0:05

In Revelation 7 , john shares his

0:07

vision of heaven with members from every

0:09

tribe , tongue , people and language

0:11

standing in the throne room before

0:13

the Lamb . Yet today

0:16

there are still over 7,000

0:19

unreached people groups around the world . For

0:22

the last six years , my family and friends

0:24

have been on a journey to find , vet

0:26

and fund the task remaining

0:28

. Come journey

0:31

with us to the ends of the earth as

0:33

we share the supernatural stories of God at

0:35

work through the men and women he has called to

0:37

reach the unreached . Hello

0:42

friends , welcome back to the Unreach podcast

0:44

. Dustin Elliott here , your host . We

0:46

are in the thick of season

0:49

two and have a really

0:51

interesting guest today , a little bit of a pivot

0:53

from our typical you know out

0:55

in the field , working among the unreached

0:58

worker . This is someone who

1:00

is curating and facilitating

1:02

access to needs

1:05

, whether that be professional

1:07

, ministry related or a combination of

1:09

the , both worldwide . And so

1:12

I have Scott Eloquen . Today he's

1:14

with switchboard , globalswitchboardio

1:16

, if you want to follow along

1:18

on the website , if you're able . Right now we

1:20

are so excited to share this story . Switchboard

1:23

gives people the ability to

1:26

post what they're good at , what are your talents

1:29

, what has God gifted you with online

1:31

, and then ministries and

1:33

organizations that have a need , whether that

1:35

be building a website or social content management

1:37

or accounting or grant writing

1:40

or whatever the kind of places

1:42

that you are , you know , gearing

1:44

up for . You can go on switchboard and maybe

1:46

find someone that wants to volunteer some

1:48

time or possibly look for a role with your

1:50

organization , and so , scott , thank

1:53

you for being here . I can't wait to

1:55

have this conversation . We know a lot

1:57

of the same people , which we'll talk about today , but

1:59

you and I are just really getting to know each other

2:01

, so welcome to the show .

2:02

Hey , it's good meeting you guys and Dustin and Claude , thank

2:05

you guys so much for all you're doing to just

2:07

take the message to the world . I think everyday believers

2:09

have no idea . They

2:11

think that missionaries are very mysterious beings

2:13

that come by once a quarter , and to be able

2:15

to make it personal and to make it real and

2:17

to get them engaged is really what we're all about . So

2:20

thank you guys so much for what you guys are doing .

2:22

Oh well , we love it . You know , in fact , the episode

2:24

that's live most recently they

2:26

talk about that exactly . These missionary couple

2:29

got to the field and then they met the missionaries that were there

2:31

and the biggest kind of realization

2:33

they had was these are just normal

2:35

people , right ? And one of my favorite

2:37

quotes , you know God's not interested in your ability

2:39

, just your availability . Right , he can

2:41

work . Can he work through you ? Right , it's about what

2:44

he can pull off . So why don't you start out

2:46

? Give everybody kind of a little background on

2:48

you , your family , how'd you get

2:50

engaged with the Lord ? And take

2:53

us into the story of Switchboard .

2:55

Super , thank you . So

2:57

I'm probably like a lot of people that are in Austin

3:00

. I grew up mostly in Austin and been around

3:02

a long time . I was the guy that was raised in

3:04

a Christian home , had a great environment

3:06

. You know vacation , bible

3:08

school and as I got older

3:10

I taught mission , friends and I want to , and

3:12

sang in the choir and all the things that people do

3:14

professionally . I was

3:16

a software guy . I was an Oracle guy , so

3:18

we did big software implementations . We put

3:21

in systems to run businesses Along

3:23

the way . We married my wife , melanie , in 1989

3:26

. When Melanie and I first got married , she had

3:28

just come back from doing missions

3:30

work in Mexico . That was a big

3:32

part of her calling and she was very involved in

3:34

that . We had always really wanted

3:37

to be much more involved in missions and

3:39

unfortunately I picked a career

3:41

that was not very good at that . It was go

3:44

, go , go . I was working for

3:46

Oracle and then later I was running a business and

3:50

I ran it in such a way that it wasn't very

3:52

easy to take time off and go do things and

3:55

you know as much as you have . You know a lot of skills

3:57

that you could help . First thing , most missionaries

3:59

don't need software skills . And

4:01

the second thing is it's hard to do it , you know

4:03

, in a three-day weekend kind of a thing . So

4:06

my wife did a lot of mission trips , my kids all did

4:08

a lot of mission activities . We've supported

4:10

missions our whole lives . But

4:13

you know , I feel like a guy like me is kind of my

4:15

future supply side customer . It's

4:17

a guy who cares , who loves the Lord , who really wants

4:19

to help , who maybe can do some helpful things

4:21

but just can't go . And

4:24

so we motored along in our lives and

4:27

, you know , things were great . And then

4:29

suddenly and unexpectedly and happily , we

4:31

had a group come by and basically

4:34

bought our company in 2019 . So

4:36

we exited . I was out that year and

4:39

then I was really looking for kind of the

4:41

next lap , what's the thing that comes next

4:43

for me , which was really

4:45

to kind of prepare myself for the

4:47

rest of my life . And so I went through Colson

4:50

Fellows , which is a Christian worldview training

4:52

. That was awesome 10 months , very

4:54

rigorous and

4:56

started doing some contract

4:58

work on the CRO side

5:01

it's a chief revenue officer . So I was working with a friend of mine

5:03

who has a software company and then got involved

5:05

with startups . So if I could insert

5:07

a God story here . I was actually working with

5:09

a startup team downtown

5:11

. That was a group that brings together ventures

5:14

, venture capital and startups

5:16

to look at funding and in that

5:19

meeting I had met a woman who was a believer

5:21

and we had this kind

5:23

of sidebar conversation and I started

5:25

telling about what we were doing with

5:27

switchboard and it was a great

5:29

conversation . Again , this is a very commercial crowd

5:31

. Everybody's looking for the next unicorn and

5:34

I was downtown , I was walking back to my car and

5:36

it was really quiet and

5:39

I thought , wow , I

5:41

have to quit my job and I need , I need to do this

5:43

full time . Like it

5:46

was . It wasn't exciting or it wasn't

5:48

terrifying , it was like it was just . It was very clear

5:50

. It was clear .

5:50

Yeah .

5:51

Very clear and unusual for me . And

5:53

so I got back to the car , drove home , I talked to Melanie

5:56

. She's like , okay , if that's what you need to

5:58

do , let's do it . I mean , it was like it

6:00

was that that was kind of the decision how

6:02

to stand up meeting with my boss the next morning . I'm

6:04

like so here's the deal , I have to quit

6:07

, I have to do this thing . He , he is not a believer

6:09

. Um , hopefully he'll be listening

6:11

to this at some point . And he

6:13

kind of got me to hang on for a few more

6:15

weeks . But then I moved on to do this full time

6:17

as a volunteer . But we really wanted to

6:19

see whether or not what we're doing at switchboard

6:21

was was feasible , whether it was

6:23

even a possibility . And then

6:26

the way to end that story is I had a lunch

6:28

meeting with two of my board members because we were already

6:30

talking about this concept and had been for six months

6:32

on Monday , so from Thursday

6:34

to Monday and these are two guys that

6:37

actually go to this church . This is Nick Alter and

6:39

um and Tim Allen . We

6:41

sit down to lunch and they're going to buy

6:43

and it's like all great and uh

6:46

, they lean in and they're like so we've been talking

6:48

. We think you should quit

6:50

your job and do this .

6:52

That sounds exactly like Nick Alter , by the way and

6:55

Tim for that .

6:56

Uh yeah , so I was like so

6:58

I quit my job Thursday which Nick did too

7:01

Right . Oh yeah , that's , a good point

7:03

.

7:03

Yeah , yeah , that's a good point . I remember when he said he was leaving Altered

7:05

Devils , I was like wait , but it's it's Nick , Altered

7:07

after you . Nick is like , yeah , I know , but I got to go do

7:09

something else now .

7:10

But it was . It was really . It was an amazing

7:12

thing , it was a great validation and

7:14

, um , for us , um , this was

7:16

still around . It was a hypothesis . You know we have

7:18

vast resources in the kingdom

7:20

and immense , profound

7:23

scarcity in the field . It just seemed like

7:25

it just seemed a little unbalanced , honestly

7:27

. And you guys have talked about the 1% . You

7:30

know going to the field and the Halloween costumes

7:32

for your pets and things like that .

7:33

You might've just named the episode . By the way , Vast

7:36

resources in the kingdom and immense scarcity in the field

7:38

. Right , that was , that's good .

7:39

Well , there you go . For me to take my skills

7:42

and make them available is just

7:44

, it's such an untapped resource . And and

7:46

what you realize is that mission organizations

7:48

do all the things that traditional

7:50

organizations do , their businesses are doing . Yeah , they just

7:52

don't have the skills to do it . So , uh

7:54

, back when we first were kind of spinning up

7:56

, I was under the I'm going to say misconception

7:59

that well , virtual volunteering , that's going

8:01

to be white collar on

8:03

a computer . So accounting websites

8:06

is good , maybe education . And

8:09

then you realize that I met somebody

8:11

at a class here at Austin

8:13

Ridge and he's a software sales guy and

8:15

I'm like , well , what could he , what could he do for

8:17

the kingdom ? And then I realized that my

8:19

clients , my mission organizations that you guys

8:21

know , you know they're implementing workday

8:24

and they're licensing Salesforce . Having a guy

8:26

that knows how to sell force licenses on

8:29

your negotiation team to make sure you're buying the right stuff

8:31

is huge . I

8:34

mean , literally two , three hours of time

8:36

could make an enormous difference . So you

8:38

know , back to the comment you made earlier about

8:40

availability Um

8:42

, it's not ability , it's availability . It's like

8:44

just make yourself available . And the stories we have

8:46

of people that have said I

8:49

don't think I could serve . But hey , here's my

8:51

name . If somebody needs help with this

8:53

, let me know . It's like I mean I could go down

8:55

the list .

8:55

Okay , let me summarize . Software

8:58

guy , love the Lord already

9:00

, right , you had been grown up in the home , you had been giving

9:02

tithing throughout , and I think that there

9:05

is a concept of I

9:07

do work and I cut a check and the church kind of

9:09

the varsity Christians go out and they take care of it , they

9:11

do the , they do ministry and they do missions in

9:13

some capacity . And , man , we

9:15

have been really trying to shift

9:17

that focus to like , no , you're called by

9:19

Christ to be a reflection of him

9:22

, day in , day out , 24 , seven , three , 65

9:24

. You were doing that in some limited

9:26

capacity as a software guy because of

9:29

, you know , limited availability on your

9:31

time . Then the

9:33

pivot to running a business , then an

9:35

exit , kind of an unplanned exit . It sounds

9:37

like somebody kind of unsolicited found

9:39

you and what a lot of guys do

9:41

at that point is they end up at a

9:44

incubator or a lab or in

9:46

some some capacity .

9:47

Exactly what I did .

9:47

Right when you're connecting new

9:50

folks who were starting up with new ideas and other folks

9:53

that have some money from maybe exiting ideas and

9:55

we've got some smart capital and you

9:57

need some assistance right . But you also took

9:59

a 10 month deep dive

10:02

course that , I think , probably

10:05

really connected your

10:07

heart to your purpose

10:09

in your next season .

10:11

If you talked about really focusing your efforts

10:13

. I think that's exactly right . And Colson goes through this

10:15

intensive study and then in

10:17

month seven , you work on

10:20

your three year personal ministry plan . That says okay

10:22

, you know , you know you can change the world . It's

10:24

your responsibility to get involved , tell us what you're going to do and

10:27

you write that up . And actually this is what I

10:29

wrote up for my personal ministry plan

10:31

when I was commissioned from Colson Fellows

10:33

.

10:33

I love that , I love that , it's pretty cool .

10:35

Yeah , it's pretty cool .

10:36

And so we wrote it up . We've got the commissioning

10:38

. You have the revelation

10:40

walking out that day because you had met another believer

10:43

in a space of maybe not expecting to . And

10:45

then confirmation comes right

10:47

Through meeting some other guys . So

10:50

, hypothesized , we've now kind

10:52

of got an idea of what switchboard is . Now

10:54

give us the meat . What

10:57

is switchboard right now ? What are you

10:59

actually doing ?

11:00

So switchboard is a platform that

11:03

we say we connect everyday believers to

11:05

great commission organizations and field

11:08

workers that are doing the job in the field . So

11:11

instead of outsourcing your faith , instead

11:13

of it being more of a corporate thing , it is if

11:15

there's a need . We connect a need with an

11:18

individual that can help you with that need . And

11:20

the need could be a professional thing I'm trying to file

11:23

a form or do my taxes . It could be a personal thing , it

11:26

could be I don't know if I can retire , so

11:30

can you help me put together a kind of a family personal financial plan ? We

11:34

had a woman that had who put in a request . They're

11:37

actually in Ukraine , it's a field worker in

11:39

the Ukraine and they had found

11:41

out that their child had been diagnosed with autism and

11:44

can't get health care . Things

11:47

are frenetic there's . I mean , they were very isolated , and

11:52

so we actually put in a request through the system and we found a family

11:56

who actually had raised and is still

11:58

raising an autistic child , and

12:01

now they're meeting on a regular basis , which is just , oh , my gifting

12:03

for the great commission , my way that I

12:05

can be involved in world missions , is

12:07

to have been blessed with a child that had

12:10

a special needs that I've suffered

12:12

with and struggle with and and worked with for years . It's

12:14

like I mean , let's just cry about that . I'm

12:18

like , wow , how incredible is that . It's not just

12:20

accounting stuff , man , you can't quantify that

12:22

either .

12:24

You can't run a discounted cash

12:26

flow analysis on that and put a value on it , Right , Exactly . But

12:29

like when you talk about storing up treasure in heaven with

12:31

no rust and no moths and no

12:33

decay right that that pays massive dividends

12:36

, that's a multiple right there . It's really

12:38

something .

12:40

I was actually at a Christian incubator

12:43

here in Austin a few weeks ago . Who are you ? What do you do ? I mentioned what

12:45

it is and there was a guy across the room that was

12:47

staring me down . I'm like he's thinking something . I

12:50

you know . There was 20 people there . There was 20 people there

12:52

that

12:55

was my wife . That's us . What

12:57

? Yes , wow . It's

13:00

like you cannot believe what that has meant to her and to our

13:02

family to be able to minister to this couple

13:04

. So this is just me talking . My

13:07

hypothesis 10 years from now is we're going to look back

13:09

and clearly deploying

13:11

resources for great

13:13

commission activities for the kingdom is

13:15

awesome , it's smart , it's a good supply chain

13:18

move . It's got a high return on kingdom investment

13:20

. But I think that the volunteers

13:23

who get actively involved in their faith are

13:25

going to be impacted more than

13:27

the people that they're helping . It's a totally

13:30

different thing when you see there's a tsunami in the Philippines

13:32

and you go wait a minute , I got to see if

13:34

my people are okay . Not well

13:36

, I guess I'll just pray for them . It's

13:38

a real thing . It's a tangible real thing

13:41

.

13:41

I love that . And so for the listeners

13:43

, and you know our connection with Austin Ridge

13:45

, our local church . You know our connection with Bless

13:48

, the Bless Foundation , blessworld If

13:50

you go to the website globalswitchio

13:53

and you look at some of their organizations , you're

13:55

going to find a whole lot of our same

13:58

connectivity , right , you've got Chris

14:00

Starr on there , you've got pioneers , you've

14:02

got JVI , justice Finchers International . These

14:05

are all folks that we have partnered with through

14:08

Bless and raised resources for and

14:10

done some really incredible projects

14:13

with . And so Steve

14:15

Coffey and Chris Starr man , I love

14:17

Steve Coffey . I got to interview him before

14:19

we started this podcast through Bless

14:22

on a video when we did a project

14:24

I think our first one with them , and that project

14:26

was so , so special . They had , basically

14:29

they had set up a center on

14:31

a border between two kind

14:33

of hostile nations and there was a war

14:36

, and the war

14:38

was resulting in a ton of refugees leaving

14:40

one country , fleeing into another , and

14:43

typically these refugees were widows

14:45

and orphans because the father had been

14:48

commissioned and taken into

14:50

the military to fight in the war and had most

14:52

likely been killed or was just

14:54

unheard of Gone , yeah , and

14:58

so they set the center up and they were welcoming them and they

15:00

were going to a warm bath and a shower and

15:02

food and a bed , and then

15:04

what can you do ? And then that

15:06

took the form of training , a

15:10

job , a task , something they could actually earn some

15:12

money and support their family with , and man

15:14

, it just like that project just broke

15:17

my heart when you think about the need

15:20

and then the kingdom

15:22

coming together here in Texas , here

15:24

in the United States , to fund

15:26

it , to pray for it and to build

15:29

it and to equip it . And

15:31

that's a microcosm of an

15:33

example of what you're doing now

15:35

on a global scale . So

15:37

if Chris Star switch words around , that

15:40

was probably 2019 , if

15:42

switch words around then and they

15:44

need a couple of people to help

15:46

set up X , y and Z for that project

15:48

. They possibly could have gone to switchboard and

15:50

found those people , absolutely .

15:52

So we're piloting a new product release in the next four weeks

15:54

and we've got nine different volunteers

15:57

that are engaged with Chris Star right now

15:59

. Actually , I'll give you an example there's

16:02

an amazing guy that has a peanut business

16:04

. He's in Tennessee but he's an e-commerce

16:06

expert . He's really , really good . Chris Star they're

16:08

an international group basically has an

16:10

incubator out of Malaga , Spain , where they bring

16:13

in entrepreneurs to

16:15

launch e-commerce business that they can take into

16:17

country to source goods

16:19

locally , to be able to sell outside

16:21

of the region , Creating jobs , creating

16:24

a kind of a foothold in the country , and it's

16:26

a very fast-paced e-commerce strategy where the fulfillment

16:29

and all the technology is taken

16:31

care of , but they model the business . And so

16:33

this gentleman , Jay , actually

16:35

is working directly with a guy that's running Crister International

16:38

to help them set up that

16:40

incubator so that they can launch those types of things .

16:42

Love it .

16:43

And these are highly , highly skilled resources who

16:46

are really good at a very specific thing , who

16:48

can make guys in the field way

16:50

, way , way smarter than what they are .

16:52

Another one that's on your list is pioneers . Pioneers

16:55

is our longest standing partner

16:57

with Bless . How do you describe

16:59

the impact this organization's had

17:01

on the world ? Stephen Arlene Richardson

17:03

loved them dearly , and Nathan

17:05

Burns on their team , and we've

17:08

done a number of projects over the years . Now

17:11

we are engaged , working with specific

17:13

people groups , partnering with

17:16

pioneers across Northern

17:18

Africa , the Middle East and Asia , and

17:21

so our partnership with them is very focused

17:23

on taking those people

17:25

groups through the within reach scale , right

17:27

From getting workers

17:29

on site to culture and

17:32

language training and then into

17:34

the process of Bible translation

17:36

, making disciples , planning

17:38

a healthy disciple , making church right . So that's kind

17:40

of a short version of it , but yeah

17:42

, so we're doing that with pioneers right now . How

17:45

are you engaging with pioneers ? I think y'all've got

17:47

a pretty cool story working together .

17:49

They really came up with the idea long

17:51

ago . So Steve was in Indonesia . They

17:53

were looking at deploying resources

17:56

to help out with just skilled

17:58

work that needed to happen . It was assumed to be more

18:00

white collar work and they launched

18:02

an initiative before

18:04

my time . I would bet probably

18:06

2018 , 2017

18:09

. Steve could tell you exactly called Pro Pell

18:11

.

18:11

Okay .

18:12

Professionals , compelling them to the field to

18:14

participate in the Gray Commission , and they

18:16

started studying the . They studied

18:19

the project and started working with this . They

18:21

had a full time guy that was on it . He

18:23

also was completing his PhD . This is Bruce Wilson

18:26

, is now the one of the senior

18:28

leaders at GACX , which is a

18:30

global missions organization , and he

18:32

completed his PhD in virtual

18:34

volunteering at Asbury in 2023

18:37

. So very , very fresh research

18:39

that talks about the opportunity , the

18:41

capacity , some of the challenges there , and

18:44

so , really , steve came up with a lot

18:46

of the things that are foundational to what we're doing

18:48

.

18:49

Well , not surprising , steve and Arlene are

18:51

powerhouse couple and I'm looking

18:53

through in your website . You've got some testimonials

18:56

there as well of some different folks and

18:58

how they've gotten engaged . But I

19:00

think I just wanted , like I want , to speak

19:02

to the listener for a second . So so

19:04

often in my career , in my work and in

19:07

ministry and disciple and guys , you

19:09

meet people and it's like I want to be a part of something

19:11

bigger than myself . You know this job

19:13

is good and it's taken care of me

19:15

and my family , but I but I feel like

19:18

I can't be fully who I am

19:20

at work all day . Right , I

19:22

feel like I can't be fully engaged and using

19:24

my skills and you said it earlier , right

19:26

, I'm not , I'm not able to be a goer

19:28

right now , in this season of life . I can't pack

19:30

up and move to another country

19:32

and spend 10 to 15 years with the people

19:34

group . I'm not there yet . I might be at

19:36

some point , but right now I'm not . So

19:38

, man , I could take part-time

19:40

some of my time , volunteer time . How

19:43

can I be engaging if I'm not right now ? But I feel

19:45

called to get in the game .

19:47

One of the first discussions that I had with a

19:49

, an academic about

19:51

well , what does students do when they feel called to

19:53

the field ? What he said is is

19:55

one of his greatest concerns is that you

19:58

may walk in with computer science background or

20:00

an engineering like curriculum and

20:02

what these students are being told is well

20:05

, you should study Greek because you can go be a

20:07

missionary . And when you look

20:09

at kind of the way missions has changed , traditional

20:12

missions is clearly still a big

20:14

thing and will continue to be . But

20:16

creative access countries where you can't be

20:18

a traditional missionary , where you have

20:20

to be creative access , that

20:22

you start a software company , you

20:24

start a consulting firm , you're , you're a marketplace

20:27

professional . You have to have skills

20:29

to go do these things . And frankly

20:31

, if you look at the growth of the global

20:33

South , you look at what's happened in Africa and in China

20:36

, you know , as it turns out , there are , there

20:38

are already Christians there , and what they really

20:40

need are some things that Americans are really good

20:42

at . We're good at commerce

20:44

, we're good at engineering , we're good at

20:46

computer science . So some of the things

20:48

that you know , this this individual

20:51

had had suggested to me is that a

20:53

lot of times we try to push people down a specific

20:56

path . That path that is missionary

20:58

focused and really what they should be doing

21:00

is , you know , building their heart for Christ and then

21:02

getting the skills they need to be able to go make an

21:04

impact in those areas .

21:05

Oh man , I love that and I think

21:07

there's a few people that are probably needed to hear that . I

21:10

love that switchboard gives me a chance in my after hours

21:12

, in my weekend time , to do something

21:14

for the kingdom . I love that I

21:16

might be equipped with a skill set in my twenties or thirties

21:19

or at any point in my life , and not have a little a lot of extra

21:21

capital . I don't feel like I'm necessarily at this

21:23

point a big funder of the work

21:25

, but I'm good at this thing and

21:27

now I can do this thing

21:30

for kingdom purpose .

21:31

Right , listen , let me tell you you're a 60 year

21:33

old grandma who's in tennis shoes , who's

21:35

been in the field for 40 years and you

21:38

are great at ministering with traffic

21:41

girls in that town . But , like

21:43

every month and a half , you have to go figure

21:45

it out , update your website . Oh

21:47

my gosh , it's awful . Or I mean

21:50

, do you know how many 50 year olds are good at MailChimp

21:52

Like ? run zero

21:54

, right , but there's a 27 year old kid who

21:56

could go bam and do webflow or

21:58

do WordPress in a heartbeat and it'd

22:01

be way better , it'd be way faster . And

22:03

oh , by the way , this is a way to get

22:05

I call them zilineals , zs and

22:07

millennials involved in service

22:09

. You could do something for real

22:11

that really makes a difference to the field today

22:14

, and it'll be awesome , and the person

22:16

that you're helping benefits so much

22:18

from the very little that you did , because they can't do

22:20

that thing . So I think it's really ground

22:23

changing to start thinking of the

22:26

types of things that we could use

22:28

to mobilize those individuals

22:30

around a specific use case . And

22:32

I talked to a Baylor professor this week . I'm

22:35

like so here's what , here's what we're finding

22:37

. We have huge demand from the field , from

22:39

people that are good at digital marketing , seo

22:42

, website graphic

22:45

arts , visualization

22:47

, those types of things , and

22:50

I said , if your students are believers and

22:52

they really want to make an enormous impact

22:54

I mean it could be two hours a month , but

22:57

they could rock somebody's world he's like I am ready

22:59

, let's see what it would take to talk to those guys

23:01

about that .

23:02

Oh well , let's think that through , I mean in the concept

23:04

of where is the ? What's the

23:07

, the Magnificent Seven right

23:09

? Ai , like the massive growth

23:11

in the marketplace right now , tends to be happening

23:13

in that space . And if you look

23:15

at the companies and the demographic

23:18

of the companies and the location of the

23:20

companies and where those are , you know

23:22

, a lot of talk right now is like I'm using

23:24

AI for this and it's

23:26

giving me bad results because

23:29

it reflects its makers and its makers are not

23:31

Christian and they're trying to rewrite history . And

23:33

I'm speaking kind of honestly here because it's

23:35

happening , it's true . Well , we saw it last

23:37

week . We saw it last week . We're still seeing

23:39

it . There is a massive

23:41

need for you , listener

23:44

, who loves the Lord , to use

23:46

your skill set in that demographic

23:48

, in that arena , right , and be a light

23:50

in that arena . That's huge , and

23:54

so I love that you're saying like we're kind of calling out

23:56

the . Don't point somebody in another direction

23:58

. If that's the skill they're after , then

24:01

let's leverage that skill set , right .

24:03

Well , and as a point of encouragement , I would tell you you

24:05

are not alone . I mean , there's a

24:07

group that's called missionai

24:10

. They do a conference where it's

24:12

Kingdom-minded AI

24:14

machine learning experts

24:17

who come together and they look at really two

24:20

different things . One is obviously translation

24:22

, because it's really good at that , and number

24:24

two is Kingdom growth . So what are the applications

24:26

that you can use , that you can like

24:29

build into the solutions and the types of

24:31

things you're trying to do , so that we can take

24:33

these tools and use them for Kingdom purpose , as opposed

24:35

to have them used against us ?

24:37

Another thing you mentioned , scott . I want to pull on

24:39

the thread of , as you said , take a one hour mission

24:41

trip . What's that ?

24:43

Well , so what we do is that , as

24:46

we have Kingdom consultants , basically

24:48

build profiles in the platform . We give them the

24:50

ability to engage the

24:52

mission organizations with a thing that they

24:54

have particular expertise in . So

24:56

, for example , you know someone has expertise

24:59

in marketing strategy . You could be a mission

25:01

organization , say , hey , I'd like to book an

25:03

hour with this person and

25:05

talking them about marketing strategy . It

25:07

could be something about an accounting thing , it could be something

25:10

about an education or curriculum thing . So the

25:12

ability to engage somebody quickly on

25:15

the platform is pretty amazing . And I'll tell you

25:17

, I was actually at this church at a conference

25:19

this was a business as mission conference

25:21

a few months ago .

25:22

Bam .

25:23

A bam conference and we had a gentleman

25:25

, a young man actually in

25:27

my world . He comes up to the table

25:30

, he hits our QR code ding ding , ding

25:32

ding . We're talking the whole time . He fills out

25:34

a profile , he clicks a button . He

25:36

never takes his eyes off of me

25:38

and the other person that's talking to him . And

25:40

then I look at the computer and two requests

25:43

have gone out . And then , before he left

25:45

, which was about 15 minutes later , both

25:48

requests have been filled . One was around

25:50

digital marketing and another was

25:52

around something to do with supply chain . I mean , literally

25:55

, he put in two requests . He

25:57

defined what he wanted , he clicked a button and

25:59

it went out to the volunteers and both

26:02

of them got accepted . And then the system

26:04

, based on what your interaction is

26:06

, it suggests a time on both your calendars to

26:08

lock a time .

26:10

So why would I not have a profile active

26:12

?

26:15

I mean , if you're not serious , I will tell you that

26:17

the common

26:19

statistic , 99% of believers don't

26:22

really get directly involved in the Great Commission and

26:25

I'm going to argue that 90%

26:27

say they want to be involved and

26:30

maybe 50% actually

26:32

would be involved if poked . So if

26:34

you really don't want to be involved , then you

26:36

probably shouldn't . I

26:38

would tell you that if you don't have verbal skills

26:40

, I mean , we have a woman in Canada who

26:42

has an accounting background , who had a stroke and

26:44

she cannot talk and she is

26:46

available to work on this

26:49

particular accounting package for the Great Commission because

26:51

that's her heart and that's what she wants to do . There

26:54

are no limits . Actually , I have another

26:57

story about a guy that I met here in the lobby

26:59

of this church and we had set up a booth

27:01

and the Bishop pastor here had said

27:03

hey , and if you want to serve remotely

27:05

in your skill set , you know from home , you

27:07

can start tomorrow . Go see a switchboard in

27:09

the lobby and this really great guy comes

27:11

up . And this guy has been he

27:14

is truly a bona fide expert in animation

27:16

20 years at DreamWorks

27:19

, you know .

27:19

Joseph .

27:20

Prince of Egypt . I mean , if you looked at a resume

27:22

of background , this guy

27:24

had the most amazing background of anybody I've ever

27:26

seen Discussion

27:28

amazing background . And I got done

27:31

and he took the little brochure

27:33

and I turned around and I'm

27:35

like talking to myself , I'm like there is no

27:37

way .

27:39

This guy .

27:39

I mean this is way too specialized , this is never

27:41

going to happen . He walks away and

27:44

he's like gee

27:46

, Scott seems like a great guy . I love what those guys

27:48

are doing . There is no way that this is going to happen

27:50

Within one week

27:53

and I promise you this is

27:55

an accurate statement . I could pull emails to

27:57

prove it Within one week . We got a

28:00

request from a guy who had met one

28:02

of our guys at a birthday party in Jordan

28:04

, who had basically

28:06

built a Facebook page that was targeted it

28:08

was Christian messaging , targeted at a Muslim

28:10

audience , and they

28:12

were getting , at that time , 1.6

28:15

million views per month

28:18

and he had all the statistics

28:20

on shares and stuff like that , so using

28:22

images only and so his request

28:25

was somebody that can help me figure out how

28:27

to do animation in a way that I could afford

28:29

it , that understands kind of the big picture and

28:31

could come up with a strategy . If

28:33

there's any chance you could have a guy like

28:36

that , it would be amazing . Request

28:38

comes in . You know our team's like , yeah

28:40

, that ain't going to happen . And then I

28:42

saw it and I had just met Bruce , and

28:44

so I called Bruce and told him , and

28:47

what he told me is that you know , love what

28:49

you guys are doing , but I just

28:51

I put myself on the list to help with construction

28:54

here in Kyle , Texas , because

28:56

I didn't think there's any way I could do animation for

28:58

the kingdom to see how God could

29:00

take something that even is super specialized

29:02

, and that there's somebody out there

29:04

that needs that exact thing . I'm

29:07

telling you , if you're not willing to do a profile

29:09

, you're you're just not willing to serve , because

29:11

there's no excuse .

29:13

There's no excuse and when you fill out a profile , don't

29:15

limit yourself . Right . You know what you're

29:17

, what you're really good at . Even if you feel like there's not a

29:19

use for it , necessarily put it out

29:21

there . We're talking about , we're talking about the entire

29:23

global kingdom . Here there's

29:25

somebody that probably needs you , probably more

29:27

than one somebody . So if you're , if

29:30

you're listening and you're looking for another way to get engaged

29:32

, go fill out a profile . If you're a missionary

29:34

or a sending organization or a para church or

29:36

a local church or a company , if

29:39

you're a company and you want to

29:41

look at getting work from people that you

29:43

know have a true North , you know aren't going

29:45

to bend the knee

29:47

or kind of take the easy way out

29:50

, but are going to do things the right way , because that's

29:52

how they're going to live their life . Walk in with the Lord

29:54

get on there and fill out

29:56

a profile and talk about what you need , completely

29:58

agree . So business is missions . Let's

30:00

, let's pull on that threat too . That's a new

30:03

acronym , bam . It's starting to pop up everywhere

30:05

. I'm starting to get linked in requests for people and they've got it , they've

30:07

got that in their profile , right . So

30:09

for you listening , be looking for this . It's

30:11

out there , this concept , and

30:13

I'll let Scott explain it further . But this concept

30:15

is look , my , my job

30:17

, my work is committed

30:20

to the Lord , right . Colossians three , 23,

30:22

. Whatever you do the work , you do , do it with all your heart

30:24

, as if working for the Lord , not for human masters

30:26

, cause you know you will receive an inheritance

30:28

from the Lord as a reward . So if

30:30

you take that concept

30:33

seriously and how you work

30:35

and the company you own or lead

30:37

, or a part of you , are doing

30:39

missions , you are doing ministry all

30:42

the time . Right , completely Right . So

30:45

business as missions is this new concept that's

30:48

kind of tail wagging the dog alongside

30:50

a few other new acronyms that are showing

30:52

up of you know how do I invest

30:55

my money in

30:57

companies and businesses that are Christian led

31:00

, that are mission focused and that are changing the world

31:02

, and so there's this . There's this . I was

31:04

at the Kingdom Advisors Conference in Orlando

31:06

in February with 3000 other

31:08

folks in the finance industry and investment

31:10

world biblically responsible investing

31:13

. Right ? How are we screening in , not just

31:15

screening out ? Right , how are we looking at private markets

31:17

? How are we supporting the right companies ? This

31:20

is a big push , right , and I think it's

31:22

a push that even the local church really

31:24

needs to educate themselves on . We

31:26

really need to educate the local pastors

31:29

and the leaders , because it's not

31:31

just like don't just focus on the 10%

31:33

or 15 or 20 , or preferably more , that

31:35

you're giving . What are you doing with the rest

31:37

of it ? What's the ? What's your portfolio look like

31:39

? How are you investing that and is

31:41

it redemptive or is it

31:43

just kind of going along with everybody

31:45

else and chasing the index and hitching a ride

31:48

on the economy in general , and maybe

31:50

so ? The right thing to do

31:52

right now is educate

31:54

yourself and take one step forward

31:57

, right , right

31:59

, give me your take on that .

32:00

Well you're . You're tempting me to head down

32:02

a rabbit trail that I have great passion for . Go

32:05

, go , oh my gosh , chase it . First thing is

32:07

, for years business's

32:09

mission was kind of an excuse to get into a country

32:12

. And so you set up a business

32:14

and I'm doing air quotes here for those who are , who

32:16

aren't seeing me and what we've learned

32:19

is that for one thing , that wasn't

32:21

very you know , that wasn't very accurate

32:23

, and for another , it's not sustainable . And

32:26

so real businesses with real business

32:28

leaders who have good supply chain and good systems

32:31

and good production , and all those

32:33

things are really important and , frankly , every

32:35

country that I've been associated

32:37

with that won't let mission teams

32:39

come in as missionaries . As Ms you

32:42

say , I'm going to start a software company . They're like come

32:45

on in , we'll give you a tour of the town and

32:47

invite your friends . So one of the first

32:49

meetings I had was with a group that was in Macedonia

32:52

. That was a basically an

32:54

engineering software company . That was

32:56

very welcome and doing some really

32:58

great things , and so to me , businesses

33:00

, missions is a big part of , I think , what future commerce

33:03

and future missions can look like

33:05

.

33:05

Absolutely .

33:06

I think the partnership between the local businesses

33:08

and the local churches . Now this

33:10

is moving more away from the , the

33:13

traditional missionary models , more of an indigenous

33:16

church , indigenous missionary

33:18

and a business as mission , kind of

33:20

all working in concert .

33:21

I think , is where it goes . That's

33:23

what you're doing with your life , scott , and I love

33:26

that you've taken a leap of faith and a transition

33:28

here that probably for some period

33:30

is not as lucrative to your worldly

33:33

bottom line , but it may be

33:35

paying huge deposits

33:38

into your heavenly bottom

33:40

line .

33:40

I appreciate that . I think that

33:42

for us , we're just trying to honestly

33:45

, we're trying to take friction out of the

33:47

supply chain . I mean to me the allocation

33:50

of resources in terms of

33:52

not just dollars but human capital

33:55

is . It's really rough right now and

33:57

I think that what's interesting is that when you pull down the

33:59

barrier whether or not I'm

34:01

serving with a group that's in Mexico

34:04

or a group that's in an unreached people

34:06

in a part of the world you maybe have never heard of , it's

34:09

the same amount of work . So , all of a

34:11

sudden , the ability to pour resources into those historically

34:13

under resource areas becomes

34:17

a matter of adjusting for time

34:19

zones . It's amazing how simple

34:21

it is to serve .

34:22

Let the rubber hit the road for a second here . If

34:25

there's a business that has managed

34:28

to get behind enemy lines and

34:30

is up and running and there

34:32

are people there that are loving

34:35

on the community through , possibly

34:38

an underground church , possibly kind of having to stay

34:41

off the grid and out of sight , but there are people that are

34:43

getting help and that business cannot

34:45

be sustainable . It starts to

34:48

fail because it's not properly resourced

34:50

with the right human capital and

34:52

the right intelligence and the right strategy

34:55

and structure and design , and those

34:58

people end up being visas revoked

35:00

and asked to leave that country . Guys

35:02

, that's one step forward , five

35:04

steps back . So if you're not

35:07

engaged in a place where you can

35:09

apply your skill set to keep that

35:11

company profitable and relevant and growing

35:14

in that place , we're

35:16

hurting the progress of

35:18

advancing the kingdom . You're

35:21

doing nothing isn't doing nothing

35:23

. We know the phrase send never stays

35:25

where it's committed . But

35:28

your inaction is

35:30

probably

35:32

if I'm pulling really kind of on this whole string

35:34

here causing an effect

35:37

somewhere else in the world that you're

35:39

maybe not even aware of yet . And your

35:41

action , now that you're hearing this and you're

35:43

going to take action ? I see literally Clint

35:45

filling out a profile right now next to us while

35:47

he's recording your action

35:50

. To go fill out your profile is going to change

35:52

your future , in the future of who knows

35:54

how many other people .

35:55

By the way , how long do you think it takes to fill out a profile ?

35:58

Well , he's already back taking notes again , so I'm going to say

36:00

three minutes .

36:01

I would say five . So he's at faster than

36:03

most .

36:03

He's very quick .

36:05

He's fast . It's really not much , because what

36:07

really happens is that is that we're really starting

36:09

a conversation between the field and

36:11

the everyday believer . So you fill

36:14

out a profile and you tell us what you can do and

36:16

then something new comes up that we hadn't

36:18

thought about . Hey , if you can do this too

36:20

, click this button and so

36:23

your profile actually gets kind of dialed in

36:25

as a conversation between

36:27

supply and demand . So it gets smarter and smarter over

36:29

time . And I know you mentioned AI

36:31

. I will say that there are some really powerful

36:33

things that we can do with AI behind the scenes

36:35

that just look at , for

36:38

example , I say I'm a CPA , you could

36:40

infer good with

36:42

Microsoft Excel and I'm probably detail-oriented

36:44

to some correlation

36:46

probability . So based on that

36:48

, then we could go into AI and say , well , guys that

36:51

are good with Excel or detail-oriented

36:53

could probably do this kind of stuff too . So

36:56

, as new opportunities come up , we could say , hey , does

36:58

this fit you ? If you're interested , we'll make the

37:00

introduction .

37:01

I love that . I love that . So

37:03

the call to action right . The call to action is let's

37:06

go fill out a profile at switchboard , right , globalswitchboardio

37:09

. Take five minutes , fill out

37:11

a profile and let's

37:13

see what happens . Let's see what pops up , see what opportunity

37:15

is coming . Obviously , if you get connected to an opportunity

37:17

, it is an opportunity right . You discuss

37:19

it . It may not make sense or be a fit . It's not like you're

37:21

entering into a contract

37:23

just yet .

37:24

The way it works is that the mission

37:26

says here's kind of where I need help , and

37:28

they document as best they can , and we've got an

37:31

AI tool that helps them document it . Well , and

37:33

then you say that might work for me . You

37:36

click a button and it automatically sets up an introduction

37:38

that one hour phone call . They basically

37:40

review the scope , decide whether or not

37:42

it makes sense . It's yeah , you're right , it's one hour

37:44

a month and then at the end of it it's

37:46

a double opt in . So I would love to help with

37:48

that . That guy would be great . And then

37:50

they're mapped together and we're out of the picture . We're just

37:52

trying to get you guys introduced and off

37:54

and run it .

37:55

Yeah , I'm gonna ask a hard question

37:57

Is there a cost ?

37:59

There's only your time . Oh wow

38:02

, there's only your time .

38:03

Okay . So I'm not paying to put my profile up or I'm

38:05

not paying for a connection . So if I make a

38:07

connection and I end up taking a job with a

38:09

company , there's not a cut

38:11

coming back To either side , Wow

38:13

, to either side . Okay

38:15

, that's incredible , yeah , okay

38:17

. So here's my ask to those of you

38:20

listening , whether I know you or not when

38:23

you do this and you have a connection

38:25

and here , pretty soon you have a story to

38:27

tell , would you email me and

38:29

Clint and give us that story ? Dustin

38:31

at unreachedpodcastcom . Clint at unreachedpodcastcom

38:34

. I would think it'd be so cool if , a few

38:36

months from now , we got to tell

38:38

a story or maybe there's three or four or five

38:40

and we do , just like an episode of

38:42

. Here's my stories of how I got connected

38:45

to XYZ organization and this is what we did

38:47

and this is what happened . This

38:49

is what God redeemed through Switchboard

38:51

, through Scott's faithfulness , through

38:53

the team and I know your

38:55

team is growing and you've got

38:57

great traction right now . I know you're launching some

38:59

new things . Thanks for being here

39:02

, scott . What would be your final word

39:04

? I'm gonna ask you to pray for the listeners

39:06

, because that's how we end our episodes , but what

39:08

final thoughts before a prayer would you have ?

39:11

Every believer is called to the great commission , and

39:14

so to me . To assume that you

39:16

can't or won't or wouldn't

39:18

be appreciated or that it's hard , you're

39:22

just not trusting God . So I mean we

39:24

encourage people to serve however you serve wherever

39:26

you're called to serve .

39:28

I love that . I love that , and would you

39:30

pray for us on the way out .

39:30

Now on previous podcast , you have people

39:33

do this in other languages , like I don't know any

39:35

other languages . Is that okay ?

39:36

That is more than okay . That is more than

39:38

okay . That's just a unique

39:40

thing . Clint loves that because he's like you've never

39:42

been prayed for and want a key in You've

39:45

never been prayed for in Bali Now you

39:47

have right , but no , we'll

39:49

stick with our heart language . How about that ? Our heart

39:51

language ? We are a people group right . We

39:53

do count , yes , we are Our heart language .

39:55

Father , what a glorious day and what a time

39:57

that you bring to this world . That you

40:00

put us in a group of people that have

40:02

a heart for you , father , and that we

40:04

could truly reach the world

40:06

for Christ . That you have given us everything that

40:08

we need , even just

40:10

the technology and the things that have happened in the last

40:12

few years . We can easily

40:14

do things that were virtually impossible

40:17

just 10 years ago . Father

40:19

, I just pray that , as we are

40:21

a tradition , as we're

40:23

a group of people that really have

40:25

traditional values , that we would recognize

40:27

the opportunities that you've presented us , father

40:30

, and that we would embrace the

40:32

ways that we can use new methods

40:34

and new ways that we can reach the world . We just

40:36

thank you and we love you for a

40:38

chance to be together to do this in Jesus' name

40:40

, amen .

40:42

See you next time . Thank you

40:44

for listening to Unreached . Our sincere

40:47

desire is that what you've heard today will cause

40:49

you to see the mission of God differently and

40:51

you're rolling it more clearly . If this

40:53

adds value for you and we hope it does

40:55

would you please rate and review the

40:57

podcast wherever you listen . Also

40:59

, share with your family , your friends , your church

41:01

, your life group , small group , degroup , wherever

41:04

you do life , and if you want to connect with us

41:06

, find us on Instagram at unreachedpodcast

41:08

, or email us at unreachedpodcastgmailcom

41:11

.