Kingdom Leader | Kingdom Leadership Workshop | April 2026

[00:00:00] Hey friends. Uh, man, I love hearing that story of Vernon. Woo. I’ve got to see the transformation in that man. He is a serial entrepreneur. He has over 40 businesses. Uh, can you imagine I lead one and 40 makes me feel exhausted. Uh, but the transformation that’s happened in him from being a, a, a Christian business leader.

To Kingdom leader. You know, Gina said that yesterday. We, what’s the difference between those? That’s, I’m gonna spend my time talking about that, uh, what we’ve learned along the way. Um, great news. I’m a practitioner. I’m not a preacher, so I’m just gonna like rapid fire. A bunch of stories that have played out here.

Um, I’ll start with this first. A kingdom leader establishes God’s kingdom as the highest priority. Did you know that of [00:01:00] the first 108 colleges in America, 106 of them were Bible colleges? That includes virtually all of the Ivy League schools. They were like preparing people academically and biblically for life outside of school.

But how many of those have that as their highest priority today? And it’s almost zero. So what happened? I’m gonna bet there was a kingdom leader or a group of leaders that started with that as the highest priority, but at some point something else found its way on top and they stepped back or sat down or fell down, and that was no longer the most important thing.

It became something else. Was it growth or beautiful buildings or tolerance? And the kingdom was no longer the highest priority. So the first truth is that the kingdom, a kingdom leader, is going to, [00:02:00] uh, be committed to keeping God’s kingdom as a highest priority in the territory they have responsibility for.

And in the kingdom, we can also not be tribal. Um, God’s kingdom’s big, bigger than our business or our organization. And really the kingdom has to be a higher priority than me. Or my family or my organization, uh, or really anything. So what does that look like in the day to day? Okay. A few years ago we had heard that there’s this little builder called DR Horton who is gonna come to Lubbock.

And for those of you that don’t know, they’re the largest home builder in the us. They build about 90,000 homes a year. They will close more homes in the first five days of the year than we will all year long. That’s the size they’re worth $50 billion, 50 billion. I, I can’t even really understand that number.

And, but back in, I think [00:03:00] 2021, uh, Don Horton, uh, the founder, Donald R. Horton, DR Horton. Said he wanted to make it one of his priorities to come back to Lubbock and they were gonna make it work this time. They had come before and then left, but he’s gonna make it work this time. They have $5 billion worth of cash on hand.

So if they wanna make something work, they can period. And so we’d heard they were coming and that they’d started talking to some of the local developers about buying home sites. But then one day, Corey, Cisco, right there, one of our senior leaders in Beat Bow Homes came into my office and he told me, Brock, uh, is gonna resi is resigning here, because he’s go, he’s taken the position of division president at DR Horton here in Lubbock.

And I can honestly say in less than five seconds, I sincerely [00:04:00] responded. Good for him. That’s probably a great opportunity for him. But I feel like God has asked me to try to describe what my internal dialogue is in every one of these moments. So you get a behind the scene view of what was going on in my head, uh, I admit the first thought I had was some mixture of, oh, crap.

And how dare he reject us? That’s what I felt. But the Lord has taught me so many times over the years that even when it looks like he might be taking something from us, the Lord withholds no good things from his kids. And so. I really feel like God’s kingdom is bigger than beating bow homes, and while in the natural, it might look like something’s being taken from us.

That’s not what’s happening. So literally within a couple of seconds, I could sincerely respond good for him [00:05:00] and be happy for him. But do you know what the Lord asked me to do? Within one hour of hearing that news, to start praying for Brock’s early success. Holy crap. Uh, so it’s one thing to be happy for the guy.

It’s quite another to pray for the fiercest competitor to be successful in your own backyard. But the Lord wore me down and I can say I did that the same day. In fact, the next leadership team meeting with all of the bebo homes, leaders of my senior leaders. I actually told him, the Lord asked me to do that.

And then together we all prayed for Brock’s early success in that new venture. So think about this. Brock is a kingdom leader. Over the years, he had set in dozens of workshops like this as a table coach. He’s a [00:06:00] practitioner himself. What if when he went to Dr, his division became the healthiest? The most productive.

What if, what if Don Horton himself came and said, what are you doing? And Brock shared this with him. Wouldn’t we want that? Well, if God’s kingdom is the highest priority, we would want that. If it’s our kingdom, we would not want that. And there’s where the rub comes in the kingdom. There’s abundance, not scarcity.

Yeah, we can’t be tribal or fearful. But the question is, is this really all God’s stuff or is it your stuff? Are the people, his people, and we might say things like, well, we use all this stuff to glorify God, but it’s mine, and that’s not a kingdom mindset. What we’re really talking about here is spiritual leadership.[00:07:00]

And does that phrase sounds scary to anyone else? It, it does to me a little bit. Most days maybe, uh, I believe we’ve been designated as spiritual leaders over the territory that God has given us. And often when we talk to other leaders, like their first response is like, wait, not, not me. You don’t know my story.

I don’t know enough Bible. I’m still a mess myself. Yeah. And what is your point? I don’t get the point. Vernon on that video did such a great job. Honestly. Read through the Bible and show me where God picks someone qualified. He peak. He, he intentionally picks some of the least qualified people. So it’s okay if you’re not qualified.

That doesn’t mean you’re not called. And, uh, I actually believe you are a spiritual leader. And actually, uh, all leadership is spiritual.[00:08:00]

Watch this, y’all. Adolf Hitler was a very effective leader. Let’s step back from what happened, like as far as leadership is concerned. He was very effective and he had resources. He aligned a leadership team and he accomplished what he set out to accomplish. He was led by evil spirits, even his spirit.

Even his leadership was spiritual. It’s all spiritual actually. And sometimes when we’re leading the spirit, leading us might not be as evil as murder or domination, but it might be greed or a lust for more, or for me personally, progress. I can be addicted to progress growth. Or maybe even just worshiping the work itself.

Sometimes as kingdom leaders, we let work find its way above [00:09:00] the kingdom, and maybe we don’t say it, but we actively promote it. Sometimes as kingdom leaders, we must be led by God’s spirit. Hey, and listen y’all, nobody does this perfectly. I don’t do this perfectly. We don’t do this perfectly and you will not do this perfectly.

Um. But what Rick Beat Bo always said is, we need to keep those seasons where we’re being led by another spirit short. And here’s the key to staying more focused and letting the Lord fill you up. And it’s spending time with the king. How can we, how can we lead in his kingdom if we don’t spend time with the king?

And really this could be the primary message God wants to talk to you about. I wouldn’t, if you walk away with one thing from this workshop, I’m gonna say, this might should be it. How can we lead in his kingdom [00:10:00] if we don’t spend time with the king? You know, it’s critical for every single kingdom leader to find time every day where you just sit with the Lord.

And hear from him. I’m not saying read your Bible. I’m not saying do a Bible study. I’m saying where you sit down and you say, Lord, what do you have to say to me? And you’re quiet. Every leader needs to find time to do that so you can be led by His spirit as you go. And if we’re not spending time with the Lord, if we’re not hearing from the Lord, then whose kingdom are we building?

Probably our own. I, I believe the Lord wants to tell you who he created you to be and he wants to help you in your day to day. That’s what’s waiting for you in a quiet time. Like that intimacy with the Father. Trust me. Uh, you know, Jesus tells us in multiple places, uh, in the gospel that the Holy Spirit is given to us to help us, to teach us, to [00:11:00] counsel us.

And if you’ve accepted Jesus, the spirit of God is in you and he’s speaking, but often. Uh, we can’t hear him because we’re not listening for him, like watching for him. But many of us might not have a hearing problem. We might have more of an obedience problem. Often we may know what God wants us to do in a situation.

We just find it easier to explain it away or say, that would be weird, or obviously I’m not gonna do that, and we just silently tiptoe away. But fundamentally, a kingdom leader listens to the king and then obeys the king. So what does that look like in a business? I wanna take you back six years. Uh, do y’all remember six years ago?

In fact, one more month. March, 2020, let’s go to March, 2020. And I’m not saying think back on COVID times, I’m saying right at [00:12:00] the right, at the start of it. I remember it. There was like so much unknown. Uh, they started, uh, really school shut down and people left for spring break, but then never came back.

They canceled March Madness. Can you believe March Madness? Honestly, there’s can. Never been more uncertainty worldwide in recent history than at that time. Uh, mayors and pres presidents were like having press conferences like multiple times a day. At times, it’s hard to even keep track of all the stuff changing so quickly.

And for us at Bebo Homes, we face the same uncertainty every other business did. Uh, we weren’t sure if we’d be forced to shut down for months or if we’d be deemed what was phrased essential business. Y’all remember that There’s a little PTSD in me when I hear essential business. Here is what we did know.

We had record cancellations. This was our, this is literally the data. This is record [00:13:00] cancellations. Many of our customers were losing their jobs or being put on furlough, and so they can no longer qualify for a mortgage. There was other people who just didn’t wanna make a big purchase like that with so much unknown.

They were like, conserve cash or invest in toilet paper. Y’all remember that? That was weird. You know, I’ve been praying for God’s leading in our business for a long time, but those prayers might have become a little more intense right there. However, I, I can honestly say that I didn’t feel anxious or nervous in that season.

I was eerily peaceful. Thank you, Lord. And I remember first praying for our team because I saw so much fear in them. You know, they might have had friends who had been let go and they were wondering. Is that gonna happen to me too? And I personally hoped we could give them some kind of assurance, right?

That Hey, it’s okay. It’s okay. I’ve learned not to do that without [00:14:00] asking the Lord. If I can say that first. It seems like what he would want. But I went to him and prayed for a couple days and said, Lord, could we make some kind of commitment to our people to give them peace? And after a couple days, I feel like he gave me peace and the rest of our board peace about saying that.

So on March 30th, I personally sent out a video saying, Hey, even if we have to close down for six months, we will continue to pay every single person here and nobody will be let go. And I believe in a kingdom business, if people are a priority, that’s the kind of conclusion you arrive at. We can do that in our business, y’all know that’s legal.

We could make those kinds of decisions, but then I continued to have more cancellations. Than sales. And the big question was this, should we continue to start homes? Largest and smartest home builders in the country had already pulled back or completely stopped starting homes right now. Uh, but [00:15:00] we believe the Lord is the answer.

So went to him and said, Lord, what do you think about this? This seems wise. What should we do though? And we feel like we didn’t wanna pull back on starts because of our own fear or our own idea of what was best. And through that prayer, the Lord actually asked us to continue to start homes, which made us feel like crazy people a little bit, uh, maybe not a little bit.

By the end of April, the US housing starts we’re down by 35% from just 60 days prior. Everybody slammed on the brakes and our spec inventory had grown to over $18 million because of all of the cancellations, and we were still continuing to start 40 homes a week. Without buyers attached to ’em, just stacking them up.

A couple of the top 10 builders in the US had start already stopped starting homes for one month. One of them continued, no starts for three [00:16:00] months. And honestly, that that’s likely what the Harvard, that business school would teach is the right move in a situation like this with so much uncertainty, you know, conserve cash, definitely don’t just continue on blindly into the unknown.

So we continue to pray. Lord, are you sure about this? Um, and really, I’ll tell you what came outta my mouth sometimes is like, Lord, hey, I get you told us to do this and, and we’re trying to do this, but if this doesn’t work, everybody’s gonna turn and look at me and not you. This could sink the ship. Are you sure?

Are you sure? And I would feel like in my spirit, he would give me peace and he would give our leadership team peace. We’re supposed to continue on. It was like walking in the dark, like trying to feel our way around. That’s what it felt like. And he continued to give us peace, [00:17:00] uh, to start homes despite what the market was saying.

Uh, so that’s what we did. And every day we continue to write checks to all of our trade partners doing work on the homes. But cash wasn’t coming in at the same rate from closings. So over a few months we started eating down our cash reserve. And really, uh, after several weeks it, it had gone down so much that we’d no longer be able to fulfill our promise to our employees that if it stopped for six months, we wouldn’t have enough cash to pay them all.

So we went back to the Lord and I said, Hey, Lord, I know I talked to you about this one. Didn’t get me here, but if the music stopped right now, we wouldn’t be able to do that. I know you have a lot going on with this whole pandemic thing, but man, you aren’t gonna leave us out here to die, are you? And he didn’t even respond to that.

He just continued to give us peace. We’re supposed to start homes. [00:18:00] So honestly, I couldn’t see how both of those things could be true. I really couldn’t, uh, kind of. Probably like Abraham who said God would give him descendants through his son, Isaac. But then he asked him to kill Isaac and Abraham followed through on that he was gonna do it and assumed God would have a way, he would still keep his promise.

So we tried to do the same thing. I know you said that I can’t see how both of these are true, but I’m gonna assume it can be because you are a truth teller. You are a promise keeper, even though it doesn’t look like that right now. Hey, and I wanna show you a chart of the hard data. So you know, this isn’t a preacher story.

Uh, this chart, the, the green area is US housing starts and then I overlaid beaten bow homes, starts on top of that, that black line at the top. So you can see we largely followed the national trend, uh, until March. And then that little [00:19:00] line just keeps going. Like, we didn’t get the memo. We were supposed to slow down.

Um, hey, and that little part of that line right there looks really short, but that was three months. I remember that season so well. 90 days in the desert. I would say 90 days where I felt naked and crazy, but the Lord continued to give us peace. We should do that. By the end of May, our cash reserve was extremely low.

We, we are a very cash intensive business up to this point. We typically averaged about 15 to $20 million in operating cash, which is a good idea because in any one week we could pay out about $6 million at the time to our trade partners and suppliers. But in May, a few times, our cash dipped below 5 million.

That’s not good. That meant if some of the homes didn’t close that were scheduled to close, we wouldn’t have enough money to pay our. Trade partners and suppliers, much less our people. I remember [00:20:00] vividly one conversation with a board where we decided if somebody doesn’t get paid that week, it will be us first.

This was not theoretical. This got real. It seemed like we had come to the end of the rope. And my prayers in that season. Were, Lord, we are following your plan here. You told us to do this. I wanna remind you, this was not my idea. Seems like my idea was better, but we’ve gone way too far. We don’t have a plan B.

And actually we’ve gone too far to pull the parachute. Now where are you? We need a miracle here. Here’s the thing, everybody wants to see a miracle, but none of us want to be in a position to need one. That’s the truth, me included. But of course today we know the rest of the story and here’s what happened over the next couple months.

[00:21:00] Largest housing boom in US history, and it looked like we freaking called it, we did not call it. We felt crazy. But guess who was one of the only home builders in the country that had inventory ready to sell? Nobody wanted anyone in their homes, right? COVID. Nobody wanted anybody in their homes. So new construction was the only answer, and we had been set up position, like we called it.

And thinking back, I feel like this is what the Lord was trying to tell me. Cow, if you can trust me. If you can trust me, I’m gonna provide for everyone in your business and around your business for your trades and your suppliers. This is gonna be hard for you to walk out, but if you can trust me, I promise it will be the best thing.

And you can do this. And I really believe he would not if, if I would’ve let fear overwhelm me, God would’ve never [00:22:00] been mad at me if, if fear overcome me. And I was like, we can’t do this. Gotta pull back. I believe the Lord would’ve never been mad at Kaza, but I also believe heartache would’ve entered the world.

Thousands of people. Even if we’d have continued to pay our, our employees, thousands of trade partners and suppliers would’ve lost their job and heartache would’ve entered the world that wasn’t part of God’s plan. And so he was giving me an opportunity to be part of a miracle all around me. But it meant I had to obey when it was hard, when I didn’t understand it, when, when to my toes.

I would believe the Lord is leading us to do this, but I don’t want to do it. And that’s the moment of obedience for a kingdom leader.

You know, I’m sure glad we didn’t just listen, but we obeyed even when it was hard. And here’s what I learned in that season. Increased trust is infinitely more valuable. [00:23:00] Than a divine blueprint for what to do. The Lord blessed us with a lot of stories like that. Uh, I’ve got a bag full of stories like that.

The fact is, there were moments when, where we were doubting that and questioning it, and I feel like. The Lord wants to me to tell you guys, there are moments where, where you doubt or question God and it feels like you don’t have enough faith. That’s a moment where you can say, I don’t have enough faith.

But actually that is your faith emerging in the wrestling. You’re trying to believe God is faithful despite the circumstances. Everything is saying this is not true, but I’m trying to choose to believe, and that’s where the wrestling happens, and that is faith. That’s not the absence of faith. That is your faith.

You are doing it, you’re doing it. Uh, when you doubt or question God, it isn’t a sign that you don’t [00:24:00] have faith. The wrestling is your faith. So there are two keys to being a team leader that I, I wanna share with you. And the most important one is this. Ask God to lead you.

Ask God to lead you. You know, there are a couple ways to ask God to lead you. The first one is like, God, would you lead my life? Just in general. But the second one is a little different and it happens. On a Thursday at 10:06 AM when you’re in the meeting or in your car or on that call with somebody, and it’s like the everyday practical, tactical decision time moments.

And I believe Moses is right there in that kind of Moses, uh, in that kind of moment. In this verse in Exodus, he says, if you are pleased with me, teach me your way, so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. So [00:25:00] Moses had just gone up on Mount Sinai and some crazy stuff had happened. God gave him the 10 Commandments, like he literally wrote ’em down on a stone.

Uh, but when Moses came down, all of the Israelites were worshiping idols and Moses got pretty upset, but he wasn’t as mad as God was us. Moses went back up to talk to him, and God basically said, Moses, take these people of yours and go right now. Now I’ll, I’ll still give you the promised land that I promised to your ancestors because I keep my promises, but I’m not gonna go with you because I might kill you on the way.

I’m not going with you because I might kill you on the way. You know, I’ve got pretty mad at my kids on a road trip, but I never was concerned that I might kill them on the way. That’s a little harsh, isn’t it?[00:26:00]

Moses was just a shepherd. He wasn’t qualified to lead 2 million Israelites across the desert into this promised land. So as a kingdom leader, Moses fell his knees, and this is what he said. If you are pleased with me, teach me your way so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.

I get emotional ’cause I’ve been there. I know what that prayer sounds like. I know what it feels like.

Later in the same passage, Moses begs, God, hey, if you’re not gonna go with us, please don’t send us away. We wanna stay here with you, even if it means staying in the desert. Whew. Let me tell you another quick story about how this has played out In a normal workday, there’s a section of land just a few miles from here, uh, that I would see.

Every time I drove back from Midland. There’s a stop sign there. I’d hit on my way back into town, and this place is pretty flat, but that land had a little contour and I could [00:27:00] just see homes on it. I thought it’d be a beautiful place to build homes. I didn’t covet it, but I probably got really close. And then the one day we were looking for our next big piece of land in southwest Lubbock and someone had listed this piece of land for sale.

We were like, perfect. And hey, we’ve interacted. I’ve interacted with hundreds of landowners over the years and made deals with a ton of them. This one was a little different. Uh, a lot different. This guy, he was so strange. So. We were trying to make a deal with him, and it seemed like even if we agreed to exactly what he proposed, he would go and also, or actually you need to.

And it was like, man, does he even want to sell this land? And honestly, even the realtor that listed that land for him started getting really frustrated too. And then one day, a few of a, after 12 months of this, it was over 12 months of this. Three of us loaded up in a truck and we went and stood on that land and actually held hands.

It probably looked really funny if you were [00:28:00] driving by three guys out there in a field holding hands. Uh, and we just prayed, Lord, if this is what you have for us, would you put the deal together? And if it’s not, would you release us from it? We are tired.

That was about nine 30 in the morning when we were standing on that land. About an hour or two later, I know it was before noon, somebody called our front desk, just our main number out of the blue and said they were actually the owners of that land and they were ready to sell

and we were as confused as you are now. ’cause I thought we were talking to it. It actually turns out the guy we were talking to wasn’t even an owner. His wife had a very minority ownership, but the majority owner was the one that called the front desk an hour after our prayer. We called him back, of course, we called him back and we said, could y’all meet tomorrow?

And we made a deal on the [00:29:00] spot. Why did it take us so long to ask? ’cause it’s not in our nature to ask. We don’t even want to ask for directions. And I also believe it just goes to show we don’t do this perfectly around here. That was just not that long ago. Uh, so we don’t always remember to get asked, but God isn’t mad at us when we don’t.

He’ll let us make our own way. Sometimes I’ll feel like he lets me just chase my tail until I’m exhausted. And then he goes, Hey, you need any help, buddy? And I’m like, oh, crap. Yeah, that’s what it feels like. Uh. I am gonna bet he had a better way if I just invited him in from the start. You know, my daughter plays volleyball and after a game, I have so many great coaching tips.

I really do. Here’s what I’ve learned as a parent. Might wanna write this one down. Don’t give unsolicited advice.

There are times where she asks me for [00:30:00] feedback maybe once a year, and I have an opportunity then to give her all my great tips, or at least a couple of them before she stops listening. But God is kind of that way with us. He doesn’t want to chase us down with a bullhorn. He’s not gonna give us unsolicited advice, but if we ask him, he wants to help us.

If we say, dad, would you help? Yes. Yes. The answer’s yes, period. About everything. Who should I hire? Where should I? Where do I need to go to find a framer? Where did I leave my car? Keys? He wants to help us with all of it, right, Catherine? Yep.

One time, I, I do remember I asked God, like, I was like, I got it. This time I’m gonna start by asking God about it. Uh, there’s a situation in Midland where we had bought land, but later found out only a portion of it could be serviced by the existing water. Infrastructure, [00:31:00] right Chris? Whew. The city staff had made it abundantly clear we could only get about 200 or 250 permits there, and not the 1000 we originally thought we would get and we’d have to go build somewhere else and then come back and develop that rest of the property after they had built this water tower and ran a 30 inch water main several miles, which would take them several years to do.

But this time I remembered. So most mornings in my quiet time, I would pray, Lord, you know, we need land in Midland. Would you show us where that is? Who do I need to go talk to? Where do I need to go? I wanna make it clear. I could have went and bought land in Midland any day of the week. I didn’t want to kick down doors.

I believe the Lord has a better way. So I wanted to wait. For him to show me what to do next, which is so freaking hard for a door kicker like me. And so every day I would say, Lord, you know, [00:32:00] we need Landon Midland. Where do you want me to go? And I was so patiently waiting. And after two months of tenacious prayer, I would say I was walking out, uh, in this garden back here, uh, walking out the back door of this building for my quiet time is about 7:00 AM.

And I just got my coffee. I’m walking out the door and I started in, Lord, you know, we need land in Midland. And before the door closed behind me, I remember him sharply telling me, I mean, so clear. Do you, okay, remember, I’m supposed to tell you what it feels like on the inside here. So how? Here, here comes this one.

I was pissed. I was pissed.

And I told him that. Have you not been freaking listening? Yes. We need land in Midland. There’s a thousand people who will lose their job if you don’t [00:33:00] freaking do something. And here I am. I’m trying my hardest to follow you. You’re not even talking to me. It’s been 60 days. And you asked me a freaking riddle like, do you.

I was still steaming that afternoon. I, I remember up in this building, I told Rick, here’s what I was praying. Here’s what the Lord told me. Do you? And I’m, I’m very frustrated. He’s like, what do you think that means? And I was like, I don’t have a freaking clue.

Okay. Okay. Would you believe it turns out we didn’t need land.

City staff had been clear with us. The, the city directors said, this is bad. You can’t, y’all aren’t gonna be able to. We’ve ran the models, there’s no way. We went and installed water sensor, water pressure sensors in different parts of the neighborhood, so we would know when the pressure dropped and we built 1,140 homes straight and the water pressure never dropped.[00:34:00]

We didn’t need the land. I thought we need the land. Everybody’s telling me we need the land, but I didn’t start with, Lord, it seems like we need the land. Do we need the land? What do you have to say about this? And here’s the thing, the Lord’s been talking to me a lot about this thing is progressive. I feel like it Level one I, I’ll call this level one, is like.

I am a Christian in business and I’m gonna try to do things the right way and I’m gonna try to not cuss people out or cheat people or steal from people. I’m gonna try to do this in honorable way and you should know the Lord is so proud of that. He’s so proud of that. Level two I’m gonna say is, is when we ask God to open doors and close doors, Lord, would you open doors and close doors and use the external circumstances around me to to show me what your will is or.

When you don’t have a clue what to do next when you’re out of options, we go to him and say, Lord, help me. And the [00:35:00] Lord is so pleased with that. But here’s what the Lord’s shown me, level three is when you ask God for advice, even when you think you know what you’re supposed to do here, you know, as business people, lots of times we think we know what the right thing is, and often we do.

But a deeper level of obedience is saying, Lord, I think this is the right thing. What do you have to say though? I want to exchange my wisdom for your wisdom. What do you see here? Help me see it differently, and that is harder. You know, I believe Moses was on his knees asking the Lord to go with him, and the Lord had mercy on a kingdom leader.

The Lord replied, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest. That’s the answer. Every time we stop and ask. About everything. Nothing’s off the table. What should we do? Where should we go? [00:36:00] Exactly. Where is the water leak in this home? It’s big and small things. Uh, one time I’d shared a few of these kinds of stories with our leaders here, and a week later, one of our warranty managers called me and he’s right there, Jesse, and he said.

They had a home that had a water leak and it was kind of intermittent and a very small leak. And they’d been out there two or three times trying to figure out what was going on and fix it and they could never find it. And so he tried this. He said, Lord, you know where the water leak is in at home, don’t you?

So could you show me? And he said instantly he got a vision of where it was, but there was a problem. So the leak was in the master bathroom, but the picture he got in his head was so clearly in the guest bathroom. Or the problem wasn’t. So here’s the question. You gonna go cut into that wall? Ooh, you gonna go cut in that wall?

See if there’s a problem. And Jesse did. And guess what? [00:37:00] There was a problem behind that wall exactly where he cut Now. His team was gonna think he was a psychopath if he goes into the wrong room where the problem is not, and starts cutting into the walls. So he had to tell them before they went into the house, why he was doing this.

And what do you think that did for their faith when they found a problem right there? What do you think it did for his faith? What do you think it did for my faith? What did that simple act of obedience just do for your faith? There’s not big or small. There’s, God wants to be invited into everything. He wants to help us with everything, but we have to invite him.

Okay. Fair warning. The Lord may not always answer immediately. He’s not like, uh, some magic eight ball that you can just shake and he gives you the answer, which is very frustrating. I’ve waited two years at times for answers to something I felt was quite important, [00:38:00] but if there’s a time. That God isn’t responding or isn’t doing what I think he needs to do in faith, I’m trying to choose to believe he doesn’t withhold any good things from his kids.

And so if we disagree on what best looks like, I think he’s right, not me, right? Lord, that’s hard to do in the moment. I don’t always do it perfectly, but I believe he loves me. More than I could love myself. I believe he loves everybody. The people I’m trying to care for, he loves them more than I could love them.

He knows the future, and so he’s trustworthy. He’s proven that, and so I just try to remember in the middle of it again, you’re trustworthy, Lord, I know that. And you’re gonna pull through again, right? Right. You know the Lord can speak to you and confirm things in a variety of ways, but one of the biggest ways we’ve seen he does [00:39:00] that here is through the team around us.

And that brings us to our second key of being a kingdom leader. Number one, ask God to lead you. If you walk away with nothing else, please walk away with that one. And number two, build and align leadership team. Night people to lead alongside you. And when I say a leadership team, I mean the group of people that make major decisions for the organization.

Do you turn left or right here? Some people might call it a board or executive team, or a management team. For a small organization might just be a husband and a wife. The only rule is it can’t be one. You can’t do this alone and you shouldn’t. You need a team and that can protect you from having to bear all the weight.

You know, Rick told me, uh, when God first started pushing this vision on him, the Lord told him, uh, that if Rick kept leading the way, he was, the weight of this thing was gonna kill him, and God didn’t want that for Rick. [00:40:00] So it’s better for you to do this as a team. But the second part of that that God told Rick was that this ministry disguised as a home building company.

Was going to die. If Rick didn’t make this change, Rick was gonna kill it. Having a team will also protect God’s ministry, formerly known as your business from you. Having a team that’s all committed to hearing from God also creates safety. One day, if God’s really trying to get ahold of me and I’m not picking up the phone, maybe he, maybe one of my other team members will and get the message to me or my wife will.

And you might hear us say, God told me blank. I’ll say, you only have that level of clarity. In retrospect, in the moment. Most of what that looks like is like, I feel like I’m hearing this, Laura, would you pray for with me about this? And we’ll sort it out together? The, during [00:41:00] COVID, I promise, I ultimately, I was responsible, uh, for bebo homes, so the decision would fall to me.

But if Corey and Gino, also the two most senior leaders doing this with me also wouldn’t have felt peace that we were supposed to keep starting homes. I wouldn’t have done it. I didn’t have the strength in me to do it, but we did. That’s the power of a team. They felt the same thing. And if all, if God led all three of us to this crazy conclusion, then let’s follow it together.

Win, lose or draw, we’re in it together. So Rick said when he, the Lord first started giving him this vision of inviting a leadership team to lead alongside him be besides just his dad, Ron, he said he felt like the Lord gave him a couple of ground rules, and here’s what those are. Number one, the senior leader is accountable to the team.

I can honestly say that my team holds me every bit as accountable as I do them. In fact. In [00:42:00] pure honesty, they have had more con corrective conversations with me than I have with them, and Rick and my relationship was that same way, and he let it be because it’s the right thing. The more power you have, the more accountable you must be.

Number two, the team is invited to weigh in on all decisions. This means even the ones that aren’t in the territories, that they’re over. I, I believe it’ll lead to better ideas, better decisions, share everything with them, everything. And then number three, this is not a democracy, and this is a critical thing here.

We’d never make decisions by popular vote ever. I believe God has established you as a leader over a certain territory, and you can’t abdicate that authority. The way we say it around here is the team gets a voice but not a vote, [00:43:00] and it’s not the leader’s job to come up with all the best ideas. It’s the leader’s job to make sure all the ideas are heard and the best one wins.

That’s how it works for us. Often I might bring an idea or Jake brings an idea, and really we end up at some third option. That might be a combination of the two, or it might be something new that this group came up with. And we don’t remember whose idea it was. It doesn’t matter.

You know, it falls to me to be submitted to the leaders on the TE team that I lead and around me, and I believe without humility, what can we do? Nothing. The Lord said he opposes the proud until someone sets down pride. There’s nothing he can do with them. They have to choose to set that down. And I believe in the kingdom, your level of authority can never outpace your level of humility.

So here’s what [00:44:00] we believe a kingdom leader does. Just wrap it up with this. Ask God to lead you, build and align leadership team, and then commit to a relational style. And I’m not going into the third part. Brad’s actually gonna crack that one open in the next keynote, the one about the relational style.

Pray with me Lord. Thank you for inviting us to become leaders in your kingdom. Thank you that you want to help us and that you’ll lead us. We ask for that. I ask for that. I ask you to lead every single person in this room that you open their heart to asking you for direction and insight more regularly.

Do that same thing for me, Lord. I also pray that you knit together aligned leadership teams in this room. That submit to one another, that love and that honor one another, and that expand your kingdom. Lord, help us on this journey. In the name of Jesus, amen.