February 2024 | Keynote 5 “Kingdom Culture”

[00:00:00] again. Well, thank you, Corey. I’m just kidding. Um, so glad y’all are here. I love it. The short blonde girl. Yep. That’s about that’s what my family, that’s how they described me too. So, um, so glad you’re here. Thank y’all so much for taking time this week to be with us. And here are stories and what God has done.

Um, you can see my name, it’s, so, it’s Gina, but I get Jenna, I get a lot of Gianna. I kind of answer to any of them really, it doesn’t offend me. Um, I always go, talk to my mom. And, really, there’s a bit of a story behind my name, actually. My mom is full blooded Italian. I am one of four kiddos, kind of a surprise kiddo.

And all my siblings, their names started with a J. And so she’s Italian, she wanted a very Italian name, Gina Rose. But needed it, she wanted [00:01:00] me to fit in. Everybody else had a name with a J. I have a sister Joy, three letters, John, four letters, Janelle, five letters. So we needed a J with six letters. To make Gina, and here we are.

Uh, and if you know anything about Italian families, Then you know a lot about culture, as we’re talking about culture, you can probably have some general thoughts about Italians. Things, right, like, let me show you a picture of our family, show you this first. This is just my mom’s immediate, like, family.

This is just her brother’s family at his 90th birthday party. This means this is one third of our group that was there at this birthday party. And when you see these people, I mean, look, that’s my cousin, Bobby, who’s dressed like Elvis. You know, you think of Italians, you think of loud, you think of opinionated.

If you’re in my generation, you think GTL, Jim Tan, laundry from the Jersey shore days, right? You [00:02:00] have a lot of thoughts about Italian families. And actually it’s because it’s kind of a cultural thing. You’d be right. Clearly Elvis points back to that, but it’s simply just kind of traditions, right? Values, behaviors, customs within a people group.

And every organization has their own culture. It’s something that we do create through every interaction that we kind of have. And it really does start, it’s from the CEO all the way down to the newest hire in your organization. The people make the culture. You have a culture, and it’s unique. It’s shaped by those people that are within your group.

And what we know is that if we spend a significant amount of time at work, it’s only natural that that environment would have an impact on us. See, we’re just loud, because that’s what we grew up in. Everybody is opinionated in my family. There is not one person who doesn’t have strong opinions. Maybe it prepared me to join this board of [00:03:00] directors, but you know, the thing is though, we want to contrast what the world values and what a world culture looks like because it’s the opposite of what the kingdom would value.

The world values things like busyness, striving, money, uh, celebrity. I mean, that is the big thing right now. I mean, our kids want to be YouTubers. They really, they just want celebrity kind of status. This is what’s normal now. But kingdom values things like love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, right?

Faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Those are opposite of everything that I just said. Right now it’s that you do you world. Have y’all heard that? Hey, you do you, boo. What that actually is saying is put your self interest at the core, at the heart of every decision that you make. That it’s all about you.

That is the complete opposite of what the kingdom would have. See, the kingdom desires a flourishing for all. [00:04:00] And so, it’s right relationship with God, with his creation, with his people, and with oneself. I love that that’s what Shiri said. You know, she had to get right with herself. She had to deal with herself first.

And we often times talk about our culture like it’s a garden. And I just don’t know a better representation than the one that’s sitting right back here. This is our garden in the spring. You’ve come in February, so it doesn’t quite look like that. It’s still pretty beautiful, but that is what a picture of flourishing can really look like.

But what’s fascinating is, it sits in contrast to everything that surrounds it. Look at that. Look at all the gray and the brown that surrounds that, you know, in its raw form. That’s what it looked like before. People think, you know, they can’t have this flourishing culture. Well, you’re going to have to do some work because that garden looked exactly like everything around it beforehand.

Just [00:05:00] sits beautiful and fruitful, flourishing right in the middle of a mess. And you can have a flourishing culture. You can have this flourishing in a kingdom culture right where you’re at. And so I want to tell you some things that might help you cultivate that in your organization. First things first, you got to develop some house rules.

These are your kingdom core values. That’s what business would call it. And I’m going to start by telling you a story about our family. This is our family, that’s Andrew. So there’s the short blonde and then there’s the tall, dark headed one. And then our daughter Olivia. Liam is the one next to me and Colin.

And, I mean, we’re just in a really fun time with our kids right now. I’m just really enjoying this season of life. But have you ever loved someone so much and just not liked them some days? I just be like, thank goodness you’re cute. You know, that’s how that goes sometimes in our home. And so as parents, it was Andrew and I oftentimes found [00:06:00] ourselves coaching them repeatedly, literally on the same things over and over and over.

You would find us saying things in our home like, if you can’t be kind, be quiet. And so now you, now I just say that if you can’t be kind and now because they’re like pre teenage, they go, uh, speak up. Because I know it’s be quiet, you know, they’re like, Hey, because kindness was something we were constantly talking to them about.

I mean, repeatedly, it was the stuff that got under our skin, kind of non negotiables for us. We were like, we’re going to be known by our kindness. We want to be kind to people. And so we decided that if we had these expectations for them and then they weren’t meeting them. So it’s like we had these expectations and they weren’t meeting them.

And then we were frustrated. When they didn’t meet him. So we thought, man, what are those things? What is important to us in our family? And so we kind of decided our house rules, or our core values. And I’ll show them to you. So in this home, we [00:07:00] are kind. We take responsibility. We serve others. We laugh. We try new things.

See, these are things that are important to our family. They’re unique to us. If you were to do this in your home, you would have different words. That’s how this goes, but these are things that are unique to us, and it’s kind of our set of behaviors that we expect them to live under, whether they are at home, whether they’re at school, on the volleyball court, at basketball practice, wherever they go, now they know the expectations from us.

And just like us, you need to define your house rules for your organization. Without these kind of house rules really defined, uh, for behavior, it creates confusion within the business. It’s kind of like letting the kids define the rules. One day before I do this talk, I’m going to ask my kids, Hey, what do you guys think our core values should be?

Wouldn’t that be fascinating to see what goes on there? Sugar, sugar, sugar. Uh, but clarifying these really [00:08:00] helps kind of remove any ambiguity. And ambiguity can cause things like fear and stress for people because they don’t know how to behave. This helps us have a successful and clear path towards that for people so that they don’t live in fear.

And they understand what that looks like. But they’re words that, again, just like Andrew and I, they’re unique to you and your group. See, you already have a culture. I’m not saying go artificially create some words that you desire. There is a culture already right where you’re at. Just go try to find the words to define that.

And it should be finalized by your senior leadership group. Okay, we didn’t go ask our son Liam what he thought that should be and then he said sugar and we said okay. No, we’re the head of the home and so together we did that. That’s how that should work in your business. That senior leadership group should do that.

Now what’s interesting for us here, Look, we were around a long time before we had our defined core values. We did this together in 2011. A few of us [00:09:00] here were a part of that. And we did get to have a voice in that. Because there was already a culture. So we said, hey, what is that? And I remember our board at the time asked us.

And so we got to add our opinions into that and how we, what we thought it was. Which was fascinating because a lot of the words were the same. But we didn’t define them. The board at the time, that senior leadership group was the one that defined them and brought them back to us. And what’s interesting though is that we carried those things like we called that play.

Because we had had a voice in it. Because we were a part of the culture. The leadership group was a successful group in the culture or we wouldn’t have been promoted. And so, get the voices but remember that you ultimately have to make that decision. Limit the number that you have. I would really suggest that if you get too many, what we know is if everything is important, then nothing is important.

These are the things that are absolutely core to you. And if you get more than that, what seems to happen is it becomes valueless. It’s almost like [00:10:00] propaganda, you know, and I feel like you can actually do the opposite. You start to create a culture of striving. I mean, I’ve heard some cultures that have 13 core values.

We have four, because four, we, easy to recall, repeatable, we can clearly define those for people and they know how to be successful in our organization. So I would limit that number. And once you have them, you should test them, though. Take those, look at a group of people that are really thriving in your organization and say, are these things that we see in them?

And then do the opposite. Take the list of people who did not. Survive in your culture, who you had to ask to leave, and test those words there too. Because if they were on both lists, then maybe those aren’t actually something that you just value completely. So test those words. We did this, and as we looked at those two lists, we found something that you’ve already heard this week.

But what we found out is Christians were on both lists. [00:11:00] Because Christians are not culture, right? That just because they were Christian didn’t mean that that was, that it was a Christian culture. But, if you’re going to be a kingdom culture, you should use words that connect with Christ, but that are not overtly Christian.

Because we’re not trying to be exclusive. We want to be inclusive. But if it’s a kingdom culture, it should be things that God would value, right there, in the middle of your business, you know? In our home, kindness, I mean, we, that is a kingdom thing, to be kind. I mean, David says in the Psalms, you know, about God’s unfailing kindness to him.

That’s how this should be in your organization. And I am the one who gets to say that all the time. I have a lot of authority in that because I actually joined and had never heard the word ministry before when I started here in 2006. But I valued the same things that this whole team valued. And so I got to come and join in and [00:12:00] just walk with everybody along the way all of these years.

But once you define them, here comes the real work. You’ve got to defend them. You’ve got to get these things off the wall and into daily conversations with people. We have our core values on the wall, but it’s like in one room. In 40, 000 square feet, we’ve got them on one wall. You know, and I think it was because really, It was probably the marketing team at the time.

We probably thought, hey, we’d like it up there. It would look good up there, you know. It was more to be pretty, not for anything else. Because we talk about this stuff all the time. We hire for it, you know. We start the conversation in interviews. We’re looking for these things to say, Do you value that what we value?

Do we see that in someone? We start the conversation during the interview process and then in the training schedule and we just keep talking about it as we go. That’s what Jesus did. He was just teaching them right along the way. They were walking from place to place and he was talking about these things.

That’s what we do. But [00:13:00] the leader’s job is to make core values operationally real to the people that you lead, and then you have to hold them accountable to what’s core to you. Oh, so, you know, in our home, we have to clarify to our son, what does take responsibility mean? Poor him. I’m gonna have to stop picking on him and find another kid to talk about, but right now that’s where we’re at, okay?

He has to get a paper signed for homework every week. We just got an email that said, Hey, he hasn’t done this all quarter. And I mean, so we are constantly talking to him about, Hey, what does it look like? What could you have done better? How could you have done this? But you know what? There’s discipline that comes.

When he actually doesn’t do that because it’s something that’s important to us and so we’re going to do that. And anyone unwilling to commit to your house rules must be removed. A flourishing cannot happen without pruning. If we never pruned things in that garden it would not look like that. [00:14:00] Now my son is 11, we’re not going to kick him out of the house because he can’t get a signature.

But we’re all adults here. And so if you go and you define these really clearly and you defend them and you’re teaching and talking about them, then, and somebody can’t commit, you’re gonna have to make a change. Because the leader is the culture keeper. Who you let in, if people impact the culture, then who you let in, and the behaviors you accept become your standards.

And so do your standards line up with what you value? You have to make sure that you’re holding really strongly to that. And you have to model these things as a leader. If you value them, then you’ll be walking the talk. I always think about, you know, respect, integrity, excellence, and communication are all really worthy values.

Except when I tell you they were the values of Enron. That one will never get old to me. Because I think of every one of those words, and I think, they over, like, inflated their earnings for like [00:15:00] 15 quarters. Respect, integrity, communication, excellence. None of those were true. None of those were true. And if our words are connected to Christ, then we are living out our faith and our actions.

If unity is a kingdom thing, then when we’re unified, we are actually, our faith is being put into actions and activities that people see. So we have to model it. And we Define them, we defend them, but we celebrate them. We don’t go looking for what’s wrong, we go look for what’s going right. Recently, we had Dave Barnes, he joined us for our All Company retreat.

He’s a singer songwriter out of Nashville, kind of a comedian, and he said, You lose what you don’t celebrate. And we’re not willing to lose the culture that we have here. And so we’re going to celebrate it. And Casey already told us, most people feel unappreciated and don’t get the recognition that they feel like they deserve.

You know, [00:16:00] and recognition and feeling valued is a core emotion that we all need as people. Now we might like that to be delivered differently, but we all need that kind of recognition. And so stopping to recognize someone’s effort just doesn’t take a lot of energy, y’all. Even if it’s just a quick text message when you hear about something that’s going well, or a note, or when you see them and you remember something, you know, people deserve to feel valued.

That is a kingdom thing. And we know that what’s celebrated is repeated. We just talked about this. I love this. So every quarter we have what we call like a culture MVP around here. See, we’ve tried to make ways. We try to create ways to celebrate people. And I won’t lie to you. As we’ve grown, this has gotten more challenging, but we know how important it is.

We value it so much. We make a way. And so So when our peers get to nominate one another, if they see someone living out one of our four core values, they [00:17:00] nominate someone, they tell a story, so they tell us why they’re nominating them, and then every quarter, when we get the whole company together, we celebrate one MVP out of that, and we have a video to show, because we want to celebrate the story that’s in alignment with the core value.

So what’s celebrated is repeated. And you’ve got to ask yourself, what’s the last thing that you celebrated? For your team. I find that actually this is an area that oftentimes we’re not very good at. We just, we’re doers, so we don’t even stop long enough to celebrate something. And so if you can’t really think of something very quickly, then it’s probably an area you need to go and focus on.

Okay. Second thing. We have to create a holy place. And I don’t mean this like religious holy place. I mean just set apart. A kingdom culture is set apart. It’s different. That is really what I mean. Because the biggest challenge, [00:18:00] working against a flourishing life right now, is the problem of just flat out being too busy.

And as Americans, we’ve actually created and promoted this culture of busyness. This is an article just from maybe six months ago in the Harvard Business Review, talking about the busyness trap. You know, when I, when I call any of my friends right now and I go, Hey, how are you? I haven’t talked to you in a while.

You know their response is always, so busy. Just busy. I, I bet eight out of ten times that’s actually the response that I get, you know, and then they’re like, how are you? So busy. I mean, you just hear it going on. And even Harvard Business School said 80 percent of people, 80 percent of Americans reported they never had enough time.

But busy in our culture is just another way to say that you’re stressed, anxious, exhausted, you know, overwhelmed, and in some cases it has, it leads to [00:19:00] depression. We have, we have outrageous rates right now of depression in our culture. Does that sound like a group of people that are thriving? Not to me.

And so we have a really good example in scripture of how we should go about this. Here’s Mary and Martha. And I’m just going to paraphrase this. This is from Luke 10, 38 through 42. But it says, Martha welcomed him, Jesus, into her home. And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching.

But Martha was distracted. Sister was busy with much serving. And she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. Goodness gracious, what, I mean a victim, but, but the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.

Mary has chosen the good portion. [00:20:00] Do you see the kingdom flipped upside down right there? The problem busyness, they become an idol for us. They’ve actually become kind of a new social status, you know, so like the harder you work, the more value you have and you even find yourself telling people about this.

We kind of breed it a little bit early too, I feel like. I mean, I remember as I was growing up and my mom was like, you’re going to go to college one day. First person in my family to go to college. So I thought, well, what do I need to do? And you hear you need all of these extracurriculars. Not just your grades have to be good enough, but you got to have all these extracurriculars, right?

You got to build your resume. I’m like, what did Moses have on his resume? What, what qualified Moses? What qualified Paul? I mean, you know, I mean, it’s just so flipped upside down, but we breed this early on. And all of us have been a part of that. You probably hear things like [00:21:00] rise and grind. I mean, we asked that group at Cornbread Hustle, what does hustle mean to you?

Because this is a kingdom culture, and so how do you flip that upside down? You know? We have to be careful. Because people are starting to put work as an idol. And as a kingdom culture, you have to be set apart. You have to put things in the right order. In a kingdom order for people. We are just so overstimulated most of the time, that things that nourish us, things like just, um, a lingering walk maybe, or cooking dinner as a family, you know.

I told a story earlier about my son sitting in a bathtub yesterday, he couldn’t sit in there for two and a half minutes. We’re not used to being still. And it’s literally starting to kill us, that anxiety. We have one of our, Dr. Ben that helps with our health and wellness team, you know, he’s like, you gotta have your peace pillar.

Well, man, when you’re busy and you’re anxious and you’re striving, there’s no peace. There’s no peace. I’ve been there. So as leaders, we have to cultivate regular [00:22:00] rhythms of rest and this is within our work. You know, we need to make room for people, allow time for people to just breathe, you know, to wonder, um, to be creative, introspective, you know, think about how much development you have in your own life when you have time to just, Think about things and be introspective, but we need to make room and make room to see people.

How can, how can people feel valued if you can’t even stop and look them in the eye? We have to make room because our view of God as leaders is reflected in our rhythms of rest. Do we really trust God to be God? Then we have to rest and set things aside so we can put them in the proper order. So for us, we asked ourselves, you know, like, what hours are people working in our organization?

That is something that we try to keep a tab on, honestly. I was just telling Cal and Brad yesterday, I remember when I first got in the management team, and, you know, Ron and Rick, they’ve [00:23:00] had to talk to a lot of us about going home. Because especially when you think you’re doing kingdom work and you’re really passionate about it, you’ll start to get it out of order again.

You’ll think that you need to be there all the time. And I would come in at 5 in the morning, I would go to Starbucks at 5 in the morning to get some things done, then come to work and go on. You know, I might go back to Starbucks for an hour or two. I mean, just working all the time. It was not healthy. It was not healthy for me, it was not healthy for our marriage, it was not healthy for anything that was going on.

So how are you placing boundaries around those things? And so, you know, a few years ago, having a 50 hour work week was our biggest goal for the year. It was not number of closings, it was not profit, it was how can we make sure that people are not, if we bookended their week, they’re not working more than 10 hours a day here.

And that was including lunch. So nine hours of working, one hour of lunch. How can we do that? We even built systems and reports [00:24:00] around it. We could see what sort of activity was happening in our software to see if people were staying late or coming way too early. Because we knew that putting a boundary around that for people was important to help them put things in the proper order.

But I’ll be honest, like Cal said, we’re not perfect at this. We had culture things happening right within our organization. And just recently we were even talking about a team member who we found out they weren’t leaving until 8 PM at night. But the minute we find out about it. We’re going to go to them and talk to them about it because it’s important.

We know that it’s good for them. So we’re putting boundaries around all of this. And what we know is that the devil is in the distractions. He wants to steal any of these kingdom order things from us. And oftentimes what was happening is people were coming to work early or staying late because they were running from something else.

They weren’t running [00:25:00] to this. They were running from something. And so we have to be very careful there, because what we know is that God doesn’t want that for them. God has such a fullness of life that He wants, so we have to model that. So what are some things that we can do? Well, get control of your calendar, and your notifications.

I mean, are you just, does somebody have access to you all the time? I remember when I would get emails, I mean, I get constantly get emails when you’re the marketing person, everybody knows your email. And so I’m still doing that, you know, 18 years later. And so we have to get control of your notifications.

Don’t let those distractions steal from the rest that God wants. Take breaks, walk around. And I’m talking about encourage your people to do this. Encourage time off. Do you take time off? Do you answer emails at 8 p. m.? I mean, we’ve just been convicted over the years that we shouldn’t do this. And I’m going to tell you right now, if somebody emailed me after 6 p.

1. Tonight, I would go, it’s an emergency [00:26:00] because now in our culture, that just doesn’t happen. That does not happen. And so are you putting boundaries around these things? Help people disconnect from work, help them find rest. One of the things that we did a few years ago. It’s been a long time now, actually.

I keep saying that. It’s probably 12 years, 20, is we had a sabbatical. We offer a sabbatical. So after 10 years of service, you get four weeks of paid time off. That’s in addition to our generous PTO policy, because we know all the good things that come from that. And so just find ways to get people to disconnect.

And maybe just check your expectations. This is something that I have had to do over the years and go, Is it going to matter in five minutes? Five days? Five months? You know, sometimes we just tend to make something the main thing and it’s just not. So check your expectations because we are at our best when we rest.

When we come from a place of [00:27:00] rest, we are at our best. That can be a flourishing. But we’re also created for community. It’s what you’ve heard. It’s just all about people. And busyness is just one challenge that’s keeping people from a flourishing world, you know, and a flourishing life. But the other is things like isolation.

In a world where we’re so connected, right, we have so many ways to connect with people, we’ve never felt more alone. We had someone from Ramsey’s Solution not long ago come to us and he said that this is the loneliest generation. And wow, I can just, I see it happening with our kids a bit. You know, relationships, all they know are these kind of digital relationships really.

And that’s what’s happening often times even in our culture. So we have to find ways to connect and create community within our walls. So we do things around here like friends and family do. Just simple as that. We get together. We host [00:28:00] baby showers and wedding showers and we eat meals. We have potlucks.

You name it. We do all sorts of stuff together. I mean, I’ll never forget here when I had our, um, well, Andrew and I, we weren’t married when I started. So we had a baby shower, I mean, a wedding shower. And then we had our first kiddo. We had a baby shower and that was in 2011. They did another one in 2012 and then they did another one in 2014.

I mean, by 2014, I was like, 14. I was like, yo, we’ve done this, right? Do we need to keep doing this? I mean, we’ve already got everything, but you know what? That’s what you do for people you love. That’s what you do when you’re in community for people. So that’s exactly what they did. We celebrate, you know, people’s kids graduating from high school.

We have college graduates. We try to travel together when we can and include families if that’s an option for us, you know. Ultimately, we want to know one another on a deeper level outside of just the work that we do. Because people are so valuable to us, and we want to spend time with them. Honestly, we’ll just kind of [00:29:00] make up reasons, I feel like, to get together.

You know, our team, they’re hosting a date night next week, or a couple weeks from now. You know, for anyone that’s here, that’s what’s happening in all of our teams. We’re trying to find ways to create community within our organization. And those moments, they make a way for us to support one another when things get tough.

They just make a way for us to love one another in those challenging moments when someone’s struggling with addiction or with the loss of their husband. This is what we’ve done. We have created community right here within our walls and we did that all in advance, you know, so we could be there for one another.

Gosh, when someone experiences a diet, a scary diagnosis, you know, or a surgical procedure, I’ll never forget. My mom got diagnosed with uterine cancer about five or six years ago, and I get to the hospital, and lo and behold, who’s there? Holly Beatonbow. It’s [00:30:00] right there, there to just be with me and pray for my mom because my sisters couldn’t be.

That is what community looks like. And when you’re on the receiving end of those things, you can’t help but reciprocate. So it’s no longer, you know, what Rick and Holly did. It’s what we do. And it has made its way out into the whole culture. And so now that’s just what we do, not what Holly did. The story of Jesus healing the paralytic is the best example I can give you of what this can look like in your business.

You know, these friends, number one, you know, show me your friends, I’ll show you your future. So the community you’re in is really critical and important. But they try lots of ways to get their friend just to Jesus. Right? It says here, When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the man, Friend, your sins are forgiven.

And then He proceeded to heal him. It was the faith of the friends that [00:31:00] saved Him. When He saw their faith. His community had a profound impact on Him. That is what can happen in a Kingdom culture. When I came here in 2006, Wow. I brought a lot of things with me here. Not good things. You know, I grew up with a dad, this is why the tissues are here, I grew up with a dad who, the best way to describe it is, was so busy running around with women that he could not run around with me.

He was busy doing things that he shouldn’t have been doing, just like that guy said on Dunnigan. He was angry, just all the time. Some of my first, really some of my only memories are that. Because those are powerful. Trauma is powerful like that. I’ll never forgive my sister. She’s 15 years older than me. I walked out of my bedroom one day and he had her up against the wall.

By her neck throat. He had carried, her feet were lifted [00:32:00] off. All because she liked a Hispanic guy. I mean, he had so much anger in him about everything. I remember him coming to my bedroom one time and kicking me. You know, just cause he was upset. Having to lock myself in a bathroom once and my mom was the only protection from me.

Because I was a mouthy little teenager. But man, All of those things were what I brought here with me, you know, just actually this, um, self righteousness, I’m gonna be right, I’m gonna make my own way, it’s all about me, I had no idea the culture I was stepping into. I just came for a job, y’all. I just wanted to work, I’m a worker, I like to work, I turned 16 and I had a job, I just wanted a job.

There was a PR job, I was a PR person, that was enough, you know. Man, so cynical, you know, but, but here’s what happens. Number one, I can remember meeting Ron Beaton Bow on my first day here and that [00:33:00] experience marked me for life. And then all of a sudden people are like going on vacations and they think about my kids and they bring my kids a gift.

Ron and his wife Connie did that. Once they were in Italy, they brought back a monogram bag with her name on it. Then they were in Memphis and they got Liam a little gift one time. The day that we had Liam, Holly and Carrie Ritchie, both of our board members, they always played Santa and Mrs. Claus for many years in our community.

And for three hours they would do nothing but allow little kids to come sit on their lap and take photos. And after doing that for three hours, which I knew was exhausting because I had been a part of those every time, I get a knock on my door the same day we’ve had Liam, and here they are at Covenant Hospital here as Santa and Mrs.

Claus to let Liam take his first Santa photo. Hours after his birth. You know, oh my gosh, and then, look, it’s not always been [00:34:00] rainbows and unicorns. Uh, there’s a lot of accountability that happens here, so there’s been a lot of coaching, there’s been a lot of discipline for me, a lot of it over the years. I love how Cal said that, that I got to go do the marketing for the other companies, but truly, ultimately, that was a demotion for me.

There have been a lot of adjustments I’ve had to make over time, but they were always there. And this is Corey, this is Cal, this is Holly, Carrie, Ron, Rick. See, these are my Mac carriers. All they did was usher me before the Lord. They loved me right where I was at and ushered me into the presence of the Lord.

And then, man, I started soaking in it. And one day, next thing I know, I’m seeking it. And I find the Lord together with friends on a trip here. What a day. But Andrew grew up over in Saudi Arabia. Has an absolute aversion to religion, which many people do. And so he’s had a front row seat to watch all this [00:35:00] transpire.

And so I just want you to hear what it’s been like for him. To watch this happen. And then there’s Andrew, my husband. My kindest person you’ll ever meet. Zero judgment. Loves every person he meets. But does not believe in God. Husband. But he cannot ignore the way he has been loved on, cared for, prayed on, and prayed over.

And he goes to church with me every Sunday. He actually serves at our church every Sunday. He’s actually in a small group. God is doing something. God gave me a vision when Olivia was a baby that they would be baptized together and I hold on to that. He still doesn’t know that. So don’t tell him. But I know that God’s promises are always yes and amen.

And so I know that and one day I tell you that, so one day you’ll see on video him standing here maybe giving his testimony about how his spouse was impacted by this culture and came to Christ. [00:36:00] One month to the day Andrew came to the Lord in Europe and it was, it’s just been the biggest miracle in our lives and it’s changed everything.

I grew up in a Mormon church. First. Uh, my dad was Baptist. We lived overseas. I went to a Shiite mosque, a Sunni mosque, I went to Buddhist temples. All my friends were different religions. You know how confusing that is? Most of the time I was taught to act. Frequently. This is the way you’re supposed to believe.

Whether it was Christian, whether it was Buddhist or Muslim. It didn’t matter. Most of what I witnessed most of the time was more religion than it was love. It was love. And I was never talked out of here. And that’s a big deal. I think, you know, now, I feel like I’m the person I’m supposed to be versus when I was then.

I let all this other stuff get in my head that shouldn’t have been there. You know, uh, I don’t work at Beatonville. I, I don’t work at [00:37:00] Beatonville. That, that’s what you need to know. Um, I haven’t worked there but as a result of it, that I am changed.

It just never gets old. Never. So if you were in his breakout session this morning, you know he’s a miracle. You’re looking at a miracle. 12 years of prayer. Do you wanna know who prayed those prayers with me, Cal, Corey, Holly, my back carriers. That’s what they did. And really it was just faith expressed in love.

That’s all it’s about. Ron would always say love is a secret sauce. And man, just, when there’s a flourishing for the people, just watch what God can do. So we started our time by saying, right, that we spent a lot of time at work. And it has a profound impact on us. You know, that’s our story. It’s eternal.

Now it’s generational. One of my favorite things that has happened is Andrew [00:38:00] baptized our boys. Just this past summer. You know, it’s just like miracle after miracle after miracle. But this is a generational impact. That a business can have on people. And I, y’all, I just am the one that gets to tell this story.

I’m not the only one who has this testimony here. There are so many. You just don’t have that many days to be here. Because when God is at work, watch what he will do. He will multiply things in a way you never imagined. So, if you don’t have a flourishing culture, I’d ask you, what are you waiting for?

Father, we just thank you so much for who you are and how you love us. We are precious in your sight that you’re just pleased. You’re so pleased with us right where we are, God. And we just thank you for this whole week together where you’ve been speaking, where you’ve been talking. Father, we pray a multiplication.

We pray that this would spark a wildfire across businesses. God, we thank you. We pray kingdom cultures [00:39:00] would rise up all around our nation and the world. We thank you that your promises are yes and amen. You have proven that to us time and time again And we know that you’ll do it again in Jesus name.

Amen