0:02

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Grow

0:05

where God reveals our way . I'm

0:07

Anjali Gibson , your host , and I can't

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wait to explore the vast riches of God's

0:11

Word with you . So don't forget to subscribe

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and stay tuned for upcoming episodes

0:16

packed with biblical teachings , inspirational

0:18

stories and a fresh perspective

0:20

on the world around us . Now let's get started

0:23

on this beautiful journey . May God bless you

0:25

abundantly . Welcome

0:30

back to Grow , where we are diving

0:33

into part two of my interview

0:35

with Casey Crawford . We

0:37

are getting ready to go into

0:40

what LoveWorks is including

0:42

, where Casey was sharing

0:44

a story about his friend

0:46

Mike . That's truly inspirational

0:49

. Let's take a listen .

0:51

I would love to hear a story . So

0:54

again , we're talking about all

0:56

the work you and your team are doing , loving

0:58

God , loving people , and

1:00

one facet of that

1:02

is , through what you just described , loveworks

1:05

, and it's caring for those

1:07

in the inner circle and

1:09

then starting to love out

1:11

. Can you give us a story ? You

1:14

shared a story about a fellow

1:16

teammate that you have . I remember

1:18

you saying he was kind of

1:21

rough in nature maybe , and

1:25

just his pathway through living

1:27

these small acts of love out

1:29

, how it actually leads to eternal

1:32

reward . Do you mind sharing a story

1:34

?

1:36

Sure , yes . So

1:38

there's three real big pillars of

1:40

ways we try to walk that

1:42

I've tried to kind of guess . Maybe walk out my faith and express

1:44

it culturally in movement . And

1:49

again , all of them , all of them , I really want to be

1:51

invitations , just

1:54

like invitations to people into a

1:56

community that loves and values one another and

1:58

then , if they're open to it , if they're interested in it , through

2:00

that process comes to know a God who

2:02

loves them so passionately

2:05

, beyond maybe what they could even imagine . And

2:08

LoveWorks is one of those . First , it's kind of

2:10

a benevolence fund , would be the equivalent of the church

2:12

, just to say , hey , we're going to care for each other . And

2:14

then we said that we hope that we've

2:16

cared for each other . Gosh

2:19

, let's get a bigger picture of the world . Let's get a bigger picture of the world

2:21

. Let's realize , man , especially in the

2:23

United States , we can get a really really ethnic

2:25

center kind of small picture of the world sometimes

2:27

. So let's be intentional to go out

2:30

around the world and meet some new friends living in

2:32

some sometimes like some really difficult

2:34

, challenging places that have a faith

2:36

and like that might be just

2:39

really stretching to us . And

2:42

so we started doing what we call vision trips . And

2:44

we said , you know what ? We're going to try to expand our vision

2:46

of what the world looks like and how we can impact it

2:49

in meaningful ways . And there's no

2:51

precursor to these trips , it's not for people of faith and

2:53

not a faith or people of courage , right ? They

2:55

say , okay , I'm going to expand my vision . And so my

2:57

partner , toby Harris , organized

2:59

a trip to Guatemala , and Guatemala

3:01

, off the coast , is known for good fishing and so Toby

3:04

loves to fish . He called a few guys saying

3:06

, hey , you guys want to go fish with me in Guatemala for a few

3:08

days . And guys

3:10

say , yeah , love to go fish , love to go

3:12

. He said , okay , we're going to go visit a couple of friends down

3:14

there that are building a couple of things and then we're going

3:16

to go off shore . And the guy said , okay , you know , sent out was great . And so

3:18

one of those is our now president

3:21

, a guy named Mike Brandon , who's an incredible

3:23

, just incredible friend , incredible brother in Christ

3:25

I just absolutely love dearly . And

3:29

you know , mike , mike was a guy he kind of

3:31

said he had been to you know service

3:33

a couple of times . Maybe growing up race

3:35

Catholic kind of went Christmas and Easter

3:37

or two or three times . That was it . He's like man . I knew who

3:39

. Movement was a new case . He was . He's a person of faith

3:42

and I just went . That's great , that's great . I'm

3:44

all about like a good moral company . I like that . Mike's

3:47

got , you know , two tat sleeves

3:49

up up and down both arms . I think he

3:51

had 20 something felonies before he was 18

3:53

or at 18 . Like

3:55

it says some crazy number , I don't know how you get a funny four

3:57

18 , but it was a pretty wild thing . And he

4:00

described this like man . I was just a kid , it was not

4:02

bad stuff , it was just , but like

4:04

the guy's just wide open , right , but fully

4:06

courage . He said , yes , I'm going , and he

4:08

now calls that the NAFTA trip

4:10

. So not a fishing trip after

4:13

all . Or

4:15

he'll say , if it was a fishing trip , I

4:17

was the catch . But you

4:20

know , mike went down to Guatemala with my partner Toby was like you

4:22

know half a dozen other teammates and

4:25

before their fishing trip they went and visited some

4:27

villages and with a group called ICM

4:30

and they they built hope centers in

4:32

these villages . I said I see him did this , the work that

4:34

they did . And Toby had done some work with ICM

4:36

and he said you know , mike , I want you to see this . And

4:38

so they went to a village and they

4:41

met some local leaders . They met a pastor of a little

4:43

little little village and

4:46

there was not a permanent structure in the village and

4:48

Mike was looking around at poverty that he'd never seen

4:50

or experienced . And then

4:52

he met a young

4:54

, 13 year old girl who had walked

4:56

to that village for

4:58

some number of miles and the pastor's introducing

5:01

her and Mike was just kind of undone

5:03

by this girl's faith . And he goes , man

5:05

. She was telling me things about her faith and I couldn't understand

5:07

them and process them and

5:09

he started to ask the pastor why is she coming ? He goes

5:11

well , she's coming to help build this hope

5:13

center because it's . It's a big deal for this whole

5:15

community . And Mike , you know why is it

5:17

such a big deal ? He goes well , in Guatemala , on average

5:20

, girls for age are going to be pregnant

5:22

by the time of the 13 or 14 years old

5:24

and it's from non-consensual

5:26

sex and

5:28

it's kind of cultural but without a permanent

5:31

structure for them to sleep in a safe place

5:33

for them to go to school as an orphanage , a church

5:35

, on Sundays . That's

5:38

what she's headed towards and she knows that and

5:40

the whole community knows that . But when we want to change that , mike

5:44

was just undone . Those are human right . This is

5:46

a human being , a precious little girl who's

5:48

smart and bright and all all you know hope

5:50

in her eyes . And Mike's

5:52

saying how much are these to build

5:54

? And he was actually with three

5:56

Christians and Mike would at that time call himself not a

5:58

person of faith at all . The pastor

6:00

told him so you know they're about $25,000 . Mike

6:04

looked at the three guys with

6:06

him and , as a typical sales guys , he's

6:08

Every one of you in

6:10

that first can put that on an am ex card

6:12

. I know how much . I know how much

6:14

you make . Okay , put your cards in the bowl

6:16

. We're all gonna build one . We're gonna build four of these and

6:19

the guys the world's

6:21

gotten into . Mike . And Mike

6:24

came back from that trip me , told me the case

6:26

I needed me with your breakfast , me , oh man , I , we

6:28

come down and he's just , he's tears his eyes

6:31

. He says I need to understand . I know you're a person

6:33

of faith and I need to understand , like what this

6:35

little girl's fates about . I don't get it . I don't get

6:37

it , like I don't understand . And and your

6:39

shirt asked me these really easy questions , like you know why the bad

6:41

things happen to good people all like . But

6:45

Mike was like convicted to build these churches just out

6:47

of the human need . And so Mike Kitted that

6:49

he was gonna see a hope center built in every

6:51

village in Guatemala in the next five years

6:53

. Not a person of faith at that

6:55

time , like not a person of faith at all at that

6:58

time and but was exploring an issue , but just

7:00

knew that this is the kind of like like I can't

7:02

unsee this and I can't not move

7:04

and cannot act . And he actually began Inspired

7:06

people that were saying , hey , I'm a follower of Christ and deep

7:09

faith to actually be generous and get involved in this Lead

7:11

. I mean , he's led dozens of trips to Guatemala and

7:13

he had built 200 hope

7:16

centers in villages in Guatemala

7:18

kind of that , are inspired and organized to have them built . And

7:22

before he finally came to faith , and

7:24

, and , and

7:26

it clicked for him in a conversation with

7:28

John Maxwell and they went , they went Golfing

7:30

and John's one of the greatest evangelists in the world . He kind of explains

7:33

that the gospel , the Mike , in a way that I just never could figure

7:35

out how to and might call me , and

7:37

so this has got to be the way Peter came to faith . Right

7:39

, mike calls me . I

7:42

mean my wife from Jersey also loved , I loved

7:44

my Jersey Pete and Mike Mike

7:47

goes a case . Yeah , he's crying

7:49

, just I finally get it . It's

7:51

all about nothing , jesus . He didn't

7:53

say a thing . He's all about everything . Jesus

7:55

, like even try to tell me Like

7:58

I pray to receive Jesus , a follow-up Jesus

8:00

, like I'm , and it was just such

8:02

a beautiful like submission he goes . And , by the way , I'm

8:04

getting baptized at the first church I ever built

8:06

. By what ? The whole epic company to come . Actually

8:12

, you know this is not what it looks like on Sunday morning

8:14

at a lot of our now like proper

8:16

south or something . But man , it was what

8:18

it looks like when somebody just encounters

8:20

a lover , christ . When they step out a little

8:22

bit in faith , they start walking alongside

8:24

guys and doing the work that he does to me and love and

8:26

serve the marginalized and it's

8:30

been . It's been an incredible , beautiful transfer . I don't know how many

8:32

people like him a faith through . A 65 teammates

8:34

did fly down there . Mike's wife actually

8:36

stood up to get baptized as well . Two teammates

8:39

and a teammate Don't stood up to get baptized

8:41

along with Mike in the river alongside you

8:44

ever built and that pastor is a

8:46

friend of this day and Mike still goes down there and visits

8:48

him . And you know , we got Literally

8:50

have hundreds of stories like that of people they

8:54

start kind of walking the stuff out in the workplace with

8:56

friends , step out on mission

8:58

and and

9:00

the larger change like way and whether they come to faith

9:02

or whatever that looks like like everybody comes

9:04

back better , everyone comes back on . Wow , I'm

9:07

in my life's richer , and that's what I

9:09

say . People say thanks for going and they may always

9:11

come back to go . Oh , my gosh , you know I received

9:13

like I received , like I got to meet people who are walking

9:16

with courage that I can't imagine . I got to

9:18

. I get to , you know , see , people are

9:20

processing decisions that that make mine

9:22

back here just seem heady

9:24

and insignificant and that that's actually

9:26

A gift that take my eyes off

9:28

of myself and think about man , all that I have

9:31

not , all that I don't have , like you know , I'm thinking

9:33

about that . And so , yeah

9:35

, we see people live transformed in those love

9:37

works and vision trips . And and

9:39

then finally , I needed to put a thing in place . When

9:41

Mike , mike was coming back from these vision trips , we had other

9:43

teammates come back with these hard , hard

9:45

questions . I'm like life and faith

9:47

, that's going man , I don't know . I'm

9:50

sure listeners feel this way sometimes too

9:52

, like I don't . I'm not Billy Graham , I'm not , you know , I'm

9:54

having , having graduated

9:57

seminary with all the equipping and to

9:59

answer all these really tough questions on

10:02

faith and explain everything to folks . But

10:04

others have , others have , and so I actually

10:07

invited a really good friend of mine who has a doctorate

10:09

in a theology that helped write some curriculum

10:11

for us to just like answer the

10:13

hard questions in life , you know , and discuss

10:15

them and process them and then you answer

10:18

them is probably the wrong phrase , but discuss them and explore

10:21

with them . There aren't great answers for

10:23

these things , but there are a lot of truths that

10:25

we can learn , particularly when we process with

10:27

some other . And so he wrote a curriculum called movement mentoring

10:29

, where we just process life's questions

10:31

together in small groups and

10:34

just kind of shared vulnerably and authentically . And

10:36

that happens , I think , more robustly in the workplace

10:38

than I ever experienced in the church

10:40

. Cause at work again , I'm doing 40 , 50

10:42

, 60 hours a week , right , and people know what

10:44

I'm acting like . Like I can fake anyone

10:47

out for an hour at church Pretty much

10:49

, unless I'm in like the worst , hardest time of my life

10:51

. I can smile and high five

10:53

. We don't even know . You see me across the , you

10:55

know sanctuary or something

10:58

, or even doing a small group , sometimes one

11:00

hour . Our lives are intertwined

11:02

. When you're working together , man , your lives

11:04

are like locked in and

11:06

you just so . When you start

11:08

processing these harder questions in life , you

11:11

know the purpose of it , the meaning and these

11:14

things . With people that you do that much life with , I

11:16

think you get to more honest answers

11:19

more quickly and that's a good thing . That's a really , really

11:21

good and powerful thing . And

11:23

so we've seen I mean we've had thousands of

11:25

teammates now go through small group mentoring

11:27

groups together such a process in life's

11:29

big questions . That's been up

11:32

.

11:33

No , that's so good and we hear all the time

11:35

truth sets people free , and the thing

11:37

about the truth setting people free is

11:39

we actually have to be courageous enough to

11:42

confront the truth Like what are the fears

11:44

and the worries and the things

11:46

, the hurts that are in our heart that need

11:48

to be brought forward so

11:51

God can heal those things . So

11:53

I love the notion of mentoring and

11:56

really just creating space to help

11:59

people live intentionally

12:01

, on purpose , on mission , as

12:03

you described it , in their best

12:06

form of themselves , right , Really cultivating

12:08

who God created them to be . It's

12:10

just absolutely fantastic . Want

12:14

to move from

12:17

love works , the mentoring , the vision

12:19

trips that facet of

12:21

how you're loving God and loving people to

12:24

the schools . So you've talked

12:26

about the schools a couple of times just

12:28

for folks who don't know what are the schools

12:31

and how many of them have

12:33

you been able to stand up so far .

12:37

Yeah . So kind of part of our vision again , just like four

12:39

employees that , hey , you know , want to love each other , love

12:41

and serve our customers , and if we've created a profit doing

12:43

that , which we hope we would , wouldn't it be neat

12:45

to like take that profit and reinvest in the

12:47

communities we're a part of ? Didn't know how , didn't know

12:49

what we would do with that or how we would do it . We

12:52

just started and we pivoted a couple of times . We started doing

12:54

some . We did an affordable housing project with single

12:56

moms , that we did a community center and then , as

12:58

God kind of blessed the business , the business crew , we had more

13:00

capital and more opportunities and we

13:03

landed on schools charter

13:06

one title

13:08

one , charter schools that are

13:11

exclusively built to serve

13:13

the most marginalized in our community

13:15

, the poorest kids in our community . It's

13:19

been absolutely outstanding . We really researched what

13:21

are the things that are going to change kids lives . With the largest

13:23

amount of impact and overwhelmingly

13:26

the largest statistical correlate to a kid

13:28

escaping poverty in their lifetime is whether or not

13:30

they can read at grade level in third grade

13:32

. Interestingly

13:35

, we also build our prisons in America

13:37

based on the number of boys they can read in

13:40

third grade .

13:41

Oh my gosh , that is crazy

13:43

.

13:44

It is . It's a pretty tough statistic to

13:46

when you process that on average , in like in Charlton

13:48

, north Carolina which is not this summer from a lot of other big

13:50

cities 98% of our kiddos

13:52

that are born in poverty will die in poverty . So

13:55

you imagine being a single mom with three kids and

13:58

you know to your boys and

14:01

they can't read a grade level , you know there's a person self-past

14:03

to be involved one of them , and that there's a 98%

14:05

like less than 2%

14:07

Likely that your kid is are going to be the ones

14:10

that are able to to matriculate out of

14:12

poverty in their life . And that's just statistics

14:14

. Right , that's statistics . And so you can look

14:16

at them . They hey , there's either something like deficient with

14:18

the kiddo or there's like something deficient with

14:20

the systems and the culture and the values around them . We

14:23

believe many skid there's nothing wrong with these kids

14:25

, like there is absolutely nothing wrong with these kids . They're

14:27

great and image of God they are . They

14:29

have fearfully , wonderfully made gosh . They

14:32

have so much ridiculous potential . But

14:34

there are a lot of there , a lot of Challenges

14:37

they have , particularly in the education system , that

14:39

are keeping them from realizing that full potential . So

14:41

we looked at the institutions that were changing that

14:43

most dramatically . And we looked at housing , because

14:45

we're in Mortgages and it was not housing

14:47

. And we looked at health care and

14:49

I've a great friend runs a massive Medicare business

14:51

. We look at it really stated in depth , it is not health

14:54

care . And we looked at the institution of education and

14:56

overwhelmingly , this institution of education

14:59

provided the largest opportunity right to pour

15:01

into kids pre-k through sixth grade and

15:03

Equip them with

15:05

the tools they need to fully use

15:07

all those gifts to break out of poverty

15:09

and Sliv of life . I think the

15:12

God has come in a much more meaningful way

15:14

. So then we started going okay , if it's education , who's doing

15:16

this ? Well , how do you do education ? Well , we run around the US

15:18

trying to find some of the best practitioners

15:21

of Bringing

15:23

education into to the urban

15:25

poor and breaking some of these cycles of

15:27

poverty , and Turns out one of them was

15:29

right here on backyard , cheryl Turner , running a great

15:31

school called Sugar Creek . And

15:35

you know it was a long , interesting

15:37

story , but we got . We got really passionate about it . So start building

15:39

schools . We ended up hiring an incredible CEO of

15:41

movement schools named Kerry Antonisha Thomas , who

15:43

was coming down from New York after in the best schools in

15:46

New York and we intersected

15:48

her and she was almost gonna be out

15:50

, like she was almost gonna be out . She's . She's incredibly

15:52

packed . She's with the 14 public schools growing

15:54

up and graduated Topper

15:57

class from Columbia and then was one of the most successful educators

15:59

in the state of New York , was born out . She

16:02

saw what we were doing . She

16:05

got reinvigorated and she said you know what , if

16:07

you will build Great schools

16:09

, I will fill them up with amazing kids

16:11

and amazing teachers . And she's done exactly

16:13

that . So we've committed to build a hundred title

16:16

one charter schools over the next eight

16:18

years . Now only got eight years . Left Was

16:20

10 . We started . We started the 10-year vision . We're kind

16:22

of kind of doing a geometric multiplication

16:24

strategy and

16:26

we are . We are at five

16:29

schools open and active right now . We have

16:31

four more coming out of the ground next

16:34

year and we're

16:36

opening in Atlanta , charleston and Raleigh Next

16:39

year . And it's just been . It's been absolutely incredible

16:41

to see what these kids have done . Our kids are now having

16:44

, on average , about 50%

16:46

of them are reading at grade level , which KT

16:49

would would would jazz ties me for celebrating

16:51

, but when , when you're comparing that

16:53

to like 15 to 20 percent

16:55

of their demographic peers reading at grade level . It's

16:57

a celebration , it's progress . Now she is correct

17:00

and I don't argue with her ever . But

17:02

our kids are capable of 90% Like

17:04

that . 90% of them are gonna be reading a

17:06

grade level when we do the work that we need to do to get

17:08

from there . But , ma'am , we're thankful

17:11

for the progress and we think we're giving kids

17:13

an opportunity at home . And then we , you

17:15

know , we can wrap those schools around with after-school

17:17

services , with weekend services for mom

17:19

, for dad , for for caretakers

17:22

. We have counseling at every school and we're

17:24

actually are putting medical in most of the schools Also

17:26

, just get to help the medical . And what we want

17:28

, angelique , is two things . One , we

17:30

know God's called us to do this , right . We know all

17:33

this to like , love the margin lots

17:35

, particularly kiddos , and you

17:37

know scale and we're pretty good at scale things . So so

17:39

we're doing it in that way and he's given

17:41

me as the capacity to do so . So walk in

17:43

that . But what we're doing

17:45

only an example like a hundred schools doesn't

17:48

solve the problem in two or three states , right

17:50

? What we want to do is go

17:52

first and live into our name of being

17:54

a movement , and so we say , hey , we're going to model out

17:57

for folks what it can look like improve out in our

17:59

nation . So many of our problems in our country are locked

18:01

up in the bottom 10%

18:03

of earners in our country . There's just so

18:05

many problems that are associated with poverty . Life gets

18:07

so hard if you're living in poverty and

18:10

as followers of Jesus , I think we are supposed to be like

18:12

leading the charge at the tip of the spear

18:14

, to like run to our neighbors in poverty

18:17

and think about how to love and serve them

18:19

in a way that doesn't just like throw

18:22

a fish or like throw a meal , but it's like

18:24

actually comes alongside folks , partners

18:26

with them , so they can use all the gifts God's given

18:28

them to have like a flourishing , thriving

18:30

life , so that we have stronger communities , stronger

18:32

city , a stronger nation over

18:34

time . And so we're trying to do our part to be

18:36

kind of the tip of the spear of that and

18:38

improve out this model with schools and then

18:41

give it away . Just give it away to

18:43

anyone that'll take it . We run our schools

18:45

100% inside of state and federal dollars

18:47

. So it

18:49

truly it does take capital to build a school

18:51

and all that kind of thing , but we're running it

18:53

like a business so that it's sustainable and scalable

18:56

and can be replicated , hopefully , across

18:58

the US . That's just the contribution we

19:00

want to make into our country to

19:02

improve out these kids have everything that they need

19:04

and we want to break down any kind of you know

19:06

, subtle racism that exists to say , hey , these

19:08

kids somehow are deficient or can't do that . We know

19:10

that's not the case . We're going to prove that out the kids are proving

19:13

that out and and

19:15

then give people a model for how to do this more robustly

19:17

and more scale so more kids can experience that hope

19:19

, break those chains of poverty .

19:22

That's absolutely incredible . You know , I love the

19:24

notion of rinse , leather , repeat , and so

19:26

a lot of really good work

19:29

has gone into figuring this

19:31

out and being able to

19:33

leverage what you all

19:35

have paved the way on and just continue to be

19:38

multipliers , like the numbers of multiplication

19:40

across our communities is what's needed . So

19:42

I'm going to share a lot more

19:44

detail and the show notes on how

19:46

people can learn

19:48

more about not only what we've

19:51

talked about today , but there's so much more

19:53

that you all are doing that is just really

19:56

good to dig into just one

19:58

, I think . What

20:00

can you do today ? Take a step , love

20:02

the person sitting next to you right ? That's call

20:05

number one . And then , through faithfulness

20:07

, when you're faithful to those around you , god will

20:10

continue to open doors to do more , and

20:12

so I'm hoping that you're catching

20:15

. Those who are listening are catching some of the vision

20:17

that Casey is casting

20:19

for our community . What

20:22

could Charlotte look like if

20:24

you're in Charlotte ? What could it look like if we truly

20:26

did love our neighbor as we love the Lord

20:29

, if we really lived it out ? What could New

20:31

York start to look like ? Or Chicago

20:33

, or the cities

20:35

that are literally just crumbling

20:37

within ? They need the love

20:39

of Christ . So we are the love of Christ . We

20:42

are to bring the light to the city on the hill

20:44

Before we go

20:46

. I also want to cast a little

20:48

bit more vision to marketplace

20:50

leaders . So , whether it's a CEO

20:52

of a company or someone in

20:54

a leadership role thinking about

20:57

creative , creatively , how

20:59

do people have roles

21:02

that actually are established

21:04

with almost love ? Ambassadors in the community

21:07

. And when I was reading up

21:09

on some of the roles that you've established

21:11

inside a movement mortgage , casey , a

21:14

couple of them caught my eye . I

21:16

was just love to hear your

21:18

take on what these roles are . So

21:22

it really is providing inspiration

21:24

to other people to

21:26

maybe even do the same in their organizations

21:29

. And I'll just call out a few you have

21:31

a chief pastoral officer Super

21:34

interesting , that's not typical in a business A

21:37

Christian counselor , a

21:39

social worker . So let's just do

21:41

those three . Those are three roles

21:44

that exist in community , but not

21:46

typically a business .

21:48

So I'd be quick to say , like

21:50

we do , we have like 5,000 team

21:52

members , right ? So business has a certain amount

21:54

of scale and things . These are not things we had day one

21:56

, right , these are not things we had . There's certainly not needed

22:00

day one . I think a lot of people say , well , we only have

22:02

20 employees . I can't afford a pastor , goodness gracious

22:04

, of course you can't , but that would make no sense in the world . Like

22:07

, I started to have a problem

22:09

myself like

22:11

with being able to like

22:13

walk more deeply with people with questions they

22:16

had about faith . And it

22:18

was such . It was such because of our culture

22:20

, because of our vision trips , because of all that we do . Man

22:23

, it was just a resounding need

22:25

inside the community . And so our foundation

22:27

decided to fund a person to

22:32

kind of process a lot of those questions with and build us some

22:35

curriculum and do all those things . And

22:37

it's been outstanding . He actually doesn't like all the

22:39

time being called the pastor off , because that's like

22:41

Christians love that phrase and a lot of people aren't don't , and

22:43

that's really important . And so we're yeah

22:46

, we're pretty sensitive

22:48

to that that his role

22:50

will be one that is like a blessing to

22:53

everybody in the organization and so like

22:55

he's very intentional to create a lot of values based curriculum

22:57

as well . That's something around like love

23:00

, courage , humility , care , empathy

23:02

, all that kind of stuff . We process a lot of those kinds of questions

23:04

in community as well . So

23:07

that's the first one . The Christian counseling one is we

23:09

have Christian counseling and agnostic

23:12

I guess , karen , I'm not

23:14

agnostic , but secular counseling

23:16

as well . But a lot of our folks are

23:19

people of faith inside of our community and they really want

23:21

that connected . And it's

23:23

when you start thinking about the emotional wellness and the productivity

23:26

of your folks . I think I can make

23:28

absolutely I know I can make an

23:30

argument that organizations are far more productive

23:32

when their folks are emotionally healthy and spiritually healthy

23:34

. And so , yeah , we invest

23:37

in it . You know it's an investment , I think it's , I think

23:39

it's one with really good returns . Right , it's not , it's not what again

23:41

this is ? This is something like , oh , that's so nice of you

23:43

to do . Well , actually , very selfishly , I really want to have a high

23:45

performing organization . Our folks are way

23:47

more high performing when they are like really

23:49

healthy emotionally , spiritually , relationally

23:52

, and like me , first and foremost , they're like I

23:54

think , advantage of these services like robustly

23:56

. Okay , amen , we

23:58

, we , you know we all need these things

24:00

, and I think , again , that's probably the theme throughout

24:03

all of this is just trying to build a community that

24:05

I'd want to be a part of , or I want my kiddos to

24:07

be able to be a part of , right ? So so there's a

24:09

again that very selfish theme in

24:11

there , I guess .

24:12

And then finally- it's God's desire God

24:14

. God created community right .

24:16

Absolutely , absolutely . You walk in there and you're like man , this

24:18

is this , feels so good and so healthy

24:20

. That's right . And the other associate worker

24:22

was one like our Love Works program , dimea

24:24

. I met with her yesterday , actually an amazing woman

24:27

that has a huge heart for

24:29

people and is so gifted . Again

24:32

, our Love Works program got to be of the size and scope

24:34

that that you know , with hundreds of

24:36

teammate taking advantage of it . We don't just

24:38

want to dole out capital , right . A lot of times there's emotional

24:40

support that's needed , there's , there's , there's , you know , plugged

24:42

into the right programs . And so we

24:44

got somebody who's like an absolute expert at

24:47

that to really not just dole out dollars

24:49

but , like love serve , walk alongside

24:51

our teammates that were in times of need , you

24:53

know , so that they didn't come

24:55

back in at that time and didn't fall , you know like , didn't fall

24:57

back into the ditch , and she's just incredible at

25:00

doing that , has a team now that helps her . We have a lot , of a lot

25:02

of folks volunteer . We have spouses , that kind of go

25:04

. I don't really work , I'm not full time

25:07

, but I'd love to do something . A lot of those folks volunteer

25:09

on our Love Works team and then they thought like

25:11

, oh my gosh , I'm like full time again , cause this is

25:13

like really hard way . It is Like really really hard

25:15

work . I mean , we've been been alive for a while , it's a lot

25:17

of work and so she leads that whole team

25:19

and helps to equip that team with , you know , strategies

25:21

and techniques to , to , to , to sort

25:23

of folks to help get their life back

25:26

on track . So it's , yeah , those are , those

25:28

are . Those are a little bit different , I guess , roles than

25:30

every every corporation , but they're ones . I think again

25:32

, I would make a really strong business argument

25:34

that any business should like probably

25:37

benefit in investing in like healthy relationships

25:39

in the lives of their folks , you

25:41

get a lot more productive and a lot more yeah

25:43

, yeah .

25:45

Amen , well said . So , just

25:47

as we wrap up here , is there anything else that

25:49

you would just want to share with the listeners that

25:51

you feel like is still on your heart

25:53

? Just release it , or

25:55

you feel like you have said

25:57

what God has called you to say today .

26:00

Yeah , I hope you've said it . I think the biggest

26:02

thing I would just say like start taking a step

26:04

. You know you can already say like taking a step of faith

26:06

, and it's usually one that's a little scary

26:08

. I've just found like the faithful

26:11

one is usually a little bit scary because I think

26:13

we have an enemy . I think people

26:15

believe like Satan does not want us to enjoy

26:17

the life that God has for us or to pursue God's

26:19

paths for our life , and so he does things

26:21

to discourage us and to let fear

26:23

in our heart and

26:25

make things seem silly . And so you

26:28

know , if there's something you're feeling like led

26:30

to do , but it's a little scary , it feels a

26:32

little silly maybe , or just a little bit sacrificial

26:35

, even like , oh man , I'd like to

26:37

give , but I don't know like I also like that new

26:39

car over there and that would mean this trade off . Gosh

26:41

, just take that leap of faith Like

26:43

step out , step out in some small way , just step

26:45

out in some small stretch yourself in some small

26:47

way . Step out and just watch

26:49

God meet you there , and I promise like on the front

26:51

end , for me it always feels terrifying and fearful

26:54

. Oh gosh , can I do this ? And

26:56

then you look back , man . You look

26:58

back and what was such fear in your heart , man

27:00

? You just see God's faithfulness , like right

27:02

here he meets that fear with such incredible

27:05

faithfulness . And

27:08

you look back and just almost feel silly . Right , it's a testimony

27:10

in the story you write from . Those little leaps of

27:12

faith that are so filled with fear

27:14

are just incredible . They're

27:16

just incredible . So on this side of the

27:18

action I know it probably feels fearful

27:21

and it still does for me , like I , just every week

27:23

something probably comes up like oh gosh , I don't know

27:25

, we do this podcast , we do this thing . But

27:28

take that little , small step out in faith and watch

27:30

God meet you there , just expand your faith in him

27:32

and the day to joy you

27:34

have and fall in them , as he kind of weaves

27:36

and works out his story throughout

27:38

history of love and redeem in a broken heart and world

27:41

.

27:41

Amen . Well , well said . Well

27:43

, we just thank you for your time , casey

27:46

. This has just been an incredible conversation

27:48

and I know that the listeners are just inspired

27:50

with new hope , new vision and how to really put

27:53

love into action , carried into the marketplace , and

27:55

really help our community become a better

27:57

place . Would you do us the honor of

27:59

closing us out in prayer ?

28:01

I will . And I want just to thank you too , angelique

28:03

, because you know this podcast itself . Maybe

28:05

somebody clicking on this podcast was an active faith

28:07

, but you being willing to lead

28:10

and invest the time and energy to do this with such excellence

28:12

is it's a great testament , it's a great encouragement

28:15

to all . So thank you for your faithfulness and it's great

28:17

to connect with you as a new friend . We'll pray , heavenly

28:20

Father , thank you , thank you , thank you , thank you , lord

28:22

, for the great gift of Jesus

28:24

, for his love for us , for while we were

28:26

yet sinners and hate you , lord , you sent your

28:29

son to die for us Like

28:31

that his blood would pay the atonement

28:33

for our sin . Father , we just take hold

28:35

out of prayer at every listener would take hold

28:37

that they'd know that hope , they'd know that , oh

28:40

, this is that freedom that is in Christ Lord

28:42

, not pray . That , compelled by that freedom

28:44

, that free gift of salvation in Christ Lord

28:47

, that we would act and join . Act in faith

28:49

, lord , to follow your lead of

28:51

loving a hurting world or running people maybe that are

28:53

far from us , that even opposed to his father

28:55

the way you ran to us , and that

28:57

would pour out our lives , lord

28:59

, and with a passion

29:01

to see others come to know the hope that we have in

29:04

you . Thank you for your love for us . Lord , lead

29:06

us , guide us for your glory

29:08

, jesus' name amen .

29:12

Thank you for joining us on this episode of Grow

29:14

where God reveals our way . We

29:16

hope you found inspiration , wisdom and

29:18

encouragement as we continue on this

29:20

faith-filled journey together . We invite you to

29:22

subscribe to Grow so you never miss an episode

29:25

. Stay tuned for more biblical teachings

29:27

, heartfelt testimonies and insights

29:29

that will nourish your spirit in deep in

29:31

your relationship with God . We appreciate

29:33

your support and participation in this podcast

29:36

. Until next time , may you grow in

29:38

faith , love and knowledge of his divine

29:40

plan . May God bless you abundantly

29:43

.