Keynote 4 | Kingdom Leadership Workshop | October 2024
Description
Casey Brewer, Employee Support Director at Betenbough Companies, shares insights on leading with a Kingdom style in business. Using Jesus’ leadership as the ultimate example, Casey explains how Kingdom leaders prioritize knowing and developing their people, investing in relationships, and empowering their teams. Key takeaways include engaging with your team personally and professionally, holding meaningful one-on-one conversations and giving real authority and responsibility for growth. Discover how a Kingdom approach to leadership transforms both your team and your business.
thanks Carrie yeah in this session we are going to take a deeper look into what happens
when a kingdom leader engages in a kingdom style of
leadership also known as the kingdom of God advancing through
relationships let that sink in regardless of our theological
upbringing I’m I’m confident there one thing that we can absolutely agree upon
and that is that Jesus Christ was and is
the greatest and most effective leader of the world has ever known right so if that is the case then since
that’s the case it would greatly benefit us to then study his words and his
leadership from his kingdom perspective so one of the things that really stands out to me
when I then look at this through a leadership lens or his words here in John chapter 10 where it says I have
come that they may have life and have it more
abundantly while none of us none of us here are Jesus if you’ve been born again and
saved by him then there is a promise you have been filled with his Spirit that’s
good news and you are a carrier of his spirit so although we can’t can’t give eternal
life to anyone we can model and demonstrate what Abundant Life can and
should look like in the marketplace in the middle of our work
day so taking Jesus example and using his Spirit as our guide we can then
conclude what our mission as Kingdom leaders should be and it is this a
kingdom leader mission your mission my mission is to inent Ally care for their
people and raise them up to their god-given
potential first things first though let’s be clear there are there are no recipes to how this works or looks the
the fruit of Kingdom leadership in your organization will look vastly different than it does here in our organization
but we do believe there are a couple of priorities that can help you partner
with God so that his kingdom can advance first inside of you and then through
your leadership to the people that you serve we believe that a leader can successfully demonstrate a kingdom style
of leadership with their people by engaging in these two priorities know
them and grow them pretty simple right we could probably just end right
there and let you pray about what that looks like for you and trust that you’ve been hearing from from the Lord in the last session and he would continue to
show you what that is supposed to look like but we’ll take a few minutes to unpack that let’s start with know them
and look the the truth is knowing your people should actually start before
their first day of employment you should consider spending
a significant amount of time and energy on selecting people and that’s the key
word selecting people to join your organization you should be asking yourself are they a
cultural fit to what God has established here Gina is going to unpack that with us later a little bit more about the
cultural fit side but are they a cultural fit um do you want to get to know do you
even like them first of all you should answer that
question we know that God has indeed tasked us with knowing our people and if
we don’t start that early and consistently demonstrate that over time we could potentially end up like
this guy Ron Swanson let’s take a look what a gorgeous herbaceous medalie
there’s been a mistake you’ve accidentally given me the food that my food eats salad is traditionally the
first course at a wedding is a Geral marrying a rabbit any dog under 50 lbs is a cat and
cats are pointless hey if you see Andy will you not tell him I’m here okay because of
what happened I don’t want him to think stop don’t want to know the less I know about other people’s Affairs the happier
I am I’m not interested in caring about people I once worked with a guy for 3
years and never learned his name best friend I ever had we still never talk sometimes an was
getting a little chummy when people get too chummy with me I like to call them
by the wrong name to let them know I don’t really care about about [Music]
them while it is humorous uh we should know that you know Ron here is he’s a man’s man in the show
parks in wreck and he simply tolerates with absolute minimal effort the people
that he leads and while it is funny it’s really sobering for us to understand and
realize that he actually represents a large percentage of the leadership population out
there so we’re talking about know them well let’s let’s break this down into
two components the first is what we would call shoulder toosh shoulder and that is you as a leader being actively
engaged with them in their work now you may be thinking wait wait
wait I I have a job I’ve selected them to do a job and now you’re telling me
that I should be engaged with them in their job aha yes welcome to life in the
kingdom of God here on Earth where tension becomes the norm and discomfort
is actually an indicator of growth and success how’s that sound tension and
discomfort exciting right that’s why you came here but it’s
true I’m suggesting yes that you make time time as a leader to be actively engaged with them in the work they are
doing now this probably should not look like you literally standing over their shoulder watching every email they type
out or listening in on every phone conversation although for some roles it’s probably a pretty good training or
onboarding plan I’ve listened to some phone calls and seen some emails that probably needed that actually but that’s
not what we’re talking about specifically what I’m talking about is you being actively engaged with them
helping them become successful long-term in the role there’s there’s a reason why so
many professions require continuing education and ongoing training
because most businesses understand that no one can be successful in
isolation no one for many Business Leaders I think
this image probably illustrates the influence lead leaders leadership influence that we
desire think about it we’re strong and mighty flowing from the top all the way
down to the bottom even at the most entry level of roles we want that but
the truth is also that it’s impossible and it is
exhausting to try and reach and touch everyone in the organization even if it
might stroke our ego a little bit so again I I realize there’s tension
here because on one hand I’m saying engage with your people on the other hand I’m saying you can’t do it all so
what do we do with that well I think this
image this cascading waterfall more accurately illustrates the kingdom style of leadership that the Lord has designed
my influence your influence as a leader May indeed go from the top and reach the
most entry level roles in the organization but that only happens as it
starts one person at a time and Cascades all throughout the organization so my love and influence as
a leader May indeed reach the most entry level role but again that only happens
in a cascading style where it duplicates repeats and then multiplies itself throughout the
organization now I I realize this might look a little busy but this accurately
reflects the people under my care my influence May reach all those
names that you can’t even see but my primary role of influence is
to lead and serve in love Allison and Liza and Nate two of whom are in the
room with us today that’s what cascading style looks like because the team
directly under my care is my mission and your mission and the work
they do that’s their mission now the work that we do as
Leaders the actual tasks Hands-On stuff it really does matter but not more than the people that
we lead and serve if we have Kingdom Le if if we as Kingdom leaders will genuinely care for
the people that we lead then they in turn will genuinely care for the work they
do so that is shoulder-to-shoulder the second
component to knowing them is what we would call Heart to heart and that’s being actively engaged with them as a
whole person and this goes beyond the work they do it it involves really
really getting to know them as a person caring for them
professionally personally and are you ready for this one
spiritually let that sink in professionally personally and
spiritually so just for a minute let’s back up and let’s return to our Jesus model where we
began as you read scripture it be becomes clear to us that when when someone would come close to Jesus he
would literally stop in his tracks and engage with them personally
even if they were a complete stranger how often do we do
that we can summarize Jesus Leadership Model pretty simply and you might want to write this down it’s very simp simple
Jesus Leadership Model was highly
relational he clearly demonstrated this cascading style that I just Illustrated
he was relationally engaged with his father and that he was deeply deeply
engaged with those men who were entrusted to his care directly and then
as he did that as he invested in them they repeated and duplicated and multiplied this cascading style
eventually throughout the entire Known World at the time there it is a cascading relational
style one of the most helpful tools that we’ve discovered to to be maybe successful in this
relational style to engage with our people is called one on- ones you’ve probably heard us talk about these if
not you certainly will for us these are recurring appointments each week where a
leader connects with each of his or her direct reports now for us here these are
generally oneon-one one hour appointments every single week now
again no recipes that that might not be the right thing for you and your organization at least not as a starting
point remember we just can’t prescribe how this is going to look across every
organization but the point is for us as Leaders to demonstrate that we care and
that we’re willing to listen with no
agenda now there’s a decent chance as you begin to do these that these May indeed feel awkward or unnatural at
first but that again should be something that we view as growth as a kingdom
leader not something that we run from I we’re so good at like running to so many fires throughout our organization as
leaders yet we tend to shrink back from the discomfort when it comes to the relationships
as a leader I don’t set the agenda for these 101s that I have with the people
under my care that’s their right that’s their privilege they set the
agenda just to clarify these also should not be primarily catch-up conversations
on all the task and work rated stuff though we should make room for that at other times in the week maybe that’s
where you start it doesn’t mean that in a one-on-one no work can be addressed it
just means that the motivation for me as a leader should not be to primarily dig into all of the status updates and work
progress now while the one-on-one is their agenda as a leader I can feel free to
maybe ask some questions that can help start conversations in a healthy manner
like this one what was the best part of your weekend because we
know guess what happens on a weekend they are doing stuff and are
with people that they like a whole lot more than you and so we need to lean into that and
ask them about those people that they really care about here’s one that I’ve love to ask
over time and it is what’s been the most lifegiving thing you’ve been a part of in the last
week open into question they might talk about something personal they also might
talk about something professional and we as a leader should pay attention because what we know is ex is excitement speaks
truth and when people are excited and talking about what’s giving them life we have to pay attention to that because
they are speaking truth about what they really care about in Love on the flip side also very effective is what’s been
the most life sucking thing that you’ve been a part of in the last
week if they tend to give you a work work related
answer they’re telling you about things that they either a feel really weak and ill equipped to
do or something that they just really don’t like about their job or often
times they’re actually revealing to you insecurities about their role or their relationship with you as their
leader and then this is a really awesome question is hey what is one thing that I as your leader can do better or
differently to help you you’re not asking for a list you’re asking them for one thing if you say Hey
What Can I Do Better you’re probably going to get a uh I mean you’re doing pretty good but if you say hey what’s
one thing can I can I get feedback on just one thing from you you’re probably going to get an honest
answer now here’s a quick gauge for how these one-on ones might be going can you
honestly recite back something personal or significant about the latest
activities or updates in the lives of the families or spouses of these people
that you’re leading for me I love each week getting to hear for example about Liza’s husband
photography business and all the really cool things that they’re doing I love hearing about Allison’s brand new
grandbaby me she just lights up like she is right now talking about that grandbaby also love hearing about Nate
and what his daughter daughter and son are doing and what he and their family are talking about like it just it’s so
encouraging to hear what’s going on because details like that y’all they they don’t typically emerge in a
business meeting or over email because that’s not where real life
happens these things emerge as I invest my time as a leader in them individually
on a regular basis now I mentioned a few minutes ago that we should care for them
professionally personally and spiritually and since we now know that all leadership is
spiritual We As Leaders we just can’t ignore the spiritual side when it comes to the people that we love and serve we
have a part to play in that too so I want to encourage you to pray for the people that you lead by name and
their spouse and their children and their grandchildren if they have them but you
have to know who they are first think about it all of us have
struggles and we If we’re honest we don’t really share those readily we can be pretty good at the hey how are you
and what’s the response fine thank you good we’re all a bunch of liars most of
us because that’s not a genuine authentic response most of the
time so what we’re saying is as the leader we must be willing to go first
I’m talking about being vulnerable now that’s a really scary word in a business context but here’s
that Kingdom principle again where tension becomes the norm and discomfort is an indicator of growth in
success as it relates to the 101s during this time with the people that we’re engaging with we should not be in
problem solving mode as tempting as that could be we should be prayerfully Discerning how to be an active listener
then at any given moment when they share something that relates to something we can connect with we should be willing to
to be vulnerable to go deeper and to share something about what we’ve gone
through or to ask questions about the dreams and Desires in their heart John Maxwell says as a leader you
must be willing to go first and give more we’re talking about
vulnerability because we know that when leaders are willing to go first and they’re willing to share a part of their
story of how they’ve endured a difficult personal season or a concern with a
child or a challenging Health concern God will use that vulnerability to help
set other people free and what it also does is it is it
will humanize this leader team member relationship that can so easily become
work only and State sale now as you’re thinking about this
if this concept is new to you you might be wondering sounds great but how does this actually play
out back when we first started these workshops several years ago we had a nonprofit Ministry come called I work
for him radio their directors Jim and Martha brenberg they came they interviewed all
the keynote speakers they sat in on all of our sessions and they heard us talking about these one-on ones
repeatedly throughout the week and they were curious like some of you are like okay what’s the real story so with our
permission they simply left the room they walked around our campus and they found 11 people 11 Frontline team
members we say none of them were leaders at the time and without prepping them on the questions that they were asking and
without telling them how the other team members had answered the questions they put them on the radio and asked them a
series of questions and we were shocked to find out that
nine out of 11 of those people said that the favorite part of their week was the
one-on-one with their leader wow I mean one of them did say something
like at first it was like eating my vegetables I know it’s really good for me I didn’t like it at first but now you
know it’s not too bad I kind of like it but what we need to understand is
that authentic relational investment over time matters it matters more than you can calculate and it matters more
than you can quantify in the short term or the long
term some of you are listening thinking okay Casey got it I think I’m doing
pretty good though my company and my team members know I’m not a jerk at least not most of the time I have an
open door policy they can come talk to me anytime they want but my question is how is that
really working for you how often do people actually walk in and and interrupt your
day we believe that a kingdom Leader’s role is to be the relationship initiator
not just the responder we as leaders are to be the
relationship hosts for the people entrusted to our care you’ve probably
heard it said that people come to work for the job but when they leave it’s
most often because of what the boss and y’all time is the most
treasured asset that we as leaders have let’s choose to make Kingdom Investments with
it some of you are thinking this sounds really great and I would love for 101’s to be a favorite part of my team members
week but I just have too many direct reports to make this work some of you have 10 or 12 we’ve even heard stories
of people having 30 40 50 people directly reporting to them and for you
to do one-on ones with them each week would take up your entire week that sounds
awful and you’re probably thinking yeah that sounds crazy well it yeah it does sound crazy because you probably have
too many direct reports we’ve learned that a leader can
only deeply engage and connect with five to six people on a weekly basis and beyond that we restructure
natural tendency is to think yeah but man the cost of restructuring and raising up more leaders that is that’s
really expensive it sure is but if people are your ministry then aren’t they worth
it your business is God’s Ministry in the marketplace and perhaps this is the
next area of financial investment your business needs to make restructuring May indeed cost you
something but surely it costs less than the cost of repeated High turnover do you know that it now takes
one and a half to two times a departing employee salary to recruit select and
train their replacement speaking of research and turnover here’s some startling
statistics I found recently that the number one thing employees say their manager could give them in order to
inspire them to produce great work is recognition sounds great again but in order to
verbalize and recognize their work we have to be engaged with them regularly
we have to know them they also say that 58% of people say they trust strangers more than their
own boss think about it we would never as parents I have three children I would
never put my wife and children in a car to go somewhere with a complete
stranger unless it has an Uber or a lift sign in the window
and people are saying they trust them with their children and their spouses more than they do their own
boss what about this one 65% of employees would rather fire
their boss than get a pay raise y’all that means two out of every
three people who work for you would rather your employment in tomorrow than get a raise from you
tomorrow and it’s because we’re not engaged with them regularly we don’t know know them they don’t feel like they
are seen and heard Gallup recently published
that half of currently employed workers say they are actively seeking a new
job that means one out of every two people who report to you are actively looking for
work somewhere else today so Gallup has some recommendations
I found this interesting on how to they say protect your talent are you ready for
this number one build deep
relationships H wow novel idea thank you Gallup number
two talk to them every week huh what’s that sound
like and lastly they said to conduct stay
interviews now some organizations are really good at doing exit interviews want somebody leaves we interview them
sit down with them we have a practice of doing this in some of our businesses tell us what worked well what didn’t work well how can we better support the
team you were on and your leader and all these questions why do we wait till they leave to find that stuff
out they say interview your top stars as to why they stay and what would ever make them consider
leaving so humor me for just a moment close your eyes for just a second
picture let’s picture your the top two people that you have on on your team like you’re two stars how grateful they
are it kind of makes you smile now picture they both leave
tomorrow some of you are literally saying no shaking your head open your
eyes here look let’s not be frightened by that but let’s be let’s use that as motivation to dig in and make the time
investment to really love our people and get to know them well because the bottom line is an employees long-term success
in their role is large largely our responsibility as we invest in them now
for those of you who are extremely task oriented where are you raise your hands
please let’s be honest this can be daunting this can be
intimidating but just because you’re task oriented introverted is not a valid excuse to stand before the Lord and say
you did not invest in your people to wrap this up one-on ones they
are they are a great tool but they are just that they are they are one tool there’s certainly many others perhaps a
great starting point for some of you is just simply to pause and ask the Lord what he sees in them something like Lord
I I’ll I really want to partner with you maybe you should write this down lord what do you see in the people I
lead and just let him talk just like we did in the last exercise of during
during the breakout session Lord what do you say because the truth is the world is
full of organizations who make Financial profit but a true kingdom style of leadership
will also yield the fruit of relational profit where the results are greater
than that at the beginning so that’s knowing them let’s
move on to the second Kingdom priority of grow them but first let’s return to our kingdom leaders mission to
intentionally care for their people and raise them up to their god-given potential now I trust that it’s
extremely obvious by now that it’s near impossible to contribute to the growth
of someone unless you really know them and unfortunately most business models would teach you how to grow the
professional skills of a team member so they can contribute more to the growth of the company now while that’s not
entirely wrong or bad it runs the risk of completely ignoring ing the heart of
the team member when it comes to growth so taking part in the growth of our
people is primarily about their benefit not ours that’s again the upside
down nature of life in the kingdom of God here on Earth and because it’s upside
down there won’t be clear easy recipes on how this is done but as we’re talking about grow
them there probably are some maybe some common ingredients that you you can begin to employ immediately and that’s
what I mentioned earlier pray for them daily by name and you’re doing that hoping that
something magical happens to them but what we discover is something
Supernatural begins to happen in us as we pray for
them like ask them about their dreams and desires professionally and personally man this can be exciting that
doesn’t have to be scary like try new things with
them some examples that I know about a few years ago some of our it guys went skydiving together while on like a
conference trip that sounds amazing sign me up for that one I’ve been axe throwing with a team we’ve done
ziplining together I’ve heard stories of manes and petties happening occasionally
with teams here these are investments of time today that will yield fruit
tomorrow and this one try this one on for size give them real authority to make decisions now a logical fear is
well what if they make mistakes they will right Jared they will
make mistakes but if we are deeply engaged with them as Leaders over time
the mistakes they make will begin to be reduced and our Grace actually increases
but if we’re saying that we’re really deeply engaged with them then they really aren’t making these decisions in isolation are are they we’re not saying
pitch them the keys and say good luck no we’re walking with them as they
go I just think it’s really crazy that since creation almighty God has chosen
to partner with his children to bring about transformation he didn’t have to choose
to do it that way it really is miraculous it’s quite the Paradox really almighty God partnering with humans to
lead people to transformation it’s exactly what the Apostle Paul demonstrated the great Apostle Paul when
it says that in scripture in the book of Acts that he spent over two years in
Ephesus training just a few Believers see Paul understood that
relational investment over the Long Haul is absolutely required and I love his
words here in the complete Jewish Bible version of 2 Corinthians where he says we will not boast about what lies
outside the area of work which God has given us but rather we will boast within
our assigned area the area to which you have been
assigned is Kingdom territory and God’s priority are the
people inside of it they are your assignment but I want to make it clear
that this relational Excellence that we’re talking about doesn’t supersede
operation Excellence when it comes to the day-to-day we don’t sacrifice one for
the other God’s kingdom advances when we as Leaders Faithfully Steward both of
these at the same time just trying to really love people well without holding
them accountable to the work is like it’s like a table with a leg shorter
than the rest it’s not going to take long for that imbalance to begin to affect everything around it we must must
be accountable to each other and a good healthy indicator of accountability Success is Not only when
I as the leader am holding team members accountable accountable but when the
people that I lead and serve directly can also throw a flag on the play when I
get out of bounds and need to be held accountable in my 14 years here I can
say that the most fulfilling part of my work here has been to know that I have
been at least a a small supporting cast member in the life of people who are discovering how God has wired them and
raising them up to his best for their life because that’s what’s been poured
into me it is so powerful to hear a leader look at me and
say things like I believe in you and you can do this I’m going to help you that’s
that’s this Supernatural a combination of belief in the people and the community in which we
operate and it’s the place where real feedback occurs in a loving environment again we don’t avoid these
tough conversations because we love them know the exact opposite is true because we love them we lean into these
conversations even if that can be tough sometimes it’s likely true that
100% of CEOs in this room are in the position you’re in because somebody saw
you and believed in you and helped raise you up it’s this it’s this pay it
forward Kingdom principle we are unable to fully partner
with God for the sake of others until someone’s done that for
us and for me the first time this power of relational investment became clear it
was 1999 you would never know it but um I am
in both of those pictures that was a long time ago um I’m top right on the leftand
picture there killer smile killer hair boy how things have
changed but I was 20 years old and I was entering my third summer of working at a
youth camp in East Texas called Pine Cove Christian camps I had been there two previous Summers and I had applied
to be in the leadership program for the third year and when the camp director his name is
Kevin East when he uh Kevin is also in that picture on the bottom left on the
left-hand picture he and I are standing side by side in the middle of the right- hand picture uh when Kevin called
me to talk about my leadership application they not only he and the CEO
were on the phone together and they not only offered me a leadership role but the top leadership role like two or
three levels above what I had even applied for which sounds really awesome and humbling but because as as the
program director that summer I would be overseeing all of the daily operations of the entire Camp which included all
the meals the entire schedule the teachings the games the health and safety all this stuff for all about 50
full-time staff that were almost all of them older than I was at the time and about 200 high school students a
different group every week for 11 weeks out of the summer it was my role to oversee all of that but there was one
major problem I had what I would describe at the time as a debilitating speech
impediment so this position that they offered me would require me to be on stage much like this
one microphone in hand multiple times a day with a debilitating speech
impediment I told my friend Kevin on the phone man you you must be crazy you’ve lost your mind dude like you know for me
working with you last summer I can’t do this job because I can’t even speak my
own name publicly without stuttering much less lead people on their
microphone every day and Kevin’s response that day on the phone marked my
life forever because Kevin said oh I know I know you have a stuttering issue
but that’s not what I see let me tell you what I see he said cas see what I know is that
you are a passionate lover of Jesus that’s what I see I believe in you
and I’m going to help you be successful immediately I went from a
fear field I can’t do this to but what if I can filled with hope
because somebody saw something that I didn’t you see what what shapes our life
is not so much what happens in our lives but what we believe about what happens in our Liv
lives Kevin believed in me so I accepted the job and the first couple of weeks on
the job boy they were they were brutal y’all um it was
rough but as hard as it was and as
embarrassing as that was I would get up on that stage every day and grab the microphone and I would I would look in
the back of the room where Kevin my leader was standing he would stand in the back of
the room and he would he would raise his arms and he would be cheering for me he would encourag me keep a smile on your
face keep your eyebrows up look happy like he was coaching me on the physical part but also he was coaching me on the
spiritual part and I don’t even think he realized how deep the impact
was and about halfway through the summer I realized that the speech impediment was about 50%
gone as my confidence began to grow each morning as I was in my quiet time with
the Lord before the day started because I mean I was desperate y’all I was
desperate I just kept hearing that still small voice of the Lord say just keep throwing
stones and I knew exactly what that meant because the Goliath in my life was not some physical giant standing before
me but the Goliath was the man in the mirror who believed he had a limitation
that would keep him for fulfilling a calling on his life and so for me the stones again was
not a human being or somebody else but it was this it was the microphone I remember it was one exactly like this
too same brand in everything I’ll never forget it as I picked up this microphone
and stood there every day with Kevin in the back of the room I knew that I could be more and
more successful and by the end of the summer that speech impediment was
gone well about 95% gone I still struggle with it sometimes
most people don’t even notice I do my wife does but I’m super thankful actually now that it wasn’t 100% healed
because how quickly it might be for me to forget what God has done and so when I when I sense that struggle even a
couple of times since I’ve been up here today it’s like thank you Lord I don’t have to fight the struggle all the time
anymore I don’t fight it at all actually because the Lord healed me
and as you can imagine my friendship with Kevin continues to this very day uh
was Kevin and I a few weeks ago with another great friend of ours on the far right there who was actually on staff
that summer also and when I see pictures like this of my friend Kevin who is a
stage three cancer survivor also recently when I see Kevin it just reminds me how he demonstrated that a
kingdom style of leadership provides vision for who people could be far beyond their current position in
life let me ask you have you ever made a bad investment like believe to your core
it was the right thing but that it absolutely failed miserably if if someone had been
advising Kevin East on an investment strategy they would have told him to invest in somebody
else because of my limitations I was not going to yield the fruit that he was
responsible for producing
but that’s just not how it works in the Kingdom people are worth the investment one leader one decision yielding a
lifetime of impact there’s just no shortcut to developing people y’all there’s no magic
meeting formula book or conference that’s going to be that Silver Bullet but there is one common
ingredient and King David gave us a window into this as he as is recorded in psalm 27: 4 King David said one thing I
have desired of the Lord and that will I seek after for my whole life that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life that I may behold the
beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple these words dwell behold in
choire they sure sound an awfully lot like sit with them and see them and
support them so what do they have in common this model of David it’s time lots and lots
of time what I want you to understand is that Supernatural impact that we desire
that God’s placed in US it occurs most often in the collection of everyday
ordinary moments rather than one big moment right so I want to ask you can you see
it can you imagine the relational profit in the Kingdom of the people people that
are awaiting your investment As Leaders we should be
focused on helping everyone under our care get to the next level regardless of what part of life it
is even if that level someday means they take the job you currently have what an honor because what we know
about how the way life works in the kingdom is when we invest in people God makes room for us to grow too it’s not a
one-way street a common question is what happens if I invest all this time and energy and resources in people and they
leave yep some of them will and they’ll be better for it but the reverse we
should also understand is what happens if we don’t make any investment and they actually
stay now this topic does come with a warning that this style of leadership
where people are prioritized as the highest priority it is simply the hardest way to lead
and it could actually end up being easier as a leader to try and hold people tight and close as opposed to
letting them go on to something else when again it’s our mission to raise them up and raising people up doesn’t
mean they’re going to stay right where they are chances are they’re going to go do something else and I know I I’ve
experienced what it feels like to to invest in people deeply care for them
and to see them move on to other teams other businesses other organizations
and that can be hard but you know what that’s exactly how it feels in a family
business a spiritual father to Min Jack Taylor once said if the kingdom of
heaven was anything other than a family business then God would have chosen to call himself something other than
father he set this up from the very beginning before each of our three
children were born my wife and I prayed that God would give us what we called a
life verse something unique and special to each one of our children and he did that something before they were before
he even saw them right something we could pray for them in the womb something we could paint on their wall
in their Nursery which we did and something that to this day at the ages of 16 177 and 22 they can still
quote why do we do that why were we compelled to do that
it’s simple because we really love them and we we knew that when when the
enemy in the world began to come after them and try and redefine their Destiny and their identity which he is ruthless
to do that will have truth to stand on from before they were
born that’s what family does deep love compels us to search out
truth so I ask you for the people under your care have you asked the Lord for a genuine
love for them what would it look like to act upon what he reveals to you about them
individually but have you asked him and let me remind you in closing you
have been appointed and anointed by God to be the stewards of his ministry in
the marketplace and you can successfully demonstrate a kingdom style of
leadership with the people entrusted to your care because after all a kingdom
style is above all things relational thank you
[Applause]