[00:00:00] Thank you, Gina, for that kind introduction. It’s an honor to be with you today. I thought I’d do Cal a favor and give him a break from talking. So he’s given this talk quite a bit. So if I happen to stumble, he can certainly jump in. Uh, when, when we started these kingdom at work workshops about six years ago, we had a phrase back then that really helped inform kind of the flow of the workshops and serve as.

Kind of a model and foundation for the keynote talks. And it was this phrase here, When a kingdom leader engages in a kingdom style, a kingdom culture emerges and the kingdom of God advances. So in our previous sessions yesterday, Cal helped us understand what it means to know that we have a spiritual calling in the marketplace.

He also began to unpack what it really means to be a kingdom leader and perhaps the The best of them all was the [00:01:00] starting point yesterday with kind of, what is this kingdom? We talk about kingdom, what is that? In this session, we’re going to unpack some ways, some, some, some practical ways in which we can engage in a kingdom style of leadership.

Really addressing that first part of the phrase there. When a kingdom leader engages in a kingdom style. Now while I’m certain that all of us in this room have come from very different backgrounds, very different theological perspectives, I’m pretty confident we can agree on one thing and that’s that Jesus Christ.

Was, is, and forever will be the greatest leader that the world has ever known. And if that’s true, then we should take a look at scripture from a leadership perspective. Not just Jesus the Rabbi or the Savior teaching us. And I think one of the things that stands out to me from Jesus the leadership expert was one of the things that he said in John chapter 10.

I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. [00:02:00] It’s pretty clear. That was a big part of the mission he was on. As Rick Beaton Hill used to say all the time, there’s a God and I ain’t him and you aren’t either. It’s true, none of us are Jesus and we, we don’t have the power to give eternal life to someone like Jesus did.

But if you’ve been born again and saved by Jesus Christ, then what scripture tells us is there’s a promise that you are now a carrier of his spirit. Do you believe that? Which means you can then model and demonstrate what it looks like to live an abundant life. Right here in the marketplace and right in the middle of your business day.

So taking Jesus leadership example and using his spirit as our guide, we can then conclude what our mission is as a leader. We say that a kingdom leader’s mission is to intentionally care for their people and raise them up to their God given potential. But [00:03:00] first things first, though, let’s be clear, while that mission might sound clear, there are no magic recipes to how this works.

A successful style of kingdom leadership will certainly look different in your organization than it does here. However, we do believe there are a couple of priorities that help set the stage for how God’s kingdom can advance inside of you and through your leadership. So we believe that a leader can successfully demonstrate a kingdom style leadership.

of leadership with their people by engaging in these two priorities. Know them and grow them. Sounds pretty simple. Know them and grow them. Let’s start with the first one. Know them. We believe that that actually can begin and probably should begin before the employee’s first day of actual employment. At Beaton Bow [00:04:00] we spend a pretty significant amount of time, don’t we Juan Carlos, engaging and investing in selecting a candidate before they show up for their first day.

We invest a lot of energy into that because partially we, we want to get to know them before they come here. It doesn’t start day one, it starts before then because we’re inviting them into a culture that we hope looks and feels like the kingdom. And then of course, getting to know them after that is an ongoing process.

And I’m, I’m super excited for Gina to share with you after lunch today about a kingdom culture. But we know that God has indeed tasked us with knowing our people. And if we don’t start early, that consistently over time, we could possibly end up like our friend. Let’s see here. Where did he go?[00:05:00]

There’s a picture of Ron Swanson, one of my TV heroes.

Perhaps he’s not going to join us today. Um, that’s really unfortunate because, um, Ron Swanson is a. Is a TV character who kind of has this macho man. Anybody familiar with Ron Swanson? So sorry, he, he must have cowered out on us today, but He’s kind of this macho man who, uh, Simply tolerates with minimal effort the people that he leads.

And he takes pride in not really knowing their name. He takes pride in saying, calling people by their wrong name, Just so they know how much he actually doesn’t care. Um, while it’s humorous, The unfortunate thing is it’s, that picture likely represents so many leaders in the marketplace who may indeed, [00:06:00] hey, call themselves Christians.

Hi Ron. Maybe we should try and hear from Ron. Let’s see if he’s A gorgeous, herbaceous medley. 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 gerbil marrying a rabbit? Any dog under 50 pounds 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 wanna 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 three years and never learned his name.

Best friend I ever had. We still never talk sometimes. Anne 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 them. Thanks, Ron. [00:07:00] Yeah, that, while it’s funny, probably represents an unfortunate percentage of people.

Maybe we’ve been that in parts of our lives. So we talk about know them and grow them. Let’s, let’s go back to know them, and let’s break this down into two components. The first is what we would call shoulder to shoulder. What we would define as being actively engaged with them in their work. Now, you may be thinking, wait a minute, I have a job as a leader.

I’ve hired them to do a job as a team member, and now you’re saying that I need to be engaged with them in their work? Aha! Welcome to life in the kingdom of God on earth, where tension kind of becomes the new normal, where discomfort can actually be an indicator of success. So yes, I’m saying, I’m suggesting that you should make room to be actively engaged with them regularly in the work they’re doing.

Now, this probably should not look [00:08:00] like you standing over their shoulder, listening in on phone conversations and reading every email. Now that could be a part of some different role’s actual onboarding or training experience, but that shouldn’t be the normal for the long haul. But I’m talking about helping them be successful in the long term.

There’s a reason why there’s so many professions out there that require continuing education courses or Renewal of certifications on an annual basis, right? Because they figured it out. No one can be successful in isolation Nobody

now we as leaders For most of us this image of a waterfall if we’re honest probably depicts the leadership influence that we that we so strongly desire Strong and mighty, you know, a strong flow from the top all the way down, impacting everything and kind of making everyone stand in awe. Now as, as mighty and as beautiful as that [00:09:00] is, um, what the truth is, is it’s impossible for us as leaders and actually it’s exhausting for us to try and be involved in all the things all the time and make that big of a difference.

It’s just not possible and it’s not the Lord’s plan for us. Even if it does stroke our egos every now and then. I, but I do realize there’s tension in what I’m saying, because on one hand, what I’m saying is engage with your people. But on the other hand, what I’m saying is you can’t do it all. So there’s the tension.

However, I do believe that this cascading image of a waterfall more accurately depicts the kingdom style of leadership that the Lord has designed for us. My influence from the top, so to speak, may indeed reach the lower levels, but look at what happens as it goes along the way. It’s, it’s, it’s a cascading style, right?

And my influence does reach the lower levels, but it only [00:10:00] happens as it starts with those directly under my care. My love and influence impacts those, but then it begins to duplicate and repeat itself, multiplying. Now, pardon the, uh, very basic graphics here, but you don’t have to try and read everything on that.

But what this does is it, what this shows is, this is a picture of the names and a lot of the faces of most of the people under my care in this company. But it’s a Really great illustration of how this looks in a cascading style that my responsibility as the leader is not on everybody in the org chart.

My responsibility is Allison and Liza, Vicky, and currently the P& F team. Those are the ones who are directly under my care. And as I invest my time and energy into them, they then begin to duplicate and multiply that effort. That’s how. The Lord’s presence begins to impact the entire [00:11:00] organization because the team directly under my care is my mission.

The work they do, it’s their mission. Now, the work we do as leaders is really, really important. It does matter, but it doesn’t matter more than the people that we directly serve. If we as kingdom leaders care for the people that we lead, then they will care for the work they do. And this multiplies itself.

That’s the kingdom impact. So that’s the shoulder. To shoulder part is being engaged with him in their work. And the second component here to knowing them is being is what we call heart to heart, being actively engaged with them as a whole person. And this actually goes beyond the work they do. It involves getting to know them as a person, caring for them professionally, personally, and yes, spiritually.

Let that sink [00:12:00] in for a moment. So let’s return to our Jesus model. We, we can see from scripture how interruptible that Jesus was. We also know that he was incredibly relational. When someone would come close, it would, it would capture his attention. He would oftentimes literally stop in his tracks and engage with a complete stranger.

If we could summarize his leadership model, I think we could say that Jesus Christ was highly personal and highly relational. His leadership demonstrated this, the same cascading style that I just illustrated in the last slides. He was relationally engaged with his father. And then deeply engaged with the disciples under his care, who then over time begin to multiply that throughout the whole world.

That’s the cascading style of relational engagement that we’re talking about. One of the most helpful tools that we employ here in our company to engage with people [00:13:00] is a tool that we call the one on ones. Maybe you’ve heard about these, maybe you already do them to some degree, but let’s define these as a recurring appointments each week where a leader connects with each of his or her direct reports.

Now, for us, these are generally one on one, one hour appointments each week with every person under our direct care. But now, before you start trying to prescribe how it’s going to look in your organization, remember, there’s no recipes. This might not be the right model for you. It certainly might not be the right starting point.

The point is, though, for us as leaders to, to know and demonstrate that we’re care, that we care, and that we’re willing to listen. With no hidden agenda. How often does that really happen? Now there’s a decent chance some of these may feel awkward or unnatural at first, but then again, we should view those as indicators of growth in the [00:14:00] kingdom.

It’s not something that we run from. As a leader, I don’t set the agenda for these. The people I’m supporting, they set the agenda for them. For us, we like to look at it as a, as a time to really just connect on a personal level, and it doesn’t mean that No work can be discussed, but it definitely means that it shouldn’t be a primarily a catch up conversation or checking off all the tasks to see About all the work related questions.

We should make room for that stuff at other times during the week and make that a priority as well We’re not trading one for the other we’re elevating both making them a priority while it is their agenda sometimes I might feel led to ask some questions to healthy, to spark some healthy conversations.

So maybe you need some ideas about that. Some great suggestions that we found over time, um, is like, Hey, what was the best part of your weekend? You know, we know that what they do on the weekends or with usually with people that [00:15:00] they probably care more about than you. So we should ask about that. How was your weekend?

What was the best part? Or this one’s a really good one too. What’s been the most life giving thing you’ve been a part of in the last week? That will tell you a lot about their priorities. And what they really care about, or the inverse of that’s also fun. What’s been the most life sucking thing you’ve been a part of in the last week?

This might be one of my favorite questions to ask actually, because it’s a safe way for people to share with you as their leader, the parts of their job that are just draining them, or maybe it’s overly hard or it’s a difficult season. And this has a way of freeing them up. And if you’re one of feedback culture, what’s one thing I can do better or differently to help you.

Don’t ask that one though, unless you’re ready to hear. And here’s a quick gauge for how [00:16:00] these are going. Can you talk about some of the latest activities that, or updates that your team members, spouses and children are in, are involved with? Do you know what they’re involved in? For me, Gina’s words were really kind, but it’s been modeled to me here for so long that it’s just kind of in me.

I’m actually not. Incredibly relational, but I’ve been on the receiving end of its impact for so long it’s kind of easy for me to pour that back out now. But I love hearing about Liza and her husband’s new photography business. I love hearing about Allison’s son’s flight school and her son who’s a firefighter.

I love hearing about Vicky’s husband’s new job at Veritas and their looming move to Ireland soon. Like, I love talking about those things because It matters, but you know, details like that, those things don’t typically emerge in emails or in a typical meeting because that’s just [00:17:00] not where real life happens, right?

They emerge as I invest my time in them individually. Now, I mentioned a few minutes ago that we should care for them professionally, personally, and spiritually. And since we know that all leadership is spiritual, we just can’t ignore the spiritual part when it comes to the people that we serve and lead.

We have an important part to play in that too. So I want to encourage you to pray for them by name and their spouses and their children. But do you know who they are first? Think about it. I mean, all of us, we have struggles of different kinds. And if we’re honest, we don’t readily share those. It’s just not our normal day to day rhythm to just openly share that stuff.

Perhaps we’re really good at the, Hey, how are ya? In passing, [00:18:00] and what’s the general response when you ask that question? Fine, good, how are you? Good, thanks, woo, and off we go. But we all know that’s not authentic.

As the leader, it’s important that we must go first. Now vulnerability, that’s kind of a scary word for some of us, but here’s that kingdom principle again, where tension is kind of normal and discomfort is Often an indicator of success. During those one on ones, we should practice being an active listener, not a problem solver.

We should be ready at any given moment, though, to maybe share a story in our life that relates to something they’ve shared, or to ask a question about the dreams and desires in their hearts, because I promise you they have some. And then, when the opportunity presents itself, be willing to share a part of our journey that relates.

I say all the time right here that the Lord, He [00:19:00] doesn’t miss a thing. He’s so intentional and strategic. And when leaders, when we’re willing to share parts of our journey, about enduring difficult seasons, or maybe how we’ve approached a difficult season with a child, or maybe a health crisis that we’ve walked through, when we share those real life stories, it just, it has the power to set others free.

God uses that vulnerability in it. What it does is it actually then humanizes this leader team member relationship that can become so stale over time. So if this concept is new to you, you might be thinking, this sounds great, but how does this actually play out? Is this just weird kind of stuff going on all the time?

And, well A few years ago, back in the early days when we started these workshops, we had a radio program called I Work For Him Radio, and their directors, Jim and Martha Brangenberg, came here for, I don’t know, two or three [00:20:00] workshops, maybe more than that, spent the whole time, they sat in on all the sessions, they interviewed all the keynote speakers, and after doing this for a couple of workshops, they kind of had enough with the, with the bleeders talking about it and said, Hey, we want to go to the grassroots level and kind of get a pulse on how this is really going.

So they asked our permission and they went and found a let, they literally just walked across the campus without warning, walked into our suites of teams and started asking people who were not managers at the time, just frontline team members, to come interview on a radio show. With no preparation, and so they picked 11 people and interviewed them and they ask them all the same questions.

And one of those questions was, what’s your favorite part of the week here at Beat and Bow? And we were shocked when we listened to their show and realized that 9 out of those 11 randomly picked people said the one on one with their leader was the favorite part of their week here. [00:21:00] How often can people say that time with their boss is their favorite time of the week?

Now, we didn’t prep that, we didn’t, we didn’t even know that was coming. And that’s just fruit of investment over time. So, you may be listening to me today and thinking, Okay, Casey, I’ve got it. I think I’m doing pretty good. My employees, they know I’m not a jerk. I have an open door policy, I’ve told everybody my door is open, they can see it.

My door’s open. They can come anytime they want. But how does that actually play out? That might be a great step, but we believe that a significant part of a kingdom leader’s role is to actually be the relationship initiator, not just the responder. We as leaders are the relational hosts for the employees entrusted to our care.

You’ve probably heard it said that people come to work for the [00:22:00] job, but when they leave, it’s most likely because of their boss. They don’t quit the job, they quit the boss.

Time is the most treasured asset that we have, and I want to encourage us to choose to make kingdom investments with it. And some of you were thinking, this really does sound great in theory, but I’ve got so many people. I’ve got like 10 or 12 direct reports. I was talking to, I was interviewing a guy a couple of weeks ago who said he had had 37 people reporting to him.

And for him to take a one hour each week with all direct reports, you do the math. That’s his full time job. That sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Because it is. So if you’re thinking you probably have too many direct reports, well, we probably would agree with you. Maybe you do. And we’ve learned here that a leader can only deeply engage and connect with five to six people on a weekly basis.

Beyond that, we restructure.[00:23:00]

I know what you’re thinking though, the cost of restructuring, wow, that’s expensive, right? Yes, it sure is. If people are your ministry, are they worth it?

Your business is God’s ministry in the marketplace. You don’t have to agree with that for it to be true. Your ministry, God’s ministry. Is the business you lead and perhaps the next area of financial investment you need to pray about making is not as expanding a product line but expanding your reach within your organization for the people that you lead.

and a restructuring team so that no one gets left behind. Now we know that restructuring will cost you something, but it surely costs less than the cost of repeated high turnover. I was, I was reading a couple weeks ago that [00:24:00] statistics are now showing that it takes one and a half to two times an employee’s salary to replace them.

To recruit, train, and get them on board. So it costs almost double what you were already paying that person to replace that person. Speaking of Statistics and research of a few years ago, I did some, uh, research on my own and found some startling revelations here that 89 percent of bosses believe employees quit because they want more money.

However, only 12 percent of them actually leave for that reason. As much as any leader would love that 89 percent statistic to be true because it kind of pardons us from wrongdoing, that’s just not the reason they leave. 58 percent of people say they trust strangers more than their own boss. I mean, think about it.

We’ll put our wife and kids in, in Ubers and Lyft cars with people we don’t, we’ve never met and trust them more than we do a lot of our own bosses. [00:25:00] As a matter of fact, my, my wife, Dana, who’s in the back of the room, was on a trip a few months ago and in a 20 minute Uber ride, she learned so much about her driver.

Uh, of course, she’s highly relational, but she, I mean, they went to politics and spouses and kids and all kinds of stuff in 20 minutes. with a complete stranger. Employees tell us they trust them more than their boss. 79 percent of people who quit their jobs, here it is, they cite lack of appreciation as their primary reason for leaving.

The number one thing employees say their manager could give them in order to inspire them to produce great work is recognition. But recognition is impossible if we don’t have a close engagement with them in the work that they’re doing. And finally, this one. 65 percent of employees would rather fire their boss than get a pay raise from him or her.

Two thirds of the people that work for you, if you aren’t engaged with them, would probably rather [00:26:00] see you go than for you to give them a raise. Wow! It just doesn’t have to be that way. I know that’s a lot of numbers and stats to take in, but the bottom line is an employee’s long term success is our responsibility as leaders.

As we invest our time with them. The concept of Avada was, the cattle unpacked for us yesterday was such a startling revelation for me a few years ago. I, like so many of you, have lived with a segmented approach that includes a business world view that people are assets to be consumed for financial gain.

That’s just not the kingdom view. We’re just, we’re called to lead differently. And these one on ones, they’re, they are a great tool, but they’re just that, they’re just one tool. There’s certainly many others, and perhaps another great starting point, if you’re not ready to take that plunge, is just to pray this prayer.

Father, what, I want to partner with you. What do you see in the people that I lead? [00:27:00] And practice what you just did in the Hearing from God session, and just listening. What do you see, Lord? So, we’ll pause that one. That’s knowing them. Let’s move on to the second part of it, the second kingdom priority of grow them.

I want to return to this kingdom leader’s mission. Care for them, raise them up to their God given potential. Perhaps it’s blatantly obvious by now, but it’s near impossible for us to contribute to the growth of our people if we don’t know them. Unfortunately, most business models would teach you to grow them for the benefit of the company.

That’s not entirely wrong, it’s just incomplete. We risk missing out on a whole part of their heart that we won’t ever get to know otherwise. Taking part in the growth of our people is primarily about their benefit. Not ours. Again, there it is. That’s that nature of the upside down kingdom here on earth.

And because it’s upside down, there’s not going to be super clear [00:28:00] steps on how to get that done. But there probably are some common ingredients to growing our people. I mentioned this one, but pray for them daily. Watch what God does in your heart. Ask them about their dreams and desires, professionally and personally.

This is exciting. This isn’t scary. Most of the time, they actually want to stay right there and do better. What about try new things with them? We’ve practiced this pretty well around here, I think, for a lot of teams, but I’ve gone axe throwing a couple of times with teams. I heard a story of one of our technology teams at a conference in Florida a few years ago, and the IT guys decided they were going to go skydiving together on the beach in Florida.

That sounds like an ama They didn’t invite me to that one for some reason. I wish they would have. I’ve heard rumors of manis and pedis and things like that, even from the men around here. But that’s, that’s them trying new things with their team. That’s growing them. It looks like the kingdom. [00:29:00] And also give them real authority to make decisions.

And a logical fear with this one is, well, what if they make mistakes? Well, yep, they will. But as we engage with them over time, the mistakes will probably be reduced, and the grace for them will actually increase. But remember, if, if we’re knowing them and growing them, then they aren’t really making those decisions alone.

Since creation, God has chosen to partner with his children to bring about transformation. It’s, it’s quite the paradox actually, that almighty God partnering with humans to bring about transformation. That just doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense. But like in those children’s toys that say assembly required, we can safely assume that participation is required in his kingdom advancement.

It’s likely true that 100 percent of the [00:30:00] CEOs and senior leaders in this room would not be in the seat that you’re in right now if someone had invested in you and raised you up. It’s a pay it forward kingdom principle. A leader is unable to fully partner for the sake of others until someone has done that for them.

That’s the opportunity that we have. In my 13 plus years here, I can say that the most fulfilling part of my job is being able to look back in the rear view mirror and know that in maybe some small way, the Lord has used me as a supporting cast member to help others become the best version of themselves.

There’s just nothing better than that.

Rick Beatonville, man, he just, he, he demonstrated this so well. I can’t, I can’t even count the number of times. He would say things to me like, Hey, you can do this. I believe in you and I’m going to help you. But he said it with a passion that just, I believed it [00:31:00] because he’d invested time. That’s the supernatural combination of belief in community together.

And for me, the first time this happened was, was 1999. I was 20 years old and I was entering my third summer, uh, working at a Christian youth camp in East Texas called Pine Cove Christian Camps. And for this third summer, my last summer, I wanted to be in leadership. So I had submitted an application to kind of begin in the entry level of leadership.

And when Kevin East, the camp director, and his leader, the CEO, called me to discuss my application, they surprised me. By not only offering me a leadership role, but the top leadership role in the whole camp. Three levels above what I had applied for. Which sounds really honoring, which it was. But there was one major problem.

You see, even though the job would require [00:32:00] me to be over, All of the meals, all of the activities, all the teachings, the games, directly responsible for 50 staff members, all but one of them younger than I, I mean, sorry, older than I was, and about 200 high school students. Well, that sounds really awesome.

There was one major problem. I had what I would describe at the time as a debilitating speech impediment. And Kevin Was offering me a job to be on stage in front of 250 people for hours and hours a day for 11 weeks of the summer.

How in the world, if I couldn’t even say my own name publicly, without stuttering, would I be able to lead successfully with a microphone in hand? I remember telling my friend Kevin on the phone that day that, I think you’ve lost your mind. Because you know I have this, I have this, [00:33:00] Handicap. And yet he knew from my previous summer that I had this issue.

And when I said, I think you’ve lost your mind, his response marked my life forever. He said, Casey, I know that. But what I also know is that you are a man who passionately loves Jesus. That’s what I see. And I believe in you and I’m going to help you be successful in this. And immediately I went from this fear field, I can’t do this, Kevin, to a hope field.

But what if I can?

I mean, the first couple of weeks on the job were, were pretty brutal. It was really hard. Standing up there with this, with this, with a microphone, just like this one in my hand. It was really difficult. But I remember I would look in the back of the room, in a room about twice this size, I would look in the back of the room and Kevin would be standing there, [00:34:00] waving his arms, jumping up and down with a big smile on his face, like pushing his cheeks up, like telling me smile, relax, and pushing his eyebrows up and say, Hey, when your eyebrows are up, things just always sound better.

It’s true. Try it. But he would, he would stand in the back of the room and he would coach me day by day, hour by hour. And my confidence began to slowly grow and in my quiet times with the Lord, each morning when I was there, I just kept hearing that still small voice of the Lord saying, just keep throwing stones.

And I knew what that meant. Because for me, the Goliath wasn’t a different person or somebody else. It was the man in the mirror and the limitation that I carried. And so throwing stones meant to pick up this mic every day and get on that stage. And I knew that as long as I showed up, picked up this microphone, stood on that stage, the Lord was with me, and Kevin was in the back of the [00:35:00] room coaching me.

That’s a kingdom recipe for success. And by mid summer, the speech impediment had significantly improved, and by the end of the summer, it was gone. Well, 95 percent gone. You see, I’m actually thankful that there are moments that I still struggle with stuttering. Because how quickly I might forget otherwise, the miracle that the Lord did through one leader’s decision in one phone call in one day, he broke off something that had been generational into my family and it ends here because of one decision of seeing me when I didn’t believe in myself because that’s just it.

He showed me how a kingdom leader can have vision for people beyond their limitations. It provides vision for who people could be far beyond their current position in life. One leader, one decision, a lifetime of impact. And the [00:36:00] fact that I’m still standing here today is yielding fruit from that decision.

There’s just no shortcut to developing people. There’s no magic formula or silver bullet that makes all the difference, but there is one main ingredient. King David gave us a hint in Psalm 27 when he says, One thing I have desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.

Dwell, behold, inquire. Kind of sounds like sit with them, see them, support them. What do they all have in common? It’s time. Lots of time. You see, supernatural impact occurs not in the big moment, but more often in the small collection of ordinary moments.

The area to which you have been [00:37:00] assigned is kingdom territory, and God’s priority for that territory are the people inside of it. Your assignment is first and foremost about the people who are assigned to your care. But I want to be clear that this Relational excellence approach we’re talking about does not take a backseat to the operational side of things.

God’s kingdom advances when we faithfully steward both of them. We’re not to outsource one or the other that we don’t like or that we’re weakest in. Just trying to love people relationally without keeping them accountable to the work is incomplete. It means we’re lopsided like a table with a leg that’s short.

It’s just not going to be long before that imbalance begins to affect other things. We must be accountable to each other. And a good indicator of that is when that becomes a two way street like Cal talked about yesterday. When the people I lead are held accountable, but they can also throw a flag on the play when I step out of bounds.[00:38:00]

And while loving me through that speech impediment that summer, I still remember Kevin would call me to the back of the kitchen and we’d sit on milk crates at the end of the day and just process how f How the day went and he was offer up things like, Hey, what about this next time? Or maybe think about it this way.

Accountability is what that was. Holly Beatonville and I were recalling a story last week together where I had been right here on this stage a few years ago at one of our early workshops. And as soon as it ended, Rick came up to me. I mean, literally, as soon as it ended and we dismissed everybody, Rick walks right up here and he looks at me and he says, Hey, uh, you got a minute?

Oh man, I know what that meant. He said, and the next thing was, Hey, you know, I love you, right?

Real time feedback has called accountability because he loves me.[00:39:00]

We don’t avoid tough conversations out of love, but we’d rather choose to lean into them. We as kingdom leaders should be focused on helping everyone grow. Everyone gets equal opportunity for that. Not all will take it. Not all will grow, but what if they do? What if they grow so much that they might should take your job at some day, at some point in time?

As kingdom leaders, that should be a benefit of this thing, not a drawback. If that’s the case, God will make room for growth for you in other ways, in other areas. So a common question is, what happens if I invest all this time and resources in people and they leave? Well, I would say, what happens if you don’t make that investment and they stay?

This conversation, though, it does come with a warning. Um, here it is, the style of leadership in which people are prioritized is simply the hardest way to lead. [00:40:00] Because

sometimes it can be end up easier for us to try and hold them tightly rather than letting them go on to other things. I’ve had quite a few leaders over the last couple of years move on to other teams, businesses and organizations, and that can be really hard, but that’s what happens in a family business.

Papa Jack Taylor used to always say, if the kingdom was anything other than a family business, then God would have chosen to call himself something other than father.

Before each of our three children were born, my wife and I asked the Lord to give us a life verse for each of them. That we could pray over them in the womb, that we could write on their wall in the nursery, and that we could have them memorized as kids. And today, at the ages of 21, they can still quote them to you.

Why did we do that? Because we really love them. And when the enemy in the world comes after [00:41:00] them to try and redefine their identity and their destiny, we have truth to stand on. And they know it deep within their spirit because deep love compels us to search out truth. 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 the Lord has revealed to you? Have you asked Him?

A wise kingdom minister, Dutch Sheets, recently said, ignore the critics and naysayers, reject all unbelief, cast off all lethargy and complacency, never ever yield to discouragement, resist the devil, submit to and draw near to God, hate evil, love people, repeat. I love that. Hate evil, love people, repeat.

That’s our charge. You have been anointed and appointed So be the steward of his ministry in the marketplace, and you can [00:42:00] 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. Let’s pray.

God, thank you for these people that you have allowed us to steward and manage. For this period of time, we ask for greater vision and passion to love and serve them with the way that you set the example for us. Thank you that in you we have all that we need.

Give us a greater heart, Lord, for them, to love them more deeply. In Jesus name, Amen.