Latest / Solving the World's Greatest Problems / Episode 1 - What Problem Is God Calling You to Solve? | Henry Kaestner & Justin Forman
Transcript
- 0:07SPEAKER_00: And yet, no to the road.
- 0:10SPEAKER_00: Capital or tools developed.
- 0:12SPEAKER_00: It's my best column.
- 0:14SPEAKER_00: Entrepreneurs bastards.
- 0:20SPEAKER_00: It is to be leaders into a claim the church's aiming to college.
- 0:24SPEAKER_00: The scale of brokenness is too big for us to do this in silence.
- 0:30SPEAKER_00: Other is power for its glory together.
- 0:33SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Solving the World's Greatest Problems Podcast.
- 0:41SPEAKER_00: Faith-driven entrepreneur and faith-driven investor has grown into a global movement spanning 130 countries.
- 0:49SPEAKER_00: After eight years, the founders, Henry Kasner and Justin Foreman, believe the next chapter is the biggest one yet.
- 0:57SPEAKER_00: In our very first episode of Solving the World's Greatest Problems podcast, they cast the vision for the new initiative, mobilizing faith-white entrepreneurs and investors to deploy their resources toward the most pressing problems on earth.
- 1:10SPEAKER_00: They impact solving the world's greatest problems and how it helps us ask one question.
- 1:16SPEAKER_00: What problem is God calling you to help solve?
- 1:21SPEAKER_04: Eight years later.
- 1:23SPEAKER_00: Unbelievable.
- 1:24SPEAKER_04: Unbelievable.
- 1:24SPEAKER_04: Faith-driven entrepreneur.
- 1:27SPEAKER_04: Time flies.
- 1:28SPEAKER_01: Time does fly.
- 1:29SPEAKER_04: I mean, Gus has gotten bigger.
- 1:31SPEAKER_01: Gus is a big dog.
- 1:32SPEAKER_01: We didn't even have Gus when we started this whole thing.
- 1:34SPEAKER_04: I think we need B-roll experts of like showing Gus.
- 1:36SPEAKER_01: I think I think that there's some number of people who are really excited about Gus and the 175-pound Newfoundland and other people who don't care at all.
- 1:44SPEAKER_01: I'm in the former camp.
- 1:46SPEAKER_04: Has Gus had a selfie video?
- 1:47SPEAKER_01: No, he's not.
- 1:48SPEAKER_04: Wait, I mean, because Kimberly's made her debut just recently.
- 1:50SPEAKER_04: So she did.
- 1:52SPEAKER_04: She did.
- 1:52SPEAKER_01: Over maybe, you know what?
- 1:55SPEAKER_01: I might lose my audience.
- 1:56SPEAKER_01: I'm worried about it.
- 1:57SPEAKER_01: I may gain some audience.
- 1:58SPEAKER_01: I may gain the wrong type audience.
- 2:00SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
- 2:00SPEAKER_04: So we look back eight years, faith-driven entrepreneur, faith-driven ambassador.
- 2:04SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 2:04SPEAKER_04: What a journey it's been.
- 2:06SPEAKER_04: I mean, when we look at some of this stuff, and we've talked about this maybe on the podcast before, God has just, God's up to something.
- 2:12SPEAKER_04: And this is really something that started, I think, long before faith-driven entrepreneur, long before us, long before many people in this conversation.
- 2:21SPEAKER_04: That it was a fun thing to trace recently, the history of, you know, in the 80s and how financial stewardship and uh legends like Ron Blue start this idea of what does it look like to have stewardship of our finances?
- 2:33SPEAKER_04: And then people like Bob Buford that say it's not just your finances, but it's your platform.
- 2:38SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 2:39SPEAKER_04: And then you've got this faith and work conversation that comes together.
- 2:42SPEAKER_04: And then I think it led into that moment where it was really saying, What's that leader inside the faith and work conversation?
- 2:50SPEAKER_04: What's the one that doesn't need to be convinced that their work matters?
- 2:54SPEAKER_04: They've already mortgaged it, they've already put all the chips to the table.
- 2:57SPEAKER_04: It's the entrepreneur.
- 2:59SPEAKER_04: And it's been an entrepreneurial decade, it's been an entrepreneurial moment for sure.
- 3:04SPEAKER_04: No doubt.
- 3:04SPEAKER_04: And it feels like it's been a convergence of so many things.
- 3:07SPEAKER_04: What struck you as we've seen this come together with Faith-Driven Entrepreneur?
- 3:12SPEAKER_01: Well, I love the fact that you point back to the history that we all share.
- 3:14SPEAKER_01: And it goes back to the Mravens and even before that.
- 3:16SPEAKER_01: I mean, great biblical examples of God using entrepreneurs.
- 3:20SPEAKER_01: But I do think that there is something about this time in culture, you know, when I grew up a long time ago, you had to be a baseball player or a rock star and really make a cultural impact.
- 3:30SPEAKER_01: But now it's a land of just it's Mark Zuckerberg and it's Elon Musk and all the headlines and the men and the women of the year on Time Magazine or entrepreneurs.
- 3:39SPEAKER_01: And so I think that people are leaning into this concept of innovation technology in the creative making type of mindset.
- 3:50SPEAKER_01: And it's unleashed a sense of creativity.
- 3:52SPEAKER_01: It's brought in a new sense of uh valuing risk taking.
- 3:57SPEAKER_01: And I think that the body of Christ is waking up to that cultural moment.
- 4:01SPEAKER_01: At the same time, I think that this is a movement enabled by God.
- 4:04SPEAKER_01: And there's a common grace element.
- 4:06SPEAKER_01: All of all of these folks that are creating things have been created themselves in the image of God.
- 4:12SPEAKER_01: And yet, among those who profess Jesus' Lord, I think that God's doing something incredible, which is collectively removing the scales from our eyes to see something completely new.
- 4:23SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 4:23SPEAKER_01: And that our work matters and the ambition that we have is important.
- 4:27SPEAKER_01: It's God-given.
- 4:28SPEAKER_01: This innate entrepreneurial desire we have to fix broken things is something that's universal because of being created in the image of God.
- 4:37SPEAKER_01: And yet, when it can be pointed in a redemptive way towards solving problems, leaning into opportunities, and wanting to do it in partnership with and at the direction of God, this is this whole movement that we found ourselves in.
- 4:52SPEAKER_04: It's a I love what you talked about in terms of the cultural moment.
- 4:55SPEAKER_04: I mean, here we are off the heels of the World Cup.
- 4:58SPEAKER_04: And I think it's been a time where we've seen just incredible influence when you talk about Messi and Ronaldo and you know, over a billion followers.
- 5:05SPEAKER_04: And you talk about the transcendent side of that.
- 5:08SPEAKER_04: At the same time, I think it's your point, more parents today, I think, are probably even thinking or imagining their kids being more of an entrepreneur like Elon and Zuckerberg than they are Messi and Serena and LeBron.
- 5:20SPEAKER_04: And they're seeing the accessibility, the path, the opportunity that's being afforded.
- 5:25SPEAKER_04: And I love what you're talking about is we're we're recognizing this is a tool.
- 5:29SPEAKER_04: This tool can be used for a redemptive good.
- 5:31SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 5:31SPEAKER_04: Or this tool can be just passed over.
- 5:34SPEAKER_04: But there's a moment, and and I think this is another chance for us to recognize the faithfulness of so many that have really helped entrepreneurs build differently.
- 5:43SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 5:43SPEAKER_04: I mean, when we think about it, this is a conversation.
- 5:46SPEAKER_04: And I love some of the research that we we partnered with David Kinneman to really say, what's the moment that we're in that said entrepreneurs, you know, 80, 90% in the church feel a calling.
- 5:57SPEAKER_04: Like this is this is how I serve.
- 5:59SPEAKER_04: This is a place where God has me.
- 6:02SPEAKER_04: This is his.
- 6:02SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 6:03SPEAKER_04: And I think that's long because of the works of ministries like C12 and Convene and Christian Businessmen and so many other different groups over the years that have helped people see how it is that we build differently.
- 6:16SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 6:17SPEAKER_04: I mean, there really has been a just a group effort of so many that have led to that way.
- 6:22SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no doubt about it.
- 6:23SPEAKER_01: And you see great manifestations of it in some of those groups you mentioned.
- 6:26SPEAKER_01: And there's groups like Praxis that are doing a great job and helping us understand the theology and the creativity and helping us think really deeply about God's purpose through our lives and our work.
- 6:37SPEAKER_01: And yet these are these micro movements too.
- 6:40SPEAKER_01: So you have these kind of cultural institutions that are really helpful and provoking a conversation.
- 6:44SPEAKER_01: You got some great pastors, J.D.
- 6:46SPEAKER_01: Greer, Chip Ingram, have been a couple of great ones, David Platt's spoken into this and a number of others.
- 6:51SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 6:52SPEAKER_01: And I think about Mark Batterson.
- 6:53SPEAKER_01: It just goes on and on.
- 6:55SPEAKER_01: And yet I think the thing that makes this movement really special is that it's a movement where entrepreneurs are saying, I don't need to wait for somebody else to lead me about exactly what to do.
- 7:05SPEAKER_01: I see my faith alive in my work, and I want to bring together a community in my own backyard to process this together.
- 7:13SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 7:14SPEAKER_01: How can we figure this out?
- 7:15SPEAKER_01: And that's where the magic of this movement is.
- 7:18SPEAKER_01: And that is we're not waiting for a central organization to say, what do we do next?
- 7:22SPEAKER_01: What are the programs?
- 7:22SPEAKER_01: How do we run it?
- 7:24SPEAKER_01: Everybody's running their own play within their own communities, and that's what's special.
- 7:29SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 7:29SPEAKER_01: And that's what makes, and we all at our our our team, of course, read this book, The Starfish and the Smiter, about what does it look like for a decentralized movement, one that is birthed with a common DNA, and we have these marks of fate-driven octopora, there are commonalities.
- 7:43SPEAKER_01: And yet the way the fate-driven entrepreneur movement looks like in Fort Wayne, India, is a little different than the one in Spokane.
- 7:49SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 7:49SPEAKER_04: Right.
- 7:49SPEAKER_04: And I think that there's an important point you just hit on this idea of like, this is a movement led by people that don't need to be pushed, don't need to be necessarily like shoved by the church.
- 8:00SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 8:00SPEAKER_04: I think that's a refreshing thing, an encouraging thing.
- 8:03SPEAKER_04: If we stop to realize the significance of it, pastors often bear the weight and the pressure, feeling like they have to start, build, and then ship something.
- 8:11SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 8:12SPEAKER_04: This is really something that's happening.
- 8:13SPEAKER_04: They need to encourage, they need to affirm, but there's momentum that's taking place.
- 8:17SPEAKER_04: And you know, we're gathering here obviously for off-site with our team, but one of the fun things we're getting to do is to really revisit the foundation course.
- 8:25SPEAKER_04: As you said, some of the marks of what it means to be a faith-driven entrepreneur.
- 8:29SPEAKER_04: And gosh, I think it's probably like six or seven years later.
- 8:32SPEAKER_01: We've lost my V-Nex sweater.
- 8:34SPEAKER_01: It's been retired, never to show up again.
- 8:37SPEAKER_04: I tell you what, the plaid blazer, though, I that does that's made a great replacement.
- 8:42SPEAKER_04: It looks really good on me.
- 8:43SPEAKER_04: It does.
- 8:44SPEAKER_04: So here we are, we're filming this story.
- 8:46SPEAKER_04: Years later, 55,000 people have gone through an experience of an event, a foundation course, where this message has started to go from kind of, I think, just like an idea, a conversation, to say, I've seen something I can't unsee.
- 9:00SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 9:00SPEAKER_04: I tell you, one of the things that strikes me, like, years later, yeah, the depth of the stories.
- 9:06SPEAKER_04: I I think when we first started, we thought we'd go film some stories and like that would be it.
- 9:11SPEAKER_04: And I feel like every story was a retelling of the same story.
- 9:14SPEAKER_04: But it hits on your point of like Fort Wayne, Indiana earlier.
- 9:17SPEAKER_04: Every time there's a new wrangle, every time there's a new angle.
- 9:21SPEAKER_04: And it hits this idea, this is a non-perscriptive movement.
- 9:26SPEAKER_04: But like there's so many faces.
- 9:28SPEAKER_04: I think that's one of the things that encourages me years later is the depth of the stories.
- 9:32SPEAKER_04: When you think of those stories, yeah, what's some of your favorites?
- 9:35SPEAKER_04: What are some of the ones that stood out?
- 9:39SPEAKER_01: Well, I think that I think you know it's good you gotta be careful when you talk about your favorite child, and yet I've got one.
- 9:45SPEAKER_01: You know, when you think about the story of Dave Munson and the joy about creating something.
- 9:51SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 9:51SPEAKER_01: And he's whimsical a little bit, he's a little bit non-traditional, non-orthodox, and yet he's got a great non-orthodox to design your own casket in Indiana Jones style.
- 10:00SPEAKER_01: Yep.
- 10:01SPEAKER_01: And then write it like a skateboard down at the last scene of the film.
- 10:04SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
- 10:06SPEAKER_01: But his the boldness in which he talks about his faith and sharing his faith with his workers, with his partners, really set out for us about what this is about.
- 10:17SPEAKER_01: He's creative.
- 10:18SPEAKER_01: Entrepreneurs are a little bit different, they see the world a little bit differently.
- 10:22SPEAKER_01: They're a little bit non-conformist.
- 10:23SPEAKER_01: It's a beautiful thing.
- 10:25SPEAKER_01: He led us into his world.
- 10:28SPEAKER_01: He also showed us, and there's some clips there with his wife, too.
- 10:31SPEAKER_01: And there's a beautiful thing about his ability and his love for his bride and her love for him that's great.
- 10:37SPEAKER_01: And then you see the employees really get involved and engaged.
- 10:40SPEAKER_01: You see the missional element of what he has.
- 10:42SPEAKER_01: And then when you look at saddleback leather, it's an excellent product.
- 10:46SPEAKER_01: Amen.
- 10:46SPEAKER_01: Amen.
- 10:47SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 10:47SPEAKER_01: So it's not new technology, you know.
- 10:49SPEAKER_01: In the time of Jesus, they probably had leather satchels, right?
- 10:52SPEAKER_01: And yet he's continued to perfect it as an art form.
- 10:56SPEAKER_01: And he sees that in everything, including his funeral that he's building his leather casket for, yeah, to be excellent for the purpose of proclaiming the name of Jesus.
- 11:07SPEAKER_01: And that's just a powerful story.
- 11:10SPEAKER_04: Unbelievable.
- 11:11SPEAKER_04: If you haven't seen it, you'd certainly have to check it out.
- 11:13SPEAKER_04: But yeah, one of the things is funny.
- 11:15SPEAKER_01: Oh well, how about you?
- 11:16SPEAKER_01: Right back to you.
- 11:17SPEAKER_04: Man, um I tell you one of the things, and we talk about this on the on the content team when we're on these shoots, and Alex and I talk about this often, is like when we're showing up to film these stories, I think that one of the things that strikes me is just what an immense privilege it is.
- 11:33SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 11:34SPEAKER_04: Like, I mean, you're dropping into like the heroes of the faith.
- 11:38SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 11:38SPEAKER_04: The heroes of a conversation, the heroes of a movement.
- 11:41SPEAKER_04: And I would dare to say, short of somebody's wedding day, this is like the most photographed, filmed, recorded story of them told.
- 11:52SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 11:52SPEAKER_04: And so it's a it's a humbling privilege to walk into that.
- 11:55SPEAKER_01: And there's an intimacy because we're not just talking about the business, we're not just talking about numbers and balance sheets and income statements.
- 12:00SPEAKER_01: We're talking about how does this business help them to know that God of the universe more fully.
- 12:05SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 12:05SPEAKER_01: And there is just a vulnerability in that type of conversation that really is created through the grace of God and then you and the team, some beautiful story.
- 12:15SPEAKER_01: How many stories now?
- 12:16SPEAKER_01: Well over a hundred, several hundred stories.
- 12:18SPEAKER_04: I mean, we're on a pace now of probably 60, 70, sometimes close to a hundred stories a year that we're producing across all the different pieces.
- 12:26SPEAKER_04: And on just about every content.
- 12:28SPEAKER_04: Just about every continent.
- 12:29SPEAKER_04: And it's been fun.
- 12:30SPEAKER_04: One that just I can't help but talk about is Dylan and Anna Wilk, uh, human nature.
- 12:35SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 12:36SPEAKER_04: And one of the things I loved about this is I I love an edge.
- 12:40SPEAKER_04: Like when somebody says something that's provoking that doesn't have three cute points and a soft landing, yeah, but says something that at first you're like, I don't know if I agree with this.
- 12:49SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 12:49SPEAKER_04: But then you let somebody just like share what God has shared with them.
- 12:53SPEAKER_04: And then all of a sudden you find yourself rut wrestling.
- 12:55SPEAKER_04: And I think that's what God wants us in, is this wrestling attention.
- 12:58SPEAKER_04: And so, you know, the quick version of Dylan's story that you, of course, you know, is you know, obviously he has this startup, is this incredible journey of all places.
- 13:06SPEAKER_04: Here he is in the United Kingdom, it's scaling, gets a grant, I think, or a loan from Prince Charles Foundation.
- 13:12SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 13:13SPEAKER_04: Before you know it, it's it's during the tech era.
- 13:15SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 13:16SPEAKER_04: We're talking about it.
- 13:17SPEAKER_04: He's got the Lambo, he's got the helicopter.
- 13:19SPEAKER_04: He's flying to work in a helicopter, and yet he has this moment where he recognizes, like, what am I chasing?
- 13:25SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 13:25SPEAKER_04: What's my why?
- 13:27SPEAKER_04: And I think that that's deep inside of really all these stories.
- 13:30SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 13:30SPEAKER_04: Like, yes, there's different dots and different veneer and different parts of the story, but it really all leads to the same place is what's your why?
- 13:38SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 13:38SPEAKER_04: And the way that he talks about how God had just kind of this reversal, this pivot.
- 13:43SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 13:44SPEAKER_04: And he leaves this business and then he goes and pursues traditional ministry, um, building houses, raising money, giving things away.
- 13:54SPEAKER_04: One of my favorite lines is he's presented with this opportunity with his wife to then go back into entrepreneurship to build a business that's gonna employ people that uh don't have opportunity.
- 14:04SPEAKER_04: And of all things, it's you know, a makeup and you know, natural, organic company.
- 14:10SPEAKER_04: And he's like, Surely God's not gonna have me leave building houses for the poor to go to work for a makeup company.
- 14:17SPEAKER_04: And in the face of conventional wisdom, God calls into this opportunity where they're creating 600 jobs, yeah, creating economic opportunities, things of flourishing.
- 14:27SPEAKER_04: And you just see that story and the contrast of that flying to work moment, yeah, and then him pulling up, and I don't know what I would say is just this small, tiny hatchback of a car.
- 14:40SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
- 14:41SPEAKER_04: And the contrast of that, and yet the joy, the joy that he experiences.
- 14:46SPEAKER_04: Yep.
- 14:46SPEAKER_04: And I'm struck by like John Piper early on in his teaching talks about this idea of like the difference between happiness and joy.
- 14:54SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 14:54SPEAKER_04: The idea of like what is truly lasting, and you see that in Dylan.
- 14:58SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and you see that in Anna of like they're alive, they're on the cutting edge, they're on the face of it.
- 15:04SPEAKER_01: And he also creates one of the best, the funniest moments in any of these stories, and there are lots of them across a lot of different stories, but where he talks about the guy who stole from him and how he forgave him.
- 15:16SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 15:17SPEAKER_01: And then the line about how he brought him back into the business.
- 15:21SPEAKER_01: He said, he doesn't touch the money anymore.
- 15:24SPEAKER_01: Right?
- 15:25SPEAKER_01: There's a realism video, it's actually really neat.
- 15:27SPEAKER_01: It's so sobering as an entrepreneur.
- 15:29SPEAKER_01: You hear that.
- 15:29SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 15:30SPEAKER_01: It says grace in a reality is just really neat.
- 15:32SPEAKER_01: But you know, you know me well enough, obviously, and maybe the audience knows me well enough to know that I love Africa, and we've been able to fill in so many great stories in Africa.
- 15:42SPEAKER_01: But I have to go to another story in Asia for another one.
- 15:45SPEAKER_01: And that is the story of the three toy makers.
- 15:48SPEAKER_01: Oh, because there's something beautiful about the three major toy makers living in Hong Kong who are creating incredible, they've got tens of thousands of employees.
- 16:00SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
- 16:00SPEAKER_01: Massive scale.
- 16:01SPEAKER_04: Largest companies, largest toy.
- 16:04SPEAKER_04: Every you could look at your Christmas shopping list for your kids over the past decade.
- 16:07SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 16:08SPEAKER_04: And probably half of it made by those guys.
- 16:10SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 16:11SPEAKER_01: And so these guys are very competitive, working on major contracts with Hasbro, Mattel, and all these others.
- 16:17SPEAKER_01: And so they're competitors during the day, but then they get together often, once a month, maybe even more frequently than that.
- 16:24SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 16:25SPEAKER_01: To worship God together, to pray together.
- 16:28SPEAKER_01: And the story where we talk about that, and that really is at the it with all this, it's that entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey, but it doesn't need to be.
- 16:38SPEAKER_01: And when we come together and worship an almighty God, it makes us and our businesses have the right perspective.
- 16:45SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 16:46SPEAKER_01: They know that there's an eternal God, they're going to spend eternity with each other and with him.
- 16:50SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 16:50SPEAKER_01: That's going to last much longer than their businesses.
- 16:53SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 16:53SPEAKER_01: And so they can do their business as doing it under God and being competitive and being excellent.
- 16:58SPEAKER_01: And yet they can come together with their shared faith.
- 17:01SPEAKER_01: And the beautiful way that your team told that story, and our team told that story, is my next favorite.
- 17:08SPEAKER_04: I think it's it's a beautiful thing because you see there are some very ambitious driven people.
- 17:13unknown: Yeah.
- 17:14SPEAKER_04: But I think that also what strikes me in that interview is the oldest gentleman of that story, Ken, just like talking about his journey.
- 17:23SPEAKER_04: There's such humility.
- 17:24SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 17:25SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 17:25SPEAKER_04: And I think that we see that across the movement.
- 17:27SPEAKER_04: I think of friends like Alan Barnhart.
- 17:29SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
- 17:30SPEAKER_04: I think of stories like that, where you're seeing a different kind of faithfulness, this humility of that moment.
- 17:37SPEAKER_04: And I think that that's actually kind of led us.
- 17:39SPEAKER_04: I mean, everybody listening to this is probably saying, okay, this is the Faith-Driven Entrepreneur Podcast.
- 17:43SPEAKER_04: When in fact it isn't.
- 17:44SPEAKER_04: It's the first of kind of a next chapter, but really it's a connected chapter.
- 17:50SPEAKER_04: And I and I think I want to take us into that idea is this.
- 17:53SPEAKER_04: I think that the conversation for so much of the last 20, 30 years has been, how do I build differently?
- 17:59SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 18:00SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 18:01SPEAKER_04: And we wrestled with this idea of like, okay, once you understand that God owns the business.
- 18:06SPEAKER_01: So before you go there, so it's how I build differently, but it's coming out of in this one and things we see in all these stories we're talking about is the why I build differently.
- 18:14SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 18:15SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 18:15SPEAKER_01: And they start off with like, oh my goodness, my work and my business actually matter to God.
- 18:20SPEAKER_01: I can see his redemptive purpose through the way I love on my partners, vendors, customers, employees.
- 18:25SPEAKER_01: Yep.
- 18:25SPEAKER_01: This isn't just something to pay the bills or to fund the ministries that I love and support.
- 18:30SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 18:30SPEAKER_01: There's something holy about what I'm doing.
- 18:32SPEAKER_01: And when they get that, then they come in like, all right, I get it.
- 18:36SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 18:37SPEAKER_04: Now how do I do this better?
- 18:38SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 18:39SPEAKER_04: And there's been, again, there's been such incredible uh opportunities.
- 18:43SPEAKER_04: C12 and other ministries and faith-driven entrepreneur and people that have shaped that conversation.
- 18:48SPEAKER_04: I think it's really important, as you said, to come to that why conversation.
- 18:51SPEAKER_04: I think there's a moment that we're in, and this is, Dara would say it's kind of like a the healthier moment that we've had.
- 18:58SPEAKER_04: Because in the past, I think entrepreneurs have felt like they were the ATM machine of the church, ATM machine of ministries.
- 19:06SPEAKER_04: But now there's a full circle moment when we come to really understand that both God owns the business and the joy that we can experience in building and in partnering with him, it leads us to saying, well, how do we get more of that?
- 19:17SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 19:17SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 19:18SPEAKER_04: 100%.
- 19:19SPEAKER_04: It leads us into this place of like, okay, well, if God owns the business, he owns the fruit too.
- 19:24SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 19:24SPEAKER_04: He owns the capital.
- 19:26SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 19:26SPEAKER_04: And it's been a journey that we've been on together and with our team is wrestling through, okay, once you come to that realization, how do you how do you take that step from pep rally to football game?
- 19:35SPEAKER_04: What's that how moment?
- 19:37SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 19:37SPEAKER_04: Reflect for us a little bit, just kind of some of that journey.
- 19:41SPEAKER_04: Because we thought the next step was investing.
- 19:44SPEAKER_04: But I think that before we got to that, we had to have kind of a moment of surrender.
- 19:49SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 19:50SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 19:50SPEAKER_04: And generosity.
- 19:51SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, there's so much in there.
- 19:54SPEAKER_01: And it's all part of this sanctification process that comes from knowing God, understanding how our business and our lives factor in the building of his kingdom, trying to say, all right, so how do I go ahead and run my business better?
- 20:04SPEAKER_01: And then as my business has financial success, if it's God's business, does that mean that the revenues and the profits are his as well?
- 20:14SPEAKER_01: And the answer, of course, is yes.
- 20:15SPEAKER_01: And is that good news or is it bad news?
- 20:17SPEAKER_01: It's really interesting as different entrepreneurs go through that to realize actually it is great news.
- 20:21SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 20:22SPEAKER_01: And everything that brings us closer to knowing God is good news because his love is perfect and good.
- 20:28SPEAKER_01: And so if he owns a business, we have to ask him what he wants us to do with it and the fruit.
- 20:34SPEAKER_01: And so um we went ahead and we went from faith-driven entrepreneurship to faith-driven investing.
- 20:39SPEAKER_01: And I think there's something really powerful about that.
- 20:41SPEAKER_01: And it made sense in terms of the next evolution because the felt need of so many entrepreneurs as we're talking to them was investment capital, like-minded capital.
- 20:50SPEAKER_01: Partner.
- 20:50SPEAKER_01: Really more than capital, a like-minded partner.
- 20:52SPEAKER_01: 100%.
- 20:53SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 20:53SPEAKER_01: Yep.
- 20:54SPEAKER_01: And yet, when we really think about the discipleship process, if you will, there's actually a step between those two things that are really important.
- 21:02SPEAKER_01: And that is this understanding that God owns it all.
- 21:05SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 21:06SPEAKER_01: And that means it's all his.
- 21:08SPEAKER_01: And giving up that sense of ownership.
- 21:12SPEAKER_01: There is a giving, there is a generosity.
- 21:14SPEAKER_01: There's the boy of John 6 going all in.
- 21:16SPEAKER_01: I had thought these were my five loaves and two fish.
- 21:19SPEAKER_01: I've come to understand that he's asking, and they were all his to begin with.
- 21:23SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 21:23SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 21:24SPEAKER_01: So that sense of being faithful and obedient all in hand, but really just the joyful generosity of like, oh my goodness.
- 21:31SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 21:31SPEAKER_01: I spent all this time with God now, asking him how to run the business and how he wants me to steward the capital is this sense of giving it up.
- 21:40SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 21:41SPEAKER_01: Now, once we've done that and we give, right?
- 21:43SPEAKER_01: So we've been talking about building fate trade entrepreneurship for eight years.
- 21:46SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 21:47SPEAKER_01: Then really the next thing actually is a sense of generosity and giving that comes from the sense of stewardship.
- 21:52SPEAKER_01: Yep.
- 21:53SPEAKER_01: And it's important because I do think that comes before investing.
- 21:56SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
- 21:57SPEAKER_01: Right?
- 21:57SPEAKER_01: I'd like to think, because it's convenient and an acronym, and it goes.
- 22:00SPEAKER_01: Build, invest, you know, feature not to our fate of investor, solving, you know, build, invest, get, but it's not.
- 22:05SPEAKER_01: It's build first, then we give, because it was never ours to begin with.
- 22:11SPEAKER_01: But then we give.
- 22:12SPEAKER_01: And then once we give it and we know that it's not ours, then God can show us how to deploy that capital that is his towards solving these problems.
- 22:23SPEAKER_01: So you say, well, where did investing go in all this?
- 22:26SPEAKER_01: Investing never went anywhere.
- 22:28SPEAKER_01: But the next thing is that once we understand it's all God's, but then it's like, all right, God doesn't care whether it's in our left pocket of giving or right pocket of investing.
- 22:35SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 22:35SPEAKER_01: It's about allocating financial resources toward the end of solving a problem.
- 22:40SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 22:40SPEAKER_01: And we get down on our knees, it's like, is it the fact that people don't know Jesus yet?
- 22:44SPEAKER_01: Is it the fact that there are not enough churches?
- 22:46SPEAKER_01: Is it the fact that there's, you know, there's structural hunger or there's joblessness or trafficking or orphans or those things?
- 22:51SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 22:51SPEAKER_01: And then we say, all right, so now that we've given this out, we've known it never never was ours to begin with.
- 22:56SPEAKER_01: How do we allocate that capital towards solving the problem?
- 23:00SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 23:01SPEAKER_01: And it will likely mean grants.
- 23:04SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 23:04SPEAKER_01: In many cases.
- 23:06SPEAKER_01: But in many other cases, the best way to solve a problem, you think about clean water, is investing in a piping company or a water metering company.
- 23:13SPEAKER_01: Or you think about trafficking, of course, and just understanding that just this massive industry and marketplace that fuels trafficking and pornography.
- 23:21SPEAKER_01: Well, how do you go ahead and invest towards the companies that end that?
- 23:25SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 23:25SPEAKER_01: So, what's the best way to do that?
- 23:27SPEAKER_01: So, investing is extraordinarily important because so many of the problems we're called to solve are in the marketplace, the place that entrepreneurs know.
- 23:36SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 23:36SPEAKER_01: So investment capital, of course, is a huge part.
- 23:38SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 23:39SPEAKER_01: But it comes once we know that it's not ours.
- 23:41SPEAKER_04: So I want to put that on the shelf for a moment.
- 23:43SPEAKER_04: And I want to pause for a minute.
- 23:44SPEAKER_04: As people are listening to this, is the first episode of the Solving the World's Greatest Problems podcast.
- 23:48SPEAKER_04: There is a clear upfront question that we have to answer.
- 23:52SPEAKER_04: Man, like that title, that name sounds audacious, sounds bold of you, sounds American of you, sounds, I don't know, Texan of you.
- 24:00SPEAKER_04: Like that sounds something, but like why?
- 24:02SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 24:03SPEAKER_04: And I think it's really important that people understand is like we we thought about things like faith-driven giving.
- 24:07SPEAKER_04: We thought about some of those things.
- 24:09SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 24:09SPEAKER_04: But the question all starts with like, what's the audience?
- 24:12SPEAKER_04: And the people that we're trying to appeal to, they're the people that are driving by these stop signs that have been there all their life.
- 24:18SPEAKER_04: These opportunities that have been staring them, but they just haven't stopped.
- 24:22SPEAKER_04: And we felt like there needed to be some sort of bold language that maybe doesn't even land the plane in the question, but provokes a curiosity.
- 24:31SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 24:31SPEAKER_04: Because entrepreneurs were curious people.
- 24:34SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 24:34SPEAKER_04: We like a good question.
- 24:35SPEAKER_04: Sure.
- 24:36SPEAKER_04: We don't like a box.
- 24:36SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 24:37SPEAKER_04: No problem.
- 24:38SPEAKER_04: We we like that problem.
- 24:39SPEAKER_04: We we see problems.
- 24:41SPEAKER_04: It's a language that we use.
- 24:42SPEAKER_04: So I think it's important as people see this.
- 24:43SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 24:44SPEAKER_04: As they come to know the ministries, the language is intentional.
- 24:47SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 24:47SPEAKER_04: It's trying to be provoking.
- 24:48SPEAKER_04: Yep.
- 24:48SPEAKER_04: And it's trying to appeal to people that aren't picking up the white papers.
- 24:52SPEAKER_04: They're not reading the research reports today, but they could be the next wave of generous stewards, givers, builders, people joining us.
- 25:00SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 25:00SPEAKER_04: And that was a that was a big decision for us to come to.
- 25:03SPEAKER_01: It was a huge decision.
- 25:04SPEAKER_01: And if you're listening to this right now and you're thinking, gosh, you know, I just don't like the idea of solving the world's greatest problems.
- 25:09SPEAKER_01: I was there pretty passionately for a couple of years.
- 25:14SPEAKER_01: So the idea of us completely turning it around in a half hour is maybe a little bit naive on my part, but maybe it's helpful to talk about how God allowed me and the just the perseverance of you and the team to help me to see what this is all about.
- 25:27SPEAKER_01: So I come out of this background understanding a bunch of things.
- 25:30SPEAKER_01: One is on a pragmatic side, when helping hurts.
- 25:33SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 25:33SPEAKER_01: That book changed my life.
- 25:35SPEAKER_01: Great part.
- 25:35SPEAKER_01: Helping me to understand that despite having kind of good intentions, I could do harm to the recipient of my gift and to myself if my heart wasn't right.
- 25:46SPEAKER_01: And I didn't understand my brokenness in the relationship with God and with myself and with community, et cetera.
- 25:53SPEAKER_01: So coming out of that backdrop, I think that, gosh, is it Christ follower?
- 25:57SPEAKER_01: Solving the world's greatest problems sounds ambitious.
- 25:59SPEAKER_01: And yet, and it well, on the other hand, of course, is this whole concept of knowing that I actually am the world's greatest problem.
- 26:05SPEAKER_04: And I think that's really important.
- 26:06SPEAKER_04: I'd love for you to elaborate on that because I think so oftentimes when people hear that website or that domain name or whatever it might be, they think of the immediate power imbalance.
- 26:15SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 26:16SPEAKER_04: But I think that you've been so faithfully having this conversation that, and I know you personalize it and say, hey, I am the world's greatest problems.
- 26:24SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 26:24SPEAKER_04: The reality is we all are coming from a place of dependency and brokenness.
- 26:29SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 26:29SPEAKER_04: And I think that that's been a key part of this journey.
- 26:32SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my brokenness and ultimately we're we're staying on the shoulders here in this case of G.K.
- 26:36SPEAKER_01: Chesterton, who once famously said, I am the world's greatest problem.
- 26:41SPEAKER_01: And I know my sinfulness.
- 26:43SPEAKER_01: I know the depravity of my heart.
- 26:45SPEAKER_01: I know that despite the fact I've been creating the image of it, loving God, and He's given me the gift of life now and forever, I fall short all the time.
- 26:53SPEAKER_01: And yet he still loves me and He's rescued me, but toward what end?
- 27:00SPEAKER_01: He's rescued me, I believe, toward the end of being used by Him in advancing His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, just like we pray, God, Jesus taught us to pray.
- 27:11SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 27:12SPEAKER_01: Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
- 27:15SPEAKER_01: And I believe that we pray and our prayers are lifted up to God.
- 27:19SPEAKER_01: I believe he answers them, but it puts us in a heart posture that then allows us to be used by him toward that end.
- 27:26SPEAKER_01: And so we're creating the image of a God who is the ultimate problem solver.
- 27:30SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 27:30SPEAKER_01: He's able to create something out of nothing, work six out of seven days.
- 27:34SPEAKER_01: The gospel of John says his work continues to this day.
- 27:37SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 27:37SPEAKER_01: And he's working through us.
- 27:39SPEAKER_01: And so what are we doing?
- 27:41SPEAKER_01: We're solving some of the world's greatest problems.
- 27:44SPEAKER_01: But if we do it for our glory, it's like the Tower of Babel.
- 27:48SPEAKER_01: It all goes poof.
- 27:49SPEAKER_01: Amen.
- 27:49SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 27:49SPEAKER_01: If we do it with the right motives, which is to make God famous.
- 27:53SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 27:53SPEAKER_01: And to bring together the body of Christ, and like we'd see in the Gospel of John, and we'd all together be one as Jesus wanted us to do, and we do it in a way to make God famous, we get a chance to work on some of the most incredible projects ever.
- 28:07SPEAKER_01: And what are the greatest projects ever?
- 28:09SPEAKER_01: Solving the world's greatest problems.
- 28:11SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 28:11SPEAKER_01: Trafficking, orphans, hunger, joblessness, the list goes on.
- 28:15SPEAKER_01: I want nothing less than to be used by God and bringing his kingdom on earth as is in heaven.
- 28:20SPEAKER_01: I want to be involved in solving the world's greatest problems.
- 28:23SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 28:24SPEAKER_01: And so if we get an understanding is who's the real solver, we can be used by him.
- 28:31SPEAKER_01: And so I think that's important.
- 28:33SPEAKER_01: I think that any other title doesn't get at what we are made to do.
- 28:38SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 28:38SPEAKER_04: It's the reconciliation of humility and ambition.
- 28:41SPEAKER_04: And it might not take three years.
- 28:42SPEAKER_04: I'm going to try and beat my three years that it takes you to convince you on solving the world's greatest problems.
- 28:46SPEAKER_04: But I'll win you over to this term of humbition.
- 28:49SPEAKER_01: No, I don't think you will.
- 28:50SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
- 28:51SPEAKER_01: No t-shirt.
- 28:52SPEAKER_01: Well, I like, I gotta tell you, I love efficiency.
- 28:55SPEAKER_01: And so, like, I love when you get ahead and we had lunch today at a French bakery.
- 28:58SPEAKER_01: You can take a croissant and take a bagel and make it a Cronagel or a Crow bagel or whatever it is.
- 29:03SPEAKER_01: I like that.
- 29:04SPEAKER_01: I can't say humbition easily, but I love the way that you can.
- 29:10SPEAKER_04: So I'll work on that.
- 29:12SPEAKER_04: In between then and now, this idea, when we come to this place, we stepped into this language.
- 29:17SPEAKER_04: I think what you said is accurate.
- 29:19SPEAKER_04: It's like many of us entrepreneurs, like, we have that desire.
- 29:22SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we have that ambition.
- 29:24SPEAKER_04: Maybe God's working on us as our why and repositioning, kind of like making sure we have the right motives.
- 29:30SPEAKER_04: But we can't ignore the gaps.
- 29:32SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we can't ignore what's broken in the system.
- 29:35SPEAKER_04: Because I think a lot of times, um, I'll combine two other words, shame and guilt.
- 29:39SPEAKER_04: We've shilted, we've we've combined those two things on a lot of people.
- 29:44SPEAKER_04: And a lot of entrepreneurs have felt that shame and guilt.
- 29:47SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 29:47SPEAKER_04: Why aren't you doing more?
- 29:48SPEAKER_04: Why you need to do more?
- 29:50SPEAKER_04: You need to be involved in more.
- 29:51SPEAKER_04: And I think it wasn't until recently that we really peeled it back and said, wait a second, what's the problem?
- 29:56SPEAKER_04: And I'll never forget where I was when we're on the phone having this conversation.
- 30:00SPEAKER_04: We're just riffing and processing through it.
- 30:01SPEAKER_04: We said, gosh, how many, how many nonprofits are there?
- 30:05SPEAKER_04: And I remember Siri coming back with 1.8 million nonprofits.
- 30:11SPEAKER_04: Unbelievable.
- 30:12SPEAKER_04: And then you just jumped in, you're like, man, there's there can't be more than five or 10,000 publicly traded companies.
- 30:18SPEAKER_04: Come to find out it's like four or five.
- 30:20SPEAKER_04: Like the contrast of that idea that there's 450 times as many choices.
- 30:26SPEAKER_04: No squawk ball.
- 30:27SPEAKER_04: So back in the 1970s, right?
- 30:28SPEAKER_01: So there were 5,000, 4,500 publicly traded companies, and we realize we can't be great stock pickers.
- 30:35SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 30:35SPEAKER_01: We can't do it well.
- 30:36SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 30:36SPEAKER_01: And so Peter Lent from Magellan comes along at Fidelity and shows us a better way.
- 30:40SPEAKER_01: And it's a mutual fund.
- 30:41SPEAKER_01: We're like, of course.
- 30:42SPEAKER_01: You go ahead and you've got the great deal flow, the access to the most the best thinkers.
- 30:45SPEAKER_01: You've got a team of analysts.
- 30:47SPEAKER_01: You go ahead and you invest.
- 30:48SPEAKER_01: You can do it at scale.
- 30:49SPEAKER_01: You can report back to people.
- 30:51SPEAKER_01: I'm happy to pay a you know a small management fee to be able to have somebody do it so much better than I ever could.
- 30:57SPEAKER_01: And yet the problem we have as givers is 450 times as big.
- 31:03SPEAKER_01: And that's the difference between 4,500 and 1.8 million.
- 31:07SPEAKER_01: Now somebody's going to write in and say, no, you got your you're slightly off, but directionally it is about 450 times as many.
- 31:14SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 31:14SPEAKER_01: And that means there are 1.8 million CEOs.
- 31:18SPEAKER_01: There are 1.8 million CFOs.
- 31:20SPEAKER_01: There are 1.8 million development directors.
- 31:23SPEAKER_01: There are 1.8 million people at these different organizations doing deal flow, discovery, diligence, reporting, monitoring and evaluation, longitudinal analysis.
- 31:34SPEAKER_01: And we know that that can't work well.
- 31:36SPEAKER_01: It's a just us in this post-tarbal reality just being scattered out there and the body of Christ being rendered inert because we start off with great hearts, but we're really not getting together and sharing best practices and saying, what's the problem we're trying to solve?
- 31:51SPEAKER_01: And you do this great illustration I love.
- 31:53SPEAKER_01: And I remember you coming back in the staff meeting maybe five years ago now.
- 31:56SPEAKER_01: You went on this trip to Alaska, and you're you and the kids were playing in the river.
- 32:01SPEAKER_01: What was that story?
- 32:01SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, the kids were young and we're we're off the grid in Alaska.
- 32:05SPEAKER_04: And I mean, you've taken every device and everything from them.
- 32:08SPEAKER_04: And so every kid boils down to their basics of like, oh, there's rivers, there's waters, there's creeks, there's sticks, there's rocks.
- 32:14SPEAKER_04: And for Sri and I it was just this like epic place.
- 32:17SPEAKER_04: And you watch the kids playing.
- 32:18SPEAKER_04: And um, I remember they were trying to build this like little chute essentially of their river.
- 32:24SPEAKER_04: They were trying to dam up parts of it to keep it flowing.
- 32:26SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 32:27SPEAKER_04: And there's this one piece kind of part off to the side, and they were dropping sticks in and calling them boat races and trying to race around.
- 32:33SPEAKER_04: But they always get stuck.
- 32:35SPEAKER_04: And they won't always get stuck.
- 32:37SPEAKER_04: And their solution was, oh, it's getting stuck halfway or towards the end of the river.
- 32:43SPEAKER_04: So they would come in with as much as they could to prop up the very end of it.
- 32:47SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 32:48SPEAKER_04: They would prop up that bottom part of it, and they never could get enough thrust, enough power, enough water, enough flow to really get that boat unstuck.
- 32:58SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 32:58SPEAKER_04: And I just remember one of those like lessons, and I I remember telling Tristan and Kate this.
- 33:03SPEAKER_04: I said, guys, we we just gotta go upstream.
- 33:06SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 33:06SPEAKER_04: If you go upstream, one rock can have 10, 100, whatever it is, times the change.
- 33:13SPEAKER_04: I remember we found this one big rock and we positioned it in right the perfect place upstream.
- 33:18SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 33:19SPEAKER_04: Water just came rushing through.
- 33:21SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 33:21SPEAKER_04: And it was like they had a new race course.
- 33:23SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 33:24unknown: Yeah.
- 33:24SPEAKER_04: And it was just one of those moments that you realize.
- 33:27SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 33:28SPEAKER_04: Like this is the picture of us in entrepreneurship and church and other things.
- 33:32SPEAKER_04: So oftentimes in our sin struggle, our journey with Christ, we're we're looking downstream.
- 33:37SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 33:37SPEAKER_01: And you gotta be careful.
- 33:38SPEAKER_01: I gotta be careful.
- 33:39SPEAKER_01: I'm mixing metaphors here, but the other thing I think about as you talk about these streams is this proverb of all these babies being in the river.
- 33:48SPEAKER_01: And you walk up to the river and you see like 15 people there just dragging these babies out of the river.
- 33:53SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 33:54SPEAKER_01: And then all of a sudden you see somebody walking up the riverbank.
- 33:57SPEAKER_01: And you're like, where are you going?
- 33:58SPEAKER_01: All these babies in the river.
- 34:00SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 34:00SPEAKER_01: And the guy looks back and says, I'm trying to figure out who's placing the babies in the river to begin with.
- 34:05SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 34:05SPEAKER_01: And I think that that's, you know, the people dragging babies out of the river, we've got to do that.
- 34:10SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 34:10SPEAKER_01: Christ for us, we've got to do that work.
- 34:12SPEAKER_01: And yet there's also incredibly important work to understand is what's the upstream issue?
- 34:17SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 34:17SPEAKER_01: What's the unlock?
- 34:18SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 34:19SPEAKER_01: So that we can understand why are there hundreds of thousands of women that are sold into sex trafficking?
- 34:25SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 34:26SPEAKER_01: Is there a role for public policy in this?
- 34:28SPEAKER_01: Does it come back to discipleship or church planning or benevolence funds or what are all the different types of upstream pieces?
- 34:34SPEAKER_01: That's really hard when you're working with a small ministry that is doing such a great job of rescuing.
- 34:39SPEAKER_01: So the question is, how do we as the body of Christ do a both end?
- 34:42SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 34:43SPEAKER_01: Be strategic, understand what the big unlocks are of those big rocks upriver.
- 34:49SPEAKER_01: At the same time, we've got a group of us that still do that really important work downriver.
- 34:53SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 34:53SPEAKER_04: It's a both end.
- 34:54SPEAKER_04: It's how do you help those ministries create time and space to pursue the things they've wanted to pursue?
- 34:58SPEAKER_04: They want to do upstream.
- 34:59SPEAKER_04: They just maybe haven't had the time.
- 35:01SPEAKER_04: The second side I think we have to come back to is that entrepreneur and that potential giver that's saying, hey, I don't, I don't have the time to vet these.
- 35:08SPEAKER_04: I think that's the reality that we walked into.
- 35:10SPEAKER_04: And that most of these entrepreneurs, they're used to trusting a financial advisor, somebody with a fund or whatever it might be.
- 35:17SPEAKER_04: But in the area of giving, that hadn't been the case.
- 35:19SPEAKER_04: It still isn't been the case.
- 35:21SPEAKER_04: But I think in any disruptive moment for good and any innovative unlock that we find ourselves in, like to this moment, there's really been the seeds of something that's been there for a while.
- 35:33SPEAKER_04: It's just giving it more oxygen, a bigger platform, more space, and people kind of coming together.
- 35:39SPEAKER_04: And that's where I want to just kind of camp out is when we think about this idea of going upstream, think about engaging these people, when we think about these funds, there's some incredible stories of people that have been doing this.
- 35:51SPEAKER_04: They're the untold stories.
- 35:53SPEAKER_04: And I think of our mutual friend Mark Green, yeah, that uh has been doing this with Todd Peterson and Catherine Barnhart and David Denmark and so many others that have been doing this in the area of Bible translation.
- 36:06SPEAKER_04: And we take for granted all the time the incredible stories we get to hear.
- 36:09SPEAKER_04: And I often think, man, everybody's got a poster of that on their wall.
- 36:12SPEAKER_04: They all know about it.
- 36:13SPEAKER_04: Like everybody's heard about it.
- 36:15SPEAKER_04: Most people haven't.
- 36:16SPEAKER_04: But most people haven't.
- 36:18SPEAKER_04: Like 95% of the people, I think, that when we surveyed a couple of times hadn't heard about it, and we realized here's one of the greatest stories about how Bible translation was set to take 100 years.
- 36:27SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 36:27SPEAKER_04: And through collaboration, through collective impact, through all those different things that pulled it forward.
- 36:33SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 36:34SPEAKER_04: To the point where now potentially within the decade, certainly within our lifetime, every known active living language will have copies of scripture in it.
- 36:44SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 36:45SPEAKER_04: And I think that this is one of those moments where we're standing again on the shoulders of people that have blazed these trails, figured out these things.
- 36:54SPEAKER_04: And I remember when Mark talked about like when they started Illuminations, that uh, and I love his analogy when I remember.
- 37:01SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so Illuminations for everybody to know is this collective impact project to bring the Bible in everybody's heart language by 2033.
- 37:09SPEAKER_01: And it's a belief that God speaks to us through his word, of course, and that there had been some great organizations making some real important work.
- 37:18SPEAKER_01: But you might go to a village in Guatemala and three different Bible translation companies are working towards translating the Bible.
- 37:24SPEAKER_01: So Mart and some others said, What does it look like if we bring everybody together and share best practices?
- 37:30SPEAKER_01: And somebody's gone ahead and had an unlock with technology and artificial intelligence there.
- 37:34SPEAKER_01: How do we bring that through everything that's going on?
- 37:36SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 37:37SPEAKER_01: And that's such a great case study.
- 37:39SPEAKER_01: And what's possible when the body of Christ comes together.
- 37:42SPEAKER_01: There's so many things that are there.
- 37:43SPEAKER_01: It's the it's the things that we talk a lot about.
- 37:45SPEAKER_01: It's the deal flow, it's the diligence, discovery, monitoring, evaluation, all those things.
- 37:49SPEAKER_01: But there's another lesson in there that I think is really important.
- 37:52SPEAKER_01: And I think we need to acknowledge as the movement.
- 37:54SPEAKER_01: It's one of the reasons why it's taken us this long to get there.
- 37:58SPEAKER_01: It's why there haven't been Peter Lynch Magellan type of mutual funds in this space.
- 38:04SPEAKER_01: Because God has also put us in community.
- 38:07SPEAKER_01: Our hearts are knitted together when we find others that say, wait, I thought I was the only person who had a problem or a challenge with orphans in Swaziland.
- 38:16SPEAKER_01: And I found that there are another 15 of my peers, other business owners that care about that.
- 38:21SPEAKER_01: And one of the great things that we've learned from Mart is the value of community because they got together, a group of about 12 of them, all committed.
- 38:31SPEAKER_01: And they got together every month for 100 months.
- 38:35SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 38:35SPEAKER_01: Now that doesn't mean that as we offer this up in these community groups and the events we're going to be doing around each of these problems, you got to sign up for a hundred times.
- 38:44SPEAKER_01: But the value of community and doing this together, because we have to understand, I enjoy when I have got somebody who's a good friend of mine who cares about a particular cause.
- 38:54SPEAKER_01: I want to support what he cares about.
- 38:56SPEAKER_01: I want to do things in community.
- 38:57SPEAKER_01: And that's something that God planted in me, which looks a little differently than picking a mutual fund.
- 39:02SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 39:03SPEAKER_01: So we got together and we realized what God had shown us with these community groups, times 55,000 on these fate trade entrepreneurial groups.
- 39:10SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 39:10SPEAKER_01: How can we take community and bring it into this?
- 39:12SPEAKER_04: So riff on that for a bit.
- 39:14SPEAKER_04: Yes, and I think that's where Mark talks about when illumination started, some of that stuff has grown.
- 39:19SPEAKER_04: And we always want to learn from history and learn from those that have gone before it.
- 39:23SPEAKER_04: And I think that when you talk about what they had then, they had the levers of pulled capital, created partnership, created incentives for partnership.
- 39:31SPEAKER_04: It created reasons for people to get together.
- 39:34SPEAKER_04: I think it's also important before we get to that community aspect is to know that community is created when you have peers, leaders, people that get in this space.
- 39:45SPEAKER_04: And I think that's kind of a moment.
- 39:46SPEAKER_04: And it's it's not too dissimilar from like faith-driven investing.
- 39:50SPEAKER_04: Years ago, there were families, there were people that said, Hey, let's go figure this out, or the early adopters, the trailblazers.
- 39:57SPEAKER_04: But there comes to a point where that current method can't scale at the way it is.
- 40:03SPEAKER_04: And we've had some families that have been incredible stock pickers, incredible stock pickers in the giving side of things.
- 40:09SPEAKER_04: I think of so many families that are involved in this movement are getting more and more involved in this movement that are bringing intentionality.
- 40:16SPEAKER_04: And I'm reminded of a conversation with one of them recently that is probably one of the most that you would say they're the stock picker of stock pickers.
- 40:22SPEAKER_04: They they don't invest into anything that they can't be in relationship with and kind of like in the deal on, even when it comes to their generosity.
- 40:30SPEAKER_04: And God has shown them over the last five years how it's really the power of these collective impacts of this coming together.
- 40:37SPEAKER_04: And I think what you're seeing is a moment where now you've got a group of not just illuminations, but you've got peers across all these different problem areas that are saying, Hey, I think we should use some of these same principles.
- 40:51SPEAKER_04: What does it look like?
- 40:52SPEAKER_04: What does it look like to this to scale?
- 40:54SPEAKER_04: And so when I think about what God has us in collectively together in this moment, there's this gear of this idea of like it's peer-led.
- 41:02SPEAKER_04: None of these funds are you and me running around.
- 41:06SPEAKER_04: This is all the community.
- 41:07SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 41:07SPEAKER_04: This is investment committees, peers, boards of advisors, leaders, young fund managers building, doing all of this together.
- 41:15SPEAKER_04: That's a big piece.
- 41:16SPEAKER_04: Two, we've seen such incredible response from advisors that have said, I felt this.
- 41:24SPEAKER_04: I've wanted to encourage my people to be more generous, but I've never known where to turn.
- 41:29SPEAKER_04: I didn't have the information.
- 41:30SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I didn't have all the data.
- 41:32SPEAKER_04: And so you've got this response from advisors that want it.
- 41:36SPEAKER_04: And then the third piece is you need the content and the community to leverage its reach.
- 41:42SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 41:42SPEAKER_04: And so I think that we're seeing this convergence of those three things coming together.
- 41:46SPEAKER_04: And I think that funds, again, we want this to be uh effective, we want this to be efficient, we want this to be a clean, easy, highly leveraged deployment of capital.
- 41:59SPEAKER_04: We want all of those things.
- 42:00SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 42:01SPEAKER_04: But we don't have to trade something else as real.
- 42:04SPEAKER_04: And I love how Mark says his ideas when they got into it, they wondered, could we be better, faster, and cheaper?
- 42:11SPEAKER_04: And he thought, well, wait a second.
- 42:13SPEAKER_04: If you're gonna be better, then you probably are you know faster, or maybe you had to compromise on some quality so you're cheaper.
- 42:19SPEAKER_04: And they're one of these like gifts.
- 42:22SPEAKER_04: But what he found out, what they found out together is actually you can't get all three of those things.
- 42:27SPEAKER_01: And I think it's really important to your point that we have to make sure that we have good product, if you will, solving problems and funds, but pair that with community because and they reinforce each other, they reinforce each other because the fund that we have right now towards solving trafficking will look different four years from now.
- 42:46SPEAKER_01: And part of that will be a function of the fact that we're bringing together peers that care deeply about the the issue.
- 42:52SPEAKER_01: Some of them are service providers in the market right now, yeah, and others are successful entrepreneurs and innovators who have been giving and been interested in this space, but are able to bring a new lens to how to apply technology or public policy or some other unlock that helps us to reframe the problem that we thought we knew.
- 43:11SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 43:11SPEAKER_01: So bringing the community together around a fund manager and around an investment committee allow for that fund to iterate, to learn, to get better, to do A-B analysis, to report back.
- 43:24SPEAKER_01: Yep.
- 43:24SPEAKER_01: And so effectively the community is almost the product.
- 43:27SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 43:28SPEAKER_01: And the product enables the community.
- 43:30SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 43:32SPEAKER_00: Trafficking, structural hunger, a billion people without the Bible in their language.
- 43:37SPEAKER_00: These aren't unsolvable.
- 43:39SPEAKER_00: They're just uncoordinated.
- 43:41SPEAKER_00: At solving the world's greatest problems, we're a community of givers taking on the root causes of the world's deepest suffering.
- 43:48SPEAKER_00: And we're taking them on together.
- 43:49SPEAKER_00: We've identified more than 30 of the world's greatest problems, and the list keeps growing.
- 43:54SPEAKER_00: We work alongside the entrepreneurs, investors, and ministry leaders already in the fight.
- 44:00SPEAKER_00: We fund the breakthroughs happening right now.
- 44:02SPEAKER_00: Here's where it starts.
- 44:04SPEAKER_00: Choose your problem and start your journey with one of our foundation courses.
- 44:09SPEAKER_00: You won't just hear about the work, but see the breakthroughs.
- 44:12SPEAKER_00: And give directly towards them.
- 44:14SPEAKER_00: Come on your own, bring a few friends, or host a room and set the table.
- 44:18SPEAKER_00: Come join the fight and fight your people.
- 44:20SPEAKER_00: Learn more at solving.org.
- 44:23SPEAKER_00: Under its power for its glory.
- 44:25SPEAKER_00: Together.
- 44:34SPEAKER_04: It's a virtuous cycle, and I think that we have to recognize we have to have both.
- 44:37SPEAKER_04: And I think we talked about this recently as a team, but it's it's worth sharing again.
- 44:41SPEAKER_04: Is I think a lot of times, you know, gosh, in DealFlow, we've seen this over the last 10 years, is the church has had technology plays, it's had church databases, gosh, it's had a thousand and one it feels like giving apps.
- 44:53SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 44:54SPEAKER_04: And I I mean, I've heard so many of these stories and pitches, and they, man, here's our here's our sample, and we've done this with a hundred families and it increased generosity this much.
- 45:03SPEAKER_04: Well, if you take that rate and that idea, what everybody said, and you've extrapolated across the market share of all these giving apps, you would think that generosity is quadrupled by now.
- 45:13unknown: Yeah.
- 45:14SPEAKER_04: But tragically, it's barely moved.
- 45:15SPEAKER_01: It hasn't among the body christs, it's 4%.
- 45:18SPEAKER_01: It's barely secular giving is three and a half percent.
- 45:20SPEAKER_04: And it's barely moved.
- 45:21SPEAKER_04: And so when we look at that, and yet you look at easier, more effective, this isn't against the technology itself.
- 45:28SPEAKER_04: The technology is needed.
- 45:29SPEAKER_04: Heck, most ministries today would have a hard time without those giving apps.
- 45:34SPEAKER_04: But we can't let it cut discipleship in the process.
- 45:38SPEAKER_04: And I think of those moments growing up, man, I can still feel and smell the smell of that offering plate being passed in our church as a kid.
- 45:47SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
- 45:47SPEAKER_04: I remember passing it uh when times were good, when times were tough.
- 45:53SPEAKER_04: And I still remember mom and dad putting something in.
- 45:55SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 45:56SPEAKER_04: And I remember how that shaped me as a kid.
- 45:59SPEAKER_04: And I think of that, I've never passed the plate.
- 46:02SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 46:04SPEAKER_04: We've missed something there.
- 46:05SPEAKER_04: We've missed something.
- 46:06SPEAKER_04: Our giving is right next to the Netflix subscription and the bank draft of our mortgage.
- 46:12SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 46:12SPEAKER_04: And I think we can't cut discipleship in the process of all of this.
- 46:17SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 46:17SPEAKER_04: Otherwise, we miss one of the very things that is at the heart of this issue.
- 46:23SPEAKER_01: I agree completely.
- 46:24SPEAKER_01: There's something powerful about passing the offering plate, not just because of what that means for our family and the symbolism that's there, but it's also because we see everybody else, this shared ownership we have and commitment, the shared community investment in a body of believers.
- 46:42SPEAKER_01: There's something powerful about that.
- 46:44SPEAKER_01: And if you're listening to this right now and you're of our age or older, or maybe a little bit younger, you know what we're talking about.
- 46:51SPEAKER_01: And so when we design solving, and as we continue to iterate, it has to be with that type of community mindset.
- 46:57SPEAKER_01: It has to be brought together under the premise that actually God doesn't need our five loaves and two fish to feed five.
- 47:04SPEAKER_01: He doesn't need our money.
- 47:06SPEAKER_01: He just wants us.
- 47:08SPEAKER_01: And we are furthered in our discipleship journey when we come together and we worship God and we challenge each other.
- 47:16SPEAKER_01: And I think that God is glorified in that.
- 47:18SPEAKER_01: I think that we need, I think that that's what we're designed for.
- 47:21SPEAKER_01: And so that's the thing that we want to make sure that as we build on this community, that we do it around community, which means that in order to do scalable community, we can't control all aspects of it.
- 47:33SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 47:33SPEAKER_01: Decentralized.
- 47:34SPEAKER_01: This is something where we rely on this community of fate-driven entrepreneurs and fate-driven investors, just as we had with Fate Driven Entrepreneur with maybe 1,700 volunteers now in 130 countries.
- 47:45SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 47:45SPEAKER_01: They say, you know what, I can facilitate a group on Fate Drive Entrepreneurship.
- 47:49SPEAKER_01: And in this case, I can bring together for an evening or a four-week process and get a bunch of my peers together and we're going to talk about trafficking or orphans or foster care or some other aspect.
- 48:02SPEAKER_01: And that's the key thing that we have to be able to do that.
- 48:05SPEAKER_01: And you know, other people are going to go ahead and say, you know what?
- 48:07SPEAKER_01: I want to bring together a group of fate-driven entrepreneurs, and I want to talk about solving Orlando's greatest problems or solving Crack Allen's greatest problems or a name filling the city.
- 48:16SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 48:16SPEAKER_01: And so it's a global movement.
- 48:18SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 48:19SPEAKER_01: Body of Christ coming together toward the end of knowing God and his love for us as we see him at work through each of us.
- 48:28SPEAKER_01: And then with that realization in place, now we're in a spot to be used by him to change problems.
- 48:35SPEAKER_01: If it's not, if it's just a bunch of entrepreneurs and we become transactional, and it's not about God first, I don't think it stands a chance to succeed.
- 48:43SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 48:44SPEAKER_04: And I think that's important.
- 48:45SPEAKER_04: So as we come into a landing, I think, and we say this all the time, as like there's not many pepperolis without a football game.
- 48:51SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 48:51SPEAKER_04: We want to make sure that people are understanding like what are some of the ways to get in the game.
- 48:55SPEAKER_04: And you know, today people will hit the solving website.
- 48:58SPEAKER_04: They're going to see eight funds and growing.
- 49:01SPEAKER_04: There are football games going on right now.
- 49:03SPEAKER_04: There's football games going on right now.
- 49:04SPEAKER_04: There's ways that people can give, there's capital that's being deployed.
- 49:08SPEAKER_04: There's a growing number of families that are participating in this.
- 49:11SPEAKER_04: It's exciting, it's taking off.
- 49:13SPEAKER_04: If you're one of those people that, man, you like to invest when the days are young and new and early, this is your moment.
- 49:20SPEAKER_04: 100%.
- 49:21SPEAKER_04: This is that place.
- 49:22SPEAKER_04: And some people, they might like to, you know, take a little bit of time, bring the family along, bring themselves along kind of through a process, but we want people to be in that tension.
- 49:31SPEAKER_04: And so while we have these funds, I love what you alluded to is there's some community initiatives that are starting this fall.
- 49:37SPEAKER_04: And so you hit on a couple of them, but to just give everybody a flyover, every month, yes, there's going to be a new foundation course released where it's going to give opportunities for people to see the problem, to understand it, and to give together.
- 49:52SPEAKER_04: And so our first one, solving trafficking, Lila Micklewaite, Tim Tebow, Danny Pinter, and some of our friends are going to get that kick started.
- 49:59SPEAKER_04: And we're going to have another one about John Maxwell's coming in and saying, hey, what does it look like to solve this evangelism gap?
- 50:05SPEAKER_04: How do we leverage technology?
- 50:07SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 50:08SPEAKER_04: Amazing stories that are there.
- 50:09SPEAKER_04: We're then going to come look at saying, what does it look like to solve structural hunger?
- 50:12SPEAKER_02: Yep.
- 50:13SPEAKER_04: Highlighting some incredible stories from Africa.
- 50:15SPEAKER_04: Yep.
- 50:16SPEAKER_04: So that comes up the next month, and then we come back to illuminations and Bible translation saying, and this is what I love.
- 50:22SPEAKER_04: Because in most times in ministry, very rarely in the church, is there a last call.
- 50:27unknown: Yeah.
- 50:28SPEAKER_04: Where it's like, hey, this is your last chance to get involved in something that's going to be solved in our lifetime.
- 50:34SPEAKER_04: But that's what we're coming up against here in Bible translation, where people have the chance to be like one of the last opportunities.
- 50:42SPEAKER_04: That's right.
- 50:42SPEAKER_04: To see the gospel translate into it.
- 50:45SPEAKER_04: Some incredible stories there.
- 50:46SPEAKER_01: Because there is an open question as to whether all the languages in the Bible are translated by 2050 or 2030.
- 50:52SPEAKER_01: Yep.
- 50:53SPEAKER_01: And gosh, another 20 years or think about the compounded spiritual impact of an entire generation of billions of people hearing about Jesus in their own language over those 20 years and what that means.
- 51:07SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 51:08SPEAKER_01: But it's up to us as to whether we get up and we roll up our sleeves and go ahead and give generously now to some of these incredible initiatives.
- 51:15SPEAKER_01: Because 2030 is so much better than 2050.
- 51:18SPEAKER_01: And yet, if we sit around and wait till 2050, a whole bunch of other people will be able to say that God used them and the resources he has them this story toward that end.
- 51:27SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 51:28SPEAKER_01: But we don't want to oversell you on Bible translation either.
- 51:30SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want to oversell each one of us on.
- 51:33SPEAKER_01: This is what I want to oversell myself on, my wife, my three boys.
- 51:37SPEAKER_01: And that is that we get down on our knees and say, God, what problem would you have me solve?
- 51:44SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 51:44SPEAKER_01: Bring me to the community that I can go ahead and find fellowship and communion that'll point me closer to knowing you and then use me, Lord.
- 51:54SPEAKER_01: Amen.
- 51:55SPEAKER_04: Amen.
- 51:56SPEAKER_04: And so we've got these foundation courses.
- 51:57SPEAKER_04: Each one of those has kind of like a release party, an event, a live event that we're going to be doing, kicking that off.
- 52:03SPEAKER_04: We've got tools as you alluded to that if you're wrestling as a family, like where do we give?
- 52:07SPEAKER_04: How do we give?
- 52:08SPEAKER_04: How do we maybe even build kind of a giving portfolio, an intentionality to it?
- 52:12SPEAKER_04: We got some of those tools that are coming up.
- 52:14SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 52:14SPEAKER_04: All that's there, it'd be remiss not to say one thing.
- 52:18SPEAKER_04: Over the last eight years of faith-driven entrepreneurship, one of the things that we've had the immense privilege of is getting in person with people.
- 52:24SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 52:24SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
- 52:25SPEAKER_04: And there's nothing like it.
- 52:26SPEAKER_04: And I know in this big global conversation, those times aren't as frequent as we like them to be.
- 52:32SPEAKER_04: But each of these funds is going to be built on like people that are really rolling up their sleeves, committing to this, are going to be getting together in person for each fund, getting together annually, where all the best problem solvers are coming together saying, okay, collaboratively, what's happening?
- 52:51SPEAKER_04: There's real opportunities for people to get in the game and to get in person with each other here.
- 52:56SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 52:56SPEAKER_01: And our commitment is that is those that God lifts up that are committed and is like, I'm all in on solving this.
- 53:03SPEAKER_01: This is something my family and I are going to get involved in is to bring everybody together.
- 53:06SPEAKER_01: Amen.
- 53:07SPEAKER_01: We got a bunch of events coming up this fall in Washington, DC.
- 53:10SPEAKER_01: We're going to be doing them in Dallas.
- 53:12SPEAKER_01: We're going to be doing them all around.
- 53:13SPEAKER_01: And that's really key.
- 53:14SPEAKER_01: And that's something I'm excited about.
- 53:16SPEAKER_01: And that is that for these first eight years, he's allowed us to build across 130 countries.
- 53:21SPEAKER_01: And we've been doing so much online.
- 53:23SPEAKER_01: Fortunately, so many of these groups of 12 get together.
- 53:27SPEAKER_01: But this is a time to bring several hundred high capacity folks together.
- 53:31SPEAKER_01: And by high capacity, I mean these are entrepreneurs, they're employing people and solving problems, or saying, gosh, I might I never really care about adoption or foster care, but it seems too much for myself.
- 53:44SPEAKER_01: But if I can find another couple hundred folks that share my faith and want to end this, gosh, I want to be a part of it.
- 53:50SPEAKER_01: And we got to bring them together in person.
- 53:52SPEAKER_04: Amen.
- 53:52SPEAKER_04: Well, partner, can't think of anything in life I'd rather be doing than this.
- 53:56SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
- 53:57SPEAKER_01: And doing it with you, I don't want to get too sappy on everybody at the end of the podcast, but through the grace of God, He's allowed us to have a great partnership and great team.
- 54:05SPEAKER_01: And just when I think again, as I said before, 1,700 volunteers they come alongside to facilitate these groups who bring them to their churches, to their workplaces, who go out there and invite their fellow business leaders in and say, hey, you know, God's doing something really cool here.
- 54:22SPEAKER_01: Uh super, just it's humbling, it's encouraging.
- 54:25SPEAKER_01: It's it's so much better in telecom.
- 54:27SPEAKER_04: Amen.
- 54:28SPEAKER_04: Well, friends, we know that at the end of each one of these episodes, we just don't want to just leave any disconnect.
- 54:34SPEAKER_04: We want to draw you right to the next steps and ways that you can get in the game.
- 54:37SPEAKER_04: So I'm gonna spell out two of them.
- 54:39SPEAKER_04: Uh, one, if you're learning about solving the world's greatest problems for the first time and you're wrestling with the question of what's the fight I'm called into?
- 54:45SPEAKER_04: What's the fight I'm called into as an individual, as a couple, as a family, or maybe even in your business, there's plenty of stories, plenty of examples, but there's teammates of ours that will sit down with you, walk you through that process.
- 54:58SPEAKER_04: There's some other tools and some workshops and some exercises, even a foundation course where you can wrestle through this.
- 55:05SPEAKER_04: Uh, and there's also foundation courses on each one of those causes.
- 55:09SPEAKER_04: So as your journey narrows and focuses in on it, we have all of these steps prepared.
- 55:15SPEAKER_04: But here's where it starts.
- 55:16SPEAKER_04: It starts with as simple as going to the website, scheduling 15 minutes, or scheduling to be a part of that class, or making that first gift.
- 55:25SPEAKER_04: As Henry said, these are all live, these are real, these you don't have to wait.
- 55:29SPEAKER_04: And one of the best ways of learning could be that process with our team.
- 55:33SPEAKER_04: The second step or second way you can learn is maybe just making a couple of gifts.
- 55:38SPEAKER_04: Be a part of the community, ride along, experience it together, be a part of the prayer calls, the quarterly updates, meet the fund managers, understand everything of what's happening there.
- 55:48SPEAKER_04: But this is a journey of peers.
- 55:50SPEAKER_04: We want to do this together.
- 55:52SPEAKER_04: I believe there has been no greater moment where this conversation has been ready, prepared, and a healthier conversation for entrepreneurs to bring what we build differently and how we steward its fruit differently.
- 56:04SPEAKER_04: If that's the way we give or the way that we invest.
- 56:09SPEAKER_04: But let's take this step together.
- 56:12SPEAKER_04: Under his power, for his glory, let's do this together.
- 56:16SPEAKER_04: We'll see you next week.
- 56:17SPEAKER_00: So, what are your next steps?
- 56:19SPEAKER_00: Give together.
- 56:20SPEAKER_00: Meet friends and discover how you can go further.
- 56:23SPEAKER_00: Join us on a call and we'll give you a 30-minute overview of giving funds and how they work.
- 56:29SPEAKER_00: Visit solving.org to join the call today.
- 56:32SPEAKER_00: Pick a fund and step into the story.
- 56:35SPEAKER_00: Breakthroughs are happening right now.
- 56:37SPEAKER_00: God is already at work and you're invited to join him.
- 56:40SPEAKER_00: To learn more, visit solving.org.
- 56:44SPEAKER_00: That's solving.org.
- 56:46SPEAKER_00: And if you're watching on YouTube, please subscribe.
- 56:49SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and we hope that you join us in solving the world's greatest problems.