zachharrod.com

#SurpriseUsin6 – Following the leader…

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One of the shifts we have seen serving in Prague as Czech and Europe continue to deeper shifts into what is called post-Christian culture is that the models for missions over the last 50 years are becoming dated. We don’t simply see this as a challenge for the Church in Europe but that the American Church needs to notice, as cultural shifts are happening throughout the world. The question is, “Will we adjust or continue status quo as things have been done, ignoring the changing world around us?” I must offer a disclaimer, the Gospel doesn’t change, but the way we communicate it does.

There’s several buzz words attached to the shift that some are making – insider, missional and incarnational are just a few. While I use these words often, this is nothing new, I believe this was present from the beginning of our faith. Jesus modeled it,

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

Then Paul lived it out in the context of serving,

“For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. … I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. [23] I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” 1 Corinthians 9:19, 22b-23

This is nothing new, but somewhere in the last 50 years, we started buying into attracting people to us, planning programs, writing manuals to go through, in the place of GOING TO THEM as Jesus did and his early disciples followed His lead on. So this is nothing new, it’s more like getting back to our roots and being “old school” even though we attach different words to these things today.

Nonetheless we need not get hung up on our systems, theories and programs and start BEING the church again and become all things to all, so that we might win some and then we share in their blessing.

The question for us is will we, the Church, observe, adapt and ultimately follow Jesus’ lead?

#SurpriseUsin6 – “What’s your story?” – Guest post by Mike Jarrell

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Guest post by Mike Jarrell

Zach and Míša Harrod stayed with my wife Jackie and I for a 5 day stretch. It’s not often that my wife tears up and my kids make me promise to ask someone to consider not leaving. We had a wonderful time with this family.

I met the Harrods a few years ago on a trip to Prague, while I was providing some coaching and support for missionaries. Zach and I immediately hit it off outside of the restroom at the place where their church gathers weekly. It became clear that Zach was an authentic guy with a genuine love for others and desire to make a difference for the kingdom of God. The Harrods soon after began a coaching relationship with me. I lead a Collective, CREO, that is committed to multiplication of disciples out of the harvest. In my coaching I have found Zach and Míša to be both MOTIVATED to make a difference in Prague and TEACHABLE (Two critical qualities).

I’ve connected with a number of people who CLAIM to be making disciples and serving their community yet they have no STORIES. Zach and Míša laughed with my family, ate great food, and shared REAL STORIES of people they actually know and love. This makes all the difference to me! This couple is not simply a family that talk the talk, they know real people, shed real tears and share their table with others. I often say that the real test of a missionary isn’t in their ideas and strategies but their STORIES.

Zach loves coaching football and loves the guys he coaches. It is difficult to paint a picture of the life and mission of Jesus if you are not engaged, building real relationships and establishing common bonds with people through something that you mutually share. Because Zach is not an outsider (just a missionary raising support) but an insider (a coach who cares about his players and other coaches). He has credibility as someone who is not just “targeting” someone as his next convert, but someone who has come to build real friendships with people that are not projects but are valued friends. In the context of real friendship with no strings attached, Zach naturally shares the things he is enjoying (including his faith).

Míša has a passion for entering brothels and helping women who are being trafficked and treated as sex slaves. This couple is not distant to the pain and hurt of the city they live in, they have entered the mess and engaged the world with compassion and care like Jesus.

The challenge I want to leave you with is this; Do you have stories, or do you only share theories?

#SurpriseUsin6 – The Long Haul

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“What I appreciate about Zach & Míša is that they are in Prague, they’ve put their roots down and they’re there for the long haul,” one pastor shared during our trip back. I was moved upon hearing this, it reminded me of what we shared from Jeremiah 29:7. This verse has impacted our church and our church’s vision, but in the last few years this section has impacted our family and how we’re living,

“Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.” vv. 5-6

Míša and I have a growing conviction that God wants us to invest more deeply into the city of Prague and put our roots deeper than we ever thought. As we read the whole of Jeremiah 29, God has called us to be fully present for the long haul in Prague. This has moved us to decisions that I never thought I would be considering or moving towards – being a co-owner of something, pursuing Czech citizenship (I can now be dual citizen) and more.

We believe this is what God has called us to, as he called the Israelites that were exiled in Babylon to build, plant and multiply for their good and more importantly the good of the place that God has brought them to. God has called us as a family to put roots down, to build, to plant, to multiply, to pray for the good of our great city, to seek her welfare and to keep our eyes off the airport. He’s called us to be ALL there and be ALL IN. In some ways this is pragmatic, because to see deep, lasting change we need to have a long-view approach, it is also a decision to be fully present. As we have inched closer to this, I have had my moments of fear, but God continues to draw us to Him and to the city that has become our home.

Has God called you to put roots down to where he has called you? What prevents you from doing that? What is he calling you to do in this moment?

Please consider helping us to be in Prague for the long haul by joining our team! CLICK HERE to give today.  THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!

#SurpriseUsin6 – Kolem Stolu

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In following my wife’s lead with her theme about “by doing less, we saw God do more!” (Read her POST HERE)  This is a lesson we have learned in our church community as well. Two years ago after a tough season in our church, we in many ways were replanting a church and we looked at the situation and realized we couldn’t pull of “normal” Sunday gatherings every week, that is with music, preaching and what you would expect on a “normal” Sunday. We were also tired but we had a shared value of sharing our table and gathering around the table (or “kolem stolu” in Czech), as Jesus modeled.  

So in somewhat of a pragmatic decision we decided to have “kolem stolu” Sundays where we would gather around the table, share our lives, stories, thoughts and prayers. Some of us in leadership, included me, were reluctant in “doing less,” but we had a shared value and just couldn’t continue putting on shows for the sake of putting on shows each Sunday.  

What did God do in this midst of this? We saw DEPTH in relationship and our walks with Jesus in ways that we hadn’t experienced in years, I began to learn the stories of those that I had attended for years as we shared our stories and lives. Some started to invite their friends to the table to engage in conversation.  We saw God do more amongst us when we were honest with the situation and also decided to live out a shared value.  It was beautiful and one of the decisions that I love to brag on us and God about. 

Of course, not everyone enjoyed it, and others gritted their teeth to get through it, but we could not produce the growth in depth of relationship, community and even in looking outside ourselves to invite our friends to our table.  We saw God move and surprise us again!  When we were tired, exhausted, didn’t have a clue what to do and admitted this to God, he showed up and brought beauty from what was our perceived weakness.  Now the challenge is to continue to pursue him in this brokenness and honesty.  CLICK HERE to check out the rest of our #SurpriseUsIn6 posts and learn about us, #teamHARROD.

If you would like to give and help us reach our goal, so that we my return to Prague fully funded, please CLICK HERE!

#SurpriseUsIn6 – “Why Football?”

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Recently someone asked me, “Why would you invest so much in football in Prague & not just be a pastor?” I wasn’t offended, I’ve been hearing something like this for years. The first reason is that I believe the Bible makes it clear that we can indeed worship God in the most mundane of things, that’s why Paul wrote this,

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31

I believe that doing my work well and unto the Lord is a spiritual act of worship, even though that might be watching hours of game film or putting together playbooks. It’s the priesthood of the believer (1 Peter 2:9), that Luther wrote so much about. I’ve always loved this quote from Luther,

“The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”

I wonder how Luther would answer the gentleman who asked me about football, I think it would be something like, “The Christian football coach does his duty not by merely dropping, “Jesus” in every interview, but by being prepared, loving and listening to his players, by being fully present for his players and pushing them to be the best men on and off the field that they can be and is also ready to share the Good news when the Lord gives the opportunity.”

Wow. As I’m sitting here that got me more than a little fired up to do what I do, the way I do it, where I do it. There are more reasons to “WHY FOOTBALL?” that will follow in another posts, but I think that is sufficient for this moment. My question to you is,

How would Martin Luther’s quote about the shoemaker look in your context?

I’d love to see what you think. We hope and pray our #SurpriseUsIn6 posts are encouraging to you and challenge you in your own life. We also are still trusting God through many like you reading this to SURPRISE us in our last 6 weeks in the States and help us go back to Prague fully funded on February 12th! If you’d like to help you can CLICK HERE to give today!

where do churches come from?

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Watch this…

Where Do Churches Come From? from Aaron Youngren on Vimeo.


A couple of years ago, my friend Mike Gunn, of Harambee Church in Renton, WA, mentioned that they were sending a guy (Aaron Youngren) to Chicago with A29 to plant a new church, The Line. Immediately I got excited. “Why?” Because I love Chicago, often times I claim it as home, when I am introduced to people overseas. (I know, I know, I was merely born it what is today a suburb of Chicago, and I have a WI driver’s license and etc. I know, I know…) Seeing guys who are going on mission into urban centers to infiltrate the city with the Gospel gets me fired up. I also mentioned it to a friend, Andrew Lisi, who was moving up to the Chicagoland area to go to seminary, and the rest is history. Lisi and Aaron got connected and I’ve been following the birth of this new church in the “2nd City” for sometime via their blogs, twitter and etc. It’s been fun to pray for them and watch God do this from a distance. I would encourage you to check out what they are doing and pray for them and the city of Chicago. More over pray for all the men and women (guys like Reid Monaghan, who’s planting in Jersey!) all over the world that are trusting God to plant churches amongst people.

The Line website
Aaron’s twitter
Lisi’s twitter
Lisi’s blog

the liberated puritan, busting out of moralizing peeps!

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Quite some time ago, I read a post over at theresurgence.com , entitled The Liberated Puritan, which peaked my interest, but I never blogged on it and recently this week, for some reason I returned to it. I’m not sure why, but I think it was in my frustration as of late, with us (Christians) trying to moralize people!

“Moralize people Zach? What do you mean?” What I mean is this, we become so reactionary to the “so-called evils” of the culture and the world, we start trying to make the culture or people more moral! It’s as if we think, “Hmmm if I could get this person to stop drinking, or stop sleeping around, then they will be a better person and then the Gospel will make sense to them.” As I look through the pages of the Bible, specifically the New Testament, I don’t see this. I don’t see Jesus going around on moral crusades attempting to clean people up morally so they could enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I see Jesus, and his boys, moving within culture and peoples’ lives as they are and watching God change the hearts and then their actions follow. The examples of this would seem to be endless throughout the pages of Scripture. Take your pick! In every case of Jesus interacting with a moral “nobody,” so to speak, he comes to them, as they are. Then their interaction with Him changed the outworking of their life. It was never, “Change your sinful way, then I will come to you, and you will be good enough.”

Yet for some apparent reason, we, as Christians, continue to try to do this. Why? Why? Why? As you can tell, this makes me uber frustrated! Why can’t we love people as they are and bring a real Gospel to them that says, “You know what you, like me, are jacked up beyond what we can believe, and you can’t do anything on your own to clean yourself up, but my God says, ‘I love you anyway, and I’ll invade your world and give you the ability to break out of the rut you’ve been stuck in, through the life, death and resurrection of my very own son!” Can we get there? Or are we going to continue to push our morals on people who have absolutely no categories for them?

This brings me back to the post, The Liberated Puritan, it was interesting reading, because it breaks down the stereotype so many have against the puritans. It would appear he, Douglas Wilson, blows that up in looking at the earliest puritans who in his words had been slayed by the Gospel of grace and liberty not the Gospel of moralism and empty works!

How easily we forget! The potency of the Gospel is always seen best in what it does to old wineskins. Religious man, ethical man, always wants a certain kind of ecclesiastical doing and bustling about. This doing is always careful to color inside the lines, and to keep off the grass. But whenever the Gospel breaks forth in the church, slaying its thousands, one of the first casualties is simple moralism. In the Gospel of Christ, men are charged to repent of all their doings, and to be something other than what they are. This of course provokes the hostility of religious man because he is always in control of what he does, but only God can be sovereign over what a man is. The Gospel of grace is therefore obnoxious to such a man.

Hmmm… Strong words. There might be some disagreement with his words, but I see his words playing out in my life. See, before I left for college, I was the ethical/moral young man, who gazed down his nose at others who drank, smoke, fooled around with the opposite sex and more. College had (has) a way of undoing that to a degree, and I started to see myself slip away from my “moral self”, and it was in that season of life that the Gospel slayed me and I was free. However, something changed. As I became more and more entrenched into, what could be called, “The Christian Ghetto,” I found myself falling from the Gospel of grace and liberty and once again turning to a form of ‘baptized moralism.’ It’s this form of ‘baptized moralism’ that Wilson unpacks in the article. Generation, after generation something changed in the lives of the Puritans, they resorted to a mere moralism, which I can see happening in the life of a Christian within in a matter of a couple of years, not just a couple of generations.

Now please hear me, I’m not saying morals are bad, and I’m in no way endorsing license (going off and doing as we would like and then just dropping the ‘Grace card’ on sin and saying I’m forgiven!). Indeed, when we enter into a relationship with this God of grace and liberty holiness will naturally follow, in the process of sanctification. What I’m calling for is, us, as Christians, to bust out of pushing morals on people, and start getting grace in front of people! Thus, meeting them where they are at and allowing God to then change them! Oh I dream, long and pray for this of myself, my organization and the Bride of Christ, the Church! How would our lives look different? How would our organizations look different? How would our churches look different? How would others’ perceptions of Christians look different? Ultimately, how would the world look different? I will pray and dream to this end!

church planting, missional communities and moravia

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At this moment I’m laying down typing this on my iPod touch enjoying a beautiful sunset over the south Moravian landscape, which is amazingly beautiful! I’m at the Josiah Venture (a ministry in Eastern Europe that works primarily with youth) hotel and training center for a church planting conference with my friend Mike Gunn (Acts 29 int’l director, pastor in Seattle and former AIA staff guy who helped plant Mar’s Hill in Seattle) and thus far it’s been a blast! The conference starts in an hour but I’ve already had so much to think and pray about while interacting with Mike, who’s a dude! It’s been good. Mike has encouraged me with where I am and what I do know (working with AIA until God raises up Czechs to replace me and/ or says, “move on,” clearly to my director, Billy, and myself) but he also stokes the fires and encourages the dreams of planting churches in Prague, Czech and beyond I have for the future! This should be a cool next couple days. There will be current planters or perspective planters representing 7 European countries here, which is so cool! Well, I wanted to give you all a shout out from Moravia and also ask you to ask our Great God, who is the Chief Church Planter, to show up here in south-east Czech over the next couple of days. Please pray God gives me vision and excitement about what I’m doing now (how I’ve, to a degree, began planting, but in a “less than traditional” way than most) and what I feel He is calling and leading me to in the future here in Czech! Thanks! Off to dinner…

why I choose to walk to church

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||DISCLAIMER|| So the intent of this post isn’t to upset people (Yeah, I know that is a great way to begin a post, bear with me here), but merely to ask questions, to get you and I thinking and ultimately to see the local church in each of our communities flourish. For those of you that are regular readers of this thing I call my blog you know my choice of writing style is random stream of consciousness, and for those of you who are new to my blog might have to get used to it. One of the reasons I’m writing in these random streams is because a lot of these thoughts are merely fluid, they are just kind of floating in the cerebral cortex that is my mind. I pray that this will add to or begin conversation and help us as believers consider the role of the local church in our lives and our communities. I do regret not having the ability for my readers to post comments, because I view this as a conversation that is on-going. I apologize about not having that ability for you. Well to the thoughts.

Upon moving back to the States for some time and having the initial support raising phase behind me has meant that I have had to get settled down for a period of time here in Xenia, OH. And that means I have had to decide which grocery store I would use, which garage I would use to get my car repaired and so on. But more importantly I have had to make a decision about the church that I would call home while I live here in Xenia.

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