 So for me, I've been a radiant around four years full-time on staff. I come out of the marketplace So I worked at a fortune 50 company called striker here locally my background is engineering So why not work at a church? That's what most engineers do ultimately, but It's been a blessing. It's been an amazing ride One thing I promise you today is we will be open honest transparent everything. We've learned we've learned through cuts bumps bruises and scrapes and Luckily God has healed those as well most of them besides pastor stuff in here But so that's that's me my background. I get to oversee all staff and operations here. It's a blessing I also say I get to do everything pastor Lee doesn't want to do Which is which is fun too. So John. Yeah, thanks pastor Rick. My name is John I'm the campus pastor here in Richland and I have a unique I think dynamic At least from a leadership lens at this church because I've been here forever So I I came on staff in 2004 June 1st as a youth pastor and so we had I think six five or six staff Total and I think we have 80 some staff now So I think a big part of what we want to kind of talk about and many of you are Leaders in your own right obviously here or run organizations or churches kind of that development of we all know when a Organization grows it doesn't become easier. It doesn't become you know more Succinct or fluid it gets more difficult and so when we only had five people like you know It was easy and I knew everyone's name almost except for that one guy No, I'm just kidding and now we have this this giant staff And so we just really want to spend some time talking about as Rick said the ways that we've tried to develop Unity versus uniformity the way that we've tried to develop a culture of honor And how we can all work together to really not just execute pastor Lee's vision But the vision the Lord has for Radiant sure so it's been an incredible journey for me and my wife She's also been on staffs for 15 years. And so, you know, I often say I see people Come in and they'll be like this is such a huge church and to me It doesn't seem that way because I was here when we were like 200 people and now we're thousands of people but I still feel like it's so it helps me too as a leader to kind of see it through other people's eyes and lenses and Really trying to Create rhythms and create ideas that help us all Communicate our hearts and our strengths to make the entire organization flourish so Yeah, along that journey obviously in 2017 is when we went to a multi campus site And I know probably most of us in this room are not Maybe part of a multi campus church. We're not gonna highlight that but I think it is important because it does create some different challenges One of those challenges name is Stefan Davis. I'm just kidding. He he is a campus pastor in Portage And so in 2017 he took that over and I'll let him talk a little bit about that Incredible setup. Thank you My name is Stefan. I did ministry for many years in Colorado at a mega church there and Worked often in a building called the world prayer center Got married in that building spent thousands of hours I think throughout my late teens and early 20s Encountering and interceding and praying and got connected with pastor Lee in those years he became a really clear mentor and leader in my life and Through some different events moved and did some different things different paratroops ministries some International evangelistic type stuff that was impacting the nations and at that time maybe thought I was done in ministry It was gonna do some stuff on my own and got a call from pastor Lee to Come be a part of what was happening at Radiant Church and to launch the very first Extension campus of what was just Richland at the time. It was just called Radiant Church It was not the Richland campus and so had the incredible honor and privilege of moving here moving my family here Left Colorado and the often question was why would you leave Colorado and the clear answer is because God sent me and It's been a powerful experience. It's Been a leadership experience way beyond my capacity and ability It has forced me to lean into the Lord in ways that I never thought I needed to or had to and I've gone through quite an experience of Dealing with myself my own insecurities who I am and at the same time trying to lead a campus and navigate What was originally a merger? We actually took over a church that Pastor Rick Helped to navigate and so we're we say often Incredible the Lord's Amazing Stefan's been on too long apparently Time to go The lights came back to me though, I feel really good about that So I'll close with this our campus is our relationship between John and I this team is critical and the Lord spoke to me about a year ago about the bond of peace and unity in the spirit and we went on a journey and Today, I think we have some really profound things to give to you because of that, you know early on there were some jokes Appropriately, I don't know if Pastor Sean's still in here. Is he see right there? appropriately appropriately named the Portage Campus the other campus and it was an unnamed unknown campus The little brother, but you have to have a Chick-fil-A. So stop crying But here we are four years later and I couldn't be more proud to sit with these gentlemen to Work together labor together to be honest and honor one another So I'm grateful for these men and pass it to Pastor Ben Yeah, thank you past seven So my name is Ben. I have come here been on staff for about two years Helping Pastor John here at the Richland campus. I'm the associate campus pastor before coming here I did have some time as a lead pastor in another church in Indiana And so looking at that was not a multi campus church That was like a medium-sized of four to five hundred church and so coming in here. I came in as a learner I'm like one this this church what God's doing here is amazing and my family and I were attending here for a couple of Years before I even came on staff and so we got to experience Really the health of what I've now come to see In this team and in Pastor Lee and the senior leaders of the church. It's it's really amazing It's really unique and I feel like God just brought us here set us here we had a season of just healing and and Experiencing kind of the life that God has given to the leadership team and then for me I'm I love to study leadership. So that's part of my journey is I'm a student of leadership and so Being able to apply some of that learning in a real-time setting has been amazing and to work with with guys that have diverse Experiences and backgrounds and really over it all just a humility Just to say hey, let's work together as one unit. I think from my experience. That's rare It's a huge blessing and an honor like Pastor stepin said to work Alongside and to nobody's carving out their own kingdom or trying to achieve their own kind of Platform everybody's serving in their strengths and it's really a beautiful and I think really healthy Peace and out of that like Pastor stepin said I think the Lord has downloaded some some just like Unique maybe unity pieces that have come out of the health and the vision of the leadership here That's been here a long time to Pastor John's point. So so I'm privileged to be here I'm privileged to be able to work with these guys On some of these leadership projects and and we're excited to to share that with you. Thank you for being here It's so amazing to see all of you even in the back. Welcome. Yeah, there's some chairs up here But I know you guys don't want to disrupt but but you're good. You're good So thanks for being here works out it for this for this session. Yeah, so we're we're not a perfect church Radiant is not a perfect church and we're not perfect people and we don't Want to give that that perception but I do want to honor pastor Lee and Jane I've I've been privileged enough to be on the board. I was on the board previous to coming coming here and I think you know part of that is Honoring that they have authorities in their life. They submit to our overseers. So Jimmy Evans Tom Lane And Lauren covrubius and out of that submission, you know, they have authority because they're under authority I think that's how pastor Lee says it and also to our to the radiant board That is a unified group and I say that and that we only act in unity And I just I think there might be a couple board members out there I just want to say thank you one for your prayers two for being brothers in arms through this and just acting in unity Together so I think it all starts from the head all leadership obviously comes from Jesus. He is the perfect leader And the perfect model for leadership and from there You know, I think as we have grown Jesus has led us in our leadership and Through some of those learnings. I think for me coming on staff here four years ago It was it was around self leadership So really pressing in each of us individually into our relationship with Jesus And then from their developing leadership and then through some of those for for us. It was growth It was another campus the other campus a portage, which we love. I actually attend there Started to show like hey, there's some there's some cracks in our armor. There are some things that we have to lean into and You know, that was one thing that we could have let that, you know I might take away and I don't know if I learned this or came up with this but the Satan always uses either distraction deception to create division and Those cracks could have divided us And I feel like because we pressed in through that and we'll talk about some of those examples Because we pressed in God's actually unified us and drawn us closer together and made us stronger Through that so I think with with that I don't know if you guys have anything top of mind as far as just and it's not just Richland versus portage We have central staff. So we have shared services as well People like HR finance IT. So there's a central staff component versus the campus. I'll use that that terminology and what I'm trying to show there is I Think through those through those learnings, it's very easy to kind of we can see ourselves in silos and we can see ourselves as You know that silo is our world and that's good focus is good But when you're only trapped in that world and we all have it whether it be marriage Parenting etc when we don't zoom out and kind of see a larger perspective That's when you know, Satan can come in plant those seeds of division deception Bitterness and really sort of try to start to create division Yeah expose Who's the kid who's the priest? Yeah, this has been a Really an awesome journey and when pastor ricks talking about self leadership That really becomes the key of our organization. It's Yes, there's a there's a dynamic where we're leading the organization under pastor Lee's leadership guidance a vision I think for campus pastors We have a unique role and it doesn't necessarily fit every single church But if you can really kind of derive I think the big idea The reality that it's not my job to be the vision carrier, but to be the ambassador of the vision I'm not meant to be the president. I meant to be the ambassador. I meant to defend as pastor Lee called us He said I'm not asking you to go create this culture I'm asking you to go be the ambassador of the culture and so we used to say kind of one church in multiple locations But I feel like that conversation evolved into One house many rooms really carrying though, you know, when you look on the back of the Jersey instead of every Name being put there There's a couple of those universities where they just put the name of the university or they put the idea of the university on the back And so we want to be known by our love for one another We want to be known that we're in unity with one another And I think one of the greatest lessons for me that I learned is I can pray for unity I can talk about unity but unity is found Many times in my actions in my behavior how I relate to these men here and to the many staff members that we also represent and to create and drive That ambassador culture that we are all defenders of the gospel of Jesus first and foremost way before the radiant Asterisk or brand right and so the the carrier of the culture of Jesus Be is so important to us and I just see that evident in the expression We care we all carry a lot of meetings right like the death death by a meeting and you know Even though some of those changes had to take root that we value meetings We value being even more in the COVID reality face-to-face and being with each other willing to have hard conversations Honest but honoring conversations and that's a bit of even what this is about how to how to not leave the room And create another meeting but say it honestly and say it honoring and that is really what fostered our Ability in a moment. I think it will be more of a presentation as something to you because it was something it was birthed We're talking about a pearl right pearls are birthed in irritation and I feel like we were given a pearl straight from God And we want to share that with you in a moment, but I just believe it comes in irritation The fantasy of those that saying oh, I wish I could just be in ministry We know that the guarantee is you're going to be irritated and I think we have found a pearl though Among us and and I'm really proud of that. Yeah, that's so good and and the unity piece is really what Sparked kind of this idea that Pastor Stefan's talking about that we want to share Because you know we got God blesses unity we read that in some You know 133 you read that in Philippians 2 Paul's talking about we don't look out only for our own interests But also the interest of others and we esteem others as even better than ourselves and I think in ministry even within the campus But certainly when you have other entities and and other campuses involved It's so easy to see through kind of your lens What you need to do what you're kind of pressing needs are and I'll I'll be vulnerable and say as someone who was here for you 1314 years before we had another campus. It was a big challenge for me to See through a different lens like okay. How is that going to affect? The Portage campus how how am I going to be unified with Pastor Stefan on this and how are we going to move forward if That's the new guideline centrally or whatever it was So we all had to learn through that and I think what we want to Highlight through this is it's not just about Okay, you have to be in a two-campus model every organization as it grows is challenged with communication and with Relationship and I think those have been some of the things that we've really had to be intentional about like we need to know each other We need to have relationship outside of just sending emails or making decisions because then you can begin to see through that lens and you can begin to have a different way of being impacted by those decisions and then also Walking in unity like seeing it through the eyes of other people and how that affects them and and so To Pastor Stefan's point. We haven't always done that perfectly We're still not perfect at it, but our heart as we share this kind of model that we've called the radiant way Is that you're able to just adopt some of it again? I think sometimes we can get in like cookie cutter mode and we hear someone else or we see another ministry or we see What they're doing and we're like that's what we need to do and we like you know carbon copy and try to do it Exactly and our heart is that you don't Walk away from this going we need to adopt that completely But maybe there's some some threads to this Maybe there's some pieces to this that will help you help your organization Help your leadership and then the Holy Spirit has to download that and lead you into how you're actually going to Administrate that and incorporate that into your staff and into your own leadership. So I'm gonna give it to Pastor Ben Who's gonna kind of help walk us? I think through the radiant way unless pastor Rick has something so Real quick, then I'll pass it over. I think Craig Rochelle says you can have growth or comfort pick one And I think you know we've we've Here at radiant with pastor Lee we've we've chosen growth and not out of a not out of a quest for numbers but out of a quest to fulfill the Great Commission and You know, I think through that as we've grown Complexity has grown with it and you know, I I got a picture of the Lord of I love our staff I feel like I was sent here To love on our staff Primarily not that I love the congregation, but I'm kind of a behind the scenes Pastor leader for for the staff and I just had this picture of our staff Amazing hearts amazing people, but I just like felt I saw this picture that they were in chains and Trying to do trying to do great things, but in chains and That's when God started to download the radiant way What we call the radiant way into into me and that's where I wanted to share it with my brothers because I know whenever you bring Things to a team and the team is excited and adopts it. It's just so much more powerful So, you know, I think I think one thing that we do well is like we there's co-submission We submit to one another and we ask for feedback and we're open and vulnerable and that You know trying to maybe give some examples outside of ministry as well that you guys can take with you I just think that transparency and vulnerability is kind of the the heart of the heart of our unity So within the radiant way what we developed You know with some language and then we've we've rolled this out to our staff and it's really kind of caught fire You know, we haven't we have done some meetings around it and some other things But I just feel like God is breathing on it for for radiant. I hope it's I hope it's also, you know helpful to you guys So pastor Ben No go for a man, okay, so so yeah Working together with these guys we we have coined really the radiant way Which I'll just read you the the definition of the radiant way again. This came out of like This was an answer to the question and maybe some of the irritation we were having The challenge is always to nobody else gets irritated. Yeah, it's just just us. Okay, perfect Yeah So so, you know in that time God's not just frustrating us for frustration's sake He's trying to deliver an answer to the solution. So sometimes feeling that that pain and that tension What I appreciate about this team is we lean into it together We lean into it together Even if we're a part of the problem and how can you not be if you're in leadership You're a part of the problem. So let's just say hey, that's me And then owning that piece and bringing it to the table Love working with these guys, but this this radiant way kind of came out of just some of the tensions We were having if you change one thing at one campus. It's exponentially felt across all of your campuses Well, you're here as a single Campus or one church in one location, you know, you change something in one ministry It impacts all the other ministries in that church in that house So so really our our heart was to say hey, how can we introduce a language that that we can all share You know in the Tower of Babel, there was a common language and the people accomplished a great feat It just wasn't in the heart and in the anointing of God But what we're finding is that when God wants to do a great thing in unity with people He will release a common language with that people and so part of our common language Were the songs that were being written through radiant city music under pastor Caleb's Leadership were the teachings from pastor Lee and pastor John and others and then also this kind of behind the scenes Leadership piece that united all the staff together around the common language of the radiant way So I'm gonna just read to you our common language and what God kind of birthed through through Through our struggle I guess for for unity The radiant way is our expression of relational unity and operational excellence Those are the two key pieces relational unity Operational excellence and I'll just pause right there because what what we're experiencing is there's sometimes tension You can focus on operational excellence and making things look and feel right and the same across multiple campuses or multiple ministries in the same house But there there's times where where that can cause relational tension And so it then there's another point focus that says hey Let's just focus on relational unity and the operations are suffering and we said hey We don't want either one to suffer. We want excellence Relationally across all of our staff and we want excellence in how we're actually operating and so the Harmony of the radiant ways it brings these two together and say neither is more important than the other They both need to be held up Equally to God So it begins with relational unity and trust the radiant way serves as our church campus multiplication model It lists the ministry and processes that must be the same Across our campuses the radiant way also defines guidelines for flexibility local autonomy and campus contextualization and then we made a few points and We said the radiant way is not a machine You can't just put in something and get out the other end something that is the radiant way it's spirit led It's spirit led first and it's coming through relationships The ideas are coming from people who are hearing from God and so so it's not just a machine the radiant way is not set in stone It's a living system and I think Pastor Rick does a great job of leading us in that operational excellence, but also saying hey look This is not set in stone One of our staff values is flexibility You've seen that at the conference already and so that you know There's an anointing on that flexibility at times and there's a blessing in it, but it's not always easy or convenient operationally to hold that value of flexibility yet it is often a spirit led It's not a lazy flexibility. It's like a follow the spirit flexibility if that makes sense So there's three values that we coined then these values would help us make decisions across all of our campuses and ministries These are the values that would frame our decision making and what we would bring to the table First of all spirit led number one and this is kind of what we wanted to share with you guys So I'll if you want to just write this down and Spirit led simple and scalable Those are the three kind of core Components that make up the radiant way first is it spirit led Are we as leaders and Pastor Stefan and others have already spoken to this? How are we leading ourselves? How are we leading ourselves? Are we bringing our best ideas? Are we bringing that spirit led idea? Well, how are we walking in the spirit with our ideas with this frustration? Is it just to make me more comfortable or is it really to bless the whole? Piece here, and so I think part part of that lens is just is it spirit led have I prayed about this? You know that may sound like way oversimplified But you would be surprised in a fast-paced culture how many things come up and you just hey You know what have I dedicated a slot of time to just pray about this one thing? Before I'm taking it on so spirit led simple means can it be easily communicated? You all know what the average reading level? For like the whole entire population is you know is what do y'all know? Fifth or sixth grade yeah, right so is it is it simple is it easily communicated and understood when I hear it Do I know what you intended me to hear? Okay, so that would be the communication feedback loop So everything we do if we're implementing something new That does everybody understand it. What if every time you you did something new in your church or business or organization? You said is it spirit led is it simple and is it scalable for us scalable becomes? Kind of unique feature of a multi-campus model, so to ask is it scalable? Well, let's say hey We want to add Like a worship ministry element to our children's ministry and this is actually one of our children's ministry rooms And you can see there's a stage for it and you could actually maybe do live Children's ministry worship, but then if you go to our other building in our other campus Maybe it's not set up the same way so that scalability comes into play when we say that solution that you wanted to bring Is or is not scalable at all of our locations? And so that has to become one of the lenses of the radiant way and we bring that to the table and we talk about it and Pastor Stefan knows the layout at Portage knows the teams at Portage knows the the how things work at Portage Pastor John at Richland and so and then with downtown and some other things developing Bringing everything to the table and letting it being spoke into Helps keep it radiant way and keeps us moving what we say at the speed of trust so we're not pushing operational excellence at the sake of Relational unity because that's just pain later and and so we say hey Let's slow down. This may take a little bit longer to implement, but let's make sure we have all of our key players In the room and let's make sure that it's spirit led that it's simple and that it's scalable and that will save us a lot of frustration So so this is our Radiant way, and I don't know if you guys want to speak into that I want to just tack on the the spirit led piece something that was really helpful For us some years ago. We we did this as I know, you know, everybody's in a different leadership capacity here Some of us are pastors some of us are in different maybe Positions at a church, but for us there was a time where we were doing so many things and you know again I've been here. I think 17 years so when we first started like we had church picnics, and we had Wednesday night like pie meetings and stuff like which I wish we would bring back But anyway, we had you know We just had so many things and what we would do is we would keep adding on because we're growing more things But then we're still doing other things and some of those things we're doing just because We always did them or we used to do them or we're used to doing them And so I think that spirit led piece really can be a release from okay What is God breathing on what we're where is the vision of the church going and are we okay? letting some things go letting some things die or maybe even intentionally killing some things for the sake of unity for the sake of clarity and really sustainability so it was probably like six years ago We had a whiteboard like this size and we had Most of our staff in there and we just started saying all of the things that we do like not weekend services Every other thing and it was we we help this ministry and we do this and we have this for new believers And this for new people and this for guests who come and it was insane like when it was all said and done We were like there's no possible way we can do all this well like this It's just not possible and so we went through and we cut and we revamped and we reshaped and we said where our values and what's important And how can we do better? So I would encourage leaders pastors like do that with your team And and you'd be surprised sometimes if you write it all out how much a lot of times you're doing and then You recognize we can't resource Adequately all of these things and so that spirit led piece was really important for us some years back and we decided This is what we're putting all of our not all but the majority of our focus our energy on it's the prayer room It's our weekend services and this is what we're doing for guests And this is how we're gonna disciple through groups or whatever it was, but we really had to Intentionally like shave some things down to do that So I think that can be a really freeing piece for the spirit let it really helped our our staff and it really refocused a lot of our admin Help as well. So yeah, and I Just a kind of pile on there with spirit led the spirit led piece because I think that is obviously the central Central part of the whole what we call the radiant way So I even you know, I challenged our facility team like I want you to pray about like Who cuts our grass? Why why are they cutting our grass? I want you to pray about What garbage service we use like there's nothing that we can't bring to the Lord in prayer And I think sometimes we were running so fast. We have our to-do lists Whether it's personal whether it's family whether it's work church That we just forget to just stop and pray God cares about the simple things. He cares about the things that you know make up the day-to-day life For us and he cares about the big things too, but I think it was just kind of an encouragement like to You know once again Stop Rest like it'll be okay. God's got us. That's what faith is and just you know refocus press in Pray about all these decisions because I think as we've prayed about things We haven't arrived. I don't think there is an arrival, but as we've we've kind of brought this in I think there is more clarity I think there is a you know Not that we don't work and work hard, but there's almost an easiness or a flow That we're finding that is you know his holy spirit versus maybe you know more tension more conflict more conflict resolution You know on and on and on there as we're talking I'm reminded of just some odd Symptoms of not really having this document the radiant way so portage comes on the scene and I Felt John can he could disagree with me, but I felt like man. I love John I knew John for like about ten years, but I had only worked with him for a couple and You know what was interesting about how our staff received our leadership our authority and Became this kind of Symptom of like well, that's John's personality and this is Stefan's personality and so things were being seen of like Well, I'm just receiving John's vision or John's personality or John's lens and and I would hear about I'm like yeah I love it. That's John like that's amazing But how they would hear it and then interpret it and then how they would want to carry it out didn't always fit in a Scalable or simple framework and so I think what's amazing about the radiant way is it's it's Maybe more like a constitution in terms of how it Governs who we are and in it of itself like this becomes the bad guy rather than me or John or Ben or Rick or other main leaders within the church becoming a bad guy and we could call each other So in the last it's been around what seven eight months now We can call each other to this guidance rather than pitting people relationships personalities leadership lids capacities And call on those differences, but rather say we've just got to come together Hear the complexities that are happening in conversation and it has to meet these three rules And if we can agree that it meets those three rules then we can leave in relational unity And we're not gonna have another meeting after the meeting like we're gonna be honest We're gonna be forthright. We're gonna be direct. We're gonna be assertive and I feel like it's been so Beneficial for us. I think we were kind of early on tip of the spear going through that but the I feel like the What it's benefited our staff in general of the unity in every single level Every location that they work out has really been just supernatural It's been amazing to see how God has in a way tethered and woven us together Through this right. It's not the law. It's what pastor Rick calls like it's living and so we want to hear that and If you're interpreting this what John said and I just encourage it again is to go take the main idea The main theme here God for yourself in your business and your church Whatever leadership you possess and how does this work out in my leadership environment is really key So that's that's kind of the general concept. We're open Q&A anything. It doesn't have to be about the radiant way it can be about Anything here at radiant leadership Different, you know stories of John and Stefan fighting over things, you know, we can we have tons of examples. No, yeah Randy That's that's the next main session actually. Yeah main session. Yeah, I Want to say and and while you're thinking of questions What we've been really blessed with to is obviously pastor leaves like we're not making these decisions and these kind of in a vacuum where like this is our Responsibility we are what what I think has been the biggest blessing to the staff is every Tuesday Pastor Lee teaches so we have a prayer prayer and worship in the morning and then pastor Lee who's obviously the head of our organization Teaches on Tuesdays on leadership on culture And what is important to radiant church and why and that way the entire staff is made aware Like obviously pastor Lee can't meet with everybody and he can't have one-on-one So that time in my opinion an hour and a half on Tuesday mornings is the most integral part of who we are as a staff because We hear what's important What is on pastor Lee's heart where he wants to see us go and then it equips all of us to be able to kind of help Execute that vision be a part of it and then everybody including our students RSM RSW. They're all there Kind of you know, some things can't be taught They're caught and and everybody then kind of gets that culture and the DNA Downloaded into them and it just makes you unity so much easier So I mean I think that is just really one of the greatest gifts We have as a staff and so for those of you who are senior leaders out there. I would encourage you like spend significant time like Intentional once a week or whatever it is to make sure your staff knows your heart where you feel the Lord speaking What what God's highlighting to you into the ministry because then everybody else can kind of move in that direction And it makes the staffs job just incredibly more fruitful impactful and honestly easier So yeah, and I'll just anchor to that, you know, these the staff meetings are They're transformational for our staff team and really because a lot of us are are working Kind of you know on the weekend in different roles. This becomes a type of staff kind of church in a way and a place for us to just have these weekly fill points and and Just it's incredible and one of the things we we try to emulate as as a staff team under that example Is that there's three main areas for all of us to lead one as we've said is to lead yourself To is to be super intentional about leading your team you know not just Helping having them help you accomplish the work, but really lead them And I think that's the example we're pointing to is is, you know every Tuesday. We are led by our senior Pastor and and that carries down to our staff meetings at each campus in our other Places where we lead we have those meetings to then say hey look leading your team is so important to maintaining the unity at every level And and so that's a piece we do and then the third area so lead yourself Lead your team and then lead the work lead the ministry And I think one of the things we're tempted by as all all leaders are is to be so involved in leading the work That we're too busy sometimes to to carve out that leading the team And if we were honest with ourselves sometimes we're so busy to carve out time to lead ourselves and to really set apart times and Even this year around the calendar in 2021 and and in COVID 2020 Our team has really committed to leading ourselves in more robust ways like blocking off calendar times where we're not Accessed where we shut off our devices and we say God this is time for you to lead me as As a leader and to maintain that fresh vision for yourself. So so yeah, awesome questions It has been it has been discussed as one of the things that I know Cassie and Rick and I just had a brief Convo about after we rolled it out with our staff. So yeah, we thought it would be a Blessing and and I think just setting up something. Yeah, I think I think we we want to share whatever we have I think the The watch out is you know Is we want to share the heart we want to share the why behind it? So then you can you can take it pray about it and it'll look different and that's a good thing, you know, because we've We've We've copied things, you know, we did growth track for a while. We tried that we tried this We tried other things and they didn't didn't fit. It was like somebody else's clothes, you know Once again, that's okay. It's we experimented we learned from it So that's really why we haven't rolled it out, you know to the network yet We want to do it with the right heart and the right lens so that you know The language can change like but you guys know the heartbeat behind it then. Yeah Is there another question? Yeah Yeah, we got a couple of those so we could share maybe No, so one I'll pick on my wife a little bit because she taught me that she worked at a company called Aero tech That's a national like recruiting firm and their culture was so strong in this way They they called it care frontation. So not confrontation care frontation. They cared enough about their co-workers to actually Confront them and what would happen is like let's say I have a problem with Ben Ben's the worst, right? And I was talking to Stefan about it Stefan would say hey you have 24 hours To tell Ben or I'm gonna pull you both in a room and bring it up, you know Like we're not gossip doesn't happen. Is that what that meeting was about? Yeah. Yeah It's yeah, it's tomorrow But it's that if we really truly care about someone and we've had tough conversations and people have had tough Conversations with me because once again, I'm like this is a this is a brotherhood and I'm in I'm in process as well, and I want to know like I mess up a lot So that's where I'm like no I trust these people wounds from a friend can be trusted so that You know, I think that's how just almost changing the lens, but I think the other piece is You know, we've asked and people have answered like hey, can I speak into your life? So When you're not in a conflict You like set those ground rules For like hey is now a good time for feedback. Maybe it's not maybe my dog just died Okay, if not, I'll I'll come see you in 24 hours or whatever, you know, I'll give you some time So just some just some things like that and I'd say the other thing Because I do do a bit of conflict resolution in my role and that's natural where people is I start with You know, I'll normally two people come in. There's an issue I just start with do you love Jesus and they answer. Yes. Do you love Jesus the answer's yes? Okay, great. We have come and ground. There's nothing that with Jesus we can't solve So just kind of once again trying to zoom out from that aspect You guys anything? Disagree that bends the worst Well, I love you just kidding We a few years ago Yeah, I can't remember who taught this but define love as passion for someone ties good And so love actually becomes the motivation to actually have a hard conversation and so I I've gone through my own personal therapy marriage counseling you know with my wife and I'm a pretty direct leader But there was interesting dynamics about how I related with my wife because I had exhausted my emotional capacity Within the ministry environment and so who I was at work didn't always match maybe my marriage or vice versa And so, you know, they they just chalked it out on a spectrum and there's there's passive communication There's passive aggressive. There's aggressive and there's assertive And you know the the greatest and most healthy form is assertive communication to be Careful to be thoughtful, but to be loving and to actually say it There's a lot of people that have a void saying it. Oh, we have a we do and and I think one thing we've Implemented that's been helpful as we have another we have the pastor. It comes up with all these cool names So we have a group called the Avengers and and it's more of a self-development relational piece that we carve out time for again where we're vulnerable we set Expectations for each other like hey, this is what I'm building Towards or this is what I want to see happen even in my personal life and we share that with this group of Peers and friends and then they hold us accountable. We hold each other accountable We help each other through that and I think that's been a super healthy piece for us And it builds on that relational part that we talked about in the beginning like we're not just co-workers We have to be able to have You know a relational piece that we want the best for each other want the best for each other's families And that's been super helpful I think the other piece for me is you do have to be very intentional about your own personal Development ministry is one of those things where if you give it this much it takes this much if you give it this much It takes that much if you give it that much it takes that much So one thing really appreciated about pastor Lee is is look he is a driver of visionary He has more downloaded from the Lord than we can implement at one time, but he's also very Guarded about our time like he doesn't want us gone every night. He doesn't want us, you know away from our families He's really implemented and and started that process very early on and that's been super helpful as well I know not every leader leads that way But we really try even with our staff or our teams under us to make sure how's your family? How are you healthy? And I think everybody needs that but it does become more difficult When you're on a higher level and that's why we've really tried to lean on each other So one thing I've done so I have two mature couples to their married couples Their grandparents so they're I'm not a grandparent yet. I've got a little ways to go So they they're intercessors from my wife and I so they pray for us. We send them a monthly email And you know, they're there to pray for us. They're there for counsel if we need it. They're amazing just I look up to both of those couples just From that standpoint the other piece I I rolled out when I got here is there's a lot of In ministry and just in life in general I feel like there's a lot of focus on you know kind of repairing You know you get in a car crash and you fix the car and I was like Even in the secular world Where I'd worked before there was counseling benefits and other things so we we started a pastoral counseling benefit here where radiant will There's amazing Christian counseling organizations in Kalamazoo Radiant will pay for it go Speak to those counselors can be you know You know the pastor and their spouse can go and do that as a safe place to you know whether it's if it's You know things coming up in marriage things coming up in ministry like let's nip it in the bud Let's get to it before it's a car crash And then we're trying to repair it. Let's let's do that Let's do preventative maintenance or try to to the best of our ability before we get there So I think a lot of our pastoral staff have have really leaned into that At least from from what I see so that's been another Great program we've rolled out Yeah, I was actually going to say the same thing pastor lead, you know asked each one of us to Develop a team of intercessors and so that was pastor Rick probably even before that leaning into it and then pastor Rick asked us to Lean into mentorship or coaching and so yeah, I think to be a healthy leader I have a lot of inputs. I have a therapist. I have pastor Lee have pastor Rick I have a coach. I have Friends who live in different cities that are in ministry to be a healthy leader It takes a lot of people to surround me to be healthy and I have to be vulnerable in all of those Environments and all those relationships so my encouragement is you know if you're trying to do it by yourself Like you will end up burnt out like it's just the guarantee of the cliche phrase, but it will happen and so What can you do to not get there is is a really big deal? If there's another question great, if not John, could you hear me the Divine tapestry page and I will I wanted to share this It's something we We shared with our staff me and again to roll this out to like network pastors and to make to really Help you all as leaders to help you all as leaders say hey look What does it look like for us to be spirit-led? Leaders in our context and that's not saying we're not now That's just saying you know you're hearing some examples and ideas of men that have said look God What would it take for me to become a stronger healthier better? Leader and we're sharing I feel like you know pretty open openly with you guys and and our heart is to to kind of exemplify this and not have you maybe copy what What we're doing, but to share. Hey, here's how God is leading us at radiant some of us at radiant church and it's I would call it like a strand like it's a it's a theme It's something God is doing so at radiant we have seasons of Prayer and worship and intercession that we call seek and last seek in September God was really breathing into these concepts of the radiant way and really at the end of seek just Gave the download and the revelation and all of the things that these leaders have been carrying Came to fruition in in that paragraph in those statements. We just read to you there's really a Spirit-led anointed kind of thing that we're seeing the fruit of now across our entire staff team But one of the things we we've learned and Pastor Rick said was you can't just we can't copy Then so many of the workshops you've been in you've probably got some things some threads We like to call them like they're threads God's weaving a tapestry in your church every church is unique, right? Your leadership is unique your team is unique and you can take these threads home and hold them up to God and say God How does this what is this thread look like? What is this leadership thread of humility look like? What is this leadership thread of being Spirit-led look like in our context and let him breathe on and speak in to What he's doing we think that would be a great way to kind of walk out from from this conference But the tendency is sometimes to say hey, I don't have time for all that give me the note Give me the cliff notes. Give me the statements. What can I copy? What can I bring back? How can I implement it? And so I wanted to just read this Which was written by Grant Tuler, but it was popularized by Cory 10 boom And I'm sure if you've been in ministry for any amount of time you've heard it But it's called the divine weaver and of course you know the story of Cory 10 boom and her capture and her torture and Her ability to see God in the middle of it and so it's not written for churches It's a personal thing, but I think you can hear how it could be applied to your church or or ministry I says my life is but a weaving between my Lord and me. I cannot choose the colors, but he works steadily Oftentimes he weaves sorrow and I in foolish pride forget that he sees the upper and I the underside Not until the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly Shall God enroll the canvas and explain the reason why? The dark threads are as needful in the weaver's skillful hand as the threads of gold and silver and the pattern He has planned He knows he loves he cares Nothing this truth can dim. He gives the very best to those who leave the choice to him And God has given you some threads here at this conference and the worship times and the teaching times There's probably a few more that are coming before the end of this I would encourage you we would encourage you take those back home Sit with him pray say God here's some threads. I don't know what you want to make with this But lead me guide me help me put this together You're making something beautiful in my ministry in my church and we applaud that we want to help We want to serve what God is doing in in your home and and bless you in that so You guys have other thoughts we could send off in in prayer guys good God I thank you for each leader here. I thank you for each ministry represented here Lord We just sent your Holy Spirit on this whole conference Lord You have shown up in in your power and in your glory and God I know that you are speaking to so many leaders about how you want to infuse your life and your strength into what is already Happening and so God we just pray that in a in any way possible You would take from this workshop and just give encouragement and strength and insight and and power to your leaders that they would Walk out of here more inspired to be the leaders You've called them to be in their context and Lord we bless every context We say that your work would be done that you will be done that your kingdom be established in greater measure Lord We pray that the threads that you are unleashing in our midst would be carried to fruition in every home church and every home ministry Lord and every leaders life represented here that you would put together the beauty of the tapestry That you see God in each home and each life and each marriage and each leadership challenge that that is represented in this room And at this conference we give you all the glory and all the praise in Jesus name all God's people said amen