The Tim Ahlman Podcast
The Tim Ahlman Podcast is your go-to resource for inspiring conversations that equip leaders to thrive in every vocation, inside and outside the church. With three primary focuses, this podcast dives deep into:
Leadership: Learn from experts across diverse fields as we explore how their insights can shape and sustain a healthy culture in the local church and beyond. Over 60% of listeners expressed a desire for practical discussions on cultivating thriving environments—and that's exactly what these conversations will deliver.
Learn: Engage in deep theological discussions with scholars who illuminate how Christ is revealed on every page of Scripture. Together, we’ll bridge theology to the realities of a post-Christian America, ensuring practical application for today’s world. This segment aligns closely with the themes of the American Reformation Podcast and resonates with the 60% of you who crave more exploration in this area.
Live: Discover healthy habits that empower leaders in all vocations to become holistically healthy. As followers of Jesus, we’re called to lead not only with faith but also with physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
Join Tim Ahlman as we navigate leadership, learning, and living with purpose, so you can lead with strength, wisdom, and a Christ-centered vision.
The Tim Ahlman Podcast
Reigniting Gospel Passion: Unearthing the First-Century Discipleship Model with Todd Moritz
A fascinating journey back in time awaits us, as we delve into the rich history of the early church with Lutheran minister of 25 years, Todd Moritz. With a unique blend of a spiritual and corporate background, Todd opens up about the potent lessons from the first-century discipleship model - a paradigm that celebrated outreach to non-believers and embraced the priesthood of all believers. Tune in to gain a deeper understanding of why we need to reignite our passion for sharing the gospel and how this could catalyze growth in the modern church, much like it did in the early Christian era.
This episode isn't just about history, though. Todd takes us through his compelling faith journey, which saw him transitioning from an agnostic upbringing to a profound encounter with Jesus, all the way to becoming a Lutheran minister. Trust me, you don't want to miss out on this inspiring story that beautifully illustrates the God's uncanny knack for showing up in the most unexpected places, including a beer-drinking fraternity. Moreover, Todd's candid discussion about transitioning from a corporate career to church leadership and his belief in honoring those with executive experience, while elevating the office of holy ministry, provides a fresh perspective on leading a church in the modern era.
Our conversation wouldn't be complete without addressing the idea of innovation in the church. Todd shares insightful ideas on how the church can harness innovation to connect with people in unique ways, all while staying true to its core theology. Also, get a sneak peek into his fascinating work at Lutech and the hybrid high school model he is developing. Plus, learn about the concept of Friendship Sunday and the importance of hospitality. So, grab a cup of coffee and join us for this enlightening exploration into the past, present, and future of the American Christian Church with Todd Moritz.
Hello and welcome to the brand new American Reformation Podcast. We long to see the wider American Christian Church fall more in love with Jesus by learning from the practices of the early church and other eras of discipleship multiplication. We want to hear from you, make sure you comment and leave a review, wherever you're watching or listening, to tell us what God is doing in your life or how you feel about today's conversation. Lord, have your way in us. Let's dive in.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the American Reformation Podcast. Tim Allman here, and it's a beautiful day. I do these from Arizona and here's the fact about late or mid to late September in Arizona it feels like it feels like man. Christmas is coming very, very soon. Why? Because temperatures are going to start dropping from 110 down to the 80s and 90s for the prolonged future and it's so, so good. But it's not just about the weather. It's about the fruit of the Holy Spirit being present in your life.
Speaker 2:Today, as I get the privilege of talking with a man I have admired from afar for a number of years now, todd Moore at Sea has an amazing story of coming to faith and now being a Lutheran minister for 25 years, executive director at Pathfinder Church in Ellisville, missouri, formerly St John's. I've been there. I love the ministry there. He's been a CEO of four different Lutheran high schools, including Orange Lutheran High School in Orange County, california, and he's been a lay delegate twice to the Synodical Convention of the Lutheran Church, missouri Synod, as well as an advisory delegate twice. He has a master's in business administration and CPA actually way back in the day and he's now working with. You're going to hear about Lutech, kind of a new model, high school hybrid type model which we're running at our congregation here at Christ Greenfield. Many, many similarities there, so we're going to have a lot of fun chatting today. Thanks so much for joining me, todd. How are you doing, brother?
Speaker 3:My pleasure. Happy to be with you, Tim. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:What a joy. So the common question that we start out American Reformation how are you praying for as you've got a very unique story, you've been in so many, so many unique contexts. How are you praying for Reformation in the American Christian Church, brother?
Speaker 3:Well, thanks. You know I probably do it a little bit differently and not growing up in the LCMS we'll get to that. But I'm just praying for lost people. I'm just praying that we'd get back to a first century discipleship model and really reach out to people who don't know Jesus. I love our theology, I love our confessions, and yet I'm really focused on how can I help as much as possible communicate to Jesus. My handle's been high school kids and I really just love that.
Speaker 2:So I just came back I love that Just came back from, as I was telling you before we hit record, from Mexico City and working with the Mexican Lutheran Synod, and I was amazed at the passion, the missionel zeal of the eight pastors and their wives who gathered there.
Speaker 2:They also confess so, todd, that in some of their training up to this point they had been, they had been told and I'd love to get your take on this they'd been told that evangelism was primarily the pastor's job and the way he did evangelism was primarily through Word and Sacrament. On Sunday, just preach the word, people will come. And we started talking, in partnership with PLI International, just about engaging the felt needs of a community trying to gain a hearing to bring the gospel. And it was like something like missionel scales fell from their eyes or they put on missionel lenses, right, and they were like oh my goodness, this is so wonderful that all of the baptized have a role in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Have you heard that kind of teaching in some circles that you know, if the pastor just did his job more faithfully, you know, especially on Sunday, then evangelism would kind of be accomplished. What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, unfortunately it's a pretty prevalent thing that some people think I was blessed that being in St Louis, missouri under great leadership of Steve Howard, just just really helped me in my formation. But I spent years and years and years learning about evangelism and years and years and years learning about discipleship and frankly I don't know that I did very much with it and so that was sort of. The revelation to me is that we're good sometimes in teaching that stuff but in terms of really doing it and formational in my life I worked with PLI for a few years and just really helped me understand clearly that, like I say, the first century discipleship process of how do we reach out with the love of Christ to everyone and how do we actually do it, you know, the priesthood to all believers, that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so would you say more about? When you say first century discipleship models, what does you look at? You know the early church fathers, obviously the scriptures, what defined the early church and how they did discipleship and how that discipleship and evangelism were two kinds, two sides of the same coin, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, and I've read some books. So I'm not the smartest guy in the world and not an ordained guy, so I haven't gone through that. But what I realized is what Constantine started the church in 330 or something like that, you know. So you look at what happened when Jesus was on this earth, the explosive growth of Christianity. You look at the book of Acts and what we did and you know, I think sometimes we've lost our first love. You know, of really communicating the gospel. What is that to? You know the Ephesians church. You know just to reach out with people, to be a neighbor, to be a friend, to invite people to your home to break bread with them. To, you know, just be together. I know me like everyone else. You know you're busy. You come home, you push the garage door button, you go in, you push it, you go down and you don't even know your neighbor sometimes. And so how do we really engage in the community? How do we engage to share the love of Christ?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's facts and it does take intention and my wife and I, at the PLI gathering in Mexico City, we kind of recommitted toward toward the art of neighboring and we're excited about that. Sometimes, especially the summer, people just aren't outside very much and so it's really easy to just get in your car. But we have Halloween and I'm not a huge fan of Halloween necessarily, but it is one of those like huge block parties for us and it's the beginning of like a seven, eight month celebration of neighborliness and so we're excited to kind of reengage in that in the coming coming weeks and months. So thank you for that. So you've been in a number of different leadership roles. I'd love to just talk this is a podcast of the United Leadership Collective what are three main principles the Lord has taught you about leadership over your years in a number of different contexts, different organizations?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've really. You know, I grew up in the corporate world as you introduced almost 20 years there, a lot of fantastic training, but it was go, go, go. You know I was pretty successful and you did that through results and push and so I learned some of that. But being in the church, really it's to me, it's about servant leadership, it's leading like Christ. I love the phrase that leaders eat last. You know, just being an all out servant to those that I work with.
Speaker 3:And that becomes difficult at times, you know, as at Orange Lutheran High School, nearly 400 employees there, and you know how do you be a servant leadership to everyone? You know, but I'd keep my door open all the time. I try to listen to everyone. It can be exhausting, people can take advantage of it, but ultimately that's the model that Christ displayed and I think it's a great one. So, servant leadership number one certainly being participatory management. I believe in teams. I've always had a team of people that we work through. We will agree sometimes, disagree sometimes. If my team is not on board with the direction I want to go, then I'm going to sit back and say either I'm not teaching well or visioning well or communicating well, so how do we get on the same plan before we move forward? The Holy Spirit only speaks with one voice, so he's going to be clear to all of us.
Speaker 3:And then last is patience. I cannot be patient. Sometimes I want to go, I want to move fast. One of the school systems in Milwaukee I worked with, they coined the phrase Todd speed and that wasn't a compliment, you know, it was just you know. So I try hard to learn patience.
Speaker 2:I think, intimately connected. Let's just pause on the last one. There we live in a very impatient what have you done for me lately? Kind of world. And I'll be quite honest, in a growing community, you know, a growing church and school and things, sometimes it can feel like, even in a relationship maybe with a pastor and a board or just a team of people, that there's this kind of what have you done for me lately? Type of mentality and, and I think, gratitude for one another and then just resting in the promises of Jesus, sabbath resting. These are, these are habits that we can instill to help us with, with our patients. But any other words of wisdom about how you're trying because I'm, I'm a high D, you know driven vision, blah, blah, blah, all that kind of stuff it's a blessing and a curse, right, and so what are some of those practices that the Lord kind of instilled in you to to practice patience more consistently in a very impatient culture.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's hard, like I say, an incorporate rewarded for for not being patient, and and so you know, the practice that that I have is just just to slow down internally and say all right, lord, what are you doing here, and and how is how are you active? The Lord, obviously, is very, very patient, and so I've got to learn, I've got to learn to be more patient. So I certainly haven't learned it, and again, it's a double-edged sword where, where sometimes I think that's that's what a great leader does, is you push the envelope, you you push further, you you stretch people a little bit, but and there's times that you, you wait and pause.
Speaker 2:So that's a hard thing sometimes, but try and do it. It is, it is. And one helpful, I don't know if it's a metaphor or not, I think Simon Sinek from the Infinite Game. And have you heard, have you read that book, todd the Infinite Game?
Speaker 3:I have not read it yet, but no, loves it.
Speaker 2:Christianity and reaching people with the gospel is an infinite game.
Speaker 2:There's always going to be more people who need to hear the gospel and so the kind of brain switch for me is how do I enter into the, the struggle with a team trying to build, measure, learn, test different concepts, what the same time realized we're never going to arrive and that that can be kind of kind of frustrating.
Speaker 2:So if I, if I lean in in an imbalanced way to too much impatience or even a whole we, we justify it spiritually right, a Holy Spirit type of an urgency, I'm going to create a culture where I'm going to run right over people and this is not going to be an enjoyable experience. But can I hold intention? The God who says you're loved exactly as you are. There's nothing you can do to earn my, my love that's been given to you by grace or faith in in Jesus and at the same time you've been called to this higher calling this, this misio day, of which you're a very small part of my big, my big story. But I guess that infinite game mindset, just realizing you're never going to arrive, so you might as well just enjoy the journey. It has tempered my drivenness and impatience at all. Any comments on that, Todd.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well said, you know, I, I continually remind myself that I could be wrong, and and so, as I'm pushing and pushing, you know, maybe I'm wrong, and so that that helps me to sit back. I love, actually, constructive criticism. I love when someone comes into my office and says hey boss, I think you may have this wrong, you know, and I, because I love to sit back and say Okay, tell me more about that. You know, obviously I don't love people throwing bullets at me from from across the bridge, but, but it's just a reminder for me to slow down, to think, to listen and see what God's doing.
Speaker 2:Is there a story or two that helped you understand the the value of feedback of a team member coming, you know, a subordinate coming in and I don't really like that sort of language. I like more of a level of playing field, while there has to be a team leader, for sure. But how did you learn how to receive constructive? You even use criticism people don't even like. A lot of times we soften it. Feedback, constructive feedback right. How did you learn how to receive it?
Speaker 3:Well, Well, in corporate America one of my jobs was a chief financial officer of a metal processing company. For just a short dance, because I realized it was a bad career move for me. But I sat down and was talking to the executive vice president. I had a couple ideas and he said, well, I don't like those ideas, they're dumb. And I said, well, let me try to explain. And he, literally over five minutes, got so mad at me he threw his telephone at me. I mean, that was back in the day when it was a big telephone too, and it was like, oh my gosh. And so I just learned that, wow, I think I have some wisdom here, but obviously he doesn't want to hear it and obviously it's follow me or get out of the way. And so that really just helped me to remember that everyone's got a great idea.
Speaker 3:I mean I can't tell you the number of frontline workers, if you will, that have had just fabulous ideas of how to improve processes or systems. Even in the church when I was in St Louis we had a pretty large church, hundreds of volunteers, and the wisdom that we received there was fantastic. We actually had someone that we called the accounting controller of St John's in Ellisville and it was a volunteer person, I mean, he came in five days a week and just fantastic, and it was really a great relationship because he wasn't being paid right. And so I'd say, hey, we really need to get this project done. He goes no, I don't think I'm going to do that. And I'm like, oh, wait a minute, I'm the boss. But yet when you work with servants like that that they're doing it for the right reasons you just you learn a lot.
Speaker 2:So yeah, Well good, you never want to be a guy that throws a brick phone at another person. Learned things the hard way, man. What a joy. So let's get into your story. What sort of home were you raised in? I know you came to faith a little bit later and even go back to that pre-Christian mindset. What were your perceptions of Christians before you came to know and follow Jesus?
Speaker 3:Well, I grew up in a third generation agnostic home. So literally, you know, my grandparents maybe had a little bit of faith type stuff, you know. So that's going back they were. My grandparents were probably what married in the 40s and my grandfather was married three times and my grandmother twice, you know. So that was scandalous back then and just that was a multiple divorce home. You know, my mom and dad both had affairs. It was just, it was a crazy type home.
Speaker 3:But I literally didn't know anything about Christianity at all. I've, when I give my testimony, I've gone back several times and counted the number of times that I was in a church building before the age of 18, and I can't come up with more than 10. And you know, you got a couple of weddings and a couple of funerals. But one day we went to church on a Christmas Eve I don't even know why, you know, and looking back on it, something was going on, but you know, so that was. I just didn't know a thing at all and, through the grace of God, I didn't have any idea where. I wanted to go to college and a friend recommended to me a lightly Lutheran college. So I went there and they weren't extremely faithful. They were pretty liberal, but they required that we go to chapel and through a chapel service and through a beer drinking fraternity, I got to know Jesus. Wow, what college was that? Carthage College in Kenosha, wisconsin. They were LCA, I guess, back in the day.
Speaker 3:and they've, they've, yeah, they've gone a little different direction than I would certainly go, but it's a funny story. So here's, here's a new witness program that you can start up, but my, they required that we go to chapel at least eight times a semester. And the fraternity I joined they said we're not going to chapel, we don't want anything to do with this. So, Todd, it's your job to figure out that we don't have to go to chapel. And so what I did is I gained the system. I'd figure out you know how to check him in, how to get all the guys, but what I did for the next 16 weeks was go to chapel, and that was the first time I was introduced. And I remember walking back to my room, singing hymns and thinking what is going on, and one day went to the campus pastor and said I think I'm Christian.
Speaker 2:Wow, Was it just kind of setting yourself in that space, I mean just being around the word and hearing the story of of Jesus and his love, and it just kind of the Holy Spirit just kind of clicked. What was that? What was that like?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know I'm a slow learner, so it wasn't. It wasn't a revelation flash moment, but I knew in my heart and I can go back to a situation where I was in junior high school where I knew there was a God, and it was just a weird situation, but I just, I just knew there was something bigger than me out there and and and so just the process of hearing the word I think of, of being in a chapel situation, that really, that really really helped. And then the process of of joining the church was interesting because I think the pastor was all fired up and he said oh well, we got to get you baptized and you got to call everyone you, you, you know and tell them that you're a Christian. That's okay, well, that's cool. So my mom, who was a very bad alcoholic at the time, actually called her and said you know, I'm a Christian. She said, oh, that's cool, that's, that's nice.
Speaker 3:And I said, yeah, I'm going to get baptized. And she said, well, you were baptized. I said what are you talking about? Well, bottom line the story. Then, in the early sixties, when they she was married to her second husband, there was a pastor that kept coming around knocking on the door saying you guys got to go to church. You guys got to church. So one day, to humor them, they went to church. That was one of my 10. One day they went to church and the pastor pastor said you got to baptize your kids and so I got baptized. Lutheran church misery Senate.
Speaker 2:Anyway, no way.
Speaker 3:Oh wow, I didn't find my baptismal certificate until she died about 20 years ago. It was because funny oh.
Speaker 2:My goodness. And you were an infant. You were a little guy two years old. Yeah, yeah, two years old, wow. So tell the story about how you found the LCMS, or how did the LCMS find you.
Speaker 3:Well, like I say they, the college was, you know, loosely Lutheran and when I went through that process I told I told the pastor that I'd I'd been baptized, and he goes, okay, well, that's cool, you know, one baptism. So we're gonna, we're gonna put you through a confirmation process. So I went through a I don't know a 10 week study with with a couple other people, and he asked us that we needed a confirmation sponsor. And you know, I said who's that? And he goes well, the family member at bomb, a dad, and I I don't, I don't really know anyone that's Christian, and he goes well. Someone at school Do you know someone at school, maybe? And he goes well.
Speaker 3:I said I do know this one person that you know she's. She seems to know all the Bible stories and all that. So he said, good, pick her. So I picked her. She was my confirmation sponsor, pledged to faithfully hold me accountable the rest of my life. You know that was a little risky, you know, for being a college kid. And so six months later I started dating her and a year later I married her. So my late wife was my confirmation sponsor and she would hold that over me a lot.
Speaker 2:Man, that's, that's cool. So she was a lifer in the LCMS and went to.
Speaker 3:She was a LCMS pastors kid. Her dad got tangled up in the in the, the synodical walkout. He was is actually a theology teacher at Valparaiso. So you know there's some, some theological differences there, but but she was, she was in rebellion during college and so we sort of met. It met at the good low point and and then, you know, through the power of the Holy Spirit, once we got married, you know, we joined a LCMS church. I moved around a lot with corporate America but we we landed in a church in in Palatine Illinois Manual, that very, very contemporary at the time and it just opened my eyes to it, to a whole Experience of worship and a contemporary setting that I'd never seen before and and to this day I'm very much appreciate the, the more contemporary style of worship and I hang out with high school kids all the time, so it's another reason.
Speaker 2:I love it. Did someone shoulder tap you in terms of getting into ministry, kind of leaving corporate America and and certain tell tell that story.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was. It was an interesting process but one of the reasons I have a passion to help people get into ministry because I I've understood it and I've gone through it. But you know, it was a CPA. I'm an, I'm an accounting manager running large groups of people, successful business guy and my in my late 20s and there's nothing I could do for the church. I mean, there's what. What role could I possibly serve? And being a blessing to the church? And and then at one point, as I was thinking that, someone said, would you be on a budget committee? And I thought, okay, well, I guess I can do that, right, and and the finances were a mess and and so I became treasurer of the congregation and realize that, okay, maybe there are some gifts that I have that I can, I can use, but administratively the church was a wreck and you know policies and procedures and all that. What? When I went to St Louis at it pathfinder, I really open open my eyes. My spiritual faith just grew tremendously, became an elder. Probably should never have been an elder at that point, but became an elder Through a, through a whole weird situation, I became chairman of the board of elders of fastest growing LCMS church and the nation.
Speaker 3:At that time we're worshiping 700 people and and spent a lot of time with the senior pastor and he just encouraged me and you know I mean it was starting out saying, hey, thanks so much for all you do. And then it was thanks for your gift in this and You've really got something good the church could use and and maybe someday we should be in ministry. And finally, you know, he said okay, it's time. So I was. I was actually a director of treasury and cash management for a Fortune 500 company and walked into the CEO and said I'm gonna quit. And he said who got you? And I go, I'm gonna go work for the church.
Speaker 3:You know, changed my life, changed my world and it's just such a joy and blessing. But then in the other, the other side, you know, one of the one of the frustrations, if you will, was I Couldn't be part of the club. I couldn't, I was, there was no place for me in the Senate. If you will, I could be a business manager, but whatever that was, or you know. But it turned out from starting with a, with a church. Then at that time we had 600 kids in the school, you know, with 80, 90 employees. It was a pretty big operation. You know. We're worshiping 2200. When I left and and yet there wasn't a place in the senator call structure, you know, unless you're ordained or a teacher. So that was that was a bit frustrating.
Speaker 2:That that's frustrating to me too. We're Working right now. One of the things we care about is is helping executive director, business manager etc. Types really a re-understanding of the, the office of deacon, to have that be a major part of of the church, and we we need to honor way more of the executives who have been in corporate America, who are coming and serving the church in fantastic ways, and so thank you for your long suffering and and Trying to continue to use your gifts your first article, reality gifts as well as your second, third article, reality gifts as well to Bless the body of Christ.
Speaker 2:So you kind of talk about things that you love, about the Luther Church, missouri Senate and other other things that that frustrate you. Is there anything else outside of like the elevation, maybe, of the office of holy ministry and and that may be at the expense of of the rest of the gifts within the body of Christ, anything else that you're like, wow, if this, if this could change within the Lutheran Church, missouri Senate, man, we could really have a major kingdom impact. Any other thoughts there, todd?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, first of it's maybe goes without saying, but I love our doctrine and I love our confessions. I really do. I Probably once a month or in and on LCMS church worshiping, and in my, my theological ears are always, you know, intently listening, because I'm never quite sure, and so I just, I love, I love where we're at that way and that's just amazing. I can go to any setting of a LCMS church. I'm always confident that that, you know, what I'm hearing, is good and true.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I get frustrated over the, the conversation of confessional and missional. Now I'm one of those guys that says, can't we be both? Yeah, we do both of those things, but but really it's it's more Getting as many people involved as we possibly can. We've got a significant pastor shortage. You know all about that. Talk about it all the time. Actually, our teacher shortage is worse than pastor shortages. We just don't talk a lot about that and the reason is you can't have a non LCMS guy run your congregation as a pastor, but we're hiring not LCMS a lot of times non Christian teachers, like crazy, because there's a humongous shortage there.
Speaker 3:So how do we, how do we encourage people to be, to be part of our system rather than making it hard. I actually had to work for years and years and years to become a commission minister and it actually went to a district Convention. And then it had to go to a synodical convention. At the district convention they called it the Moritz rule. You know that I wanted to be I wanted to be a commission minister and there was no place for me. I didn't fit to any of the box. So why would we discourage anyone from from getting into full-time ministry?
Speaker 2:Where did you eventually fit, todd? I don't know that story.
Speaker 3:Well I was. After I went from St Louis I went to Milwaukee. They had three different high school associations and and, frankly, they were in a lot of financial trouble and they needed leadership and so I got asked to be the chief executive officer there and and again, now I've got 100 plus teachers that that are working directly for me. And that's a whole another story I won't get into. But God did miracle after miracle. But I decided after a few years quietly that alright, I need, I need to be a commission minister. And so I went through the Q net process and actually had a tough time Getting getting accepted into the process.
Speaker 3:I and the conversation with an individual. One point. They said, well, you're not a teacher, so you can't go through colloquy. And I said, well, I supervise 100 teachers, I hire and fire 100 teachers. So they finally let me in and I went through the system. I get to do it very quietly. And then the call papers went to the district president and he was mad. He was mad that I got let through the system. And so you know I say I end up getting the district convention type stuff. But it was kind of kind of interesting. But even today, even right now I've had trouble with a lot of teachers that wanted to to get into the go through colloquy and and it's a tough situation, it's just, it's just kind of bad. That needs. It needs reformation.
Speaker 2:Let's work on it together, bro. For sure. Amen, Thank you for your. Thank you for your log Safried and staying connected. We need leaders like you within our church body. So you're kind of talking about healthy or unhealthy, dysfunctional culture. What is the quickest way to destroy a healthy culture in a church or school or really any organization? What do you normally say in your spheres?
Speaker 3:Well, back to not being a servant leader is number one of just making it all about you being narcissistic or just pushing through with your vision. But but I think a lot of times it's just not having a vision, it's more apathy, it's it's not doing much, I'm just not leading. Well, I mean, if you're in a position of leadership, then lead, and if you can't, then get out of the way. But but yeah, for me it's just the servant leadership process always is first on my on my list in the heart.
Speaker 2:Yeah amen. The mission of God. I just was the PLI International right. The mission of God does not change. It's to advance the cause of Christ and to build relationships about the power of the spirit and word with the living God. But then our unique context require unique visions, right For how God is at work in our local context and and not everyone is gifted to do that work of leadership. But for those who are like you, todd the church would do well to recognize the gifts within the body of Christ. Anything more to add on the difference of mission and vision.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you certainly get that right. It's you know, you'll have an employee that needs some encouragement. You'll have an employee that that needs a little bit of push, and sometimes they need a kick in the rear. And and I've had many conversations in my career where I've had to sit down with with pastors and commission ministers and workers and say I think you're misreading your gift here because I don't think you're really great at the role you're called to do. And those are really really hard conversations. And and yet, if we're going to be honest with with the church and using the limited resources we have and really passionate about communicating the gospel, then everyone needs to be all in, everyone needs to be, you know, working hard towards that same mission and vision. So, as a leader, you've got to be a servant, you've got to be compassionate, you've got to be combined. And and then push sometimes and and and try to try to try to get the ministry working as best as humanly possible. Yeah, amen.
Speaker 2:And it's all the Holy Spirit at work to give us discernment. You know he is a comforter and also that help helping us discern the gifts, the unique gifts of God's people. So, coming down the home stretch, this has been super fun. Why is innovation of, and really entrepreneurship? Why is that so difficult often for the Church of Jesus Christ, not some 2000 years old talk about innovation?
Speaker 3:Yeah, innovation is huge and we have to embrace it. And I think we became very, very comfortable in the 50s with our success and things were good and and and. So it's natural when things work to just leave it alone and and and. Yet it's not natural to say we've got to change, we've got to innovate, we've got to do things differently. And so, coming out of that corporate mindset I was sort of trained in the innovation and we have to do things differently.
Speaker 3:And the congregations I've been involved at schools, I've been involved that we've we've embraced that to say let's do things differently. You know, right now, like, like you, trying a different school system, to say hey, this is important, but let's do it really different, let's do it innovative. We're embracing artificial intelligence, we're embracing flexible schedules and and a different path towards graduation and high school. Innovation usually drives what the future is like. So we we've grown up in the computer age.
Speaker 3:You know the computers have changed everything. The worldwide web changed everything and I think AI is going to take us to a whole another level totally. And we can, we can embrace innovation or we can get run over by innovation and I think the church especially has had difficulty innovating. You know, you know, back in the day it was all about programs and let's get programs, programs and those things aren't working anymore and they probably shouldn't work. You know, I was the guy that was in charge of a lot of programs and we had to say I don't think those are working anymore, let's, let's try to do something different, and so we've got to be able to innovate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can innovate and not compromise theology.
Speaker 2:And the reason we have to innovate is because our culture, the world, is consistently changing and we've experienced in the last generation more change than you know centuries and centuries of time before. And so, yeah, we embrace or use it, kind of get run over. I don't know if I'd say that, that, but you know well the mission of God, the kingdom of God, the, the call of Christ. Yeah, it does get squelched if, if we're not at least open to are there new ways to reach people with the same good old story of Jesus crucified and risen, absolutely, absolutely. And COVID kind of, I think, invited a number of us into some of those innovations. But there's still, there's still more, especially given the, the subcultures in America, so many unique places where the way the gospel gets communicated, not the what but the how, is going to be remarkably different. Anything more to add there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, I remember being responsible for Friendship Sunday, way back in the day.
Speaker 1:If you remember what those were, remember those.
Speaker 3:Let's, let's, let's invite people to church. And so we do all these great things and invite people to church and in the week after we sat down we say are we just doing bait and switch, because the next week we're going right back to the old ways, right, we're not doing all this stuff. And so, you know, we got into that conversation of what's entertainment and what's being hospitable and just all those those types of things. But you know, we, we, we have to be inviting people to the church.
Speaker 3:But I used to believe the way you evangelize, was taught, is, you know, go to your neighbor and invite him to church. That's the way you evangelize. And I don't know that I believe that anymore. I think that I think that comes later. I've got Muslim neighbors, literally, and if they walk into the church and the first thing they hear is and they were the father, son, we lost him. We haven't even started, right? So, going back to that first century discipleship of having relationships, of loving your neighbor, of just being a friend, you know, and then, ultimately, you know, when the time is right, if I'm discipling them, teaching them about Jesus, helping them understand the scriptures, then there's a chance that, ok, now we should maybe go into the life of the church and have that fellowship.
Speaker 2:So good. So last question, talking innovation, tell us about Lutech and what the Lord is doing in this kind of hybrid high school model. Yeah, it's so exciting. We're loving it here, by the way.
Speaker 3:Well, good, I'm really glad you are. It's a lot of hard work, but it's. You know, when you get old like me, you can finally say, all right, let's, let's, let's try something really, really different. And our tagline is Rethinking Education and really just trying to come up with something that helps students be ready for the future. Right, and we know 50% of all the jobs in the next 10 years don't even exist right now. We know that different forms of learning will need to take place. Skilled trade jobs are going to be more and more plentiful and there's such a shortage right now.
Speaker 3:Going on to college may or may not be a good decision for some, some people, and so really just to really work with students to help them understand what is their giftedness, what is their calling, what are they good at, and so that's, that's been really a lot of fun. We're doing a lot of different things. You know our school hours are flexible, our course loads are all individualized, very personalized approach, and you certainly understand all that and it's really it's been a joy and a blessing and it's hard. So I hope we're cutting edge, but I'm fearful sometimes we're bleeding edge.
Speaker 2:Hopefully not. No one likes to bleed. Right, that's it On the bleeding, on the bleeding edge. But so what I love about the Lutech model and kind of the hybrid you can kind of call it a combination between maybe some homeschool I was homeschooled, so you got some independent, independent learning Well, you have the online component and then some of the courses can be live instruction as well, and or and or flip classroom, where the student can receive the content and then come with with an educator or a facilitator to help apply their respective learning. So it's a matching, not batching, approach, isn't that right, todd?
Speaker 3:100%. I couldn't agree. I couldn't agree more, and I think there's a huge advantage for the church, and a wise man on your podcast once say that schools are going to to propel churches for growth, not the other way around and I think there was you, by the way, that's your quote, but I didn't think that years ago.
Speaker 3:I mean, I really thought, okay, schools are a great thing, they train our kids and it's fantastic. And then I remember seeing kids going off to college and losing their faith and but, but more and more parents are dissatisfied with the public education system. You know, I've got all the statistics in the world, but 30, 30 plus percent wish their kids were in a Christian school. That are not. And so how do we give them that, that opportunity and an affordable, convenient, flexible environment? And then, when we do that, we have an opportunity with the gospel to reach them and their family and what, what a, what a blessing for the church. So I really hope this is a movement where you know, right now I've got several kids doing theology never have touched the Bible, never have touched the Bible, and you talk about going back to 101 stuff.
Speaker 2:So that's, that's cool. And with this model, todd, I mean any size of a congregation, because I think a lot of times the misnomers oh, you got to have a certain size of congregation, certain amount of kind of wealth and capital to build buildings, all that kind of stuff, like a small congregation between 50 to 70, they could set up a LuTech micro high school, you know, with a year's worth of kind of prep and planning and and welcome five to 10 students. The financial models are very, very reasonable, regardless of the size of the church, isn't that right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm working with a church that's interested in starting a LuTech and you know, for for probably a little less than $100,000, they could get up and going and by year three it's paying them money through through rent and facility use and things like that. So it's, it's a, it's a fantastic ministry and it actually brings in money. You know, as opposed to the old method of, okay, let's close our school and rent it out to someone else, well, let's, let's do school better, let's do a school differently and then pay ourselves rent.
Speaker 2:Amen. Is this taking place across? I mean, jack Price is a member in our congregation, but is this taking place across the the Synod right now and in some pretty dynamic ways? What are you seeing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks to Jack Price it is. You know his, his open sky and soaring educational services. They're just a fantastic group of people. Used to work with Jack for many years, so love him to death and he's been a great mentor and friend to me. But yeah, there's, there's several happening in the Lutheran church and there's many more to come, because it's it's clearly the wave of the future. You know, again I could bore you with the statistics, but homeschool has increased by 10 fold over the last 10 years, you know, and people want something different, and homeschooling can work for an elementary level, but when you get into high school it gets a lot more complicated and so so parents want that, that different choice, and we can provide it to them and communicate the gospel on the same time.
Speaker 2:So good. If people want to connect with you and Lutech, how can they do so, Todd?
Speaker 3:Email is always the best. My name tooddmortitz at Lutechorg, or just go to the website lutechorg.
Speaker 2:Lutechorg.
Speaker 3:This is so fun, todd, thanks for sharing LUTEC, by the way, no H.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly LUTECorg. This has been so much fun. Thank you for being such an amazing churchman. Your, your heart, staying connected, not getting. You know, we can have some areas of opportunity and growth, for the Lutheran church was very centered, but you know, the national thing is what it is. We get the invitation to go very, very local, to go very, very local bringing the gospel of Jesus, the, the missio day, which is so so needed in the hearts and lives of so many people walking in darkness and need of the light of Christ. So thanks for being my friend and for spending time and making me and our listeners better today, todd, this is so much fun. Thanks for your all you do, brother. You're doing great work. Keep it up. No, all about Jesus man.
Speaker 2:This is American Reformation podcast. Sharing. It's caring. Please like, subscribe, comment wherever it is that you take this in, and we'll promise to have a number of wonderful conversations with leaders doing very, very creative things to elevate the name of Jesus across the Lutheran church, missouri Synod and beyond. God bless you. Have a wonderful day. Thanks so much, todd. Bye-bye, thank you.