2007 Award
An interview with Steve Haas and Lisa Hartman
How did you insure that top level experience and expertise were brought to the process and how did you prevent bias toward churches partnering with World Vision or the Willow Creek Association?
Steve: This was obviously a concern from the start as both World Vision and the WCA are both big enough to cast a very large shadow, covering a good many churches that might apply. In some cases, churches that might have made the finalist designation were not able to, due to a leadership relational connection with either organization that might be deemed to have influenced the results inappropriately.
Lisa: Everyone’s hearts were in the right place. The decisions to have to recuse certain churches (and it was a small number) were the really painful ones.
Steve: I joked that in some cases it felt like those connected with World Vision seemed to get an extra eye of scrutiny like the little league kid whose dad is his coach. Lisa assured me that this wasn’t the case.
Lisa: Everyone got the same look.
Were there any surprises along the way?
Lisa: One wonderful surprise was that somewhere in the middle of our selection process, a gracious donor, along with some additional funds provided by his home church, provided an additional $30,000 to be disbursed to churches that the Working Committee felt deserved “special recognition”. The churches in this category are being recognized for something very specific. They don’t necessarily have the biggest, most comprehensive initiatives, but they are doing something special, unique…worthy of recognition. It has been a thrill to honor them and provide them with funds to put toward their AIDS initiatives. Without exception, they were so grateful to have their work acknowledged and for the encouragement that we were able to offer them in the midst of an enormously difficult challenge. We hope to have that opportunity every year, as God moves more gracious donors to give us funds for disbursement.
Steve: Was that a subtle invitation to give?
Lisa: Absolutely! (And not very subtle) Can you imagine the encouragement that this award could engender for deserving ministries engaged on this issue?
What was the most difficult part?
Steve: Getting our arms around what the church was actually doing was hard. We thought we had been fairly direct in our questions on the application, but creative license being what it is, many seemed to want to answer our questions and more. Some of the narrative writers were better communicators than others and included more of the information that we were really interested in, while others gave us statistics that told us a lot about the pandemic but nothing really about their church’s AIDS initiative.
Lisa: In addition to that, some of the work being done didn’t fit neatly into our carefully thought out criteria grids.
Steve: Like nailing Jell-O to the wall.
Lisa: What gave us comfort, in the end, was the amazing consensus that showed up in the results of both committees.
Was there a “most fun” moment?
Lisa: The most fun moments had to be when Steve and I had the incredible privilege of calling the three finalists. What a thrill! It was a little like being Ed McMahon for a day.
Steve: Minus van and colored balloons.
Most profound moment for you personally?
Lisa: The part of my job that I was dreading the most was notifying the churches that didn’t make it to the final three. I anticipated deep disappointment and even some pushback. To my surprise, I got some of the most gracious emails from those churches thanking me for the work we were doing to raise awareness. They said things like, “I am so happy to know that there are other churches out there doing more than we are to fight AIDS”. I was truly humbled by those responses and reminded that in the end, it really doesn’t matter who wins or loses. What’s important is that the Church is responding to this global tragedy and resources are beginning to flow to those who need them most. I personally believe that we are at the very beginning of this movement and have yet to see the full impact of what can happen when God-lovers extend themselves, as He directs them to, to “the least of these”.
Steve: Lisa has summed up so much of my feelings as well. It’s not often in life that you get to not only see but also be involved with a front row seat of a unified response from the Church. This is especially true on an issue that seems connected to so many subjects we are uncomfortable talking or doing something about. Inaction and stigma has for the most part typified our reaction thus far and this award exercise affirmed a change that I’ve been monitoring for the past several years. The greatest army of compassion and hope is massing to take on the greatest humanitarian threat of all time. The variety and breadth of responses simply signaled for me that God is the leader of this particular movement. Application after application gave evidence to a deep joy of those who responded and served people infected and affected by AIDS. I kept hearing this little refrain while working on this project, “It’s the greatest moment for the Church.”
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