Deryck Artero
ABOUT
Hi, I’m Deryck.
A lot of my life has happened in and around the church. I started leading pretty young, and over the years that’s meant leading ministries, building teams, developing people, communicating ideas, solving problems, and doing a lot of things that never really fit neatly into one job description.
I think that’s probably where I learned two things about myself: I really care about people, and I have a hard time leaving something alone when I know it could work better.
I love seeing people grow. I love when someone starts believing they can carry something they didn’t think they could. I love helping a team get healthier. And I genuinely enjoy taking something that feels confusing, messy, or unnecessarily complicated and figuring out how to make it clearer.
That shows up in a lot of different ways in my life.
Sometimes I’m working on a message about Jesus. Sometimes I’m thinking about leadership or culture. Sometimes I’m building a system for an organization, working on Foolproof Ops, creating something, or going way too far down a rabbit hole trying to understand why something works the way it does.
To me, those things don’t feel all that separate. I’m usually asking some version of the same question:
How do we help people, and the things they’re part of, grow healthier?
WHAT THAT LOOKS LIKE FOR ME
Faith that shows up in real life.
My faith is a big part of how I answer that. I’m interested in a faith that actually shows up in real life, not just when everything feels spiritual, but when you’re leading people, dealing with conflict, trying to change, building something, getting angry, making decisions, loving somebody well, or realizing you don’t have as much figured out as you thought you did.
I’d rather build than just talk about it.
If I see a gap, my instinct usually isn’t just to point it out. I want to figure out what we could actually build, change, simplify, or do differently. That’s a big part of why I started Foolproof Ops, and honestly, it’s been part of the way I’ve approached ministry and leadership for years.
And when I communicate something...
I don’t really want people to walk away thinking, “That sounded good.” I want something to click. I want it to feel honest. And I want them to know what they can actually do with it.
A LITTLE MORE PERSONALLY
Outside of all of that...
I live in Los Angeles with my wife, Paola, and a house that has somehow accumulated quite a few animals.
Church is still a huge part of my life. I love creating things. I care a lot about my marriage. I can get ridiculously invested in solving problems that probably didn’t require that much investigation. And if it’s football season, there’s a pretty good chance I’m thinking more about my fantasy team than I should be.
I’m still figuring a lot of it out, but that’s pretty much what you’ll find around here.