Kingdom Leadership
Kingdom Leadership Workshop | October 2024
Description
Cal Zant, Betenbough Companies Board Member and President of Betenbough Homes, offers powerful insights on transitioning from an organizational leader to a Kingdom leader. He highlights that a Kingdom leader’s ultimate purpose is to prioritize God’s Kingdom above all else—both in business and in life—through deepening your relationship with the Lord and fostering strong connections with your team. Drawing from personal testimony, Cal shares how this role demands listening, obedience, and faith. Watch for applicable insights you can start using today.
kay well let me close the loop on the Coriolis effect no I’m not going to do that I’m not going to do that
uh if you’re interested you can catch me in the hallway wow there are a lot of high
performing leaders in this room I can feel
it one of the other things that happen is I cry now I I didn’t do that when I joined here uh my wife had literally
never seen me cry before I started working here and now I Cry Sometimes before I put my clothes on in the
morning here’s what I’d like to talk about you know the Lord wants to invite
us to make this switch from from leader organizational leader to Kingdom
leader that’s what happened to my friend Vernon at ideal homes you know he was one of the best business people I’ve
ever met he he he he leads over 40 businesses very successful businesses
over 40 serial entrepreneur there’s very few of those you know that are really successful at it and he found a new way
to do it uh and man it has been the blessing of a lifetime to get to watch
him step into that and the Lord wants that for all of us and he has deeper for me too so
that’s why I’m excited when the Lord talks to me because you know what some of what he was telling me I needed to
hear and it’s different than what I’ve said before but I assume it’s what exactly what God wants to speak to the
people in this room you know a kingdom leader
establishes God’s kingdom as the highest priority that’s what a kingdom leader does uh do that for your church for your
business for your nonprofit for your organization establishes that God’s kingdom is the highest priority there’s
nothing above that did you know of the first 108 colleges
established in America 106 of them were established as Bible
colleges that includes almost all of the Ivy League schools uh they were equipping people
academically but also biblically for life away from school so how many of those schools
still have that as their highest priority so what happened
you know initially somebody established it with that as the priority but then over time a kingdom leader stepped back
or sat down or fell down and something else found its way to the
top was that academics was that beautiful buildings and campuses was it trying to grow the
student base through tolerance what was
it so the first Truth uh is this a kingdom leader is committed to God’s
kingdom being the highest priority in whatever territory they have authority
over why does your organization
exists why does it exist I didn’t say what what do you do I
said why does it exist what is your purpose uh is it propit
profit you know there are for-profit companies in here and nonprofits and here’s how we think about about prophit
it isn’t necessarily bad or evil um really Jesus has some Parables where it
it seems like a return is expected in God’s kingdom Prophet we we see it we we
have this analogy that similar to breathing for for a business it’s profit
is like breathing but in your life if like the point of your life was breathing that’s a pretty pointless life
and so if the point of a business is only profit we would say the same thing so what is your purpose Beyond
profit beyond what is the thing that that makes you come to work it that made
you excited to start it in the first place you know in God’s kingdom we also
can’t be tribal God’s kingdom is bigger than our business or our
organization the kingdom must be a higher priority than my business than my
family than me it has to be the top thing um and I’m a practical guy so I’m
about to give you a whole bunch of stories of how this has played out in the middle of a homebuilding company um first one uh just a few years
ago uh we heard that Dr Horton was planning to come to Lok for those of you
that don’t know DR Horton is the largest home builder in the United States they built about 90,000 homes a year um they
close more homes in the first five days of the year than we will close all year long in the first five days um the
company is worth over $60 billion can you imagine that Jared I really don’t
even understand billion $60 billion they’re based out of Fort Worth but they build in virtually every city
in the United States uh and they’d come to Leck for a short period in the 2000s but then left a few years later but then
in 2021 D Don Horton uh the guy the named the company’s named after the founder he came to LC and he said he
wanted to make it work this time they were going to make it work is how he said it and you know what they have you know
what their cash on hand is like how much of their financials is in cash $6
billion if they want to make it work they can make it work they can hold their breath for a long
time um you know we had heard that they were coming and they even started
talking to some local developers about buying home sites uh but then one day Corey Cisco
one of our senior directors here at beon bomes he walked into my office and he said hey I wanted to let you know that
Brock is resigning because he’s becoming the D division president of Dr Horton
here in Lok Brock was our most veteran general
manager leading our largest operation here in Lok Jared he knew all of our secrets he
knew our prices he knew our strategy he he knew our cost he he had relation
ships with every single trade partner we used and supplier he knew all of
it honestly if your goal was to take market share from the largest builder in
a city hiring Brock was probably the smartest
move um but when when Brock told I mean when Corey told me uh Brock’s going to
be the new division president for Dr Horton I can honestly say that in less than five seconds I said sincerely
good for him that’s probably a great opportunity for
him now I admit the first thought that came through my mind was not that it was like how dare he reject us right can we
just all admit that’s what we think like you’re leaving this is the best how could you ever so that went through my
mind uh for about two seconds and then I I really did arrive at you know
what this this is a great opportunity for Brock it really is and what I
believe what I’ve what I’ve witnessed over the years is the Lord withholds no good things from his
kids and so while in that moment it felt like God was taking something from us I
knew he wouldn’t do that that he would have something for us and for Brock at
the same time you know that had had been so
ingrained in my thinking that arrived at good for him in less than 5 Seconds that was literally the first
words out of my mouth here’s the truth it really was a great opportunity for him and think about this Brock is a
kingdom leader you know he sat in dozens of these workshops as a table
coach um and really he came to us in 2008 he
was a truck driver before that and he applied to be a construction superintendent and we got to help Brock
stand up in his gifts of of leadership and even being a spiritual leader and
now he is division president for the one of the largest home building companies in the
world what could God do with that what if let’s just play this out
for a minute what if Brock’s division all of a sudden was
the most healthy the one that had the best performance and these people who had been in business successfully
business Forever Came to him and said what’s different here what are you doing and this spread through the whole
company if God’s kingdom is the highest priority wouldn’t we want
that but if our business is the highest priority we would not want that right
and there’s where the Divide comes you know
what in the very next meeting actually within about an hour of that uh the Lord
not only took he took me one step further and he Saidi want you to start praying for Brock’s early
success okay okay so it’s one thing to be happy for the guy but now I’m going to start praying
for a fierce competitor that is competing with us directly in our own backyard that’s going to take market
share I’m like saying Lord would you take some from I’m I’m going to start praying Lord will you take some from us
that’s what it felt like but I do feel like the Lord with holds no good things from his kids right
right and by praying that I was able to convince myself of that that I do believe that Lord help me believe
that and this could trigger a kingdom transformation in in a massive company
or at least among individuals that work in Brock’s territory and why wouldn’t I not want
that you know here’s what happened Dr has been in
LC for three years now and they are successful here also today we’re selling
more homes in lck than we have in our 32-year history when Dr uh when Brock went to
work for them we were building about 500 homes a year in lck and this year we’ll be closer to a
th000 the Lord didn’t take anything from us and he also gave us an amazing GM to
fill that spot that we had no vision for at the time but I knew he wouldn’t take something for from
us he had something for both of us and we could be happy for people to do that
we believe the Lord withholds no good things from his kids now that doesn’t always mean it will be pleasant or even what we hope for I don’t want to water
that down but we have learned to trust him and make his kingdom the highest priority in his kingdom there isn’t
scarcity like Brad said there’s abundance sometimes you just can’t see it so you have to believe it before you see
it the question is this is this God’s stuff or is it your stuff are these God’s
people or are they your people you know well we use all this
stuff to glorify God but it is mine that’s what we can say in our hearts
sometimes but that isn’t a kingdom mindset honestly what we’re really talking about is spiritual leadership
it’s kind of a scary concept huh especially for business people makes me feel a little uncomfortable uh what if I told you you
were designated by God to be a spiritual leader in the company you’re in right
now like he called you to that he anointed you for that he gifted you for that he will equip you to be
that you are a spiritual leader and we actually believe that all leadership is
spiritual watch this Adolf Hitler was a very effective
leader very effective actually now I don’t agree with all of his leadership
style but he had opportunity and resources and align leadership team and
he had quite the impact killed over six million Jews and millions of other
people and I believe he was a spiritual leader and evil spirits had their way
with him in him he was a spiritual leader now the
spirits that lead us might not be uh those of murder domination but sometimes
it could be greed or it could be a Lust For more you know what mine is sometimes
gosh I don’t think I’ve confessed this in front of a whole room before
progress if I don’t get it I I start feing like and it is not okay how I
treat people OHA confession time we could that could be what leads
me at times and here’s the thing the Lord is still so proud of
me there are moments where where all of us won’t do this perfectly he knows that
he knew that when he called me he knew I wouldn’t do it perfectly and he still called me and he
still calls you what often times Rick would say is we need to keep those Seasons where we’re led by Spirits other
than the spirit of God short and that’s the power of this place it’s the power of my friends all
scattered throughout this room that they can come back to me and go cow cow cow hey remember right Kaye you’ve done that
how many times have you done that a few times we do that for each other that’s the power of
it um as Kingdom leaders we must be led by God’s spirit and here’s a key to
staying more focused and allowing the Lord to fill you up spending time with
the King how can we lead as Kingdom
leaders in his kingdom if we’re not spending time with the King you know
this could be the primary message God wants you to hear over the next couple of days um maybe that’s what he wants to
remind you of this week maybe you’ve lost track of that spending quality time
with him and he he wants to invite you back to that how can you have a relationship with somebody if you don’t
spend time with them it’s a critical thing for every
Kingdom leader to find time every day where you can sit with the Lord and hear from him so that you can be led by the
spirit as you go uh if you’re not spending time with the Lord then whose
kingdom are you building and C can I be honest with why
I used to avoid that it’s because I was scared of what he was going to tell
me you don’t have to be afraid of that he’s not going to bring up all of
your struggles or your sin or your Brokenness that’s not what he’ll do I promise you he won’t he will actually
teach you who you are he will he will tell you your
identity which is so much greater than you even believe or could
imagine there won’t be accusations there won’t be condemnation that doesn’t come from the father you don’t have to be
afraid to spend time with him that’s the opposite of what he wants but that’s that’s honestly kept me from it please
don’t let that keep you from it you know there’s a lot of different
backgrounds and religious traditions in this room today but I believe one thing we can probably all agree on is Jesus is
king So so we’ll kind of sidestep all the rest of the crap that we get tangled up in
sometimes but I also believe if we’re going to believe anything Jesus said we
need to believe everything he said or he was just a crazy person uh in these verses in John here
is what Jesus said he said he’s he’s given us the Holy Spirit to help us to
teach us to counsel us so if you’ve AC accepted Jesus the spirit of God is in
you and works through you and we’re going to help equip you guys
to hear from God at this Workshop which is a powerful thing doesn’t have to be a spooky
thing he’s speaking but often we can’t hear him because we’re not listening for
him uh we’re not watching for him but I believe he’s speaking to you and me all the
time but many of us may not have a hearing problem we might have more of an obeying problem oh that’s even harder I
will say I hear God more easily than I obey God often times oftentimes we may know what God is
speaking to us but we explain it away or ignore it fundamentally a kingdom leader
listens to the king and obeys okay let me take you back another
story time back to March 2020 do you remember what was going on then uh now I’m not saying remember back
into Co times I’m saying at the very start at the very start you know the
news had just started coming out schools shut down uh businesses had to close and there was more uncertainty than any time
in recent history and the Mayors and the presidents they were like having like conferences like news
conferences like multiple times a day it was hard to even keep up with all the stuff because things were changing so
quickly and for us at being bomes we were facing the same uncertainty as every other business we didn’t we wer
sure if we’d be forced to shut down for months or if we’d be considered what became known as the essential business
remember that phrase kind of PTSD when I hear it essential bus business okay here’s what we did know we
had record cancellations that’s cancellations by month and whoop that’s not good that’s one of those charts you
don’t want to go up to the right um many of our customers were losing their jobs
or being put on Furlow and they could no longer qualify for a mortgage and some of them simply out of fear didn’t want
to make such a big purchase decision is like conserve cash mode you either wanted to conserve cash or buy toilet
paper one or the other that was like the weirdest season everybody hoarding toilet
paper I’d been praying for God to lead our business for years by that point I I became the president of BB homes in 2016
and so by 202020 I developed a habit of saying Lord what do you want to do here um but those prayers might have
become a little more intense in that season um uh however I can honestly say
I never felt anxious or worried which only the spirit of God could could have given me that I had a strange sense of
Peace uh I remember first praying for a team I saw so much fear and worry in our
team lots of them had spouses who had lost their job or close friends and they were worried what was going to happen to
them and I personally hoped we could give them some reassurance uh and commitment to calm their fears and like
help them have peace but I didn’t want to just say that without asking the Lord
if we could say that so I went to him and after a couple days of of praying I felt like I got confirmation that that
was okay and so I went to the board and I said I feel like this is what the Lord told me we should say we all prayed
about it and that’s what we did so on on March 30th I sent out a video to the whole company saying hey even if we
don’t have closings for six months straight we’re going to continue to pay every single person nobody’s going to be
let go I said ‘th you Lord for letting us have the peace to say that and if people are
the priority and not profit that’s the kind of thinking you arrive
at um but the truth is we continued to have more cancellations and cells and
the big question was should we start continue to start homes you know the largest and the smartest home builders
in the country uh had already pulled back or completely stopped starting more homes but we believe the Lord is the
answer so we went to him and said hey Lord actually I asked the senior leaders uh at at the time Corey and Gina
alongside me we we prayed about it hey would y’all pray about what we’re supposed to do here and we said Lord
should we keep starting homes do we need to pull back like what does wisdom look like we’ve never faced this I have no
idea what we should do and really all three of us had peace
that we were supposed to keep starting homes I will say that made us feel a little crazy though I want to explain
what this feels like in the moment I feel like the Lord has pressed on me specifically right now that I’m supposed
to explain what this feels like on the inside while it’s happening uh it feels a little crazy
because seriously maybe even Reckless seriously all of the other home builders uh I knew were in conserve cash mode but
we felt like the lord gave us the peace that we’re supposed to continue starting homes even without buyers attached to
them and by the end of April the US housing starts were down at least 35%
compared to 60-day days prior and that’s the time of year they should have been up so I mean smooth drop
off uh the homes that other home builders were starting were virtually all had buyers attached to them way
before the covid thing started happening um but by the end of April beatbo homes
spec home Inventory had grown to $18 million because all of the cancellations
and the fact that we were starting another 40 homes every week without buyers attached to
them um just piling them up what a great idea Ron used to joke losing money but
we’ll make it up in volume yeah it’s what it felt like you know a couple of the top 10 biggest builders in the US
had completely stopped starting homes for a full month one of them continued for three months didn’t start one home three months and I actually feel like
Harvard Business professors would say that was the right move it’s what my logic would say was the right move it’s
what I would do if I wouldn’t submit to God if I didn’t ask him for advice that’s what I would
do they would definitely say don’t continue blindly into the
unknown it felt like walking in the dark so we prayed Lord are you sure about
this okay how how that prayer really came out was
Lord this feels dumb and honestly I know you’re giving
me peace to do it but if this doesn’t work all of the people here who lose
their job are going to look at me not you this could sink the
ship are you sure are you sure and he would give us peace that
we’re supposed to keep doing it so despite what the market was saying
that’s what we did uh but that also means every day we would continue to pay
trade partners for the work they were doing on the homes while at the same time cash was not coming in from closing
so this cash Reserve we had quickly started nose diving um and over several
weeks we were eating our cash Reserve away so much so that we could we could no longer fulfill that promise we had
made to our employees we didn’t have six months of payroll left anymore and so I
went back to him hey you remember that conver ation
we had I I asked you this time I asked you back there I know I did and you said we could say that we could you know if
the music stopped right now we wouldn’t be able to do that you’re not going to leave us here
are you like high and dry we’re trying to trust you
here we couldn’t tell how both of those things could be true how we could make that promise and how we’re supposed to keep starting homes but we did feel like
he had given us that peace to do that that he had led us to do that so we tried to be obedient to his last word
honestly like Abraham so so Abraham God had told him that uh he would have have
a ton of kids through his son Isaac and then he told him to kill
him there seems to be a conflict in that story right except
Abraham thought I’m going to believe the promises of God even if I can’t make sense of it in my own head and that’s
what faith looks like like I don’t understand how this can be
true but I’m going to believe it’s true even in the face of everything telling me
differently and I want to show you a chart of hard data just so you know this isn’t a preacher story um so the green
area is US housing starts and the black line I overlay that that’s beaten bom
starts and you can see we like largely follow the national Trend until that little period at the end there March
April and May and that might look like a little short thing like we didn’t get
the memo you’re supposed to go down we did we did hear that uh but that was 90
days in the desert it looks really short I will say that was a wild season of
faith building for me by the end of May our cash Reserve
was extremely low we we are a very cash intensive business home building is up to this point we typically averaged uh
uh around 15 to20 million in cash on hand which is good because like our our weekly payroll out to trades could be
six million any week and there was weeks in May where our cash dropped below
five that meant if some of the homes didn’t close that were scheduled I mean just a couple of them
maybe we wouldn’t be able to pay our trades much less our people I remember
board conversation Carrie you were there Holly you were there there and we were we said okay if somebody doesn’t get
paid this week it will be us first that’s how real this
got you know my prayers in that season were Lord
we’re trying to follow your plan here but look we don’t have a plan B and it’s too late to pull the
parachute we’ve tried to follow this but man I feel like you’ve left us where are
you everybody wants to see a miracle but nobody wants to be in a position to need
one isn’t that the truth golly never been more true than that moment in my
life and of course today we know the rest of the story which is super convenient I did not know it then but
here is what happened the largest housing boom in US history and guess who was one of the
only builders in the country with a ton of inventory that was ready to sell guys it looked like we called
it it looked like we knew it was coming we did not know it was coming we felt like crazy people but the Lord knew it
was coming and he said if you can just trust me I’m not just going to provide for you and your employees but every
trade partner those people who are around your organization Cal my son if you can just
trust me I’m going to provide through all I’m going to provide for all of them this is going to be hard for you to
walk out though will you do it he wouldn’t have been mad at me if I
if I couldn’t have if I would have let fear overcome me but there’s lots of Trades that would have lost their jobs
lots of people there would have been heartache that entered the world in my sphere of influence because I wouldn’t I
wouldn’t follow what God was asking me to do he had more for me that he was inviting me into but it felt like
sacrifice to obey if I’m honest that’s what it felt like in my heart but he wasn’t taking anything from
us we can trust him that’s what I’ve
learned here here’s what I learned in that season increased trust is infinitely more valuable than a Divine
blueprint for what to do you know instead of going to him for
the answer I should go to him because he is the answer
I’m sure glad we didn’t just listen but we obeyed even when it was hard uh so the
two things I want to talk to you about this evening uh here’s the first one ask
God to lead you and there’s kind of two big areas of this the first one’s like the general
Lord will you lead my life I hope everybody in this room has done that you know just in general Lord lead my life
but then comes the trickier one uh the Third Thursday at 3:00 while you’re in
that meeting or sitting at your desk about to reply to that email or you’re talking on the phone the everyday
tactical practical decision making asking the Lord to lead us there
in those decisions you know I believe Moses is right there in the middle of one of those kind of critical decisions right
here in Exodus and he says if you are pleased with me Moses is talking to God
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 the mountain Mount sin and some crazy stuff had happened Moses got the Ten Commandments from God and he came
back down and the Israelites are all like worshiping idols and Moses got pretty upset through the Commandments
and but he didn’t get as upset as God was when Moses went back up on the
mountain to talk to God uh God basically said Moses take these people of yours
and leave right now go now I’m going to give you the land I promise to your ancestors because I keep my promises but
I’m not going with you because I might kill you on the
way whoa you know I’ve got pretty upset with my kids on on car trips I’ve never
said I might kill you on the way
whoa Moses was just a Shepherd he wasn’t qualified to lead to million Israelites
through the desert he wasn’t qualified so he fell to 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 later in that same passage Moses
begs God that if if his present isn’t presence isn’t going to go with them don’t send them
away we want to stay with you let me tell you another quick
example of how this played out in a normal work day uh there is a a section of land just a few miles away from here
and I would see it every time I drove back from Midland I’d stop at this one stop sign I remember seeing it and it’s
just beautiful I remember thinking oh that’d be such a great place to build homes I could just see it like how it
laid there was a little Contour it was interesting here in lck like little Contour of the land I could almost just
see it and I didn’t covet it but it got probably really close kind of in that gray
area uh and one day we were looking for our next big piece of land in Southwest lck and someone had listed that property
for sale so we called them to see if we could make a deal and honestly we’ve we’ve uh interacted with like hundreds
of land owns over the years made a deal with lots of them but this guy was different um very different um he was
hard to figure out you know he’d throw something out and even if we agreed he would like change his mind and be like
nah I don’t and it it seemed like he didn’t want to sell it but then there’d be a lot of progress and be like okay
hey this this is going to happen and then he goes silent for months it’s like okay even the realtor that had listed
the land for him was like I am so sorry I don’t know what’s going on here and one day after about more than 12 months
of conversations uh Rick and I and the guy who uh was helping me with land acquisition at the time we we all loaded
up in a truck and we drove out there to that property we walked out into the field and stood there and prayed
together we actually held hands probably looked funny if somebody’s driving by but uh and we prayed Lord if
this is the land you have for us would you give it to us and if it’s
not would you shut this door because we’re tired that prayer I’m not making any of
this up it’s 9:30 in the morning before noon I think it’s about 11: somebody called our front desk out of the blue
and said they were the landowners and they wanted to sell
and I was confused as you are now because i’ had been talking to the land owner for over 12
months it turns out I had not the guy that listed the property was not one of the owners never experienced that in my
life his wife was a minority owner but actually the majority owners
were the one that called the front desk so we called them back and asked if they
could meet the next day we made a deal on the spot that’s called Harvest now anybody in lck that’s how Harvest
happened literally why did we wait so long to ask
God for help over 12 months over 12 months you know why
because we don’t do this perfectly here we don’t I wish I would have sometimes I
do but here’s what I’ve learned I I have a daughter that plays volleyball and uh
you know what after a game I have so much good advice you could imagine right Tai I mean I watch the whole thing and
I have a few pointers that would really help every game you know what I’ve
learned uh don’t give unsolicited advice that’s what I’ve learned that’s good
parenting advice right there don’t give unsolicited advice there has been times where she
asked me for feedback I think once in the past 12 months and I was able to share some stuff with her I tried not to
overdo it but you you know what God works the same way with
us he doesn’t want to force himself on us he’s waiting for us to ask for
help and if we do he will with everything nothing’s off the table you could ask him who am I supposed to hire
am I supposed to hire this person am I are we supposed to go there What’s the timing of this Lord what what what am I
supposed to do today who am I supposed to go talk to how am I supposed to respond to this email he’ll even help
with email it’s crazy better than AI it’s
awesome you know one time I did remember to ask God one One More Story this is
one of the ones I added that I feel like it’s for somebody one time I I I did remember to ask God there was a
situation in Midland where we had bought a piece of land but uh and we started developing it but then after we had
closed on it and already started the city came to us and said actually there’s not enough water in that area to
get all thousand homes y’all are going to develop you can only get about 150 to
200 uh oh until they built a water tower and ran a 30in water line several miles
which would be several years so that’s that’s a bad deal right Tyson like that you don’t want that and so I started
praying about it first nailed it this time you’re not getting me twice no they
have I don’t always do it but uh I did it this time I can say honestly I started praying Lord you know we need
land in Midland where should that be who should I go talk to what do you have for us and
I heard nothing and so I literally did that I I
I would bet at least five times a week in my in in my quiet time I I would pray that Lord you know we need to land in
Midland where where should we go where and then nothing the Lord isn’t a magic eightball
you can just shake and get the answer to now I will also say Vernon did the 10-minute thing if that’s where you’re
at I dare you to try it I bet he’d be faithful to that he will give you he he
he will he will do it in whatever time you give him but I’ll say as you walk deeper sometimes the Lord makes you wait
for an answer that’s my experience at least and so I’m praying it my prayers got a little more intense all of a
sudden you know we we have less than a year of hom sites out in front of us which mean if we don’t find land soon
over a thousand people are going to lose their jobs including some people in this room that I
love you know what I got a little more aggressive in my prayers uh and it
became daily is the first thought sometimes on my mind if I woke up in the middle of the night or first thought in
my mind in the morning and but I was resisting being a door kicker I could go down there in B land that any day any
day have a deal by the end of the day and I don’t want to do it that way
I don’t I’ve learned God has a better way and so I’m going to surrender to that but I was getting a little frustrated so I’m trying to tell y’all
how it feels on the inside and it was every day and I was like Lord all these people like surely
you don’t want to all them to lose their jobs like we need land what do you have
for us where should I go I’m trying to be diligent here but I’m also trying to be patient with
you and nothing and one day I walked out I remember explaining this to Rick uh the same day I heard it because it
really didn’t make sense but I walked out the garden it’s probably 6:30 or 7 in the morning I was walking out I was
going to go pray walk around try to hear from God and the first thing that was on my mind you know so I’m I’m walking out
the door I got my coffee just walked out the door I’m not four steps away from it and I’d already said Lord you know we
need land in Midland and you know the thought that immediately popped in my mind that was crystal
clear do you okay first I got pissed
like that was my initial reaction I’m trying to explain what it feels like on the inside uh I’m
angry have you not been listening yes I yes we need
land what is going on I’ve been talking to you about this for
months what is going on but I did didn’t start with Lord do
we need land see the city told us we needed land and I believed
them and you know what it turns out we
didn’t it turns out we didn’t and if I would have went and kicked down
doors that wouldn’t have been the right thing we didn’t need it everything told
us we did and it turns out we didn’t and we built through that piece of land a thousand homes all the the way
through and the Lord provided for it but it didn’t look like it see there I had to learn you got to
start with do I not just ask him Lord I feel like we need to do this will you help me with that it’s what do you want
here because it seems to me like this is this is good but here’s what the garden did like when we ate of the fruit and we
all did it we ate of the fruit now things look good to us that are actually not good for us and things that are good
for us us don’t look good for us and it’s confusing and only in our spirit can we tell the two
apart you know what 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 Moses and I will give you rest and that’s his response to us every time we ask
him you know sometimes people ask us what that feels like on honestly it’s an impression that I immediately get that I
know didn’t come from my own thoughts I never would have thought do you need land I’d already moved on past there but
I immediately heard what it was I remember telling Rick that that day I feel like God said do you and dude we do
I don’t know what that was about I’m just telling you so you can help me sort through it and that’s what we do for
each other uh I will say I’ve learned as as I don’t want to just make my own way
I want the Lord to lead it that’s why we don’t have a 5-year plan or a 10-year plan we really don’t that
feels Reckless some days we don’t we make a one-year resource based plan and the Lord has challenged us challenged me
to trust him with A Five-Year Plan and 10year plan we really don’t have one there’s not a secret plan written down
somewhere and the Lord has been so faithful to give us more than we would have ever planned or dreamed
for that brings us to our second key of being a kingdom leader so the first one is ask to lead you the second one is
building a line leadership team so invite others to lead alongside you when
I say leadership team I mean the group of people that decides if the organization goes left or right they
help you make major decisions some call it like a board or an executive team or in a smaller company it might be a
management team in an even smaller company it might be a husband and wife the only real rule is it has to be more
than one person uh when we first started beating bomes it was Rick and r two
people uh today our board for beaten boo companies has four people the the leadership team in beatbo homes uh that
I’m I’m a part of has seven people that decide if beat Mahomes goes left or right the number doesn’t matter as long
as it’s more than one um so here’s what God told Rick when he
started getting giving him this Vision that he should invite others to lead alongside him to have a leadership team
he said Rick how you’re going it’s going to kill you man and I don’t want that for you the weight of
this thing is going to crush you I don’t want that for you my son so will you invite some other people so I could
spread the load over them but the second part he
said is and if you keep going like this you’re going to kill my
Ministry disguised as a homebuilding company and I can’t let you do that
Rick we have to do that to save it from oursel too man my friend Michael melvan
back there has done such an amazing job over this he he leads Vapor Ministries and how he’s brought people to hold him
accountable but also share it’s he doesn’t he cares about this more than
him getting wrapped up he would say you should if I’m ever in the way remove me
like I don’t want to get in the way but he’s invited accountability and only a senior leader can invite accountability
like that and so what Rick uh said is
when he felt the Lord pressing this on him he felt like the Lord covered a
couple ground rules with him about how this should go one the senior leader is accountable to the team that’s what I
was saying about my friend Micah back there and that’s what happens here uh I I will say with the teams I have
led they have had more more corrective conversations with me than I have with
them and I’m not like just saying that that is true they’ve had more corrective
and you know what that’s the right thing I did the same thing with Rick I don’t
know who who had more difficult conversations with who but it was at least 50/50 and he let it be that way I could
come to him with hard things and say man I know you don’t intend this but this is the impact you’re having on people on me
this is how you make me feel sometimes and he would let me say that now my team returns a gift and we’re all better
because of it you know the power the more power you
have the more accountable you must be the team number two the team is
invited to weigh in on all decisions even decisions not in their territory you should share everything
with them you will arrive at better ideas and better decisions and number
three this is not a democracy so this is a critical thing here God has
established you as a leader over a certain territory and you can’t abdicate that to consensus or popular
vote that’s not how this works um 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 the best idea but 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 honestly Tai brings lots of ideas look like one of us might bring an idea and it’s not through
discussion and trying to understand how he sees it we come up with a third option that’s some combination or a new
option that none of us had thought of and nobody remembers who I whose idea it was because it was likely all of
ours and why does it matter whose idea it was like we’re all looking for the same we
we want the best thing I know that about Tai and so I don’t have to worry about Tai is he positioning is he trying to
make me I need to prove that I can do this no no no I I believe in Tai Tai Believes In Me So what I need to do is
understand Tai’s perspective of it if I see it differently well I want to understand why he does you know and it’s
not a competing it’s a collaboration which is a Hallmark of the Kingdom you have to really get to a
place where you’re submitted and accountable to the team you lead it falls to me to be submitted to
the leaders on my team and those around me peers my leader without
humility what can we do you know scriptures says God opposes the proud he
pushes them down until we set that down he really can’t do anything with
us in the Kingdom your level of authority can never surpass your level of humility
so here’s what we believe a kingdom leader does we we refer to it as the ABCs ask God to lead you build an align
leadership team and then commit to a relational style don’t worry I’m not doing a third
point I I covered the first two tomorrow Casey’s going to crack open that third one for us but I’d like to pray over
us Lord thank you for inviting us to become leaders in your
kingdom wow wow that we cross your mind that you
have important jobs for us to do that you wrote In Your Story at the beginning of
time thank you that you want to help us and that you you’ll lead us we ask for
that I ask 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 that for me as well Lord I also pray
that you knit together align leadership teams in every single organization here that and that you teach them to submit
to one another what that looks like what community looks like in the Kingdom so
they can advance your kingdom Lord help us all on this journey in the name of
Jesus Amen