Spiritual Calling

[00:00:00] Good morning, afternoon, evening to everyone, and welcome to the Kingdom at Work webinar. I’m Amanda Bolin, and I’m the manager of Kingdom at Work. Our mission is to inspire, ignite, and inspire. And equip leaders to find their why. So before we dive into today’s content, let’s go over a few housekeeping items to ensure we have a smooth, productive session.

So first and foremost, we want this webinar to be as interactive as possible. So please feel free to use the chat feature to ask questions or share your thoughts throughout the presentation. We value your participation. Now, about questions. We will have a dedicated Q& A session at the end of the presentation where we’ll address many of the questions you’ve submitted.

So if you have burning questions, don’t worry, we [00:01:00] will get to them. And if for some reason we can’t address all your questions during the Q and A, or if your question requires a more in depth response, fear not. We’re committed to providing a valuable, valuable content. And some of the unanswered questions will be featured in our upcoming blog.

So keep an eye out for our blog posts for more insights and answers. Lastly, this webinar will be recorded. And the recording will be available for you to review or share with colleagues. We’ll send out an email with a recording link shortly after the event. So thank you so much for being here today. I’m so excited.

We have Casey Brewer on the webinar, sharing on your spiritual calling. Casey currently serves as the employee support director at Beat Bow Companies. He oversees the company’s cultural events, training, vision trips, and internal ministry efforts, as well as the HR, [00:02:00] onboarding, external recruiting, and is leading our health assurance initiative.

So without further ado, here’s Casey.

Hello. Thanks, Amanda, for that great introduction. It’s great to be with you all. Today, and what an honor it is to be partnering with and participating with you all in this kingdom at work webinar on the topic of spiritual calling, man. I am what I really wish I could do is just, is, is see all the faces of the people on the screen.

I know that that’s not possible in this format, but. I know we have people attending from lots of different places and lots of different types of work and what I know about the people here on this zoom is that you, you probably really love to work. You, you don’t just work because you have to most of us work because we really love it.

And [00:03:00] that’s a gift from the Lord to be called to work to love it to have something you’re really passionate about, but we want to take this desire that’s that’s innate. In us and talk today about what that means to yield that fully to the lord. Jesus christ. What would What would he want to do differently or maybe even greater in you and through you in this next season than he has in the past season.

And let’s just jump right into this first point on what I want to encourage you all to consider doing is simply this to invite God to use your work for his purposes and fulfill your spiritual calling at the same time. So that’s really a pretty good place to start is. Just considering, have you done that?

You know, many of you probably have done that, but maybe it’s time to ask him [00:04:00] again. You know, the older I get and the deeper I go into my journey as a husband and a father, as a leader in the marketplace, you know, God, God doesn’t just need to hear me talking. He has plenty on his mind, I assure you, but there’s this supernatural spiritual connection that happens when we communicate with the Lord, even things He already knows, because of course He knows it all.

But when we communicate with him, when we invite him into our lives in a deeper way, It’s like his favorite thing. He can’t wait to hear that invitation because his answer is yes. Even before we end our question, his God’s answer is yes. So again, maybe you’ve done that. Maybe you’ve invited God to use your work for his purposes and thus fulfill your calling.

But what if you haven’t yet? I believe he wants this to happen because he is, he’s so desirous [00:05:00] of his kingdom, making an eternal impact on the lives of the people that he has surrounded you with. So let’s just start here, inviting God to use your work. Why don’t we just pray and do that right now? Are you willing to do that?

Let’s just pray along together here. Lord Jesus, I thank you for the people on this call. Thank you for those who’ve set aside time to Fulfill their desire to learn and grow with you. And we just ask you right now, maybe we don’t fully understand all, all that it means. We certainly don’t know the implications yet, but we want to partner with you and invite you to use our work.

So we invite you in Lord Jesus, when you come into our work, the work you’ve created us for, we want to fulfill your calling, your purpose. We know you’ve called us to this and we want your kingdom to advance [00:06:00] more than ours. So we choose to lay down our agenda and our pride and all the egos that come along with it.

And today we just invite you into a deeper place and we expect that you will speak. We want you to, we ask you to, and it’s in your name, Jesus, that we pray. Amen.

I don’t know about you. That sure feels good to pray that prayer again. I encourage you, maybe some of you need to make that a daily part of your time with the Lord is just to invite him into your business. Most of us who’ve given our life to Jesus have invited him into maybe our marriages and our parenting and our finances and our personal decisions.

But what about the work side? This is really what we want to talk about today. And I also want you to know that you do not have to leave the marketplace to serve God fully. I have discovered in my journey, what a, what a joy that it is. That comes [00:07:00] from realizing that I can absolutely be a minister of God right here in the marketplace, because what I know the Lord wants from me and what he wants from you is.

is your yes. You see, when we invite him into our business, into our lives fully, there’s also a reciprocal invitation. It’s gentle, it’s kind, but he’s inviting us to give him our yes. As well, because the Bible says in Ephesians chapter three, that he can do immeasurably more than we can ask, think, or imagine.

It’s this divine partnership of submitting to him and inviting him in. And there’s a concept that some of you have probably heard before. We don’t have time to unpack it fully in this webinar here today. Maybe it’s a topic for a future webinar, but in case you haven’t heard this topic, this Hebrew word called Avodah, at least that’s how we pronounce it.

Say it here in Texas. This word, this Hebrew word, simultaneously means those three things [00:08:00] on your screen there. Work, worship, and service. Did you know that when the Lord looks down from his throne upon his creation, he’s pleased. He’s pleased with you. He’s pleased with me. He’s pleased with his creation.

Despite the fact that there is, there is, A lot of crazy unfortunate things happening right now. He’s pleased with what he has created because his His gifts his calling his ideas. They are without repentance meaning god doesn’t change his mind If we veer off course for a moment or a season in time And this word avidau reminds us that when he looks at his creation when he looks at you and me There are no lines drawn between our work the things we might do during the weekdays Our worship, the things that we call worship anyway, that we might do on the weekends, sometimes in the evenings, maybe early mornings, or the [00:09:00] service that we give to our communities or our social groups, when God looks down, he sees one thing, and it’s this concept of an integrated whole person.

Whose work worship and service is all one. It’s all the same. There’s no dividing line there. And this is, this is a concept that I encourage for me to dig into it and begin studying in scripture. You can reach out to our kingdom at work team. If you want specific scripture references, we have quite a few of those we can give you, but this concept is something that helps set me free and realizing that I don’t have to separate or segregate my callings or my priorities in life.

When I yield myself to the Lord Jesus Christ, He sees them as all the same. They’re weighted the same. He cares the same. And he wants to partner with us in the same way to see his kingdom advance through all of it. And we also want, want to make sure [00:10:00] that we are as Christians living out our faith in the marketplace in such a way that our faith should, should inform the decisions that we’re making.

When we know that God looks at our work decisions, the same as he does as our, at our, as our worship decisions, that faith that we have should inform all of our interactions of our decision making. It should inform. The quality of the products that we provide or sell it that should inform the service that we provide.

It should inform customers pricing strategies, how we develop people under our care. Yes. How you as a marketplace. leader or colleague, how you care for and develop the people that work alongside you is an act of worship unto our king, because he wants them to realize their calling also, even how, how we deal with conflict.

We want the word of the Lord and our [00:11:00] faith to infirm all to inform all of our decision making, because if you’re like me, most of us have had this theology. of work most of our lives that isn’t really aligned with the revelation and calling that I have now. So this theology of work is this idea where the platform of business can become a primary place where our faith becomes action, where it becomes real, where it becomes tangible for the people around us.

I used to think that I would have to choose one day whether I wanted to really serve God or really work in business. And through a lot of pain and a lot of mistakes, I am so thankful to say, as I mentioned earlier to you all, that I have discovered the joy of what it means to, to embrace this theology of work, where I can live out my faith fully right here in the marketplace, every single day,[00:12:00]

as a company here in Texas, we’ve had the opportunity through kingdom at work to interact with companies and so many different parts of the United States and many countries throughout the world. And we’ve seen, and we’ve heard examples of how business owners, business leaders. Have taken a, taking a leap of faith and invited God in and embrace this theology of work and seeing God do some amazing things.

And one example, there’s a company that we know in the state of Colorado who employs a lot of workers from the far East. And in one season of their company, they were really trying to have specific carrying strategies. That’s what they called it for their. Employees whose English is a second language in the United States was not their primary home, and they were giving out gift cards to different restaurants or different stores where they could go shopping and go eat.

But they realized over [00:13:00] time that not many of those cards were being used. And on one occasion this business leader went to one of the homes of his workers. What I can’t remember is if they were sick or ill or something and it was, what’s going on, but they visited their home and they, they found a couple of things really shocking to them.

The first was that they discovered all the gift cards they’d ever gotten over a long period of time, or just on us, we’re just in a stack because they didn’t even have a car to go into town to use them. So, uh, a gift that seemed almost trivial to the business leader. They thought that were. Really caring for the people wasn’t even being used because it had no context to those workers because at the end they, the real conviction there was they really didn’t know their people very well.

But they also discovered something rather shocking and that was this family from a different country didn’t didn’t even have mattresses on the [00:14:00] floor of their home, and some of the rooms didn’t even have a floor in it. And so this idea of giving gift cards to love on their people became quickly a, a shift in strategy for caring for their people in a way by buying them mattresses.

Now, you may be saying, what in the world does that have to do with my spiritual calling in the marketplace? I think it has everything to do with our spiritual calling in the marketplace. As we yield ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, and we invite him in, and we ask for his leadership and his wisdom, and someday we show up at a home of one of our workers, then it becomes real.

Our faith becomes actionable. When we get a first hand glimpse of What God wants to do in the life of the people that maybe he’s entrusted to your care. So yes, providing mattresses to employees was it was an amazing act of demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ because it opens up [00:15:00] so many opportunities.

Beyond that, oftentimes that’s what we find is that the best ways we can demonstrate our faith are in the most practical, mundane parts of the day. Here’s another great example that I’ve been able to see firsthand. We also, as a company here, partner with a ministry and a business in Central America that has a coffee farm and in the nation of Honduras, and they use, they use laborers from the area to handpick and steward the cotton.

But they specifically choose women in that country to be the workers, which goes against The general philosophy of work in that nation. But the reason they do that is because these are not just any women. These are women who have voluntarily asked for an opportunity to come out of a lifestyle that is one, um, that [00:16:00] has produced a lot of unhealthy generational patterns.

Let’s just put it that way. And they’re hungry for an opportunity to, to work, to change the generational trajectory of their family line and having a job, some of which they walk. I’m not kidding. Some of these ladies walk three to four hours in the mountains, each way, every day for work for a nominal wage, but together they sing and they dance and they worship and they pray because they are so excited to have an opportunity to put their hands to work to earn.

Honest wage. And yes, that is a part of the spiritual calling of that business to employ people who wouldn’t have an opportunity otherwise. Now, these are two perhaps radical examples that I’ve shown you but the point is when these, when these two business leaders individually began to yield themselves and ask for help.

Invite him into their [00:17:00] work. They began to discover this entire new part of what their calling was and how they can love on their people in a different way. So I, I encourage you as part of our time today, as, as one of your takeaways is to ask the Lord that question. And we’ll end with that here in just a few minutes.

What is it he wants you to do? Now, as I’ve given these examples and told a little bit about my story, I can imagine some of you are probably thinking, man, I have some, I have some serious objections to this, or at least some obstacles that are in my, in my mind that might be in the way and, and the first one is maybe this, Desire.

Let’s, let’s just talk about that one first. Hey, it’s okay. Maybe the starting point for you today is to admit the fact that I’ve never really thought about this. I don’t have much of a desire to live out my faith in the marketplace. Well, that’s great because I hope today is the [00:18:00] last day that that is true for you.

The fact that you’re on this call. I’m a big believer in the fact that the Holy Spirit doesn’t miss a thing. He’s in every single detail. If you don’t believe me, go read the book of numbers and Leviticus. The Lord Jesus Christ is in every detail of every facet of our lives. And he is wired you specifically with, with certain gifts and abilities that demonstrate and represent his spirit and his kingdom in the marketplace.

He wants to use you for that. So if you are a born again, believer of Jesus Christ, The nicest way I can say it is, well, this is just not optional. He has called you to do this, to partner with him, to live out your faith in the marketplace. So my prayer for you is that the Lord Jesus himself would touch your heart and begin to turn your heart, to see things a different way today, maybe you should just start by asking him to increase your desire for this, if that’s where [00:19:00] you are, then today is a victory.

That’s a step in the right direction. Let’s talk about qualifications for a second, because like you, like me, so many people probably don’t feel qualified to really be a minister of God or to be spiritually called in the marketplace. And. Again, that’s a great place to start, but it’s not a great place to end.

Obvious examples of this. If we open the new Testament, the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, time after time, after time, Jesus Christ handpicked 12 Jewish men who many of which had already flunked out of the traditional Jewish rabbinical training system, they, they had been declared not smart enough.

Not good enough to be in the system, to, to be considered one of the educated people. So they had, guess what? They had to go to work. put their hand to the plow, so to speak. Again, the Lord doesn’t miss a thing because those were the exact people [00:20:00] that Jesus saw and he handpicked them to be a part of his inner circle, the first tribe of disciples that he used to invite them into something deeper, to reveal more of himself to them.

And then he used those 12 Even the story of the one who went astray. He even used that in a redemptive way to challenge people to think differently. And those 12 became literally world changers. They went out and spread the gospel of the kingdom throughout all the earth. If we followed the pattern and, and followed the, the, the pathway of that together, they changed the course of history.

And two of those men, one of my favorite. Little nuggets in scripture in Acts chapter four, Peter and John, um, these were two men who in a lot of ways were at the top of the not qualified list, or maybe that’s the bottom of the [00:21:00] disqualified list. Either way, these two men, I mean, Peter, as you know, was hyper emotional.

Love Jesus one minute was defending him with a sword in the next minute, literally turning his back on him. But in Acts chapter four, he was the one that the Lord used through the coming of the Holy Spirit to, to bring about this revival that would, that received much, and I mean, much ridicule. And, and opposition from guess who, the religious people, the ones who were supposed to be the smart ones, teaching these truths and helping people understand and discover the truths of the kingdom or the ones who were literally standing in the way of Peter and John fulfilling their calling in front of what largely would have been marketplace people.

And they were arrested. They were thrown in prison. They were put before the high council and they were basically told to be quiet. [00:22:00] You have to stop talking like this. But one of the things that really stood out to me is one of the high priest made a statement. They recognized that these men were filled with the Holy Spirit and it said that they perceived that Peter and John were uneducated common men.

And those are the exact two people that the Lord used to ignite the spread of the gospel in the book of Acts. So they certainly weren’t qualified. Another example of someone that, that we know here is, I won’t, I won’t say his name, but let’s just call him an alcoholic adulterer, a business owner here in Texas, doing it by his own words was an alcoholic partier adulterer who yielded himself one day fully.

To Jesus Christ and asked the Holy Spirit to lead him. And [00:23:00] the Lord began to break off all those addictions, the shame. He came out of the, out of the dark with his wife and confessed the truth. And now they’ve been on a journey of recovery. That’s not an overnight journey. As you can imagine, but their testimony is that God has completely transformed the heart of this alcoholic, adultering man into a spirit led spirit filled kingdom, advancer in the marketplace.

And anybody that knows him knows that to be the case because he yielded himself and the fruit is undeniable.

You know, I was, when I was a teenager, I really wanted, I, I loved God with all my heart and I really wanted to, to use my voice. To teach and preach and spread the gospel. I was a bit naive in what that meant, but there was one big problem. I was completely [00:24:00] unqualified to do that because I had a debilitating speech impediment from the time I was a little boy.

Up and through my college years and something like this, this, this would have been absolutely impossible for me to do 20 years ago, the fact that I can speak today with my voice and, and make, and make words that are understandable is an absolute miracle because the Lord delivered me miraculously from a speech impediment that was holding me back and disqualifying me from something that I knew was in my heart.

So what is it that is disqualifying you? Maybe it’s a past. Maybe it’s a speech impediment. Maybe you don’t have any training. Guess what? It’s okay. [00:25:00] You are, you are primed in the perfect position because in so many ways, people like us are the least expected by others to be used in this way, which means the Lord can use us miraculously.

And when he does use us like my speech impediment healing, it is an absolute mirror, which means he gets the credit for it. Not me. I don’t want the credit for it. So whatever the qualification challenge is that you think you might have, God wants to use that very thing to absolutely qualify you. And we don’t have to have the pressure immediately to jump in and start adding Bible studies or start adding, you know, Crosses or symbols to our emails or text messages.

Now, if that’s what the Lord leads you to do, feel free to do that. By all means, be obedient to him. But really what we’re asking you to consider is what [00:26:00] is it that the Lord might want to use in you to make the biggest impact? Because he does start with the very practical and sometimes the least likely things.

to bring the most impact. And finally, let’s just mention briefly this, this legal question, because that’s one that people ask quite often is, is this even legal? Well, um, the devil would really love for us to focus on the legality of living out our faith in the marketplace. However, let’s focus on what we can do instead of what we maybe can’t or are fearful of.

There, let’s just make a quick list. There is, there is nothing illegal about praying for the people you work with. There’s nothing ill, illegal about praying with some of those people. If you ask their permission now, I don’t know about you, but in my lifetime, if I’ve ever gotten the courage and [00:27:00] felt the nudge of the Holy spirit to pray with somebody.

I’ve never been told no, we fear that they might not like it or they don’t want to, but even when they don’t want to, I bet you almost every single person you could go ask if you could just say a quick prayer for them, they’re going to say yes. And if they don’t, that’s okay. Let them know you’re going to be praying for them anyway.

And my guess is someday they’ll come back to back around and be open to that. So there’s nothing illegal about praying for people. There’s nothing illegal about praying with people. There’s nothing illegal about being led by the Holy Spirit throughout your day. And if the spirit is leading you and you know you’re yielded to him, then it’s silly for us to think that he would lead us to do something that’s illegal.

He’s not going to do that. He’s going to give you creative ideas and wisdom in ways to begin making an impact. In small ways, maybe big ways that aren’t going to be compromising in any form or fashion.[00:28:00]

If there are concerns about certain events, or I mean, maybe there are some times that you should seek legal counsel, because I’m certainly not an attorney, but what we’re talking about today is really not things that should be controversial at all, because loving people is our mandate. And the Holy Spirit will show you ways to use your influence and your platform to love people creatively, whether it’s through mattresses.

Whether it’s through coming clean with addictions, maybe it’s being healed of a speech impediment, whatever it is that might be standing in your way, the fearful part of the legality system, listen there, the Lord Jesus Christ wants this more than you do. He wants. Your work and your calling to shine bright in the marketplace, arise and shine, [00:29:00] your light has come in the glory of the Lord has risen upon you, meaning his glory is in the waiting for you for me when we stand up in our calling.

So we want to encourage you as we wrap this time up to take some time and ask the Lord today what it is that he would have you do differently. How can the Lord use you in an impactful way.

I bet you, if you just wrote that question down and spent the next seven mornings waking up and asking the Lord, how do you want to use me today in an impactful way? He’s going to begin speaking and you’re going to begin having thoughts that you didn’t even, you hadn’t even thought of before. Guess what?

That’s probably the Holy Spirit talking to you. And this last question, what’s, what’s one thing you can do differently starting right now? Starting today, with whatever time zone you might be in, there’s likely time left in the day for you to do one thing. What the [00:30:00] Lord leads you to that could fulfill your spiritual calling, starting right now, and use your work for His purpose, because that’s what it’s all about.

So I hope you’ll write those questions down, take a picture of that, maybe. Um, man, this is so fun to talk about this and to share testimonies of how the Lord has brought people across our path who are living this out and, and again, to understand a little bit more, maybe each day, what our part is to play in advancing His kingdom in the marketplace.

And I hope you Are in that same position. So I think we’re going to be taking some questions now. Um, Amanda, we’ll flip it back over to you. Awesome. Casey. Great job. Really, really impactful. Hey, if you have any questions, I apologize. I said that incorrectly earlier, our Q and a button down at the bottom, you can submit those.

And so we’re going to spend the next few minutes just [00:31:00] going over some live questions. And so if any time you have any type in there. All right, Casey, question number one, when you started living out your faith in the marketplace, was this uncomfortable for you? And in what ways did you overcome that? Wow, that’s a really great question.

Um, You know, in some ways, yes, in some ways. No, I wanted so badly for a long time to be able to live out my faith like this in the marketplace and didn’t have opportunities for a while. Like I thought, and I think the biggest surprise Amanda, or whoever posed this question. Thank you. I think the biggest surprise maybe in how it was challenging.

I was very, very thankful to enter into a work environment where I didn’t have to hide the fact that I was a Christ follower, [00:32:00] but

there’s a lot of opportunities that I had to be patient for and not assume that just because I was a Christ follower that I would be invited in to share my opinion or my thought about something. In a lot of ways that really the entry point, which makes total sense when we read. It’s kind of a low point.

It’s a, it’s taking the low road. It’s coming in. It’s living out what it means to be joyful. I mean, the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So living that out in my own personal life and really Earning the right over time is how I would say that through relational investment in people, and even I am not the most relational person.

But by spending time with people and getting to know them and taking a real vested interest in the lives of other people opened up doors for [00:33:00] powerful conversations for prayer for Bible study. That just wouldn’t have happened if I just came in with a Bible in my hand, if that makes sense. So it, it’s really starting from a place of humility and wanting to learn and see where the Lord leads, how the Holy Spirit leads and whom he wants to bring.

Across my pathway in the relationship, not in a preachy kind of a way, if that makes sense, maybe you have a perspective on that. You can add Amanda. No, that was really good. I think you should always know you’re always going to be uncomfortable. That means guys stretching you and just like when you work out that soreness means.

Things are changing and I should always be growing with the Lord. And when the Holy spirit prompts me to do something, I should know it’s probably not only for that person, but really for me. So, yeah. All right. Question number two, uh, [00:34:00] I’ve never heard of being called outside of the four walls of the church.

How did you break this mindset?

Wow, I think that is a very common thought, one that I too fully believe that a calling was something that was given by the Lord for people who were maybe the most spiritual or have were willing to sacrifice more. And that only meant you could go into some kind of nonprofit or vocational ministry as work.

And I did that too, for whatever reason, I felt led by the Lord in conversation with my parents to get a degree from a university and in which I obtained a business [00:35:00] degree the whole time, feeling 100 percent completely convinced in my very narrow view of ministry that I would be in either church or missions work my whole life.

And I started down that path. I was on a church staff. I’ve even been part of that missions organization, but I think the real switch for me, Amanda, was when, again, I mentioned it earlier during the talk portion, but God doesn’t miss a thing. And he, he’s faithful to bring people across our path. At just the right time.

And he brought someone across my path, a couple of people really, who, who began to see things in me that I didn’t know were in me, that I didn’t really believe about myself yet. It kind of called those things out. And it happens to be that one of those men was, was a marketplace leader. He was from literally the other side of the world, but he was an inspirational kind of a [00:36:00] guy.

And he challenged me to think about what it would look like to, to To be a Christian leader in the marketplace, in the business world. And I had never considered that before as a calling for me, you know, I, like a lot of people probably think that the business. people make the money and give it to the ministry people.

And while there is some degree of truth in that, that God does use the wealth of some of the business world to fund non profit efforts. Again, if we go back to Avodah, if we put, you know, if we put that slide back up, there is no difference because the work is work. Worship is worship. I want people to know and believe with all their heart.

Like I have experienced that God put gifts in us that are not confined to just one little corner of the world. [00:37:00] And our, we can change jobs, we can move homes, we can move across country lines, but if our purpose, if our main why and everything that we do is, is to go back to where we started is to use our work for his purpose, then that means God has complete freedom to shift where he plants us.

And that’s my story. He shifted my heart and let me see that the marketplace was an opportunity, but I had to choose that. I have a part to play in this. God’s not going to force us into that. So he ignited something in my heart through relationship with a couple of other people. And I began to pray into that and ask the Lord.

And ultimately I felt like I had a choice to make. Now that’s really weird for me to say that I had a choice where my calling was, but my calling is not to a, to a [00:38:00] specific place. That’s not how I view this. A calling is in response to what the Lord wants to do in my life. And through me, that’s what my calling is, but it’s to advance his kingdom, not mine.

For his purposes, not mine. And then he, he gets to lead me down this path in righteousness for his namesake. And that might mean it’s in a church. It might mean on the mission field, or it might mean in a business, it might be that those aren’t quite different after all we’ve, we’ve made those very different things, and I think that’s part of the problem with.

A threefold definition of Avodah, because we’ve come up with three different words to describe one thing. So how, I’m not sure I even answered your question, Amanda, how did I overcome that or get past that? I think it was just in saying yes to the Lord and being willing to [00:39:00] take a risk, being willing to change jobs, if that’s what it meant in that season, knowing that chances are nothing’s forever when it comes to our work.

Um, and if it’s not right, then God will redirect us to the right thing over time. I think we sometimes, especially. In our younger years, at least for me, I put way too much pressure on myself to get it all figured out as fast as I could. And I had so much to learn. I had so much pride in the middle of that too.

And if, if God wants to change my zip code in my work next week, well, he’s got permission to do that still. It’s not like I’ve arrived. That’s good. Very well said, you know, your calling isn’t tied to a title. It’s not tied to a place. Like you said, it, it shouldn’t matter what you’re doing because the calling is.

What God placed in you and it should be no matter what he’s asked you to steward. So I love that. And gosh, I’m, [00:40:00] I’m in the same boat as you, Casey, you know, I went from teaching and coaching and stewarding that as ministry for the Lord, then I got to go to restaurant business and stewarding that for the Lord and then moved into another organization and you know, the funny thing is as varying and differing as all of them were, my calling was always the same.

Yeah, that’s the biggest underlying thing that people need to like so really good. Yeah Let me add it’s a calling unto something or someone it’s a calling unto his kingdom and his purpose If we keep our eye on that as the primary um goal here, that’s We’re called unto Him. He’s called us out and given us everything we need for life and godliness, even given his own son to make this happen.

Our calling is unto Him. So yes, you can be in coaching, you can be in restaurant, you can be in a church, but the calling is unto Him. And if we keep [00:41:00] that as the priority, then I think we can avoid a lot of heartache, pain, and confusion that I did not avoid for so long. Good, well said. So, uh, what do you do when you start, you know, breaking that divide between secular and sacred, and you start living this out, you’re calling, and your co workers start asking you questions And you don’t know the answers to them because I know that’s a big fear people have.

So someone asked, what do I do when I don’t know how to answer a question about Jesus or the Bible or my faith?

I don’t, I think this is a pretty short answer for me, Amanda. One of the most powerful responses we can give people is I don’t know, or I’m not sure, but let’s find out together. I love that [00:42:00] you asked that. Why don’t we pray or do some research and see if we can’t uncover that together. Um, and the other thing that I, I think we undervalue the power of our own testimony and changed life.

Sometimes the greatest answer to maybe a theological question is, you know, I don’t know how to answer that in the words, but let me tell you how it’s impacted me, how I’m changed because of that.

But to be able to be honest and not just make stuff up. I mean, maybe marketplace people are known for that is just making stuff up. But I think if we’re honest and saying, and that’s a really tough one, why don’t we discover that together? Or maybe we can find some other people who can help us sort that out.

We just don’t have to have all the answers. And when we think we do or we think we have to have all the [00:43:00] answers, it might be a dangerous place to be, but perhaps a more dangerous place to be is when we actually do think we have all the answers. When we believe that we have the answers to all the questions.

I think maybe we’re, we might think too much of ourselves at that point.

Great, great answer. Really good wisdom for us. All right. Last question that we have, unless we have a few more come in. Um, I think this one is really applicable to where you’re at right now, Casey, but how do you love your coworkers that are the opposite sex and do that in a way that’s honoring? I love that.

I love that people are asking real practical questions. I am in a great season to provide some perspective. I don’t have all the answers. I’ll just practice what I’m preaching here, Amanda. I don’t have all the answers to that, [00:44:00] but I do have some experience because currently in the season of my leadership here in the company, I have three direct reports.

And they all are female. And for the majority of my time here, I have led more women than I have men. My home is filled with more women than it is men. I guess that’s just what the Lord has for me. And that’s, I actually consider that an honor and something that drives me to my knees in prayer often, because it is.

I mean, it’s just a special thing as a man in today’s world, time and age to be able to lead another man’s wife. That’s how I look at it. I am leading three women who are married to other men and they all have families of their own children, um, extended family. So [00:45:00] the first thing is that there’s just so many parts to this.

My wife is involved in a lot of these conversations. She knows them all by name. We’ve had them all in our home. She knows her husband’s names. We spend a little time together with these families, these couples outside of work, which sounds crazy to some people, but that’s one of the key ways that we get to know people is about their spouse into this.

Before we hire someone, typically, um, what I like to do is involve, is involve the spouses. So got to know the spouses even before we hired them and what they And they get to know me and trust me, you know, trust is built up over time and can be lost in a moment. So I really want to honor them. So getting spouses involved.

So nothing seems mysterious praying for them often praying with them. [00:46:00] It’s a big thing to about their work about what’s on their mind. Getting, getting to know what’s most important to them because that matters a whole lot. And then when we’re in meetings or we’re, and when we are having our relational one on ones is what we call them here.

Those are always done in either in a wide open space where people can see, or if a door happens to be closed it’s a glass door, where it’s still visible, and we are really blessed to be in a, in a corporate setting here where we have a lot of options for that. You know, maybe what the Lord might lead some business leaders to do, who have a lot of closed or dark kind of spaces is just start adding some light, adding some windows, make it more open and more free, less, less mysterious.

We have a, just a habit here where I’ll never get in a vehicle with one of those women or really any other ladies in our company of the [00:47:00] opposite gender. We don’t ever travel alone in a vehicle. My wife will never get a phone call that I am having coffee with. You know, say Allison at a coffee shop across town, that’s just not going to happen.

So being really, really clear about what the boundaries should be and then honoring them, honoring their spouses. I’m really trying to go above and beyond to honor their relationship of what’s on the other side of that. Cause again, trust can be broken in a moment and take a long time to restore. And in some ways that terrifies me, but I hope that’s in a healthy way, like a healthy fear to, to honor them.

But Amanda, I want to put this back on you because you are also in a leadership role here where you’re led by a man here who’s not your husband. So what’d I miss? Thanks, Casey. Appreciate that. No, that’s really good. Um, you know, I think [00:48:00] the biggest thing is what Casey said at the beginning that your spouse should be involved in this.

Like if our job is to love our team and love our people well, like I’m not in split as a mom split as a wife split as an employee. It includes all of me. And so if my leader is going to love me, well, which he is a male, um, he needs to know my husband, he needs to know. And so I think that was one of the biggest things.

We do a great job, um, in regards of him knowing what to pray for about me, but also asking about my husband. I think that’s a big thing. He always asks about Matt and different things that he’s heard. So, yeah, yeah, it’s been really good. So Casey, we appreciate you coming on and blessing us with your insight.

Hey y’all, remember that Casey challenged you with two action items as we start closing out. How can the Lord use [00:49:00] you in an impactful way? So take some time today. Um, I encourage you to do that not only with yourself, but if you do lead a team, what a great way for you to engage with each other. And second, what is one thing you can do differently starting today?

That is an explosive question. So get ready, buckle your seatbelt with the Holy spirit, because you’re going to get a good answer. Last thing we want to share. Um, we’re going to put up our kingdom at work leadership. Uh, workshop information. We would love to invite you. If you are a business owner or a CEO, um, we want to invite you to our upcoming workshop dates.

If you have a team and you’re a CEO or a business owner, we welcome you to bring your leadership team. That QR code right there, if you snap it with your phone, it’ll take you right to our website. These are our dates for our 2024, um, leadership workshops. We are [00:50:00] selling out, um, each time. Thank you, Jesus.

And so we would love for you to sign up. Um, if you have any questions, my team and I would love to help answer those for you. You guys have a blessed day live out the calling that God has for you. Thanks guys.