About Us

Our Story
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About Us

Closing the Sunday

to Monday Gap.

After years of pastoral ministry, Tom Nelson realized, with regret, he spent the majority of his time preparing Christians in his church for Sunday mornings, neglecting the rest of their lives as workers and participants in the economy.

Work needed a new story. The idea that work is a necessary evil isn’t new. God designed work, from the beginning of creation, to reflect his own work in the world and in us. The goodness of this design gives purpose to our daily lives, even when it is difficult. We separate our lives into what many call the "sacred" and "secular." Church on Sunday, work on Monday.

If God created us as whole persons — persons who live, move, and have our being in a physical world with physical bodies and spiritual needs — our faith converges with our places of work. The sacred and the secular also converge, and God cares about how we live both our spiritual and physical lives.

Closing the gap between Sunday and Monday is why Made to Flourish exists. When Tom realized he committed what he calls “pastoral malpractice,” neglecting to disciple his congregants in the whole of their lives, that sparked a desire to help pastors around the country avoid the same mistake. In 2015, Nelson and a team of church, business, and private sector partners launched Made to Flourish in order to “empower a growing network of pastors” to better engage, equip, and encourage each other as they integrate a more robust theology of faith, work, and economics into their churches.

WORK IS GOOD
God designed work, from the beginning of creation, to reflect his own work in the world and in us.
Purpose
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About Us
FACING A COLD REALITY

As a pastor or church leader, you could be spending the majority of your corporate energy — worship services, discipleship programs, outreach initiatives — preparing the people in your church for the smallest portion of what God is calling them to do. 

Our outcomes

Like carpenters, plumbers, electricians, even teachers and artists, pastors require certain tools to do their job well. Pastors teach their congregations how to live as Christians, helping them better understand what the Bible says about how we live well in the world. But when it comes to Monday mornings either in the office, chasing toddlers, or in a technical field, pastors often lack the tools necessary to equip their congregants for where they spend most of their time every week: at work.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Vocationally Informed Discipleship

Flourishing Pastors

Pastors who engage with Made to Flourish will prioritize and strengthen liturgies, practices, tools, resources, and/or initiatives that equip congregation members to faithfully follow Christ in the everyday.

Vocationally Informed
Mission

Flourishing Churches

Churches that engage with Made to Flourish seek the long-term well-being of their communities by utilizing the congregation’s skills.

Churches Produce.

Flourishing communities

Churches will steward resources for the community with economic wisdom and initiatives will be created and sustained that provide opportunity and build capacity for all through collaborative partnerships formed with other churches and organizations.

Theological foundations
01
The biblical Story

The grand narrative of the Bible informs our lives and directs our mission.

02
The Mission of God

God invites us to participate in his redemption of individuals and renewal of all things.

03
Personal Wholeness

Essential for effective leadership and human flourishing.

04
The goodness OF Work

Engaging in work is a primary way we image God.

05
Economic Wisdom

Essential for glorifying God and loving our neighbor.

06
The local church

Uniquely designed and empowered to promote human flourishing.

WHAT'S AT STAKE
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About Us

What can happen when you don’t show the people in your congregation how their daily lives — the work they do — fit into God’s plan for the church? We see at least five fallouts:

01 truncated worship

Worship of God gets reduced merely to Sunday, in-church experiences, if the believers in your church miss how the act of worship should extend into their whole lives.

02 Hyper individualism

Spiritual formation becomes exclusively private, detached from the places, circumstances, and activities that form and inform the people in your congregation every day.

03 No public witness

The marketplaces and the public squares are devoid of the public witness of Christians who can live out their faith in these spheres with specific and deliberate practices.

04 Unbelievers abandoned

People who will likely never enter a church service or event are robbed of the gospel witness of the Christians who surround them, in nearly every aspect of life.

05 Community neglect

Neighborhoods, communities, and cities can’t thrive without generative contributions of Christian citizens who sense their calling to pursue the common good.

To see the truth of the gospel in every day, in every kind of professional or nonprofessional work, this is where we must begin. And this is why we are here at Made to Flourish. Join us.

TOM NELSON
NATIONAL REACH
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About Us
A community of pastoral practitioners

Our desire is to help connect you with pastors and leaders who are seeking the common good and are committed to a similar mission—empowering the scattered church to live out the gospel in the places they spend most of their time.

National REACH

Our network represents all 50 states and are joined together by one unifying vision: To take the gospel in all its fullness to all dimensions of human reality. Become part of a community of pastoral practitioners from across the country who are learning from one another how to equip their people to follow Christ in all of life.

LOCAL EXPRESSIONS

We believe our mission needs to be contextualized to the neighborhoods around us. That’s why we’ve created local networks in cities across the country—places where pastors are gathering together to share ideas, best practices, and form relationships with like-minded leaders who share a common context.

20,000
Common Good
distribution 2021
4,296
total RESOURCES distributed
4,072
pastors in our
community
23
Number of
city networks
Our Team
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About Us
THIS IS MADE TO FLOURISH

We believe the local church, as God designed it, is the hope of the world. Our team is committed to serving pastors and leaders, and together, developing flourishing churches who join God’s mission in the midst of his people.

Aaron Cline Hanbury

Director of Content

Bethany Van Eps

Program Manager

Bryana Jones

Executive Assistant

Eric Rivier Jimenez

Vice President of Marketing

Justin Mertes

Director of Program Engagement

Kevin Harlan

Vice President of Programs

Matt Rusten

President

Paige Wiley

Program Manager

Roni Gonzales Leahy

Director of Development

Sarah Haywood

Managing Editor

Shanna Basden

Operations Coordinator

Steve Harvey

Executive Assistant to Tom Nelson

Tara Bowers

DIRECTOR of PROJECTS

Tara Jeroszko

Digital Marketing Specialist

Tom Nelson

Executive Chairman

Aaron Brockmeier

Twin Cities

Arthur Gray Jr.

Columbus

Ben Dockery

Chicago

Brad Schmidt

Fort Lauderdale

Brandon Addison

Denver

Brian Gray

Denver

Bryson Davis

Cleveland

Case Thorp

Orlando

Charles Cheek

Hampton Roads

Chip Roper

New York City

Chris Gough

Seattle

Chuck Proudfit

Cincinnati/Dayton

Cynthia M. Wallace

Pittsburgh

Daren Brake

Cleveland

David Lee

Seattle

Drew Cleveland

Richmond

Drew McCallie

Chattanooga

Eddie Copeland

Fort Lauderdale

Eric Isaac

Miami

Gabe Coyle

Kansas City

Gail Roberts-House

Hampton Roads

Hace Cargo

Atlanta

Jim Baucom

Washington D.C.

Jonathan Wu

Los Angeles

Jose Antonio Feo

Los Angeles - Spanish

Justin Buzzard

Silicon Valley

Justin Holcomb

Orlando

Keith Case

West Palm Beach

Keivan Tehrani

Silicon Valley

Kirk Lithander

Cincinnati/Dayton

Moy Mendez

Chicago

Nathan Miller

Twin Cities

Raul Delgado

Chicago

Ronnie T. Mitchell

Nashville

Terriel Byrd

West Palm Beach

Terry Ladd

Chattanooga

Terry Timm

Pittsburgh

Tim Ghali

Boston

Victor Mendez

Los Angeles

Chris Brooks

Jeffrey Wright

Joy Dahl

Kevin Rauckman

Kyle Bode

Robin John

Rod Brenneman

Scott Papador

Susie Rowan

Tom Nelson

Amy Sherman

David Miller

Katherine Leary Alsdorf

Steven Garber

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