Spirituality Adventures—Hopes & Dreams
Listen: “The Impossible Dream” by Josh Groban
I have three unique challenges as I see it, and many more on which I won’t focus. First challenge: emerging out of my own chaos with fresh hopes and dreams. Second challenge: starting a new nonprofit in the middle of a pandemic. Third challenge: casting a vision for a ministry that is outside the church box. Despite the challenges, this is what I feel called to do.
Spirituality Adventures is born out of my forty years of pastoral experience coupled up with my recent work in the recovery community. After founding Vineyard Church in 1990 and leading it to dynamic growth through 2018 (growth from 5 to over 5,000), I went through a personal crisis. My personal crisis was prominently published in the Kansas City Star and religious newsfeeds around the world. In 2019, I lost my thirty-seven year marriage, my church community, my vocation, and, in some ways, my faith (my faith felt shattered).
Through the support of family, friends, recovery groups, and therapists, I began to re-envision my calling from God. A friend encouraged me to start posting my thoughts and story every day on social media. I was also reading some books which focused on creative opportunities that can emerge through adversity, the things you love, and life experiences. This was in February 2020 before news of the pandemic was universally disseminated. When I thought in terms of content I wanted to share with people, Spirituality Adventures came into focus. Through podcasts, blogs, interviews, and teaching, I would provide non-judgmental spaces to explore spiritual growth.
Spirituality Adventures began publishing a weekly blog and podcast in October of 2020. I also also started my website and became accessible on social media for the first time since my crisis in 2018. These blogs and podcasts have been posted to our website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube as well as Apple, Google, and Spotify podcast platforms. It has been amazing to me how many people we have touched in the first nine months. Here is a visual:
Our demographics range from ages 21 to 65+ with the largest percentage being females ages 25 to 45. Our website has had over 15,000 organic page visits in the last 7 months. Much to my surprise, I have given pastoral care and counseling to over one thousand individuals in the last nine months. Our Facebook page alone has reached 7,766 people in the last 15 days (first two weeks of July 2021).
My heart is to connect with people who identify as spiritual but not religious. This is a very broad and diverse group of people. In my immediate circle of connections, it would include people in the recovery community, people who have left the church for various reasons, people of differing faith traditions, and people who love Jesus (in or out of the church) but aren’t very uptight, judgmental, or religious. I have been a Jesus follower and Bible teacher for forty years, but I am enjoying the new opportunities to reach new groups of people that have opened up because of my personal/public crisis.
Currently, my blogs and podcasts are available online and/or through email for no charge. My biblical teaching series—“Extravagant Grace” and soon to be released “Irreligious Parables of Jesus”—are available by download through the online store. Events will be publicized online. All of the small groups I currently lead/facilitate are closed groups. This may change in the future. If you know someone who needs a recovery group, have them email me. I will also be leading a mentoring group for people giving at the $200/month donor tier. I also do short-term pastoral care for people without charge.
While I am pastoring, teaching, mentoring, and influencing a bunch of people, I am not doing a traditional church with traditional “tithers” as my support base. I need a financial support team to continue offering the services I have been providing for the last nine months and expanding on those services. Please consider being a part of my support team. I would greatly appreciate it!
Go to the support tab below and join the team today!
Shalom
©realfredherron, 2021
