2/28/24 - 2031: Do GOOD with Your Money!

Jim: You've tuned in to iWork4Him, the Voice of Collaboration for the Faith and Work Movement.

Martha: We are your host, Jim and Martha Brangemberg, and our mission is to transform the workplace of every Christian into a mission field. What does that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.

Jim: Martha, before we get to our guest, Sean Kouplen, for the day, I really wanna check in with Krystal Parker from the U.S Christian Chamber of Commerce online at uschristianchamber.com to find out more updates about the upcoming expo.

Krystal, welcome back. So, Krystal, we got four weeks to go. Wait a minute. No, we got six weeks to go from the date of this podcast release before the expo, so it's very exciting. We're getting down to the wire though. Tell everybody about the U.S Christian Chamber event. Is it too late to register?

Krystal Parker: It's not too late to register. Just go to Uschristianchamber.com and it's conference 2024. You'll find out all of the information there, but there's something exciting if we're just six weeks out. We've got 10 teams that are focused. They're just ready for all of our guests to come.

We're not leaving any detail left out. Every team's focus is for the attendees to have the most incredible experience from the moment they get on the property at Doubletree SeaWorld, all the way to the moment that they pack their bags and leave Orlando, Florida. So come and truly just experience what God has for you and your business and your family.

Bring 'em. It's an amazing resort location. It's a great opportunity to connect with God, to bring and invite Him into your business. And if you bring your team or your family, get some bonding time with them as well. Come back to your work situation full and ready and postured to take 2024 by storm.

Jim: Yeah, really 2024 has already taken us all by storm. The weather here in the Midwest this year has been horrible. Right now as we're recording this, it's 55 degrees outside. Oh, the terrible weather. It's just terrible!

Alright. But the U.S Christian Chamber event is the 18th and 19th of April, and then you guys have partnered with the International Christian Chamber of Commerce, where they're gonna be meeting right after yours on the 20th of April.

All of this happening in Orlando right down the street from Mickey Mouse, that's where it's being held. What are you most excited about, Krystal, about this event?

Krystal Parker: Besides our incredible emcees, which are you two amazing leaders, what I'm most excited about is the fact that we're gonna have 650 business owners - Christian business owners- from around the globe that are going to hear five key things that are gonna help them in their business moving forward.

They're gonna have a clear identity of who they are. They're gonna have a foundation solid on Christ Jesus. They're gonna be able to hear from the Holy Spirit and be obedient to the Holy Spirit. They're gonna have a new insight on being collaborative and unity in the body of Christ. And most important, 650 people from around the world are gonna leave Orlando with an idea of what it means to be a co-worker in God's service.

Their biznistry, using their business as a mission field to reach more, do more, and share more of the gospel and the good news of Jesus Christ. I can't wait.

Martha: And I can't wait either, Krystal. And I hope that just this little bit that you've been able to share is helping people to lean in and say, number one, what? U.s Christian chamber of Commerce? So I want you to tell people where they can find out more and I want to encourage and challenge our listeners. If you're like me, when you go to a website to learn more about an event, poke around the whole website, learn more about the US Christian Chamber, and if this is something that resonates with you, maybe you can participate in a deeper level as well.

But I think the expo is a great way to get people exposed to that. We'd love to see you all in person and hear from you while you're there. Tell us.

Jim: And just a clarification though, if you don't have a touch screen, you won't be able to poke around the website. You may have to click around the website.

But Krystal, why don't you tell people where they should go?

Krystal Parker: Just go to Uschristianchamber.com. You can poke, you can stylus, you can move your mouse and cursor, you will find us there. And we can't wait to see you in Orlando.

Jim: Krystal Parker, thanks for being with us on iWork4Him today. Thanks for this exciting news. We're so excited about this event. Thanks, Krystal. We'll see you there.

In the last 20 years, Dave Ramsey has made famous the line: "you got to be knowing where your money is going." And of course, Dave was talking about a budget in our households. But today we're gonna be talking about how important it is to make sure we know where our money is going, supporting and funding once it leaves our households.

It matters where you bank, which credit card you use. It matters what retail outlets you frequent. Your money, once it leaves your hands, goes to work for other people. And their agenda could be very different than your agenda as a Jesus-following workplace believer. So who do you bank with? Where do they invest their donation dollars?

Is it in pro-Christian causes? Probably not. Pro-Biblical morality causes? Probably unlikely. Or are they supporting the enemy's campaign to destroy the family and our country? Martha and I had a realization about two years back. During the Covid crisis, we realized our bank and credit card organizations were all pushing an agenda we completely disagreed with, and we were helping to fund it through their profits.

We needed a change, and we found Regent Bank out of Oklahoma. There's a story here, a miracle story that you need to know, and it's gonna change the way you start banking tomorrow. Sean Kouplen joins us today as a CEO of Regent Bank. Welcome Sean Kouplen to iWork4Him.

Sean Kouplen: I don't have anything else to say. You've already said it all. Meeting adjourned.

Martha: We know that's not true. Yeah, because God's story that He's written in your life is something that we are really wanting to focus on and let our listeners hear about. So let's start with back when you were growing up, did you always plan on being a banker?

Sean Kouplen: Ha! No. So I grew up in a very small community south of Tulsa, Oklahoma, called Beggs, Oklahoma. B-E-G-G-S. There are about a thousand people there. My grandfather and father were both ranchers. My father still is. That's what he does to this day. And I thought I was gonna be a rancher. I was about a semester from graduating from college.

I was helping my dad on the farm and he informed me that I was fired. And the reason that I was fired wasn't so much of my performance, although I did tear up a lot of farm equipment back in the day. It was really more because we were struggling financially and he just couldn't afford to pay me. He knew Angela and I were gonna get married and he basically said, Hey, you need to go get another job.

Short version of a long story, I drive back to Oklahoma State University where I graduated from. I had been in student leadership there. I was praying, Lord, what am I gonna do? I had no business background whatsoever. I was invited to a Board of Regents dinner on Tuesday. So my dad let me know this on a Sunday. Two days later I'm at this Board of Regents Dinner. It's me, the university president, four members of the Board of Regents and Dr. Halligan, our president said he called me Mr. Beggs. He said, Mr. Beggs, what are you gonna do whenever you graduate from college?

And of course, I didn't know and I was too embarrassed to say that I didn't know. So I looked to my left and this guy had a nameplate that said Bruce Benbrook, Chairman Stock Exchange Bank, Woodward, Oklahoma. And I thought that sounds good. This guy's got on a nice suit. He was on the Board of Regents there. He was a big deal. And so I literally made it up.

I said, actually I've been thinking about going into banking. Everybody around the table was shocked. They were surprised. We had no idea you were going into banking. And I said, oh, yeah. I said, it's a very recent career decision.

Jim: Real recent. 30 seconds ago.

Sean Kouplen: Exactly. And so I bluffed my way through the dinner. They asked me all these questions about banking. I knew nothing about banking. As we were walking out he offered to help me get an internship at a bank. And that's how I got into the banking business. I loved it. Was a bank president by the time I was 24. Had the opportunity to buy Regent when I was 34. And now I've been here 15 years.

Jim: Let's talk about that. Why did you buy Regent Bank? Because you did it in 2008. Not a great year tp be buying a bank, but you didn't know that when you bought it probably. Why did you buy Regent Bank? What was the real reason? And then tell us that story.

Sean Kouplen: So we had an inkling that things may be getting a little tough but the problem was I already had the bank under contract. So here's kinda how it played out. I was running a bank here in Tulsa and at the time it was called Grand Bank, and a wonderful organization. Got a call from a friend of mine who was looking for a bank president at Regent Bank in Nowata, Oklahoma.

Nowata is another Metropolis. 3000 people, forty-five minutes north of Tulsa. And so as we get to talking, it became really clear to me that my friend who had inherited the bank, he was the third generation owner of this bank- Regent Bank had, has been around by the way, since 1898- it's amazing. So he did not love the banking business. You could tell he, he just, it was not his passion. He was really owning and running the bank out of obligation to his family. And so I just asked him in a conversation we were having if he had ever considered selling the bank and going and doing something that he loved, something that he was passionate about.

And he said, no, I can't do that. It's been in my family since the 1940s. And I said, I'll see if I can help you find a good bank president. And he called me back two weeks later and said, I've been talking with my sister. We've been praying. I do want to go do something that I'm passionate about, and we wanna sell the bank to you.

And I was like I'm thirty-four years old. I don't really have any money. How in the world is all that gonna happen? And long story short, we negotiated a purchase. I resigned from my position at the other bank and just began to raise the capital to buy the bank. The Lord blessed me.

I was able to raise 15 and a half million dollars in 90 days. We bought the bank on April Fool's day of 2008. It was looking a little, I know it was very ironic given what happened in 08, 09, and 10. And so it was, everything was okay in the fall of 2007 when we contracted to buy the bank. Then things began to look a little rough, but even in April of 08, we had no idea what was on the horizon economically.

Jim: 2008, September, the end of September, 2008 comes along. You own a bank. If things were rough there - I was in the construction business managing IT and insurance for a large development company out of Orlando.

So needless to say, between the end of September and the end of October, we laid off everybody 'cause cash was gone. There was no cash. No cash. How did you keep Regent Bank afloat during the toughest economic times since the depression of the thirties? 'cause I know what it was like in Florida. Unemployment was 20 to 30%.

They never published that, by the way. I'm not pointing fingers, but the government lied. So 20 to 30% unemployment. I know that banks were in trouble 'cause they had the fake inflation on property values. Just all that stuff. There was so much stuff going on. Was that an easy job to keep the Regent bank afloat then?

Sean Kouplen: No, it was the hardest time of my life, to be honest with you. So think about this. We buy the bank. Okay? I'm thirty-four. I feel like the king of the world. We'd raised all this money. I'm gonna hire my team. I had this vision of what the organization was gonna be, which by the way, initially it was we raised the money as a, a faith-based organization that would operate under Christian principles, but it was not near the central focus that it is today. The initial focus was we would be a great bank for small business owners. That was our niche, was we were going to be a, an entrepreneur's bank for entrepreneurs. And that's how it began.

So for about six months it was awesome. It was so much fun. It was every day I was learning something new, meeting new people. And then it became obvious, like you said, by the fall of 08, that things were getting really bad and by the time we began to have loans charged off. Just like the company that you were with, Jim, they just couldn't, they just couldn't make their payments.

It wasn't their fault. Everything froze up. So by the time we got to February of 2009 and it went, I remember it was the third Sunday in February of 2009. I was in church and I thought we were going to go under. I was certain that we were going to go under. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Honestly, it was every fear that I'd ever had in my life was coming true. Not only was I going to lose everything, all my investors were going to lose everything. I had already called my other major investors to ask them if they would invest additional capital. And they had all politely told me no and that they didn't want to put good money after bad money.

And they were all fighting for their lives. You can't really blame them. But I was in a very dark place on that Sunday morning.

Jim: But you got an incredible phone call, which we'll talk about in a minute.

Martha: Yeah, so I can't wait to keep on digging into this story. But, one of the things that I think about when we're talking about business issues and how we can allow God to direct our decisions, it reminds me of the many stories that we've put in our books: iWork4Him, sheWorks4Him, and iRetire4Him.

Each one of these titles are filled with individual stories of how God has been involved in people's work and their retirement. Much like the story we're hearing today. So listeners you can go to, iWork4Him. com/bookstore and learn more about all of our titles and all the different formats that it comes in. So I just encourage you to go there. The link will be in the show notes.

Jim: Sean I've heard you tell the story, and so I wanna get to that day that you were sending letters out to all of your investors to say sorry but it's not bleak. It's worse than bleak.

Sean Kouplen: So first of all, to your listeners, I have read iWork4Him. It is a great book. I highly recommend it. They didn't ask me to say that. I just feel like I need to share that.

So here's what happened. That day that I'm in church, we end up sitting on the front row and the band is singing a song called Healer. I believe you're my healer. I believe you're more than enough for me. And as they are singing this song, I am thinking, this is a bunch of baloney. There isn't any healing occurring. I've been praying forever. Everything's getting worse in my life. I'm about to go under, about to go broke. And in that moment the Lord asked me a question, do you believe I'm your healer?

Very clearly, and I always joke and tell people, I was raised southern Baptist, so this wasn't a normal, this wasn't really a normal thing for us. I'm not one of these people that always heard everything, but it was so clear to the point that I lost it on the front row of the church that I had founded.

I was an elder in the church. I couldn't stop crying. And I basically said, okay, Lord. If you're gonna save the bank and the jobs and the investment and all that, you're gonna have to be my healer because I don't know what else to do. I turn everything over to you. Please help me. I'm at the end of my rope.

So we go home and a few days later I was up at the bank in Nowata that we originally bought, and this is what Jim was talking about. We had put together 80 letters that would go out to our 80 shareholders. One of which was me, I was broke. So you can rip that letter up, put it in the trash can.

Seventy-nine letters are going out to the other shareholders that basically said what you just said. I'm so sorry about the investment. If we don't raise $3 million by the end of the first quarter, we are absolutely gonna get shut down because 430 banks have already closed and we are very close to that.

And please reconsider and please make an investment with us. So Sandy Moore, who was our board secretary and my assistant at the time, is walking out the door with these letters and the phone rings to my left and Arlene says Sean, you have a phone call from the U.S Treasury Department.

They are the, they're the people that shut down the banks. And so I yell out to Sandy and I think so much for that prayer. I reach out to Sandy and say, Sandy you don't need to take those letters. You might as well come back. It's too late. And I walk around to my office, the longest 20 foot walk of my life, and I think that's it.

They're gonna tell me they've seen our numbers and they're gonna shut us down. And so I pick up the phone and there's a lady on the other line and her name is Lisa Taylor. And she says Ms. Kouplen, it's Lisa Taylor with the U.S Treasury Department. How are you today? And I say Lisa... I can't even, my, my ears are ringing. My heart is K-K-K-K. And I just said Lisa, it depends on how this phone call goes. And she laughs, and I'm like, this is really not funny. And she said the reason I'm calling today is because Regent Bank has been chosen for the Capital Purchase Program, which is a community bank program to help actively loaning banks loan out more money.

And we would like to invest $3 million in your bank. And I was like, this has gotta be a dream. And I said, did you say $3 million? And she said, yes. And she said, would you like to know the terms of the loan or the investment? And I said sure. And she said it's 1% interest.

You have nine years to pay it back. There is no board seats, no dilution whatsoever. And all you gotta do is fill out a little simple form and we'll wire the money in. So I was thinking don't cry. Don't, you know, don't let her know how desperate this situation is. So I said a We would love to participate in the program. She sent me the form, I filled it out. I sent it back. The money came in that day, the same day we were on the phone at 10:57. The money came in at 2 :57, 2 :58 that day, and the bank literally was healed. And from that moment, it literally changed my life.

And all the scarcity, all the fear that I had my whole life went away. It was literally like a miraculous healing. I've been blessed to see these on mission trips and such, and it was the same thing. And so from that moment, we dedicated the bank to God. The bank has grown from seventy-two million dollars in assets to, we just today passed $1.6 billion in assets.

We had forty-three employees. Now we have 220. We were in one location, now we're in seven different markets. And it has truly been the blessing of my life.

Martha: No matter how many times I hear that story, I still am just so amazed at God's handiwork because often we have to get to the end of ourselves and then we actually can see what God is doing and no one can refute what God did through your life, Sean, and through the bank.

And because of that healing process, like you said, the intentionality of the bank and, really giving God the right seat in the bank has made all the difference in the world. So I want our listeners not to just hear that, to hear that God showed up and saved the day because that did happen.

But the ongoing effects of that in how you service your customers and what you guys are doing with the money that is put into the bank, talk about that for a minute so that the listeners actually see where it's becoming an important part of the day to day.

Sean Kouplen: Yeah. Martha what happened on that day was I learned that I did not have as much control as I thought that I had. I learned that God really loved me and that he wanted to take care of me. I'm like you. I've told the story hundreds of times. I'm about to cry now. I can't even, I still cannot get through it without tearing up. And so it just changed everything.

And briefly, a number of things came out of this. One is we changed our purpose statement as an organization. It used to be the best bank and provide good service and blah, blah, blah and all that stuff. And it now and has been for many years, the purpose statement is to show God's love to our employees, clients, and communities.

And we, the Lord called me to start a daily devotional about eight years ago. And it was petrifying. I didn't even, I thought it was illegal. I didn't even think you could do that within a company. And now I know that you can, and obviously we have the 94X movement that has come out of that.

But this devotional started with seven people and has now reached 226,000 people. We started a prayer team within the last few years that about 50 or 60 of our employees all day long, pray for those that need it. It might be our employees, it might be our clients, might be our communities.

The person that leads our prayer team is our internal auditor, believe it or not, and she literally documented- I didn't even know this- she documented the answered prayer requests from the prayer team last year, and there were a 157 answered prayer requests, many of which are legitimate miracles.

If you read her document it, it is mind-blowing. We began Faith in Business series where you guys have spoken for us. We began Faith in Business series events in all of our markets. So in every market we have a free breakfast or lunch event where on a monthly basis business leaders can come share the stories, much like what are in your book.

It's very encouraging. And the net result - we have prayer teams, we have Bible studies, we have all of these types of things. But here's the net result: this, I just cannot get over this. Four days ago - I meet with all of our employees once a month, all of our new employees, once a month.

Okay. So they all come in and we have lunch together, and they come in from the different locations. It's super fun to get to meet 'em all, and they all really haven't ever been in a culture like this, and everybody thought it was too good to be true.

They had heard about it and thought, oh, there's no way it can really be like that. And then they find out it, it really is. You really can bring the Lord into your business and it really does change everything. So we are going around and I asked them all to tell their story and this this lady who's probably three seats down from me says, I just have to tell you, she said, I've been working for thirty-four years. Since my thirty-fourth year of work, and I've never been at a place where I felt loved before I came here. And that is cool enough. And then it went to the next lady and she said, oh, I can one up you.

She said, I'm fifty-seven years old. And she said, I've never felt loved before, before I came here, period. And I thought, man, that's what it's about. That's why we want to do this. I have had over 30 salvations in my office in the last six months. We've had multiple miracles occur. I could tell you stories for hours that you just wouldn't believe.

Jim: It sounds like you should have a Regent Bank podcast to tell those stories!

I wanted to, I wanna ask tough questions. Okay. Your bank makes money. You invest money in communities that you operate in by making donations. How is your philosophy towards funding donations different than the typical big banks that seemed to fund things that I don't really agree with? What's different about Regent Bank and how you're investing in those communities?

Sean Kouplen: Yeah, it is, it's pretty clear. We don't invest in any organization that doesn't follow biblical principles. It really is that simple. So if they are if they're killing babies or if they are supporting lifestyles that are not pleasing to God, we don't participate. And so all of our dollars go back to ministries or to organizations that we feel like are following God's teaching.

Jim: How important, just talk to the audience- gimme a little credit advice. How important is it to know where your money's going? Because there's a lot of banking choices out there. A lot of banking choices out there, and a lot of people don't realize that every time we put our dollars in the bank, they're getting invested other places. How important is it to know the philosophy of where we're checking and using our credit card?

Sean Kouplen: You said it extremely well at the beginning. It really does matter. People, I think they think this bank's closest to me, or this bank has a bunch of branches, or this bank is a mega bank, and so I'll bank there 'cause they got a bunch of ATMs or whatever.

But I think it's critically important to understand the philosophies of those organizations. So I'll just, let me just give you one story, which is public, so I'm not sharing this publicly for the first time. My friend Nick Vujicic, is a gentleman who's a worldwide evangelist. Okay. And he has been very outspoken about. Pro-life matters. But Nick has no arms and no legs and has touched millions all over the world, but was almost a victim of abortion himself.

And so he feels very strongly about these matters. He was banking at Chase Bank and he will tell you this, he has said this very publicly and he went in one day and they told him that his accounts had been closed and all of his funds had been frozen. And for 30 days he tried to figure out why. And nobody at the branch knew or would tell him, and ultimately he got a letter in the mail that basically said they had done some, we've done some research on you and don't fit the values of our organization. And you're shut down and you need to go find another bank. And if you don't do that, he says, they said, we're gonna keep your money. And so we shut down his line of credit, shut down his checking account.

I have heard this countless times. I will be honest with you, it is difficult for me to imagine that. I've not had it happen to me personally, but I've been told this so many times that I know that it is the truth. So I think one thing is it's important to bank somewhere, and it doesn't have to be Regent. A community bank is where you need to be. And you need to be somewhere that you don't have to worry about being canceled. You don't have to worry about them shutting your account down 'cause that is a huge, for a business, it can be a killer.

It's an inconvenience for an individual, but for a business, you don't have a line. You don't have access to cash. You're done. You don't have the luxury of, figuring it out. So one, you ought to be somewhere where you're not gonna be canceled, but two, you ought to be somewhere where you can do good with your money.

Let me tell you guys something that's never been announced publicly that I want to announce here, which is very exciting. We are building out a national digital banking platform called Believe Bank, and when you bank with Believe - and Believe is a subsidiary of Regent, so it's owned by Regent.

It's only us. It's just a different brand that we think will do well on a national basis. When you bank at Believe, we're gonna take 1% of what you deposit. Okay, let's say you put, if you have a hundred thousand - we'll do a hundred thousand 'cause it's an easy, it's easy math. If you put a hundred thousand dollars in the bank, that's your average balance.

Every year that you bank with Believe we are gonna donate a thousand dollars to the nonprofit of your choice. Now that non-profit has to be consistent with our values, okay? So we have guardrails there, but we believe that you can change the world with your banking. So you can do it with Regent today or in about 60 days you can log on and do it with Believe. It's all the same. It's just packaged a little bit differently.

Jim: That's unbelievable and I wanna talk about that in a minute, but I just wanna make sure this conversation about where our dollars is going is such an interesting one. Martha, you and I have been digging deeper into the concept for several years, and first, we adjusted our investment methods, made sure they were all biblically responsible in our investment portfolio.

Then we recently changed our cell phone provider to Patriot Mobile because our cell phone provider, again was investing our cell phone dollars in places we didn't approve of. Patriot Mobile is actually proud to support faith, family, and freedom everywhere they go. Listeners, please move your cell phone service to Patriot Mobile.

You can learn more by going to the link in the show notes or going to PatriotMobile.com/iWork4Him, and a percentage, 0.5% of your cell phone bill will go back to iWork4Him by moving your stuff, but you'll also get access to the same towers, pay probably less money, but none of your money is going to those causes that the other companies support. PatriotMobile.com/iWork4Him.

I was gonna ask you, Sean if we could bank with Regen? we didn't have a branch nearby. You just answered that question. Believe bank is at Believe Bank.com. Believe Bank.

Sean Kouplen: Yeah. Yes, it will. It will be a BelieveBank.com. But we have customers all over the country today. Guys, anybody, if they want to go to Regent.Bank, we welcome them. We have very good online banking capabilities free ATMs, 10 per month, anywhere in the world. So you're not gonna give up anything if you would like to bank with us. And I promise you, you can tell we wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for the Lord, and we will always honor him in everything that we do. So you can rest assured that your money will be put to good use.

Jim: I'll tell you what, your customer service is out of this world. I had to get just, we moved to my parents' banking over to Regent Bank 'cause it was just, we really wanted to do that.

And what was incredible is my mom's very hard of hearing and we had to get on customer service and one of your sweet ladies with a very great accent from Oklahoma, it's just sweet as all get out. She was so patient with my mom just, I'm like, oh my word. I forgot that customer service could be like this. It's just amazing.

Sean Kouplen: Yeah. And let me say guys, and it's because we are always talking about the greater purpose, okay? And business owners, if you are listening- and Martha, forgive me, this will be real quick- the difference here is if you can bring God into your business, it creates a greater purpose.

It'll change everything with your employees. All of a sudden, they're not just making money for Sean and the owners of Regent Bank. It's not about that. It's about trying to be a light, trying to change one life at a time, trying to encourage somebody, trying to, it's a game changer. That's why your mom had that experience. Is because I think our employees understand it can be about much more than just doing a transaction for somebody.

Martha: Amen. I believe that our listeners right now are really paying attention and hearing what you're saying. Sean, thank you for sharing about Believe Bank and having the heart to pursue that because I am sure it wasn't simple to work out all of that, but we're just grateful for it.

Before we go though, I just want you to touch on 94X, your book and the movement, because we haven't even had a chance to dig into that at all. Give us a high level, but that could be show number two, there you go. Give us a high level view for our listeners, because if they're drawn to this conversation, they're gonna be drawn to some next steps. So talk about 94X.

Sean Kouplen: Thank you very much, and I'll come back as often as you guys want me. 94Xmovement.com is the website. The movement is very simple. It's actually very narrow. It answers two questions. One, can I bring God into my business? So we do, we've done a ton of work legally and otherwise to show that you can. And what you cannot do is force somebody to worship the way you worship, and none of us want to do that anyway. But you can absolutely invite them to a Bible study, into a prayer team, to a daily devotional, whatever the case may be. You can do that all day long.

And then once business. Leaders learn that they can, many of them just don't know where to start. How do I do this? How would I even begin to bring the Lord into my business? And so we work to answer the question how. And so we've studied tons of businesses all over the country to see what did they do. And so at our website, you'll get all of those resources.

We are going to be rolling out a certification program within the next three or four months. We're working on it right now where a business can become faith-friendly or Faith-based certified. And we'll take, basically take you through a curriculum where you can learn how to do this within your organization.

And we think we're gonna have a hundred thousand. We believe the I, I truly believe the Lord has shown me we're gonna have a hundred thousand certified businesses by 2030. And so the movement has been crazy. I think I have 35 speaking engagements this year to talk about 94 x. It's really man, it's a God-sized, it's a God-sized effort for sure.

Martha: So we'll put all of those links in the show notes because we have covered so many details, but ultimately, I want our listeners to hear the heart behind the leader that's leading such an organization within a, within an industry that is not necessarily one that we think we're gonna have this kind of conversation, but you are changing the tide, you're allowing God to use you, and we're so grateful for that.

Jim: Sean Kouplen with Regent Bank, thanks for being on iWork4Him today.

Sean Kouplen: Thank you. My pleasure.

Jim: Make sure you check out his organization online at Regent.bank. You've been listening to iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers. Our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him!