7/9/2023 0 Comments Pastor michael todd grace![]() ![]() "The only rule we were given was, 'Don't have sex before you get married.' Well, what happens when you've done that? What happens when the locker room introduced you to pornography? What happens when you saw a Playboy you weren't supposed to see while looking for some tissue paper at your uncle's house? The church has been so silent about that. "I messed up so much because I didn't have an example," Todd says. Before then, he says he was primarily raised and discipled by BET and MET-and the church didn't have answers for the problems he and his peers were going through. Though he grew up in a Christian home, he says he never had an authentic relationship with God until his late teenage years. In fact, as a teenager, he wasn't even sure he wanted to be a Christian. (Don't miss the Charisma June/July 2020 print edition, which features a much longer interview with Todd, in which he explains his approach to reaching young adults for Jesus, what it means to be a pastor in the Internet age and how to cultivate and lead a racially and generationally diverse church. With his first book, Relationship Goals: How to Win at Dating, Marriage and Sex, releasing today, Todd spoke to Charisma about his incredible journey up to this point. Todd chose to obey-and God blessed his ministry beyond his wildest expectations. In fact, he says his entire testimony served as a test of obedience: Was he willing to obey God even when it didn't make sense or match his own life plans? for great good."īut Todd says he has no illusions that his church's success can be attributed to savvy marketing, great technological design or his own inspired preaching. But I believe God's given us the internet. Even if you're only on your house and your neighborhood, that's still a huge undertaking. There's no way I could be a good father and a good husband and all this other stuff, and now also go into the world and make disciples. I really do believe the Great Commission to go into all the world and make disciples, but I don't think we could have done that in health until now, with the internet. "And, the last thing it has touched is the church-because we want to keep our traditions. "The first thing you have to know is the internet has changed everything," Todd says. Long before coronavirus ever forced churches to shift services online, Todd believes the digital age changed what it means to be a pastor. ![]() When fewer than 1 in 8 of your churchgoers actually go to your church building, what does that mean for pastors? Todd, the lead pastor of Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, says in any given week, his church gets roughly 5,000 people in the building-and more than 35,000 online. Pastor Michael Todd leads one of the fastest-growing churches in the country, but the vast majority of his audience isn't coming to the church building. ![]() 2:30PM EDT Taylor Berglund Pastor Michael Todd ( Graceson Todd) ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |