Virtue – the quality or practice of moral excellence or righteousness. When we were kids Virtue was held in high regard. IS Virtue still held in high regard? Where do we find virtuous people? Where do we find people even talking about virtue? Anywhere? And the ultimate question, where do we find those leading virtuously? Well our guest today is in search of those leading virtuously around the country. He is interviewing them, studying them, and sharing their insights with others in his Leading Virtuously Podcast as well as putting their virtuous insights into practice in his business Spirit Consulting. Today we talk with Christopher Gomez, a man on a mission from God to find those Leading Virtuously.

The Urban Islands Project in conjunction with NextWave.community posed a question to us. “How do you plant an iWork4Him church?” “How do you do this in an urban environment?” We tackled these questions and more as we spoke to the NextWave.community about iWork4Him and how a church focused on work and the value of work can transform a community by meeting the needs of the community before you start inviting people to church. Enjoy the challenges we offered in this conversation. If you are a pastor of a local church, some of these conversations may cause you to look at things differently. Be warned. Its always fun to see what God is doing all over the country and this group of church planting pastors is a dynamic group trying to meet the needs of rural communities and urban communities.

Its fun to share about the exciting things God has asked Martha and I to do with iWork4Him over the years. With this year rolling out two new podcasts – iRetire4Him and sheWorks4Him as well as the new www.AwakenPodcastNetwork.com. In addition, we will be rolling out 3 new books, our first ever, all in the names of our podcasts – iWork4Him, iRetire4Him and sheWorks4Him. Mike Henry host of the Follower of One podcast found on the www.AwakenPodcastNetwork.com wanted us to tell his audience what was going on with iWork4Him and then we turned the tables on Mike and talked to him about his Marketplace Missions Trips and his Marketplace Missions Trip in a Box. It’s a great conversation with one of the many collaborators from within the Faith and Work Movement.

You could call him my mentor, but he never knew my name for the first 8 years he was mentoring me. You could call him one of the founding Fathers of the Faith and Work Movement, but he would tell you there were many more that came before him. You could call many things, but Martha and I have grown fond of calling him friend. Os Hillman with MarketplaceLeaders.org is just one of 125 collaborators on www.AwakenPodcastNetwork.com. He was so excited about this demonstration of collaboration within the Faith and Work Movement that he interviewed us to find out all about the history of where the www.AwakenPodcastNetwork.com came from and what we plan on doing with it. Enjoy the conversation between the three of us.

When I was a kid, men were men, and boys were boys, and we were good with that. Men defended the honor of women and fought the wars, and they were respected as bosses and fathers. Then the cancel culture kicked in. In the name of Women’s liberation, they demeaned, de-masculated, and canceled men so that they are portrayed as idiots, sex starved, and singularly minded on TV. Now, hear me when I say this. Women did need to be raised up in our country and our churches. They still need to be raised up to equal status in over 100 countries around the world. That is not the point of this. We needed to teach men to be Godly men without telling them that their testosterone was wrong. Where is the church in all this? Sixty years later, where are all the men in the church. Men are addicted to pornography, and men are leaving their wives for the pipe dream in the cubicle next door. Where are men learning and being mentored and discipled by other men to be the kind of Man that God wants them to be? Where do men go to learn this? I found just the place. A place where men can hear from men about struggles and victories both at home and at work. Real men with real stories with God as the central character. That’s my kind of action. Blake Mattocks is passionate about men being Godly men. So passionate that he started www.365Christianmen.com and he is here to tell us about it. Don’t disconnect just because you aren’t a man.

Is it OK for a Christian to be in politics, to be involved in a political conversation? Isn’t politics too volatile for a Jesus Follower to be a part of? Where does our faith fit into the political process of the united states of America? How do we bring our faith in Jesus into the political arena without destroying relationships? How do we embrace faith, inspire hope, weaponize love and impact a nation? Can any of that be done within politics? Honestly, I don’t know many of the answers to the questions I am asking. I do know one thing – everyone around me should be benefitting from my faith in Jesus whether they believe in Jesus or not. Is it working??? I don’t know for sure, but I do know that politics is quicksand for me. Soooo, we are bringing in an expert who talks all day long about bringing in the principles of the Kingdom of God into politics. Aamon Ross with Kingdom in politics is with us today to inspire a generation of Jesus followers to get involved in politics and fill the 575,000 political offices in our country.

God calls us to take the Kingdom into every area of the world. For the last 60 years we’ve abdicated our responsibility to steward the political arena and the results are catastrophic. If you’re tired of just talking about the problems in politics and want to be part of the solution, Kingdom In Politics is for you.