A Calling Sustained: Journeying with Pastor Todd Madonna
Todd and his wife, Melena, moved to the West Chester area in 2002 while Todd was serving with Young Life. He met Dave Wiedis around the time Dave was starting ServingLeaders.
“Dave’s son was part of our Young Life ministry, and as I was praying for him, I realized Dave—then simply a dad of my student—was praying for me,” Todd recalls. Dave remembers that season vividly, describing how Todd’s wise and caring involvement with his son brought great comfort during a vulnerable time.
Soon after, God led Todd and Melena to join a group that was praying about starting Providence Church in West Chester. In time, the Wiedis family began attending Providence. Over the years, Todd and Dave’s relationship has grown into a deep friendship that has strengthened and sustained Todd through more than two decades of ministry.
As Providence Church and Todd’s ministry grew, he recognized in himself some performance-driven identity issues that were negatively affecting various aspects of his life.
“When you start wrestling with your own identity and some of your personal ruling passions, your current identity doesn’t die overnight. It’s a slow, sometimes painful death. We need ministries like ServingLeaders to be there for the long haul. We don’t undergo instantaneous change. T, the Spirit continues to pour in and do good works in us but it’s an ongoing process and ServingLeaders provided ongoing support.”
Todd and Melena both shared how ServingLeaders came alongside them on their journey of parenting. It’s not always easy in ministry to know where to turn when there are pain points with children. Melena reflects, “Knowing ServingLeaders was always a phone call away and offered safe spaces for these types of conversations and knowing it’s confidential, Todd and I felt cared for, prayed for and resourced as we discerned next steps with our boys.”
Todd agrees and expands on the unique challenges ministry families sometimes face, saying, “For those in ministry, there’s a unique pressure in parenting. People often expect our children’s lives and faith to follow a certain path. When that doesn’t happen, it can be painful to stand before others each week and proclaim the faithfulness of God while wrestling with that reality at home. That’s why ministries like ServingLeaders are so important. We need men and women who will come alongside pastors and ministry families in those moments, offering support, understanding, and hope.”
As a Spiritual Director engaged in women’s ministry and life groups, Melena values knowing she can seek counsel when someone she’s walking with needs more than she can provide. That confidence comes through the relationship she and Todd have with Dave. “To know I have access to someone relatively quickly who can ask a few questions and direct me appropriately to the next right thing has been invaluable in my own ministry,” she says.
Both Todd and Melena share that the care ServingLeaders provides is truly all-encompassing. “ServingLeaders does not just care for individual leaders; they care for the whole person, their spouse, and their children,” they explain. “ServingLeaders has come alongside our whole family to help us navigate tough decisions, mistakes, and failures. Dave has lingered on the phone with me and poured love and wisdom into my life with practical direction and next steps.”
Todd has had many touchpoints with ServingLeaders over the past 18 years. He has attended our workshops, his staff has benefited from our mediation services, and he was part of ServingLeaders’ first pastoral cohort with Dave and Tucker Else. “The thing that stands out about Todd is his emotional intelligence—it’s off the charts,” Tucker shares. “He’s warm, gracious, quick to connect, and just one of those guys who makes you smile. I appreciate his genuine curiosity and pastoral heart.”
“I’ve always told Dave, ‘you need to rename yourselves from ServingLeaders to 'Saving Leaders.’ As ministry leaders, it’s so easy to lose heart when we walk in seasons of darkness,” Todd says. “Frankly, many leaders don’t come out of it. ServingLeaders pursues ministry leaders just like Jesus did, not just to serve them but to save them.”
Todd is just one example of how ServingLeaders exists to revive, restore and resource ministry leaders and their families, enabling them to pursue health and excellence in their call to ministry.
T