2007 Award
An interview with Steve Haas and Lisa Hartman
This is the first year of the Courageous Leadership Award. What has your involvement with this project been like for the two of you?
Steve: It’s not that hard for me to page back 5 years ago to a certain 18-city tour World Vision undertook to awaken churches and civic leaders to the impact of the AIDS Pandemic. The entire experience defined “heavy lifting,” as it seemed this entire topic was completely off the church’s radar. We said then that the greatest tool in God’s arsenal of Hope resided in churches. Just seeing the depth and breadth of applications affirmed for me that this process of Christ-led compassion is happening and the Church is beginning to heed God’s call of James 1:27.
Lisa: When I agreed to be the point leader for this project I had no idea what to expect or what the impact would be on my life. The process—everything that has led up to choosing our 2007 award winners—has been humbling, stretching, enlightening, encouraging, inspiring and personally life-changing. I have loved seeing the Church be the Church and I have had the opportunity to meet some incredible leaders who are leading some amazing initiatives.
How did you prepare to review the applications?
Lisa: Steve and I assembled a team of experts in the field to come up with the criteria we were going to use to evaluate each narrative. We had to come up with a way to quantify the information and assign each application a “grade”, if you will. It was quite challenge.
Steve: Assembling an expert panel was key in that the battle with this disease has already created a number of best practices and things we needed to pay attention to in evaluating a church’s response. We wanted to make sure that significance was given to those who focused their attention on prevention, advocacy and compassionate care and that they did so in ways that built up churches and communities impacted by the virus in sustainable ways.
How many applications did you get?
Lisa: Steve told me at the very beginning that if we had 25 great applications we should be thankful.
Steve: Oh me of little faith.
Lisa: Two weeks before the application deadline, we had received 25 applications. To be personally honest, it was a disappointing number. But it was the first year and we were resigned to celebrate whatever results we got. But as we got closer and closer to the deadline, we got more and more applications. I loved coming to work every morning to see a new pile on my desk. We wound up with nearly 100! Not bad for our first year.
Steve: I still run into pastors who tell me that they didn’t send in an application due to the fact that they didn’t want recognition for their efforts. I can tell you after reading through the church’s ministry descriptions, that those who applied didn’t do so for personal notoriety either, but to raise up real examples of obedience to serve on this issue.
Lisa: Every time I heard of a church that didn’t apply because they didn’t want the recognition, the scripture that popped into my mind was Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Our response to AIDS is the best apologetic we have going. The Courageous Leadership Award is not about recognizing men and woman, it’s about telling the stories of what God is doing through His Church so that all can see the power of God in action.
How did you sort through the 100 applications?
Lisa: Over the course of six weeks, every member of a Working Committee read through every application.
Steve: We all got very used to handling these distinctively red folders, (put together by Lisa’s assistant, Chanda) to the point I thought I was seeing them in my sleep. Seriously, it was a deeply satisfying experience seeing how God was using local churches of all sizes, resources, geographical locations, and ethnicities to address the AIDS pandemic.
Lisa: We read some wonderful stories, saw moving images, and were deeply touched by the tenacity and fervor of all the applicants. Each member of the Working Committee filled out an extensive evaluation on each church and assigned a “grade”. Those numbers were put into a grid and that provided a basis for discussion and review. The Working Committee then narrowed the field to the top 15 candidates, then passed those applications over to the Selection Committee. The Selection Committee then narrowed the field to the top 5 and then finally to the top 3. It was a thorough, careful, thoughtful, prayerful process and in the end, all of us felt great about the churches chosen to receive the 2007 Courageous Leadership Award.
Steve: There were so many churches doing really great things, we decided to create an Honorable Mention category. We tell those stories on the Courageous Leadership web site; honoring those churches and showing the many ways churches can engage.
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