In a world of noise, fear, and division, Our Beautiful Mess dares us to do more than watch from the sidelines. It’s an invitation to see God’s hand in the chaos and to join Him in the sacred work of making all things new.

Finding the Way Through Chaos and Uncertainty

An Invitation.

In this opening video, author and Lodestar Consulting founder and facilitator Todd Rutkowski introduces his new book, Our Beautiful Mess—a heartfelt reflection on the beauty that can emerge from life's disorder. Drawing on personal insights and years of guiding leaders through complexity, Todd explores what it means to be “OK with not being OK”—and why the most meaningful paths are often the least linear.

Meet Todd

Todd Rutkowski has led churches, developed leaders, and trekked mountain paths from the Rockies to Nepal. All shaped by a deep hunger to notice God at work. In Our Beautiful Mess, he shows how to turn life’s disorder into an invitation to act, believe, and join Him in restoring hope.

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Eleanor Mumford

"This is a wonderful book 40 years in the making. Todd Rutkowski is one who has bravely walked the Kingdom journey and has the scars to prove it. His book is nothing if not thoroughly authentic, full of powerful anecdote and compelling storytelling, which is in itself a rare gift, and one so effectively used in these pages. He manages with consummate skill to animate Kingdom theology and to make it accessible, while handling the Scriptures beautifully and remaining rigorously consistent theologically. This book is real, honest and true and is indispensable reading for any seeking to follow the way of Jesus, the King and His Kingdom, through thick and thin."
Brian Doerksen

"Reading Our Beautiful Mess is like sharing a cup of steaming chai with someone fascinating, kind, and wise. Story after amazing story unfolds. It's extra special for me because Todd is one of the most important people in my life. When people scattered after one of my visionary projects started to fall apart, he stepped up supporting me and our family through one of our hardest seasons. Almost 30 years later this book underlines that he's still the same; a trustworthy, reliable guide and friend.
As Todd guides us through our shared reality, telling stories of hard-won redemption, he illustrates that life is beautiful and that anything is possible when God and we show up-even though loose ends remain. Some things don't turn out the way we hoped, and not everything gets resolved. Todd doesn't shrink from asking the hard questions or providing tough answers. In the middle of life's maze, as we swing between clarity and confusion, Todd's story reminds us that God's faithful love is still with us. Packed with inspiring stories and full of insight, I heartily recommend Our Beautiful Mess."
Mark Buchanan

"Todd Rutkowski's book is all beauty, no mess, but he makes here the bold claim that the Gospel and the Kingdom are custom-made for messes of every kind. From his own story of the Kingdom breaking in on the bleakness of his family life, to all the ways, right up the present moment, he has witnessed God's dazzling and surprising salvage operations, Todd both inspires and instructs, but always, at every turn, draws us into the wonder of a God who "gives life to the dead and calls into being things that are not" (Ro. 4:18)—who, in a word, meets us in our messes, and turns them to beauty."