4/29/22 - Building a Glorious Reflection: Jerry and Carol Meeks, Glorious Reflections

Welcome to the, iWork4Him podcast. I'm Michael miracle producer of the, iWork4Him radio program, the voice of the faith and work movement. Our mission is to transform the workplace of every Christian and do a mission field. What does that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.

Jim: Hey, you've tuned into, iWork4Him, the mouthpiece for the faith and work movement, we're your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg.

Martha: Thanks for joining us today. You know, I'm excited because it's not often that we get to have a husband and a wife join us when we, as we are husband and wife.

Jim: We are?

Martha: You know, that Jim hope our audience knows.

Jim: Yes. Okay, fine.

Martha: He's teasing me today, everybody, but I'm just excited for what's ahead in our conversation.

But if you are interested in finding out past episodes that we've had, make sure to go to, iWork4Him.com or even on just your favorite podcast platform, you can go and scroll through past shows and catch up a little. Everything is also on the awaken podcast network, a place where you can find not only iWork4Him shows, but for him and more than a hundred other podcasts speaking into some form of a conversation around faith and work,

Jim: and on iWork4Him. We're constantly seeking out stories of Christ followers, living out their faith in their work. Many times we get a chance to interview the business owner, but their spouse isn't available

today we get a double. Jerry and Carol meek own a construction company in Arizona. They build fabulous dwellings and do fantastic remodel jobs. Now there may be some of you thinking can a general contractor really live out their faith in the rough and tumble and cutthroat world of construction? Absolutely.

Categorically. Yes. Jerry and Carol Meek have lived it, made mistakes, experienced failure, and seeing great success all along learning to follow Jesus and be a glorious reflection of God in their lives. Today. We're going to talk about their love story, their work story, and how the two stories jelled together to be a lesson in love, obedience and sacrifice, Jerry and Carol meek.

Welcome to iWork4Him.

Jerry Meek: Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here today.

Jim: Well, we're glad that you're here and we hope that you are happy to be here after we're done with the podcast. Jerry, you started your company at age 18 with your dad. Why the construction business?

Jerry Meek: Great question. And thank you for asking.

I actually started going to work my dad at five years old. And I just loved spending time with my dad. At 14, I bought a truck and started a landscape business, paid somebody to drive it for me. And the more time I spent with my dad and the industry, I just, I really loved accomplishing things and building things that outlast me and frankly, my dad said don't go into construction.

And that was kind of my form of being a rebellious son. It's like, I really liked it. And so that's why.

Jim: So, were you a Jesus follower at the time when you started the construction business?

Jerry Meek: Yes, but I was very early on my walk.

Martha: So what, what does that look like then if you were very early in your walk? AT what point did you have a deeper commitment with Jesus?

Jerry Meek: I am. I'm not a person who had say a watershed event in their life. Mine has been more building blocks and stepping stones that I would learn something. And my superpower was not what I learned, but I like to apply what I've learned in our industry. We get resumes. I've got 10 years of experience, 20, 30 years of experience and so on, but really they have one year of experience they've repeated 20 or 30 years.

There's no growth. And so that was what I tried to do in my life and still do.

Martha: So Carol, I would love to hear from you, how the two of you met.

Carol Meek: We met actually in high school. It was our junior year and Jerry had moved; he'd been at 10 different schools and this was his first year at this high school.

And we met in choir. Our choir had been selected for the youth and music festival in Vienna, Austria the next summer. So we spent all year doing work projects, raising the money to be able to go. And we just worked well together. We were great friends. Didn't date or anything. And then my freshman year in college, we had one, our first date.

We went to an Audrey crouch concert. And then we just stayed in touch off and on through college. He was, he was working at the time and I was going to school. And then my senior year, I, I had contacted him to take him out for his birthday. It was actually our third date. And he proposed. And I said yes, because it was just one of those with one of those friendships where I, if I never saw him again it the kind of thing I would want to know when I got to heaven, what did you do with your life?

Because I felt like he was somebody really special and God's hand was on him. And I just wanted to see what he's got accomplished through a lifetime, but. We got married nine months later, I thought about quitting school, but it was like, no, we need to finish this, but it was just, we've worked together.

We've done life together, but I just, I feel like I married my best friend and so much more.

Jim: We started together in high school choir as well.

Martha: And I moved to the high school when I was a junior. So, so, you know, this is such a great story.

Jim: I didn't have the hair the Jerry had back in high school, I've seen Jerry's high school pictures.

I am sure that's what you like. I was hard picturing when I saw Jerry with the afro. I'm like I just picture and Jerry with the afro today, but

Jerry Meek: you know, it's so funny, so I'm, I'm being interviewed by a college president and one of the students asked the question. If you could do anything different, if you could go back, what would you do?

It's easy. I would have brought about 10 toupees of my natural hair and preserve it so I have it.

Martha: Oh, back when that was an option. So Carol, tell me your Jesus story.

Carol Meek: I was, I was fortunate. I grew up in a Christian home with race in the Lutheran faith, but I felt like it was a good foundational Faith that's to come from strong work ethic, but I would say it was probably in high school.

I just really had a hunger for the Lord. And at that point it was just kind of what I did on my own. Just the, you know, I would spend hours in the word and just, it just was, it was a fresh new hunger after the things of the holy spirit. And I feel like that's where I really grew. And. That was really foundational to who I was and what I was going to need to be prepared for in life ahead.

I think sometimes that's the same thing. I think construction, where you've got to, you got to plan how you're going to build the foundation because you don't know what's coming ahead. What's going to shake that foundation. And I really feel like the Lord allowed me those teenage years and early twenties to just really build that because once we got going and we were moving, it's like it had to come from within us.

And I just, I'm thankful for that time to grow up.

Jim: So talk to us about your faith playing out in your marriage. Jerry, you said that your faith was in its infancy stage when you know, when you were in high school and in your early twenties, when you and Carol got married, how did your faith play out in your married life?

How did your faith become a bedrock for your marriage?

Jerry Meek: Well, I think that's a continuous improvement attitude that I've had, but honestly, I was baptized Catholic. And, you know, it was like following rules created by somebody else. And I moved around kind of schools as Carol mentioned, but I was beat up and bullied and I had a lot of fears and insecurities and at 14 years old, I was at a little assembly of God, church in Mesa, Arizona.

My family actually started going to church together. And I, the youth pastor was amazing. I wasn't really, I didn't have a personal relationship at that time, but I was able to accept Christ and it changed my world. My insecurity started to go away. The more I filled up with the work and doing the right things.

But my faith in our marriage basically it's, what's kept us together. We've never blamed each other. If an issue happened,' if the faucet's broken and I broke it, we focused on fixing the faucet. She doesn't blame me that I broke the faucet.

Jim: Do you break faucets often? Is that a thing that you have an issue with?

Jerry Meek: I like instant, hot water. What can I say?

Jim: All right. Well, we come back lots more from Jerry and Carol meek, their story, their business story, and how their faith plays out in the day to day. You're listening to iWork4Him, and we'll be right back.

Martha: You know, the kind of person that always tells you about the latest trends or the special deals around.

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Go ahead. Check out Awakenpodcastnetwork.com and then be that kind of person and tell a friend,

Jim: Hey, welcome back to iWork4Him. As we talked with Jerry and Carol meek, you can check them out online. Maybe you want to, maybe you don't want to. I think you should. JerryRmeek.com. That's M E E k.com.

Jerry R meek.com. Both of their stories are out there. It's actually fun to actually read them. That's how I knew that Jerry had curly hari in high school. Jerry, just so just for the record and for the, iWork4Him audience, when we were in our early twenties, I think I was 22. I'd always wanted to have an Afro, but I grew up with really straight hair.

Yes. I had hair then. And so, and 1988, Martha came home one day and I greeted her and I had gotten an Afro and she screamed.

Martha: I did. A little fact about Jim and Martha

Jim: Thanksgiving pictures from 1988, demonstrate that I did in fact have curly hair for six months. All right. Back to Jerry and Carol meek and their story running a business as a couple is challenging.

There's lots of stressors. Whether you work in the business or not there's stressors. Carol, are you involved in the day-to-day the business?

Carol Meek: Yes, I am. I have been on since we were married, it's like I originally had a full-time job and then I would work nights and weekends doing bookwork counting, things like that for him, whatever he needed.

And then at one point when the business got really busy, about five years into that, I did quit that other job. And then I was working full time with him, but corporate officer pretty much handled the accounting side contracts, client interface HR. Those kind of things,

Jim: everything, but putting the nails in the board, everything, but putting the boards in the nails.

All right. So, but the construction business has a lot of ups and downs. You know, we have one major. I mean, you had probably 20 plus years of ups, and then you had 2008, which is probably a little rough. How do you deal with those financial stressors in your marriage? And personally, as you guys are trying to run a business, but you're seeing the tidal wave coming at you I'm sure.

2008 was probably a big challenge.

Carol Meek: I think the biggest thing at that point in time, Jerry found just every day, he just had to give people hope. It was kind of like, I mean, in Phoenix, in the Phoenix area, we had thousands of people laid off. We had businesses closing, we had architectural offices closing and it's like, when they aren't drawing work, then we're not building work.

. But I think the biggest thing, wherever he went, it was just, you had to figure out how to, how to have for people to have. We had met with our people and told them that we would not be laying people off that we would go without a salary if that's what it took in order for everybody to get through successfully, there was a point in time, too, where we had the opportunity to work with Phoenix Dream center.

And we brought together a lot of our trades to at the time, just to see what could be done for others. And everybody had time on their hands. But we had the opportunity to work there on Jerry can tell you more about what we did with that, but yeah, there's up and downs, but I think that's the biggest thing.

You've just got to remain firm, keep that foundation solid to know God's going to get you through and that there are going to be opportunities. But I think what we always face too, is people are always watching you and how you respond to that. And it's like, if we were afraid, that's how they were going to see it.

And that's how that they would respond. But we just had to have a hope and a confidence that everything's going to be okay, God's got this and nothing's taken him by surprise. I think we were so blessed that sometimes we just think we're going to live and expect to live in this place of blessing all the time, but that's not realistic either.

Jerry Meek: The other thing I'd like to piggyback on that. I made a really bold statement when I brought our team together. And I said, if we're going to start a business today, what would it be? And I said, it wouldn't be construction and everybody started to panic, but I said, Hey, we've got a great team. We've got the best clients, the best trades.

What can we do? And I, I pretty much shocked. Everybody said, we're not participating in this economy. I sent this down to economy. And I said, I believe in God, and I believe God's going to get us through this. And that takes a lot of courage from a leader when your people, aren't all believers and probably a third were at the time, we have a lot more now, thankfully, but that we're not going to take a check that would involve a whole lot longer than I had ever planned on - years.

It was tough. We didn't lay anybody off. You know, we, I believe got out of bed or would have turned around. We were busier sooner than everybody else in our industry. We didn't have to retool and get new people. So God is a big part of our success is all of our success in business.

Jim: People are such a key in the business and when they know they're valued, all of a sudden they go, Hey, I work in a construction business and my boss values me.

Well, what's up with that. That gives you an opportunity, Jerry, to really live out your faith daily. Talk to us about how, how you live out your faith with your people and with your subs. Cause you know, your, your business, isn't just your people. You're dealing with subcontractors.

Jerry Meek: Yeah. And that's really interesting because I look back at, you know, my dad, my dad passed last year back, both of our parents, my parents, and Carol's mom all within six months.

And it gives you a chance to reflect, or my dad taught me. He said, Jerry, the only thing you'll ever honor is your integrity and keep working on it. And my dad, amazing story for another day on time, what he overcame and what my mom overcame. I just decided that I moved around a lot. I didn't have a lot of friendships.

So I think that I wanted to be more, I'm a relational individual. That's more important. So we built that and basically I had some rough challenges. It's like my insecurities would pop up when I didn't want them to. And it was early in the business. So my dad came up to me. He says, son, you know, I love you.

I said, yes, dad. He goes, if you don't lighten up, I'm not even going to work for you. I was turning over people and it was one of those, you know, how did God get into this? Wait, I have to lay out clear expectations. I have to train the people and build a team. And that really helped. And my, my mantra became about point with everybody, our employees and our hundreds of trade contractors.

How can I help you succeed? Or what obstacles are in your way? Yeah. And that was about worked for us. It was always people before profits.

Jim: Hmm, that's a beautiful.

Martha: It has to be refreshing for the subs, especially to have someone approach them that way, that how can I help you succeed? Not what can you do for me, you know, as the first I'm sure they're used to just being taken from, but you've filling them up in that way.

Such a great example. So I am sure over these years, even, even aside from the economy, things in your business have had success and failure. Can you maybe Carol, can you share a story of something that a notable time when you saw God show up in a way that maybe surprised you in the midst of a hardship and a victory?

Carol Meek: It probably all revolves around people. And you've figured out that they're your greatest asset, but I feel like that's, we're very much relational rather than transactional, but it's also like, we depend on our people to do all that we do. It's like, we can't do what we do just us two. But I think one thing that we learned early is sometimes, I mean, you make the best choice you can when you're interviewing people and getting to know them, but it's based on very limited amount of time spent with them.

And I think in the early years we would try so hard to make it work when it didn't seem like it was. But we were trying harder than the employee was. And so over time, I think we got to a point where we knew when it was time to just let it go, you know, and Jerry would say, you know, help them to their future

Jim: Free their future.

Carol Meek: And usually it's the other employees who say, wow, we were wondering what took so long, but it's like, I think with experience too, when you realize that, you know, and that's the, Lord's leading too, to know if it's not working out to just go ahead and part ways sooner than later, because it's hurting everybody in the process.

But I think of also people being so important we, in 2015, we got two of the largest projects we we'd ever had. And I feel like every, and like Jerry was saying building blocks, it's like everything we've learned and developed and grown through the years, what's a building block to this point in time.

But the first thing we did is we went to our trade owners and just sat down with them to find out what's your capacity, what's your commitment. You know, we're taking on something larger than we've ever done before, but we can't do it without everyone. But, you know, what's your commitment. And they said, you know what?

You have, you have been there for us through the hard times, but they said, we're going to be there for you, whatever you need. We'll set aside whatever we need to, that this is our priority. But I feel like it's that, that way of working together or working through things together. And there's always, there's always tough things that you encounter, but how are you going to work through it?

That you're not, you're not blaming, but you're figuring out the solution and moving forward with it, or how can plan ahead so that you don't face some of the situations too?

Jim: Jerry, did you ever imagine all your years at desert star construction, that you'd be where you're at today and that you've seen the hand of God in the intimate details of your business?

Did you ever expect that?

Jerry Meek: Not to the level where I started my first 20 years. And this is probably embarrassing. I'm not very proud of, but our average income for 20 years was $17,000 a year. I really don't know how we made it. Yeah. And that was just a lot of hardship in there. And I think what it was for me, it's like, God took that, that resilience and that commitment not to quit.

And the majority of our clients are the wealthiest in the world. They're. They're household names and everybody listening to your podcast, uses their products. If they have a cell phone, have to have a computer. If they shop at the largest retailer in the world, they're the largest automobile company. And I'm a guy who grew up in a trailer who was beat up and bullied.

So this is all God, because I couldn't do it on my own. And I believe that it's Christ confidence. It's not Jerry's confidence. Yeah. And if we have time, I'll tell you a few of the things that really were watershed.

Jim: Give us, give us a ball points, give us a bullet points, and then we're going to take a break.

Jerry Meek: Okay, well, you said something about failures.

I put on my notes, it's like there's too many to list. So big picture don't ever do a personal guarantee. That's a story unto itself as well. I guess I know while I was a personal grade and a lack of due diligence, but anyway, I think when it was Jim, it came, it was a turning point. These were watershed events for us that we stopped setting income goals and started creating giving goals.

And it was so much more motivating to do the work. And the big one, I stopped asking God to bless what I was doing and started saying, God, what do you want me to do? And that changed everything, right? The biggest projects in the country. And it's phenomenal. So God has really blessed us. It's been phenomenal journey and I truly believe with God's help.

The best is yet to come.

Jim: And we're going to hear more about that best. Let's talk about glorious reflections. We come back after the break, hang on minute.

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Jim: Hey, welcome back to iWork4Him. As we talked with Jerry and Carol Meek from desert star construction, you can find out more about them online.

If you want to type that one in desert star. Or online about Jerry and Carol at JerryRMeek.com. All right, Jerry you've written three books. What are they about?

Jerry Meek: The first one was lots of pictures and not a lot of words. It was the Team Builder Toolbox. People want to know how do I build my team? And I realized there was a need out there. And it's a story about that.

Be Great was a message that a friend of mine spoke on. And I had wished I had information like that about what true greatness is. He was speaking at a high school, college graduation, and I got his permissions to steal the title. And I did that.

And then my most recent book Leadership on the Level. It's really about building your team, Jim, it's how Jesus found the disciples, how we, how we called them. He got a team that went up the mountain and then, then he acknowledged and empowered them. And then he trained them. And that's based on the beatitudes and some personal stories in there as well.

Martha: You know, I'm just thinking that you're just not much of an overachiever or anything there. You guys know you have a lot going on in your world and yet that's not it. Your latest adventure is called Glorious Reflections. Tell us what that's all about.

Jerry Meek: For me, it's a platform to be able to invest what we've learned and lived into other people.

So many business people and some believers and some, to-be believer - they they're focusing on the what and not the why. And it's who are they reflecting? I feel like the Lord gives us everything we need to reflect intelligence, kindness, humility, generosity, diligence, integrity. And that's what that's all about.

And when you invest in people, you've like, when you make an investment, your 401k, you follow up on it. Some people want to give away what they've learned. I want to invest that into people.

Jim: So if somebody wants to take the Glorious Reflections challenge, what do they do ?

Jerry Meek: It's pretty simple text "challenge" to 5, 5, 4, 4, 4.

That's challenge to 5, 5, 4, 4, 4.

Jim: And what are they what's going to happen?

Jerry Meek: They're gonna get a full, very nice introduction letter, but every day for 21 business days, no weekend just give people a break, but they're going to get it. They're going to get a little personal journal and it's more than a devotional.

I don't like to just say: let's create priorities. You don't need any steps how to prioritize your life and it's questions about how am I reflecting God in this area and the feedback we've gotten from people that have gone through it already is very encouraging that, Hey, I didn't know, I should stop and pray before my day.

Or I realized that I was pleasing everybody else and not my wife. And it's just been really helpful, but it's, it's simple. I'm a business guy. I value time. So it's gotta be worth your time.

Martha: Awesome. So the number we'll have it all in the show notes, but 5, 5, 4, 4, 4 text the word challenge, and you will be signed up to be a part of that 21 business days.

I love that idea.

Jim: Actually kind of drives me crazy. That means you could have, like, you can have four full weeks and then one extra day. And I said, why not 25?

Martha: Okay. Start over. So if you're listening to this podcast, it released on a Friday. Start it today.

It's a beautiful, all right,

Jim: Carol help. Help me out. There's a lot of spouses out there that are the unsung heroes in Christian, small businesses across the country, speak some encouragement out there to those spouses that help their spouses look good each and every day and keep the business running.

Carol Meek: Okay. I think the biggest thing is encourage them. It's like, I don't think you can ever encourage your spouse enough and they're not normally going to get it from anybody else because everybody else is looking for what they need from them. I think that it's been really important to plan our personal time because otherwise your business can just consume everything you do.

You've got to draw some healthy boundaries too. I know that he enjoyed if I would plan a weekend away or sometimes it would just be a matter on a Sunday afternoon, shut off your phone and computer for two hours and just not worry about because when you're kind of on call 24 7 with this. But when we would plan some time away and a lot of times it needed to be a way because as long as you're here, there's always stuff that needs to be done or people can get ahold of you.

But I think you really need that time away to just refresh your perspective. Sometimes it's just ro sleep because they're exhausted, but you just need that. We needed that one-on-one time, just us as a couple and not as a business. And that, that was really healthy. I think it's just so important to be respectful of each other and realize that people are always watching.

Everything you do. Every reaction, every word you speak. But to know that so much a part of your faith and your testimony and what you do, but it's also teaching people how to respond to difficult situations and how to always be respectful of people all around you.

Jerry Meek: Jim, I'd like to piggyback that with two things.

One, I think that in a marriage you have to be a hundred percent behind your spouse's success. And to the businessmen out there, you need to make sure you're treating your wife better than your best customer.

Martha: Powerful,

Jim: Some guy wrote a book, treat me like your customer. Yeah, that's right. That's a very famous author.

I wish I could think of her right off the top of my head. You'd actually recognize the name, but treat me like a customer. Martha, any final questions?

Martha: You know, I just think this is such a great, valuable conversation for so many people that are in a position - maybe even now they've created a you know, a family business, and they've never thought about some of these things that go with the the, the responsibility as leading the organization. So I just pray that this is really meeting the needs of those that are listening today. Thank you for sharing from your own lives and your own experience. We know that it didn't all come over night. You've learned this it's been a process and we continue to learn together.

So thank you so much for that.

Jim: The reference to that book, Louis Upton's Jr.

Jerry and Carol Meek. of desert star construction found online at jerryrmeerk.com. Thank you so much for being on iWork4Him today.

Jerry Meek: Thank you. It was our pleasure.

Jim: 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

Outro: . Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field put for most of us, it looks like a construction site, the cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work live volunteer and invest - that is your mission field.

To learn more about integrating your faith into your work and retirement check out our books: iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to, iWork4Him.com/Bookstore. Thank you for listening to the iWork4Him podcast with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg, please visit. iWork4Him.com to learn more about connecting your faith and work to join the iWork4Him nation or subscribe to our weekly blog. You can also follow us on social media @iWork4Him to stay up to date. If today's message spoke to you, please subscribe, rate, and review the show on your favorite podcast platform.

Your review we'll launch more workplace missionaries across America. That's @iWork4Him and online iWork4Him.com. I work the number 4 Him. Dot com.

4/22/22 - Leading Better by Focusing on Others: Brenda Long, Food for the Hungry

Welcome to the, iWork4Him podcast. I'm Michael miracle producer of the, iWork4Him radio program, the voice of the faith and work movement. Our mission is to transform the workplace of every Christian and do a mission field. What does that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.

Jim: This episode of iWork4Him was previously recorded for the Christian leadership alliance outcomes conference podcast, where leaders come to invest the best of what they know into other leaders.

Martha: Remember, if you have influence over just one person, you are a leader together. Let's listen to this podcast and learn more about leading God's way.

Enjoy.

Jim: Martha and I are excited to host the outcomes conference podcast. Every podcast is dedicated to you, our outcomes conference podcast listener. We've got an incredible conversation today coming up with Brenda Long, with food for the hungry online at fh.org F h.org. We'll be focusing on leadership, thriving and of course related outcomes.

Brenda Long. Welcome to the outcomes conference podcast.

Brenda Long: Thank you, Jim and Martha, it's great to be here. Looking forward.

Jim: Yeah. Before we get started talking about your leadership role and perspective of what God is doing through you, as you lead a thriving environment within your role at food for the hungry.

Tell us how you personally keep your faith strong and your leadership Christ centered each and every day.

Brenda Long: Yeah. I think, you know, my, my biggest challenge is to be still to not be in charge. And this is my biggest challenge in my spiritual walk. So to stop planning, to stop directing you know, even I even struggled with that in relationships with my marriage and family and, you know, just to be still.

So, you know, it doesn't come naturally for me. It takes discipline and intentionality. But drinking coffee comes naturally for me. I needed every morning, I, I wanted every morning. And so I've tried to pair that with being still being quiet, listening to God. And so, you know, I spend a lot, I spend my mornings in the yard listening and being quiet.

I find that, you know, surrounding myself with God's creation just naturally draws me to him. And so it's great prayer time, a great time to reflect. And I also, I recently adopted donkeys from the bureau of land management.

Jim: There's something that's never been said on the Outcomes conference podcast.

Brenda Long: And they're like giant puppies and I just, I find just being out there with them even doing donkey.

Chores. It's just a time of reflecting on, on God and his greatness and his creation and what he's doing in my own life and listening to how he's leading me.

Jim: Yeah. Brenda, since nobody listening to this podcast today, the outcomes conference podcast ever struggled with being too busy and being too much of a doer.

I mean, it really probably is a struggle that singularly. Maybe you could for the other one person in the world that struggles with that, is there one specific step and all that, of course noted sarcasm, heavy sarcasm. Now what's one step you had to take in order to move towards being quiet because so many of us struggle with this being quiet thing.

Well, what's one thing to get us moving in that, right.

Brenda Long: Yeah, that's a great question. For me it was, you know, there's, it's constantly a battle in my mind of thinking about the next thing or the, you know, next item on my calendar. And it was, it was like, like saying out loud, stop thinking about those. Hm, you know, be still be still like verbally, just, I guess that's probably why I enjoy doing it alone outside, because nobody can hear me in a room or something telling me to stop, stop thinking.

Be still Brenda, be still Brenda. So, you know, just that act of verbalizing, that is what helps clear my mind.

Martha: That's good. So if the donkeys ever talk, the first words are going to be, be still. Cause that's what I heard.

Jim: Right. They're going to say, what are you hitting me for trying to protect you?

Martha: Well, when the donkey speaks, thank you.

Going back to scripture on that. Well, thank you for that. So one of the things, you know, the Christian leadership Alliance really has this theme of thrive this year. What does thriving mean to you personally?

Brenda Long: It means looking to me personally, it means looking beyond my current situation the current circumstances.

So being able to see and step into the hope that's ahead you know, that I think has been especially pressing in the last year of, you know, trying to. Imagine beyond the difficulty of 2020, and to see the hope that can come out of, you know, what would seem to be a dire situation across the world. So, yeah, just, you know, and, and bringing people with me into that place of helpfulness so that they can continue to lead others there too.

Jim: So tell us about how food for the hungry enables those you serve to thrive, whether those you serve or the people that work underneath you or those people that you're helping directly with food for the hungry, how are you helping everybody to thrive?

Brenda Long: So our work from day one, which is now 50 years old It was always about a holistic approach.

So a holistic approach, ending poverty, serving the most vulnerable through purposeful relief and development by addressing the physical and spiritual needs. So it has to be looked at through that lens of addressing it through physical and spiritual because that's our whole being right. And so, you know, we partner with leaders in communities.

To bring about transformation. And so it's not us stepping into and creating these programs and then exiting and saying, you know, well, good luck. It's, it's partnering with the leaders of a community and, you know, individual mothers creating groups for their own, you know, for, for other mothers and, and giving them tools to be able to teach others, to learn what, you know, the principles that they've learned.

So, you know, our, our overarching goal there is to be able to exit a community because they're thriving on their own, they're leading their own transformation. So, you know, I think that. That's how we've developed this, the thriving and communities as they've taken, hold of their own, you know, what they want to do and transform their community.

Jim: Well, what does that look like? What does it look like for a community to thrive? When, when you guys start working with the community, what's the condition you usually get it in. And what does it look like when you leave it? Talk, talk to us about that.

Brenda Long: Sure. You know, some of our, some of our principal programs are surrounded around child transformation because that's the next generation.

And so, you know, our child sponsorship program of, you know, just really pushing that that strong. Desire and, and purposefulness in education and providing education. And so, you know, partnering with the leaders to make sure that there's classrooms develop, you know, building classrooms so that the community can see the education's really.

And you know, teaching mothers about health and sanitation how that can transform a community and for them to be able to see that because of these principles of washing your hands before you eat or cook, how it changes the health of their children, how it changes, you know, to not have the sickness, to not have the disease.

And that mindset of it's something that they're physically doing and teaching that's changing that and creating better health, you know, in their own community. So I think it's that transformation of, you know, they're learning those, those principles and tools we're providing that education. And then they're actually visually being able to see how that's changing.

Martha: That's so good. And to see that thriving happening physically and spiritually is really what you're saying. It's all about. So let's talk about food for the hungry as an organization, a lot of organizations struggle to find a way for the culture within to thrive. What is one thing that you're currently doing that is helping to have the greatest impact in the area of thriving within food for the hungry.

Brenda Long: So I think that, you know, I've been with food for the hungry for over 26 years. So it's been a long time. And I've seen that, although some of the wording has changed in our organization the principles that guide us, our calling our values and our response, those things have not changed. They've always been you know, a biblical foundation that allows our programs and our initiatives to thrive and to just flourish, you know, so, you know, within, within my own work at FH. Good for the hungry has really poured in and cared for our staff. You know, really seeking to want to see us thrive in our, in our relationship with the Lord, you know, creating these spiritual formation groups where it's like a small Bible study and we get to fellowship with other coworkers that we wouldn't normally work with.

To study a book scripture, spend time in fellowship. The, just those are, those are the simple ways that we've seen. You know, our leaders really invest in, in seeing us thrive in our relationships, in our, you know, our spiritual walk with. But you know, I'd say within our communities, this last 2020, I mean, we've, we've had to take a step away from doing our, our regular program work, right?

When we have quarantine and things like that, and to see the resilience in our communities of, you know, they have we've paused in executing our programs. But the people of the community have continued. The program led the community, led programming within their community, supporting each other. And even though our FH staff have had to take this step back.

So that's been incredible to see that around the global we work,

Jim: We're talking today with Brenda Long, from food for the hungry. F H dot O R G F h.org. You're listening to the outcomes conference podcast. We'll be right back.

Break: You know, the kind of person that always tells you about the latest trends or the special deals around town we'll lean in because here's a message from that kind of person.

The Awaken podcast network is the place to be. Go to Awaken podcast, network.com and unlock God's purpose for your work with help from some friends. You will find a gathering place of podcasts that provides simple tools, faith stories, and conversations that will inspire and equip you to vibrantly live out your faith in your work today.

Go ahead, check out awaken podcast, network.com and then be that kind of person and tell a friend.

Jim: Hey, welcome back to the outcomes conference podcast, we're your host Jim and Martha Brangenberg. And today we're talking with Brenda. She's from food for the hungry and you can check them out online. F h.org, F h.org, Brenda, the last 12 to 18 months.

Been a little difficult. I don't know if you noticed that along with you trying to learn to be quiet. I know again, you have that problem on your own. What is, what have you had to change personally or professionally that helped you focus on your mission as a leader, as a result of what we face the last 12 to 18 months.

Brenda Long: Yeah. It's definitely been a challenging year plus for everyone, I feel that I'm always about our leader when I'm outwardly focused on other. And meeting their needs. That's kind of just how we're, how I'm wired and geared. But 2020 has been definitely a different season for me, where I had to learn to be vulnerable in a way that was, you know, probably really uncomfortable and letting my guard down, expressing my own needs.

I mean, as we all kind of stepped into this quiet time of, you know, being. Working from home and not having our regular cadence of meeting together and all different avenues. That was really tough for me. And you know, still trying to find ways to reach out to my team, to connect us that went beyond even just, you know, our ongoing zoom meetings and really just trying to find ways to engage with each other.

But, you know, I learned that letting my guard down and expressing my own needs is also an important aspect of, of leadership.

Martha: So talk about your breakthroughs and whether it had to do with that or something else. What did you see? That was actually something, you know, that really, you got some breakthrough or that really was successful in your leader.

Brenda Long: Yeah. You know, I learned, I learned so much about God's faithfulness in this last year. I spent time a lot of time studying the Enneagram. I'm a big fan of Enneagram tool and it's just such a powerful tool to help you understand yourself help you understand how to relate and work with others.

It helps me have. To be a better version of myself. So, you know, in the last 12 months, you know, my mom had had a real quick two month decline and she passed away in March of 2020. And you know, that was right when the pandemic was starting and we all were, you know, being pulled back. And so it was, it was a lot of alone time when with, in my head.

And as an Enneagram seven. I don't need, I don't need a lot of alone time. I need a lot of fun and adventure and time with people. And so, you know, that was really, really challenging for God to just. Have me have to deal with the grief, you know, and, and to be forced rather than being able to plan all these social things and keep my mind busy or, or move past and not deal with that.

And so, you know, I think that, you know, that was, that was a real breakthrough for me of just that, that time of being vulnerable and expressing in ways that I needed support, you know, that I wouldn't have normally done.

Jim: You know, a lot of times as leaders, we read a great book or read a great article, or we experienced a great conference or, you know, there's something that we've learned.

We say everybody underneath me needs to everybody around me needs to experience the same thing. What was that for you? Was there something like that for you in the last 12 to 18 months that you said, I, my whole team needs experiences.

Brenda Long: Yeah, so books and I don't get along really well. I'm great with podcasts and conferences, you know, things like that.

Yeah. I, I keep telling myself, you know, I have some books here in that and I keep buying them and I start them and. I have to read like the same page over and over again, because somewhere I got lost in thought somewhere else. But so, so definitely podcasts, definitely conferences. And for me it would, you know, I, I shared with my team your Enneagram coach.com for a podcast.

I mean, fantastic way of being able to understand each other as good as good coworkers and to be able to relate to one another. Also, you know, the digital outcomes conference. Yes. I attended the previous, the, not the in-person, but you know, the conference. And then we had kind of that digital version afterwards last year.

And so that was a fantastic opportunity to invite my entire team to be a part of that. And so, you know, I, I offered that up to anyone who, you know, had, could, could make space to attend that for the, for the, you know, the last month or so that it. So I think that any time that we have opportunities to really, you know, be able to give that kind of encouragement in your leadership that you need to go ahead and offer that up.

But yeah, the digital outcomes conference was a big one for me, for pushing on my team.

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Martha: So Brenda, you guys have a digital an ebook that you want to share with the listeners. So is there anything you want to tell us about it? We'll put the link in the show notes and on the YouTube and stuff, but it's called God's story. Tell us a little bit about it. What they'll find when they download.

Brenda Long: Yeah. This is just an incredible resource, so I hope that you do check it out. But it's, you know, written within from one of our staff members. And it's just been a tool to understanding and walking through God's worldview. And so really just putting into perspective, you know, How we were created and, and how we are restored in Christ and how we walk with that knowledge and how we serve.

So really just hope that you be able to check that out, download that. Excellent.

Martha: Thank you for offering. So Brenda, let's talk about food for the hungry. We know I'm guessing I don't want to be a pessimist, but you know, hunger is probably never going to completely go away. So how do you keep serving every day when you realize that the work you're doing is never going to really be fulfilled, but it is going to gain in its ability to, you know, to do its work.

So let's talk about that.

Brenda Long: So, yeah, hunger we have a lofty vision there and you know, God did not call us to complete the work. And so I think that's an important piece that you keep in front of you and for anyone that's serving in a, you know, in a mission type organization We continue the work and he completes it.

He finishes it. So, you know, I take relief and hope and that I'm called to partner with him in the work. It's not on my own strength, but his and he will complete that work and finish that work. So I think that's, that's how, you know, you, we look at that, that goal, that vision that we have is that we're just a part of it.

Jim: That's a great word. All right. So we're coming to a close on the podcast and the Christian leadership Alliance is a place where leaders love to come and invest the best of what they know in other leaders. Okay. That's just something that, that happens all the time with the thing, Christian leadership Alliance, Brenda Long, what leadership idea or thinking would you like to share as an investment in those listening today to the outcomes conference pod?

Brenda Long: So yeah, I guess I'd like to share that, you know, we're all leaders in one way or another, even if it's not in your title. And so, you know, even with our team members at food for the hungry, I think, you know, the leadership presses upon that you are leading whether you have a manager, supervisor, director role you're leading others.

And so I think that, you know, if, if we keep that in the forefront of our minds then we see the importance, right. That, you know, we're, we have a responsibility as Christians to be living a life that leads others to. To show them God's love how, you know, what are we doing that would point them to Christ.

And so, you know, I see CLA playing a really important role in that in developing leaders. And so, you know, this is my year plus partnership with CLA and connection with CLA and, you know, I still haven't yet. Taken that dive into all of the resources. There's so many, but I'm excited about, you know, making space for that.

Martha: So as a leader, you know, I, I just want to speak to the listeners right now and just encourage you to, to jump in, to dive in and get involved in those resources. Like Brenda said, there are just so many things available through the Christian leadership Alliance, and we're grateful for that. And there's something for everybody, right?

It's not just that you know, maybe we can't consume all of it, but that's why there's so many different options. And this podcast is a part of those wonderful options. So I'm just very grateful that you have been able to share with us and with.

Jim: Brenda at the beginning of the podcast, you talked about how God just led you to be quiet.

And now he sends you outside and in the morning, which is important that you said the morning must be early morning because in Phoenix, that area gets a little hot during the summertime. But you also mentioned you got two donkeys and I'd love to know how God has used you caring for those donkeys to help you be a better leader.

Brenda Long: It's funny. I think part of it is because you know, that they can't talk back. Right. So it's like a one-way conversation when I'm out there. And although they Bray, they break very loudly, but that's usually like at five in the morning when they're like telling me that they want food, but I I've seen it as you know, I'm not only just caring for God's creation.

You know, we all have those opportunities to care for God's creature. But, you know, this, this quiet time that I have with them, it's almost like it's just, if God and I together, we're out there in the early mornings and you know, he's, we're walking together. We're sharing this peaceful time with this giant animal that is relying on me, right.

To care for them. So as it's this picture of like, I'm relying on Christ to care for me to nurture me. You know, to grow me and this donkey is relying on me to do the same, a lot, like parenthood with your children, you know? And so I've just thought, oh, that's definitely true. Yeah. I've definitely enjoyed the journey of, of adopting these donkeys.

Yeah. It's a really positive.

Jim: Brenda Long. Thank you so much for being under the outcomes conference podcast and being transparent, sharing a little bit of your story and for even going off script. When I asked about the donkeys, thank you for coming along and we do thank Brenda Long from food for the a hungry for sharing her story today, Fh.org is where you can find out more about food for the hungry.

And thank you for joining us today on the outcomes conference podcast. And to you, our outcomes conference podcast listeners. Thanks for joining us. We pray for this podcast. Well, then it inspired you to think higher and deeper about thriving for a greater kingdom impact.

Martha: Be sure to visit ChristianleadershipAlliance.Org, where you can stay up to date by subscribing to the outcomes online newsletter and the CLA higher thinking blog.

Jim: And if you're not already a member of the Christian leadership Alliance, What are you waiting for? Join the Alliance today, Christian leadership alliance.org.

Martha: And remember the wisdom in this podcast came to you on its way to someone else. If you loved it, say so, and then share it with a friend. Jim

and I, Martha, we'll see you again for the next episode of the outcomes conference podcast.

Outro: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work with volunteer and, and best that is your mission field.

To learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement. Check out our books. iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to, iWork4Him.combookstore.

Thank you for listening to the, iWork4Him podcast with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg, please visit. iWork4Him.com to learn more about connecting your faith and work to join the hour for him nation or subscribe to our weekly blog.

You can also follow us on social media at iWork4Him to stay up to date and meet our guests. If today's message spoke to you, please subscribe, rate, and review the show on your favorite podcast platform. Your review we'll launch more workplace missionaries across. That's at, iWork4Him and online.

iWork4Him.com. I worked the number 4 him. Dot com.

4/15/22 - Celebrating 9 Year of iWork4Him!: Jim & Martha Brangenberg

Welcome to the, iWork4Him podcast. I'm Michael miracle producer of the, iWork4Him radio program, the voice of the faith and work movement. 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: You've tuned into, iWork4Him, the mouthpiece for the faith and work movement, we're your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg.

Martha: Happy ninth birthday.

Jim: Could you say that with more enthusiasm?

Martha: I am so excited. I love birthdays. I love parties. I love celebrating. And, um, I'm just excited to have everyone here along with us for this conversation today.

I want to encourage all of you. If you're listening to this, take a little Gander out to our YouTube channel, a Gander, a little journey, a little journey. Go navigate your way over to the YouTube channel for iWork4Him. Subscribe, and then, oh, you're going to navigate with the garment could be a little tough.

I don't know if he can get to YouTube from there, but anyway, there's some special content for visually that we want you to enjoy today. So, but thank you for being here with us today. Thank you for this journey. We appreciate each and every one of you,

Jim: you mean that's special visual stuff like that cool video.

Oh, which if you're watching this on YouTube, it's actually part of today's show.

Martha: Yeah, so it's exciting. It is exciting. All right. Are you ready? We're ready.

Jim: It all started with a speech, a speech about five ways to incorporate your faith into your workplace. Nine years later iWork4Him is a legacy organization with over 2000 produced podcasts.

That's actually now over 2100 produced podcasts, over 3000 different guests, three brands, three books. And so much more. I work rooms become the mouthpiece for the faith and work movement, a movement dedicated to you. The workplace believer. There's so much to talk about and celebrate Martha, let's get going.

Martha: Oh, I'm excited for this conversation. You know, one of the things it's almost like, you know, when you have a new year, when you have a birthday, when you, when you get to reflect and look at what God has done, and that's one of the things we just get to do today.

Jim: So, where are we at today? Let's talk about where we're at today.

What's amazing is that, you know, both Martha and I have a background in insurance, both commercial and personal lines insurance, but where we're at today, we are at an organization that is dedicated to really lifting up workplace believers across the country to let everybody know who's a believer in Jesus, that your work matters to God that who you are each and every day in your workplace.

That is your place of ministry. It's your mission field? Because it was filled with it filled full of loss and hopeless people. So where are we at today? We're in a spot, a sweet spot that God has put us in to encourage and lift up what God is doing across the country. And you're a

part of that,

Martha: you know, and if you want to talk, literally we're inside your phone, we are on your desktop, we're in your laptop or in your.

Earbuds, whatever you have a bookcase. That's a good one. So you're and your bumper

or your back window,

there you go on yours, even on your cell phone. Not digitally, but also like we have a little business card holders. I mean, so anyway, we're could be in your hands with the pen. sheWorks4Him Pen. God has us all over the place.

And we're just so grateful to be along for the journey.

Jim: And so we want to thank you. As we opened up the show nine years ago, saying something like this: your workplace, it's your mission field. And in that mission field, you and me, we may be the only Jesus, our coworkers, our employees, our bosses may ever meet the job that you hold, the work that you do.

The people that you work with, none of that is by chance, the people that you work with, they need to meet Jesus. And you may be their only chance that has become really the direction of iWork4Him. We're not an organization that has a ministry model that we want you to adopt. We're an organization that is dedicated to the over 3000 faith at work ministries across the country, helping you to connect to them.

So that you can get discipled deeper in your faith and in recognizing the ministry place that you call work,

Martha: you know? So it's kind of fun to look back and think of all of the things that have changed in the last nine years.

Jim: My hair, I had hair

Martha: I didn't think we were going to talk about our ourselves aging nine years.

Just like everybody else's, um, you know, over the last night, But, you know, just in little things that it's funny as we onboard different team members or different contractors that have helped us over the years. Um, I'll, I'll say like, well, when we started this nine years ago, we had no idea. Like we've used MailChimp since the very beginning, Jim and the technology has changed so much in the last nine years, things we were doing nine years ago.

They don't even create them that way anymore. So, you know, just the way we communicate. Aside from the actual show, how we communicate this show has changed in so many ways. Um, but hopefully we've adjusted and gotten with those ways as well.

Jim: And what's cool is we started podcasting from the very first show.

In fact, if you are really like to live dangerously, you can actually go back and listen to the very first show that we did over 2100 podcasts. Again. I don't recommend it, but if you want to have a good laugh, you certainly could. But what's amazing is of course back then it was just audio. And it was just a couple of people who we thought this was just going to be a part-time gig.

Actually. Martha thought it was my calling and then it was just one night a week and we were on the radio and we were podcasting. And now you go nine years later and we produce three different podcasts for every week. We're on the radio five days a week with our one minute. And we're no longer rookies.

In fact, we're helping four other organizations help produce their podcasts because it's so much fun to help people share their stories of what God is doing and the work that God has called them to do. I mean, it's cool.

Martha: Well, you know, you think it, Jim, that at the very beginning we used to drive. What, 40 minutes in rush hour traffic to get to the station to do a live show, had to be there, but you think about the process just to get a show going. And, um, the way technology has changed in how so many people have become more accustomed to podcasting today than they were nine years ago.

Um, but you know, I just was thinking about like, we had to worry about, is there going to be an accident on the way there are we going to get there in time so we can go on this. Are we going to, are you going to hit the mark? You know, are you going to hit the pole? So you get hit and the ball, whatever it is, where you get out in time for a commercial, you know, there was, there's so many things that, um, it's just been, it's fun to think about that.

Uh, the, the transition, the changes, the things that have been created along the way.

Jim: It's amazing to me because nine years ago, we never imagined that this. Grow into what it's grown into and really has it grown into something, make it Jim and Martha famous know what's been fun as it's grown into making Jesus famous in the workplace.

And that's what this is all about. It's it's about the 55 million workplace believers that go to work every day. And it's somewhere between 50 and 65 60 million give or take a million here or there. But it's to recognize that so many of us felt second class in the kingdom. So many of us felt like, well, I'm not a pastor and I'm not a missionary.

So I just go to work and I'll use that money to support the pastors and missionaries. But in fact, the calling on our lives is actually to be a missionary to our workplace, to take our faith where we go and to be a light to everyone around us. So we're going to talk more about that when we come right back.

Happy anniversary. iWork4Him, a happy anniversary to all of you are faithful listeners, nine years under the belt, and we're super excited to see nine more years. You're listening to, iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. And we'll be right back,

Martha: you know, the kind of person that always tells you about the latest trends or the special deals around town we'll lean in because here's a message from that kind of person.

The awaken podcast network is the place to be. Go to awakenpodcastnetwork.com and unlock God's purpose for your work. With help from some friends, you will find a gathering place of podcasts that provides simple tools, faith stories, and conversations that will inspire and equip you to vibrantly live out your faith in your work today.

Go ahead. Check out awakenpodcastnetwork.com and then be that kind of person and tell a friend,

Jim: Hey, welcome back to iWork4Him is Martha and I celebrate our nine years of iWork4Him on this

very day, the 15th of April, 2013, we kicked off and we celebrated nine years later on another tax day. Just enjoy paying your taxes and celebrating iWork4Him. You Martha, we've had some big victories and in the last nine years. I remember the first time we celebrated a hundred shows and then when we celebrated 500 shows and now we're over 2000.

Martha: Sorry, we quit celebrating those numbers.

Jim: Can I get a cake for 1500 or 2000?

Martha: Okay. If anybody knows you well enough, they're going to know you've not been shortened on.

No, I can't. I make cakes for lots of occasions. I'm sorry. I didn't make one for each one of those milestones.

Jim: I think what's really cool is the biggest victory is that God has taught us how to help people. Share their stories share what God is doing in their hearts and he's, and he's made us good at it.

And in fact, we get called on to do that often for other organizations. And, and that's a victory because this has been all about what Jesus has done in our own lives. And we really want to share that with other people, but we've had some doubts along the way. Haven't we.

Martha: Like I did well. Okay. So Jim always says this, he's like, oh, you Martha always thought this was my calling.

Well, the fact of the matter is, is I think maybe I'm not allowed to do impressions cause I'm not very good. I'm not allowed to. Okay. So. But the truth of the matter is we really didn't even discuss that Jim. It was kind of like, Hey, this is a conversation we need to have and Jim's going to have it behind the microphone.

Oh no, no, no,

Jim: no. We should. That we did because when we went for a one day a week and we had the second, second day week,

I'm talking about at the beginning or at the

beginning. That's what I was saying. That's when we went to five days a week and you, you said, I just thought this was your calling. I didn't know.

Okay.

Martha: Because that's how we'd been living it, but I was behind the scenes. But anyway, as you can see, I have taken the seat next to Jim over the years and we've enjoyed it. And what's really funny at the quiet. I don't know. Never, never, I, I don't think anybody would ever say that, but I let you, you know, kind of drive the boat, captain steer the boat.

I don't know. Drive the race car. Yeah. In our world. It really is more of a race car. But anyway, so God did open the doors for us to be able to do this together and to really, um, yeah. Any of those doubts that I did have, that it was supposed to be Jim behind the microphone. Um, Like it, God created us to be doing this together.

And just so people know. I in real life really don't like to banter. So, but Jim

Jim: in real life, really always like to be in trouble. Good for fun. And I'll do it to be annoying, but I do like to do it. It's it's got a

Martha: funny, but you know, I have to kind of just stand up and be, I learned to get some

Jim: words in edgewise overall,

Martha, I think what the cool thing is, and this is, we've really learned this about.

Our workplace calling as a Jesus follower. Everything about us should be changing the transformation, the redemption of our lives. Everything about us should be changing and everyone around us should be benefiting from our faith, whether they believe in Jesus or not. Right. That's the. And that's really what's come out of the last nine years is that we have learned that as Jesus followers in our workplace, we're a light and a dark place.

In fact, over 80% of the people that go to work every day, never darken the doorsteps of a church. And that number before COVID was over 70%. Now it's really actually closer to 90% of people don't go to. Uh, it doesn't mean that people aren't listening to church online, but they're not going to church, but where are they going to hear about Jesus?

And it's up to us as believers to let our faith just flow through us. The good and the raw faith I'm not talking about. You gotta be this. You're going to be perfect all the time, but to build, to be that person where you're living out your faith in rawness and transparency and authenticity. And when you screw up, you're really good at apologizing and asking for people's feelings.

But we're supposed to be a light in our workplace.

Martha: Yeah. And what I think has been amazing. Hearing the stories over and over again to the people that we get, the opportunity to interview of how God has worked that out, how the different way, what it looks like for every single person has been different, but they're learning.

We've seen this growth among people that they understand that God created me to be a really good school teacher. So I'm going to be the best school teacher I can be if that's their story. And how they're living that out in that environment,

Jim: he created you to be just amazing. And you do that really, really well.

We've got to do a lot of fun things with, iWork4Him. We started taking the show on the road in the fall of 2016. Uh, and when God told us in June of 16, you would know that, well, our first thing was at the national at a faith and work association national event in Dallas. Yes. That, uh, um, our good friend Bill Peele, uh, helped us, uh, attend that event.

And that was the beginning of now over probably almost 200,000 miles on the road for, iWork4Him. What if you were to think about our most fun on location shows where we've gone and produced shows either live or. Uh, recorded memory ex uh, w what, where where's your fullest most fun.

Martha: Most fun. I would say actually our second faith and work summit when we were in Chicago, because we did something really out of the box.

Most of the things we do are out of the box, but, um, we actually recorded shows right at our expo table, right. In the hallways people walk into. Um, having conversations about, um, either their organization, their workplace, whatever their role might have been a book that they wrote. But, um, To me, that was, that was the beginning of like, we can actually have conversations with people and have people around us almost like an audience.

And not that they w you know, not for that, but the energy for the guest. I think it just took it to a whole new level. And that was really a lot of fun.

Jim: Okay. I think the most intimidating one we did was on location at the museum of the Bible, with the founders of the museum of the Bible and the CEO of hobby lobby.

That was probably the most intimidating, but they turned out to be that just Steve and Jackie green, just amazing people, but I was a little intimidated, but probably the most fun on location for me inside the Ark in Kentucky. Yes, we've done them on location at conferences, but in the belly of the art.

And we're talking to Noah's Ark in Kentucky, the Ark encounter.

Martha: It's a, it's a rep. It's not the Noah's Ark.

Jim: Do you know that? For sure?

Martha: Yes, because it was just built.

Jim: Okay. It was built in 2017. And if you haven't been to the Ark encounter in Kentucky, it's gotta be on your list of things to go to. It is worth every mile driven to go.

It will transform your life and your thinking, and it will encourage you in your faith. And it is just an amazing experience with

Martha: know, what, I just want to share something. We could talk literally for hours like this, about just place after place, that we've been people that we've met, things that we've highlighted, things that we've learned, um, you know, like sharing about the arc.

I just, I think that that's probably been the overarching highlight for me, Jim, is that God wired us to share other people's stories, whether they're hard. What their victory is because God's in the middle of it.

Jim: We'll be right back with more on. With your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. Thanks for listening. Enjoy this message.

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Jim: Hey, welcome back to iWork4Him. I hope you enjoyed that special treat in there where you got to see our anniversary video as if you were watching. Yeah. If you're not watching this on YouTube, you should subscribe to our YouTube and watch us. You could actually see me make funny faces.

And see Martha make those funny scowl marks that she makes when I make

this funny face.

Martha: Man, I don't know where he's going to go with this one, but that's okay.

Jim: What's really cool. About 2022, the year we're recording this nine year anniversary show for, I worked for him is in August of this year, Martha and I will have known each other 40 years, 40 years.

Wow. She was 16 and I was 16. And so yes, that makes us 56. This. But thank you for a reminder. Just amazing. But here's, what's really cool is that that those four decades have gone really fast, but we've known each other a really long time, which is why she can give me that scowl and I can laugh about it.

Now y'all Martha. I think of some major accomplishments. We used to do one show a day and we used to do a live show a day. And then we went on location the first time in 2019, and we had to do four shows in a day. And then one time we did them at, for the Christian leadership Alliance. 12 shows in 48 hours.

Like that was a lot. And now we've gotten to where we have days where we can produce seven shows in a day, and God has just given us that ability to actually run a marathon. And that's, that's a great accomplishment because we do a lot of talking.

Martha: We do. It's amazing that even you and I can run out of words at the end of the day, but God always shows up and gives us the energy to do each and every one of them. So, Jim, I'm going to, I'm going to ask you a question.

Jim: Sometimes the energy has to be supplemented with a cool, refreshing mountain Dew. This is true, but never a Chick-fil-A lemonade because it dries you out.

Martha: We've learned that the hard way. So Jim, let's let, I want to hear from you.

What are some of the biggest dreams that God has laid on your heart right now for iWork4Him.

You don't really like big dreams. I would love to see us as we head into 2023 for us to launch iWork4Him for the next generation to have some millennial hosts that will take over this show and take it down generation, uh, to people that are in their twenties and their thirties.

'cause we keep taking it up because we're aging, right?

Jim: I do. You still look the same as you did when we were 16. Um, but the, the other big dreams we would really love to do, we have three things on our hearts. Number one, we would love to be able to connect everybody that's participating in the faith and work movement, all the ministries.

We want to connect them all together and connect all of you to all of them. No matter where you are in the country, do you know the closest ministry that's perfectly equipped to help you take your discipleship in your workplace to the next level? That's something we really want to do. That's really something we're really excited about doing.

Martha: And what else?

Jim: Oh, well, what's the number two thing

Martha: we want?To, uh, what are we wanting to do? I don't know. Why are we drawing a blank here?

Jim: Hey, the next thing we really want to do is we really want to have a marriage retreat center for executives who run ministries, whether they're pastors or whether they're business owners that are running a ministry.

Because if you're a manager, you're a pastor over people, or whether you're a pastor of a small church. We really want to have a place. where all those people have a place to go work on their marriage, not if it's not just cause if it's a trouble, but actually work on strengthening their marriage. That's one of the things that we really want to see, get done.

Martha: You know, and let me just remind people that years when we, I, at some point early on, we used to do shows called together on Tuesday with Jim and Martha and our passion

Jim: with Jim and Martha Brangenberg.

Martha: There you go. That's about what it used to say. So, um, we just have a real passion for marriage because we believe that it is the foundation of so much that we can do in all of our work. Our work is affected. If our marriage is stressed, our marriage is stressed. If our work is, I mean, it goes back and forth.

And so having that conversation all the time. Is, um, something that's just a big passion of ours and not waiting till crisis that's right. But being able to be proactive, which is something that is sometimes hard for people to do and to have a place to do that. So that's just a real passion for it.

Jim: And I don't know if you've noticed, iWork4Him listeners, but the enemy doesn't like marriage because marriage is the foundation for strong families and strong families have the foundations for strong churches and strong communities.

And when you destroy the marriage, You can destroy families and destroy communities. Divorce carries on its repercussions to the children and the grandchildren. That's the opposite is the opposite. We're trying to strengthen marriages so we can be a blessing to the children, the grandchildren of the great grandchildren.

 Martha, our last big, hairy, audacious, super audacious goal is to create the, iWork4Him network, not a television network, but a complete network dedicated to the workplaces of America. So in other words, there are many, many organizations that will break up the economy. The United States into seven different sectors, education, business government, uh, the church, family arts and entertainment and media.

And there are people that work in all of those different, uh, sectors of the economy in every state and our, our wish. Sometime this decade, we actually have a show dedicated to every one of those sectors in every state at a minimum that's 399. Podcasts will be released every month. That's really our big, hairy, audacious goal multiplied times three, because take for instance education.

How about you can have a primary education. You can have secondary education, you can have college education and graduate education. That's four different podcasts for. We just, we know that God is doing amazing things and all parts of our economy, but where do you go to listen to those stories? What news channels can you tune into here?

That's right there. Isn't one. We want to help create that.

Martha: You know, being able to hear the good news, being able to hear someone that works in an area similar to you and has allowed God to infiltrate decisions that are being made or conversations that they're having or whatever that might be in their workspace.

We just believe that there's a reason that we can gravitate towards people that are. That same experience and we can learn from each other. So that, that is a big dream. So Jim, okay. You know, it's, I don't usually do the glass half empty thing, but you know, I think sometimes in, we even talked about actually, I'm going to switch here.

We haven't talked at all about the, sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him, which I know. So I just, I feel like that is such a great thing that God has just opened the door for to be able to expand beyond just work in general and really speak into the Christian working woman and also to the Christian retiree.

Who's who they're calling does not retire when they. So being able to have those conversations has been very exciting

Jim: and writing books to those same three audits audiences. iWork4Him. iRetire4Him And sheWorks4Him. Yeah, Martha, the biggest disappointment of the nine years is that we're not doing live radio every day. I really liked that, but the good news is it makes it so that we can actually get other things accomplished. Cause we're not just producing live radio every day. This is what we've got a hopeful future. There's God is preparing us for even more things. And we're hoping that you get to be a part of this.

As we, as we take, iWork4Him into 2022 and

Martha: beyond, and taking you with us. So I just I'm. For the donors that have made it possible. Lots of people that have, I'm sending encouraging notes to just say, keep it up. You're making a difference. Or here's something God's doing in my life to know, we know God is alive and well in the workplaces all around us.

And you're a part of that. And we're just, I can't believe it's been nine

Jim: years. Thank you Father nine amazing years. Of calling us to do radio, to do podcast, to do speaking, to do emceeing, to write three books. I'm sorry. Connie Johnson, my English teacher in eighth grade. I know you never thought I could actually write a full sentence.

All of that for God's glory. It's amazing. And we're super glad that you've been part of it. If you, this has been new, maybe this is one of the first time you listen to our. Check us out online. iWork4Him.com that's I work the number 4 him.com. You can access, get access to all of our brands out there on our website, all of our written resources and find out where we're going to be the events that we're working at.

I mean, just everything that we're doing. We'd love to meet you face to face. If you happen to be in an audience that we're speaking at, come up and say, Hey, I listen to the podcast, Martha I, the nine years has gone fast.

Martha: Yes. Happy birthday.

Jim: Happy anniversary. Is there cake?

Martha: There's always cake,

Jim: but she didn't make a cake cause I don't smell one.

Okay. Okay. There's no cake in the studio to us. Otherwise we'd have it right here because Martha would have me show it on the video. You will listen to, iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers, our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him.

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It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world for some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, the cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom,

wherever it is that you. With volunteer and invest. That is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work and retirement.

Check out our books: iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him. by Going to iWork4Him.Com/bookstore.

Thank you for listening to the, iWork4Him podcast with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg, please visit. iWork4Him.com to learn more about connecting your faith and work to join the IWork4Him nation or subscribe to our weekly blog.

You can also follow us on social media @iWork4Him to stay up to date and meet our guests. If today's message spoke to you, please subscribe, rate, and review the show on your favorite podcast. Your review will launch more workplace missionaries across America. That's @iWork4Him and online iWork4Him.com. I work the number 4 him. Dot com.

4/8/22 - A High Impact Life and Business: Pete Ochs, author of High Impact Life

Welcome to the, iWork4Him podcast. I'm Michael miracle producer of the, I work for am radio program, the voice of the faith and work movement. Our mission is to transform the workplace of every Christian and into a mission field. What does that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.

Jim: You've tuned into, iWork4Him, the mouthpiece for the faith and work movement or your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg.

Martha: Thanks so much for being with us today. You know, I was just thinking about the lonely little social media platform called LinkedIn and the fact that, you know, we, I know you were on it all the time, but we don't highlight it very often.

So I just wanted to remind everyone that LinkedIn is a great way to not only connect with Jim and I personally, but also the brands iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him. In places where you can be sharing with your coworkers, with your employees, the people that you engage with on LinkedIn, share with them the message that you may be here on one of these podcasts.

So I'd love for you to connect with us there. We'd love to get to know you better.

Jim: You know, some interviews are a piece of cake to set up and some are not today's. Interview has been in the works for two plus years. Pete Ochs owns an investment firm that owns parts or all of many businesses. One of them is a manufacturing.

Pete also loves Jesus at age 40 Pete was S was successful in getting close to being independently wealthy, but he had a serious case of life dissatisfaction, not unlike king Solomon, as he expressed it in Ecclesiastics, God said, Pete, on a road to satisfaction that took him to prison. And not the way you think today, you're going to hear the story of how Pete interlaces his faith in his business and how that interlacing is changing lives every day, all over camp.

And around the country, Pete Ochs, welcome to iWork4Him,

Pete Ochs: Jim and Martha. It is great to be here and I'm it has been well worth the wait.

Jim: I hope they feel that way at the end of the interview. Why did you become a follower of Jesus?

Pete Ochs: Yes. So GMI would, you know, I was, I had the privilege of growing up in a Christian home and my parents were godly.

Great. And so at the age of 12, literally at a summer camp, I came to Christ and that changed my life. But I will tell you, it probably wasn't until I got to college. I went to college in the early seventies and I think the times then were almost as crazy as they are today. And when I saw the, the nuttiness of the world, I just began to dig deeper because I'd grown up in a small.

Town in, in Kansas. And it was, I was probably fairly sheltered. And so I ran into some other Christians there who just lived the life of Jesus, like I'd never seen. And so I began to fellowship with them. I remember you know, they were very good about encouraging me to be in God's word. When I, I picked up I'd always used.

King James Bible. And they, they gave me a new international version. And I started reading that and I literally read that entire Bible in one setting because I had never seen God's word so alive and come off the page like it did. So I was literally taken by God's word in it. I think I made, I made Jesus my savior at 12.

I think I made him the Lord of my life incoming.

Martha: Hmm, what a powerful message. And it is so true. The more that we read the scripture for ourselves and apply it, let it soak into our own lives. The more we can have that perspective of what God has for us in our lives. And I think that's going to be thread throughout this conversation today.

Jim: So Pete, tell us about your company. What is Capital three all about? It's a Capital III or capital. I, I always say it in my head. Not sure which one it is.

Pete Ochs: Yeah. So we call it Capital III. Okay. And that is because we really want to create three forms of capital economic, social, and spiritual. And, and we'll get into that.

I'm sure at some point in time here, but I spent eight years in the commercial banking business and at the age of 30. Yes, I didn't want it to be an entrepreneur. So I started my own company and that was Capital III. We spent the first eight years of that being the middleman in the sale of privately held companies.

So we would, we would help buyers and sellers put their transaction together. And in the 1990s I violated the number one rule of business, and that is don't fall in love with your inventory. And we ha there was a little business that was available for sale and we bought it. And that started this on a journey.

So during the nineties, we put together a portfolio of companies that we purposed. We purchased, we typically did the leveraged buyout transaction. We put a little down, we leveraged them very hard. We'd rent them for four or five years and then flip them. We made a lot of money doing that. I will tell you that was satisfying to a degree nine 11 hit in 2001.

And it really changed the way we did business. We came very close to going broke and I think God used that to get my attention. So over the next 20 years we'd had you know, we skinnied up we had seven or eight companies. We shrank that down to three. And so today we have really four companies that we're dealing with.

We have a manufacturing company called electrics. We build electrical assemblies. We have a wiring harness company, and that is our wearing harness company. We have a industrial seating company called seat king. We have a run of river hydroelectric project. The company, we build projects in Honduras called Rio energy.

And. We're launching or soon to launch an education coaching company around high impact businesses. So we employ about 1200 folks in three countries today.

Jim: That's fantastic. So, Pete, at what point in time in your life though, did you realize that your work as a business guy, as an entrepreneur, as a, as a professional investor was a ministry and in fact, a fantastic mission field?

Pete Ochs: Yes. Well Jim, that was a. I will tell you, I spent the first eight years of my professional life in the commercial banking business. I had this entrepreneurial itch to start my own business. So I started an investment banking company at the age of 30. I will tell you, the first three years of that were excruciating, I took a seventy-five percent pay cut.

I went from working from eight in the morning, till five at night to five in the morning to eight at night. I did that. For about three years, my wife came to me and said time out and you can't do this anymore. So I agreed not to work on Sunday and only work a half a day on Saturday. And all of a sudden my business flourished.

And I think it was one of those things where God was teaching me a lesson that if you don't honor the Sabbath things aren't going to go that well. So over the next six or seven years, we had a really good run One of the companies that we were the middleman on was a bang. We had found a bank and sold that to a gentleman who was not a banker.

He got in trouble. I got called in to take the bank over and straighten it out. A long story short, I was repossessing assets and suing people and doing everything I could. And I happened to be counter sued by one of those people that I was trying to repossess their business because the bank was in really, it was in deep trouble actually.

I went to my attorney. He said, Pete the prior gentleman, when he loaned that fellow, the money violated a number of banking rules and you're done, I had bought the stock of the bank. So I inherited all the liabilities and I was distraught. I said, no, we've got to go ahead. Long story short, we started depositions went through four or five days.

I was spending $8,000 a day. On Friday. I got up knowing that I was going to start over in life. I was reading in Proverbs six, the Ochs translation that says if you've gotten yourself in a jam, go humble yourself and beg to get out of the jam. So that day I went to the fellow that was suing me and asked if I could speak to him.

His attorney allowed us that to happen. So I went to his office at 2:00 AM Sunday after. He came in. He said, what do you want? So I get up out of my chair. I walk over and I get down on my knees in front of his desk. And I said Lynn I'm a Christian. I was reading to my quiet time on Friday in Proverbs six, that if you've gotten yourself in a jam, go humble yourself and beg to get out of the jam.

I'm I'm I'm this lawsuit has me in a jam. I will go bankrupt. And I'm begging you. Let me out of this lawsuit and. He began to weep uncontrollably. He told me he'd become a Christian 30 days earlier. And in five minutes we had the lawsuit settled for the first time in my life. I understood that God's word could help me in business and it changed my life from there really going forward.

Martha: Wow. So what did that look like? What did that perspective change do w as you started to apply it to your businesses, what did that look like?

Pete Ochs: Martha. I think the, the big thing was I made the switch after that happened, I then sought out some mentors and really began to say, what does that look like?

And I had, I'd never heard of the word stewardship. And all of a sudden I was introduced to the word stewardship versus ownership. And when that happened, it rocked my world. So during the nineties, I just spent my time saying, what does it look like to Sue. God's business. And that is where probably a lot of our philosophy generosity, all of these kinds of things came into being.

And unforuntunately I missed stewardship and I thought it was financial generosity. So we put the hammer down our business. We made a lot of money. We gave a lot of money away, nine 11 rolled around and we about went bang bankrupt again. And I, I looked at God and yeah. Don't you understand what I've done for you really well for you?

I'm sure. Yeah, it it, it, he taught me another lesson and I think I went from pursuing success at age 40 to significance really at age 40. But I think at the age of 50 on that second go round, I went, you know, went from success, holding on tightly to the things that Pete had accumulated to significance, letting God use them as he wanted to really surrender when I was 50.

And. Put everything on the table, God, it's yours. How do you want me to change my life?

Martha: You know, and that's such a huge thing for somebody, especially in your industry where it's stewardship and ownership. Like that's what you, that's what you juggle all day long. And so for God to teach you that lesson, something that we can all learn from what a great thing.

Jim: Yeah. That's what we're going to hear from Pete Ochs. Check them out online, high impact life.com high impact life. And a little later on the show, we're going to give away a copy, a bundle of books and the training, a high impact life. Get tuned in to sign up and call the number (866) 713-9675. We'll be right back with more from Pete Ochs.

Martha: You know, the kind of person that always tells you about the latest trends or the special deals around town we'll lean in because here's a message from that kind of person. The awakened podcast network is the place to be. Go to awaken podcast, network.com and unlock God's purpose for your work. With help from some friends, you will find a gathering place of podcasts that provides simple tools, faith stories, and conversations that will inspire and equip you to vibrantly live out your faith in your work today.

Go ahead. Check out awaken podcast, network.com and then be that kind of person and tell a friend.

Jim: Hey, welcome back to iWork4Him. As we're talking today with Pete Ochs, you can check them out online. His favorite website is high impact life.com. High impact life.com. Martha.

Martha: Well, there is. So actually it is a coupon code available to all of you listeners.

It's 10% off. And I think we're going to talk more about what this product is in a minute, because we need to understand what we're, what we're getting here. But if you go to the high-impact life.com and look for the book bundle, and then there's a small group video series at all. Hand in hand and there's a 10% off coupon code.

If you put in, iWork4Him, that's I work the number for him and you'll be able, and we'll put that in the show notes. So it's not like you have to juggle and figure that all out right now, but we just want to point that out because you know, it's so great. When we have a generous guest guest who has a product that can be so useful for each one of us to be able to have that.

Jim: Why don't you tell us about the usefulness? What is, what is this useful for?

Pete Ochs: Oh, Jim, I would say it's useful for the person who has, who thinks that their platform, their job or their career is their purpose in life. Your job or your platform is really just the venue that God's given you to live out your purpose.

I believe that your, our purpose in life is really to honor God. You'll see. On the front of the book, we talk about loving your purpose, living with patient, leveraging your platform. And loving your purpose, I think is really to honor God. I think your patience, once you make that transformation to follow Jesus, we moved from, we moved from pride pleasure and possessions to serving people, to being excellent, being a good steward.

I think it's that, that whole transformation. So we should become patient, not about pride, pleasure, and possessions, but about service excellence and stewardship. When we do that, it really impacts our platform. Which is really contains three things. We call it economic, social, and spiritual wealth or capital.

And the biggest mistake I've made my life is to think that my platform was my purpose. So I would really encourage people not to do that.

Martha: So the one thing I'm curious, and you can just tell us and the listeners all at the same time, there's a companion guide. So this is not necessarily just a journey to take by ourselves.

Tell us what. How that helps us.

Pete Ochs: Yes. So I think one of the most important things I did Martha in my life at the age of 25 was to write my first personal plan so that the habits guide that goes with this really is a step by step guide over eight weeks. It will take you through your own personal plan.

So you'll wind up. Learning how to do a personal mission statement. You'll define your values. You'll then you'll talk about some 50 year goals. We try to think, you get you to think bigger. And then of course, we just set all these particular goals with regards to your family and your work and all those kinds of things.

And I have found. I've written a personal plan every year now for 45 years. And I think it's one of the most important things I do annually.

Jim: How did you do a 25 on your 50 year plan? Cause you're coming up on that. How'd you do?

Pete Ochs: So in the plan back then I called them , which you're familiar with big, hairy audacious goals.

So I set three or four big, hairy audacious goals in my 25 when I was 25. I have achieved all of those goals and I think we oftentimes don't think big enough. I think sometimes there is this thing that you need to think bigger. And I, and I'm, I don't think thinking bigger just to think bigger is what you should do.

I think you should think bigger as to how God can work through you to do things. So I'm a big believer in setting those goals, because I think subconsciously. Maybe everyday. I didn't look at those, but they were in the back of my mind and everything I did, I was working towards achieving those.

Jim: Yeah.

Speaking of super big bee hags, I like call them SB hags, super BX and, and transformational thinking. And really what'd you described in a high impact life is just teaching people, a kingdom mindset, really transforming their thinking, the whole Romans 12, two transformation. And you applied that to capital.

'cause one of your businesses is a manufacturing business. As you mentioned before, what's so unusual about the way you do your manufacturing.

Pete Ochs: So once again, Capital III stands for the creation of economic, social and spiritual capital. Milton Friedman. The renowned economist won a Nobel prize because he made the statement or the philosophy that the purpose of business is to maximize shareholder value.

We think it is greater than that. We think it is to create, make money, but also to build great relationships and ultimately share, you know, the hope that we have in Jesus. So Two of our businesses, actually one's located in seek king is actually located in a maximum security prison. And we have another business now located in a medium security prison called electrics.

So on any given day, we employ about 220 inmates that build Steph force inside of a maximum security prison. We have about a hundred thousand square feet in there this year. We'll build 800,000 seats inside. If you can imagine 12 or 15 semi-loads of material coming in and out of a maximum security prison, it is a, it's definitely a challenge.

Jim: Yeah. Logistic challenge. Let's make sure that there's nothing else we'll see D coming in and those that manufacturing pieces, but they make

Martha: sure of all of that. I'm sure. I'm sure they do. There's probably a few checks and balances.

Jim: Putting a manufacturing facility inside of a maximum meat and medium security prison, little bit of an out of the box idea, but talk about a kingdom impact, your reputation proceeded you, which is why you're on the show today.

This has been a really big deal. Hasn't it?

Pete Ochs: It has been. And if I'm honest with you, Jim, I went in there because of greed. We had, we had a rapidly growing manufacturing company and I could not find enough work. To work, entry-level manufacturing to work in that business. So I went to the local, I'd heard about the work release program, where they literally take inmates and they ship them to your business.

You work them during the day, and then they go back to prison at night. I did that and I did that for a month. And I went back to the warden of the prison and said, I need 10 or 12 more of these guys. He said, I don't have them. But what I have is we are vacating manufacturing space inside of the. And if you could figure out how to move your business inside the walls of a prison, I've got a thousand guys ready to work.

And I said, that is perfect. And within 30 days we had moved a portion of our business inside the walls of a maximum security prison. And that was in 2006.

Martha: Okay. So this is where I get a little excited. So talk about what the result has been of taking that step, even, and I love that. You're honest that you said, you know, this story.

Out of greed, you had a need and you saw a way to get it filled, but isn't that that's creative, but what more has God done as a result of that relationship with the yes,

Pete Ochs: Martha? I had no idea what would happen literally within about 90 days of being inside the prison? God really showed me that this was a place we could have.

Great. So we had had this philosophy of this triple bottom line of business economics, social and spiritual capital. But I think being inside of the prison, it is a desert of human flourishing. There is no money, there are no relationships and there's not very much Jesus. Okay. And so we really began to figure out how we could help these.

I like the parable of the good Samaritan because you know, it talks about the li the th the spiritual guys, the priest and Levi came along and they walked around the guy laying in the ditch dine, but the good Samaritan, and I like to think of him as an entrepreneur came along, picked him up, took him to the hotel, paid for his room, et cetera.

So we try to always lead with economic capital. We want to give you a good job in a. The second thing we want to do is we want to love you. Like, we love ourselves. We want to create a great relationship. And when you do that in this whole, the doors to spiritual capital, literally fly over. How do you pay

Jim: guys in prison?

I mean, cause they're used to getting 20 cents a day for stamping license know, license plates. You can't, I mean, what do they do with the money? I mean, do you actually pay them like normal wages?

Pete Ochs: Kansas is actually one of the leaders in private industry inside of prisons. So we pay our folks a fair wage.

Probably a minimum of $10 an hour up to as high as $25 an hour. We actually don't even set the wage. The state of Kansas will have wage books and they'll look at a welder and maybe has five years of experience. We owe him $18 an hour. So we literally pay what the state of Kansas said is the prevailing wage rate for that particular work that has had a unbelievable.

I will tell you that 25% of that wage comes off the top and goes back to the state of Kansas for room and board. Okay. So this year's there's probably a, this year, there'll be 1.5 million paid by our inmates that go back to the state of Kansas for room and board. Also, restitution comes out. Child support comes out.

They have money. They cost 17 cents a minute to visit with your family. If you're talking on a prison, So, if you make 50 cents a day, you simply don't have family relationships because you can't visit with them. Our guys probably spend 20, 30, $40 a week just speaking with their family.

Martha: So the impact of that, being able to build those relationships and, and have conversation with their own family as a result of being employed, that that's just one tip of the iceberg that we wouldn't have any perspective on.

If we have not lived in that world. That's just amazing.

Jim: So, I mean, we, we gotta take a break. When I come back, I want to ask this question. I want to know how do you manage people inside of prison? Because that means you have to send, you got to send people to prison in order to work, to manage the people that are working inside the prison who were supposed to be there.

And we want to talk about the light. Melissa. And iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. As we talked with Pete Ochs, check them out online, high impact life.com high impact life.com. We'll be right back. Want to build a profitable side hustle that impacts people with truth and healing in themselves and in their leadership.

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This workshop is 100%. And you can reserve your spot by going to giant.tv / iWork4Him. If you're ready to impact people and get paid to do it, go to giant.tv / iWork4Him. That's giant.tv / iWork4Him. Hey, welcome back to iWork rim. Talking today with Pete Ochs.

He's got an incredible story. I hope you're enjoying as it lays out for us here on the podcast. High impact life.com. If you want to see what Pete has done in his businesses and apply it to your own at what he's doing at Capital III, do it in your own high-impact life.com high impact life.com. Pete has said before the break, I want to ask this question, okay, you got all these inmates, you know, and we all, we always joke about, you know, don't let the inmates out of the building.

Well, this case you can't let the inmates out of the building and they're building your they're manufacturing, the stuff that you sell, how do you manage those people? Are you. Paul and in managers, are you sending managers to prison so they can make, I mean, tell us how this works.

Pete Ochs: Yes. So we have about let's the current time, about 220 inmates working for us.

I am guessing that on a average day, 25 to 30 of our people will literally go inside of the prison and manage those folks. So we have, you know, the general manager will have. We literally have inmates doing very sophisticated computer aided design workforce. So we'll have managers over various departments.

So those people are very committed and they have, I will tell you they've bought into our vision of, of really changing the world through helping inmates. We have a a saying in our business that leaders bring vision, humility and courage to a team. And the vision that we have cast for the inmates is that we want to have the best prison in the United States of America.

And the way we will have that prison the way we, it will be the best prison is that if they are the best inmates. So our promise to them is that we will help you do whatever it takes to help you become the best person you can be, be in prison. So we have all kinds of social programs. We have 15,000 hours of training.

We started a seminary in the prison. We've had eight graduate, we've got 23 currently in tow. We built a million dollar church inside of the prison. So there are just this multitude of things. We teach them generosity. We challenged them a couple of years ago to build one house in Ecuador that was demolished by.

An earthquake and they built three. And so we match everything they do. So they're just to S to see when you, when you give someone a good job and you love them, like he loved him set. And you give them the hope that you can have in Jesus yet totally transforms them. And it has been a really, really powerful thing, you know,

Martha: Pete, and I think that's one of the things that gets Jim and I so excited is that number.

I mean, there's so many things we could focus in on, but the fact that God gave you the opportunity to look at a situation very creatively and say, how can. We all be winners in this situation, but then the fact that you have this core values that you're, you're touching on, you know, the economic, the social and the spiritual, and you just very quickly showed us a lots of things that are happening inside the prison, in all of those areas.

And we know this is just the tip of the iceberg and it's not your only business. And it's not the only way that God is doing this. But what I hope the listeners hear is that. We can all be creative. We can all ask him to give us solutions beyond what we could ever imagine. I had never, ever heard of anything like this happening inside the walls of a prison and to hear the opportunity and the.

You know, you are, you are being the tool for second chances for a lot of people. And the, the, just the ripple effect of that, that you will never know how it's impacted them is so exciting. And I just want the listeners for all of us to say, Lord, what do you have in, what do I have responsibility over?

And what can I be doing with that? And have it be more than just the economic impact. Going beyond that and the flourishing that's happening in that prison alone, let alone the homes that then see it. So

Jim: let's start with us. So what is that impact on the lives of your workers while they're in prison and then after they get out, because you've got a rotating workforce because people would go to prison in maximum security, maybe they're in there for a long time, but the medium security they're in and out.

I mean, what talk about the impact?

Pete Ochs: Sure. Let's start with economic impact, but first they have a job and they're learning a trade. Oftentimes they'll leave us with five. We had men leave us with 50 to $70,000 of cash. Many of them start jobs. Two men got out two months ago and they've started a welding shop.

We hooked them up with other businesses in town that needed subcontract, welding. I can tell you One of the inmates that got out that was in for life and literally got out because he bought into this vision of being the best inmate that he could be at earned. He wrote a 40 page manual on how to be the best inmate that earned him, a parole hearing.

He eventually got out. He now runs a company called redemption, a redemption Inc. And it's a tattoo shop and he literally. Just signed a multi-million dollar contract with Netflix to talk about and to show how he is redeeming gangs and gang tattoos through this business of his. So it's, it's just amazing.

The greatest thing probably we see is that, you know, they have relationships with their families. And then, you know, our, our ultimate goal is to share the love of Jesus with them. Many of them come to Christ, some don't, but they've all heard the good news.

Jim: So, I mean, they're in prison in Kansas somewhere and they get out.

Do you have jobs for them in manufacturing after they get out? Like, do you have some inmates that could get out of prison, but go back to work in prison every day because they get out, but they have a job. I mean, how's that.

Pete Ochs: Sure. So we do have some jobs available and if we have a job, we will definitely hire them.

We probably have 10 or 12 working force. Now, if not, we have really good relationships with many businesses around Wichita throughout Kansas, and we'll literally get on the phone and it doesn't take very long for them to get a job. I will tell you one other major statistic that is just amazing. The recidivism rate.

That's the rate that inmates come back to prison over a five-year period is typically about 70%, seven 0%. Ours is 7%. So if you run those numbers at a cost of about 30,000 per year to house an inmate, the economic impact alone to the state of whatever state is amazing. Send

Jim: your check to Pete Ochs for president Pete Ochs for president.com.

He knows the president. Imagine if we could actually attack crime like this in every state of the union and all seven territory. Hmm, a beat. It's just, it's UN that's staggering. That is staggering numbers. Recidivism rate to be reduced by 63 to 63% from 70 to 7%. That's a staggering Martha final question.

Martha: It is so P you know, God obviously is not done with you. Yet you, he has done so many things through you that he is allowed your fingers to touch, including the writing of this book, a high impact life that we've been talking about. And remember the all the links will be in the show notes for getting access to that at a discounted rate.

But what does God have for you next? What are you doing now in this next stage? Whatever that may be to help transform lives and influence the marketplace.

Pete Ochs: You bet. So I turned 72 weeks. And, and so I will tell you the last three or four years of my life has been a challenge for me. I liked the fight.

I love business. I'm an entrepreneur, but I've also realized that there are stages of in life that you need to, you have to change. I had to let the younger generation of leaders in our business step up and take over. So if I have really work the last two or three years to say, how am I going to spend my seventies?

And how's it going to be the most impactful? So we are about to come out with a new book called high impact business, and we literally take you through, I've just gone back and looked at our business for the last 20 years. And I've taken all of our operating systems and all of our procedures. And we really talk about the four key disciplines of business.

What's the purpose of your business? The why question who what's the strategy of your business, basically? Who are you serving? How, how do you operate, which is the operations of your business and what is your impact or your, and that's the execution of businesses. We are hopefully launching this summer an online literally an online MBA program to learn how to do high impact business.

So I'm really excited about that. I love young people and I love business. So that's really been going to be my first.

Jim: Pete, we could talk for hours and we've already talked for over a half an hour. I just can't. Thank you enough for the time you've taken, just to share your story, to share the inspiration.

I'm hoping that everybody listening, today's thinking about how can I do, how can I hear the Lord to do something totally innovative? Let's, let's get it to be reproduced in prisons across America. And then let's bring those manufacturing businesses back to small town America, where there is a desperate need for jobs all over the Midwest and around the country.

Pete Ochs. Thank you so much for being an iWork4Him today.

Pete Ochs: Jim and Martha has been great to be here. I love the key is to work for him. So I really appreciate what you all are doing. Stay at it.

Jim: All right. Check out Pete. Online, high impact life.com high impact life.com. You've been listening to the iWork radio program with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg.

Our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him.

Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work with volunteer and best that is your mission field.

To learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement. Check out our books. iWork4Him. For him and iRetire4Him. I going to, iWork4Him.com/bookstore. Thank you for listening to the, iWork4Him podcast with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg, please visit. iWork4Him.com to learn more about connecting your faith and work to join the iWork4Him nation or subscribe to our weekly blog.

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4/1/22 - Thriving in Community: Mark Tjernagel, CFO at CRU

Intro: Welcome to the iWork4Him Podcast. I'm Michael Miracle producer of the, iWork4Him radio program, the voice of the faith and work movement. 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: This episode of iWork4Him was previously recorded for the Christian Leadership Alliance's Outcomes Conference Podcast, where leaders come to invest the best of what they know into other leaders.

Martha: Remember, if you have influence over just one person, you are a leader. Together let's listen to this Podcast and learn more about leading God's way. Enjoy!

Jim: Martha and I are excited to host the Outcomes Conference Podcast. Every Podcast is dedicated to you, our Outcomes Conference Podcast listener. We have an incredible conversation coming up today with Mark from CRU. You remember old Campus Crusade called CRU today? C R U .org, C R U .org, where you can find them online.

We'll be focusing on leadership and thriving. And of course the related Outcomes. Mark Tjernagel, welcome to the Outcomes Conference Podcast.

Mark Tjernagel: Thanks. It's great to be here!

Jim: Before we get started with talking about your leadership role and your perspective of what God is doing and leading through you as the CFO of the environment at CRU and the people underneath you tell us personally how you keep your faith strong and how you keep your leadership Christ centered every day.

Mark Tjernagel: Well, it's, I mean, this is the challenge from the Christian life, right? How do you stay centered daily? Like moment by moment. And for me, it's just being reminded daily of my need for God to do his work in and through me. You know, am I submitting myself to him in humility? Am I asking the holy spirit to work in me, to control my thoughts and words and actions?

You know, when when I first was introduced to CRU- like CRU's mostly known for like these two booklets, like back in our, you know, our ancient history. The four spiritual laws, you know, basic presentation of the gospel. But the other booklet people sometimes forget about it was, it was the color blue, so people refer to it as the blue booklet, but it was basically a small booklet talking about how to, how to walk in the power of the spirit.

Jim: Wow.

Mark Tjernagel: So how does the holy spirit play a role in your daily life? And you know, it's a lesser known book than the, then the gospel booklet of the four spiritual laws, but it's equally as powerful and important in the life of a believer and in my life. I mean, how many times have I started the day in my own power and strength, and then gotten to the end of the day and thought, man, this is a difficult time?

Instead of simply humbling myself, going to the Lord, thanking him that I'm his child, asking his holy spirit already lives in me to, to continue his work in me and through me. I mean, it's so much, it makes such a big difference in your daily life. If it's the Lord doing the work, versus if you're trying to struggle and strain through it in your own strength.

So, you know, that's, to me that it's not really a big secret, it's not a, you know, this dynamic formula, you know, this big conspiracy, it's simply the Lord -allowing the Lord to work in me and through me.

Jim: Hmm. That's a good word though. It's always a great reminder.

Martha: It really is. So Christian Leadership Alliance is really- this year- the word thrive is, is at the top. You know, it's on the tip of our tongue and it's really been a focus. What does thriving mean to you personally, Mark?

Mark Tjernagel: Well, let's talk about thriving in context. Okay. I, I think thriving entails a holistic view of life, right? So it's, it's it's health and its health in what ways? It's being healthy spiritually, right? Am I, am I doing the things we just talked about? Am I walking in the power of the spirit or in my own strength? Am I, am I studying his word? Am I kind of growing in my knowledge and understanding of him and how I live that out? Am I healthy physically? Right?

Am I, am I eating right? Am I exercising? Am I healthy and my key relationships, right? With my, with my wife, my kids, with my grandkids, with my, my parents and brothers and sisters and friends, like, am I healthy relationally? How's my mental health? You know, there's a lot of stress and anxiety. I mean, there always has been, it seems like this last year, it's, it's been, it's been upped a notch quite a bit.

How am I doing mentally in my mental health? What about intellectually? I mean, am I, am I growing? Am I healthy? Kind of in my understanding of things and am I in my trying to learn and to get better - work in -different parts of life? So thriving to me is really a comprehensive view of like and here's, here's, here's a couple of reasons why I take more of a comprehensive view as opposed to saying, well, thriving is just spiritual or it's just at work or whatever.

Unfortunately at my church in Orlando we've had two pastors that were extraordinarily gifted preachers, but who stumbled morally. It was tragic, you know, one aspect of their lives going really well. They're thriving. Church is growing. People are coming. Lives are being changed. They're preaching and unpacking the word in a dynamic way.

And yet another part of their life wasn't thriving, right? There was, there was something wrong. They weren't healthy. Here's an example of me personally, right? Not to pick on others, but it just take me personally. I'm a, I'm a doer and a goer. Like my pre pandemic life. I'm on the road all the time. I'm working.

I'm doing lots of hours. I'm go, go, go, go, go, go, go. And I don't always take care of myself physically when I do that, like when you're on the road or you're busy or you're stressed and you're, you know, you're working like how easy is it to just say, well, instead of eating healthy, I'm just going to grab the closest, fastest thing I can grab, right? Fast food, you know, whatever it might be or just not eat. Or go through the day on coffee, diet Coke and a candy bar. Like I've done that before, literally on trips. It's not, trust me -, it's not healthy. So while man, I was accomplishing some great things on my projects and I'll let you know the different meetings I was in, you know, I could find myself neglecting another area of my life.

So, so what does it mean to thrive? I really think that thriving is that comprehensive look like taking an evaluation of your life overall. Kind of those key and important and significant categories and looking and saying, am I growing, am I thriving? Am I healthy in all of these areas?

Martha: That's such a good answer. And of course would expect nothing less from a CFO, right, Jim? A very comprehensive look at all of the different line items and bring it all together and ask to balance out. I, I liked that not to make light of it, but it was really, really, really great.

Jim: My sister's a CFO so we understand it's, it's got a balance sheet. All right. So how does CRU, I mean, how many people do you have reporting to you within the organization at CRU?

Well, within

Mark Tjernagel: the, within the finance function, there's about 60 locally and about a hundred across the country.

Jim: All right. So 160 people. How does CRU as an organization enable you as the CFO to help the people underneath you, those you serve, how does it enable you to thrive and enable you to help you help them to thrive?

Mark Tjernagel: Well, this is a, this is an it's an interesting question. So as a missionary, right? I'm I am, I'm called to do a lot of things, you know, called to serve the Lord, you know, help fulfill the great commission. Raise money, do whatever it is. So how, how does CRU help me to help those in the finance function or finance people to thrive?

It, it is by helping me to be healthy first, right? So, and that's not always easy. I mean, look look around the country. I mean, people in quote, unquote professional ministry are struggling all over the place. CRU's done a lot of things to help me through the years. I remember about five years ago we have our youngest daughter, who's an adult now, but when she was a teen, she had a lot of significant health challenges and Cru allowed me, I mean, I was the CFO.

We had a lot of projects going on at a very busy schedule CRU allowed me space to take care of my family. And how they do that? I mean, I used to take every Friday off, honestly, to pay medical bills and to track which bills had been paid and hadn't been paid and to, you know, help my wife with setting up doctor's appointments for my daughter and all of that.

And I was able to do that for a whole year. This past year CRU has allowed me and our staff several times they've said, Hey, you know, if you just need to take a half day off and spend time with them, or to take care of yourself, go and do that. And I've taken advantage of that. This, this year we're in right now, we, we just instituted a new HR policy for mental health days.

Just admit, if you're stressed, if the culture and the challenges of life are getting to getting to you, just take a day and and spend some time doing whatever you need to do. If it's seeing a counselor, if it's going to the beach. If it's, you know, just spending time praying or going for a walk, just take time and do that.

And so CRU's done a really good job. I think of trying to help me and our staff as individuals to take care of yourself so that you can also take care of others.

Jim: And what a great example that is for all the people that represent all the organizations listening today to the Outcomes Conference Podcast. We'll be back with more with Mark Tjernagel, the CFO of CRU. Check them out online CRU.org, C R u.org. We'll be right back with more from the Outcomes Conference Podcast.

Martha: You know the kind of person that always tells you about the latest trends or the special deals around town? Well lean in because here's a message from that kind of person. The Awaken Podcast Network is the place to be. Go to Awaken Podcast Network .com and unlock God's purpose for your work with help from some friends. You will find a gathering place of Podcasts that provides simple tools, faith stories, and conversations that will inspire and equip you to vibrantly live out your faith in your work today. Go ahead. Check out Awaken Podcast Network .com and then be that kind of person and tell a friend !

Jim: Hey, welcome back to the Outcomes Conference Podcast today. We're talking with Mark Tjernagel. the CFO of CRU. If you want to check him out online, cru.org.

Martha: So Mark, you just shared some great examples of what CRU has really encouraged its staff in ways to stay healthy and to really thrive in the environment we've had in the last year. How about you personally? Like, are there things that you've implemented in your, in your leadership, in the office or, you know, in the office, whatever that might be, right, or personally in your own life that has helped you to be able to focus on your mission of being a leader?

Mark Tjernagel: Well, so, so let's talk about like, as I'm leading the finance function and I look back through the years, what's something that stood the test of time as a leader? That that I think has had a broad impact on me and how I lead, but also on the people that I lead and the culture that we've created. And I think the one thing that has stood the test of time, the most is intentionally leading through our values or leading kind of from our values. So, so what do I mean by that?

So what I mean by that is like CRU has three corporate values, faith growth and fruitfulness. And then for the finance function, we we'd had a lot of challenges with, you know, having a, kind of an unhealthy culture. So we, we added a fourth value of community. And so we set out and said, you know, our strategy is kind of what we do.

Our values are who we want to be and how we want to interact. And so how do we lead with these four values? What does it mean? And so I'll tell you, I'll tell you how we do that. I'll just give you like some brief examples. So first we defined them. What does it, what, what, what does valuing faith even mean?

It sounds great in a Christian organization, but what is it? So, so what are the values and how you define them? And second is defined- this is the important one- define what does it look like to live that out? We -actually wrote statements under each value, and this is what it would look like to live out faith or growth or fruitfulness and community.

And, and, and it just makes it more practical so people can understand it. The third one is important. And this is, this is you have to be intentional about leading with your values. So many times organizations stop, like they might define them, right? And they just, and then that's it. So it's a plaque on the wall, but we're intentional about it.

We, you know, we keep the values prominent in our daily work. My team's done this incredible job of branding them so that they're kind of everywhere. You can't really get away from. But not just like on the wall, but we talk about them. You know, we do devotions on them. We have meetings about them.

They're, they're part of our, you know, our branding and our, our Conference rooms and so forth.

Jim: Some would call them decision filters. Do you, would you consider them your decision filters, your, your values?

Mark Tjernagel: Absolutely. Absolutely. Especially like take the value of growth. Well, how do you set up a at your development, your human resources or your development function?

Well, if you're valuing growth, you're going to look at how you do growth a certain way. You're going to challenge people. I mean, in fact here, I'll read you a, I'll read you one of the statements in growth. It says we truthfully give and continually invite and humbly consider feedback. Well, if you're in an organization, that's truthfully giving feedback, that, that organization looks a lot different than one where, where people are afraid to kind of talk to one another or they just want to do happy talk all the time and say, yeah, everybody's great. But truthfully getting feedback means you might have, your boss is going to tell you, you know, in this area we really need to see growth and we're not seeing it.

That's a way practically that we live out our values. Let me give you one final point on values and this one's the kind of the kicker. Okay. We celebrate them. You have to celebrate things, right? Life's too dang challenging. You gotta celebrate things. So when we see someone living out in a value, we acknowledge it.

We celebrate. And one of the things we do every year is we have something called our annual awards celebration, not to congratulate ourselves. But the purpose of it is to, to, to celebrate what God has been doing in our lives. And so we actually give a value award. I mean, we give it an award for each of the values to someone, but the cool thing about it is it's not about winning the award.

It's the whole process because to be nominated, people have to write an essay about you, about how they've seen you live out that value.

Martha: Wow.

Mark Tjernagel: What happens is your team is actually looking for how God is at work in their teammates lives throughout the year. They're watching, they're looking for it and then they have to actually put it in writing to nominate you.

And so whether you win the award or not, if you're nominated, you get, you get the essay somebody wrote about you. Jim and Martha, how powerful is that? If you were handed today an essay that somebody wrote about you and said, Martha, this is how I've seen God at work in your life and how I've seen you living out the value of faith.

Or Jim, this is how I've seen you grow in the past year. I've seen God, do you know X, Y, and Z in your life. And as a result, it's really impacted others around you. Like that is so powerful. Yes, living and leading by our values has really stood the test of time. And I think it's been the one thing that's impacted our culture the most.

Jim: And I would tell you if I got a letter like that, I would put it on a frame and put it on my wall. And I'd look at it all the time cause what a great word of encouragement that that would be on a daily basis to remind me: hey, people are watching. And as a leader people are watching and noting and if they actually complimented me, it means you're getting something done. I love it. We're talking with Mark today from CRU. He's a CFO and he wants you to check it out online. CRU.org. Ask for the blue booklet. You got any?

Mark Tjernagel: Yeah, there's, there's still quite a few around but mostly digital now.

Jim: So you can look for the four spiritual laws and the blue, one about the holy spirit, all online: cru.org. We'll be right back with more on the Outcomes Conference Podcast.

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Welcome back to the Outcomes Conference Podcast, we're your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're talking today with Mark . He's a CFO at CRU. Mark. I want to thank you for just being so transparent and powerful and that last segment, and I know you probably didn't set out to either of those things, but wow.

Thank you for just a great example. Martha wanted to follow up because she felt like she didn't get enough follow-up time in that last segment

. Well, Mark,

Martha: I just want to hear like a practical example of a way that you, or someone that you lead experienced leading with the values during this last year, year and a half, when, you know, you had to do life differently and there is a lot of things that probably challenged that process.

Mark Tjernagel: Yeah. That's a great question. The toughest value to live out when you're working from home is community, right? We're used to having this physical place where we all congregate and where you have these, these face-to-face touchpoints on a regular basis. And then it's gone like in a, you know, in a heartbeat it's gone.

And so you have people working from their homes and talking on zoom. And, and that has been the most challenging thing. And so I I'd say my, my team more than me, my team has done a great job of just trying to think through how do we connect people, even when they can't be face-to-face and they've, you know, they've just, they've done all kinds of things throughout the year.

They actually, they, we instituted this software where you can actually go on and, and just chat, like verbally chat with people kind of as if you're in the office. And it has, it has been received very well. We've done little lunches and coffee meetings where people can meet up in smaller groups that are, that are kind of safe in the midst of the pandemic, but where people can have some face-to-face times.

We've, we've tried lots of things. I wouldn't say, Hey, man, we've hit it out of the park on all of them, but that's, that's the one we've really focused on. We didn't want people in their homes -some of which live alone, some of which are houses surrounded by kids and parents and family members -but we didn't want them to feel separate from the rest of the office. And so any way that we could think of how to better connect people we, we tried to do that.

Jim: I love it. I love the fact that you guys, you know, you're not saying: we, we, we did it perfect. Everybody should follow our example. We just kept trying. And you kept listening. As you said at the beginning, you ask the holy spirit. Okay. What in the world do I do with this? Mark, CRU is a well seasoned organization. It's not a brand new organization. It's got decades and decades of experience. It's gone through lots of senior leadership transitions over the years. Can you talk about resiliency and the transformation of CRU over the years, that's kept it thriving and effective?

Mark Tjernagel: Well, I think you should ask me next year.

Jim: Okay. Why is that?

Mark Tjernagel: This might be a bad year to ask me. Seriously CRU is in the midst of a whole bunch of change right now. Right? We, we just installed a new president, only the third president CRU's ever had.

We have a new US director. Two of our largest ministries based in the US are transitioning to new leaders also. And on top of that prior to the pandemic, we were on the early stages and now we're in the latter stages of a complete management restructure of CRU outside of the U S. So there's a, there's a lot going on.

And you know, I, I'm trying to do everything I can to help support my fellow leaders in CRU, so that we're all thriving and effective after all these changes are, are kind of wrapped up and, you know, in place. But I'll say the one thing that our, our, our president and our executive team has been repeating over and over and over again, that I'm trying to reinforce and live out as well is that in the midst of all of this, we need to stay true to our calling as an organization. Right? What, what is CRU here for? We, we're not here to do everything in the body of Christ, right? But we have a specific calling and we're called to winning building and sending in the power of the holy spirit and helping the body of Christ do evangelism and discipleship, staying centered on what your organization- for what, in our case, what our organization is in existence for is where you have to, that's where you have to kind of keep yourself in order to stay really resilient.

Martha: Such great words. And, you know, it really is because each one of us has individually, we have different gifts, talents, and abilities, and organizations have, you know, a call that God has put on the leadership and why it was designed so remembering what that is and staying true to it -such great words.

So Mark, as we close out- Christian Leadership Alliance is really all about leaders investing in other leaders, the best of what they know and sharing it with others. So what is something that, a leadership idea or a thinking that you would like to invest in the listeners of this Podcast?

Mark Tjernagel: That we're all part of the body of Christ. You know, it's powerful to be kind and generous. It's also powerfully destructive to be unkind and greedy or stingy. I was recently reading through Romans. I got to chapter 12. I mean, you know how it starts, right? It's, you know, be a living sacrifice, be transformed, you know, you kind of know that's the, that's the famous part of chapter 12.

Jim: Don't think more highly of yourself than you ought.

Mark Tjernagel: Yeah. Yeah. You know, as you get down past those first few verses, though, it says, Hey, you're all part of the body that has many members. You have different gifts, but you all need each other. And I'd say that like organizationally, like CRU needs, the navigators. CRU needs Wycliffe. CRU needs iWork4Him ministries. CRU needs the Christian Leadership Alliance. Like we all need each other. We can't forget that. You know, if you get past that, the body section in the chapter, it gets even better. It's just like this list. It's like: be devoted to one another, honor one another, be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, you know, rejoice for those who rejoice, you know, live in harmony, don't be proud.

Like it just tells you that stuff. And yet you look at our, our Christian culture today and there's so much tearing one another down, needing to be right. You know, we're right. You're wrong. We need to do this that way. And so my admonition to our listeners today is we're, we're all part of the body of Christ.

Let's do everything we can to build up the body and to not tear it down.

If anybody's

Jim: ever driven through Atlanta, you know, the, the, when you get to the widest section of the freeway on 75, going north it's 20 lanes wide, that's really the body of Christ. We may be all running in our own lane, but we still are all part of a major freeway going in the same direction.

And, and how do we run in the lanes next to each other? And some, we run with people and some, we run alongside people who are in a different lane, but yet there are synergies to be had. Well, if we can do that, then Jesus- what he said in John 17 about, you know, people will know your mine if you guys walk in unity. How powerful would that be on the impact across around the globe? It would be fantastic. Mark Tjernagel, thank you so much for being on the Outcomes Conference Podcast today. Really appreciate your time, your wisdom, and just sharing how CRU has been dealing with all of the transitions over the last couple of years. Thank you, Mark Tjernagel.

And you our Outcomes Conference Podcast listeners. Thank you for joining us today. We pray the Podcast inspired you to higher thinking and deeper thinking and really all about learning about how to help your organization thrive in those in your organizations thrive for a greater kingdom impact.

Martha: Be sure to visit Christian Leadership Alliance.org, where you can stay up to date by subscribing to the Outcomes online newsletter and the Christian Leadership Alliance Higher Thinking blog.

Jim: But if you're not already a member of the Christian Leadership Alliance, what are you waiting for? Join the Alliance today. Christian Leadership Alliance.org.

Martha: Remember the wisdom in this Podcast came to you on its way to someone else. If you loved it, say so, and then share it with a friend.

Jim: I'm Jim.

Martha: I'm Martha.

Jim: We'll see you again for the next episode of the Outcomes Conference Podcast.

Outro: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, the cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom. Wherever it is that you work, live, volunteer, and invest - that is your mission field.

To learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement, check out our books: iWork4Him, sheWorks4Him, and iRetire4Him by going to, iWork4Him.com/ bookstore. Thank you for listening to the, iWork4Him Podcast with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. Please visit iWork4Him.com to learn more about connecting your faith and work to join iWork4Him Nation or subscribe to our weekly blog.

You can also follow us on social media @ iWork4Him to stay up to date and meet our guests. If today's message spoke to you, please subscribe, rate, and review the show on your favorite Podcast platform. Your review will launch more workplace missionaries across America. That's @ iWork4Him and online iWork4Him.com.

3/25/22 - It's Time for a Revolution: Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer with KingdomMindset.Global

Welcome to the, iWork4Him podcast. I'm Michael miracle producer of the, iWork4Him radio program, the voice of the faith and work movement. 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 outright now.

Jim: You've tuned into, iWork4Him, the mouthpiece for the faith and work movement. We're your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg.

Martha: Thanks for being with us today and listeners. I just want to remind you that if you have the desire to come alongside of us and be a part of our prayer team, I want to encourage you to join that effort.

We have monthly emails where we were just putting together what God is doing and how you can join us in prayer for the whole. iWork4Him nation. And so go to, iWork4Him.com and you can go to. Sign up for the it's under blog, but there's an option there to join the prayer team. So I look forward to seeing you there and thank you for your prayers.

Jim: You're joining hundreds of other people that pray alongside. iWork4Him each and every month. Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer has been on the show a few times. In fact, Jess and her husband, Scott met Martha and I walking into church eight years ago in Largo, Florida. And we've been friends ever since.

Jessica is a professional counselor, an author, a speaker, a wife, and a mom. Her insight into how Christ followers can experience real healing inside is documented inside her latest book. It's time for a revolution. Justice focuses on bringing healing to leaders so they can spread healing to all those they lead.

Now, this is a faith and work show. So the real catch is that Dr. Rothmeyer uses this knowledge that she has gathered over the last 22. As a counselor to aid professionals in so many different workplace settings to see how God created people and how he intended to bring about healing within our body minds and souls, she calls it the kingdom mindset.

Jessica Rothmeyer joins us today to start the revolution. Jess, welcome back to iWork.

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: Thanks. You too. I am so blessed to be a part of the show, and I just really want to honor the two of you and all the work that you do, just really making bringing the gospel of Jesus practical in the workplace. So thanks for having me.

Martha: It's so good to have you here. I just feel like we're sitting down with a friend and everybody else gets to just listen in and learn because you know, maybe they're a little intimidated by. Even at connecting with you in your occupation PR, but you know, so one of the things Jess, I just really want you to tell us is why did you become a counselor?

Like where did that all, how did God lead you to that?

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: Well, I would say a little bit of that was just the natural giftings that he gave me from a really young age, I would say even middle school. People would just come up to me and tell me their whole life story. It was kind of a supernatural phenomenon.

And they would say you're just such a good listener. And, you know, even from being a novice counselor, I may not have always had the perfect advice, but I just made them feel encouraged. And a lot of times that's what people are looking for is just to have that hope and encouragement again. And then the second piece is kind of the joke about counselors as you go to school to fix yourself.

And that was certainly the case with me. I was an overachiever, a perfectionist. I had an anxious personality and so, and being a Christian, I got saved when I was 15. I just really wanted to dig into how do we experience healing in the mind and then go on and teach that to other people. Hmm.

Jim: I love that.

So, 22 years later, what have you learned that was encouraging as, as a counselor, you have heard from thousands of people, but what have you learned? That's encouraged you in your walk, in your work? You know, just, just speak into that.

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: Yeah. I think one of the biggest things that God taught me through my.

Was that he really uses us where we're at and for the people who come into our life. So it was pretty overwhelming. I was a young counselor when I first started and sometimes counseling people, double my age and thinking what in the world would I have to offer them? And they're coming to see me for expert advice.

But as I looked back towards the end of my career, I could see how God used me in those times with the knowledge that I had at the season, in my life that I was in to really partner with people. And he was going to equip me at that time for what I needed. And so now that's the advice I give when I mentor other practitioners or professionals, or just, you know, any of us in our lives.

That God is really bringing the exact people at the exact time. And we already have everything we need to help them at that time.

Martha: You know, such a good word for no matter where whatever God has called us to do and how he has equipped us to know that that is, that is the truth. Same question flip side, you know, 22 years later, what have you learned that's been discouraging in, in what you do? Or how, you know, whether that's, well, I'll just leave it and let you answer.

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: Yes, it's actually the the question that launched me into this next season of my career now that I no longer do that, the one-on-one counseling and really focusing on being in advisory and mentoring.

It was my frustration with the lack of healing or how people would experience healing and then seem to slowly walk out of that. And so that frustration of seeing people lose what they had gained or. Sometimes never really achieved healing and how often that would affect their faith either they would end up blaming God or blaming themselves.

And that was just heartbreaking to me. So it was out of that place of discouragement that I said, okay, God, how do we help people understand how to live from a kingdom perspective so that they don't lose hope and they don't lose their.

Jim: All right. So you recently released a book entitled it's time for a revolution and this one doesn't involve guns. What's the revolution against?

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: So when I first heard that word from the holy spirit, as far as what would I name the book, I had to look it up myself. I didn't really understand the definition of that. And what really pertains to what is in this book is about. Throwing out, completely casting out a worldly, false teaching, and then realigning with a new way of thinking and operating that's the definition of revolution.

And so the revolution is against how. So quickly as human beings fall into old thinking and behaving and doing that like the world, rather than keeping in our kingdom perspective and the way that we think and behave

Jim: how's this apply to work?

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: I would say that it applies to every single area of our lives because, but probably more so to work because you have to function in the world.

And so as you're doing that day in and day out, you have to be as Christians, constantly discerning. Is this something that is good and righteous and godly? And can I be an example to that in the marketplace and in the workplace? Or is this something that if I align myself and my behaviors with this, how this business operates.

Is that still godly? Is that still bringing me down a, a good and fruitful path will be pleasing to the Lord. It's a tricky place to be in between those two places of the righteous path it says is very narrow. So that's what I found is it's that discernment that is so crucial in living a godly lifestyle.

Jim: We're talking with Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer, you can check her out online kingdom mindset. Kingdom mindset global, kingdom mindset global and her latest book. It's time for a revolution. We'll be right back with more for him.

Martha: You know, the kind of person that always tells you about the latest trends or the special deals around town we'll lean in because here's a message from that kind of person.

The awaken podcast network is the place to be. Go to awakenpodcastnetwork.com and unlock God's purpose for your work with help from some friends. You will find a gathering place of podcasts that provides simple tools, faith stories, and conversations that will inspire and equip you to vibrantly live out your faith in your work today.

Go ahead, check out awaken podcast network.com and then be that kind of person and tell a

friend,

Jim: Hey, welcome back to iWork4Him today. We talk with Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer about her latest book. It's time for a revolution and really about this kingdom mindset that. You really bring about and leaders across the country and around the globe, check her out.

Online kingdom mindset global kingdom mindset global. Jess. You've counseled thousands of people over the years. That must just be staggering to think about as a Christian counselor. This is all about as a Christian counselor, right? You were, this was all. Okay. All right. So what kind of healing do you see most commonly needed as you're counseling with.

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: Well, the truth is all healing comes down to relationships. So whether it's the relationship you had with your parents at an early age, and then how that affected you, whether that created any kind of trauma in your life or the relationship you have with your spouse, your children, those that you work with within your church.

And then of course, most importantly, your relationship with the. So that, that idea of, as we all operate on a daily basis through relationship, how do we bring healing to those places? And that brings life change from there.

Martha: You know, it's interesting that you can boil it down that way because it, life seems so complicated and it's like, oh, but you've never heard my story or, you know, and I, I can only imagine, I mean, there's as many stories as there are people that you've met with, and even then probably more, you know, multiple versions of it.

So when you boil it down to relationship, I mean, that makes sense, you know, and seeing how we relate. So when you see someone that needs. You know, has a problem, has a, a situation and they need healing from that. And they respond and they start doing the work and they really invest in, in the process.

Ultimately who benefits from that

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: healing. So of course, it's the person themselves, the individual that as they experienced that healing. They really start to operate world the way that God would intend for each of us. And that would be so that we could then go on and have an impact in the world.

So there's really a ripple effect that I could see that as people started to be healed themselves, that then they could go on and bring healing to others.

Jim: Let's let's take us to the practical right away because in the workplace. I mean, we've all worked under leaders who let's just be nice and say it was obvious they had issues and you know, whatever those issues may be, you know, when a leader actually seeks healing, everybody around them benefits.

Right.

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: Absolutely.

Jim: Yeah. Explain to me, give me a situation. I mean, it's something you've seen.

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: Yeah. So I would say one person in particular, it was just a really beautiful story of a Dean of a Christian college, right? So they have a lot of influence and she was really struggling in one area of her faith.

And as she sat to be healed in that, and it was even a, a perspective of how she was teaching and teaching the other teachers to Understand the Bible and then teach that to the students that as that little piece of her, her soul was healed, that then she could effectively relate to those on her staff and those that she was teaching.

So this amazing impact with hundreds of probably thousands of students at this college, because this person in leadership decided to go and put in the work and get healed.

Jim: So in your book and your book is somebody all of a sudden, I just drew a total blank. It's time for a revolution. It's time for revolution.

I apologize. I had this momentary, mine, mine, splatter, I guess. So it's time for revolution. You mentioned some frustration. You mentioned the frustration that while you're counseling somebody, they're also working with other professionals at the same time. And maybe they weren't all working towards healing.

How, how did you deal with that? And, and really, how did you, how was your book helped to make that not happen again?

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: Yes. So I think that in a person's desperate is to seek healing because God puts that little seed inside all of us that we truly desire to function at our best. They would go to counseling, they would see a doctor.

They would see a chiropractor, you know, that we can go to several different facets of, of self-help and healing and maybe get some mixed messages. And it's those mixed messages that cause confusion that can lead to hopelessness, that it really causes people to wonder if that, that perfect transformational healing as possible.

And so my job was to then breathe, hope back into them and say, this is what God wants for all of us. And this is how it's possible. So really aligning them again. It comes back to having that renewed mind and seeing life through a kingdom perspective. And not being distracted and confused by all the options in the world, which a lot of times leads people to a place of giving up that they will just submit.

And succumb to, I guess I'm always going to be this way. A lot of people came to me kind of in that mindset.

Martha: So, so do you, so do you discourage people from trying too many things at once? Or how do you actually handle that? I mean, what does that look like?

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: I guess my most practical advice was just to focus on teaching them to have that kingdom perspective, that biblical perspective.

I always wanted, my hope was that they could then go be an influence with those other practitioners. And that happened quite often. That all of a sudden they were repeating some of the things they were learning with me to their doctor, their chiropractor. And so now we're spreading that word of hope and healing to other people through them.

Jim: So describe the cultural transformation that can happen within an organization when their leader becomes, I mean, experiences, healing, what happened.

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: Well, just like you said, it's a cultural atmosphere. And so I think sometimes as Christians, we underestimate our ability to have that impact and that ripple effect that I saw.

And it was something that I could tell you, hundreds of stories, leaders, teachers, doctors, nurses, that they bring this with them because. Once you experience life transformation. It's so exciting. It's so freeing. You just want to tell other people. And so they would just eventually have these workplace conversations and they didn't even realize that they were releasing healing and now people were, were coming into their own life, changed a life transformation, just because of these conversations that we're having.

Martha: So last question for this segment, what is the, what are some kinds of things that actually block people from healing? You know, they want it, but there's something blocking them what what's actually happening.

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: So the, I think the biggest thing that blocks people from their healing is a false belief. I'm a mistake and belief, a lie.

It's just so easy. Like I said, in our world today, we're steeped around us all day long with worldly, teaching them. And so to slip up and start to function like the world, or think like the world very quickly sucks people into all types of bondage and, and dysfunction. And the saddest part is that's under a spirit of deception.

So you don't even know how. Seek freedom or seek truth when you don't even know you're being deceived. So I would say that's the biggest thing that keeps people in their

Jim: dysfunction. So how do we get started in this healing process? I mean, you've got your book, it's time for revolution, but you also have this website, kingdom mindset global.

Where do we go to get started on our healing process?

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: Well, I think both are good options. Of course. That the most practical steps that I give people is that, of course you read the word you read you believe, and you decree the word of God, because that is the truth. That is the training that we all need on a daily basis to set our mind on a biblical perspective.

And then the second is to have that intimate relationship with the Lord because that's where we hear his voice and really get that. The discernment of the holy spirit is through that intimate relationship. So it's through those two facets that I focus most of my teaching.

Jim: but just sometimes people just can't do this on their own.

Can you help them? Yes. I got a course that you teach on this or anything. Yeah.

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: So on my website, I do have a six or seven online classes, short little chewable videos that people can watch. And then there's homework questions that help really apply those to their lives, set up prayers. All of that comes with the class.

So you can go to kingdom mindset.global, sign up for one of those classes. And probably the feedback that I've had so far with those, the most impactful, the most life-changing has been healing, the wounds of assault and that class I'd like to offer your listeners today for 50% off. So if you go to my website, sign up for healing, the wounds of this.

And put in the coupon code. iWork4Him. You'll get that at 50% off today.

Jim: Wow. mindset global kingdom mindset global. There isn't any of us listening today that doesn't need a little bit of healing and at least one part of our lives get working on it because we need to become leaders worth following.

And in order to be a leader worth following, we need to get that healing done. That Jesus said he came to re he came to set the captives free. And when you need healing, that means you're still captive in a certain area. We'll be right back with more with Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer, check her out online kingdom mindset.global.

We'll be right back with more. And iWork4Him.

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Their coaches are being hired by fortune 500 companies and organizations. Like iWork4Him, Martha and I took the giant Sherpa training under one of these great coaches to become leaders worth. Following giant gives you everything. You need to start your own coaching business from scratch. Like hands-on training from top level.

Cool. Access to an all-in-one online platform to run your entire coaching business and you get to join a thriving community of coaches around the world to get started giant is hosting a coaching business workshop to help you learn how to build a successful coaching business. This workshop is 100%. And you can reserve your spot by going to giant.tv /.iWork4Him. If you're ready to impact people and get paid to do it, go to giant.tv / iWork4Him. That's giant.tv. / iWork4Him. Hey, welcome back to iWork 4Him. We talked today with Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer. It's fun to just know that God ran us into each other, literally on the way into church as Jess and her husband, Scott and their daughter were on their way into church, on vacation in Florida.

It turns out she's a Minnesotan. So of course we love her. Cause she's from Minnesota. We love her from our reasons. Yes, we do. But I love the fact that she's in Minnesota and you can check her out online kingdom mindset, global kingdom mindset, global, and get a copy of her latest book. It's time for a revolution.

. What was that revolution against, against again,

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: the false worldly teaching.

Martha: Awesome. You know, and I just want to, before you ask the next question, Jim, I just want to make sure that the listeners hear the offer that Jessica just gave to all of you. If you go to kingdom mindset.global, and you look for the course healing, the wounds of the soul and put in the coupon code, iWork4Him.

You're going to get 50% off on that course. And I do believe you need. No matter where we are in life, we all have wounds to be healed. And we see if we can see the world through a a more healed lens, if that's a way to say it, you know, what more can we do for the kingdom with that healing in our own lives.

So thank you for offering that to all of us, and I hope that people will take advantage of it.

Jim: All right, Jess, you mentioned in your book, it's time for a revolution. Th that it's really a guide for medical professionals, counselors, teachers, coaches, parents, and business professionals, to help the people around them, to function as God created them to be.

And to really establish a kingdom mindset and make that as a standard in all the nations, are they actually being receptive to the wisdom and this book, it was this.

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: Yeah. So I've been doing the mentoring part of my career for about two years now. And I have to tell you, Jim and Martha, it has been the most rewarding part of my career, to be honest with you, to be able to activate these leaders and see them go on and, and share that with others.

It's, it's just a beautiful thing that God's doing and I see how God works and his genius. Spread wisdom and to then magnify that for a greater harvest. So there's some really simple things, some tools, some mindset adjustments that I can do with leaders and mentors and how quickly that affects whole organizations.

So it's really not complicated. And a lot of times they are pretty mature Christians already. So all it takes is if you will, just that little tweak and that perspective. And now they are 10 times exponentially, more impactful in their, their organizations or wherever their influence might be,

Martha: you knowand there's always that, that balance between, you know, helping the leader so that they can then influence all the people under them. And you know, I remember years ago, Jim had just r, eminded me of our, our testimony, you know, when God was stirring in us, this whole idea that our work mattered and that there was this thing iWork4Him.

And Jim was like, okay, Lord, I can, I can like help a few people at a time, like walk out this journey, but how can thousands of people hear about it? And that's when the radio became that, you know, God just put that to us and said, here here's, here's how you can be a mouthpiece in that situation. And much like you where God has given you this incredible eye-opening wisdom.

And if you can help other professionals that they can help those under their authority and that they lead just the, the ripple effect of that is so monumental. But how do people, I just want to ask this question then. So sometimes like, people don't even know they need healing in their life, so how do they, how do they, how does your book maybe help.

Figure that out or how, you know, how do, how do you connect those dots?

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: Sure. Yeah. So I call these dashboard indicators so much like lights come on on your dashboard, in your car. If you need an oil change or the tire pressure is off it's anything from anger to depression, anxiety marital problems.

Sometimes it's even just a, a lack of momentum in your spiritual life feeling like you can't hear from. These are all indicators, that there is some healing that needs to happen in your soul, that we're not quite functioning on the level that God would have for us. And just like you said, Martha, we're all on a healing journey from now until the day we make it home to heaven.

We're constantly being hurt and offended. And, and my book talks a lot about how does that happen? How do we identify our hurts wounds, offenses, the things that may be. Try to ignore just so that we can cope with daily life. God wants us to go deep and heal those so that we can really function at our very best.

Jim: You know, your book is really about bringing about the best in people, because God intended the best for people. And to get a copy it's time for revolution, where you give away a copy of the book that if somebody calls in our listener line, our listener line is 8, 6, 6. Okay. We will do that. Eight six six seven one three ninety six seventy five eight six six seven one three nine six seven five.

Call and get a copy of it's time for revolution. Just as we close out the show today, I got just one question. W we've talked about the fact that everybody needs healing and that this is a real culture changer. When a leader seeks healing, then those below the leader start to benefit the culture of the organization starts to benefit.

But there's a lot of Christian counselors out there listening to the show today that are gone. I think I want to incorporate this whole idea, this kingdom mindset into my practice. How do they do that? How do they get.

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: So I would say that it's time for a revolution. When I wrote that it was really to be a training guide for other healing practitioners.

Anyone can pick up this book and chapter by chapter really lays out how I would coach my clients to form that strong foundation of living your life from a kingdom perspective, everything from how to view your faith, to how apply it in the workplace. How to view food. It's just, it's your marriage relationships really breaking down each of those areas in a way that is easy to understand for the individual reading it and then to go on and teach it to us.

Martha: So powerful and we, we just can only pray for the effect that this is going to have and how God can supernaturally multiply it in ways we could never even ask or imagine. And so listeners, if you are curious about some of the things we've talked about, remember, I will have those links in our show notes.

So don't worry. You don't have to have everything written down. Just look in the show notes to get those links for the course that just. The book you know, maybe you're even being counseled by somebody and you're like, this seems like that missing piece. This seems like something I want my counselor to have in their tool belt.

So I know that it can reach out to you through your website kingdom mindset global is a great resource, and we're so grateful that God has written that through you,

Jim: Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer. Thanks for being here.

Dr. Jessica Rothmeyer: Thanks guys.

Jim: God bless and make sure you check her out online kingdom mindset global. And if you've got a counselor, that's not bringing you towards healing you need a new one because there's no point in going to counseling. If you're not making progress, you're listening to the, iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers, our workplace. It's our mission field, but ultimately I work4Him .

Did you know that God has a calling on your life?

It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, the cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work with volunteer and best that is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement.

Check out our books. iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him. I going to, iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

Thank you for listening to the, iWork4Him podcast with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg, please visit. more about connecting your faith and work to join the iWork4Him nation or subscribe to our weekly blog. You can also follow us on social media at iWork4Him to stay up to date and meet our guests.

If today's message spoke to you, please subscribe, rate, and review the show on your favorite podcast platform. Your review will launch more workplace missionaries across. That's at, iWork4Him and online. iWork4Him.com. I work the number 4 him. Dot com.

3/18/22 - Connections that Grow Culture: Ray Gary with iDonate

Welcome to the, iWork4Him podcast. I'm Michael miracle producer of the, iWork4Him radio program, the voice of the faith and work movement. 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: This episode of iWork4Him was previously recorded for the Christian leadership alliances outcomes conference podcast, where leaders come to invest the best of what they know into other leaders.

Martha: Remember, if you have influence over just one person, you are a leader together. Let's listen to this podcast and learn more about leading God's way.

Enjoy

Jim: Martha and I are excited to host the outcomes conference podcasts. Every podcast is dedicated to you. Our outcomes conference podcast listener. We have an incredible conversation coming up today with Ray Gary with iDonate. We'll be focusing on leadership, thriving and of course the related outcomes, right, Gary, welcome to the outcomes conference podcast.

Ray Gary: Thank you for having me.

Jim: We're excited to have you here. And you know, before we get started talking about your leadership role at iDonate and a perspective of what God is doing through you to lead a thriving environment at donate. Tell us how you personally keep your faith strong and your leadership Christ centered each and every day.

Ray Gary: Sure. No, I appreciate it. I'd say it kind of revolves around two to three things that I do consistently every, every morning. And I, I kind of have a little combination of either devotionals, scripture reading or videos of two or three teachers that I follow for different reasons. Some that inspire me some that are great educators.

And so I'm very consistent with how I start my day. I think number two our church model has, is a community group model. And we take that accountability very seriously, both at the couple level, as well as the, as it at the men level. And so there's a, there's a lot of accountability there in our community group, which, which sort of keeps you grounded and centered.

And then three, I think is just a practice that I got into years ago when I decided it was much better to start my day with having God go before me, instead of going in front of. And so I, I learned, I learned that it's much better even in the little things, whether there's meetings or things like a podcast or whatever it is that we've got going for the day I've, I've learned that it's best just to start and ask God to go before me.

It seems to work much better than me running out in front of him.

Martha: Well, it sounds like you've you have your day set up very well. And I think a lot of people will, you know, maybe it's just even a good prompting, like, yes, those are great ways to start the day. So thanks for sharing that with. So tell us about what thriving really means to you personally.

Ray Gary: Yeah. Well I'll give you a little bit of a contrarian answer to that. I mean, I think in when we're talking about, iDonate, I think a lot of times we'll talk about iDonate or business success or leadership or things like that, but a little bit of a different answer that, that you may not expect.

But thriving to me is more about sort of the feeling I get through sustained In other words I feel like I'm thriving as a person who happens to be a believer when I go through these periods of being very faithful and very consistent in obedience, because what that does for me is that gives me sort of a, not an arrogance, but a confidence and assuredness that I think works from the inside.

And so I, I don't think I need to be overwhelmed or consumed with a business success or a number of metric, which are all very, very important, but I think it starts by being sort of centered at, in our identity and who we are and kind of, I don't know. I just feel like that I thrive as a person when I get that right first.

So maybe a little different answer than what you'd expected. That's what thriving means to me is having that peace and assuredness daily, it's almost more important than work that is more important than worldly success.

Jim: How, tell us how iDonate, enables you to help those you serve thrive. So our time, how are you making sure that those you serve through the ministry and the business of, iDonate to thrive.

Ray Gary: Yeah, no, we're a software company. We provide digital giving platforms for ministries, churches, and nonprofits. And that's what we do for a living. As I like to say, we're not fundraisers. There are people that are really, really good at fundraising. That's a practice and a discipline in and of itself.

We're we're technologists. And the, the analogy that I like to use is we make a camera. We're not a. So there is an art to photography. You know, you need to understand kind of like today, you need to understand lighting and how you crop an image. And, you know, do we take that picture at seven 14 in the morning based upon where the sun is or not, and then there's the camera.

And so we, we, what we do is we focused on building the greatest camera in the world and put it in the hands of people that really know how to take great pictures. So we see ourselves as being sort of relentless at trying to make the best giving experiences you can possibly make. As a matter of fact, our mission statement says we help nonprofits stand out by delivering incredible giving experiences so that their donors, when they come to given.

They have a great experience. They feel like it's simple, secure maybe even joyful when they go to engage with that nonprofit or that ministry.

That's

Martha: quite a hefty statement there that you're living up to. So, so let's take that into the culture of your company. A lot of companies have to try, you know, a lot of trial and error to try to get to a place where they find the right ways to create a sustaining, you know, thriving culture.

What does that look like at, iDonate, what are you, what are you doing? That's having the greatest impact?

Ray Gary: You know, I get that question a lot. As a matter of fact, we talk about it at our board level quite a bit, and it's been super popular and, and not just popular, but important to talk about on the last 12 to 15 months or so with everything that's been going on.

I think the main thing is it starts that you have to be authentic about caring about people. You know, there's lots of different philosophies. What's the right answer. How do we engage? How do we practice going to work and all those kinds of things. But at the end of the day, it's about authenticity and, and about caring about the people first you know, one of the things that I did was immediately when we went into lockdown, as you know, we had everybody go home, but I actually wrote a personal letter every week.

And I think every Friday, and just sort of recapping the week to everybody, I talked about what's going on? Sort of the political world what's going on in the company and just try to be an encouragement to keep people connected. So I think that's part of it and they are things that we're really focused on around here.

And we have been, since we started the company is trying to connect our people to the field. You know, that's while we don't actually go do the work on the ground, like we say, there are boots on the grass. We try to make great foods for the people that are on the ground. And so we try to keep our people connected the field by having a customer come and speak to us or having a customer zoom in talking about their mission.

We have our people go out and connect and do volunteer projects for the nonprofits and ministries we serve so that they can understand, you know, what, if the software is not great or the experience is not great, it's having a direct impact on the boots on the ground.

Jim: Wow, this is some great words. We're going to hear more from Ray Gary from iDonate.com right here on the outcomes conference podcast in just a minute, hang on.

Martha: You know the kind of person that always tells you about the latest trends or the special deals around town we'll lean in because here's a message from that kind of person.

The awaken podcast network is the place to be. Go to awaken podcast, network.com and unlock God's purpose for your work with help from some friends. You will find a gathering place of podcasts that provides simple tools, faith stories, and conversations that will inspire and equip you to vibrantly live out your faith in your work today.

Go ahead, check out awaken podcast network.com and then be that kind of person and tell a friend,

Jim: Hey, welcome back to the outcomes conference podcast today. We're talking with Ray Gary from iDonate the founder and CEO of iDonate.com. I recommend that you check them out. iDonate. All right, right. The last 12 to 18 months, a little rough, that's just a little rough, so much has happened to all of us over these last 12 to 18 months.

What changes have you made in the last year personally or professionally that helped you keep focused on your mission as a leader?

Ray Gary: Well, again, I think that's another fantastic question. I think for me, it starts with just developing. A deeper empathy, empathy for personal situations. You know what we've been through in the last 12 to 15 months or so, and we're still going through not, it's not the same for everybody and I'm for better, for worse.

I'm wired to say, you know what, things are not that bad. Let's just get to work. And in, in that, that, that doesn't work and that's not really realistic. And so I think one of the things that I've been taught over the last 12 months or so is just developing a deeper empathy for. Everyone's situation is unique and different.

Everybody kind of goes through these things in a different way. And so that's one big thing. I think the other thing that's alongside, what we've been through from a pandemic standpoint is just, you know, these cultural wars that we're in now they're, they are real. And you know, we're, we're going to have to as believers that our leaders more than ever have to take clear positions on things like this, because.

We're, we're, we're in a battle and it is a real battle. And so I think we've been sort of charged by making a clear statement on truth.

Jim: Hmm. Wow. Great. Love that.

Martha: So talk to us about what you have experienced as one of your greatest challenges during the last 12 or 18 months?

Ray Gary: I think, I think like most people it's, it's a two-fold one. How do you manage culture and a completely virtual world? And then how do you, how do you sort of work in that world? Now we had a little bit of advantage as a tech company. We already had a little bit of a hybrid model, several of our people in different offices. And we had, we had virtual days, we had Mondays and Fridays already before COVID even came.

So we were already kind of ramped up and had the tools and were equipped for that. So this hybrid already existed. But that, it's just a challenge to feel connected to people when you're always in this sort of virtual way, which is why I don't think that it's sustainable over time. I think people will eventually get back together, even if it's in the Harvard way.

And then I think the other side that people don't always talk about, people always talk about their employees, which is super, super important, but there's another component which is the client. And I was talking to a friend of mine and he said, you know, we've had net promoter scores that are phenomenal every year.

And then last year they were down and we didn't do anything different other than the fact that we didn't go out and see them. And so there, there is, there is an impact of sort of going out and pressing flesh or speaking to people face to face that I think matters over time. I don't think it's sustainable not to do.

Jim: The physical relationships, the S you know, and when you're out, seeing clients that just relationships matter, and they tried to tell you all year long, the relationships don't matter. We're fine. Digital is fine. But it's, it's just not true. God created us to be in relationship, not only with each other, but of course with him.

So what do you think Ben, your greatest breakthrough in the last 12 to 18 months, the thing that you feel best about accompany.

Ray Gary: Well, and if you don't mind me just picking up on what you say, I, that's why I'm so excited about CLA going to a real conference is as you can visually know, I mean, conferences are made about relationships in the hallways and conversations you have one-on-one with people.

And so I think everybody's about had enough of all these virtual trade shows. And so I'm really excited that CLA is going to be in person, but in terms of a breakthrough it's a very spiritual thing. It's not necessarily a business thing, which. I think for me in the last year is just really understanding that the presence of God is as important as the favor.

You know, I think I'm always as being a transactional kind of guy. I'm always thinking in terms of God's favor and wanting to make sure that we always have God's favor on life and business and things we do. But what I've found is the presence is probably as important, if not more important than the favor, because whether the favorite.

And the way that I wanted it to come or in the timing that I wanted to come, as long as you have that presence of God and, and you've in, and you feel that it really doesn't matter about the other, the other almost becomes second.

Martha: So when you learn things like that, whether it's that idea or something else, and you really want to impress that upon your own staff, is there something that you maybe give us an example of something you've shared with them as you've learned for yourself, and then you've, you know, tried to pass that on to your employees.

Ray Gary: That is a fantastic question. And yeah. Yeah, I would be less than a genuine if I said I did that often enough. And you've prompted me to think about how to do that more. I do that sometimes I, as matter of fact, we had a leadership conference just to two weeks ago and I was sharing with them about my favorite scripture in the Bible and how wide it impresses me.

And, and, and, and we talked about that, but in terms of sort of these wisdom insights, As my wife would say, I don't know why. You're not sure. And I'm with your kids more, but it's, it's a, it's a great question. And it's something you probably prompted me to think about how we would do that more, but I'm certainly, certainly not shy about doing that. And it's, it's a great idea.

Jim: Yeah. And so often we experience things. We, we read a book for ourselves or we listen to a podcast for ourselves or we, you know, we, we hear a speech and we're like, oh, I want all my people to hear this. I want them all to experience. Because it it'll impact all of our culture at the same time.

And sometimes it just, and when you tell your people that, wow, this really touched me, they're going to want to hear it. Cause they're like, well, what, what touches Ray? Well, I want it to touch me cause it's impacting our entire company. I love that. And then that's a transparency, vulnerable vulnerability thing too.

As a leader, when you're like this touched me, I want to share it with you. Do you ever get a chance to really pass that kind of stuff on?

Ray Gary: Yeah. Sometimes. And as I was saying a minute ago, I mean the presence. Is not something that's obvious, but, but when you think about it for a minute, it makes perfect sense because if, if you're at peace with the presence and you're assured that he's always with you and he's certainly faithful, you don't get as wrapped up around what the actual outcome is or the timing of it.

And, and people in business. Particularly people like me that are wired very transactional. We tend to focus on the outcome, not, not to use your name of your podcast here, but we tend to focus on when is it going to happen? How's it going to happen? What is it going to look like? And I think God, for us just sometimes says, why don't you just sort of enjoy my presence, relaxed I'm with you.

And it'll work out according to my timing, which in my way, which is probably better than yours. Anyway.

Martha: So let's talk about that in the transaction that. At iDonate, you're serving Christian non-profits helping them to get more support for their mission. And I can imagine that that feels thankless sometimes.

So when we come back, we want to hear a story maybe of a way that you've been able to see your clients thrive.

Jim: You're listening to the outcomes conference podcast with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. As we talked with Ray Gary from, iDonate, check him out on. iDonate.com. It's the software you need to help make giving to your organization super easy. Wonderful. And joyful as Ray Gary said, we right back.

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Welcome back to the outcomes conference podcast. Today. We're talking with Ray,Gary from, iDonate the sponsor of all of the outcomes conference podcasts.

iDonate as a phenomenal organization. Digging a little deeper with it, CEO and founder, make sure you check them out online. iDonate.com perhaps there that the organization for you to help facilitate the giving to, from all of your people in your organization. Martha.

Martha: So Ray, right, right before the break I was asking, you know, give us an example or something that you've been able to experience where you've seen your client thrive because of what you're doing at, iDonate.

Ray Gary: I, I really appreciate that question. I'm, there's a, there's a number of technical things that I would give an answer to, which nobody would care about. But I think one of the, one of the, one of the ways, which I think is very relevant today is, you know, we, you know, we provide web giving and peer to peer giving event texts, giving all the different forms of digital giving.

But what we're finding today with sort of changes in demographics and just sort of the way. Things have been deinstitutionalized. And when my father and my grandfather, when they get, as they get, give and used to give it wasn't anything to write a blank, check to an institution, you'd write a blank check to Billy Graham and you'd write a blank check to your local church or hospital or whatever.

And people just don't think that way anymore. And so I think one of the things we're able to do with technology, particularly things like peer-to-peer is allow people to sort of frame up their value propositions in a way that really resonates with today's. Because today's audience is not a blank check kind of rider.

They're, they're a, Hey, I want to understand the impact. I want to see a, what I'm giving to, and I want to see a value proposition that resonates with me. I'm just not somebody that's willing to send in a blank check because I'm just not wired that way. So we, we use our technology a lot in different use cases to sort of frame up the ask or frame up the cause in such a way that resonates with the donor. And that's really made a big difference

Jim: But sometimes when you serve other people in order to help them serve other people, it sometimes can be a thankless job. Do you ever get discouraged or does, I mean, how does it make it feel?

Ray Gary: Never. I mean, to be honest with you, I've never even thought about that.

I've believed since day one, this was my calling. I've believed that, you know, my job is to make the, the boots on the ground better. One of the. The quotes that I use, those sort of my quote or my mantra is you know, the Martin Luther quote, which is the Christian Shoemaker. Doesn't do his duty by putting little crosses on shoes.

He does his duty by making great shoes. And so I've always thought, and I've always loved. Whoever said it is that excellence, honors God and inspires others. And so I wake up every single day, just relentlessly passionate about how do we make excellence that honors God and inspires others with what we do.

Because maybe I'm not the best in the world at being on the ground and being in hand-to-hand combat. But if I could make the boots on the grounds lives better, then that's what my calling is. And so it's, it's easy to wake up every single day and it's easy to never get discouraged because we can always make a pixel better.

Martha: That's so great. So let's give you an opportunity right now to share that calling that God has given you. Through the outcomes conference and the Christian leadership Alliance. One of the things that's really a core value is having leaders help invest in the other leaders with what they already know.

So what is something right now, a leadership idea or something that you can pass on as an investment to the listeners of this podcast?

Ray Gary: I think the most important thing is that we have to go back to the basics and the foundation that leadership is not about some. Management fad or some management book or some new technique that always when somebody is looking for today, more than ever, leadership is about values.

And if it doesn't start from the inside out, it doesn't really matter what you're doing on the outside. The values have to be there. I don't really and, and it has to be rooted in true. And, you know, we have to balance that with grace and love, certainly in today's world, that's even more important.

But if you, I don't really know of any other way to lead today. And I don't know if anything anymore important than leading based upon values.

Jim: When you say, you know, you're talking about values and you've got to come from the inside out, what do you mean?

Ray Gary: Well, I mean, I think you need to know who you are, you know, what principles you stand for.

And I think you have to be willing in a really difficult environment. Today. And that was just with a friend at lunch, talking about this very subject. You have to be able to stand and take decisions that sometimes aren't unpopular. We, we, we live in a world today where even sometimes our credit card processor doesn't want to process for a ministry because they don't believe their mission, or they believe that maybe they're not diverse enough or maybe they don't share their worldview.

And so, you know, that not only affects our customers, but that it starts infecting affecting employees and partners. You know, who you're surrounded with. Maybe people will want to work for you or not work for you based upon your values, but it's much easier to wake up every single day, knowing who you are, then waking up and reading the newspaper or watching the news and letting somebody else decide who you are every day.

And I think this more important than we get grounded in lead. Those core values. Otherwise we're just going to be a candle in the wind, I guess.

Martha: So, you know, a lot of the non-profits that are that participate with the Christian leadership Alliance probably already know what their values are, but you know, did you have some insight early on, did you know for yourself and for, iDonate what they were going to be, or has that been a process over the years?

Ray Gary: No, I think it's, I think it's evolved somewhat. I think that you know, we, we wrestle some with about how narrow our charters should be. We serve, we serve both faith based organizations and non-faith based organizations now, you know, we have it come a filter for that. I mean, They can't be at an aesthetical, the family or our, our worldview.

So as Galatians says, I think it's four, six, you know, do good to everybody, especially the house of faith. And that's kind of a verse that we've taken to heart is we love doing the work for Christian ministries. As I say, I, I don't know how biblically accurate this is or not, but as I say, you know, there's a difference between water and living with.

And, you know, there's, there's good that these organizations do, which is great and we're very supportive of them. And I think people should, but there's difference when you're actually doing those services in the name of Jesus, because there's an eternal consequence with that. Right. So we, we we've really, I think, began to focus more and more on how do we lift up those organizations and help them not because we think that they're better people or anything like that, but the mission is more active.

And and they become more and more important to us.

Jim: Fabulous words. Thank you, Ray. Gary from iDonate.com for being on the outcomes conference podcast today.

Ray Gary: Thank you. Thanks

Jim: for having me and to you. Our outcomes conference podcast listeners. Thank you for joining us today. We pray that this podcast inspired you to think higher and deeper about thriving for a greater kingdom impact.

Martha: Be sure to visit Christian leadership alliance.org, or you can stay up to date by subscribing to the outcomes online newsletter and the CLA higher thinking

Jim: blog. If you're not out of remember, what are you waiting for? Join the Christian leadership Alliance today. Christian leadership alliance.org.

Martha: Remember the wisdom in this podcast came to you on its way from someone else. If you loved it, state say so and share it today with us.

Jim: I'm Jim I'm Martha, we'll see you again for the next episode of the outcomes conference. Did you know

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3/11/22 - God's Call to Congress: Scotty Moore (ScottyMoore4Congress.com)

Welcome to the, iWork4Him podcast. I'm Michael miracle producer of the, iWork4Him radio program, the voice of the faith and work movement. Our mission is to transform the workplace of every Christian and do a mission field. What does that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now,

Jim: You've tuned into iWork4Him, the mouthpiece for the faith and work movement where your host, Jim and Martha.

Martha: Thanks so much for listening today. We have an exciting show ahead for you. I just want to remind you that the awaken podcast network is a place where you can go and find other podcasts that might be speaking to your lane, as far as your occupation, your vocation, where God has you specifically to help you to live out your faith in your work, in that area.

So check out awaken podcast, network.com

Jim: Scotty Moore is running for Congress. Now this is not a political show, but a show focused on the stories of Jesus followers, living out their faith at work. So today we are going to go and get into Scotty's position on issues. We're going to talk about all kinds of things with he and his wife.

about how they're going to serve our country while protecting their faith while protecting their marriage while protecting their family all while serving in the United States, Congress. Scotty and his day more welcome to iWork4Him.

Scotty Moore: Thank you. Thank you very much. Honored to be here.

Jim: You say that now. I hope you feel that way at the end of the show. All right, Scotty, why did you decide to be a follower of Jesus?

Scotty Moore: Yeah, well, I mean, it was one of those decisions when I was 11 years old, I grew up in central Minnesota. I went to a Bible camp. You know, I, I was very friends orientated. I just needed to be around people all the time.

If my wife jokes that I'm an extreme extrovert, I, in fact I can exhaust extroverts.

Jim: I dare you. I double dog dare you.

Scotty Moore: So it was while at this Bible camp in lake beauty Bible camp in long Prairie, Minnesota, middle of nowhere, kind of small town where the Lord met me.

And it was just really me responding to him and doing the work. And the funny thing is I had heard about Jesus a lot. I grew up in a Methodist church, very traditional, great people, but just really didn't understand the gospel. And it was at this chapel service. You know, the, the penetrating work of the holy spirit.

Did something. And I had a response, I had a choice to make. And so I stayed after and I gave my life to Jesus. And I remember going home, being excited, telling my mom, and she was excited too, but unfortunately we just didn't have the structure of the discipleship to really, to grow. In fact, there were be moments.

So like Dawson McAllister live, if you remember those kinds of moments. So I would go. Year to one of those things. And, but it wasn't until gala college where God really got ahold of my life. But that's, that's part of my story.

Jim: Fun fact for all of the, I work room audience, our youngest gave her life to Christ at lake beauty Bible camp in long Prairie, Minnesota.

Scotty Moore: Oh, my gosh.

Martha: I love how God just weaves stories together. So as soon as you said that, I was like, oh my goodness. That is just so great. What a great testimony that camp has.

Jim: All right. Ester. You come from Brazil or Brazil as I would not. I'm sorry. I just, I shouldn't even try that. So from Brazil. How did you meet Jesus?

Ester Moore: So I grew up also in a, not a Catholic family. Like many people would assume since I'm from Brazil. I grew up in a very traditional church, hearing all about Jesus, my entire life. But it wasn't until I was 16 years old that I attended a youth. Outreach in my city. And that's when I actually understand what it meant to have Jesus as my Lord and savior, not just my, just not just something that I professed with my mouth, but something that really made a difference in my life.

Martha: So how then did God bring the two of you together? Scottie, maybe you can share how you and ish day met and where God took

Scotty Moore: you with. This is a fun story. I like telling this story, I'll be really brief. But so we both were involved in crew in college. God really got ahold of our lives and we were taught, trained, and equipped that used to be campus crusade for Christ.

And so we were very involved helping people know Jesus, and we went to a student conference and in fact it was in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Ester was helping out in Brazil and our region. Bluish day up. That's the first time she'd ever been in the United States, flew her up in winter, by the way. So it was about 40 below zero and she grew up four degrees away from the equator right on the ocean.

So first time she'd ever been in that kind of weather. And so she was on stage in front of 1500 students and she speaking Portuguese with an interpreter. And I, I, I literally, I remember this, I leaned over to my buddy and I'm like, she's. Too bad. She doesn't speak English. And so she was talking and she said something, the interpreter didn't understand what she said.

And so she interpreted herself into English. And I literally remember, I just casually lead back over to my buddy. And I said, so you're saying there's a chance. Yes. And so we, we hit it off there. We had some mutual friends, some of my friends had just gone down there to bring up. For some emissions trip.

And so that was a 1998, but we actually didn't start dating until 2001. There's a longer story there, but that's how I first met her. So we started dating when I moved to Brazil in 2001 I asked her to marry me on top of the Sugarloaf mountain and Rio de Janeiro pawn Jessica. And then in 2003, we were married in Brazil.

Jim: Wow, fantastic. And a little credit out there to Jim Carrey and dumb and dumber. Alright. how did the two, I'm sorry, way too early. So how did the two of you come to the decision that God is calling you and your family to run for Congress?

Scotty Moore: Well, I'll start out really briefly and then I'll let Ester carry because she's the one who held really the decision that. Moving forward in her hands.

So you know, four years ago, actually five years ago now it was in December of 2016. God used a guy from Africa who gave me a word, a prophetic word, and I have actually forgotten specifics about that word until 2020. And I remember the Lord was just stirring in my heart and mind and part of what you teach and what we teach is that our responsibility is to hear from the Lord and respond.

And so, as I was, you know, and I've had a career of just walking with the Lord, trying to do that, and as heard. Just the whisperings from the Lord. I called a buddy of mine, Derek Patton, and I called him and I said, Denmark, this is going to sound pretty crazy. But I feel like the Lord is calling me to run for us Congress.

And I can show you where my office, where I was standing at that moment. And he said immediately, cause he was in the room. When that guy gave me that word, he said, immediately go Scotty, I've been waiting for you to step into that. And he said it was such a profound. Just guttural, like a confirmation that it was that man that started stirring.

So I brought it up to Ester and, Ester, emind me again, what was your response?

Ester Moore: I said, no,

Scotty Moore: no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Ester Moore: Yeah. When he, when he came to me and he said, I think the Lord might be calling me to go into politics. I said, no, he's not. You know, I know the mind of the Lord and I know that he's not, but we he's like, let's pray about it.

And I said, sure, I'll pray about it, but I don't want to do it.

So we, we prayed. And as we were praying about it, we talked to other mentors and other people that had been walking with Jesus longer than we have. And many of them were very encouraging, saying, we do need people like you then. But all of them, no exception said do not do it if your wife doesn't agree with it, do it, don't do it. And so I kept praying and I didn't feel any leading from the Lord either way for yes or for no for many months until we went to a marriage conference. And we, I was reading, I was reading a book that had nothing to do with it, but I just felt the Lord speaking to my heart saying release Scotty, just because this is something that you will never choose to do with her life doesn't mean that I'm not calling him to do it.

And so I believe that the Lord has been equipping Scotty, and he actually has been, he has made Skydance for campaigning. It's not even. So I didn't find him. And he has been equipping Scotty for this, his entire life. And so I, I said, okay, let's, let's pursue this. Let's go after this. And who knows how to run a campaign?

We didn't until, I mean, until we started on those and we needed somebody to help and God has placed people in our path. And we have just seen story after story of God's sightings. It's just incredible. It's been an amazing

Scotty Moore: journey. Yeah.

Martha: So Scotty, you know, it's, so there's so many things I just want to call out, but it's amazing how you've just been obedient and asking the Lord to show you the next steps.

And so I just want to ask you this real quick. I think Scotty, the call to politics is not for everybody. How did you know that it was your.

Scotty Moore: Yeah, I agree. The call, the politics is, is not everybody's call. In fact, I think all of us have callings and stepping into that calling is really important and being aware of that and listening and, and really opening up some are called into, you know, being a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher and God has gifted us and given us talents and abilities to sow into.

And when people do that, not only are they blessed when they're operating in their giftings, but the people around them are blessed. And so it's really trying to understand that. And so. You know, 20 years ago or a little bit more, God birthed the passion for politics in my life. And so I've been very connected.

And so a lot of people maybe wouldn't know that because of the job that I had working with crew that I really wasn't able to be super political, but I, I really believe that God instituted politics. And so, you know, I would even joke around with this day saying, Hey, you know, maybe someday he'll call us into politics, you know?

Little did I know that it wasn't a part of my plan to say, Hey, I'm going to. You know, raising money, working with crew, and then I'll transition into this. It wasn't. But, but when you hear the Lord and you said the key word it's obedience and what I told Ester, I said, listen, I know you're freaked out.

I mean, I know so many people said, this is a dirty, crazy slimy kind of world, are you sure you want to get into it? And to me, I say, listen, number one, I'm just trying to be obedient. I don't know. You know, I'm not really looking forward to all that craziness, but number two is that if good godly people who follow Lord on.

Don't step into this who feels the void, and then we're subject to the crazy laws that are happening.

Jim: And on that note, we're going to take a break. You're listening to, iWork4Him. As we talked with Scotty and his TA more Scotty Moore for congress.com. Check them out online, Scotty Moore for Congress.

If you live in central Florida, he could be in your district. We'll be right back with more on network brand.

Martha: You know, the kind of person that always tells you about the latest trends or the special deals around. Well lean in because here's a message from that kind of person. The awaken podcast network is the place to be.

Go to awaken podcast, network.com and unlock God's purpose for your work. With help from some friends, you will find a gathering place of podcast that provides simple tools, faith stories, and conversations that will inspire and equip you to vibrantly live out your faith in your work today. Go ahead.

Check out awaken podcast, network.com and then be that kind of person and tell a friend.

Jim: Hey, welcome back to I work rooms. We're talking with Scotty in this team. More Scotty Moore for congress.com. Scotty Moore for congress.com. No, this isn't a political show, but we're talking about Scotty and his tased story of how they're being called to run for Congress out of what district.

Scotty Moore: District nine it's part of orange county and into Osceola county. They're redoing the districts right now. So we're kind of on standby. So we're just holding firm on that, but district

Jim: nine, that's where you're. Okay. All right. Okay. Listen, Scotty, this is, you know, you get into politics and it's a danger zone for Jim here.

Well, listen, the American people are fed up to way beyond here with Congress. Rarely does anything ever get accomplished most of the time, it's not good for our country. It's good for the lobbyists and for the Congress. People who seem to get richer and richer, even though the only make $170,000 a year, and they have now millions and millions of.

So, how are you going to go to Washington DC and keep it becoming part of the problem?

Scotty Moore: Yeah, I, and I really appreciate this question and it's an important question that we need to make sure we're addressing, not just with me, but also with the current members, because it is pretty crazy. And we need to look into the fact that, you know, people who make 170 they're public servants yet they're walking away being enriched and there's a power struggle.

I think the very thing is, is it's defined by the. The current people, it feels like they care more about keeping their job and keeping their power than they do at representing the people. We, the people and what's best for our country moving forward. And so what we need to do is have get back to the checks and balances.

We're holding people accountable. I mean, that's the kind of a very basic principle. Regardless if you're in a family, you got to hold your kids accountable. They can't just keep doing whatever they want to do. Also within businesses, if you're running a business and you have employees doing whatever showing up late, you got to hold them accountable.

You can't just say don't keep doing that or not. And that's also true for our government. We have checks and balances. We're not holding them accountable, then they're allowed to keep doing the craziness. Okay. Find that stuff. Those are,

Jim: that was a great, that was fantastic rhetoric. How am I going to hold you accountable?

You go to Washington, DC, you buy your little, you rent your little house in Washington, DC. You are out of touch. I can't walk into Congress and bop, you upside the head and say, listen, idiot. You're not doing what you said you were going to do. How am I going to hold you accountable?

Scotty Moore: It's totally true.

You're right. And so here's one of the things that I love about Congress, even though I'm not a big fan of having to run for reelection every two years, but the reality is. The Congress, the house, the men and women who represent the house of representatives, 435 are supposed to be in their districts more often than they're in DC.

And so they're supposed to have office hours and accessibility is the key. And so the idea is that we're not supposed to be hidden away out of touch, not paying attention. We're supposed to be here, engaging, connecting, and have accessible. And I think we've lost that. I think we've forgotten about that.

And I think so accessibility is a big thing in holding people accountable. Yes, that's so good.

Martha: And I am sure that along the way, your people locally, if they elect you and you go, they're going to know how to access you. And I think that that's going to be a real key to living with. So Ester, we've already established that this is a family decision.

Like you guys had prayed about it and decided that this is the path forward that God wants for you. How do you intend to, to protect your family and your marriage? From what we would assume it would be the pressures and the, shall we call it the plague of, you know, LIS living in the nation's Capitol.

Ester Moore: I think that in any, any calling that you have, where you're going to make a difference, there's going to be a hardship and persecution. And I think it's a little different for pastors, I think is a little different for anybody actually, who is doing any good in the world, there's going to be persecution.

And so I think that. Number one, we need spiritual protection. We need prayer. We need, not only are we playing home, praying for ourselves, but we need people praying for us. And we do have that right now going in. We need that kind of protection. And I think that that's number one. And I think that just, you know Whatever we do to protect our marriage.

Now, it's, we need to keep doing that because

Jim: what are you doing right now to protect your marriage?

Ester Moore: We we pray together. We have other people around us that are mentors and we, whenever we can, we attend conferences. Things like that. And we give time for each other for our marriage. And so I think that this is, this is no different.

I think it will be. It will be different when he is out of town. When he's in DC. Of course, it's, there's going to be restrictions with time in that, but I think it's, it's a season and we're just going to have to, you know, like, I believe that we both are going into this believing that God has called us into that.

And so we're just going to have to adjust to the reality of like him being gone for so many days a week in DC and

Martha: all that stuff, you know? And I just want to commend you on something right now. And I have started following you guys on Facebook and people can do. They you're living real life and you're showing things that God is doing in your life and your family.

And I just, I commend you on that because you're living the life that God's called you to go to be in all areas and allowing your family to keep growing and to invest in your spiritual walk as a family and your church activities and things like that. And so I, I, I hear you loud and clear that that prayer.

I believe also the biggest part of I'm holding you guys up and having that protection around you. All right.

Jim: Hang on. Here's the zinger though. Scotty Moore. You're going alone to DC. Cause you got a wife at home with a couple of girls in high school and something happens in DC. Scotty, something happens and I don't know what it is because I've never gotten to go, but I'm telling you something, the enemy is going to come at you.

All kinds of attacks and I'll guarantee you somebody's going to come at you with their body. Somebody you are going to be attacked sexually in DC because it happens all the time. There's gotta be something for some reason, that's got this hold. It seems like when people get to DC, they get the strangle all on them.

And all of a sudden they start doing stuff that they said they would never do. And what happens are they getting blackmailed or whatever? How are you going to protect you and your marriage to day? How are you going to protect that sexuality? Because that is going to come under attack when you're there alone at night.

Scotty Moore: Yeah, no, it's a really good question. And it's one that I've talked a lot with the state and we've talked with other friends and mentors and I've talked with the Lord about it too. And here are a few things. That have come up in that, that I'm moving forward on number one, I think isolation is dangerous anytime you're alone and you're moving forward.

That's, that's fertile ground for the enemy to really speak lies. We talk about that in first Peter five, that he's a, a prowling lion looking for someone to devour. And so he's just rot roaming around. So number one, I think the, the less that I can be alone and I'm not talking about, I just need to be in proximity to people, but with the right people, you know, David.

I ended up where he was, because it says in the spring time, when Kings go to war, David stayed home. What he didn't have is Jonathan and his life any longer to say, what are you doing? What you're not supposed to stay here, man. And as a result, that one decision led to another led to another led to another, and then it was best Sheba.

And then not only that it was murder, you know, because of that one decision of not having someone in his life to speak truth, to power and so often. And so I think there's a few things. Number one you know, you need to have people in your life who speak truth to power that can walk with you to not be isolated and be aware of that.

And then there's another thing. There's a document that we have called the VP Mosa. It talks about vision, purpose, mission, and long before you even get to the vision part, you talk about what, what, what do you want your marriage? What do you want your relationship with your wife and your girls to look like?

Long long ahead, you know, maybe when you're dead or, or, or near the end of your life. And, and that I'm committed to continuing. And so I don't want to risk losing my relationship with my wife or risk losing my relationship with my girls because of a decision now. And so that's gotta be at the forefront of my decision-making.

And so, you know, I'm not, I'm not gonna miss my girls birthdays or certain, certain important dates because of this power struggle because that's primary because I know at some point. I'm not going to be a Congressman, but I'm always going to be remade, but married to Ester and I'm always going to have it.

So what's primary and keeping those in checks. That's, that's one of the many ways that we're

Jim: doing. All right. Great. Shout out to transformational leadership TL on demand.com TL on demand.com. Great plug for there for the VP Mosa. All right, listen. Last, last question of this. Do you want to ask him, do you want to participate in this?

Yeah.

Martha: Oh, that'd be great. You know, the, the extroverts here are having a party. So and I love it. And you know, I think that, I know that that's one of the things that you know, God has given you guys the personality and the character and everything for this, and I'm hearing over and over again, how you've surrounded yourself with good counsel and people that love you.

The God's best for you. So what do you think is going to be the biggest challenge in like this whole election process process each day? Why don't you I dunno, what do you think as the wife of somebody who's out there in know campaigning? What do you think the biggest challenge is going to be for you?

Ester Moore: The pace has been I think challenging the Scotty is gone many times like this morning, he, he was gone before it was out of bed for a breakfast. So the pace has been crazy tends to be pretty intense, but at the same time, I have to say, I have never seen Scotty this energized he is.

There is something about doing what you feel like God has called you to do. And there is something about seeing God move that really energizes you. But I, I, I worry about his, even his health just because he he sometimes he's nicer. Like he's, he sleeps for not as many hours as I feel like I need to sleep because.

You know, he arrives late at night from an event. And then he has to sleep in, wake up at five, 5:30 AM to go to a breakfast Ms. Breakfast or something like that. And so that is

Scotty Moore: okay. The

Jim: pace, the pace. All right. I'm going to hope that he doesn't throw all this pace gets so stressed out. He loses that grip.

You're listening to, iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. As we talked with Scotty and his Taymor Scotty Moore for Congress, Scotty Moore for congress.com. We'll be right back.

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Hey, welcome back to iWork4Him as we're talking with Scotty and Ester Moore, Scotty Moore for Congress and that's Scotty with a y - Scotty Moore for congress.com.

Being a Congressman is an honor. You're one of 435 of the most powerful people in America. And really that influenced the entire globe. How are you going to make sure that you serve those you represent and not the special interests that are giving you money to run for Congress and the people that have all this money that want to influence.

That's a danger cash in a pocket is a danger. How are you going to, how are you going to make sure you serve the people and district nine out of a orange and Osceola county, Florida. And not those that are gone. Hey, Scotty, I can give you a hundred grand for your campaign if you just help me out of your little.

Scotty Moore: Yeah. And, and I think the bottom line is, is really it's honoring God and integrity. And again, it goes back to the earlier point and it wasn't just running. So for the listeners to really hear and understand, I really do care about this country. I care about, I look about what is it going to look like for my daughters, 14 and 11?

What kind of America are they gonna inherit? What about my future grandkids that are not yet born? And if I give into those special interests oftentimes they're not, they're not concerned with the future of America. They're concerned with. Their business or what they want or pushing things. And that's how we've gotten ourselves into this position.

And so, number one, I would say the decision needs to happen before you get there. There needs to be a commitment and there needs to be a public commitment saying like, I'm not going to do that. I don't want to do that. That's not why I'm getting into that. So then now you can hold me accountable, but also that we're.

That we're having some clear boundaries in place. So for example, we worked with crew for over 20 years and we had to raise our funds individually. And so I guarantee you that we've been put in places where people are trying to do the quid pro quo. Can we do this? Can you do this? Clearly, we didn't get into this for the money.

You know, we didn't get into the past 20 years raising funds. And so for us, it's not about the money as much as it's about the mission. Now I'm not trying to say that I'm not corruptible because I'm human in anyone, anyone who thinks that they're not corruptible, that's a very dangerous place to be human.

And so that's the starting point, but I really believe that we need. Make that commitment first honor, the Lord have integrity and then have the track record of the past 21 years of not doing that already. Yeah.

Martha: And an earning the trust and, and, and showing that you're trustworthy along the way is really going to help the people that you are representing.

So one of the things that we really love to drive into is. There is a need for more people like you in the political arena, whatever that role might be. So there might be somebody listening today. That's thinking, you know, I've always thought about maybe running for Congress or maybe some other position.

What kind of advice can you offer to them? Right.

Scotty Moore: Yeah, great question. The bottom line is, is listen to the holy spirit. You know, the Bible talks about staying in step with the spirit and so not get ahead of them, not stay behind. And then conversely connected with that is obedience. You know, when the Lord calls us to do something, it can be scary.

There could be questions, but the Lord doesn't say, if he doesn't mind obedience, in other words, it's not predicated on whether or not I think I'll be successful. God, doesn't say obey me. If you think you'll be successful or step into this. And so oftentimes. Throughout the Bible, we kind of just glance glimpse over these really quick stories of David and Goliath.

There's a conviction and an understanding, but there's, there are real consequences connected to that. And there's, there's pushing through that, but also understanding and whose power look at Gideon. What happened with him? He had 32,000 finding men and it whittled down to 300. I guarantee you that there were people looking at that situation saying that's a suicide mission.

Hearing from the Lord, you know, we talk about Samuel and just hearing and understanding and the responding and listening to your spouse,

Jim: hearing from the Lord and listening to your spouse. Right.

Scotty Moore: It was very much a part of that relationship, right? I mean, he's going to call us

Jim: both. All right. We got to end this podcast.

How do you want us praying for you?

Scotty Moore: Yeah, well, I think again, we've mentioned it, but our marriages. First and foremost of, and I believe families are under attack right now, and I'm not trying to get too political. I'm just saying like, let's look around. And so it starts with us. We need to be good examples.

And then our kids, our kids are under attack right now. You look at what's happening in the culture. Please pray for us, pray for our kids. And as we stay, I want please, would you help us to pray to remain firm to God's truth? And I'm okay with having people vote me out of office because I'm honoring the Lord.

What I'm not okay with is sacrificing my printer. Of what God is asking us to do. And so I want to stay true to that. I believe we need more Patriots and people like that who are honoring the Lord and walking from. And so we covered your pair of prayers on that. All right. Well, let's pray

Jim: now the last dish I should ask.

Is there anything you want to add to what he just said?

Ester Moore: No, I just, I, I wholeheartedly agree because I don't, I don't think we want a, would not be willing to sacrifice our marriage and our family for

Scotty Moore: this. Alright,

Jim: cool. Father, we just lift up Scotty initially. Or we ask that you would protect them, protect their marriage, protect their hearts, their minds, their souls, and their strength as they worship you as they run for Congress.

Lord, if it is your will a scout to be part of a huge freshmen class in Congress, this next year, a Congress that is aimed at really bringing our country back to the standards that we were founded on. Over 250 years ago, almost 250 years ago, father, we just pray, pray for protection or health protection against the enemies attacks and all sorts of areas.

And Lord, we just pray for our country that we would get back to being a country that is a light on a hill shining light to the. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Scotty Anish, Taymor. Thanks for being on. iWork4Him today,

Scotty Moore: Scottie with a Y standing more for Congress. Thank you so much. God bless you guys.

That's right,

Jim: Scotty. More for Congress. You been listed. iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha bringing book we're Christ followers, our workplace. It's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him.

Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world.

Books: For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work with volunteering and best that is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work in retirement.

Check out our books. iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him bygoing to iWork4Him.com/ bookstore.

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3/4/22 - Radical Generosity: Bill High with The Signatry

Producer: Welcome to the, iWork4Him podcast. I'm Michael Miracle producer of the, iWork4Him radio program, the voice of the faith and work movement. 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: This episode of iWork4Him was previously recorded for the Christian leadership alliances outcomes conference podcast, where leaders come to invest the best of what they know into other leaders.

Martha: Remember, if you have influence over just one person, you are a leader together. Let's listen to this podcast and learn more about leading God's way.

Enjoy.

Jim: Martha, and I are excited to host the outcomes conference podcast. Every podcast is dedicated to you. Our outcomes conference podcast listener. We have an incredible conversation coming up today with Bill High, he's from theSignatry.com. That's theSignatry.com. We'll be focusing on leadership, thriving and related outcomes.

Bill High, welcome to the outcomes conference podcast.

Bill High: So glad to join you all.

Jim: Now, we're excited to have you. Before we get started talking about your leadership role and the perspective of what God is doing through you to lead a thriving environment at the Signatry. Tell us how you personally keep your faith strong and your leadership Christ centered each and every day.

Bill High: Yeah. One of my favorite things to do, Jim. I, I like I have a daily Bible that I read a daily chronological Bible. And so I try to read through the Bible every year. And I just find that by reading the whole Bible from cover to cover, it gives you context. And I think that when you're a leader, the power of context is so critical.

So you don't just focus on the immediate fire, but you think about what caused the fire? What were the events leading up to it, but also it gives you context to be able to say, man, here's what God's done. And so when those moments of crisis come that you don't have to fear. The Bible says you've heard this do not be afraid 365 times. Well, the do not be afraid is because God goes before us. And when you read the Bible from cover to cover, you're reminded about time and time again, how God truly goes before us. I'm grateful for that.

Martha: That's so good. So, you know that's something just to the fact that you're reading the chronological, you know, we have done that multiple times as well, and just seeing it in story form in order, because we, we are people of order, you know, just to understand the history is so great.

So. What does thriving mean to you personally?

Bill High: I've always referenced the, a, that verse in John 10, John 10, 10, where Jesus said that I've come, that they might have life and have it abundantly. And I think the picture of that is the idea that you put your cups under the fountain, under the faucet. However you want to look at.

And the cup starts to fill and fill, and eventually it starts to overflow, but you can't take it away and it just keeps overflowing. And I think that's the idea of thriving. The fact that your life is just overflowing. And that's where I think if you are rooted in God's word, you're rooted in prayer and the holy spirit.

And that's where that opportunity really does come to have your cup overfill overflow. And to have that sense of thriving, no matter where you are and where, where you're at.

Jim: So let's connect the two thriving in your work at the Signatry. How does your work at the Signatry enable those that you serve enable those to serve those that you serve to thrive?

Bill High: Great question. So of course, one of the big problems that you have obstacles to thrive really is, you know, if you go back to the parable of the sower or what's the seed that gets choked, it's the seed that got, got planted, but it's choked by the cares and desires of the world. And so, so often you see people who go out and start businesses and they seek to grow and they get caught up in the moment they get caught up, frankly, in the greed and the pursuit of riches riches become their God.

And so the the Bible is full of these paradoxes, but it's only when we begin to let go. And we begin to learn to be generous, that it becomes that great antidote for fighting that curse of where wealth and riches might have in our heart.

Jim: Hmm. And, and really wealth and riches can become a big ball and chain.

If you kind of hoard them all for yourselves, it really starts to be not only a God, but a real drag too,

Bill High: well, as you know, I mean, the Signatry is a, one of the handful of the Christian donor advised fund organization. So we have people come in and create accounts, put their money in, get a tax deduction and use it to support the charities that they want.

As a result, we get to work with a lot of wealthy individuals. We get to work with a lot of Christian business owners, but what we see time and time again is that you see people who get caught up. And well in you see families destroyed in it. We've heard the adage that it's shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.

It's a 70% failure rate in generation two. So it's just a fact of life that not many people make this transition of handing off wealth very well. And so that is why this emphasis on generosity becomes so critical. It really does free our heart. Martha, as you said, to be able to get to that place of thriving.

Martha: So let's talk about thriving a little more because, you know, we don't always figure it out right away. And I think you have a great platform of generosity that really lends itself to that. But a lot of companies have to try things out before they figure out what's really going to create this a thriving.

So, is there something that you guys are doing at the Signatry right now? That's having great impact in that area?

Bill High: Well, one of the things, of course I could talk about the business owner side of it, but I want to talk since so much for our audience, our Christian leaders. Is the emphasis on equipping the Christian leader with recognizing who their key donors are and these key business owners and how they can serve them.

Because what I tend to see so much as this kind of parallel universe, where we have the ministry leader thinks I'm focused on my ministry. And then they go talk to donors about how to fund it as opposed to, how do we actually go talk to that business leader and help them in their business and make the transition and to recognize who those people are with the right conversation, the right questions.

I mean, sometimes the simple question. Okay. Hey, Jim, Hey, Martha, you look like you built a great business, but how are you going to transition it? Who will your successors be? And are your children prepared to handle your wealth? So we try to equip the Christian business or the Christian leader, the nonprofit leader with the right way to serve so many of the families that they're working.

Jim: And what a great effort that is because so much emphasis needs to be put on protecting the next generations from the money that may be passed on and teaching them to be a steward of it in a recognized. Ownership of those assets. We're talking today with Bill hi from the Signatry, love free to check them out online.

You don't have a donor advised fund set up, be a great place to do it. The Signatry.com the Signatry.com. We'll be right back with more from the outcomes conference podcasts,

Martha: you know, the kind of person that always tells you about the latest trends or the special deals around town we'll lean in because here's a message from that kind of person.

The Awaken podcast network is the place to be. Go to awaken podcast, network.com and unlock God's purpose for your work. With help from some friends, you will find a gathering place of podcasts that provides simple tools, faith stories, and conversations that will inspire and equip you to vibrantly live out your faith in your work today.

Go ahead. Check out awaken podcast, network.com and then be that kind of person and tell a friend,

Jim: Hey, welcome back to the outcomes conference podcast. We're talking about thriving today with Bill high from the Signatry Bill. Can you share what God has shown you about your leadership personally in the last 18 months?

I mean, there's been so much, so much has happened to us over the last year. What changes have you made personally or professionally that helped you keep focused on your mission as a.

Bill High: Well, one of the simple things that we did early on, we realized, and you've heard this Henry Blackaby always said that whenever you see a great disruption, you need to pay attention to the activity of God and adjust accordingly.

So as the world was shutting down March 17th and on and on, as you started seeing all these things, Take place. One of the things that we recognize as a leadership team is that we needed to adjust accordingly. So every Monday we have a devotional, but we added into the week for the rest of our team, a prayer time.

So we added on a brand new prayer time. Now we already did prayer on Mondays, but we added a separate prayer time where people could come in and share their concerns and their fears and pray for one another. And that was one of the simple changes that we made. But we didn't want to just make it about fear and concern either.

We also wanted to celebrate the activity of. And so we added on at the end of the week, a celebration. So just a half an hour celebration and we can do it popcorn style. We can move pretty fast. And we can just say, Hey Jim, what was great for you this week? Where did you see God show up? Martha? What did you, and just by adding those few things was one of the simple things that we could do to continue to build a thriving culture.

But from an outreach perspective, one of the things that we told our team early on. As a way to continue outreach again, you weren't able to travel like you had been, you hadn't been able to have some of the in-person meetings. So we just established a rule called the 5, 10, 10 rule. And the 5, 10, 10 rule meant that you would send at least five text messages a day.

You would send 10 emails and then you would send try to have 10 phone calls a day. Again, you could do that when you're not out and about as much, you're not losing time, travel time in the life, but just that regular activity out there. And then the opportunity to convene as a group and say, man, here's what we learned.

Here's what we saw. Let's pray for this. We had people that would respond to us on an outreach basis who would say. Thank you for calling me. Thank you for reaching out. I just needed to talk. And of course, one of the common questions early on in that process was, can you tell us what's going on? What is going on?

And we could share some of the similar fears and concerns with them. Hey, we don't know all of that, but here's what we do know. And just as we could give some clarity around what was happening, it made a tremendous difference in our audience. The other thing that I would add is. Early on, in that I heard a message from Andy Stanley talking about what was going on.

And he talked about the fact that, you know, this was one of the first times in the history of the world where everybody was facing the same thing. It was a global pandemic. So there was global fear. There was global uncertainty and that was one of his key points. Everybody was facing uncertainty. What's going to happen on the markets.

What's going to happen to the economy. What's going to happen with my health, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So global uncertainty. And the question is what do you do with uncertainty? And his point was you just provide clarity about what you do in the midst of uncertainty. And I think that was tremendous wisdom on Andy Stanley's part to just say, as leaders.

Man, we share an empathize with uncertainty, but what we can do is provide clarity about what we will do you remember when Moses and the nation of Israel were backed up against the sea? And of course they had the mountains on one side and the desert, another and the Egyptians coming and attacking them and the Israelites were crying out and God says, why are you crying out?

Tell the people to go for. And God's pointing all that is, it may look all uncertain around you, but you do have a clear path of action. Now that clear path of action means you got to dip your toe in the water, but you do have clarity. And so I think that's just great wisdom as we think about our times. I think, you know, let's face it.

The uncertainty hasn't ended, maybe it's less than a little bit, but the key for us as leaders is to continue to provide that clarity going from.

Martha: So as a leader, what do you think has been one of your biggest challenges during this same time?

Bill High: You know, the, it is, for me personally, it is much as I reminded you a little bit ago is to remind myself in scripture, all those places where God truly has gone before.

Because you see that consistently in scripture, I think I counted the number of places where God goes before us. And, and I it's like a hundred places where you'll see God go fight a battle, you know, rocks come down from heaven, et cetera, et cetera. And so those are the kinds of things where you're just reminded that it's really not about you.

It is about how God's going to show up and how we need to lead in that.

Jim: It was great to look at, you know, the, the pandemic brought a lot, a lot of challenges. I mean, a lot, a lot of people lost family members, but there was also this great freeing of the church, the body of Christ from the walls of the church and the spreading them out of the community all over the country, which has been a fantastic thing that a revelation of, wow, the church has been spread.

It's been extricated and sent out to the community. It's been so fun to see. What does that look like? Because we've been challenged, everybody's been challenged. What do you consider your biggest breakthrough Bill over the last couple of, of almost two years now, 12 to 18 months? What's your biggest, great breakthrough?

Bill High: Well, we certainly learned that you didn't have to be as many places physically as we thought. So we've done a lot more, certainly online. You've probably heard this, the online education space probably accelerated by five to seven years. The online donations space accelerated by five to seven years, one of the companies we help found, I donate.

They ended up offering their giving platform to churches who didn't have giving platforms, which was kind of astounding to think that there were churches who didn't have giving platform. So the virtual world accelerated dramatically, even things like this, that we're doing here today, we're going to continue to see this grow the acceptance of it.

And the willingness of people that used to say, now I've got to meet you in person. I got to look you eye to eye your ability to build relationships just through the virtual world and real relationships, real meaningful relationship. If you're willing to get down and say, yeah, man, I have that same uncertainty, but there's where I think we.

Jim: We're talking about Bill high today from the Signatry for talking about leadership and thriving, and really the challenges that Bill faced we'll be right back with more from Bill, want to build a profitable side hustle that impacts people with truth and healing in themselves and in their leadership.

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We've talked to him with Bill high from the Signatry, and we're talking about thriving and we're talking about leadership and Bill. It's not always without it's challenges. Leadership's always got its challenge. For you personally, what's one thing that you learned that you want to make sure that everybody in your team learned as well?

Bill High: Yeah. At the end of the day, Jim, I think the biggest lesson that we learned and are continuing to learn through the process of going through the pandemic is to be able to say kind of three big phrases and the three big phrases are saying it's okay. And the second phrase goes right along with it, which is, I don't understand.

It's okay. I don't understand. I don't know what's going on. And the third phrase is, but I'll still trust. I'll still believe. And I think that's been my biggest lesson and it, you know, these are things that I will talk about with the families that I work and the nonprofits that I work, but I think that lesson became even more ingrained because the idea of saying it's okay, It's just saying I don't get it all.

And I release it. I let go of those fears, worries and concerns. And I truly am going to say, I don't understand. I don't know where it's going to go. I don't know where the future's going to go. There. There are a lot of needs in the nonprofit world. No doubt. Not withstanding the fact overall that giving was up last year.

There are some dangerous things out there that, that whether it's things like the passage of the equality act and what that could mean for Christian ministries, Christian universities and the life. There's a lot that we don't understand, but we can still believe we can still trust that God's got it in his hands.

And I think as we continue to do that, it kind of amps down our anxiety and it amps up our peak. So that's what I'm continuing to learn as we go through this. That's a

Martha: great lessons. So let's talk about the fact that you Bill with the Signatry. You go around with David Green, founder of hobby lobby, and you help people to understand the power of intentional generosity.

What have you learned from what is one of the biggest lessons you've learned from David's.

Bill High: Yeah. The, one of the fascinating things about generosity is neurologically there's an accelerator and a brake. And what you see is that the accelerator side of it says, man, that felt good. It felt freeing.

Wonderful to do the brake side of it is. And this again happens right side left side of the brain. The neurologic part of it is the protective side kicks in, which is. What if I don't have enough or what about that house I need to get, or the car payment, whatever it is. And so you've always got the accelerator and the brake going on at the same time.

And so one of the couple of things that we've seen is that in order to unleash world changing kind of generosity one of the things that David Green talks about is you must resolve the ownership versus stewardship question. Once you release ownership of all that you have then and recognize I'm just a steward.

That's the first step we've done all kinds of interviews, much like you have. We wrote a book actually a few years back called the generosity. Bet. We interviewed all kinds of Christian business leaders from around the country and the number one factor to unleashing that great biblical generosity was the ownership question.

There is a second thing. And the second thing that we found, and this is in the book that we wrote with David Green, giving it all away is the idea of family. Family is the only thing that has that same kind of a protective element. I'm going to protect my kids. I'm going to go move by my kids and grandkids.

You guys understand that story, but it's also the side that has that warm feel, good side of it. And so when you and gay. As a nonprofit leader with people about their families, you hit both sides of the brain. And it's the family. When you start talking about how to use your wealth, not just to preserve wealth, but to use your wealth, to preserve the family.

The first avenue where that really begins to be unleashed is okay, how do we give as a family? How do we change the world? Because now you're talking about. The side that says we feel good about our family, but also the side that says we're going to protect our family from the possibility of greed from becoming impoverished, spiritually, but using money to be generous.

So those are the couple of big lessons that we've learned as we walked witness road, with David Green.

Jim: Yeah. And you guys seem to have so much fun when you guys are up on a stage, you know, a Bill, as we close out this outcomes conference podcast, the Christian leadership Alliance is a place where leaders come to invest the best of what they know in other leaders, Bill, what leadership idea or thinking would you like to share as an investment with our outcomes conference podcast listeners?.

Bill High: Yeah, it's actually what I shared at the very beginning. Jim, I think any Christian leader should be trying to read through the Bible cover to cover every single year. And again, mainly it's because of the power of context and through the holy spirit every year, if you do that, God will reveal things to you.

New and different. There have been stories that I've tried to read 20 years. Yeah. It took me 20 years to understand Joseph and his brothers in the old Testament. Those are the kinds of things where as you do that, the Bible gives you wisdom and the wisdom to be able to operate not only in how you leave.

But how you interact with others and people see that same context and you, that you understand a little bit more of this idea that God has a plan. That's not just in this moment, but that's all the way from Genesis to revelation. And that we're just a bit character in it. It truly is the divine drama of which we just play a part.

Wow. Great

Jim: words, Bill. Thank you, Bill high from the Signatry for joining us today on the outcomes conference podcast. Thanks. And do you, our outcomes conference podcast listeners. Thanks for joining us today. We pray this podcast inspired you to a higher and deeper thinking about thriving for greater kingdom impact.

Martha: Be sure to visit Christian leadership alliance.org, where you can stay up to date by subscribing to the outcomes online newsletter and the CLA higher thinking blog.

Jim: If you're not already a member, what are you waiting for? Join the Alliance today. Christian leadership. . Org.

Remember

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If you loved it, say so and share it today with a friend

Jim: I'm Jim and

Martha: I'm Martha, we'll see you again for the next episode of the outcomes conference podcast.

Books: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, the cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work live volunteer and invest - that is your mission field.

To learn more about integrating your faith into your work and retirement. Check out our books. iWork4Him, sheWorks4HIm and iRetire4Him by going to, iWork4Him.com/bookstore.

Producer: Thank you for listening to the, iWork4Him podcast with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg, please visit. iWork4Him.com to learn more about connecting your faith and work to join the iWork4Him nation or subscribe to our weekly blog. You can also follow us on social media @ iWork4Him to stay up to date and meet our guests.

If today's message spoke to you, please subscribe, rate, and review the show on your favorite podcast platform. Your review will launch more workplace missionaries across. That's @ iWork4Him and online iWork4Him.com. I work the number 4 him. Dot com.