It is remarkable how small random decisions you make can take you to the most unexpected places that define a lifetime vocation. Take, for example, saying yes, albeit reluctantly, to an invitation to a trip to an unfamiliar country in an unexplored continent. Who knew that even an unenthusiastic “yes” could forever change one’s life?

Today, let’s listen to the story of a life changed by saying yes to God. Doug Cobb, managing partner at the Finishing Fund, joins us to talk about the journeys he’s taken in his life - from finding great success setting up tech startup companies and selling them at gainful margins to leveraging business success to advance God’s work in the world. His most epiphanic journey, however, took him to Africa. Click now and listen to why this trip changed his understanding of himself and the world and defined the trajectory of his life. 

Key Points From This Episode: 

• Doug’s personal and family background.
• The highlight of Doug’s week.
• A summary of Doug’s career.
• The factors that led to Doug’s success in business.
• Where does Doug find significance in life?
• The story of how God shaped Doug from a heart and generosity perspective.
• What is The Finishing Fund and what’s the vision that God has put in Doug’s heart?
• Stories of the Finishing Fund's impact on people groups in remote areas of the world.
• What’s the next stage for The Finishing Fund?
• The biggest challenge to finishing the great commission.
• Steps needed to take The Finishing Fund 2.0 to fruition.
• Lessons that Doug learned from failure.
• Doug answers the mentor-minute questions.

Tweetables:

“Lives only make sense in retrospect”

“I'm really thankful for the times when I said yes to God and stepped out.”

“I have seen how God has over and over again, answered my prayers, provided what we've needed, introduced me to people, build relationships, have money show up that I hadn't even asked for.”

“It's not enough to just declare, “yes, this will work”. You have to take the leap.”

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

The Finishing Fund

Finishing The Task FTT

Money, Possessions, and Eternity by Randy Alcorn

The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

Douglas Cobb's 1-2-3 Handbook Release 2.3

And Then The End Will Come by Douglas Cobb

About Doug Cobb

Doug Cobb is the managing partner of the Finishing Fund, whose mission is to “make disciples of every nation”. He has been working with Finishing the Task and the Issachar Initiative for a decade. Doug and his wife, Gena, are members of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky where he teaches the Word by Word Sunday school class and serves as an elder.

What is the significance of the gospel in our lives? Is the gospel alive in the moment by moment humdrum of an ordinary day? What does having a relationship with God even mean? Will the gospel really help us transform ourselves and our lives?

We dive deep into this topic in our episode today with our guest, Kaitlin White. Kaitlin bears witness to the transformation that came about in herself, her identity and her life when she began a relationship with God and put her full trust in the gospel. She also talks about the bible being the foundation of truth and the most supportive document of human history, hence, its trustworthiness. Click now to learn more about the transforming power of the gospel and be inspired!

Key Points From This Episode: 

• Kaitlin explains what the gospel is.
• How has the gospel changed Kaitlin’s life?
• How does the gospel transform our identity? 
• How does the gospel shift the things we put our trust into? 
• How do we know that God is faithful? 
• What are prophecies and how do they prove God's faithfulness?
• Why is the bible the most supportive document in all of human history?
• Why is the bible trustworthy and is the foundation of truth?
• What does being in a relationship with Christ mean and how does one establish it?
• What can people invest their lives in to reach as many people with the gospel and change eternity?
• Kaitlin answers the mentor-minute questions.

Tweetables:

“There isn't true security outside of Jesus's promise to us.”

“We have to recognize our own state of not being able to fix ourselves. Because if we keep going on and on, like, we can do it by ourselves, then we don't need the Lord. We don't need a savior.”

“Practicing spiritual disciplines is the first step.”

“If you are spending 80 hours a week at your job, and not investing in your children, then you're wrong.”

“It’s up to you to make sure your children have godly parents.”

"It's not about me."

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Send an email to Kaitlin White

The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel

Women of the Word by Jen Wilkin

About Kaitlin White

Kaitlin is Kids Ministry Director at Center Point Church leading nursery, preschool, and elementary ministries. She loves discipling volunteers, parents, and young women and helping them take another step in their faith. Kaitlin is married to Daniel and they have a daughter and a son and currently expecting their third child.

Do your investment dollars serve God’s purpose? As investors, it is our responsibility to ensure that the companies or sectors that we are putting our money into are engaged in businesses and practices that reflect our moral and ethical values and promote God’s kingdom. But, avoiding “sinful investments” is not enough. Shouldn't our portfolios be holy as well?

Investment advisor Don Simmons of Steward Advisors Group joins us today to talk about  sanctifying our investment portfolio by integrating faith into how we invest our financial resources. We should go beyond simply shunning errant businesses and start pursuing God’s redemptive purposes by investing in “great commission companies”, he says. Listen now and find out how you can simultaneously achieve your investment goals while fulfilling God’s purpose and making Him known in the marketplace. Start building a holy portfolio now!

Key Points From This Episode: 

• Overview of Don Simmons’ endeavor to promote business as a tool for mission and ministry.
• Don explains the meaning and nature of “oikonomos”.
• Where did Don gain the perspective and understanding of God's ownership and stewardship?
• How Don defines impact investing.
• Don’s backstory of how he got involved in business as a mission and impact investing.
• Unexpected lessons that Don learned from his journey through faith-driven investing.
• What is Don’s general rule of thumb for fixed investments versus variable portfolios based on age which can also be applied to kingdom-focused investments?
• ROI when investing in virtuous companies versus vice-type businesses
• What is the best investment Don has ever made with his time, talents, and treasure?
• Don talks about Steward Advisors Group.
• An example of impactful investment in Ethiopia
• Don cites some setbacks that taught him valuable lessons.
• Don answers the mentor-minute questions.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Steward Advisors Group

The Steward Investor

Faith in the Halls of Power by Dr. Michael Lindsay

Books by Randy Alcorn 

Books by Ron Blue

About Don Simmons

Don is a thirty-year veteran investment advisor and CFP® Professional managing nearly a quarter billion dollars of assets through the boutique investment firm he founded in 1988. Don knows about the power of using investment capital to build people and communities through transformational businesses.  He served with a London-based economic development fund where he coordinated a global management team that deployed dozens of mentors and coaches as well as financial capital to businesses in more than twenty countries among the most impoverished communities in the world. 

For individuals, Don combines his expertise in portfolio asset allocation, his diligent study of the Scriptures regarding our role as stewards of God’s money, and his passion to teach people the power their assets can have when deployed to expand God’s kingdom. 

As business leaders, entrepreneurs, employees, and even ministry and church leaders, we all, at some point, reach a period of burnout, right? The relentless drive to pursue our duties and daily tasks sometimes lead us to a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion leaving us overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to clearly see our goal and our vision.  But as sons and daughters of God, aren’t we called to live a life of peace and serenity while pursuing productivity in doing God’s work? Why then do we feel burned out if what we’re doing is God’s mission for us?

We explore this topic today with our guest Mindy Caliguire of Soul Care. With the realities of burnout rearing its head among people in ministry, herself once included, Mindy sees the critical need to address the issue. She suggests methods of centering oneself to avoid falling into weariness and breakdown. She details ways and programs that her organization offers help to people who are finding themselves stuck and in need of change and restoration. 

Key Points From This Episode: 

• An overview of Soul Care.
• Mindy’s background and the pivotal moment that led her to found Soul Care.
• How systemic the realities of burnout are for people in ministry and how this can be avoided.
• Best practices to overcome burnout.
• What changes has Mindy seen in people’s lives with the help they received from Soul Care?
• Mindy’s advice on how to slow down and be still.
• How our drivenness and busyness prevent us from hearing God.
• Surprising lessons Mindy learned from her journey of needing soul care to providing soul care.
• Ways that Mindy helps leaders through programs and Whisper Ranch.
• Mindy answers the Mentor Minute Questions.

Links Mentioned:

Soul Care

Discovering Soul Care by Mindy Caliguire

Spiritual Friendship by Mindy Caliguire

Simplicity by Mindy Caliguire

STIR: Spiritual Transformation In Relationships by Mindy Caliguire 

Download Free ebook: Write For Your Soul: The Hows and Whys of Journaling

Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God by Dallas Willard

Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard

The Great Omission by Dallas Willard

Listen to today’s episode with Dr. Richard Baxter of Alabama Tongue-Tie Center and find some answers. Having gained an eternal perspective on his business and life mission early in his career, Richard’s dental practice was shaped and influenced by his quest to fulfill God’s purpose for him. His dental office in Alabama carries all the touches of his mission to build a Christian-based office with the primary goal of serving kids and families troubled by tongue-tied conditions as well as reaching out to unreached and unengaged people groups. Click now and be inspired by his stories.

Key Points: 

• How Richard started his dental career and why he focused on tongue-tied children?
• How his mission with Tongue Tie has had global reach.
• Richard talks about the unreached people groups and how he got introduced to the call to finish the Great Commission. 
• Richard describes what it is like being under David Platt’s tutelage.
• How did having an eternal perspective early on impact the way Richard planned his life and career? 
• What is Reach the Rest and what impact has it created?
• What is the M Power approach and how teaching skills to indigenous groups help open doors for evangelizing?
• How Richard designs, brands,  and operates his office with the intention to be Christian-based and inclusive in orientation.

Links Mentioned:

Alabama Tongue-Tie Center

Tongue-Tied Academy

Tongue-Tied: How a Tiny String Under the Tongue Impacts Nursing, Speech, Feeding, and More by Richard Baxter

Reach the Rest

Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt

Pray the Word Podcast with David Platt

Money, Possessions and Eternity by Randy Alcorn

The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn

Miracle at Tenwek: The Life of Dr. Ernie Steury by Gregg Lewis

About Richard Baxter DMD, MS 

Dr. Baxter is the founder and owner of the Alabama Tongue-Tie Center. He is an internationally recognized speaker on tongue ties, instructor of the comprehensive course Tongue-Tied Academy, and author of the best-selling book “Tongue-Tied: How a Tiny String Under the Tongue Impacts Nursing, Speech, Feeding, and More.”

Dr. Baxter enjoys spending time with his wife, Tara, who is a nurse practitioner, and his three girls, Hannah, Noelle, and Molly. And, since he had a tongue tie himself, and all three of his daughters were treated for tongue- and lip-ties at birth, this field is a personal one.

Have you defined the big-picture vision of your business? Often immersed in the day-to-day grind of business, many entrepreneurs become focused only on short-term profits that they fail to define and cultivate the vision and ideals that will guide and propel their business forward. With a roadmap of where you want your business to go in the future and what type of everyday work your team should be doing, it will be easier for you to inspire your team and empower them to actively work toward realizing your vision. How, then, do you develop your big-picture vision?

Continuing our conversation with Matt Stone of SVN Stone Commercial Real Estate today, we discuss Matt’s big-picture vision for his business and his life. Learn how Matt went through the process of asking critical questions to be able to define his business vision anchored on what God has called him to do. Find out how by cultivating confidence in their vision, Matt motivates his team to adopt a kingdom perspective in decision-making and strategies-building.

Key Points From This Episode: 

• What systems and processes have been helpful in running Matt’s company?
• Matt’s advice for those struggling with relying on one’s own strength versus trusting God and allowing Him to do His work.
• Matt shares the vision that God has put in his heart.
• Matt talks about a failure that listeners can learn from.
• What is the greatest investment that Matt has ever made?
• The key factor that contributed significantly to Matt’s journey of generosity. 
• What’s one thing that Matt wants to be remembered for?
• Matt answers the Mentor Minute questions.

Tweetables:

“My vision has gotten quite bigger. It is to understand that God has opened up my eyes to the fact that all that we're doing, as we're here, is building His kingdom.”

“I'm looking at everything from a bigger-picture vision of “we're all in this together for Kingdom growth.” 

“My discipleship starts at home before I go out and giveaway to the rest of the world.“

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

SVN Stone Commercial Real Estate

Matt Stone on LinkedIn

Buildout

Asana

Three Mile an Hour God by Kosuke Koyama 

Click to Find out more about our upcoming event: "Crafting Your Kingdom Investing Thesis" 

About Matt Stone

Matt Stone, CCIM, SIOR, MBA is the Managing Director of SVN Stone Commercial Real Estate. Since 2006, Matt has been the trusted advisor for many clients in transactions within the retail, office, industrial, multi-family, and hospitality product types. Matt personally oversees the day-to-day operations of the company, brokerage of commercial investment properties and user properties, as well as property management. He has worked with banks, private investors, and as a receiver to help with asset management and evaluation for distressed loan purchasing, workouts, REO disposition, and general opinions of value. Matt and his team continue to perform property management and bookkeeping services for retail, industrial, office, and multi-family properties throughout Central Kentucky.

In our quest for life success, too often we struggle with the need to chase money and wealth versus the desire to pursue God’s kingdom as if there is a guilt-ridden disjoint between them.  However, engagement in business for financial rewards can be viewed in two ways - ownership and stewardship. Ownership says that we can possess material assets and do with them what we wish while stewardship, a biblical principle, tells us that we are entrusted with a life, with gifts, and with material assets that belong to God, not owned by us, and for which we are responsible and accountable. 

Our guest today, Matt Stone of SVN Stone Commercial Real Estate, sheds light on what stewardship means for business leaders. Sharing his own journey of discovering and pursuing his life mission, he recounts the process and the struggles in discerning what God has called him to do. What shapes his mindset and influences his decisions is always rooted in the conviction that God is the owner of all the talents, resources, and opportunities. Click now and let’s challenge ourselves to connect everything we do in all aspects of our lives with what God is doing in the world. 

Key Points From This Episode: 

• Matt talks about an interesting deal that he’s been working on recently.
• Matt’s personal background and how he came to faith.
• Matt discovers his relational talent and devotes himself to vocational ministry with students and young people.
• How Matt sorted through what God is calling him to do.
• How did Matt get into the real estate business?
• The story of how Matt achieved worldly success and significant business growth while focusing on building God’s kingdom.
• What is Matt’s advice for people who are struggling with their missional and financial focus?
• Examples of what it means to steward God's company for His purposes?

Tweetables:

“Have people around you that can speak truth into your life that can lead you through a Bible study, or that can disciple you, or that can encourage you as you process and struggle through what it means to have your identity in Christ.”

“Don't focus so much on what you do, focus on who you are in Christ and being in Him.” 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

SVN Stone Commercial Real Estate

Matt Stone on LinkedIn

Click to Find out more about our upcoming event: "Crafting Your Kingdom Investing Thesis" 

About Matt Stone

Matt Stone, CCIM, SIOR, MBA is the Managing Director of SVN Stone Commercial Real Estate. Since 2006, Matt has been the trusted advisor for many clients in transactions within the retail, office, industrial, multi-family, and hospitality product types. Matt personally oversees the day-to-day operations of the company, brokerage of commercial investment properties and user properties, as well as property management. He has worked with banks, private investors, and as a receiver to help with asset management and evaluation for distressed loan purchasing, workouts, REO disposition, and general opinions of value. Matt and his team continue to perform property management and bookkeeping services for retail, industrial, office, and multi-family properties throughout Central Kentucky.

With a plethora of nonprofit and charitable organizations that exist today, how will you know which ones are creating an impact for those they help? Is there a way to know which programs actually work and are making a meaningful difference in the lives of some of the poorest people in the world? What does it cost to improve the standard of living of a family? How about transforming a community? Can a dollar even make a difference?

Our guest, Dr. Ravi Jayakaran of Medical Ambassadors, will help us answer these questions and more in today’s episode. With vast experience leading international poverty reduction programs, Dr. Ravi takes us into the workings of impactful participatory development programs that integrate the social, economic, cultural, and spiritual upliftment of individuals and families, and the transformation of communities. Listen and be inspired by Dr. Ravi’s stories while learning how you can become a better, smarter giver.

Key Points From This Episode: 

• Snapshots of Ravi’s professional and missional background.
• Ravi’s story and testimony.
• The pivotal moment when Ravi realized what God wants him to do and discovered his life mission.
• Ravi’s career path as a participatory development expert brought him to various parts of the world and to the US where he now heads Medical Ambassadors International.
• What does Medical Ambassadors do? 
• Who do they serve and how do they create a lasting impact with their programs?
• Why integrated development of word and deed is a crucial component of Medical Ambassadors’ principle.
• Ravi shares the key to growing in generosity.
• A story that shows the impact that Medical Ambassadors is making in healing and transforming communities.
• Ravi answers the mentor-minute questions.

Tweetables:

“At those crucial stages in our life when God brings transformation, it also means a new direction.“

“Anyone partnering with us, that's what they're investing in, seeing the kingdom come into individuals, into families and into a whole village.”

“Sometimes, we can go, sometimes we can give but all the time we can pray.”

“The safest way to make your money secure is to invest it in God's kingdom.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Medical Ambassadors International

Dr. Ravi Jayakaran on LinkedIn

Click to Find out more about our upcoming event: "Crafting Your Kingdom Investing Thesis" 

About Dr. Ravi Jayakaran

Dr. Ravi I. Jayakaran is the President of Medical Ambassadors International. He is a committed Christian leader with well over three decades of experience leading international poverty reduction and strategic development programs. He is the Catalyst for Integral Missions for the Lausanne Movement. Dr. Jayakaran has worked in senior management positions in the corporate sector, international NGOs, the Asian Development Bank, and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in SE Asia.

Dr. Jayakaran has lived and worked long-term in India, Cambodia, China and the US and provided technical support in more than 23 countries on issues of Transformational Development, Integral Mission, Relief & Development, Participatory Poverty alleviation and development, Public Health, and prevention of trafficking. Besides the Accord Network board, Ravi serves as a member of the board of directors on several other boards, including the Chalmers Center, Manyata Ministries, and Forward Edge International. Ravi and his wife Vimla live in Ripon, California. They have two grown-up sons who know and love the Lord, and are married and have families of their own.

We all want meaningful work. Studies have shown meaningfulness to be a critical aspect of work performance, commitment, and satisfaction for employees beyond paycheck and rewards, opportunities for promotion, or working conditions. But, where and how do people find meaning in their work? 

Our guest, Case Thorp of The Collaborative, shares his knowledge and expertise today to give us guidance on why and how we should pursue meaning in our work and in our life. He presents several ways The Collaborative helps employees and professionals to merge work, business, and faith in order to find deeper life meaning. He says if we want cultural and social renewal, then, we should become agents of change through conversations in the workplace, across industries, and institutions.

Key Points From This Episode: 

• Case shares his personal background.
• What is The Collaborative, its origin, and its mission?
• How does The Collaborative carry out its mission?
• How did Case’s family background influence his career path?
• What unexpected lessons did Case learn along his journey to fulfill his mission?
• How does Case encourage involvement from different participants in the church?
• Case’s contact information
• What failure in Case’s journey has taught him a great lesson?
• Common reasons why people are unresponsive to invitations to attend missional formation programs.
• When is mentoring an effective tool for discipleship?
• Case answers the mentor-minute questions.

Tweetables:

“It's through the well-formed integration of our faith and work that leaders shape institutions best.”

“We, as the church, are missing a good bit of our call if we're not taking those top-level C-suite kinds of folks and discipling them deeply and well.”

“Sometimes you have to convince somebody they're sinful before they can understand the gospel”

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

The Collaborative website

Send Case Thorp an email

Nuance Podcast

The Collaborative on Facebook

The Collaborative on YouTube

The Collaborative on Instagram

The Collaborative on LinkedIn

The Lost Horizon by James Hilton

Click to Find out more about our upcoming event: "Crafting Your Kingdom Investing Thesis" 

About Case Thorp

Case is the Senior Associate Pastor for Evangelism at First Presbyterian Church of Orlando  and leads The Collaborative team. Originally from Atlanta, Case has served as a pastor in New Jersey, Texas, California, and Louisiana. He writes, blogs, and presents for the growing faith and work movement while serving as the Made to Flourish Network co-director for Orlando. Case attended Oxford College (AA), Emory University (BA), Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv), and Fuller Theological Seminary (DMin in Missional Ecclesiology).

Case is married to Jodi, and blessed with three children, Alexandra, Charles, and Brooks. They have enjoyed downtown Orlando as their home since 2005. He enjoys the arts, urban design, politics, cycling, and swimming.

Is there a true measure of success? Although society, media, and some people would have us think otherwise, success is not defined by the number of material things you have amassed or how high you have risen in your career but is very much a personal measure. How we measure success is determined by many factors that affect our lives, our needs and aspirations as we move through the stages of life, and ultimately, how happy and satisfied we are with the life we are living.

Our guest today, Pete Vanderveen of Triumph Performance Academy, opens a discussion about success in business and in life. He challenges us to look at measures of success from a fresh perspective which encompasses not just individual success but also that of others and the community. Find out how Pete has dedicated his life to helping leaders become their best selves so they can create powerful teams and powerful businesses, and live empowered lives in a holistic way. If you’re looking for fulfillment in life and want to thrive as an entrepreneur and a family leader, then this is for you. 

Key Points From This Episode: 

• Pete talks about his personal background and career trajectory.
• What was the catalyst that changed Pete’s mindset about building businesses based on the value of love for others?
• What’s the key to Pete’s success in business ventures and industries that he’s engaged in?
• How does Pete define success?
• What part of Pete’s life has he seen the true meaning of success?
• What lesson did Pete learn from his real estate failure?
• Where does Pete find the most meaning and significance in his life? 
• What's the greatest investment that Pete’s ever made?
• What is the key to growing in generosity?
• What does Pete personally invest in to make the greatest impact on the world? 
• What is one thing that Pete wants to be remembered for fifty years from now?
• Pete answers the mentor-minute questions.

Tweetables:

“To have a healthy company, we have to help individuals live their best life in a biblical principle.”

“Help people find true success by making them realize that they themselves are the value, not what they are accomplishing.“ 

“God didn't promise tomorrow; He gave us today. So, today I need to live and lead with love and I need to live with gratitude which means every moment counts.”

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Triumph Performance Academy

Pete Vanderveen on LinkedIn

Click to Find out more about our upcoming event: "Crafting Your Kingdom Investing Thesis" 

About Pete Vanderveen

Ops Executive, Fractional COO, and Executive Coach  Pete Vanderveen has a lifelong passion for helping and empowering businesses, teams and leaders. Pete founded Triumph Performance Academy, which helps high-performing men find fulfillment in life and thrive as fathers and husbands while maximizing their business success. He partners with high-level executives, leaders, business owners, and entrepreneurs through one-on-one coaching to help them navigate their way through and flourish in sustainable businesses and careers.