← GrowLeader Podcast with Chris Hodges
GrowLeader Podcast with Chris Hodges
69 | Models & Mentors
00:32:29
Who will you learn from in 2025? In this episode of the GrowLeader Podcast, Pastors Chris Hodges and Matt Minor kick off the year by exploring how leaders can grow through intentional models and mentors. Pastor Chris shares personal stories of how he...
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- [00:00]
A
And what I do is actually every year, and this is my encouragement to every person that's listening right now, is that you need to start the year off with, I'm going to go find some models, I'm going to go look at some churches, find some best practices, and I'm going to implement some of that stuff. I still do that.
- [00:20]
B
Hey, everybody, and welcome to the Grow Leader Podcast, where we grow leaders that grow churches by helping them reach their full potential. So glad to have you with us today. And happy 2020 25, which just feels.
- [00:31]
C
Weird to say that out loud.
- [00:32]
A
Man, I love it. I'm so excited about this new year. And of course, we're in day two of 21 Days of Prayer. I hope everybody's joining us in that if you're not too late, it's not too late to get involved in some praying and fasting. But, man, yeah, I'm excited.
- [00:47]
C
The beginning of the year should be the most exciting time for a leader. I mean, you're looking ahead, right? Getting ready. I know you love this time of year. You've been talking about it for weeks.
- [00:55]
A
Yeah. Because in some way, I mean, honestly, God will do this for you all the time, but in some way it gives you that, that fresh start. By the way, God's willing to give you that any day you ask him, which makes him so wonderful. But I love the idea of just, hey, clean slate, fresh start, all things new. In fact, that's our word of the year is, I believe this is the year of new beginnings, spiritually, in your marriage, in your personal life, and of course in your leadership too. And the question is, if you had a blank slate, if you had a clean page, how would you write it? And I think this is the opportunity to do that. I've already gone through that process the last couple of weeks, the to think through, pray through, you know, my initiatives, my growth ideas for the new year. And now I'm praying them through. So I like, once you have them in your heart and your mind. Now we have this season of prayer where we commit them to God because as the proverb says, there's no plan that succeeds outside of the plan of the Lord. So wanna make sure this is not my idea, but it's God's idea and then it's to cover it and bathe it in prayer. And so I'm excited about it in every way. And I wanna encourage everybody too, for a minute, Matt, just on the idea of starting the year with a tithe of your time, so to speak, where we Give God the first few days of the year to seek his face and to pray and to fast. And if you don't know much about fasting, we have loads of resources. I think most of you pastors have been taught this, but if you've not, if you've never been involved in praying and fasting, you're missing out, honestly, on the best way to start a new year. I'm 61 years old and I've been starting the first 21 days with prayer and fasting since I was 19 years old. So this is what I. What can I do in the math? I think this is my.
- [02:33]
C
It's a lot.
- [02:34]
A
Let's just say a lot. It's 42 fasts in a row that I will attribute anything that God's allowed me to do back to the fact that I've started the year just desperate, desperate for his presence. And so wanna encourage you, even though it's already day two of this 21 days of prayer and fasting, that it's not too late to get started. Just jump in with us and you can join us. We're praying every morning at 6:00am, man, Central Time. Central time. And we stream that. Yeah, we stream that live. And I love it. I'm just absolutely in love with the this way. To start the new year, it's really.
- [03:07]
C
Cool to get feedback from churches, all you guys listening literally all across the world who are joining us and praying with us. And, man, it's encouraging if you can't get excited about, you know, a whole bunch of churches praying at the same time starting their year off the right way.
- [03:20]
A
We need God. I mean, you know, I know there's a lot of optimism right now in different, in different arenas, but, man, never get to the place where, like, we got this. This is going to be a great year. No, it'll be a great year. If God shows up. That's. That's what will make it a great year.
- [03:33]
C
So every year, Pastor Chris always, usually during Christmas services, will tell our church, hey, here, here's what I really believe God's saying. Just kind of a theme, a spiritual direction for the next year for the pastor that's listening that hasn't done that yet. How do you go through that process? How do you get a thought to give to the church?
- [03:50]
A
And.
- [03:50]
C
And is it too late to do that for the pastors listening to.
- [03:52]
A
Yeah, I don't think so. Honestly, Matt, it really begins with me, where I'm at with the Lord. And I found that in some way because I'm A leader, the Lord will let me feel some things, think some things, even process some things that he really wants, not just for me, but for all the people. So to me, I just, I'm excited about this in every way. This new beginnings year, this fresh start, clean slate. I will tell you this, pastors and leaders, especially for those of you guys who get the chance to communic Kate, that's a message that resonates in a huge way with people that if you could get up on a Sunday and say, hey, new year, fresh start, clean slate. We're in this series on all things new. We're talking about, hey, what it would look like if we had a do over with our relationships. I'm not talking about your marriage, but I'm talking about what have you got to do over just to really be more intentional in your relationships. What would it look like if you did that with your finances? What would that look like if you did that with your personal health? And that's one of the things I want to talk today to the pastors about. And that is if you had a clean slate in your going to write the script for your professional growth and your development as a leader, what's that look like? And I don't even know if most people enter the new year with a personal growth plan. Do you do that, by the way? Yeah, just books I'm going to read, people I want to meet, places I want to go, conferences I want to attend. Just I'm not going to allow myself to stay stagnant. I've got a personal growth plan. I want to encourage you guys in it in two areas today, and that is I'm going to encourage every leader that's listening to me to grow yourself in the area of models and the area of mentors. If I look back at the I hate to use the word success honestly, because all the glory goes to God and you're only successful when you please God. And it's not based on numbers or anything like that. But if we've seen any success, if anything we've done has by human standards been successful. I'm pointing it back to two things, Matt, that I found some models in different areas from preaching models that like, I can't do that, but I can do that, right? Looked at systems models, I mean it was Rick Warren's baseball growth track that inspired the Highlands growth track. And I thought that makes sense to me that this is kind of in these steps. Of course he used the baseball diamond and it's still spectacular and he Knows this. I mean, I've talked to him. I said, you know, Rick, you. You inspired me. You were the one that was. You were the model that I was following. And here's the something I want everybody to hear. I never went to a Saddleback conference, and I had never met Rick Warren in person. Wow. I just. I saw this model from afar and thought, that makes sense to me. Of course, I wanted to put my own twist on it and tweaks on it, name on it and things like that. But that's what inspired how we disciple people and take them on this spiritual journey. So I had models. I remember having even models of teaching, like, I would listen to preachers. Matt, I thought, man, I can't do that. I even tried sometimes. And it's so embarrassing to go back and listen to these attempts to try to be someone, a voice that I wasn't. But I don't know that you can actually develop your own voice without being inspired by something that's close to what you want to be. There's still this model. You follow what I'm saying that there's this model. And that's when I made the decision. And I'm pointing this one back to Rick, too, where I loved a little handout sheet. I loved the 1, 2, 3. I loved filling in the blanks. That's more how I want to hear God's word, learn God's word. And so I found some models like that. I remember meeting Craig Groeschel for the first time because we were going to be one location and. And I don't even know if I've ever told this story on the podcast. Some people know this. Have I told this story? Tell it well. This. It's where I wanted to meet Craig, but I couldn't get through to his assistant. I couldn't get through to him. So then I did the. Oh, John Maxwell, I'll pay you $100 if you'll give me an hour of your time. Which they never want the money and they never take the money, but it gets their attention that you're pretty serious. And I got an appointment, and I flew to Oklahoma City to meet with Craig. And it was all business at the first, you know, I get this one hour, had my questions ready, and that one hour turned into three days. That's incredible. So we became great friends. He said, look, just stay. I'll put you up in a hotel. I want you to stay. And I went to campuses. And then a few years later, I was actually on the rotating board. They have a portion of their board that's a rotating pastors, so they have outside voices and I got to serve for five years in that capacity, so.
- [08:33]
C
Well, you still do this. I still do this all the time.
- [08:37]
A
Let me finish the story though, because I wasn't planning on being multi site at all. In fact, if you go to Grant's Mill, our broadcast location, there's a circular grass field in front of our auditorium that looks like we put it there on purpose for beauty. And it was the footprint of a 6,000 seat auditorium, which we were going to be one location. But I had a model, I saw a model in Craig Groeschel in Life Church and it inspired us. And today, of course, we have 26 locations and we're in 28 of Alabama's Department of Corrections. But what I want everybody to hear is who are your models? Who are you looking at that makes sense to you that do some things that are amazing. And I love this because I think it gets in people's hearts, Matt, that, well, I'm supposed to come up with it myself. I'm not supposed to steal an idea, which by the way, you're not stealing an idea. Rick Ward says imitation beats innovation. Every time that when you get to heaven, God's not gonna ask you, oh, by the way, was that your idea? Isn't that great? I love that so much. God's not gonna ask you that. God's gonna ask us all. Did you reach your full potential? Did you take what I gave you? Matthew 25 and did you multiply it? And if it takes using somebody else's idea and I always pick on people, Matt, that when you wanted to come to work today, you didn't make your own car. You took a proven model of something somebody else invented and you had no problem doing that. And I don't see any difference, by the way, when it comes to finding models and best practices of churches and implementing them in our churches.
- [10:15]
C
Well, and it's what we're trying to do, if you're listening right now, we want you take what we're telling you, take everything we're telling you in apply it. We're trying to pass everything to you.
- [10:23]
A
So it'll help you and make it your own. Grow your church. Yeah, make it your own and it's perfectly fine. But no, man, it's just we just want to get the job done, you know. And so in fact, I could take you through Church of the Highlands almost everything from the signage to the service to how we park cars, to kids. And I can tell you let me tell you who inspired us to do that that way and why we check kids in that way. Let me tell you where I saw that for the first time. And what I do is actually every year, and this is my encouragement to every person that's listening right now, is that you need to start the year off with, I'm gonna go find some models, I'm gonna go look at some churches, find some best practices, and I'm gonna implement some of that stuff. I still do that. It shocks people to hear that. That I still find. I try to find two to three churches every year that I just. I know they're gonna be able to teach me something, show me something that they do better than us, and always jokingly say, better than us for now, because I'm going to take it home and I will. I will make it better, and they'll have to come learn it from me, how we made that thing.
- [11:25]
C
Well, if you do it. If you do it often enough, it's true. If you do it often enough that we know now the creative team especially knows when you go to a conference, there's going to be a meeting when you get back.
- [11:35]
A
Exactly.
- [11:35]
C
Hey, here's what I saw.
- [11:36]
A
And it doesn't matter how large or small the church is, every church does something better than us, every one of them. And I will find it. And I love finding it. It's fun for me to find it. And so when I'm going to a conference, I'm not just going to the conference. I'm looking at the hallways, I'm looking at their information center. I'm looking at where they put kids, what the kids walls look like, like, every part of it. I promise you guys. And if you'll start your year off with, I'm going to find me some models. Listen to me, every one of you. You're going to grow. And I'm encouraging you on this first podcast of the year to step into 2025 with a growth plan that I'm going to find me some models. I listen to sermons every week, up to eight every single week.
- [12:16]
C
You're going to share anybody that you listen to consistently.
- [12:18]
A
It's not consistent. So it's all. It's all my ARC buddies, it's all our overseers. So I got to listen to the guys that. That I. That I'm submitted to, like my own pastor. I'm going to listen to those guys, you know, so Coach Tom Mullins, et cetera. So I'm listening to the voices that I want speaking into My life. But no, I'll go listen. I'm going to go see what everybody's doing, and not just the famous guys, the guys that. Or blowing up YouTube and all of that. I'll go find churches, pastors that I'm mentoring and listen to their messages. It's always interesting to me, Matt, to see the series that different people are in during the season. And there's times where I go, I never thought about doing that series. And in that moment, that church became a model, a best practice that I'm gonna go to my place of study and prayer and say, hey, how would this fit into the Highlands context? And I just think it's a healthy thing to do. And so here's my question for everybody that's listening to the podcast today. Whether you're a business leader, mom or dad, you know, whether you're in the ministry world, whatever it is, who are you going to Learn from in 2025? It's a great question. Who are you going to learn from? And by the way, I've got some new relationships that I formed toward the end of 2024 that are on the docket for me that I'm going to learn from these guys. I became friends this year with this past year with Ed Mylett, who, by the way, has a podcast that has just a couple more followers listening to it than. Than you and I, Matt.
- [13:41]
C
But before we start recording today, we were talking about how do we get with their team?
- [13:45]
A
I'm gonna get with them. I will learn from you. Right. And we're gonna make this podcast better. And if you see some changes in the Grow Leader podcast, it may just be that it's because I found me some models that, that I thought, wow, they're doing a little bit better. It's working a little bit better, and we're just gonna grow. Hey, everybody, grow, grow.
- [14:02]
C
And we're trying to help you with that. If you go to growleader.com from roundtables to monthly mentoring calls to our one days that are coming.
- [14:10]
A
Yeah. So that's the next thing I would tell you, is that we can be that source for you, too. I don't think it should be exclusively. There's other people who can teach you some great things. But we're doing everything we can with Grow Leader to teach you what we know. And there are two things, two one days that I want to promote. I am promoting these. I want you to come. I want you to come to these events that we're doing in the spring this year. They're one day conferences. So like a 9 to 4 conference where we're going to teach you just one topic and the first one's going to be on the subject of the Sunday experience. So the worship service. And we're going to talk about everything from how do you fill the room to what shape should the room be to what the order of service should be, to sermon prep and series prep, to worship set list and why, to lighting and all of the eye candy, what's enough, what's too much. And we're going to get a lot better in these areas. And this is an area, Matt, that I have strong opinions in. And if I can just be very, very blunt and honest. I believe what we're doing is working based on people's response and attendance to what we've, what we put together on a Sunday. It resonates with people, but it's also an area that I'm still learning in. I'm still looking at places where they do it much better than us. And I'm gonna bring those ideas. And then once you hear the sessions that I'm gonna do collectively, just the general sessions, then you have the chance to get to have a model with our sound team, our production team, our cameras and bring team members and we're going to split up into these huddles, into these workshops of these different areas so that we can just, you know, make Sundays great. You know, it's not all about Sunday, but if Sunday isn't great, it doesn't allow you to let anything else be great.
- [16:04]
C
You're super passionate about weekend services and you remind us all the time Sunday isn't everything. But if Sunday doesn't work, it's going to be really hard for anything else to work.
- [16:12]
A
Exactly.
- [16:13]
C
Sundays have to work.
- [16:14]
A
And honestly I think it ought to be treated, you know, we, I think it should be Easter every Sunday. Yep, Easter every Sunday. Let's do our best. Let's have a memorable God filled moment for that 70, 75 minutes or however long your service is. And let's lead people to Jesus. And then of course that becomes the catalyst for people to be to step into the discipleship part of a local church.
- [16:36]
C
So we'll do weekend services, which you're super passionate.
- [16:38]
A
And do you have the dates and details? I do.
- [16:39]
C
March 13th and April 3rd. So March 13th will be weekend services in April 3rd. We're talking about next gen ministries as students.
- [16:46]
A
Yeah, that's the second one that I'm convinced that if you are, if you are the best in your city at Children and students, I promise you, you're going to. You're going to grow a good, healthy church. And so I'm going to encourage you guys. Not to mention the fact that even if your church didn't grow, can we all agree that this is probably one of the most important areas right now, that the condition of our young people and what they've been exposed to over the last few years especially, and honestly, even their development since the iPhone and all things digital has come onto the scene, which was around what, early 2000s, has shaped how they think in a way that I think is ripe for the gospel, ripe for real relationships, ripe for discipleship. And so once again, I'm going to bring you some great messages, general messages on how to build great children in student ministry. And then you get a chance to split up and go into these huddles and workshops to learn how to do it in a great way. And so very excited about it.
- [17:47]
B
We've seen our church grow.
- [17:48]
C
I want to say this. I've seen the campus that I lead, the Grandview campus, grow because kids and students are inviting their parents. The parents are like, I don't know what you're doing, but my kid loves it here.
- [17:59]
A
Yeah. The way I say it is that if after the service, the family now is in the car and the kid says, mommy, Mommy, can this be our church? You don't have to have good music and message. Now, I'm not asking you to not have good music, but I'm just saying. But flip that around. If you just preach the best sermon in the history of sermons, and the worship is off the charts, and the little kid says, mommy, I don't ever want to come back here. Yep, it's pretty good chance that it's it. So I'm just saying it's an important area to be focused on. Not to mention, we love these little kiddos and we love these students, and we want them to. We want them to experience God in every way.
- [18:38]
C
So make a list of models. Who are your models going to be? Who you're going to learn from?
- [18:42]
A
Exactly. So the question is, what are your models? Who are you going to Learn from in 2025? And here's the second one. And that is, who are your mentors going to be? And mentors are different than models because it's not just what they know, it's about them. It's about getting the values and the disciplines and the relationship from a person. And I wanna give you a word about mentors, all right? And that is that there Are some mentors you're never gonna meet? I have mentors I've never met. So I followed their life. I've read their books. I've let them mentor me from afar. And then also, secondly, there are some mentors you have to pursue, meaning they're not gonna come to you and say, hey, I'd like to be your mentor, that you have to go pursue some. And by the way, here's the trick or the secret to having great mentors in your life. And that is always go into it thinking, what can I do to add value to them? That's great. This is how I got John Maxwell to mentor me. Honestly, when he didn't, no one even knew my. No one knew my name. I wasn't doing anything significant, but I knew I needed some great people in my life, and I pursued John. And it took me years, Matt, really, to get John to even notice me. And so what I did is I found out some things that were important to him. And at the time, it was training leaders around the world through a ministry he calls Equip. And if that's what he loves and I wanted him to notice me, then that's what I needed to love. And I think sometimes, Matt, that we want all these people to speak in our lives, but this needs to be reciprocal. We need to find out what they love and pour into their lives.
- [20:16]
C
You know, I heard a story one time about you were kind of on the periphery of knowing John, but you knew a lot about Equip. And somehow you and John get into a conversation, and you said to John, hey, what are we going to do about.
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A
I talked about the ministry he led and still leads, but in the first person, like, I was a part of it when I wasn't. So I just. I just like.
- [20:38]
C
And he says, the light came on.
- [20:40]
A
We. So it's a very important leadership lesson. And that is, if you want somebody to notice you, go ahead and own what they own.
- [20:45]
C
That's good.
- [20:46]
A
Love what they love. And that's what I did. And within a year, I was on the board of that ministry, and I still am today. In fact, I'm vice chairman of that board now.
- [20:54]
C
I.
- [20:54]
A
Of that ministry called Equip. Check it out. I Equip letter. I Equip.
- [20:58]
C
We'll link it in the show notes.org.
- [21:00]
A
It'S a great ministry. But then, here's the last thing I want to say about mentoring. So some you'll have from afar, some you'll have to pursue. But I want to encourage every person that if you want somebody to mentor you, you be prepared. Don't just expect them to be prepared. I think when we think, okay, they're the expert, they're the wise person. I'm just going to come in here and take notes. Nope, nope, nope, nope. You've got to come in with your own set of questions. So I actually have a file of everybody who mentors me. I know this surprises you. I see the smirk on your face that I have a file of the questions I'm collecting before I get on the call. Because to me, it's rude to say, oh, I only have one question. So I wait till. Actually, I have about 10 questions. In fact, I don't think I've ever told this John's assistant, Linda, she said to me, she goes, well, I'll set these appointments up with you and John. This is before I had his phone number. I'll set these appointments up, but let me know when you have about 10 or 12 questions first. So don't call him for one or two questions. And so I'd collect them, collect them, collect them. And when I got to about 10 or 12 questions, I text or email Ms. Linda, and she'd set up the appointment. And John loved it that I came prepared with questions and then I took notes. And so I just want to let you know that if you're going to have a great mentor in your life, you need to be a great student. You need to be come prepared. I have. I have. I have a guy I mentor. I'll just give his first name. His first name is Jason. That is the. Is perhaps. And I don't want to offend any of the other pastors that I personally mentor right now, and several that I actually formally consult them in their churches. But, brother, nobody does it like this guy, because he comes in and he knows exactly how many questions he can fit into the hour that I'm gonna give him. And I try to give these guys an hour, and he's saying, okay, I've got 13 more minutes. I've got three more questions. He's even timing them out for me to pace it out. It's brilliant. And then he takes his notes, and within an hour, I get an email of all the notes that he's taken. Now, I don't ask for this, but he wants me to even know what he learned. And I just thought, man, if everybody did it like that, there would be more mentors wanting to have proteges and people that they pour their life into because he's putting so much effort into it.
- [23:18]
C
When I get a staff culture around here, our one on one meetings around here, this is what it looks like I can remember. I would come to you with a question and then two hours later I'm like, hey, I got another question. And learning like, oh, let me bank some questions up and then we'll have some quality time to spend together. If you're looking for a better way to do one on ones this year, which we could all grow in that, that's a great way to do it.
- [23:37]
A
So the question, second question for you this year, pastors leaders, is who's going to be a mentor to you this year? From afar or up close, who's going to be a mentor for you? And by the way, again, we have some things that we can do at Grow Leader that can serve you in that area. I do a monthly mentoring call. It's a subscription based mentoring call so you have to sign up for it. It's very, very affordable. In fact, the proceeds of that mentoring call goes to scholarships at Highlands College. But if you'd like to be a part of this mentoring call for one hour, I get on the phone with whatever pastors show up and it's a zoom. So I see their faces, they see mine. And then I teach for about 20 minutes and it's always what I'm teaching my own team right now. So it's incredibly relevant material. It's not just pulling a file of some leadership. No, no, no. It's the very content that I just came out of relationship with you and the campus pastors and the lead team. So it's very, very relevant. And then for 40 minutes they get to ask questions. I mean literally we turn their camera on, they come on to the one hour call and ask their question. And then afterwards we actually, if you weren't able to make the call, we had it recorded and you can have access to the recording. And then every question we didn't get answered, we have the Grow Leader team go through and get the answer for you. So that every question in the queue because we never get to them all. And if you don't have a mentor in 2025, I'd like to be considered as one. You step into that and if you want it even more close, closer than that because we do personally consult a few churches and we're helping them with their staff development and their legacy teams and their growth. Just call the grow office and you can contact them and find out what's involved in all that.
- [25:24]
C
So you had in your prep notes because I Peaked, which I shouldn't do, but I peaked. There's a list of some questions that you can ask to a mentor. Can I fire a couple at you?
- [25:34]
A
Yeah, but let me. Let me. Let me qualify one thing about questions that I want to make sure people understand, and that is don't expect the mentor to be able to teach you everything. Great. Because they're going to be an expert in some area, and then they're not going to be experts in another area. So your first responsibility is ask questions that are totally based on their skill sets and their values. So, like, John can teach me some things, but he can't teach me everything. So he's never built a college before. So I have a different mentor mentoring relationship that I have that I meet with monthly. So I'm being mentored. I don't just mentor people, but I don't ask this person who's helping me build a college. I don't ask him about building a church and about speaking on a Sunday. So gotta be very, very honed in with that. And by the way, be okay with even having mentors that are just in one area. So I have people. My pastor, he has multiple areas, but I mean, he's. When it comes to prayer and holiness and personal living, man, he's the man. So I even get topics and put names to it and then try to schedule time.
- [26:36]
C
But I think we. Sometimes we put too much pressure on a mentor.
- [26:38]
A
Exactly.
- [26:38]
C
We ask them to be the. The end all. Be all of everything. And that's not fair at all.
- [26:42]
A
Exactly.
- [26:42]
C
Nobody can do that. All right, so a couple questions for you.
- [26:45]
A
All right.
- [26:46]
C
What are you learning right now?
- [26:48]
A
Well, what I'm learning the most is how to build a great university. So I think I have five more years of learning. I will continue to learn, but I have five more years of learning to really have where Highlands College is something a lot of people are going to be talking about.
- [27:01]
C
What's been the thing you've learned the most from your mental relationship with Dr. Cubane that you didn't know coming into it?
- [27:08]
A
Yeah, it's getting the message out. So the messaging. He hates the word branding, but you would. Most people would think of it in terms of branding. Like, are you getting the message out of what you're all about to this massive audience? Because what I'm discovering is, is that the influence that I think I have is still very, very small because it's in the circle of what, you know, of my life and my tribe. But there's a massive world out there. In this higher education space that we need to get this message out to all of them. And brother, he's the expert at that and letting it generate into enrollment. But honestly, the other thing is that I'm having to relearn fundraising because in the church world, I get 52 speeches a year on a Sunday and I get this beautiful system called a tithe. And it's all this stuff that's built in and I know how to use the system that God's given us and of course the Sunday services. But man, this other world, I don't have, I don't have one speech, I don't have any stage to talk about it. And there is no built in system. So I'm having to relearn. And I'm having such fun with it, by the way, Matt, I'm having so much fun learning, relearning, nonprofit fundraising. And I'm just, I'm having a ball with it. But he's teaching me so much. I take copious notes every, every mentoring session on the topic. And then I come in with my new question.
- [28:31]
C
We can tell when you've been with him because we're like, here comes, he's got some ideas. We're getting ready to go. All right, so everybody, all of this and what, what have you read recently that we all should read or that I should read? You can make it personal.
- [28:43]
A
Yeah. Well, here's the problem with that question. And that is when I'm writing, I stop reading. And I'm almost finished with a manuscript right now on my next book, which is going to be a principle centered book. But to answer your question, I'm reading, I'm reading books on storytelling, some of the Donald Miller material. I'm reading stuff because, because of trying to get the message out again, because I don't have the same platforms that I have in the church world to tell the story. I have this again, this 50, 52 a year platform to tell the story. Don't have, I don't have that. So we're trying to learn magazines and marketing and all of this with the college and, and story brand. So I mean, I'm having fun discovering and reading all of that. So that's, that's just.
- [29:24]
C
We can keep going and I, I will, since we end, I'm going to keep going. But okay, I want to put these questions in the show notes if you'll have them.
- [29:29]
A
Yeah, so these are just some I collected. I'll read them the show. But these are some of the questions that I ask mentors When I'm with them. And these are very general, so don't let these distract you from the fact that you need to be ready with very specific questions. Again, based on what they can offer their expertise. Exactly. But what is the greatest leadership lesson you have learned or learning? What are you learning right now? How has failure shaped your life? Who do you know that I should know? Probably Matt has been the most important question I've asked my mentors out of all of them. Great. Because when I asked that of John, John says, you need to meet Dr. Nito Cubane. And I said, how am I gonna meet him? He goes, well, I know him because we're so. And you just gotta ask people that question. What have you read that I should read? What have you done that I should do? I always love this question. What questions should I have asked that I didn't ask? And then I love the eighth one. I want to make sure everybody knows this one. And that is always ask a mentor. How can I add value to you? Because you don't want to be a taker or just the taker. You also want to be a giver.
- [30:37]
C
It's going to be incredible year. It's the year of new beginnings.
- [30:40]
A
Yep. Models, mentors, everybody. Start your year off right, knowing what you're going to do in those two areas.
- [30:45]
C
I know we mentioned a whole lot about resources available to you from Grow leader. Go to growleader.com for everything for a monthly mentorship call for the one days. Yeah. We even have a regional coming up in the city of Miami very soon, and we can't wait to help you out. We're trying to model it for you. We're so glad you're with us.
- [31:04]
B
Have the best January, everybody.
- [31:06]
A
Happy New Year.
- [31:06]
B
We hope to see you at 21 Days of Prayer for the rest of the month. We'll see you next time on the Grow Leader podcast. Hey, everyone. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. And also a big thank you to all of our partners that help make the Grow Leader podcast happen. For over 80 years, Wesleyan Investment foundation has helped churches with their borrowing and investing needs. And whether you're dreaming of new opportunities or seeking wise resource management, we think WIF can help you. You can learn more about them@wifonline.com growleader for over 30 years, One Hope has partnered with churches and ministries to impact the lives of children and youth with the message of the Gospel of Christ. Through collaboration with local communities worldwide, One Hope has reached over 2 billion young people in 112 countries. Discover how you could partner with them@onehope.net growleader if you're looking for ways to know your people better and also grow your church at the same time, you need to know about Studio C. Studio C combines strategy, technology, and communications to maximize church member engagement. You can bridge the engagement gap and transform your church's impact with Studio C, and you can learn more about them@thestudioc.org growleader.