Joey Honescko You’re listening to the Faith Driven Entrepreneur Podcast, a show dedicated to the movement of founders and leaders around the world who are using their businesses for the glory of God and the good of others. Let’s get into it.
Henry Kaestner Welcome back to the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast. I’m here with Justin. Justin, we’ve got a summer edition. And it’s great to be back in the studio with you, the.
Justin Forman Virtual studio that is remotely located this week. Where?
Henry Kaestner We are at the Basin Harbor Club in Vermont for gens Vermont. One of the prettiest places on the planet. And, I would love coming to here. But a good amount of time on the road this summer. I know that you spend some good time with family, too. But we’ve also spent some good amount of time on mission. And, I’ll tell you that the the trip and the story I wanted to share with you all comes from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Where I gave a presentation. At the end, I had two entrepreneurs who came up to me. I had many entrepreneurs who came like very encouraging, but two of them right back to back. The first one was a chocolate entrepreneur. This entrepreneur makes their money and has done very well by selling chocolate. And the second one that came up right after that and you cannot make this up. Was a peanut butter entrepreneur. And I’m like, you guys, you guys. Do you hear what this guy does? You guys got to get together. And they both gave me these, like, blank stares. And in America, where some amount of our listeners are from, you’ll know that chocolate and peanut butter go together because of Reese’s Peanut Butter cups. And the marketing that’s been dripped to us over the last 50 years. But that marketing campaign never got any airtime at all in Malaysia, and they looked at me like I had five heads. Okay, so of course, back to you. Justin is who would be the chocolate talking butter who.
Justin Forman Removed chocolate to the peanut butter? Well, I’ll tell you this. I grew up in, I grew up in a Christian home that I’m so thankful to have grown up in. And yet, one of the things that I think that we didn’t spend enough time on growing up is, those chocolate and peanut butter moments or those sliding door moments of life and seeing the Holy Spirit in the way he works. And, you know, you talk about conversations and sliding door moments. One of those for me was about 20 years ago. And so a good friend, Brian Mosley, had picked up, a book called halftime. And we went through it together as we had both started, started off in building this thing called Right Now Ministries. It was passionate about connecting people, to ways to find, opportunities to make a difference. And so we read that book 20 years ago, when we were both 23, 24, 25, in that strike zone. And I’ll tell you what, we were far from that halftime moment, but that book struck a chord, and it struck a chord deep with us to say, man, what does it look to live a life fully alive? What does it look like to live for something significant, as Ecclesiastes would say, beyond the sun and something that will last? And that book really, really, really struck a chord. In the time that we had with Bob since being here in Dallas, being his backyard was just, just a gift to really, really think about. What does it look like to not wait? What does it look like to put your passions into action right now? And so I know that’s, been a guiding thought and a guiding principle for for all of us here on this call and for so many others that are listening to this. And, so, yeah, at the top of my list, I’d, I’d put that is the chocolate and peanut butter combination using your, your language there.
Henry Kaestner I think it’s really good. I think that when I think about the different things that faith driven does and that the Lord has allowed us to do, we have, through the grace of God, had groups of more than 130 countries, and we’ve, used the, the, the storytelling from our team to help people get really excited about getting involved and getting in the game. And on the flip side of the back end, we’ve been able to find some incredible accelerators and incubators and funds and and feature and entrepreneurs are doing incredible things in emerging markets and right behind, right in our backyard in America. And yet, one of the things we haven’t been able to do as well, though we have referred quite a few people to some incredible ministries that do this. But there’s none better than halftime like you talk about he. So it’s been really fun to talk with the team at halftime over the last several months about what does it look like to work more closely together? What does it look like to be able to have a partner that we can point to and entrepreneurs and feature of investors, too, that want to get more intentional about understanding about how God has uniquely equipped them so that in light of their giftings and their experiences and their talents, they might get in the game in a way that helps them to be fully alive. But there’s no generalities. While we can all understand and agree that the call to create an identity crisis, there is a specific calling. God wants to have a personal relationship with each of us. Halftime to such a great job of helping people to understand their unique calling, coming up with a roadmap. And so we’ve got some special guests on the podcast today doing.
Justin Forman We do? We do indeed. It is, been a lot of fun over the last couple of years to get to know Tom and Jim and just to hear their story and their heart, whether it’s at Christian Economic Forum and different events or just in their backyard here in Dallas. So, Tom, Jim, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 4 Appreciate it. Absolutely.
Justin Forman Well, to start us off here, Tom, I would love for you. I don’t know who the resident historian is yet of us here, but I feel like that you’ve got just such a great, unique perspective on some of the story of half time. So we know that so many people that we serve with faith driven, are familiar with it. Their lives have been changed by it and the lives have been impacted by it. But for those that might, be discovering peanut butter cups for the first time in Malaysia or in Nigeria that haven’t heard of half time. Can you tell us a little bit about the story and and give everybody some context?
Tom McGhee Sure. So there was an entrepreneur by the name of Bob Buford. They ran a cable television company, and, he sold it and made a lot of money. And, when he did, though, he, he really wanted to pour it others. And he wrote the book halftime, which had the tagline from Success to Significance, because that was his story. And in a vision, halftone really is somebody who is 40 years old at that time. Bob said, this was 25 years ago. And, and Bob said, you know, if you’re if you’re to live to be 80, 40 is sort of half time, you ought to take a pause and say, if I keep doing what I’m doing and look at, I end up where I want to be, you know, just like we would take a half time in a, in a ballgame of some kind to reassess. And that the other side of that, he believed, is that, you know, you. You’re willing. Your life is its totality. Really. At the end of it, you’re able to say, what have I done? How have I accomplished? Who have I become? All those things, you know, the latter part of yours may be much better even than the former. And now you can build on success and build on your network and all those kind of things. So we wrote this book and it took off 25 years ago. You had Rick Warren talking about purpose, and you had Bob Buford talking about calling. And that was the telling. The main ideas out there in the marketplace and in the society about what is what am I created to do and what does God have for me, and how do I use who I am and my gifts? And, my, you know, all those things and the idea of a calling that says, well, there’s a purpose for me, you know, that I was created for such a time as this that literally is a child of God. I’ve been created uniquely to do something at this moment in the history of the world, to do something literally nobody else in the world could do, because that’s why God created me. And whether it’s something very specific or even something little, whether it’s large, whether you know what that impact is or not, it’s worth thinking about and being intentional about. And that’s what Bob wrote at half time. And so he she wrote the book. So people started coming together to see him. He would be able to speak to him and kind of speak in their lives. And I had the privilege. I had been a partner with Ernst and Young. This is about 2001, and I left Ernst and Young to become an entrepreneur, to start my own company. And I was doing that, and I was working primarily as a consultant, my own consulting company, doing strategy with fortune 100 companies. But I also wanted to do it for the Kingdom. And somebody said, hey, I live here in Dallas. Somebody said, hey, have you ever heard of this guy Bob Buford? He work for churches, which he did also besides time. And I got to meet Bob. I actually had the privilege of designing for him the very first half time program some 25 years ago when they said, you know, we can leverage everybody’s time and effort better if we can maybe get six or 8 or 10 people in a room instead of just one on one meetings. And so with that, the ministry as it is, was bought was never intended to be sort of a formal ministry. It was just an outreach of this book. And the, the, the nerve it hit in an awful lot of business people that wanted to know, you know, what was beyond success and what else is there in life. And am I doing especially as a Christian, if you realize the the what you’ve been able to do with all your gifts and talents, there’s a lot of hard work you put in, but it’s all because of the talents and things you’ve been given by God the opportunities, the timing, all of those things. And, and most successful entrepreneurs or businessmen would say, you know, I recognize that there’s a force at play much greater than me, much greater than what I’ve done. And because God has allowed me whatever level of success I have, I want to make sure I’m a good steward of that, that I’m giving back on it, that I’m using it for the right purposes, and I’m doing more than just, you know, serving myself. And so it hit a big nerve. It took off. The book sold, you know, gazillion copies around the world. We have had the opportunity to be formalized as a ministry. Few years later or early 2000, we served probably somewhere between 3 to 5000 people around the world, men and women, to help them understand who they are, how God has created them, and then to begin to live that out in their life wherever they are. And so it’s just been a pleasure, Jim and I, and I’ll, I’ll turn it over to him for any kind of, color commentary on this, but, I had been around half time. I helped start it. I continue to work in my own company for a while. In about three and a half years ago, they reached out to me to help. Asked me to help halftime with a global strategy. I was glad to come back in the family to start work with them. Jim was on the board at that time and we started working together. And, you know, one thing, one thing you kind of learn Jim’s been a consultant to is a consult. You should never recommend a strategy. You don’t want to run yourself. Right. And so we recommended this strategy go along to the board came to us, said, you know, maybe it’s time you guys should step in as co-CEO and try to help, create this vision for after we’ve been working over the last few years.
Justin Forman That’s awesome. Now. And Jim, you you were able to interact. Was it through the book or was it through the course which was the which came first for you?
Jim Stollberg The book. You know, I wasn’t quite as young as you when I read the book the first time, but it’s quite often that that is the first introduction to half time. I can’t tell you how many people we’ve met over the years and say, oh, somebody gave me the book. I read the story, and it changed my life. Some of them we never see come through half time. They just read the book and it had such an impact on them. For me, I had a mentor. I was in management consulting, as was Tom. Different firm. Maybe a better one. I would say lesser firm.
Tom McGhee Yeah. That’s right.
Jim Stollberg But but was in management consulting and a mentor gave it to me. I think it was shortly after it was published and I was probably 30 at the time. I don’t remember exactly my age, but it it had such a profound impact and, unfortunately, just and I wasn’t as wise as you and said, I’m not going to wait. I read the subtitle and it said From Success to Significance. And I said, well, I don’t I don’t think I’ve checked that first box yet. So I’m going to continue to pursue success. And I and I did that for the next 20 years. But here’s, here’s the God moment in that, right? I said how I love how God plants seeds. He used that. 20 years later, when I was 52, I left the marketplace and I, I pulled the book back off the shelf. I read it again, and it was just as profound as it was the first time, maybe even more so. And I called my mentor because he had been a long time friend of mine, and I said, can we do lunch? And, we had a we had a great lunch. And he basically said, Jim, you’re in a half time. You need to you need to go through half time. And so I did that. In 2019, I went through what we call our fellows program. So just over five years ago, and it was nothing short of transformational for me to reframe the context of how I think in my life. Yeah. You know, so grateful.
Justin Forman Yeah. I love one of the things that you guys are both hitting on here that I think is. It’s been a journey that Henry and I have been going on, just to realize and appreciate the power of space and the power of a chance to really kind of reflect. I think oftentimes as entrepreneurs and investors were quick to do or quick to build, were quick to take action, we default towards action. And when we think about discipleship, we think, oh, well, it should be just a checklist. 1234567. Go down the list. And if we do that, it can just be facts. And it could be a checklist. And it can maybe be something we bolt on to our heart. But we really need to give it space to capture our heart. Can you talk about that, Tom, when you talk about this coaching process, when you talk about the program, of what it is like, how important is it to have that place and space to to really breathe and let something kind of marinate at its own pace?
Tom McGhee You know, it’s critical. And I think we need after I would try to bring sort of three things to bear. Right. There’s a process models, tools, those kind of things. There’s coaching. An individual coach is going to take you through that kind of help guide you. But then we do everything is a cohort model. You have others around you that are all that journey with you that can help you think your confusion out loud, as Peter Drucker used to say. And I think, you know, one of the greatest things we can do, all of our programs, spend, you know, several months at least, just because it’s an iterative process. We think God reveals something to you, and you’ve got to be willing to lean into it to understand where it’s going. I mean, rarely, you know, I remember when I started my own company, like, like every other, guy who does a man or woman who does it. You know, I had a business plan. And as everybody knows, as soon as you actually step out and start most of a business plan, it was right in the trash. Right? But it was a great foundation to begin strong. You needed a place to start. And our tools and the models that are things we do, they give a person a place to start, but then you need a coach and, a cohort around you to help you work through those regulatory things that come up as you go. So so we talk a lot at halftime about the head journey and the hard journey. And this is always a challenge, right? We can get it in our head if we don’t get it. If we don’t use our head we don’t do things. We just sit around and, you know, maybe, maybe I’ll do this someday. Maybe I’ll get into that. We talked about getting clear, getting free and getting going. And there’s a there’s a specific order to that. If you try to say, I’m going to get free first, you almost never do it. You know, it’s always, I’ll get free. Will I get this much money? Or when the kids are out of the home or whatever it is, if you get going first, you can kind of trade just kind of sort of trade one treadmill for another, right? I was working, you know, working my tail off in business, and I’m going to work my tail off for Jesus. You know, there’s no there’s no heart to it. There’s no time to really think about what you’re doing because you’re so busy doing it. And so we really try to work with guys, say in your head, what are those actions that you need to take? What are those things you can do one of those, shifts you can make in your schedule and your abilities and where your platform is and all those things. But right along, integrated with that is where are you on your heart journey? How are you hearing from the Lord? How are you having a rhythm in your life that allows for enough, space to know that what you’re doing is not just the right thing, but the best thing at the right time. You know, I think so. So we try to blend those things together, you know, as we go along the journey with guys.
Justin Forman Hey. You know, one of the things I love, about that is it’s a combination. It’s not just a coach. It’s not just a peer. It’s really this beautiful mash up of all of it kind of coming together. Was that something that instantly that you guys discovered in the process, or was it somewhere along the journey that you realized that there needed to be that kind of combination of peer learning, coach learning, and kind of everything together? When how has that evolved?
Tom McGhee My background had been in collaborative work. That’s that’s what I did, bringing groups together, and helping them have these conversations that would let new ideas emerge from in companies or whatever they were. So when I was asked to design the forum, I knew it needed to be co-work based. It needed to be in a group. And that was a better way to to work through things. It went on a few years like that before we added the coaching aspect to it. They really said, you know, there’s this a group of peers is great, and it provides a perspective that’s invaluable. But it’s also often necessary to have somebody who can kind of see down the path a little bit of where you’re going and can help point you in the right direction, you know, for what you’re doing. We think then together is a pretty good programs, and it kind of evolved that way.
Justin Forman That’s great. Hey, one other thought here before I pass it back over to Henry. But one of the things that, has been our favorite phrase has been just Bob’s phrase that we’ve seen and will be sharing with others is the fruit of our work grows on other people’s trees. And hearing that in your 20s you see one inside of the tree, but in your 30s and your 40s. And as you get older, you see some of the different angles of that tree, of just how God sometimes brings you together in partnership for seasons or for long periods of time. And sometimes you don’t even know all of the fruit. That happens from the faithful work of a team and, and a mission or a ministry that’s there. And I’m struck by that. And, Jim, and I’d love for you to speak to just kind of how that guided half times model with some of these international partners. And just what was Bob’s approach to that? And it was so great for Henry and I to be on that call with many of them last week, but can you just speak to how that has guided half times model in partnership around the world?
Jim Stollberg Yeah. So true. And still love that phrase. It’s so it’s so meaningful even today. Right. Tom and I have talked over the years. I think Bob actually planted orchards and you know, he as, as Tom mentioned up front when he, he wrote the book, he was really just telling his story, and it created this movement of people came to him. And I don’t believe he had any intention of creating, you know, a business or a ministry or a franchise, right, to roll this out. And when people came to him, whether here or from around the world, he was so giving with it. Right? He was looking to just have that impact. And so many of the half time hubs, as we would refer to them around the world today, Bob just leaned into and he said, this is what I know. This is what I have. These are the tools, this is the content that we’ve been developing. Take it and go. And how can I be of help with you? To to bring that to life. And so there were no strings attached and, and because of that, it really created that movement mentality. And it still exists today. That, that people can step into half time. And therefore it’s also taken on an expression in the context of every country that it’s in right now, trying to over corporatized it, if you will, or hold it too close to, to the center, but to really let it grow in the context of where it makes the most sense in that environment.
Justin Forman Yeah, it’s been a gift. I remember, gosh, being on video shoots when we’d be sitting there and we’re asking people questions and you spend a whole day with somebody and you get a chance to hear their story and hear everything. And it was always a fun surprise or a couple of times I remember distinctly in Singapore when we were interviewing people and they were saying a book that really shaped me, and you almost kind of wanted to stop them and, you know, take a guess at what it was. And sure enough, you heard the story of how Bob’s book had just really impacted, just so many people in so many places that, you know, Bob never got a chance to see or would never have had a chance to see even if he was alive at the time. I love that that orchard language to it.
Jim Stollberg And it was never about him. Right? It was never about him. And Tom and I tried to keep the same posture of this is it’s not about halftime, right? It’s really about the stories of the people who go through the halftime experience and come out that experience living in a completely different way, right, making an impact in the world. And but that is that’s the privilege that we get to see from R.C. it’s a blessing.
Tom McGhee One of the legit really attracted us to a faith driven movement is the movement word. You know, I really think you guys are about the same thing. It’s not about, you know, building a franchise, building an empire. It’s about what I would call the power of Christianity. Turn it into active power wherever they are. You know, getting people in the game to realize that how they are uniquely made and and what they are called to do and just, you know, living that abundant life that we’ve been promised. And I and I think that that promise that Jesus made that that you’d have life and have it more abundantly. To me, that comes when you are doing what you were created to do, whether it’s big or a little bit. You wake up every morning. You know, this is the best day of my life because of today, because I get to do what I was made to do. And I just the more we can get people in that game, just the, the, the the better. It’s not just the better it’s going to be. It’s just an honor to try to put people in that direction.
Henry Kaestner I love the emphasis on getting people in the game. I think that’s so important in a world in which we might read a book or listen to a podcast or listen to a sermon. We can get inspired. But for us to actually then take action on that is something that’s, it’s it’s easier said than done. And one of the things that you’ve hit on from the very beginning in this cohort model is the same thing, of course, that blends us together in our shared DNA, and that’s to do it in a partnership in a group of people as they’re able to talk through. Okay, let’s let’s go through this together. So what does it look like for all of us to get clear on what the opportunity is and what God is calling us to, and how he uniquely loves us? And the thing that I really think bonds our DNA together as we merge. Is this concept that there’s a God of the universe, and how much he loves us more fully than we might otherwise ever understand. And getting clear first and foremost on that, and then understanding what he is calling us all to in this battle that we’re all in, we are in a battle. It’s a battle not necessarily against flesh and blood, but against. The enemy that wants to distract us from the life that’s fully life. And then you’re getting free. Getting free of the things that might otherwise encumber us. To get in the game. And to do that in a group of people, a squadron. And I don’t want to overly militarize it. But there’s some great analogies. Of course, it comes from basic training and having a group of folks that have your back and in this case, praying for you, challenging you, encouraging you each other, being vulnerable, being transparent. And it’s with that that we have always, as our different organizations sought to serve each other. But for us to do that now full time together. Is really unique. So some number of people are listening to this. And like I think I’m a little confused here, right? Maybe I heard the chocolate peanut butter thing. Oh really? What are they doing here? So it’s a merger. We’re coming together. Our teams, our DNA is being combined. The DNA of halftime is is is being a part of everything we do. It feed driven, feed driven, itinerary, feed driven, investor feed driven. Students is coming out solving world’s greatest problems. This concept of being able to understand what guys uniquely equipped you to do. The halftime DNA is going to be part of every one of the different initiatives we have. And yet halftime is incredibly powerful as a stand alone program. So as people are part of the faith driven movement and just the movement of God, to be able to come in, to be able to continue to have that highly personalized, this really high touch. Coaching and collaborative platform. That’s going to be continued program. Maybe you can speak to that. Either one of you. Just what does summary what might somebody expect from this merger? Is it all together? How is it happened? Halftime shutting down. Can I continue to refer my friends in. What was it mean for you guys?
Jim Stollberg Yeah, it, you know, we’ve talked about this as we, as we just embarked on it, we talked about halftime. And you just spoke to Henry being remaining distinct but also being integrated. And I love how we’re framing that up because we feel that halftime, you know, for people who are searching for who are experiencing what we would call that smoldering discontent, that feeling that there’s something more but not sure what that is, I truly believe that is the Holy Spirit speaking to you, that there’s something more for you in life. And, we want to serve them. When people get to that point in their life, wherever they’re at, we want to serve them distinctly, but also just recognizing the power of reaching more. Tom and I, as we took on the co-CEO roles, really felt called to serve more and serve longer. And we really felt that partnerships was the way to do it, that we really needed to be much more kingdom minded and much more abundance minded. As we went forth on this. There’s so much more we could do together. And when we as we watched the nature of movement grow and seeing you guys a few times a year, we thought.
Tom McGhee What you do.
Jim Stollberg Is so much better than what the abilities that we have it and the go to market for reach to to reach those who are not in the game and maybe not even thinking about being in the game. That’s been a sort of a, but a challenge for us. Candidly, we’ve had some people come through halftime said, boy, you’re the best kept secret in the in the ministry space. Well, that’s not necessarily the place we want to be. So if we’re going to reach more, we think that being broader and reaching that audience for the purpose of getting them to the table so that we can help them go through the transformative program that we know we can deliver to.
Justin Forman Amen, Amen. Such a great perspective. Yeah, I think that’s just worth double clicking on, is that we think that there’s ample opportunity for investors, for entrepreneurs, and even the faith driven students. We’re excited about that. New initiatives and making sure that people have a frame to walk through life, to value the importance of people on a board or in their community to walk through it with. And so we’re excited about all of those different verticals and those different opportunities to to integrate this process. But as you guys mentioned, to making sure that there is a clear, distinct process for others that might not be in those buckets, but still want to experience the power of that half time experience and go through it together. And so it’s a fun journey to, embark on both of those things together. You know, I think that, one of the things that I would love to just double click on a little bit is just the latent word that you guys views. I know that that’s something that when, you know, Karen Hung and Dale Doss and other great friends and board members and part of Half Time and Faith Driven ministries really just talked about the potential and the opportunity. I think when we say that, we have an idea, but as you guys have walked through halftime and you sense this moment, you sense this merger and you sense this opportunity, what are you guys seeing? Just the amount of latency potential that is out there in the pews of the church.
Tom McGhee Well, you know, it’s a great question. It’s one of the things that really, really touches my heart. Just reading. My wife and I do a ton of our, Bible reading kind of time together this morning. One of the words has stuck out, both in the Old and New Testament is a continued phrase that says, you know, something would happen and they would be called those whose hearts were stirred. You know, and it just makes you realize, you know what? They’re an awful lot of people, that their hearts are stirred. They’re going through the motions, you know, they they they believe in Jesus, and they go to church and they’re trying to do the right things, and maybe they volunteer a little bit, but but it’s just I’m trying to mechanical word. Certainly not the abundant, joy filled, radical, risk taking life that that Christ has, you know, invites us into. And I see that and I’m like, it just shouldn’t be that way. I mean, Henry talked about the darkness. And, you know, I think the way you push the darkness back is not by fighting the darkness. It’s by becoming who you were created to be. Do what you want. One of my favorite quotes from a civil rights leader named Henry Thurman, Henry Thurman, who said, don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive. Because what the world needs is more people who are fully alive. And I think that’s what the church teaches us. What the body of Christ needs, you know, it is you discover what God’s uniquely made you to do in this world of identity and how important that is. You get Ahold of your identity is is Jim was saying, it becomes something you can’t not too right. You just you’ve got to be after it. And entrepreneurs know that feeling from the company they started or the things that came out of a passion or a love or an opportunity they wanted to seize. And we just want to carry that same passion and every aspect of a person’s life. You know, we’re they’re living a life that is just, you know, better than they ever thought to be able to really just live it fully. And I think that I just see a lot of people in churches, I see them on Sundays, I see them around that are just not living that full life.
Henry Kaestner When you when you talk about that illustration, it makes me think back to Ezekiel, right. The valley of dry bones. Another thing that that. We’ve used in these, in these talks over the last several months, just going through the Valley of Dry Bones, where they’re the sleeper cells. And I myself have been in that valley and myself, a lot of me is still in that valley, but it’s when it’s it’s coming around men and women, like when we were with Karen last week and Samantha and and the two of you and Rhonda just, you know, it’s like, oh my goodness, I’m being woken up by my slumber into something that’s fully life. And that’s one of the things that we’ve tried to do now for a long time at Phaedra, for months, which is to go through and say there is something much, much better. But then this process that you’ve had for so long at half time is like, okay, so just don’t get feel like, okay, I’ve got to join any battle. What’s the battle? And makes you come alive? I love working with entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Makes me come alive. The person next to me may come alive by investing in multi-family real estate that houses refugees in Louisville, Kentucky. And yes, somebody else might come to live by doing Bible translation. Question is how might the body of Christ from Ezekiel, the valley dry bones, be awoken to their individual calling, where God might use them in a way that brings them closer to knowing him? And that’s what we hope to do together.
Jim Stollberg Yeah, Henry couldn’t agree with you more. I mean, that’s really the clear part of get clear, get free, get go. And God is uniquely created us. He’s giving us. He’s given us skills, passions, experiences that he can use. You know, a very good friend of mine who’s also a half time, a guy that I went to college with, you know, he went through it and half time and ultimately, you know, he, he’s a hunter fisherman from upper Wisconsin. Right? Great guy. Loves to hunt, loves to fish. When he went through his passion exploration, he picked this picture off the wall of a person hunting. And you can ask yourself, okay, how is God going to use something like that to bring the kingdom about? But he had faith and he explored that and what he has launched his wheelchair whitetails he had an experience earlier in his life where a good friend of his, couldn’t experience the same joy he had by going into the woods and hunting or fishing. And he created this ministry called Wheelchair Whitetails to bring that experience to people who are wheelchair bound, who are disabled. And guess what he does? You know, it gives him that experience. But when he serves the meal at night, he prays. And he gets he gets people together in a cohort, if you will, and brings them closer to God. And some of them will accept that. And so God can use your unique passion. God can use your unique experience of a life to really get at that core, to get clear on who you are and what he’s made you to do.
Henry Kaestner Yeah. And, Dean, well, as you have listened to some of the feature Not Far podcast in the past, you’ll know how we end each episode as believing that God’s Word is alive. He uses it to speak to us every day. I love Tom, the fact that you and your bride were doing that just this morning. Kimberly and I were going to the Bible one year together. And we want to ask you, Tommy, you hit on a little bit, but expand on it, both of you. How do you feel that God is speaking to you through His word? Maybe something came through today. Maybe it’s this week, but something that might be able to be an inspiration encouragement to all of us listening.
Tom McGhee One of the things, we had a son, who passed away about 15 years ago, but prior to that, he, he was in a motorcycle accident. And prior to that, he’d struggle with drinking and drugs for about ten years. And my wife started it really drove her to the word is a place for just, solace and hope. And, maybe in a slow learner. I tried to gut through it for a while, but then finally realized I was bored. Or she was and joined her and that it and we we have probably for the last ten years, 15 years we’ve been reading through the Bible every year together and we’ll read separately, and then we’ll come together and say, what a dad say to you in that. And, you know, half the time it’s like, did you read the same chapter I did because I didn’t I didn’t even see that phrase. Right. Because God’s speaking to each other. So and I think, you know, I sort of touched on the thing that stuck out to me. There are two things that have stuck out in the recent readings last couple of weeks. One is this idea of, you know, whose hearts were stirred. And it was the idea, it just dawned on me that that’s not everybody, that unfortunately, a lot of people whose hearts aren’t stirred, they’re okay just going along and what they’re doing and hoping, you know, maybe things will work out. And, so, so that idea of a stirring, I think there’s a stirring happening. I think there’s a quickening happening if the if the age is getting darker, the remnant is also being stirred to be the light that we’re supposed to be. And I, I just want to help people step into that. The other one is it comes out of Psalms several times. It talks about, Lord, make my path wide, or give me firm feet on my path, or make my path straight. And I just, you know, as we have entered into these conversations about merging and trying to do more, it feels like he has made our path wide. Neither of us, I don’t think any of us have stumbled on anything so far. We haven’t found, oh, I didn’t know that. Or gotcha or wow. I just don’t think that’s going to fit at all. It feels like, you know, just really, God is saying, this is a path I want you to walk down, both individually for opportunities for myself. Sure, Jim, within this greater move, but also for the organizations to move forward. So I think those are a couple of these are really spoken to me either.
Jim Stollberg You know, for me, I think I’ve shared with you my, my personal mission statement is to multiply multipliers. And, so that’s part of the reason why I’m at halftime and why I just really look forward to being part of the faith driven movement. What a better place to be than to multiply the multipliers. But we also have when we go through halftime, we also ask our our clients to develop a being statement. And my being statement is to be salt and light. God doesn’t just call me to do. And that’s one of the things I’ve learned through my journey is, I kind of came into halftime exploring what God wanted me to do, what halftime taught me, who’s who God is calling me to become. And to be salt and light in the world is really where I feel I’m being called. As Matthew 513 to 16 could be salt and light. And for me, it’s very personal. As as I’m out of my in my faith journey, it’s easier for me to be salt in this kind of environment, to be encouraging to be, you know, to be that, that way to preserve and that way to protect the faith in a, in a room full of faithful followers. But to be light in the darkness is a bold challenge for me. I have to be to be that light in the world today, especially today, is a challenge. And it doesn’t come easy. But that’s. That’s why I want to, surround myself with the faithful followers so we can be light together.
Justin Forman Indeed, indeed. Beautiful way to say it. We are so excited about the future. We’re so excited about this. I loved, details, comments and stuff that might be in the show notes. Here’s just thinking about Bob and how he might be smiling down on this kind of conversation, and knowing that that fruit has rippled around the world in so many different places, has shaped all of our lives in great ways, and so much that it brings us together to say, what does it look like to surround ourselves with people with that shared passion that you’re talking about? Jim? So, yeah, if you can’t tell we’re her and you, we can’t tell. Maybe because you don’t have video access. We are super excited about what this means for the movement, for so many people around the world that we might be able to better serve together. And so you might be able to see some of the video announcements in the show notes. If not, you can go to Faith Tours and movements.org backslash halftime and see a video that shares a little bit more about the story. How we think that God’s been winking at us throughout this whole process and bringing us together some frequently asked questions about what this continues to mean, and some of the dreams of what we think it could mean in the future. So grateful to be with you guys. Let me close this out just in a word of prayer, just praying for this next season and this chapter ahead of us. God, we are so grateful for this time in the season. You, have sliding door moments in life. To think so many moments that have led to this moment and the ways that you work. We look at it and it’s just another testament to your Holy Spirit, guiding that wide road and that path together and that you’ve brought us to such a time and such a place, and you’ve prepared us for this moment that, as Tom and Jim mentioned, as it gets darker, that we might shine brighter, and we might do that by standing together. So, God, we pray for the months ahead. We pray for the conversations ahead as we think and plan and figure out ways to better serve your church and your people around the world. And it’s in your precious name that we pray. Amen.
Joey Honescko Thanks for listening to the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast. Our ministry exists to equip and resource entrepreneurs just like you. With content in community. We know entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey, but it doesn’t have to be. We’ve got groups that meet in churches, coffee shops, living rooms, and boardrooms around the world. Find one in your area or volunteer to lead one and bring this global movement to your own backyard. There’s no cost, no catch, just connection. Find out more at Faith Driven entrepreneur.org.
