by Janet Podolak

News Herald
Staff Writer

His Vision….In Writing

Those who know him must wonder how the Rev. Jeff Calloway found the time to write a book.
In recent years, Calloway has been instrumental in founding and inspiring three different churches. Most recently he established the Bridge Church in Perry Township. Before that he led Lake Ridge Church, which meets in a movie theater, and facilitated the establishment of a “cowboy church” aimed at horse lovers. It meets in a barn on week nights, a time and place perfect for people occupied with weekend horse activities.

Today Calloway will preside from 1 to 4 p.m. at a book signing at the Family Christian Book Store, 7633 Mentor Ave., opposite the Great Lake Mall in Mentor. His new book “VisionalLife the Pursuit of God’s Passion” ($11.95, Cold Tree Press) is available at Amazon.com and in the usual bookstores.

The book, which gives practical ways to bring God’s vision into readers’ lives, taps into his own experience as a leader.
“What you do about vision today is what matters tomorrow,” he said. There’s a big difference between the dreamer and the visionary, he said. “The dreamer constantly has ideas. The visionary takes ideas and has a plan to make them reality.”
Few would disagree that this charismatic Southern Baptist pastor is a visionary. He got his degree in business and worked in accounting until receiving the call to become a minister. After returning to school for bachelors and master’s degrees in pastoral ministry, he led a Tennessee church for a decade before coming to Ohio.

“To me vision is about people,” he said. “God’s greatest creation is man and God has a concrete road map for your life. The book describes how your life fits into God’s plan.” People fuel God’s vision, he said. “Throughout scripture there is one continuous theme: ‘For God so loved the world’… His vision is about you.”God sees people as priceless, Calloway maintains. “You and I must start seeing people as a priceless treasure of God,” he writes. “Doing things as simple as talking to people and listening to them are productive first steps,” he writes.

Throughout the book, Calloway alternates personal stories from his life with those from the Bible, interfacing them to underscore the message. Fear kills vision he says.  Calloway’s book describes initiating his daughter, Sarah, to her first roller coaster ride at Kings Island near Cincinnati. His daughter was obviously very scared and very quiet as the ride began. Calloway soon began to think he’d made a mistake in encouraging her to join him on the roller coaster — which he loved.
“I was really worried about Sarah,” he confides to readers. But when the ride was over his daughter was laughing and crying at the same time. Although her fear had initially outweighed the fun,  she conquered it and learned to love roller coasters as much as her dad did. “When fear gets a foothold in our lives, vision will not be multiplied,” he writes.

Clearly, Calloway lives a visional  life, leading his flocks to actions that express more than words.  His churches have passed out free stamps at the post office on income tax day, distributed dollar bills to motorists at high priced gas pumps and handed out water to thirsty beachgoers at Headlands Beach State Park in Mentor. He calls it faith in action and the underlying principals are part of his book. “From the beginning, we’ve wanted to be a church that gives instead of asks,” he said. Even the mission statement of the Bridge Church states: “To encounter, engage, and encourage people to experience Jesus.”

People had fun attending his Lake Ridge Church at Regal Cinemas in Willoughby, where Calloway employed film clips, brought in local celebrities and got everyone involved. In 2006  that church was awarded the prestigious Church Health Award from Saddleback Purpose Driven Ministries in southern California.

Elements for this book, his first, came into being as part of a Bible study group he put together about five years ago, he said.
“I had several people in my life who encouraged me to expand on the ideas and take it further,” he said.
He’s especially rewarded by the reaction it’s received among other pastors, he said.