Kingdom Leadership Workshop | October 2024 Keynote
Description
In this insightful talk, Brad Nelson, Betenbough Companies Board Member, explores how business owners can play an active role in ushering in the Kingdom of God into business operations during the October 2024 Kingdom Leadership Workshop. He shares how the Kingdom of God is at hand and offers practical insights on how leaders can intentionally bring Kingdom principles into their workplaces, transforming them into spaces that honor God’s presence and purpose for work.
y
y’all you know if you’re not from Texas
how many you are not from Texas there’s
a few people you’re welcome to use that
by the way um it’s pronounced hey y’all
uh and if you’re not from Texas it’s
okay no one will
check
so I had the absolute blessing of my
life to walk my wife and I to walk with
some really close friends of ours
as they uh as we went through a big
period of going to school and then they
had kids and we got to watch those kids
grow up and we were over at their house
like almost every night for years of the
first couple years and I remember um one
of the coolest things about watching
kids grow up is like the Bedtime ritual
right any of you guys know who who who
have had kids know about the Bedtime
ritual and you know you g to take a bath
you’re going to brush your teeth you’re
going to go uh lay in bed while Mom and
Dad say prayers with you and you’re
going to have uh maybe a story if you’re
lucky and I remember watching that and
it was such a beautiful thing and then I
remember and this memory is just burned
into my brain the very first time that
that kid realized his name’s Aiden when
Aiden realized for the first time that
he could have a say about when bedtime
was
and it was this profound change in how
Aiden and his parents interacted from
then on for like a solid Year and I wish
I could say that Aiden came to his
parents and said you know Mom and Dad
this whole 8:30 thing is fine but you
know if I was able to stay up and watch
Mickey Mouse just a little bit longer
you know I would gain an appreciation
for Mouse culture and and with that I
would become a better human being and
that would be much better than spending
time in bed doing nothing
and I wish that he had come with some
eloquent argument like that but no it
was more like
screaming like I’m not going to bed
right now I know what’s best for me and
you know I remember like they’d be like
okay well one more minute he’d come back
and scream no two more
minutes and
so it’s funny because when I think about
that story I think about whose authority
was present in that house for that year
when he was fighting them on it he
eventually stopped but when he was
fighting on it whose authority was
present and I check I actually went and
looked at the tax records I checked
their name is on the deed the
parents and you know when people go to
their house I would go to their house
I’d follow their rules like one of their
rules was you know take your shoes off
no shoes in the house and so I would
follow that and so yeah the they’re the
parents they own the house their rules
apply they’re the ones with the
authority right
but then on the other hand you know
we’ve got little Aiden and he doesn’t
seem to recognize that Authority he
thinks that
his authority should be present in the
house and so it kind of like it kind of
reminds me of a really specific Bible
story I think you all know where I’m
going so when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food and that it was
Delight to the eyes and that the tree
was to be desired to make one wise she
took of its FR and ate and she also gave
some to her husband who was with her and
he
ate Adam and Eve didn’t really like
their bedtime
right they didn’t like the rule that
they’re not supposed to eat from the
tree and I could imagine Eve coming to
Adam be like hey Adam buddy you know I
was talking to this Serpent and Adam’s
like wait what serpent she’s like no no
never mind that part um and she’s like
God you know I know God said we’re not
supposed to do this we’re not supposed
to eat of this tree and like we’ll
surely die or something uh but you know
it just seems kind of good and we should
go do it and I think we should be the
ones to make that decision not God I
think our rules should apply in this
case not God’s
rules and so they did and we all know
what
happened they died exactly what God Said
would happen they died right and so it’s
kind of funny that we like sit here and
we’re always like wondering why are are
these bad things happening to us in this
world and really it’s because we are
choosing to follow our own rules and not
God’s rules right if we would follow if
we would have followed God’s rules from
the beginning that would have been
easier and it’s funny that I’m up here
saying that because I Break The Rules
all the
time and so who am I to talk and it’s it
kind of like all begs the question of
like what would have happened if this
had never happened right what would have
happened had we never broken the rules
in the first place you know God he had
this amazing plan for us and he was
going to take care of us and the garden
was this amazing place and he was even
giving us Authority like he gave adam
real authority to like name the animals
right he was never like no Adam platypus
is a dumb
name he delighted in it I’m
sure and now that the sin has come into
the world this whole story of us and our
relationship with God is being written
on on him trying to expand his authority
back to where we took it
away
and so that shouldn’t surprise us that
when Jesus came from that time Jesus
began to preach saying repent for the
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand repent
meaning Meto or uh changing your mind so
the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and if
we think about that um what he’s saying
here is God wants to restore his
authority into the world and Jesus as
the Messiah is going to come and do that
so change your mind about how you’re
thinking about your rules versus God
rules because now is the time that God
is going to start bringing his rules
back he’s going to bring his authority
back into the world and I’m here to be
the first one to tell you maybe not the
first one John the Baptist technically
said this before him but we won’t split
hairs in another way he said this and he
went through all Galilee teaching in
their synagogues and proclaiming the
gospel of the kingdom and healing every
disease and every Affliction among the
people and this is a cool one because
this should be giving us a hint he’s
proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom
but then he’s doing something else at
the same time he’s healing every disease
and every Affliction among the people
you know that initial punishment for
violating God’s rules was death right it
was you’re going to now now instead of
not getting sick you’re going to get
sick and you’re going to
die and now Jesus is coming back he’s
proclaiming this new Authority this
Authority that God has that God’s plan
for the world needs to be
reestablished and he’s not only
proclaiming that but he’s doing it he’s
going to go heal disease disease is not
God’s Authority it’s not like God said
you know today I’m going to make Brad
sick I’m gonna give him covid that’s not
how that works and he’s not like hey you
know today I’m gonna give this person
cancer to teach them a
lesson and so Jesus one of the big
things that he does is he goes and he
attacks attacks sickness and he attacks
disease because sickness and disease are
not part of God’s
Authority the other interesting thing
about Jesus is that during the second
temple period And this is one of the
most fascinating things about Jesus and
the kingdom is that the Jews at the time
didn’t they expected a messiah they
expected the Messiah to come but their
expectation of the Messiah was to come
and then the
Messiah was not going to establish like
a spiritual Kingdom he was actually
going to establish a very physical
Kingdom and he was going to like kick
all the dirty Romans out he was going to
cleanse the temple and he and like
everything was going to go back to the
way it was and that was how they F about
how God’s Authority was going to be made
manifest in the world and he thought
this from the times of the prophets all
the way up until when Jesus was there
and it’s so funny because even when
Jesus was there the apostles were like
constantly misinterpreting what Jesus
was saying cuz he was going on and on
and on and on and on about the kingdom
that’s pretty much all he talked he
barely mentioned the church at all by
the way he mostly talked about the
kingdom of God you go back and and read
it um kingdom of God Matthew says
Kingdom of Heaven same thing and they
were they were constantly
misunderstanding what he meant by that
they always took that traditional
thought of God is coming back and he is
going to reestablish this physical
Kingdom where Jesus is going to be the
king and he’s going to sit on a throne
and he’s going to rule Israel
but we know that’s not how it worked out
right um Jesus was crucified on the
cross resurrected three days later the
resurrection as an aside was kind of a
shock to them uh at the time the
disciples were like
oh I think we got this we might have got
this one wrong guys I don’t know and uh
they and and you kind of see this when
acts comes along and Jesus is here it’s
post resurrection and they come to him
and they’re like okay so when they come
together they ask him Lord will you at
this time rest the kingdom to Israel
just completely missing the point right
and I think this had to have been Peter
because this is classic Peter right just
like completely confused not getting it
it’s what I always think of as Peter
although you know the funny thing is I
would be saying the exact same thing if
I were
there and he says yeah Lord at this time
are you gonna are you going to do what
you said you were going to do you kept
talking about this Kingdom thing this
whole time we we were with you three
solid years and man we couldn’t get you
to shut up about this Kingdom thing and
now that you’re here we thought you had
died I mean that was cool that you like
were resurrected and all we’re still not
sure what to make of that um but now
you’re back looks like we might have
been right about this whole thing and
now you’re going to kill all the Romans
right and Jesus is like no it is not for
you to know the times or Seasons that
the father has fixed by his own
authority but you will receive power
when the Holy Spirit has come upon
you which is foreshadowing what’s
eventually going to happen at Pentecost
cost but I just love that even in this
moment Jesus is having to be like guys
you’re still missing it still not
getting this idea of what we’re trying
to
do and you
know this idea that they don’t have
anything they don’t have any idea what
what he’s talking about here and he’s
basically telling them that they’re
going to be the wit then not only is he
going to establish his kingdom through
them but they’re going to be the
witnesses of this to the ends of the
Earth
and they don’t really get it and that’s
us right we don’t really get it either
sometimes we read the Bible we and I
think if I had been sitting there
listening to what Jesus was saying about
the kingdom I would have been like okay
yeah okay well that’s a nice metaphor um
but okay you’re going to kill all the
Romans
right and but Jesus you know one of the
things that you look at at in scripture
is as he’s acting all of this stuff out
you know we talked a bit about healing
it was it God’s plan and is it God’s
authority to for people to get sick and
was it God’s Authority for people to die
no God doesn’t want us to die he doesn’t
want us to get sick and and pass away he
has a plan for he has life as his
authority for us and we’ve rejected
that you know one of the craziest
stories is like feeding people is
feeding is getting hungry is being
hungry God’s Authority or is it not his
authority and you look back at like the
feeding of the 5,000 and the apostles
and I’m sure this was Peter again and
the apostles are like no Lord man we we
should just go this is this big crowd we
don’t have any food you know let’s just
leave them and and and jet and Jesus is
like no no we’re gonna feed everybody
and he does and you know why because
it’s his authority is not for people to
go
hungry it’s pretty obvious when you
think about it that is him advancing the
kingdom to the
5,000 was it God’s plan for people to be
possessed by
demons no he spent all sorts of time
casting out
demons and he was turning over the
tables in the temple and teaching people
and I mean there was so many examples if
you read through the gospels of him of
him a not just teaching it but acting it
out actively bringing his own authority
and God’s Authority into the world in
real practical
ways
so I want to give a quick definition of
this uh kingdom of God sometimes the way
I think about this is this is the
emerging order of God in the Affairs of
mankind right so just like the toddler
saying that we want to have control over
our own bedtime we are constantly making
decisions every day that are either
favoring God’s Authority or favoring our
own
authority sometimes what I say about
this is that this is about his rules not
our
rules if it was our rules it would be
Brad’s Kingdom or Gina’s Kingdom or
Tai’s kingom Kingdom it wouldn’t be
God’s Kingdom so it has to start with
his
rules and you know what that means is in
a
business we’re going to use we’re going
to use his rules in our
business Kingdom at work that’s what we
mean is that those rules that God has
his authority is going to be present in
our business and people should be able
to see that they should be able to smell
it they should be able to hear it and
it’s not just about putting scripture on
the walls right that’s not what I mean
um although that’s a great thing if you
put scripture on the walls Bravo um this
is about going back to what Jesus did in
the gospels which was acting it out when
I see somebody who’s lonely I’m going to
be a friend to them when I see someone
who’s hungry I’m gonna feed him when I
see someone who’s sick I’m gon to heal
him and it it doesn’t have to be more
complicated than
that and we can and by doing we can kind
of be this source of living water in the
desert the living water in the desert if
you haven’t had a chance go check out
our uh our garden back there we have and
I think it’s like lck If you flew in
here you probably saw that this place is
a little bit of a
desert you could almost be forgiven for
being like I gotta get out of
here I know that was my first day I
drove into LEC and like 20s something
years ago and I was like nope God not
for me
this is the biggest mistake I ever
made and then it kind of has this way of
sucking you in I don’t know
um yeah it’s the people I think that’s
that’s 100% right but you know it’s kind
of a desert and we built this as kind of
it’s symbolic of this of what we’re
trying to be here which is this living
water in the desert that’s going to be
healing for
people and the the other funny thing
about this Kingdom mindset because
that’s really what it is when we talk
Kingdom mindset what we mean is we when
we approach problems we approach them
with God’s rules not
ours pretty simple but this wasn’t
always the way it is it was in the
church right um somewhere along the way
and I and I tried to figure out when
this was actually I went I tried to go
back into history books try to find when
salvation took the place of the Kingdom
in our
teaching because it did somewhere and
and I’m not saying salvation isn’t
important it is critically important
like nothing happen happens without
salvation but it’s
incomplete our response to our Salvation
should be God bring your Authority on me
bring your Authority down and I want to
be the instrument of that Authority in
the world and I want to bring healing to
a broken world that’s what the response
should be but somewhere along the way
and I really don’t know when we started
to replace it with salvation and it’s
great it’s incomplete but it leads us to
kind of focus on what can God do for me
in instead of what can I do for God and
his kingdom how like how can God impact
in my life again important right very
important God does want to do something
in me but he also wants to use me to
impact the world and all of his
creation and so we kind of go down into
this dangerous Theology and like we kind
of get into this like I’ll scratch God’s
back God I’ll scratch my back kind of
thing um and it even leads us down into
some really bad things like Prosperity
theology
and our sermons start to sound like you
know how can God help with whatever’s
going on in your life instead of hey how
can you this week in your life in your
business whatever it is you do go and
help Advance God’s Authority into the
world that’s what I want to hear that’s
what God is saying to
us and basically what that means is how
can I take part in the building of this
new Heaven and new earth that started
2,000 years ago continues to this day
and will continue
forever and that message of the Kingdom
that Jesus started 2,000 years ago it’s
just as important today as it was to
those Apostles standing there saying
bring your kingdom now Now’s the Time
Jesus kill all the
Romans and so I know what some of you
are thinking you’re thinking okay this
is all well and good but it sounds a bit
abstract a bit
metaphorical and you know Jesus spoke
that way about the kingdom and that’s
cool and I I’m really excited for you
because over the next couple of days we
are going to break this down in some
profoundly practical ways for you you
are going to learn so much about the
kinds of things God wants to do in your
business and it is going to be so cool
and I want to hear from each of you what
all those stories are that come out of
that but because I don’t want to leave
you hanging I want to talk about one and
it’s one that we don’t spend a lot of
time on but it’s one that I think is
really critically important and that is
you know when when I think about how we
can advance God’s Authority into our
business one of the ways we can do that
is by having an abundance
mindset we need to CH that metano that
change of thinking we can have an
abundance mindset instead of a scarcity
mindset and you’re probably thinking
okay well where did Jesus say blessed
are those with you know the mindset of
abundance and he didn’t say that but um
if you go back to the Old Testament and
you look at like Levi Leviticus Numbers
you know think about like leaving the
edges of your field on harvested
right think about the Mana in the desert
and they would go collect the Mana and
they’d try to like collect more than
they needed and the extra would
spoil you know God is pointing us
towards this mindset of abundance um
Ecclesiastes it talks about uh that
these possessions that we pile up for
ourselves are just
vanity and even Jesus talked said to
consider the lies of the field that they
neither toil nor want and Jesus feeds
the 5,000 and your life is but a
mist and is this important is this
abundance mindset important does it only
matter inside the walls of a church none
of those examples were from a church
they were all from out in the world
right and yes it absolutely does matter
and I want you to think over the next
couple of days how can you bring
abundance into what’s going on in your
business you know there’s a lot of ways
that we do this one of the ways is that
we pay people every single day now I’m
the finance guy um if you go to finance
school I never did which is probably for
the
best if you go to finance school they
will tell you that that is the worst
idea you should never pay people every
day you should actually try to hang on
to your cash as long as you possibly
can
and you know that’s the that’s the right
way to maximize your capital investment
and that makes sense I guess uh and and
it’s funny when we stopped do when we
started paying every day and we were
like let’s pay people as fast as we
possibly can and in fact it’s like hey
if there’s a way we could pay them 24
hours faster that’s worth a lot to us
and I wish I could say that like going
back on that that we had this like
beautiful Kingdom Purpose in it they
were like okay Lord we’re going to
practice abundance by paying people
every day no it wasn’t actually that um
but I will defend it to the death uh
because of that Kingdom Purpose now now
um originally it was just operational uh
in nature but now it’s like man I see
what the Lord was trying to do there I
think my own Vision at the time was too
weak to even understand
it and the Lord has revealed to us in
the meantime how that actually should
work in the business another example of
uh abundance in our business is Rick and
Ron actually gave this company to the
employees they didn’t have to do that
they could have kept the money for
themselves they could have kept the
whole business for themselves but they
didn’t they thought you know what Lord
we have
enough and it’s okay if we give some of
this to the
employees I see this uh
in growth and growth and development for
us we send people on growth and
development trips we spend a ton of
money on it and for their benefit and
it’s like we could have that mindset
where you know what if they left what if
they left you know it could be and maybe
they do and it would be okay we had
we’ve had people leave and go work for
competitors we’ve had people leave and
go start their own home building
companies and every single time I’ve
watched and even when I have been
frustrated by it I’ve watched the
leadership of this company say over and
over and over again there’s enough
there’s enough for all of us and we can
all exist in the same Pond here and no
one’s going to starve we’re all going to
have
enough and I’ve never seen a starve in
fact in all of those situations We’ve
Ended up with way more sales than we
could have ever
imagined and so that abundance spirit
it’s so critical to bringing the kingdom
in and so when we it’s it’s not a math
problem right abundance is not a math
problem it’s a spirit problem I’ve run
the math the math never
works it’s never like oh you know X Plus
y plus Z we’ll have enough money to do
this done C and I were just talking
about this the other day you know I’m
going to be just complet completely
abundantly honest right now we have
actually like concerns about you know we
look at it and we’re like you know we
have actually more ideas right now than
we have cash to to accomplish all of
them if I’m being honest that’s just the
truth of
it and it’s not like any of them are bad
ideas uh but no one is sitting there
thinking oh no what are we going to do
we have to start aggressively conserving
cash right now we have to find ways to
stop paying for things we need to cut
our overheads we need to cut everything
to the bones so that we have enough cash
no one thinks
that and it’s because we’ve been trained
over time it’s not BEC it’s not natural
actually I’m convinced this is not
natural right uh we have just seen other
people do it we we watched Rick and Ron
do it where they’re like oh well that’s
cool and I’d be like no but guys we
don’t have enough money and they’re like
oh
okay that was the hardest thing to do as
a CFO is to be like okay we’re going to
run out of cash and they’ll be like oh
well okay
yeah Lord’s not going to let us run out
of cash I’m like but but the math tells
us it
doesn’t and so we don’t need to be
hoarding our resources when we run into
um these opportunities that the Lord’s
throwing out there to deploy
them and when we do that when we go and
deploy in the face of uncertainty like
that we’re going to find amazing returns
and that just works in business and
general en you know it’s funny sometimes
I say like having the Bible and God’s
Direction and his authority in business
is almost like having cheat codes right
it’s like having it’s like knowing the
rules for the game so that we can go
play the game the best we possibly can
and that’s what he wants to do in your
business he wants to tell you exactly
how to run it the best way
possible
so what I would say I’m not I’m not
going to keep going on that because like
I’ll everybody else’s talking point for
the rest of the
event this isn’t about putting scripture
up on the walls it’s not about having a
Bible study it’s not about having uh
worship music playing in your bathrooms
right this is about you as the leader of
the business saying to God God yes I
want your Authority in my business I
want you to bring your Authority into my
business and I want to be the vessel of
that into the world and I want to be an
active part of deploying that in my
business so that people know you through
my
business and it’s like in that business
you have so many days out of the week
more than a church
right think of the impact you could have
when you take God’s Authority and put it
to work in your
business thanks