Jonathan Herron

Merry Christmas from #WeAreTeamHerron

 

"And when they saw the star, they were so ecstatic that they shouted and celebrated with unrestrained joy. When they came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, his mother, they fell to the ground at his feet and worshiped him."   (Matthew 2:10, The Passion Translation)

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As we all celebrate the wondrous miracle of Christ’s birth, we pray that you will sense His presence and peace in a deeper way than you ever have before.

Thank you for being part of our family's journey.

May your Christmas overflow with family, friends, joy, peace, and most of all, His Love. 

In Christ,

Jonathan, Amber, Josiah, Ainsleigh, Seth, Levi & Alysia Herron

3 Keys to a Long-Lasting Relationship

Amber and I were married 21 years ago today on the banks of the Mississippi River in Iowa.

We started married life as poor college students in a lousy basement apartment deep in the heart of Chicago’s Logan Square.

Five adoptions and four church start-ups later, we now have the privilege of seeing lives transformed by the Gospel at our 6-yr-old start-from-scratch church start-up that will be recognized in a few weeks as one of the Top 15 Fastest-Growing Churches in America.  

Our marriage and our ministry are held together by one God-man, Jesus.  

Following Jesus makes our married life better and makes us better at married life.  

The secret sauce to our relationship has been these 3 keys:

1. GRACE FIRST: Grace is when you love someone when the LEAST EXPECT it and LEAST DESERVE it.
   
   
   
2. SERVING OTHERS SECOND: Take the Spotlight off Yourself and Place it on Someone Else.
   

   "For even the Son of Man did not come expecting to be served by everyone, but to serve everyone..." - Jesus in Mark 10:45
   
   

3. And finally to Live with OPEN-HANDED GENEROSITY: God owns all our stuff and we are called to wisely manage His stuff. 
   
   Amber and I are excited to bring 10 cents of every single dollar that enters our home to our local church (our tithes), to give an offering above and beyond our tithe to both Compassion International and The Timothy Initiative, and to seek local opportunities to bless others.

21 Years of Marriage to Amber has been a privilege and an honor. 

If these 3 Keys to a Long-Lasting Relationship have been helpful to you, please share on Facebook and Twitter!

Back to Blogging

I started blogging back in 2002 as a way of:

• sharing what God was teaching me
• connecting with my students
• and learning alongside other online leaders.

I've used many blogging platforms in the years since.

I'm now at a place where I need to separate my personal blog from my ministry platforms at Life Church and Fearless Leaders.

So I'm blowing off the dusty cobwebs of this Typepad blog (where the bulk of my blog posts are housed) and bringing JonathanHerron.com back home.

I plan to use this space to share what excites me:

• Jesus
• my family
• Life Church
• leadership
• adoption
• church planting startups
• and improv comedy.

Hoping to also import old blog posts from Blogger and WordPress in the next few weeks to create one complete online home for my blog.

SUBSCRIBE TO MY BLOG NOW so that you NEVER MISS a single post!

In the meantime, let's have some fun together here on the blog plus at Insta, Twitter, and Facebook!

Our Television Interview on Adoption and Family

It was an honor to welcome local tv crews from NBC25 & Fox 66 News into our home to share about how our family has been touched by adoption.  They set up three cameras and turned our home into a television studio!

I hope you enjoy this extended long-form interview that recently aired on The CW.  Stay tuned: Fox66 News will also be airing a portion later this month as part of National Adoption Awareness Month!

 

WE ARE TEAM HERRON

Our five month journey through an unexpected adoption has come in for a landing.

Alysia Hope is now officially, legally, forever a part of Team Herron!

UNEXPECTED ADOPTION

Our story began five months ago with a phone call out of the blue.

That led to a frantic online telethon and a little baby girl.

And now, she is ours!

 

Our Unexpected Adoption Story

Five months ago our lives were interrupted with crazy amazing news:

The birthmother of our (then) youngest contacted us asking if we would ADOPT her newborn infant baby girl!

We had always dreamt of having one more little baby girl, but we had no idea how that would happen due to the sky-high costs of adoption combined with our stage of life.

Never allow your circumstances to dictate your destiny. God is BIGGER than your roadblocks!

Our mad-dash to come up with thousands and thousands of dollars for this unexpected adoption led to a bunch of cool new stories like this one:

 

 

'Never allow your circumstances to dictate your destiny. God is BIGGER than your roadblocks!'

— Jonathan Herron

Fast-forward five months and things are going GREAT:

Our children ADORE their baby sister and Alysia Hope is happy, healthy, and fully-bonded to her Mommy and Daddy!

We are blown away by the support of our church family. They really stepped up and came alongside us during this insanely-stressful season of quick change.

 

FOREVER FAMILY

Every adoption story is different, with many twists and turns in the areas of emotions and legal milestones.

Thankfully, we have an open and healthy relationship with Levi and Alysia’s birthmother — she is an amazing young woman who made an extremely loving plan for her children’s lives.

Our stories are now forever linked and intertwined,
and we are the better for it.

THIS IS IT!

The final legal milestone takes place TOMORROW!

We’ll get the kids out of school before lunch, road trip across the High Five State, walk into a Grand Rapids courtroom, and celebrate as the Judge signs the Adoption Finalization Paperwork that grants Alysia Hope the permanent last name: “Herron!”

 

THANK YOU ALL for your prayers, your support, and your kindness.

The past five months have been lighter because of you.

Follow us on Instagram as I’m sure Amber and I will blow up our Instagram feeds and Insta Stories after the finalization in Court tomorrow!

WE'RE HAVING A BABY

My life just got turned upside-down.

Can you relate?

To catch up to our crazy, life-changing story, first watch this Facebook Livestream.

 

 

 

Still with me?

Sunday afternoon we got a phone call from one of our adopted children’s birthmoms.

She had a baby girl on Saturday and asked if we would adopt her baby.

Here’s how we broke the news to our kids:

 

BABY GIRL IS ADORABLE

Yesterday my wife and I were in Detroit and met our new Baby Girl!

If you SUBSCRIBE to my new YouTube Channel, you can see all the brief video updates we shared!

 

And yes, we are proud to publicly announce our Baby Girl’s name on YouTube.

HELP US BRING OUR BABY GIRL HOME TO TEAM HERRON

As you can imagine, infant adoption is expensive… and this fell into our laps suddenly, so we’re racing to raise funds!

Thankfully, our friends at Adoption Associates have cut the adoption fees by 50% because of the rare circumstances involved!

 

We have to raise just over $10,000 in two weeks.

Our friend Monica Lynch designed exclusive new Raising Arrows gear based on Psalm 127 (tee’s, hoodies, Under Armour hats) that benefit our adoption HERE.

We’re also thankful for everyone who has pitched on our new GoFundMe.com/TeamHerron page — you all rock!

THANK YOU for your prayers, encouragement, and support during this crazy journey God has called our family into.

We love you!

I am a pastor diagnosed with Depression and ADHD… and it’s a gift to me

I’ve always dealt with mood swings throughout my life.  Some days my brain would be running a million miles a minute, flooded with thoughts and ideas.  Other days I felt like hiding under a thick blanket and binge-watching Netflix, unable to face the world.  I thought what I was experiencing was normal.  It wasn’t.

About a year and a half ago God tenderly and wisely allowed some crushing moments into my life.

When you start a church from scratch and it grows really fast, the reward for ‘being a success’ is leadership conflict.  In my case, a best friend blindsided me and a small group of people I loved tried to (unsuccessfully) hijack the church.  We navigated through that season by trusting God, walking in transparency and integrity, and keeping our focus on the vision of reaching people far from God.

I believe in the complete rule and sovereignty of God: there is no random chance in this universe that is carefully governed by a Grand Designer.  In the midst of the crushing, I knew there was a purpose.

When I noticed my mood swings becoming more intense, I made an appointment to see a Christian counselor.  Listen, there is no shame in seeing a counselor.  I believe everyone needs counseling!  I’m married to a licensed counselor and I have seen the benefits personally.  And now I’ve experienced the benefits too.

My counselor is awesome.  He helped me identify trauma and create healthy boundaries.  I love my counselor so much that I recommend him all the time to folks at Life Church Michigan.

Counseling alone didn’t solve the feelings I was grappling with.  I had dealt with mood swings all my life, but as our church has continued growing larger at a very fast rate — and thus more people creating more complexity on my plate — I talked to my wife to see if she was noticing changes in my attitude and emotions.  She encouraged me to talk to my general physician.

Long story short, I was diagnosed with mild depression, a hereditary chemical imbalance in the brain.  My doctor prescribed a low dose of medicine that I take daily and in the many weeks since being on this prescription, I’ve experienced a fantastic change in my outlook on life.  It’s like I can see and think more clearly now.

Further, I saw a psychiatrist who diagnosed me with something everyone who knows me has long-suspected: I have ADHD.  And I am so thankful to finally have clarity on why my brain takes off like a rocket some days!

I understand the stigma of mental illness, especially in Christian circles.

Today I enter my eighteenth year of full-time ministry and I have never, ever heard a sermon or message given that addresses the reality of mental illness.

Some well-meaning Christians might advise, “You just need more faith or you need to pray it away.”  Listen, I’m not insane but THAT advice is insane!  I would never tell someone stricken with cancer that it was their faultand that they just need to pray it away… I would encourage them to get chemotherapy and seek health from a medical doctor!

You see, God heals both through the natural and the supernatural.  Modern medicine is a miracle that we should thank the Lord for.  A thousand years ago, people prayed to not get the plague.  Today we just pray for a bigger television screen!

My diagnosis is a gift to me: God blessed me with a burden so that I could better understand my need for a Savior.  I cannot rescue myself.  Dealing with depression and ADHD allows me to lean on others.  Life is a gift and love is the point.

This past Sunday I shared my story during a message on parenting as an encouragement to our people that:

1. It’s ok to not be ok… it’s just not ok to STAY that way!
2. If you are a mom or dad who struggles with their mental or emotional health, our church will stand with you, pray for you, and cheer you on as you seek counseling or psychiatric care!

For what it’s worth, you can watch more of my story from Sunday’s message below (beginning at 18:04).  I hope this encourages you on your journey of discovering life and wholeness in Christ.

VIDEO: The President with My Grandpa at Air Force One

Every July 4th reminds me of my late grandfather.

Almost exactly five years ago, on June 25, 2008, he was personally honored by the President of the United States on the steps of Air Force One.

I've written about that day with the President and my Grandpa previously here.

Today I uploaded the video of local new coverage.  Enjoy:

1

This is my darling Ainsleigh.  One year ago she turned our lives upside-down.

I'm often asked, "What country did you adopt her from?"

I always pause for a moment before responding.

With a mischievous smile I will casually reply, "Detroit!"

Ainsleigh was born on a Sunday.  We received the phone call on a Wednesday.  

And we finally met her on a Saturday.

She was melting everyone's hearts immediately and began sharing her infectious giggles by two-months-old.

Where did this first year of life go?

Why are you growing so fast, little Ainsleigh?

* sigh *