Show notes
What does it actually take to love a city enough to change it?
Chad Krahn moved to Red Deer at 27 to plant a church. That church never came together the way he pictured it. What did come together, over the next decade, was a life he never planned on: eight years of foster parenting, the adoption of two of those foster children, a byelection win after the sudden death of a beloved city councillor, and a men's devotional book, Welcome to Monday, built from years of text messages he sent to a small group of friends.
In this episode, Chad walks through the tension between vision and reality that defines local government: why he believes Red Deer is a genuinely great city that most of its own residents don't fully believe in yet, why he once said the two things a pastor could never do were politics and foster care, and why he ended up doing both anyway. He breaks down the difference between influence and control on a nine-person council, what it was like knocking on doors to tell people a beloved councillor had died while asking for their vote in the same breath, and how he and his wife decided, after fostering six children over eight years, to adopt two of them permanently.
Chad also gets into the harder parts most people never see: voting against a 10 percent tax increase he still couldn't fully stop, the toll public criticism takes on his family, and why he believes loving a place, the way his GK Chesterton quote puts it, arbitrarily, because it is yours, is what actually makes a city great.
🔹 THE QUOTE ON HIS WALL — The GK Chesterton line that shaped his entire run for council
🔹 THE BYELECTION — Knocking on doors to deliver grief and ask for a vote in the same conversation
🔹 INFLUENCE, NOT CONTROL — What one vote on a nine-person council can and can't do
🔹 THE FOSTER CARE JOURNEY — Eight years, six kids, and the two they adopted for good
🔹 CHOOSE JOY — The final devotional from his book, read in full
⏱️ What's Inside:
00:00 – Why local government actually matters
— The move to Red Deer and the church plant that didn't work
— Growing up in a political family while wanting to be a pastor
— Running in, and winning, Red Deer's first ever byelection
— Influence versus control inside city council
— The 10 percent tax increase he voted against anyway
— Eight years of fostering and the decision to adopt
— Reading the final devotional from Welcome to Monday
Connect with Chad Krahn:
Website → chadkrahn.ca
Facebook → facebook.com/ChadKrahnRedDeer
Book, Welcome to Monday → available on Amazon
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