Kingdom Leadership Workshop | October 2025
Description
What does it mean to lead when God’s Kingdom is your highest priority?
In this keynote from the Kingdom Leadership Workshop (October 2025), Cal Zant, President of Betenbough Homes, challenges leaders to move beyond high performance and into Spirit-led leadership—where every decision, conversation, and goal is surrendered to the King.
Through transparent stories of faith, risk, and obedience—from praying for a competitor’s success to trusting God in the 2020 housing crisis—Cal shows that true leadership isn’t about control or achievement. It’s about listening and obeying.
You’ll learn how to:
– Make God’s Kingdom the top priority in your business or organization
– Lead with faith over fear in times of uncertainty
– Build an aligned, accountable leadership team that seeks God together
– Exchange natural logic for supernatural trust
– Let humility and unity define your leadership
“If you’re not spending time with the King, whose kingdom are you building?”
Hey, there are a lot of high performing leaders in this room. A lot. My friend
Vernon on that video is the smartest business guy I’ve ever met in my life. He has like 20 or 30 companies,
successful ones. Ideal Homes is one of them. Like, he can lose me in a business conversation in about 30 seconds. And
I’m I’m serious. Like, I I don’t know what you’re talking about at this point. And there’s lots of guys like that in
this room, very successful leaders. But I feel like the Lord wants to invite us from being an organizational leader. He
wants to invite us into something a little different. Being a kingdom leader,
but what in the world does that mean? I I have great news. I am a practitioner.
I am not a preacher. So, I’m about to rapid fire like a hundred stories of how this has played out here.
First, a kingdom leader establishes God’s kingdom as the highest
priority for your company, your nonprofit, your organization.
Did you know that of the first 108 colleges in America, 106 of them were
founded as Bible colleges? That includes almost all of the Ivy League schools.
How many of those still have that as their highest priority?
It’s pretty close to zero. So what happened there? There was a
there was kingdom people, a kingdom leader or a group of leaders that
started off with that as the highest priority, but at some point they stepped back or they sat down or they fell down
and something else found its way above the kingdom. It was it academics or beautiful buildings or tolerance or
growing their student base. Whatever it was, something else found its way above.
And so the first truth of this is that a kingdom leader is committed to God’s kingdom being the highest priority in
the territory they have authority and responsibility over.
So why does your organization exist?
I didn’t say what does your organization do. What’s its purpose? Why does it exist? Is it for profit?
How we think about that like prophet is it’s not wrong or evil. In fact, Jesus
tells lots of parables about how in the kingdom a return is expected. Actually, uh profit is similar to breathing. You
need it to survive. You know, if you can’t breathe, that suddenly becomes the highest priority.
But if your whole purpose in life is breathing, that’s a pretty meaningless life. And prophets kind of like that.
In the kingdom, we also can’t be tribal. God’s kingdom is bigger than our business, our organizations. The the
kingdom must be a higher priority than me, my family, my business, all of it.
So, what does that look like in the day dayto-day? So, a few years ago, we heard that Dr.
Horton was planning to come to love. Uh, and many of you are builders, so you know who that is. They are the largest
builder in the United States. They build close about 90,000 homes a year. They will close more homes in the first five
days of the year than Beanbo homes will close all year. That’s how big they are.
Uh they are worth about 50 billion with a B dollars. And they had come to love
once before for in the like 2000s uh but left fairly quickly. But in 2021, Don
Horton himself, that’s Dr. The founder, Don Horton, said they were coming back
to the Lach market. It was really important to him and they were going to make it work this time. They have over
$5 billion in cash on hand. So, if they want to make something work, they’ll make it work, right?
Um, well, we heard they were coming and they’d even started talking to some other developers about buying lots. Uh
but one day one of our most senior leaders, Corey Cisco, walked into my office and he said, “Hey, I just wanted
to let you know Brock is resigning. He’s accepted the division president
position for Dr. Horton here in Leach.” Brock was our most veteran general
manager and in charge of our largest operation in Luk. He’d been with us 13
years. He knew all of our secrets. He knew all of our costs. He knew all of
our pricing, our strategy. He had really close relationships with all of our trade partners and suppliers. Actually,
if you were going to come to town and try to take market share from the biggest builder in that market, hiring
Brock would probably be the smartest first step.
But when Corey Cisco told me Brock is a new division president for Dr. Horton in love. I can honestly say in less than
five seconds I sincerely responded good for him.
That’s probably a great opportunity for him. Now I feel like God
last time uh last workshop and this one he’s pressed on me something really specific and it’s spo I’m supposed to
share what this feels like on the inside. What was my actual inner dialogue as this is going on? Which
actually makes me feel like I’m gonna get naked up here, but I’m going to do it. I’m gonna be obedient to it. So, I admit the first thought that popped into
my mind was a combination of, “Oh crap.” And how dare he reject us.
But the Lord has taught me so many times over the years that I don’t have to take offense. And the goal is not to keep everybody here.
His kingdom’s bigger than beating Bo Holmes. And while in the natural it might look like he’s taking something
from us, the Lord withholds no good things from his kids.
That’s the supernatural view. So I I chose to exchange the natural for the supernatural. And literally within a
couple of seconds, I arrived at good for him. Those were the first words out of my mouth.
And do you know what the Lord asked me to do within an hour of that? to start praying for his early success.
Oh crap. You know, it is one thing to be happy for the guy. I mean, that’s big, right?
Like I I was so proud. I’m I’m sincerely happy for the guy. It is another thing to pray for the fiercest competitor
in your own backyard that they find success. But the Lord wore me down and convinced
me of it. So much so that when I gathered up my leadership team that our very next meeting I shared with them
that the Lord had asked me to do that feeling a bit like a crazy person and then I asked if we could all do that
together and that’s how we spent spent that time together because that’s what a kingdom leader
does. In fact, uh Brock is a kingdom leader.
Do you know over the years he sat in dozens of these three-day workshops as a table coach?
What if he came to DR and he brought this style with him? Wouldn’t we want
that? What if they noticed that that his
division was was healthier, was more productive than any other one, and they
came and said, “Dude, what’s going on?” and he told him and it spread through the whole organization.
He could have massive influence. Wouldn’t we want that?
If we’re about God’s kingdom, we would. But if we’re about our kingdom, we would not. And that’s the tension. That’s the
tension I feel, too. And did you know what? Dr’s been building here in Lev for four years now. And they are successful
here. Also, today we are selling more homes in Leuk than we ever have in our 33-year
history here. In fact, five years ago before DR came, we were selling about 500 homes per year in Luk. And in the
past 12 months, we’ve sold close to a thousand. The Lord wasn’t withholding anything
from us. Now, when we heard the news, we didn’t know any of that. Didn’t know any of it.
We actually didn’t think we had anybody to replace him. And we also thought they really would take market share. But we
believed in faith that the Lord withholds no good things from his kids.
Even when the circumstances didn’t look like that, that doesn’t mean it’ll always be
pleasant or it’ll always be what we had hoped for. I promise.
But we have learned to trust him and make his kingdom the highest priority.
In the kingdom, like Brad said, there’s abundance. There’s not scarcity.
We can’t be tribal or fearful. The question is this is is this God’s
stuff or is it your stuff? Are these God’s people or are they your people? Sometimes we can go, well, we’ll use all
this stuff to glorify God, but it’s mine. But that’s not a kingdom mindset.
What we’re really talking about here is spiritual leadership.
Does that sound scary? What if I told you you’ve been
designated by God to be a spiritual leader in the territory you’ve been given?
Often when we talk to other leaders, when we say something like that, they’re like, “What? Me? Oh, no. I I don’t know
enough Bible or I’m still a mess myself.”
Okay. And honestly, those are the exact people God picked. If you read through the Bible,
like that’s exactly the people he searched out for. So, I’m not surprised by it, even if you are. And God’s not
surprised by it. I actually want to communicate really clearly, you are a spiritual leader.
And actually, all leadership is spiritual. I want you to watch this one. Adolf Hitler was a pretty effective
leader. Can we all agree with that? He had opportunity and resources. He aligned
all of his forces in one direction. And evil spirits had their way with him,
didn’t they? He was led by spirits. His leadership
was spiritual. Now, sometimes when we’re leading, the spirit leading us may not be as evil as murder or domination, but
it could be greed. For me, it can be a lust for more. For
me, it can be progress. I’ll tell you that’s probably the one I struggle with most. Sorry, turned in confession time.
That’s not in the notes. Uh or it could be the work itself. Like some of us, while we might never have
said it, might have elevated work above the kingdom. The work itself is so
important. As kingdom leaders, we must be led by
God’s spirit. Listen y’all, nobody does this perfectly. I don’t do it perfectly.
Tanner right here in the front. Do you do it perfect? He doesn’t do it perfectly and you won’t do it perfectly.
Nobody does this perfectly. But what Rick always said is we got to keep those seasons where we’re being led by a
spirit other than God’s short. And uh
here’s a key to staying more focused to let the Lord fill you up. Spending time with the king. How can we lead in his
kingdom if we don’t spend time with the king? This could be the primary message God
wants you wants to remind you of this week. How can you have a relationship
with someone if you don’t spend time with them? It’s critical for every leader, every
kingdom leader to find time every single day to just sit with the Lord and hear from him so that you can be led by God’s
spirit as you go. If you’re not spending time with the Lord, if you’re not hearing from the
Lord, then whose kingdom are you building?
Okay, maybe confession time again. You know what used to keep me from spending time with God?
Fear.
I was afraid of what he might say to me if I was still long enough to listen.
afraid he’d bring up all my shortcomings.
I think sure, God wants to talk to some people, uh, those that read their Bible every day or pray more or sin less,
but by this point, God is pretty disappointed in me.
You know, all those things have to do with comparison, which we have to see as spiritual
warfare. Those little voices in your head are spiritual attack and it comes
from a religious spirit. You know the first spirit that came against Jesus in
the Gospel of Mark, the first one that he cast out, he was in the synagogue. What kind of spirit do you think that
was? My guess is that’s the first one will
that will come against you as well. Have your eyes open to that. That’s spiritual attack. That kind of talk in
your head is actually spiritual attack. It’s not from you and it’s not from God. That’s what spiritual warfare looks
like. It’s evil. And there’s actually no such
thing as spiritual elite.
Nobody is spiritually elite. In fact, you know what Jesus tells us? We’re all poor in spirit. We’re spiritually
bankrupt. We have nothing to offer.
All of us are empty-handed. So anytime we’re comparing oursel, how spiritual we are to someone else, you should know
we’re all down here, me included. God’s not waiting with a lecture. He’s
waiting with love. He’s not done talking to you. He’s not
disappointed in you. He’s the kind of father who smiles when
you walk in the room because he’s so proud.
He’s not mad and you don’t have to be afraid of him. He doesn’t come to accuse you. He comes
to remind you of who you really are, to speak identity, to bring healing.
He wants to tell you who he created you to be and help you in your dayto-day.
And that’s what’s waiting for you in quiet time and intimacy with the father. Trust me.
Why would you want to avoid that? I used to think about it as a spiritual discipline. I don’t see it that way at
all anymore. I need those reminders. It is for my benefit.
Jesus tells us in multiple places in the gospel uh that the Holy Spirit is given to us to help, to teach, to counsel. If
you’ve accepted Jesus, then you have the spirit of God within you. That’s what
scripture teaches us. And it wants to work through you.
We’re going to help equip you guys at this workshop on how to do that. Uh it’s which is a powerful thing because God is
always speaking, but oftentimes we can’t hear him because we aren’t listening for
him because we aren’t watching for him. We aren’t expecting it. But he’s speaking to me and you all the time.
But many of us might not have a hearing problem. We might have an obedience problem.
Often we may know what God is saying to us, but we explain it away or we ignore it.
Fundamentally, a kingdom leader listens to and then obeys the king.
So, what does that look like in a business? Story time. Uh, let me take you back to March 2020. Do you do you
remember what was going on then? the whole world seemed to be coming apart. And I’m not I’m not saying think
back on COVID times. I’m saying right at the start, you know, they schools closed down and businesses had to close and
they canceled March Madness like sacrilegious.
There was more uncertainty worldwide than any time in recent history. And mayors and presidents were having press
conferences, sometimes multiple times a day, just because things were changing so fast. And for us at Beambo Homes, we
faced all the same uncertainty other businesses did. We weren’t sure if we’d be forced to shut down or if we’d be
considered an essential business. We didn’t even know that term yet. Remember that? It kind of gives me PTSD when I hear it. Essential business. Here is
what we did know. We had record cancellations.
That’s one of those charts you don’t want to go up into the right. Yeah. Many of our customers were losing their
jobs or they were being put on furlow and they could just no longer qualify for a mortgage. Uh for others, the fear
of the unknown was simply kind of causing them to not want to make a major decision right now to conserve cash or
invest in toilet paper. Remember when everybody was buying their toilet paper? Somebody bought three years supply of toilet paper because just in case. Uh
what a weird time. I’d been praying for God to lead our business for a while then. But I’ll say
the prayers got a little more intense in 2020. Uh however, I can honestly say I
also didn’t feel anxious or worried. I had a strange sense of peace which I believe only comes from God. I remember
first praying for our team. I saw so much fear and worry creep in so fast
because you know all the changes. Some of their friends had lost their job or maybe even their spouse had had lost
their job. And I personally had hoped that we could like make a commitment that that wasn’t going to be them. Give
them some reassurance. Uh but I didn’t say that without asking the Lord first if we could say that. Uh so while I felt
like he’d want us to take care of our people, I didn’t want to assume we could make a promise without asking him
specifically. So after a couple days of praying, I felt prompted by the Lord that we could say that even if we closed
for six months and didn’t have a single closing, we could continue to play pay every single one of our employees. We
wouldn’t let one of them go. And I brought that to the rest of the
board and together we all had peace to make that commitment. So that’s what we did. On March 30th, I sent out a video
email making that commitment to our people. God’s people usually are the highest
priority. So, it makes sense in a kingdom business that might be the first order of business. Uh, but we continued
to have more cancellations and sales. The big question was this. Should we continue starting homes?
The largest and smartest homebuilders in the country had already pulled back or completely stopped starting new homes.
But we believe the Lord is the answer. So, I asked him and I asked the senior leaders on my team to join me in praying
for that direction. at that time is Gina and Corey and me. We were leading beaten bow homes.
I didn’t want to pull back from fear or from my own idea of what was best. So
all three of us had peace actually at the end of that that we were supposed to continue starting homes even without
buyers attached to them. By the end of April, the US housing starts down by
over 30% compared to just 60 days prior. and Beanbo Home spec inventory had grown
o to over $18 million because all the cancellations and the
fact that we were starting another 40 homes a week just piling them up.
A couple of the top 10 biggest builders in the US had stopped starting homes for one month already by that point and at
least one of them continued that all stop for three consecutive months. In fact, that is likely what the Harvard
Business School would teach is the right move in all the uncertainty. You know, conserve cash. Don’t certainly don’t
continue blindly into the unknown. So, we continued to pray,
Lord, are you sure about this? And then here’s the behind-the-scenes view. I admit what might come out of my
mouth was, Lord, are you sure about this? Like I know
you’re in control and I feel like you’ve given us direction and peace, right? That was you.
But if this doesn’t work out, this could sink the ship
and everybody’s going to turn and look at me, not you.
But I know you’re faithful and trustworthy. You’ve proven that in the past. I’m going to believe you’re being that right now, too. So just show me
what I’m supposed to do here. What’s the next right step this week? It felt like
walking in the dark. And he continued to give us peace that we were supposed to start homes despite
everything the market was saying. So that’s what we did. But that also meant every day we continued to write checks
to our trade partners for work on those homes. And at the same time, cash was not coming in from closings at the same
rate. So over several weeks, we were eating our cash reserve down.
In fact, it started getting below what it would take to fulfill our promise to our employees
that we’d continue to pay them even if we didn’t have closings for six months.
So we went back to the Lord. Hey, hey, didn’t we say I mean, didn’t you say I
asked you this, we could make that commitment to our people? You know, if the music stopped right now, we wouldn’t
be able to do that. Lord, you’re not going to leave us high and dry here, are you?
The only response like we we felt we heard was that we were supposed to continue starting homes.
So, honestly, we couldn’t see how both of those things could be true at the same time, but we chose to be obedient
to God’s last word, whatever his last word was. kind of like Abraham.
You see, God had promised uh him descendants through his son Isaac, but then he told him to kill his
son Isaac. Do you think Abraham had a hard time reconciling that?
It said after God said that to him, a thick and dreadful darkness fell over him. That night was hard. That night was
hard on him. But Abraham chose to believe that somehow God would still honor his
promise. So, he decided to trust even if he
couldn’t reconcile it. And I want to show you a chart of the hard data. Lots of homebuilders in here. Y’all know this
story. But I just want you to know it’s not a preacher story. Uh this is US housing starts. The green area is US
housing starts. And then I overlaid beaten bow starts on top of that. That black line is beaten bow starts. So we
largely follow the national trend until March. And everybody else got the memo
and it it looks like we were like, “Hey, where’d everybody go?” And that short line that just goes
straight, it looks like this long, right? That is 90 days in the desert. That’s the
biggest faith walk the Lord has ever brought me on in my whole life. Trusting him despite what everybody is
saying for 90 days. By the end of May, our cash reserve was
extremely low. We’re very cash intensive business. We have to put all the money out until we get any money back. Uh up
to this point, we typically had about 15 to $20 million in operating cash, which is wise since in a single week, we might
pay out $6 million to our trade partners and suppliers. But in May, our c cash balance dropped
below $5 million a few times. That meant if some of the homes didn’t
close that were scheduled, we might not have enough money to pay our trades,
much less our people. And at one point, our board said that if it came down to someone not getting paid
that week, we’d choose to be the first ones that went without pay. That’s how
real it got. This was not theoretical. God took us all the way there.
Okay. My prayer is in that season. I’m going to give you the PG version.
Lord, we’ve been trying to follow your plan here. We’ve been faithful to that. I hope
you’ve noticed, even though it’s not what we do. I want to remind you of that. I know you’ve got a lot of things
going on right now with the whole pandemic thing. But you haven’t forgotten about us, have
you? We don’t have a plan B, and we’ve gone way too far to pull a parachute. We’re
about to hit the ground. We need a miracle.
Everyone wants to see a miracle, but nobody wants to be in a position to need one.
Of course, today we know the rest of that story. Here’s what happened over the next couple of months.
We entered into the largest housing boom in US history. And guess who one of the only builders was in the country that
had inventory ready to sell? Guys, it looked like we called it.
We did not know it was coming. Uh, in less than 12 months, our cash balance
went over $50 million, which was more than double the peak before. It honestly
was hard to believe. It It was It was like one of the miracles you read about in the Bible. Like, it was like almost
like I was dreaming. Uh, here’s what I feel like the Lord said in
that season to me. Cal, if you can just trust me, I’m going
to provide for not only you and all of your team, but every single one of your trade partners and suppliers.
Cal, my son, if you can just trust me. I’m going to provide for all the people in and around
your organization. This is going to be hard for you to walk out, but you can do it. Trust me.
And God would not have been mad at me if I couldn’t have weathered the storm.
And I couldn’t have done it. But if we had stopped starting homes, even if we would have continued to pay all of our
employees, there would have been literally thousands of other people
who would have lost their jobs. And my disobedience would have had real consequences. And there would have been heartache that entered the world
because I couldn’t faith long enough. And that wasn’t God’s plan. He was
inviting me into it. He wanted me to be part of it, but I had to trust him.
God was inviting me to be part of a miracle. It it it felt like sacrifice to me and honestly like we were crazy, like
we were nuts. Uh but it was out of that desperation and dependence where I felt
naked most days that God was able to do something truly supernatural.
But for heaven to come to earth, he invited me to exchange the natural view for the supernatural view.
And I’m sure glad we didn’t just listen, but we obeyed even when it was hard. And
this is what I learned. Uh, increased trust is infinitely more valuable than a
divine blueprint of what to do. The Lord’s blessed us with a lot of
stories like that. I have a hundred of them probably. Uh, but the fact is there w there were moments of doubt and
questioning God through that. Many of you feel like if you doubt or question God, that’s because you don’t have
faith. But God wants me to tell you that is actually a sign that you are trusting
him despite the circumstances. David constantly had doubts and question
God in the Psalms, saying things like, “God, where are you? My enemies surround me. Where are you?”
But then scripture also, God calls him a man after his own heart. God wasn’t disappointed with that. When you doubt
or question God, it isn’t a sign that you don’t have faith. That is your faith emerging.
Wrestling is a sign that you’re trying to trust God despite the circumstances. It means you’re doing it.
There are two keys to being a kingdom leader that I’m going to share with you this evening. And the first and the most important is this. Ask God to lead you.
There are a couple ways to ask God to lead you. The first one is kind of Lord, would you lead me in my life? You know,
just in general. But there’s a second kind that comes on a Thursday at 3:30 when you’re in a
meeting or you’re driving your car, like the tactical, practical, decision time
moments. And Moses is right there in that kind of moment. for this verse in Exodus. It
says, “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.” See,
Moses had gone up on a mountain and some crazy stuff had happened. He had got the Ten Commandments.
But when he came down, all the Israelites were worshiping idols and Moses got pretty upset, but he was not
as upset as God was. Moses went back up to talk to him and God basically said, “Moses, take these
people of yours and leave right now. go now. I’m still going to give you the
land I promise your ancestors because I keep my promises, but I’m not going 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 been pretty upset with my kids on a car trip, but I’ve never considered killing them on the way.
Whoa. Moses was just a shepherd. He he he wasn’t qualified to lead two million
Israelites through the desert. So, as a kingdom leader, Moses fell to his knees. And this is what he said. If you are
pleased with me, teach me your ways so that I’m I may know you and continue to
find favor with you. And later in that same passage, Mo Moses begs God that is
if his presence isn’t going to go with them, please don’t send him away.
I don’t just want what you promised me, I want you. Okay, let me tell you another story of
how that’s played out in a normal workday. There is a section of land just a few miles from here uh that I would
see every time I drive back from Midland. like there’s a stop sign and I would pull up to the stop sign on my way back into town and I would just see it
there and it was beautiful and I could just think, “Oh, it’s so beautiful.” It’s like I could see the homes. There’s
some contours there, a little bit of hills even though this is a really flat place which made it so beautiful. I could just see the houses lined out and
I didn’t covet it, but it got really close a couple of times. Uh, and then the day came where we were looking for
another big piece of land in Southwest Leach and somebody had just listed that piece of land for sale. We were like,
“All right.” And we’ve worked with hundreds I’ve talked to hundreds and hundreds of land owners over the years,
and we’ve made deals with a whole lot of them, but this guy was different. Uh,
wow. So, he was even hard to figure out. So, he’d throw something out and even if
we agreed to it, he’d change his mind or he’d come up with a new stipulation. At times, it felt like he wasn’t interested
in selling it at all. But then there’d be a little life to it, a little bit of progress, and then he’d go silent for
two months. In fact, even the realtor who listed the
land for this guy was baffled and frustrated. Finally, after more than 12 months of
conversations, me, Rick, and uh the guy who was over our land at the time, Dustin, we drove out to that piece of
land, and we stood on the ground, and we actually all three held hands, and we prayed, “Lord, if this is the land you
have for us, give it to us.
Put this deal together. And if it’s not, release us from it because we’re tired.
I’m not joking. That was 9:30 in the morning before lunch. I think it was about 11. Before lunch though, somebody
called our front desk and said they were actually the owners of that piece of land and they were ready to make a deal.
When I got that message, I was as confused as you are then. Uh because that’s not the guy we’ve been talking
to. Would you believe the guy we were talking to wasn’t even one of the owners.
that listed the land. His wife was a very minority owner, but the majority owner, it had been divided among a few
kids, and the majority owner was the one that called our front desk out of the blue. So, we called him back. We said,
“Hey, could y’all meet?” We met the next day and made a deal on the spot. That community is now called Harvest. If
you’re from Lev, one of the bestselling neighborhoods in Love. It’s beautiful. The homes are just like I had in my
head. It was beautiful vision, even better, honestly. Uh,
why did it take us so long to ask? That’s over 12 months. That’s just not
that long ago either. It’s not in our nature to ask. We don’t
even want to ask for directions. Hey, and this goes to show we don’t do this perfectly here. That’s not God’s
expectation. He loves it when we try it. He loves to woo us when we take a risk.
My daughter plays volleyball and after a game I have so many great coaching tips.
I want to help her. But here’s what I’ve learned. Don’t give unsolicited advice.
Everybody laughs. Y’all learned it the hard way, too, I guess. Uh, every now and then, she asked me for feedback. I
think maybe once this past year and I could share some of that with her. But the Lord is like that. He’s a good
dad and he doesn’t want to force himself on us. He’ll allow us to make our own way, but
he wants us to ask, but when we ask, he’ll help us.
Dad, will you help me with yes? That would be my answer to my daughter.
And that’s God’s answer to us. Dad, will you help me with yes? The answer is yes.
There’s nothing off the table. Who am I supposed to hire for this position? What should I offer in this negotiation?
Where do I need to go to find my new framer? Where did I leave my car keys?
One time I do remember I did remember to ask God there there was a situation in Midland where we bought a piece of land
but only a for a portion of it could be serviced by the city’s existing water
infrastructure. Uh, city staff had made it clear that we could only get about 200 uh to 250
permits there, not the 1,000 we originally thought we’d get. We’d have
to go build somewhere else, and then come back to develop the rest of the property after they built this huge
water tower and put in several miles of a 30-in water line, which would take several years to complete.
But this time, I remembered. So most mornings in my quiet time, I’d pray, ‘Lord, you know we need land in Midland.
Would you show us where that is? Where should we go? Who should we talk to? What do you have for us?
And those prayers were tenacious. But I didn’t feel like God said anything
for more than two months. But we needed land. If we didn’t get
some soon, there would be about a thousand people who would lose their jobs. Surely the Lord didn’t want that. So I
prayed harder and harder and nothing. Finally, one day I was walking out of
this building next door into our garden. Uh and I was just planning to simply walk around and pray and spend some time
with God. And as I walked out the door, I started in.
Lord, you know we need land in Midland. And before the door shut behind me, I
immediately and clearly heard, “Do you?”
Okay. Internal dialogue moment. I got pissed.
Do you? That was not my thought. And it I heard it clearly. You know what my
response was? Yes. What the crap are you doing?
Have you not been paying attention? Yeah,
these are your people, dude. It’s too late. Like, this is not
going to work. Do you you know
you know it turns out we didn’t
I had neglected to start with Lord do we need land in Midland
I moved to Lord we obviously it’s obvious to Hey, we need land in Midland. The city told us that. You saw
that meeting. You were there, right? Uh, we’re in a bind already. Where you at?
And he’d left me there until he said two words. Do you? I
remember I was so confused by it. I went up to Rick’s office that same day and I was like, dude, here’s what I heard. Do
you? What the crap, man? That’s And he’s like, gosh, I don’t know what that
means. We’ll just have to see, you know?
We built through that entire piece of land, 1,140 homes, and the water pressure never
dipped.
See, everybody was saying, “This is what you need.” It turns out that’s not what we needed at all.
Here is what God’s been talking to me about lately. this thing is progressive. For for many,
it starts with this over here. Like, I love God and I’m I’m going to run my
business with with with Christian ethics. I’m not going to try to cheat anybody and I’m not going to cuss
anybody out probably. And, you know, I’m going to try to do things the right way.
And you know, the Lord is so pleased with that. So pleased.
But there’s a deeper level. Level two is to ask God to open doors and close
doors. And that’s basically, Lord, use the circumstances around me to help me understand, to show me what your will
is. Or maybe when we’re really stuck and we have absolutely nobody else to turn
to, we go to God for help. When we don’t have a clue what to do, I’ll see if he has any advice like what I did in 2020.
Uh I didn’t know what to do. So it was like faith and desperation combined. And the Lord is so pleased with that.
But there’s a deeper level. Level three is that you ask God for advice even when you think you know what you’re supposed
to do. That you say, “Lord, I desire your wisdom more than my wisdom.”
Look, as business people, we often know what to do.
What if the Lord could show us a better way? It might be that he says, “No, you’re
thinking about it right, my son.” Or he might tell us to do something that
is so counter it will stretch us to the point we don’t think we can do it anymore.
I’ll trust it even if I can’t make sense of it. And that is harder.
You know, here’s how a famous rabbi actually interprets what happens in the Garden of Eden. He said, ‘When we ate
the fruit, and we all ate the fruit. Now things look sweet to us that are
actually not good for us. And things that would truly be the best
for us look bitter, even though they’re beneficial.
It’s confusing. And only the Holy Spirit can help us tell the two apart. We have to choose to
exchange our natural eyes for supernatural eyes. Hey, and I’m sure there’s a level four and a level five.
God just hasn’t taken me there yet because this thing’s progressive. So, I can only tell you about the ones he’s told me about so far, but I know there’s
a deeper, and he’s so pleased. Wherever you are on that, just know he is so pleased. He would just like to show you
a fuller way. And he’s inviting me into that, too. All of us can step into the deeper.
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.”
It’s his answer every time we stop to ask about everything. Nothing’s off the
table. Where should we go? What should we do? Exactly where is the water leak in this
home? So, one time actually just a couple months ago this year, uh
I shared a few stories with some of our leaders in like one of our training things and about a week later I got a
call from one of our warranty managers. He told me they had had some water leaks in a home and they’d been out to try to
fix it two or three times, but after several hours and multiple people trying to figure it out, they still couldn’t
find it. He said he was thinking about what I had shared from the stage
and he simply prayed Lord you know where that water leak isn’t is don’t you
could you show me where it is and he said instantly he got a picture of a very specific area in the guest
bathroom. The problem was the leak was in the master. Uh oh. That doesn’t make any
sense. And so he was left thinking, “What am I
going to do about that?” And so he eventually told his team what
happened cuz if he doesn’t tell them and he goes cuts a hole in the wall in the guest bathroom, they’re going to think he’s a psychopath. Uh and they don’t
want to alarm the homeowner. So he’s just telling I’m I’m just going to go cut a hole in
the wall and see what’s there.
You know what happened? That’s where the leak was starting from
and it was showing up way over there. He didn’t even use the guest ba ba
bathroom. He said that it’s not in the guest bathroom. I’d never even used that one. Yeah, it was.
What do you think happened to that team’s faith? Not all of them are believers, by the way. Think about that.
You’re going to cut open the You’re going to cut open the wall? It’s not even in there, buddy. But when they saw
the leak, what do you think they thought?
We’re not trying to like convert people here. Nobody’s trying to force faith on them. They just were there to witness it
happening. Nobody said anything.
He just said, “I feel like we’re supposed to.” Because God gave me this picture. I prayed about it. So, you know what? What other choice do we have? We
going to bulldoze the home and build him another one? Like, we got to fix the leak. So, it’s the next best thing I
know and he tried it. What do you think happened to their faith? What do you think happened to his
faith? What do you think happened to my faith? When he told me he was trying it, I was like, “Holy crap,
that is awesome.” No, that’s exactly what we were saying, but good job doing it. You know,
the problem is what if we’re wrong? That’s what I wrestle with.
You never know for sure. Like, was that a random thing in his head or was that the Lord? You don’t know. You don’t
know. It’s only in retrospect that can you can say with certainty, the Lord did that.
But it’s a risk every time. It’s a risk. You know what my friend Casey says?
But what if you’re right? Don’t think about it as what if you’re wrong. What if you’re right? What could
happen then? And it flips the whole thing on its head. What if you’re right?
It takes somebody taking that risk for God to show up and make an impact. I promise that warranty team will tell
that story to their grandkids. No, there wasn’t even there and he he cuts open
the wall, you know, like it was crazy. This crazy story for me. He wants to be
a part of every single one of those conversations, the smallest details of our day if we’ll invite him in. He’s not
going to force his way in. We have to invite him.
Sometimes people ask us what it feels like when the Lord speaks to us like that, and it can be a little different for everyone. But don’t worry, we are
going to teach you how to hear from God like I’m talking about at this workshop. But often the Lord may not answer
immediately. He’s not like a magic eightball like tell me right now. Uh I
mean you heard me say two months Lord you know we need land medlin. Where is that? Right now I’ve been praying about
something for almost two years and the Lord has not answered it. Two years. It’s very important.
two years. I’m naturally a door kicker. Right, Tanner? My door kicker friends. Randy,
I’m a door kicker. That’s my natural wiring. I’m a door kicker.
But I’ve learned I don’t want to just make my own way. I want the Lord to lead it. So, I’m
waiting until he tells me, which is so hard for me. I’m choosing to believe that he won’t
withhold from us. He’s not withholding. And I can tell you what I’m asking him about. I could go make it happen within
seven days. I have the power to do it, but I’m not doing it. And that is so hard. It is so
hard. It looks good to me. It looks like the best way, but I believe he knows the best way. And if it seems like he’s not
doing something I think he should, that I must be wrong about what the best thing is. It’s not that he’s wrong
or the timing’s not right or somebody is not ready. It it would not lead to a full life. it would not lead to the
flourishing of everyone. And so, Cal, would you just trust me? Would you trust me
so hard? And the Lord can speak to you and confirm things in a variety of ways, but
honestly, a big way he does that is the team around you. That brings us to the
second key of being a kingdom leader. Number one was to ask God to lead you. Don’t forget that one. Most important
one. Number two is to build an aligned leadership team or to unite people
around you to lead alongside you. When I say a leadership team, I mean the
group of people who make major decisions in your organization. Some people might call it
a board, some an executive team. If you’re a smaller company, might be a management team. Even smaller, it might
be a owner and his wife. A leadership team can be just two people. In fact,
when Rick and Ron started Beating Bow Homes, it was just the two of them. Today, our board of beaten bow companies
has four people. My leadership team within Beatatbo Homes, the ones that decide if that company turns left or
right there. There’s eight of us. The only rule is it can’t be one.
You can’t do this alone and you shouldn’t. You need a team that can protect you from having to bear all the
weight. Rick said uh when God first started pressing this vision on him that
he needed to invite a team to lead alongside him, he felt like God said if
Rick kept leading the way he was, it was going to kill him.
This thing was going to crush him and he didn’t want that for Rick.
So, it’s better for you to do this as a team. But the second part God followed up on was also
he told Rick that this ministry disguised as a homebuilding company was going to die
if Rick didn’t make this change because Rick was going to kill it.
Having a team will also protect God’s ministry formerly known as your business
from you. Having a team that is all committed to hear from God creates safety. One day if
God’s trying to get in touch with me and I’m not picking up my phone, which does happen, maybe he can get through to
somebody on my team or my wife. Oftentimes,
if you’re leading alone, you need someone else to come up alongside you to help. You might hear us say things like,
“God told me.” But like I said, often times you don’t have that level of clarity except in retrospect. What it
often looks like in the moment is going to people on my leadership team and saying, ‘Man, I’m getting this feeling
or I got this impression that God might want us to blank. Will you pray with me about that? Or maybe asking the whole
group. We do this sometimes, the whole group to pray about it, not go to each other and talk about it, but each of us
individually to pray about it. And then we’ll come together and we’ll try to share what we we think the Lord was
saying to us. And it’s almost magical. You know what? I can’t remember a time
the Lord’s led us to do some crazy things. Uh I I don’t have time to share all the stories through that. I can’t
remember a time where he didn’t lead us all to the same thing, which is crazy. There’s times where I walked in, I was like, I’m going to be I I didn’t want to
be the first one to talk because I’m I was thinking I’m going to be the only one that thinks they heard this. And it
turns out none of the group wanted to go first because they all thought they were also the only one that was led to the
crazy conclusion. except we all were and we all had very personalized unique ways of how God talked to us about it. It’s
it’s it’s actually really awesome uh and powerful.
It’s often where the magic happens. That’s where we get the confirmation and the boldness to take risks in our faith.
That is how together Corey, Gina, and I had the confidence to continue to start
homes in those first three months of the pandemic when all the smartest people weren’t. I honestly wouldn’t have had
the faith to do that if they wouldn’t have said, “I feel the same thing.”
It was us together. That’s how the Lord wants to work. We strengthen each other.
So, we followed it. Rick said also when the Lord started giving him a vision for inviting a leadership team to lead
alongside beside him besides just his dad Ron he also felt like the Lord gave
him a couple of ground rules for how this was supposed to work and here 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, I genuinely believe that they’ve had more
corrective conversations with me than I’ve had with them. And I feel like my relationship with
Rick was that same way. And he allowed it to be because it’s the right thing.
The more power you have, the more accountable you must be.
The senior leader is the only one that can make that true. Number two, the team’s invited to weigh
in on all decisions. This even means the ones in territories that aren’t that
they aren’t directly responsible for, right, Randy?
Th this will lead to more ideas and better decisions. Share everything with them.
This isn’t about going to talk to them in this silo and talk to them in this silo. It’s about us all doing this
together. And number three, this is not a democracy. And this is a really critical
thing. We never make decisions by popular vote. Ever. Ever. I’ve never seen it here. God has established you as
the leader over a certain territory and you can’t abdicate your authority. Taking a popular vote is abdicating.
The way we say it is the team gets a voice but not a vote.
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 that the best one wins.
That’s how it works for us. U us often I might bring an idea uh and Tanner might bring another idea and Kaylee might
bring another idea and we don’t land on any of those. We come up with a new third option that might have parts of
all of them. It might be brand new and we don’t remember who came up with the idea. It’s powerful. It’s often how God
can work through a group of people. It’s easier sometimes for him to talk through a bunch of people than one person. In
fact, what I would say is it’s dangerous to say God can only talk to me.
I’ll say there’s a podcast out there, the rise and fall of Mars Hill. If you don’t understand how dangerous that is, you should go listen to that. It’s
dangerous. The Lord wouldn’t lead members of a group, one person here and one person
there. That’s not what he would do. So, if we’re all submitted to that, there’s safety in that.
It falls to me to be submitted to the leaders on my team and around me. Without humility, what can we do? It
actually scripture says the Lord opposes, actively opposes, pushes down the proud. He can’t do anything with
them. In the kingdom, your level level of authority can never rise more than your
level of humility or it’s a recipe for disaster. So, here’s what we believe a kingdom
leader does. One, ask God to lead you. Two, build an aligned leadership team. And three, commit to a relational style.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to go into a third point. Uh, one of my buddies, he’s going to crack that one open in in the
morning and tell you what that looks like. Why don’t you 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 you’ll lead us. We ask for that. I I ask that you to lead every
single person in this room and that you open their heart to asking you for direction and insight more regularly.
I ask that for me as well. Lord, I also pray that you knit together
align leadership teams that submit to one another, that love and honor one another,
and expand your kingdom. Lord, help us on this journey in the
name of Jesus. Amen.
Tags: kingdom leader