing our weakness makes us rely on God, so our weakness can become a ministry resource.
Photo Credit: Sarah Topp
Originally from Australia, Mandy Smith is lead pastor of University Christian Church, a campus and neighborhood congregation with its own fair-trade café in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mandy loves the opportunity to engage Christian thinkers and leaders through her speaking and writing, presenting and teaching at conferences, retreats and seminaries across the US and Australia. She is a regular contributor to Christianity Today and Missio Alliance and the author of The Vulnerable Pastor: How Human Limitations Empower Our Ministry (IVP). Her next book, Unfettered: Imagining a Childlike Faith Beyond the Baggage of Western Culture (Brazos), will release in 2021. Mandy and her husband, a New Testament professor, live with their family in a little house where the teapot is always warm.
“In the many years that I have known Mandy I have watched how God has used her pastoral sensitivity, theological incisiveness, and creative skills to bless and transform people and communities. As a speaker, author, and leader, Mandy offers a voice and embodies a ministry that stands out to me as of unique significance to the body of Christ.”
– JR Rozko, Executive Director, The Telos Collective
Meet Mandy Smith:
Originally from Australia, Mandy Smith is lead pastor of University Christian Church, a campus and neighborhood congregation with its own fair-trade café in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mandy loves the opportunity to engage Christian thinkers and leaders through her speaking and writing, presenting and teaching at conferences, retreats and seminaries across the US and Australia. She is a regular contributor to Christianity Today and Missio Alliance and the author of The Vulnerable Pastor: How Human Limitations Empower Our Ministry (IVP). Her next book, Unfettered: Imagining a Childlike Faith Beyond the Baggage of Western Culture (Brazos), will release in 2021. Mandy and her husband, a New Testament professor, live with their family in a little house where the teapot is always warm.
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– Jo Saxton
Reimagining Leadership
Jesus embodied a way to lead without abuse. But in the Church we rarely see it. If Jesus calls humans to lead, there must be some way for us to lead as humans. How might it look to be as human as Jesus?
Reimagining Faith
Jesus embodied a childlike partnership with the Father. But in our faith we rarely find it. If Jesus calls humans to follow, there must be some way for us to follow as humans. How might it look to be as human as Jesus?
Reimagining Gender Dynamics
Jesus embodied a way for men and women to live in peace. But in our world we rarely see it. If Jesus calls men and women to join his mission, there must be some way for us to partner with him and one another as men and women. There must be some way for us to be as human as Jesus.
“Mandy Smith is a blesser of people! Her writing is substantive and her presentations are transparent. My seminary students who have read her writings and engaged her in conversation always walk away from those encounters with a deeper appreciation of God’s grace mediated to them through her.”
–Rev. Jul Medenblik, President of Calvin Theological Seminary
“I consider Mandy something of a treasured soul-friend, a person who is not only teaches me about God, but always does so in a charming, creative, intelligent, and genuinely loving way. I hope that you too can get the chance to experience that.”
–Al Hirsch, author, speaker, and founder of Movement Leaders Collective and Forge Missional Training Network