Meet Steve Haas. A catalyst for change, and a former vice president for World Vision in Federal Way, Wash., Haas has worked with church leaders, and poured a lot of sweat equity into serving the poor.
Haas believes in combining inspiration with perspiration, a concept he learned as a cross country runner at the University of Kansas, but which has served him well in his every endeavor, whether it was youth ministry in the Philippines or aiding Thai, Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees in southeast Asia. It also led him to Oregon’s annual Hood to the Coast relay race, which helps World Vision raise money to provide clean water for many without access to it.
“It just seems like God has this undeniable lean toward the poor and this undeniable lean toward those who are broken,” Haas says. “If that’s true, then it just, for me, it seemed to me I want to be at the heart of whatever that is, and I want to lean my energies and my gifts and my abilities toward constructing whatever it is God’s leading.”
His career also has included serving on the staff of Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, one of America’s best-known megachurches, where he developed small group ministry and then local and international ministries. Mostly though, Haas is always seeking the heart of God and it keeps him moving from place to place and from task to task. He has learned that following the Holy Spirit makes an impact on lives not just of the people he helps, but on those who watch the helpers.
“When the Spirit takes on an obedient life and you actually follow those promptings to do things that you would not typically do in the natural, in the normal, I guarantee you there’s a following,” Haas says. “There’s a group of folks who are watching that life and taking notes.”
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