Joseph F. Radosevich

I've got some history with church planting. I have a failed plant and what seems so far to be a successful plant. I've been through some trainings and read a bunch of books. Let me tell you the best church planting training I've seen: The Basic Training system taught by the Central Region of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.  Today, I had a lunch with a prospective planter thinking about planting a church in Wisconsin, and I gave him an overview of it. I cannot say good enough things about it. The biggest difference it makes is that it gets the focus off of having a larger-than-life church planter as your leader. I've had lunch with so many church planters who told me stuff that was absolutely not transferable. I am not the amazing leader that they are. I cannot drum up support and followers like they can. I'm just a normal guy who loves people and believes that God changes people through his word.  Basic Training strategy and methods took 2 year...

I collect tickets. I've got just about every ticket I've had since the first MLB game I went to as a kid (Texas Rangers vs. Seattle Mariners). When I was about 15, I set up the sound system for an Andrew Peterson concert at our church. When we were tearing down and cleaning up, I found his set list and put it in with my tickets. The paper in the picture above is that set list. I've followed Peterson's career and enjoyed his creativity ever since. At Christmas, I play his song "Deliver Us" from his Behold the Lamb of God Christmas Opera. We knew we belonged at Southern Seminary when we pulled up to the campus hotel at 12 am and found the desk guy reading "Monster in the Hollows." We've worn out his copies from his Wingfeather Saga (we almost gave one of our kids a middle name from those books). Now, I'm excited to dig into his book on Christianity and creativity. The title has so much depth. This reminds me of Flannery O'Connor...

I noticed a yard yesterday. The house had continuous mow lines with the Catholic Church next door. I imagine it's the parsonage. I imagined the life of the priest who likely lives in that house. Growing up there was a Catholic Church behind our church. I never met the priest. But I heard of his reputation. He was well-educated and well-read. I believe he knew 7 languages. His learning was like a myth to me. And a goal. When I was younger, I never planned on marrying. Part of it was that I knew as strange as I am, I was unlikely to find a woman to put up with me. But a large part was what I wanted to accomplish. I didn't want to be a priest, but I wanted to be well-educated, well-read, and accomplished. I planned on being single because I imagined how productive my life could be. I could be like that mythical priest. When I noticed the house yesterday and imagined the life of a priest living in it, I compared it to my life with my family. Our little Ivy Jo More Radosevich...

Two gymanstic-based exercises that I really like right now are: Hanging Knees-to-Elbows--This is a new one that the army will be testing for their combat readyness test. Seeing it included caused me to take a second look at it, and I love it. To do it right, you have to work on shoulder stability, engaging your back muscles, and using your stomach muscles to pull you into position.  L-Sits--I've been bored with my Dip Holds for a while, but I like to work on stability in my shoulders. L-Sits give me something to work on at the same time I work on my stability. These two exercises make me feel strong. Some workouts and exercises leave me beaten up, but these build me up. Here's a workout that I do that I really love because it is gymnastic-based and hits all my priorities. Hits all 6 of the big movements (squat, hinge, push, pull, rotate, carry). Includes warm-up, strength, skill, and conditioning. Warm-up: 2x Squat and Curl, Glute Bridges, Kettlebell Halos St...

What is social media for? What's your social media for? One thing that I work on now is having a target for my social media use. It's too easy to just consume and to put up whatever comes to mind. But social media represents who we are, what we love, and how we want to contribute to the world. My social media targets: Facebook--photos and quotes documenting my family and life. Representing what we do to friends and family. I try to show what we create and how we have fun without money. Too many Christians (pastors especially) show only extravagant places that cost a lot of money. I think that shows the world that if you become a Christian or a pastor, then you can have a lot of money too. That's wrong and we shouldn't give that idea. Instagram--this is my public profile, so I don't post family photos. I post things from my life that will give a true idea of what I do and what I'm about. I want people who search for me to find this profile and find the ...

On vacation in September, we did a taste-test one day of different newer varieties of apple. It was inspired by the ad at Meijer that promoted their apple harvest. I remember when Meijer did really big and cool apple displays. This looked no bigger than a normal display and without any variety I hadn't tried. We bought 3 apples anyway and tasted them against each other. Rave was my favorite. It was crunchy and juicy. It tasted like Apple Juice. Nothing spectacular in the taste department, but it was good. Sweetango is a daughter of Honeycrisp. It had a lot of crispness to it, but little flavor or sweetness. The main flavor was tart. I didn't care for the extreme crispness of it without anything besides tartness. Ambrosia was all texture and no flavor. I didn't care for it. Totally bland. I like my apples sweet, and Rave was the sweetest of the three. I much preferred Sweet Sixteen from the orchard up near Crivitz, WI.

I've taken to writing to people about all sorts of things. Thank you cards, emails to authors about books I enjoy, letters to let my politicians know what I think about an issue, journalists about their work. Last week, I was emailing with a journalist and he commented that he had questions for my "boss"-- a Democratic presidential candidate. I knew exactly who he thought I was because I had googled my name and found the same Joe Radosevich. The most relevant "Joe Radosevich" you find when you google my name is a democratic political staffer. That reminded me why owning your name and having a public profile is so important--people google you and they believe what they find. That is why I started this website and why I opened my Instagram account up to the public. It is why LinkedIn is important to keep updated. People believe what they find on the internet. It goes for businesses, churches, and individuals. So pay attention to it.

I finished Shaftesbury: The Great Reformer by Richard Turnbull last week. The Earl of Shaftesbury was his title; Anthony Ashley Cooper was his name. He was a British politician and reformer in the 1800's. He was a committed Christian who used his position in government and his influence in society for good. I wanted to point out one detail: He spent 25 years fighting to protect and free children who were forced to clean chimneys for master chimney sweeps. 25 YEARS! Children fit into the chimneys better than adults, so they would force children, usually boys, who worked for them up into the chimney. It was dangerous work. They were often burned, choked, beaten, or fell. Even after he helped pass laws to protect boys from those jobs, the master sweeps would ignore them and the laws would not be enforced. Even when there were machines to do the cleaning, rich families who did not want a loud machine in their house would employ sweeps who still had boys to do the work. I was i...

We went up north for a few days of vacation this week.  We didn't do much except relax, roast marshmallows and read books. The one thing we did was find a local orchard. Ponderosa Pines is a 2 acre orchard south of Crivitz, WI. The owners are super friendly and helpful. They told us that they have 400 trees on 2 acres and have 40 varieties. I forgot to take their list with me. We tried two apples and bought 10 lbs of Sweet Sixteen. Washington Strawberry--Tart like a Granny Smith. It was fine, the skin wasn't too thick and the texture was firm but not crunch or crispy. If we were in the mood for baking, I imagine this would be good. But since we're eating most of our apples fresh right now, we skipped buying these. Sweet Sixteen--This is a fun apple. The texture is crisp--kind of like Honeycrisp--but it is juicier and has more flavor. I think it tastes a bit like cherry Lifesavers--that is the description Rowan Jacobsen gives the apple, and I think it fits. This is ...

I'm not a landscape designer. I'm not a flower, shrub, or tree gardener. I garden for fruits and veggies. So I reached out to an expert for help with landscape design for the church. We're at the final stage of a 2-year project to remodel and renovate our old church building. Landscaping is our final(ish) step. One thing I learned on this project was that for elements of design--inside or outside--the best thing for me to do is explain the feeling that I want our guests and members to have. I told the man helping us with design that I want our building and grounds to feel comfortable and put people at ease. That's the same approach we took inside. We didn't want to be modern or trendy. We wanted the focus to be on the people and for guests to feel at ease. Going to a church is hard enough for our guests. We could go with an office approach with rocks in the beds, boxwood shrubs, and a couple of pots. And that would work and be better than we have now. But peop...

I skimmed the book Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport a while back. I skimmed it because I never got around to reading it before I had to take it back to the library and because it wasn't that groundbreaking for me. Many of the practices he talks about there are already habits for me (practicing hobbies rather than binge-watching movies and shows, playing complex board games, etc.). One tip was to fix something on your house every week. That tip caused me to think intentionally and systematically about fixing things around the house. In one year, that would mean 52 things fixed.  I feel a little less pressure about fixing things. Just doing one thing feels doable. Sometimes I bite off too much and get overwhelmed renovating a room for months. I pick up momentum from doing one thing. I touched up paint around the house recently and then found several other small projects that I could easily do. A little momentum made a big difference. A couple of weeks ago, I thought that ...

I meant to review Ginger Gold and Zestar last week, but got busy with other posts. And I'm super glad because my review of Zestar changed with one more week to ripen. Ginger Gold: Tastes like apple, nothing special in that department. But it is super crisp, which is not normal for an apple that ripens in August and September. This is a good early season apple because there is nothing off-putting like the toughness of the skin or the mushiness of the inside. Rowen Jacobson says in Apples of Uncommon Character that Ginger Gold is named for the wife of the farmer who discovered/developed the apple, not because it has a ginger flavor. I don't taste any flavor at all. Zestar: Last week, this apple wasn't quite ripe. It was crisp and juicy, but nothing special. This week, it tastes like an Apple Juice Slushy. The flavor is not the special thing, but the texture is both crisp and juicy. I've eaten more than one Zestar today. I love this apple. We looked forward to this...

Yesterday, I went to a one-day conference called the Rural Matters Summit hosted by the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. I went to their bigger conference last year at their campus, and this is a one-day event they hope to host a few places around the country. I told the directors of the summit that I consider this the most valuable conference or series of conferences for me. This is so valuable because it is small enough to know people and everything comes from and applies to a similar context to mine. I still talk to friends I made at last year's conference. When I walked into this conference, 3 people called my name. Most books for leaders or pastors are geared towards pastors in cities or suburbs. Principles that work in cities often don't translate to my rural(ish) context. These speakers pastor churches from small to really large and yet they face some of the same realities and issues that I face. Example: One speaker said that if you pastor in a rural area t...

I checked the mail today and found a handwritten note from Great Britain. I started writing emails or handwritten notes to authors as I finish their books. Particularly, if I enjoyed or learned a lot from the book. I try to include one detail that I appreciate. I figured that most authors seldom hear from their readers. I regularly get a response. A couple of months ago, I wrote a note to N.T. Wright telling him how much I loved Simply Jesus. I've told many people that it caused me to fall in love with Jesus all over again. There are no better words than that for its effect on me. Today, I got a handwritten note back from N.T. Wright. It was signed "Tom Wright." It's better than a regular autograph.

I heard an interview with Homer Steinweiss, one of the world's top drummers, where he told how he drums at the limit of his skill. He feels like he is always just barely holding things together. But he thinks that is what makes it fun. He said that what everyone wants to see is a musician, artist, etc. performing at the limit of their abilities. I thought of that this week as I reflected on how I feel about pastoring right now. No one told me that as a pastor and church planter leadership would change when we reached over 50 attenders. When my family and I moved here to Belgium, our planned church had 17 people (including my family). And as our attendance creeped up over the last year and half, leadership and structure didn't change much. But this spring, we averaged 60 people, and I felt the growing pains. I couldn't keep up with the tasks anymore. I was swamped. So I asked others to help carry the load. I thought that would fix everything, but it didn't. It f...