Biblical Leadership Show
The Biblical Leadership Show podcast explores timeless principles of leadership through a biblical lens, offering insightful discussions and practical wisdom for leaders seeking to integrate faith and leadership in their personal and professional lives. Join us as we delve into biblical narratives, lessons, and values to inspire and equip leaders to make a positive impact in their communities and organizations.
Biblical Leadership Show
Serving with Purpose: The Journey of Selfless Leadership and the Art of Giving Back
Discover the heart of true leadership as we, your guides on this enriching journey, Dr. Dean Posey, and myself, Tim Lansford, peel back the layers on what it means to lead through servanthood. Battling the occasional tech glitch, we've managed to create a space for heartfelt discussion on humility and service without expectation. From biblical underpinnings to coaching your local softball team, our dialogue traverses the spectrum of genuine service, distinguishing it from simple assistance, and emphasizing the selfless prioritization of others' needs.
Striking a delicate balance is key; we delve into how the joy of serving must be tempered with self-care to avoid burnout or exploitation. We share the crucial nature of volunteering with purpose, whether bagging groceries or building homes with Habitat for Humanity. And it doesn't end with the volunteers; we also shed light on the role of those who recruit and place volunteers, ensuring a harmonious fit that honors both individual boundaries and the collective mission.
Wrapping up, we explore practical steps for weaving servanthood into your personal and professional fabric, offering nine actionable strategies to guide you toward becoming a servant leader. Whether you're at the helm or supporting from the shadows, our insights aim to inspire and equip you to lead with compassion and integrity. So, join the conversation, share a chuckle, or seek camaraderie in our shared mission to serve—we're here to connect and journey with you into the heart of true leadership.
uh-huh now yeah, uh-huh, yeah, yeah well, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome welcome to another exciting episode of the biblical leadership show.
Speaker 1:We're going to attempt this again. We had some uh computer difficulties there, so we're going to start this over again and just talk about what we talked about for about 10 minutes before we stop.
Speaker 2:So it's all right. It's all right, but I'm glad we made it through it.
Speaker 1:So you know, I think we got everything back where it needs to be.
Speaker 2:That's fantastic. How are you doing, Tim?
Speaker 1:I am hanging in there. Hanging in there now, this is Dr Dean dr cozy, and you are yeah, tim lansford, it technical support right now, since dr dean and I are the only one in studio right now.
Speaker 1:we snuck in here and, uh, nobody's in there, so I was tech support, which I'm okay with. But uh, you know, when you you come down to a loose wire and you figure it out, then you're're like, well, all right, that's good, but I'm just glad we got it figured out so we didn't have to come hang out in the studio for no reason, you know speaking of loose wire. Oh boy, oh boy. It's not a dad joke, it's a true story. Oh no, okay, Not a dad joke.
Speaker 2:We were having problems with our internet at the house. So I won't say what company we use, but we had problems and it's, you know, in cable. So we had one guy come out and he checked it and replaced some stuff on the pole. He said he shouldn't have any problems. Well, our Internet was going in and out and in and out and it had been going on. It was still happening after we fixed it. So I called again. They had another person come out and they did the test from the pole to the house. They said that was all good From the modem, you know it was all good. But the problem was from the box outside our house into the attic. He had to replace about, well, maybe 15 feet of wire.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:And that was it. And he said I can't explain why this piece of wire was not working. You know, it just was the problem and ever since he literally it was like 15 feet of wire he replaced that one section of wire and we had had no problems. So you just sometimes those little technical things, there is no explanation for it. It can work for years and all of a sudden it just decides it's going on vacation.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's just the way it is sometimes.
Speaker 2:But that's okay, and that's how it was earlier in the studio, wasn't it?
Speaker 1:It was, but luckily we got it figured out and we can continue on with this podcast.
Speaker 2:We can, and we're talking about servanthood today.
Speaker 1:Servanthood.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:What all did we talk about?
Speaker 2:the last time we talked about this. It seems like it was just like an hour ago that we were talking about this.
Speaker 1:It was, wow, all right, wow, servanthood Such an important topic One of the things that we talked about and I had a definition of servanthood and I know that you did. But there's a lot of confusion in servanthood. They think am I doing something for somebody? Is it servanthood? But I mean it goes deeper than you're doing something to help somebody out. It's a deeper thing and I know this is true to your heart, being in church for 145 years and you know a lot about this stuff. So I'm going to default to you because I think a lot of people don't know exactly what servanthood means because they hear it it's used in the church but a lot of times it isn't used in a lot of different places and I think there's a lot of confusion on that.
Speaker 2:Well, so we'll just talk a little bit Now. First of all, if you look in the Bible with a filter of We'll just talk a little bit Now. First of all, if you look in the Bible with a filter of serving servanthood, you know those kind of things. You really find it from the first book in the Bible, the book of Genesis, all the way to the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. But servanthood, you know narrowing it down, you know coming down to just a basic definition it's really doing something for other people without regard for your own personal needs or without expecting a reward for yourself. So we're not doing it because we get paid to do it. We're not doing it because we want the recognition Now sometimes we serve and we're doing it because we want the plaque on the wall, or you know those kind of things.
Speaker 2:I remember growing up one of the things I did was I volunteered. This was way back when I was a candy striper. There wasn't a whole lot of guys that were candy stripers, but I worked at St Joe's Hospital in Albuquerque growing up one summer and one of the goals was to get the 100-hour pin, and so in that summer I did, but I had to show up to work. I didn't get paid for that, but I sure wanted that 100-hour pin, so I did that.
Speaker 2:But when we think about serving, we think about doing it without personal compensation. As far as monetarily we get good feelings about it, but we're not doing it to get money and we're thinking about putting someone else's needs ahead of ourselves. So that's really servanthood and serving, and one of the things I think is important is that it's something we choose to do. Now, in order to choose it, we have to walk in humility. We have to think that the world does not revolve around us. If we're not walking in humility, we might think the world revolves around us and we just don't have time to serve, we don't have time to help. But there's so many areas, and not just in the church. There's so many things that we can do to serve. We can coach a softball team, we can work at the animal shelter, we can help build habitat for humanity, we can work at a clothing center or a pregnancy center. We can do things like that and give of our time and expertise and talent those kinds of things just to help other people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's. It's one of those things. I think what you said at the best, you know, is it's gotta be something that, uh, you know you give your time. You know time's very valuable. A lot of people don't give it time, but I mean it's, it's the empathy part. And where you said putting yourself in the other person's shoes, you know what do they need, you know it's. It's.
Speaker 1:It's sort of like when I go into leadership and you're talking about mentoring, you know it's. You know, when you're mentoring somebody, you're giving your time away. You're not, you're not looking for any expertise, you're not looking for any rewards. You'd like for that person to go to another level when you're mentoring somebody, but I mean I other level when you're mentoring somebody, but I mean I mentor people all the time that don't work for me.
Speaker 1:There's not a coaching fee or any of these things that I do, so for me it's just giving back to an industry, it's giving back to the world. You know, with gifts that I've been given through God and through some of my experiences, and I think that's one of the biggest things you can do, and I mean one of the you know, back in the day I've told many stories about. You know, I just go out to you know the grocery store or something and wander around, put a couple of things in my cart, just to talk to people, because I just felt like I needed to do that and I used to do I mean. I mean it was like doing sermons on aisle 11, right.
Speaker 1:You know and you just you know, I was in the frozen food section, you know were just having servants just talking and going through and there's a lot of good feelings that's coming out of servanthood.
Speaker 2:Yes, and one of the things we want, to be sure we're not saying that you want to be a doormat yes, so everybody, whether we actually acknowledge it or not, there are some boundaries.
Speaker 2:Everybody, whether we actually acknowledge it or not, there are some boundaries. You know, there could be a boundary of time because if we still are employed, we can say, you know, I can only do this one Saturday a month and I can give eight hours of my day or whatever. Or I can, you know, I'm working, I volunteer for the scouts, and so I can give one night a week to that, you know, from six to 10 or whatever it is. So there is some boundaries. It could be a time boundary, it could be a financial boundary, it could be that, you know, I can't really do this because I don't have the expertise, I don't have the experience, so there could be an expertise boundary. And so one of the things I think that good servants do is they recognize their own boundaries and then they think, okay, I'm able to do this. Or if you're going to help me, I'll work alongside of you and you like, for Habitat for Humanity, which is a great organization.
Speaker 2:You know, I might not know how to frame a house, but I can hand you the tools and I can learn from you so that if I do that over time then maybe I can be able to do that and I can teach someone else to do that. So the question is, when we are thinking about serving, what are our limitations, what are our boundaries? And I think that's important to think about that before we move forward to say, you know what I can do this one afternoon a month, or one afternoon a week, or I'm retired, I have a little bit more time. I can volunteer at the library, or I can volunteer at my kid's school, or I can do something like that. And we're doing that just to help another person, without thinking that we're going to get a benefit from that, financially or otherwise.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you go back to the doormat statement. You know and and you know I just had this conversation one of the classes I taught yesterday, is is. One of the biggest things I teach in some of the colleges I teach at is is learning to say no. You know, if, if it doesn't fit, you don't want to feel obligated to do servanthood, I mean, it's got to be something that's genuine. If it becomes where you're just forced into it, forced into it, forced into it, well we know that that's never going to be long sustaining, right, that's not going to be anything that that you're going to enjoy. You're going to feel like it's a job, j-o-b or whatever, however you look at it, and I think that's one of the things that you have to get is you know, if you're in a servanthood and you're doing things with a group or whatever is to clearly define those boundaries.
Speaker 1:You know, if it's eight hours on every other Saturday, then this is what I have to offer, you know, because I mean, ultimately, people like to take, take, take, take. You know, if they need and all that stuff, and I think there's a happy medium there of keeping your health, your self-care, compared to doing servanthood out in the world as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so let's just say you are the person in charge of, let's just say, whatever organization and you're in charge of recruiting volunteers for your particular organization, whatever that might be Could be a food pantry or whatever. I think it's important to interview people instead of just accepting them and saying, okay, you can do this. We don't know what their skill level is, we don't know what their background is, we don't know how they get along with other people, which is so important Very important.
Speaker 2:And so to do some pre-qualifications, have some conversation so that we know where can we best plug them into our organization. And you have to have the willing to say you know what? You've got some great skills but we can't use you. If it's going to, maybe you see some potential issues with your organization and say no, because in the past I've seen this happen or I've talked to some of your references and it just didn't work out. I'd rather not have you.
Speaker 2:And so that's to me. It's like you don't want to be a doormat, you don't want to just have someone come in and create an issue for yourself because you were not willing to have a boundary of just accepting anybody to serve. Now it doesn't mean you have to be so picky that you don't take anybody, but do a little background, little background check, a little conversation beforehand to know, okay, this person has this, they have computer skills, or you know what they used to run a grocery store, or you know what this person is a fantastic seamstress That'll fit into our organization this way. And then be upfront and honest with them. How much time can you give to do that? And then, if a person volunteers over time, then you can stretch their responsibilities.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can reassess the needs. Right, you reassess the need.
Speaker 2:Exactly right, and so to me, that's a good thing to do as far as management.
Speaker 1:And another thing I'll just add on to that from the leadership standpoint is I'm going to look at, you know, maybe it's not a good fit now, but is there something that I could? You know, because I'm a trainer right, a corporate trainer and is there something I can do? A training and development center, training and development uh course for somebody. Maybe they're lacking skills, maybe they have customer service skills, maybe they have uh attitude, you know, maybe they they go from zero to fire, spitting out of their eyes and five minutes right, you know, because of the problem comes up. So is there something we can do to help them? Because I mean, here's the thing, if people want to volunteer and they're true to heart and they feel that there's a calling and all that stuff, um, you know, a lot of times we can make it fit somewhere. So we don't want to say that there's never a fit, but I mean there might not be a fit. I mean there's, there's certain, you know, extenuating that word- circumstances you know, you know, but I mean a lot of times.
Speaker 1:you know, there's something we can, we can figure out how to do. It might not be the thing that they want to do, and that's sometimes what, what causes problems. Cause I mentioned that I have a friend that he's all about the plaques on the walls and the the recognition and everything.
Speaker 1:But if he's saying well, that's great that you want to volunteer, we don't have a need for that, how about you go do this over here? No, I'm good, thanks, and he'll walk away and that's it. It's in the story, right? Because he didn't get what he wanted to do, so at that point he doesn't even want to volunteer anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember years ago it's been over 20 years ago there was a food and clothing shelter that was shutting down in our little community of Azle, and so I said something in church. I said, you know, we need to pray about this because this person has been doing it for 10 years, she's just tired and she's going to shut it down and we really need. So you know, we need to pray about where that's going to be located and we need to pray about a person who's willing to step up to the plate and take that ministry on. Well, at the end of the service there was a couple that walked forward and, you know, just talking to him, finding out he was actually a hotel manager for his career and had, you know, so much years and years of experience in hospitality. The guy was phenomenal as far as that was concerned and just led that organization for at least 10 years, did a fantastic job.
Speaker 2:We needed a lot of volunteers, you know, at the beginning to do that and people stepped up to the plate. But sometimes we get so desperate for volunteers that we're not as thorough on our questioning about people and we might get someone that's really not good for the organization. So to be a servant of the organization isn't just you're serving, you know, like the person that's handing out the food or working at the animal shelter, you might actually be the person who's actually in charge of all of that. And you've got to make some decisions and set boundaries on what you'll accept and what you won't accept and I think that's part of being a servant as well is having discernment in those decision-making processes.
Speaker 1:Speaking of discernment, I think that Jesus had some discernment on servant hood, right, I mean, he was, he was huge on this he was uh like the premier example of the whole world, world history.
Speaker 2:So one of the best known scriptures for what jesus said about servanthood is in uh, it's actually in three places in the bible, but I'll just pick the one. Uh, it's in mark 10, 45, where jesus said even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. And so that's really, I think, a great filter to think about. Is this person coming to my organization or am I coming to this organization so they will serve my need of recognition or whatever, or am I really going to put my own agenda aside and do what's best for the organization under the direction of who's ever in charge? I think that is such a good thing to think about, a good filter to use, and it's one that Jesus lived. I mean he lived His whole life as a servant, you know, even till His death on the cross.
Speaker 2:And so the other one would be what Paul, the Apostle Paul, said in Philippians 2, 3 through 8,. He said this Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among you, which is in yours, in Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of humankind and being found in human form. He humbled himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of humankind and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Speaker 2:So what a great example for all of us that we put the interests of others in front of the interests of ourself, and that to me. And how do you do that in a practical way? Well, a lot of the way you do it is by giving your time. Now, sometimes we don't have the time to give, and so, you know, because we might have obligations of taking care of an elderly parent, or we might be, you know, already volunteering for, you know, some other organization Kids sports or whatever, and we just don't have the time to do that.
Speaker 2:And so the question is how can we help Kids, sports or whatever? And we just don't have the time to do that. And so the question is how can we help? Well, there might be an organization that needs your financial support, might need your prayer support. Praying for others is a great way to serve, and we can do that in our own home and the privacy of our own home, but it's a great way to put our agenda aside and pray for the needs of others.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and one thing I'll ask you from a church standpoint and I know the answer of it, but I've heard a lot of the servanthood is sort of in the Bible it was regarded through Jesus and everything that he did, more servanthood to the oppressed people. You know the people are on the fringes of, of trying to get out and, and you know, in in modern day and I guess in in lessons.
Speaker 1:I mean there's more of that. I mean there's a lot of writings that he did a lot of the oppressed people and everything but, but I mean here there's servanthood in every avenue that you turn around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can. You can see it Now. Here's the thing, If you're looking for it.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And so my thinking is you always see what you're looking for, and so if you're looking for an opportunity to serve, how can I serve that organization? Whether I'm involved in my church, how can I serve the needs of the church? I'm involved in a youth organization, how can I serve that? How can I better help them reach their potential? And so that's really the mind of a servant is thinking about how can I use what God has given me gifts, talents, energy level, expertise, whatever it may be. How can I use those resources to help another person or another organization get further down the road with fulfilling their mission?
Speaker 1:Right, I was just thinking I probably should have brought my sister in on this, because on the leadership side, servanthood is when you're developing culture. You know my sister is a culture expert. You know in corporations and you know you're trying to get that positive organizational culture right. You do that through, you know, volunteering through special events. Now it has has a double edged sword. There You're, you're trying to get the recognition at some point, but what it does is you do it from a standpoint where you try to build that morale. You try to get the teamwork to do If everybody in the church is going and and doing um, uh, big volunteer and and you've mentioned mission trips and stuff just the impact of like a mission trip. There's a lot that comes out of getting that with your group of people that you hang out with all the time and to go do that on a regular basis. There's a teamwork that gets. There's a bond that happens there.
Speaker 2:There is a bond that happens there, and so one of the things that we did I wish I had thought about this early in the ministry, but in my last church we challenged people to give 40 hours of servant somehow somewhere in over three years of time. So if you went on a mission trip whether that was to Guatemala or to Corpus Christi or to Louisiana or wherever it might be you could get all those 40 hours in one week. But if you say, served at the food pantry, or you served somewhere else youth organization, scouts, helping baseball organization, whatever it might take you a couple of years to do that. But the whole thing is you want servanthood to be a part of your DNA. That's the question. How can I help someone else change their DNA so that they're thinking about how can I serve, not be served? Like Jesus said, I didn't come to be served, I came to serve. And so, for example, if you're the let's just say you're the boss you have a crew of, say, 35 people in your organization. What if you did, one time a year, come up with a way for you to say okay, for you to say, okay, we're going to volunteer as a whole team and we're going to do. Whatever this is.
Speaker 2:You know there's a big thing here in Fort Worth about cleaning up the Trinity River.
Speaker 2:We're going to do that on a Saturday and if you do that on a Saturday, we're going to give you four comp hours, or we're going to give you something for that and we're just going to invite our entire staff to come down and help clean up the Trinity, or we're going to do something as a whole group and what that does is it creates a bond for those people. You can have a great day of service to help another organization to work for a common cause, and doing it together with people that you work with to me is just a great way to get out there, have some camaraderie and just have a lot of fun doing it. And if you do that as something that you just develop into your culture, it really does help the organization get stronger. You have bonding together outside the office and it really does help the organization get stronger. You have bonding together outside the office and it really does make a big impact not just on your organization but the organization that you serve.
Speaker 1:Right, and I have nine things that I wrote down here Nine things, nine things that are sort of the steps to become know, to become a servant leader, because a lot of people they want to become a servant leader, right, they want to do something, they want to go to the next step, but a lot of people don't know how, you know, they might have the time. They don't know how to pick out their charity or their event, or if they're going to help the neighbor or the neighbor's cat, I mean, whatever it might be. You know how do they do about that and you know, I figured I would come up with sort of a steps that they can do. And the first one I have down there is understanding the philosophy, and I think that's very important. It's sort of like where's the ship headed. You know, what do you want to do, what's going. So I'm going to throw each one of these out and then sort of get an idea of what we think of these.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So let me just say before you start on the list, which is a great list the first written time that the word servant leadership was used was in 1970, by a man by the name of Robert K Greenleaf, and he wrote an essay entitled the Servant as a Leader. So if you want to see the—now, it doesn't mean that no one did that before. Obviously, jesus modeled that as his whole life and it's been modeled through so many people over the decades, but that was the first time it was actually coined. He coined the phrase servant leadership. So if you want to go back to the origin of that, what a great essay that is the Servant as a Leader by Robert K Greenleaf. You can look at that, you can begin to put that in and to say, okay, how can I help that happen in my organization? How can I become that kind of leader?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's nice that we do all our show prep so we get things. So here's what I've got. I've got two books actually by prominent authors. One is Robert K Greenlees. His name of his book that he referenced, that I had referenced, is Servant Leadership A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness. Or James C Hunter's, the Servant A Simple Story About the True Essence of Leadership.
Speaker 2:See look at us, we're just our show prep is syncing up today, and that's amazing.
Speaker 2:It is amazing, but the thing about it is and being a servant leader in your organization, whatever level you are, you could be the last hire, but you could still be a servant leader and that's it's a way of thinking, it's a way of behaving, by focusing on the needs of others Doesn't mean you don't do your own work. Doesn't mean you don't get to office first and leave last. You know it's, but you think about the team, you think about other people, you know before you think about yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So we got the philosophy right. Read the books. You can get in sort of the philosophy you know and some of the principles and examples. And number two on my list is developing self-awareness. I mean, you know we call it SWOT, right? What's your strengths, opportunities, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. So what's your strengths, what's your weaknesses, what's your values, what's your motivations? How do you want to approach this? You know, and if you can go through and do some brainstorming, develop that self-awareness and sort of lead you down a path, narrow it down. You might have a broad list right now, but then keep going. What makes you excited? What do you enjoy waking up in the morning and doing right, and then just start narrowing it down to something that's true to your heart, that heart's passion and that's one of the best things is develop that self-awareness.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So just think about you are in charge, or maybe just working for an organization. You have 10 people on your team that you work with or aid, or you might be a mechanical engineer. How do you become a servant leader in your group when you're not the boss, right? Well, I think it's a mindset, but it's also just listening Listen. You have to earn the right to be heard, and so just listen to people, hear their needs, their issues, their frustrations, their joys, their whatever. And over time, you're going to develop trust with your coworkers and then you can say you know what I heard? That tomorrow's your birthday, let's take you to lunch. Or wow, I just heard that Jane's daughter just got accepted to college, let's celebrate that. So listening is such an important part of being a servant and a servant leader, even though you might not be the boss. That's an important step.
Speaker 1:Yes, which? That's number three embracing empathy. You know so, learning how to listen and being attentive to your team members. Number four would be lead by example. You know, demonstrate servant leadership. You know, if nobody's on board, you start the process right, I guarantee if you start going out to Habitat for Humanity or one of the food banks and doing that, somebody's going to go hey, what are you doing? You know I'd like to join you, and that one person is going to turn into two people and then that two people is going to turn into four people and it's going to grow. But a lot of times you have to lead by example.
Speaker 2:Yes, and it might take a while because you don't want to brag about it. But they say, hey, what'd you do over the weekend? Well, I, I've been working for you know, volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. Or I do once a month I do my local food bank. Or I went on a Boy Scout retreat this weekend with a couple of other people. Or at the church, we built a wheelchair ramp for this lady that needed it at her house, and so you don't have to boast about it, brag about it, but you can share when the opportunity arises. And then people think, oh well, next time you do that, why don't you call me? Because before I had this job I was a carpenter or something. And so you, slowly but surely, you gain the momentum of getting other people into the mindset and the DNA of serving.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is there anything, while we're on this one, as far as leading by example, is there anything that that you can depart wisdom to churches? I know we have a lot of big church leaders that listen to our show and and is there anything from from the church that can? They can sort of you know, start out, you can lead and or put together something that you've done in the past. Give them some tips on that.
Speaker 2:Well, I would say that if the pastor of the church, whoever he or she is, is going to promote faith, some type of serving opportunity whether it could just be prayer walking in neighborhood, it could be serving. You know, a certain thing for the city Whoever makes that announcement, they need to be sure that they actually do it as well. So you don't want to just, you want to actually do what you're asking your people to do, and if you can't do it, you need to tell. You know, I have a previous commitment, I know that we have committed to do this, but you know I have a. You know I have a wedding that day and I can't. I can't be there, or you know, this other thing has taken my time and I look forward to hearing your reports, but I think the number one thing, you've got to lead by example. I think that is such a good aspect of leadership.
Speaker 1:All right, great, and that rolls into number five down there. Prioritize people development. You know, we provide mentorship, we provide coaching, we provide opportunities for people to learn skill building techniques. You know, and I try to do it inside my corporations and I try to do it, you know, just in general, with other people and classes I teach and there's a lot of things that you can do to help people develop.
Speaker 2:Right, and so we were talking about this before, you know, during our show prep, and that was people don't know what they don't know, and so some basic things you know in a church. If you are going to be teaching people about hospitality, then it's important to you know. You don't want to make them think that they're dumb, but you want to be very clear about the expectations, because they could have done that at another church, but you want to be sure that the way you do it at this particular organization is how you do it. You just don't want to assume that they know what they're doing without proper training. So that's such an important aspect of it.
Speaker 1:And it's like you're reading my notes and you're not.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm reading through your computer screen. Apparently you're doing it.
Speaker 1:I can read upside down so the next one on my list is create that supporting environment. And that's what you said, you know, be there, you know, you know, prioritize and create that, that, that culture of trust, that that, that that respect and collaboration, so people will, will want to be part of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you want to make it exciting so that it's like, wow, this was really great. You want to make it exciting so that it's like, wow, this was really great. You want to celebrate that. And so if you're at a church and you're going to say, okay, we're going to go over to this park on a Saturday and we're going to help the city clean up the park or whatever it is you're doing, then the very next day, because of technology, put a video up on the screen, have someone talk about how cool that was, and so next time we do that, in six more months, with the hope that you come and you want to build it up as something that's really a blessing to people, that you had a lot of fun, or you know what it was raining, but we still had a lot of fun. It had to get done. You want to tell about what you've done so that it begins to plant seeds in other people's minds that, hey, that sounds like something I really want to do next time they do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and leading into number seven, we're coming down here at the end of the show and we haven't had one dad joke, we've got a couple more. What is the problem?
Speaker 1:You can go on a string of dad jokes here. Serve others actively. You know, seek ways to make positive impacts in the lives of others, both within and outside your organization. You know outside the church, outside someplace that you might be in, you know how can you really serve others and put yourself in place.
Speaker 2:So one of the things that I differentiated in terminology when I was a pastor is I would say, ministry is something that happens in our building or on our campus. Mission is something that happens outside of our campus. Mission is something happens outside of our campus and so if we did mission to the community or mission across the state or mission in Central America or mission around the world, they knew it was one thing. If we talked about ministry and you want people to have opportunities to do.
Speaker 2:Both People will make their own decisions about the time commitment they have or the financial resources they have to be involved in those things, but you at least want to be inviting and you want to have somebody who has done that before or will lead the charge, because a pastor can't lead all the charges, they can't be in charge of everything, so you want to have a person that's in charge of whatever it is you're doing, know what they're doing, so they can train the new people, they can equip them, they can summarize all of that and then they report back to the whole congregation. Even if that congregation is 50 people, you want to be able to report back about the blessing. It was to just serve.
Speaker 1:Right, which leads me into the number eight which you're setting it up. Practice continuous learning and growth. That's what you said. Find somebody to train. I mean, I swear you're just looking at my computer screen. You're just, I mean good Lord's talking to you. He's putting little things in your head there. And the last one and I think this is one of the biggest ones that people is stay committed. You know, servant leadership is a journey. It's not a destination. It's something that it might not get traction immediately, but if you continue on, and you continue on, eventually it's going to catch hold right.
Speaker 1:If it's good of everybody and you're doing good things in the world, I promise it's going to grab the attention of people and people are going to want to be involved with your cause.
Speaker 2:That is so true, and you have to be patient because sometimes it catches on immediately. Sometimes it might take a year or more for that to catch on. So you just do what you feel you need to do, that God is leading you to do. So you just do what you feel you need to do, that God is leading you to do and, just over time, allow God to work in the hearts of other people to share when you have an opportunity to share, about what you've done.
Speaker 1:Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, look at the time.
Speaker 2:I think it's dad joke time right it is dad joke time right.
Speaker 1:So at this point of the show, if you're not familiar, this is where you can either log off or you can listen to a couple corny dog dad jokes.
Speaker 2:So and then you can share them with your children and then go, oh no no, dad, don't do that oh well, you know, here's one um that I know I shared before and it was was a groaner before the show started.
Speaker 2:And so you know it's getting warm in Texas, even though we're going to have some rain. But it's getting warm in Texas, and so people are turning on their air conditioners, and some people don't like a cold house, you know, they'd rather have it warm, and so if your house is cold, I just have some advice for you. If your house is cold. Go, stand in the corner, because it's always 90 degrees in the corner.
Speaker 2:I told you I liked that one, you liked that one. That was actually a good one as a home builder there you go, yeah, as a home builder, right yeah.
Speaker 1:And then I did my groaner. You know why did I go to art school as a home builder, right? Why? Because I wanted to nail every detail.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a groaner.
Speaker 1:See, that's a true groaner right.
Speaker 2:Hey, you know what the best present is? What's that Broken drums because you just can't beat them.
Speaker 1:I need that for my kids.
Speaker 2:You need that one.
Speaker 1:All right, one more and we'll let these fine people get out of here.
Speaker 2:You know that corduroy pillows are coming back in style.
Speaker 1:Oh boy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're making headlines.
Speaker 1:I had the visual in my head of sleeping on there, but I didn't know the punchline. I hadn't thought about that. I was like man, that's just going to leave lines all over your face, right. And then you said that so, yeah, that's good, all right. Well, hey, if you want to check us out, you want to give us some good dad jokes? Or, uh, give us a topic that you want us to talk about, hit us up biblical leadership, showcom, and um, you know, go out there and talk to us. Tell us if you'd like a topic dad joke, want to say a prayer about something? Want to discuss something online? Hey, you know, if you want to come on our show, let us know as well. We'll figure out that as well.
Speaker 1:So I hope you're having a great day and, dr Dean, do you have any? I mean, I know your final, final word. Do you have anything to say? Before we get down to that, just ask me. No, I'm good, all right. Well, I'm going to let you take it out then, with your famous words All right. Well, I'm going to let you take it out, ben, with your famous words All right, make it a great day. Make it a great day. We'll talk to you next week. Bye.
