Fossores Chapter House

Please continue to pray for Board Member Dave Wahlstedt and founder of Fossores David McDonald as we train pastors in Uganda.

God is so good!

We have already had so many wonderful encounters and we’re just getting started.

Pray for our founder, Dr. David McDonald, and one of our Board members, Dave Wahlstedt, as they train pastors in Uganda for the next several weeks.

Pray that God’s Spirit moves. Pray that our pastors grow and are inspired. Pray for wisdom, protection, and guidance in all things.

We work to enliven pastors because we know that enlivened pastors inspire people, and inspired people heal the world.

It may feel like the chips are stacked against you, but that’s not bad news. There would be no David without Goliath. No Esther without Haman. No Christ without the Cross.

The obstacles arrayed against you are indications you’re doing precisely what God intends.

God looked at all the problems of this world and decided YOU were the perfect solution.

It will be difficult. You will be challenged. You will need to grow.

But you will overcome.

Its tempting to imagine that a “good” pastor is an influencer, celebrity, or super-smarty pants with lots of quotable memes to share; but the great majority of pastors know that the most honest and rewarding ministry is local. It’s particular. It involves ministering to people you know, with whom you share the joys and pains and strains of ordinary life in extraordinary times.

Pastoring is not a one-way street. It’s a relationship. Pastors get as much from our people as our people get from their pastors. We are formed through the exchange of sorrow, aspiration, celebration, and redemption. The Spirit shapes us all, in all we do, at all times and in all manner of ways.

We suffer for the Church (and sometimes from it), but we also glory in the Church (and often because of it).

It’s beautiful. It’s symbiotic. And it’s exhilarating and exhausting, heart-breaking and hope-sponsoring, ideal and disastrous all at the same time. Without a calling to a particular people in a particular place for a particular time, none of us would survive. And yet, those who respond to the call of God know that there is no place we would rather be than rooted in our communities, enjoying one another forever. ***

Fossores Innovation and Design is committed to resourcing people in ministry because enlivened pastors inspire people, and inspired people heal the world.

We host retreats onsite and cohorts online. DM us for more info.

Your rearview mirror may be important, but be glad it’s small.Because you can’t fix what’s behind you. You can’t change history. You can’t undo the hurt they caused you. You can’t unlove your old flame. You can’t unfail your old exams. And you can’t move forward if you’re fixated on the past.The past has value—we learn, we commit to doing better, we vow to become healthier—but its value pales in comparison to the future. After all, you can create the future, but you can only observe the past.
The past is television,the future is a newly-opened box of Lego.The past is a graveyard,the future is a prenatal unit.The past is the Beatles,the future is guitar-lessons.So, reflect upon all that has come before…but only a little.Because you’re driving your life, merging into an even-faster lane. If you gawk in the rear view, you’re gonna crash.

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing…”
ISAIAH 43:18-19a***

Fossores Innovation and Design is committed to resourcing people in ministry because enlivened pastors inspire people, and inspired people heal the world.

We host retreats onsite and cohorts online. DM us for more info.

We’ve taken time to prayerfully refresh our vision. This fall we’re focused on pop up Chapter Houses in the midwest and training pastors abroad.

Please continue to pray with us, that God would be honored and glorified by all we do with Fossores.

We’ve spent the last several months in a season of prayer and fasting, discerning the will of God for the future of Fossores. We’ve been asking how best to love and serve others, to maximize Kingdom impact, and which specific strategies we should employ for the next 3-5 years.

We will continue to serve pastors via retreats, cohorts, and coaching. Additionally, we’re going to expand the scope of our ministry from being based primarily in Michigan to a more national (and international!) approach. We’re planning pop up Chapter House retreats in Dallas and on the West Coast, as well as training pastors in Uganda and India. We’re also working with pastors across Canada and the USA to ensure the people God has called to serve our churches are healthy, vibrant, and equipped to lay hold of all the Lord has entrusted to their care.

Please continue to pray with us! We are trusting God for effective and meaningful ministry in this new season!

"Nothing happens unless first a dream." — Carl Sandburg

We intend to leave the world more wonderful than it was.

With a hidden room behind a bookcase, the Fossores Chapter House, 505 Wildwood Ave. in Jackson, is on the market for $550,000.