How To Be A Disciple Maker in Every Vocation with Dave Buehring

In this episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast, you'll hear Dave Buehring, Founder & President of Lionshare, share how to make disciples of Jesus in every vocation. 

Key Takeaways:

Jesus can impact every sphere of your life. He came to change the world, not just the church. We often limit disciple-making to the church or something only the church does.

Disciple-Making vs. Mentoring: Disciple-Making always tethers things to Jesus. How to live and work practically for Jesus. 

Since most of us were not intentionally discipled, we don’t know how to disciple others. 

How do we make disciples? We look for people who are F.A.S.T.

Faithful

Available

Servent-Hearted

Teachable

The first question I ask in looking for someone to disciple: In whose ears will my words be big? Those are the people that we have favor with. They listen to what we have to say, do it, and come back for more. 

Dave discusses his one-year disciple-making curriculum and why it works. 

The whole mission of the early church would’ve been to do what Jesus did. What did he do? He made disciples. Church planting and church growth are supposed to be the fruit of proper discipleship. 

“Just becuase you have the gift of God on you, doesn’t mean your character is where it needs to be.”


Dave's Latest Book:
The Great Opportunity: Making Disciples of Jesus In Every Vocation.

About Dave Buehring:
Dave Buehring is a devoted disciple of Jesus who is engaged in equipping the Church, guiding leaders, and reproducing disciple-makers. Over four-plus decades, Dave has led on local, national, and international fronts. He has had the opportunity to speak thousands of times in hundreds of settings, including conferences and retreats, leadership summits, vocational venues, churches, schools and universities, and humanitarian aid trainings. He is often found walking alongside leaders of all ages, who lead throughout the vocations. Referencing wisdom from the Scriptures, blended with his broad experiences, he guides them toward living godly lives and leading in the ways of God.

Dave is the Founder and President of Lionshare (www.Lionshare.org), a nonprofit organization aimed at igniting and equipping churches and societal leaders to fulfill Jesus’ Great Co-Mission of making disciple makers. He’s the author of A Discipleship Journey, a scripturally sound, proven and practical resource used in numberous nations throughout the world; The Jesus Blueprint: Rediscovering His Original Plan for Changing the World; and the upcoming book The Great Opportunity: Making Disciples of Jesus in Every Vocation. Dave annually hosts and teaches a six-month leadership intensive for vocational leaders called "A Leadership Journey." He also can be regularly heard on Lionshare’s podcast Wisdom Unlocked: The Ways of God.

Dave has the privilege of participating in the pastoral team at his home church, Grace Chapel, and has been a part of an international community of leaders, Messenger Fellowship, for over thirty years.

Dave and his wife, Cheryl, reside in the beautiful hills of Franklin, Tennessee, where they enjoy spending time with their family and friends.

Transcript

Doug Smith: 0:00

This is the L3 Leadership Podcast, episode number 263. What's up everyone. And welcome to another episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast, where we are obsessed with helping you grow to your maximum potential and to maximize the impact of your leadership. My name is Doug Smith and I am your host. And in today's episode, you'll hear my interview with Dave Buehring. If you're familiar with Dave, let me just tell you a little bit about him. He is the founder and president of lion share, which is a nonprofit organization aimed at igniting and equipping churches and societal leaders to fulfill jesus' great commission of making disciple makers huge. He's the author of a discipleship journey, a scripturally sound proven and practical resource use the numerous nations throughout the world. He wrote the book, the Jesus blueprint rediscovering his original plan for the changing world. And he wrote the book that is being released today, called the great opportunity making disciples of Jesus in every vocation. David also annually hosts and teaches a six month leadership intensive for vocational leaders called a leadership journey. He can be regularly heard online shares, podcast wisdom unlocked the ways of God. And I got introduced to Dave through my friend, Ken Chevalier, and I love Dave's work. I followed him for a few years and this was the first time I got to interact with him. And I was just blown away by the conversation. And we just spent a lot of time talking about what it looks like to be a disciple maker. We talk about what's the difference between making disciples and mentoring someone, and he gives you a lot of practical, how tos and next steps for you to become a disciple maker and to make a difference in the lives of others. And I just think you're going to love this interview. If you love the subject of mentoring and you want to make a difference in the lives of others, you need to listen to this and follow Dave's work. But before we dive into the interview, just a few episodes of the podcast is sponsored by Beratung advisors, the financial advisors at Beratung Advisors, help educate and empower clients to help make informed financial decisions. Find out how Beratung Advisors can help you develop a customized financial plan for your financial future. Please visit their website at Beratung Advisors. That's beratungadvisors.com. Securities and investment products and services offered through Waddell and Reed, inc member FINRA, and SIPC Beratung Advisors, Waddell and Reed and L3 Leadership are separate entities. We tell you all the time here at L3 Leadership that you should never do life alone, but in community. And that's why I want to challenge every single one of you to become a member of L3 Leadership. When you become a member of L3 Leadership, you all have access to our community of leaders who are willing to encourage you, support you and hold you accountable for going after your goals. You all should have access to monthly live webinars that we do with nationally known leaders, monthly Q and a and hot seat hours for our members where you can troubleshoot the issues that you're having with your goal and get live real time feedback on them to help you develop a plan to overcome those issues. You'll have access to every course that we ever create your access to every L3 one day talk we've ever had and so much more. And all this is available for just$25 a month. In fact, we believe so much in the product that we're willing to give you your first month for just$1 that's right. If you sign up today at l3leadership.org, Your first month of membership has just$1 leader, don't grow another minute without having a community of leaders to what you can go to and grow with. Sign up today at l3leadership.org. And with all that being said, let's dive right into the interview. Here's my interview with Dave Buehring enjoy. Oh, Hey Dave, thank you so much for being willing to do this interview. And why don't we just start off with you just telling us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

Dave Buehring: 3:53

Sure. So my name is Dave Buehring. I live in Franklin, Tennessee. I've been married for this will be 38 years here in December, got two kids, Ryan and Malia who are both in their mid thirties, married and they have produced four awesome grandchildren. So for Cheryl and I, it's one of the highlights of our lives. And, uh, so, uh, living here in Franklin, I do quite a bit of travel I'm out, um, kind of in a non COVID environment. I'm, I'm out often about eight to 10 days a month speaking in different leadership kinds of settings or discipleship settings. Um, I have the privilege of serving, uh, an organization called lion's share that we founded back in 2001. And the focus is on reproducing disciple makers, uh, not only helping churches, but we walk alongside leaders in society and help them learn the ways of God so they can lead based off of them. Uh, because we know God's heart is to better and bless society around us so that they can see him. So we help people do that. And then we encourage them to reproduce the same in those people within their same vocation. So that's what I do with Lionsshare. I also do a lot of advising and walking alongside leaders. And so it's, it's, I'm very grateful for what my days tend to be filled with.

Doug Smith: 5:08

Yeah. And I've been looking forward to this again, the leader that connected the two of us who was a friend, Ken Chevalier. And, um, we were just talking before this and he's been following your work in actually making disciples, uh, through the process that you've created for 17 years. And just to see what he's done here in Pittsburgh has been remarkable. And I know that's a result of the way that you've led him in. So I can't wait to just unpack how you view discipleship. And, um, at the time this is airing, you're releasing a brand new book called the great opportunity making disciples in every vocation. And I'm just curious, why, why did you write this book?

Dave Buehring: 5:41

Yeah, so, um, when I was 18 years of age, uh, I'm 60 now. Um, when I made it was 18, I was a part of youth with a mission, uh, largest missions organization in the world. And while I was there, Lauren Cunningham, who's the founder who began to invest in, in my, um, had had an experience with dr. Bill bright, who is the founder of crew and you know how it is sometimes when leaders get together, they hang and Hey, what's God saying, you, you know, that kind of thing was going on. And they begin to recognize that one of the ways to begin to really impact the world was by, um, meeting needs and shaping things like arts entertainment, business, government, Lauren calls it the seven spheres of society. So as an 18 year old, that got seated in me. So to be really honest, Doug, from my whole journey with the Lord, um, I've, I viewed it through that grid. It's like a grid that's in front of me that Jesus came that, um, all these spheres of society could be impacted. And, uh, I still believe that making disciple makers is Jesus's original plan to change the world and not just the church, but the world. And so, um, the thing I've run into though over the years is, is I often look like I have a third head, you know, when I bring this stuff up, because it's often not talked about because we just limit disciple-making in the church world. But if we, we need to step back and realize, Hey, there, there is the church people, not buildings that are serving all throughout society. And as you make disciples of those people, they can be reflective of God's character. They can live and lead out of his ways and they can see how their vocation is tied to his mission.

Doug Smith: 7:26

Hmm. Um, I'm curious, you talk about discipleship and from what I've read, it seems like you have that disciple. It's very clear that discipleship is different than mentoring in your eyes. Is that an accurate assessment? Can you, can you talk about that? Cause, um, I, I certainly want to get into the how, but, you know, I think we live in a culture where everyone thinks about mentoring and you need a mentor, but what's the difference we mentorship and disciple.

Dave Buehring: 7:48

Yeah. And I make that real simple and look, I'm a huge fan of mentoring and a, and I don't, I, I'm not somebody that's trying to nitpick, but here's the difference for me, mentoring could be about anything and everything. Like, you know, when my wife had a disciple-making group, she brought, uh, three gals over right before Thanksgiving, before Thanksgiving should, do you know how to bake a pie? No. My wife makes a shout to the Lord Dutch Apple pie. That's awesome. And so she taught news girls. How did it, we'll see that's mentoring, mentoring often has to do with skillsets. It has to, I mean, it could be anything, but here's the difference for me. Disciple-making always tether thing, tethers things to the ways of God in scripture. In other words, it's not just a good, good suggestion. It's not just, somebody's great idea from your experience, which those are always good and I'm not, I'm not downplaying those one iota. I'm just kind of raising up the idea that we oftentimes, including in leadership, don't lead based on the ways of God, we re we lead based on a textbook. We read in school and, and we've got to be leaders that are grounded in God's character, who he is, his ways, how he does things in scripture. So that whether we're a scientist, a teacher, someone in media or on the athletic field that we're referencing God's character in ways and what we do. So disciple-making for me is that one little, little tweak that lets people realize, no, no, no, this is not just Dave's experience. This is something rooted in the scriptures.

Doug Smith: 9:21

Yeah. And so let's talk about the how, because it's clear if you read scripture, Jesus was all about disciple-making and I think everyone knows we're called to make disciples, but I think once we get to that point, we get stuck and just say, well, sure. Where do I start? What do I do? And you've been a pro at this for a long time. So what's that process.

Dave Buehring: 9:41

Yeah. That's a great question. And Doug, you nailed it. It's it's like, so you know that the cause behind it is because most of us were never discipled. We don't know how. And one of the things that we need to realize is somewhere between 85, 90% could be fudged a little this way or that 85 to 90% of pastors have never been discipled. And so when you talk to them about that, there'll be honest, but they, their minds automatically, well, that's our education department. And it's like, no, no, no, no, no, Jesus didn't have an education department. He was, he was it. And, and you're right. It's like Jesus taught the multitudes, but his focus was on investing in 12 people. I often tease to say, I don't know if Jesus was around today, if he'd be able to get a small business loan because his company might not have been big enough, you know? And yet his focus, he knew that when he left, the key was not the multitudes. The key was the few that, that carried his DNA wherever they would go. And so, um, you just really nailed that. Well, Doug, and it's true. So a little information there on that, uh, on the, on the, how so we, we have a process that we help walk people through and it begins with having them be discipled. And so what I do is I look for people that are fast. That's just my little mind, easy way to remember it. That's all that it is. And fastest. I look for people who are faithful. Like if they say they're going to be a part of the group they're in, they're not flaky, which would be the opposite, um, a is available, which means they clear their schedules and they get it on their calendar. It's a priority for them. They are not only faithful, but they're available. Um, as his servant hearted, meaning whatever they get, they're going to pass on to others. They're looking to serve others with what they've gleaned. And then T is teachable. You know, it's, you, you don't want to be pouring into someone I'm man. I know that, you know, let me tell you my story. You want people that are teachable. So that's kind of where I begin is I look for that. And part of the, part of the thing for me, when you're looking like, who should you be discipling? I, I asked this question that a, of mine asked me decades ago. So, so here's a great starting point. Like just like do they, we were done with this podcast and you start thinking, okay, who do I disciple? Here's the first question you want to ask in? Whose ears are my words Big? Let me say that again. In whose ear ears are my words big. Now we all wish our words were big in certain people's ears, but they're just not, but there are people where our words are big, whether it's our own children, you know, whether it's people we've worked with walk with, live in the neighborhood, go to church with work, you know, whatever. But it's a great starting place because if you can recognize that it's the Holy Spirit's way of revealing to you. Somebody that he's given you favor with. And we often don't play, we don't play in that field very well. But just think about that in whose ears are my words big. In other words, what I mean by that is they, listen, they do it. And they often come back for more. And so you have weighty words in their life that that's a huge starting place. And then we can sift through the fast kind of thing. And then Doug, to be really honest, once I have a group that I've invited to walk with me, I look them in the eye and I ask this question and cause oftentimes it's on zoom settings unless it's here in Franklin, but I'll ask them this question. I'll just kind of do this. Look them all in the eye and I'll say, okay, so we're going to do this at 6:30 AM. Every other Thursday morning, that's 5:30 AM my time set. Six 30 Eastern. I'm an early bird. So that's fine. But I'll say to them, I'm going to be here. Are you willing to match my commitment? Because I got mirrors in my house to look at how my hair looks. I don't need to get on zoom to do that. So I don't want to just be the only one looking at, are you guys going to, and that's one of the ways that all of a sudden you can tell in their faces, they realize, Oh, he's serious about this. And one of the things we have to realize is that there's a, there's a bar that we lower on. Disciple-making when you think of the rich young ruler, Jesus challenged him to sell all his possessions, give it to the poor and follow him. And it says he turned and walked away. And it was somebody that in the scripture says Jesus loved, but we got to notice something. He didn't chase him down and say, dude, just give away half we'll call it good. He didn't lower the bar for whatever it was. That was set. So with me, with these groups, I'm a three strikes and you're out kind of guy, not out of relationship, but if they, if they miss three and I've had to do this where I'll just say, look, I love you, but I can tell it's not the season of your life to do this. Very gracious about it. And I let them off the hook. And I'll say, when you get to that time, let me know. And you're immediately back in, but I don't want you to walk around with condemnation. I don't want this to affect our friendship, but it's apparent that you're not ready yet to do this. And so there's ways to be gracious about it. But if what's happened, guys is we've lowered the bar so low that we just think that I've been discipled. Someone say, yeah, I've been discipled. Well, how did that happen? I went to a four week class. And so my way of helping them see it as I'll go. So how many now are you reproducing it? And they'll look at me, you know, Kaka like, well, what do you mean? And, but see, we have poisoned that word and we've poisoned what it means. And so when it comes to doing that, I look for the hungry of heart and those were, my words are big in their ears. And then we begin to kind of flush it out. I'm happy to go there too, if you want.

Doug Smith: 15:21

Yeah. Well I want to continue to flush it out, but I'm, I'm curious. Um, and I don't think I missed this, but you made a statement that 80% of pastors have never been discipled. And if that's pastors, then you can imagine just people in general. So someone's listening to this and they're saying, I've never thought about that before. I don't think I've actually ever been discipled. I mean, how do you actually find a place in a person to get discipled by and how do you be wise enough that you don't get you some, some crazy guy tried to disciple you, right? Like, I'm just curious, you know, if I'm looking for discipleship, where do I look?

Dave Buehring: 15:55

Yeah, exactly. You don't want Charles Manson discipling you. Right? Um, yeah. So for me, uh, what I always encourage people to do is, is when you recognize I have a need, I've never had that. I've never been whether you want to kind of soften it and say language, like I've never been fathered or mothered in the Lord, you know, um, what you want to look for is people who, um, you identify with and who they are, and there's an integrity in their life. And the third thing is you see things in them that you wanted you and you guys to be really honest in this, this really saddens me like to the point that I can feel tears starting to well up in my eyes right now. Um, let me illustrate this to you. So about eight years ago, I was at the, the annual presidential prayer breakfast. And they had me come in a day early to meet with a bunch of young leaders. Um, you know, in DC it's really run the practical stuff by a lot of 20 and 30 somethings that are really, really sharp young people. And they wanted me to meet with them. So I'm sitting down in a circle it's maybe 20 to 25 people. Wasn't big. And we talked back and forth, a lot of dialogue and conversation. And then at the end, one of them, you know, a really sharp young lady, she looked at me like maybe early thirties. And she said, Dave, how do we do this? Because when we go to people and ask them whether it's discipling or mentoring, they just say, you know, either I'm not called to that. Um, I don't have time for that guy. You probably are better finding somebody else. And you guys, all I could do is look at them kind of around the circle and just say, I am so sorry. That is not the response you deserve, but it's, but I can't tell you how many times I have to do that. And it's, it's because we don't have as followers of Jesus in disciple making culture in our hearts and our minds, like what, my friend Jack mitten, who runs hope force, which is a disaster relief organization. He says a culture is what most of the people do most of the time. So like a real simple way to look at culture. And so he said in the church, most of the people, most of the time don't get discipled or think of discipling others. And so, um, we have to create a disciple-making culture. And, you know, as a 60 year old guy, I have very, a huge heart for, for the next generation coming up behind me of teenagers through fifties. And how can we create a disciple making culture? And, you know, I have come to grips with the fact that when you're a disciple maker, you look at things through a long view, never a short view. That's what Jesus did. He took the long view and realized if I poured deeply into these guys for three years, here's the ramifications, but we live in a culture that's immediacy. So we don't like to do that. But I realize that these eyes of mine may never fully see what I have in my heart, but I can carry the torch as long. And as far as I can, and then know that the place I handed off to somebody else they're way farther down the road than I ever was. So that maybe in their generation, they can see that a norm is if you are a follower of Jesus, part of the package of who I am is I'm at least one person, if not more, I'm discipling every year.

Doug Smith: 19:12

Wow. This is fantastic. Um, so you wrote this book and I want to go back to who you look for, and I'm just curious, what's your vision for, it sounds like when most people think of discipleship, it's like, okay, well, I can lead a small group at our church and I'll recruit from the church. And it seems like through this book, you're, you're kind of casting another vision. Like, Hey, the church, isn't the only place discipleship should happen. It needs to be happening in every vocation, in every building. Can you kind of share your vision for that? And is that, you know, if I'm a business leader listening to this, what does discipleship look like if I work at a corporate bank? Like what, what's your vision? What's your challenge to leaders through this book?

Dave Buehring: 19:47

Yeah, no, that's great question, Doug. So, um, I do believe that the church should be the hub of disciple-making because every week you have people from every vocation that are a part of your flock. So if, uh, if a pastor can rearrange his thinking, if they get, if they can get revelation, so to speak where they can see this truth, then man, every Sunday they're realizing this is not just a sermon. This is a part of the disciple-making package in our church. You know? And so Jack Hayford once said it that way, that preaching and teaching should be one piece. It's a, it's a part of, it's not the whole, and it's not the core, but it's a piece of disciple-making. So I think every church needs to become a disciple-making hub. And if you look at the book of acts, the reality is they didn't plant churches. They planted disciple-making communities. Huge difference because Jesus, you know, I mean, think about it in the great commission, which this book is all about is, and I like to say it, Doug C O-M Jesus commissions with us. He invites us to commission with him, but the way the disciples would have heard that, like in our language today was, Hey guys, what I done with you the last three years, just go do that. So their whole mission, wasn't planting churches, winning converts, and changing culture. It was making disciples. And when they created disciples, guess what converts are, one churches are planted, culture's changed. And my suggestion and strong belief is that we have made the focus church planting, winning converts, and changing culture. And it's just meant to be the fruit or byproducts of disciple making game-changing difference.

Doug Smith: 21:32

Yeah. And so, so let's go back and dive into the process now. So you talked about kind of your model of what you look for and the commitment that you require on the front end, which I think is great. Um, is this, it sounds like it's a group that meets every two weeks. Is there a size that you feel like, Hey, this isn't 12, is it six? Is there a good number for people? How long do you meet and what does that process look like to the point where you can say I've accomplished disciple?

Dave Buehring: 21:58

Yeah, no, that's a great question. So, um, whether it's in the church or in someone's vocation, like, you know, business, business guys, like I got a business friend right there in Pittsburgh who is actually a grandchild in the Lord to me who can't disciple, who's older than both of us. And he's a business guy. And at his office each week, he hosts a discipleship gathering. And so before guys had off to their jobs, they meet, he pours the ways of God into them. And then they go, I have a, an artist friend living here in Nashville, lots of artists who is a, her name is Mandisa. She is a Grammy award winning artist. And I poured into her for years. And she now has a group that she called sisters, which is young Christian artists who haven't ever been discipled that she's reproducing. So I said to her, one day I need to meet my grandkids. And so literally today I'm having lunch with her and one of my granddaughters in the Lord to talk about some racial issues and the ways of God see. And so it's like, it just can spill out and it can begins to impact culture, but on a, you know, on a practical level. Um, the way that, the way that we do this is you can meet weekly. You can meet every other week that every other week was because of, it was a bunch of leaders and their schedules. They did things every single week, but then every other week we got together to talk about those two weeks. Um, so we have a tool that we use. That's called a discipleship journey. Qantas used it for years. George uses it and it's a, it's a one year journey of discipleship. And so you take one topic a month and kind of marinate in that. That's one of the other things that can be challenging with disciple makers. We go through topics so fast. And so for example, you spend a whole month on knowing God's character another month on the cross and in repentance, another one on a hearing the voice of God, another, how do I be a godly and healthy relater? Another one on what the heck is spiritual warfare? You know, another one on how do I find my gifts and clients? So, so we, we take them and they spend about an hour on their own each week kind of diving in. They watch a little video and they dive into the content with their Bibles. And then we take about an hour and you guys, it's the easiest funnest group to lead because there's just two questions. So they've all done the work. So we're not studying this to get, we've all done the work, right? And so we asked this first question, so what did the Holy spirit reveal to you? Don't pair it back to me, the content. I want to know what did the Holy spirit reveal to your heart in this week? And we share that together and we listen and we learn, and it's amazing how the same content, but if you have a group of six, you got six different answers because the Holy spirit focuses on us. And I always tell people, facilitating these groups. I said, look, your greatest role is to be a listener. You're not a teacher, you're a listener because what comes out of their mouth of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And with truth than in there, the Holy Spirit's going, see, that's what I'm doing in depth. That's what I'm doing in that PA don't go through a curriculum, pay attention, use the curriculum as an excuse to get what's really in there. See? And then the second question is after we bought here, that is how are you going to obey that in your life? And so it brings it into practical. It brings it into a kind of a sense of recognizing, okay, this isn't just a good idea anymore. This is something God's asking me to do. Go make that right with my dad. If it's on forgiveness, you know, or step out in faith. Cause God's asked me to go launch a business and I've been afraid. Now I know it's him. Now I just need to start stepping up, you know? And so what did God revealed to you? How are you gonna obey that in your life? And then they pray for each other and then they repeat that process. And here's the cool thing. If they can apply one thing a week over the period of a year, it's a transformed life. It's a trend. And here's the second thing. They know how to disciple. Cause they got discipled. See, so we're making like our tagline for lion's show the organization. He is making disciple makers. And so I often tease people. So I don't want to make disciples anymore. I want to make disciple makers. Cause that was the heart of Jesus. You asked about size of group. Um, I think that's a, um, a wiring thing for each of us. You know, there's some people that just love one-on-one my wife three or four, three or four is just max for her, for me, if I could And do a dozen because I'm a bit yeah, Maximize let's do this. You know? So what I do is like in our leadership journey thing, that's just coming to an end next week. It's a six month thing. I walk with leaders and what we do is I pour stuff into them and then individually. So I pour it in as a group then individually I can come alongside. And so how are you applying this principle of honoring one another? Like what does that look like in your family? What's it look like in your relationships? What's look like in your work world. And so, um, I think the number is a wiring thing, Doug, depending on where you kind of feel the grace to carry a certain amount. Cause every, all of us come to a point where that's just too many, you can't do that.

Doug Smith: 26:57

And what's the expectation when, so when a group finishes up is the expectation the, Hey, you'll go and disciple, whatever your number is. I'm just curious. Like, and what's the followup process.

Dave Buehring: 27:07

Yeah. So, so to help people catch a vision on the front end of disciple-making um, when we start the group, so let's say week wise. So, so think of it this way for, in our context, 12 chapters, four weeks each, so it's 48, all right. And people take breaks and all that kind of thing. But in week one, we always remind them. Now the aim here is twofold is to help you grow as a disciple. But secondly, it's to make you into an effective disciple maker. Okay. So they know that right from the get go. So every once in a while, we'll sow seeds along the way through the times. But when you're about, for me, when you're about four months out, so you're eight months in four months from being done, I start saying, okay, I want to encourage you to start writing down the names where your words are big in their ears. So you begin to start thinking about and praying about who you can pour into. Um, I actually have a friend who's on our board like Qantas, um, from Canada, his name is Chet and Chet. The way he does this is when, when he finishes every single one of the 48 chapters, when they're together, he says, okay, now before we go right down on the bottom of the page, the name of a person that you know, in your life who could know who you want to see, know this, or they need it and they write it. And so at the end, all he's gotta do is go through that, do a little counting in which, which names are on here the most and there, and then start praying about it and then go. So, so that's part of the, you know, that's part of the process that we use as well.

Doug Smith: 28:37

That's great. Um, I want to start to shift away, but I just want to give you a chance. Anything else that you would challenge leaders with today when it comes to being disciple makers around the new book, anything you want to leave readers with?

Dave Buehring: 28:48

Yeah. The only thing I'd say Doug is just get it on your radar. And then if you don't know how there are plenty of people around that can help you. And if you don't have someone, yeah. Visit us@lionshirt.org, there's tons of tools and coaching and all kinds of stuff. But, but I just want to encourage us as leaders. We have the greatest opportunity. Why, because often our words are big in people's ears already. So you already have an audience of people that will receive from you, but, but if you're going to be a disciple maker, it can't just be an appendage. It has to be a part of your heart. And so it means you got to make some time for it. And it doesn't mean, you know, you have to spend 70 hours a week doing it, but honestly, if you could carve out three hours a week, two hours a week, game-changer you might be able to change the next generation by your willingness to pour into others.

Doug Smith: 29:39

Wow. This is incredible. I'm fired up about disciple-making. So thank you for sharing that. Um, and the time we have left that, I just wanted to dive into what I call the lightning round. Just a bunch of fun questions for leaders. And so we'll just dive right in. And the first question is what is the best

Dave Buehring: 29:54

It's advice you've ever received and who gave it to you? So Lauren Cunningham, who is the founder of youth of the mission. Um, one time we were on a, I'm putting my glasses on here, so I can, I got these this morning and I was too, as I was going into the shower. And I thought I better write a few thoughts down here. So they're great questions. I love them. Um, so I traveled with Lauren, um, it's kind of like somebody asks, it's be like asking, would you like to travel with Billy Graham? Like Lauren's kind of the Billy Graham with the missions world. So I had an opportunity as a 20 year old to travel with him. And on one of our flights, he pulled out acts chapter one at the very beginning of acts, chapter one, it says all that the Jesus began to do and teach. And he said always remember before you have any authority to teach it, you've got to live it. And so do before teach. So that's, that was a great piece of advice.

Doug Smith: 30:44

If you could put a quote on a billboard for everyone to read, what would it say?

Dave Buehring: 30:48

I think, um, I think I would put, uh, I am with...Always, and just let it be something that somebody goes and then when they drive behind the billboard, there's some followup.

Doug Smith: 31:08

I love it. I've never heard someone talk about the backend of the billboard. That would be cool. What is the best purchase you've made in the last year for a hundred dollars a month?

Dave Buehring: 31:18

So it's usually doesn't cost a hundred dollars or less, but I got it on sale. It's one of those, um, airbags, um, it's a travel, a travel bag. I was going to Nepal in February and my wife had actually seen these. And I had kind of a little briefcase thing that I, uh, kind of a bag that I used. It wasn't a briefcase, but a bag. And she said, what about this thing? And later I saw it and it was on sale for half off. So it got it for like about 70 bucks and it's a great travel bag, like the best travel bag that I've ever had. So it's called bags,

Doug Smith: 31:50

Will loves bags. So he'll probably buy one right after this. Um, what other than your own, uh, what books do you find yourself giving away most often or that

Dave Buehring: 31:59

The biggest impact on you? Yeah, so, uh, one of the books that had a great impact on me was a book by Oz, Guinness called calling. And it's a great, it's a great read. Um, one of the first books, and this may be surprising to you, but it's in my leadership journey. It's the first book that I have leaders read and it's called intimate friendship with God subtitled through understanding the fear of the Lord. And one of the things that we, the combination is is we oftentimes don't have intimate friendship because we don't know how to fear the Lord and fearing God has something to do with intimacy of friendship, because if you don't fear, which I define as reverencing and referencing God, and all you do is he's got, and I'm not. And referencing, it's not Lord, you always have the divine prerogative, but it's, but it's by a woman by the name of joy Dawson. Who's now in her nineties, joy was somebody that I sat under for years. And why wham, she's a new Zealander and it's a game changer for leaders. It's it stuns you a bit, but it, boy, when you can get that rod of the fear of the Lord and intimate friendship in your life gamechanger, wow.

Doug Smith: 33:08

Uh, do you listen to podcasts? And if you do, what are your one or two go to?

Dave Buehring: 33:11

Yeah. So the current ones I'm listening to is, um, posturing solutions. It's by, um, John Perkins, uh, John Perkins, um, is a very well known. The grandfather is a very well known, um, racial reconciliation guy in our country. And this is his grandson. Who's pastoring a church in Mississippi and he interviews pastors to deal with practical things related to racial issues. Very, very good. And then I liked the coupon casts, you know, that deal with culture and, and because of what we're doing with our book, it's a good place for me to be encouraged and keep learning as well.

Doug Smith: 33:48

What do you wish people knew about your journey that they may not know?

Dave Buehring: 33:52

Um, it's something that I shared during our six month leadership journey and it's, um, the way God develops us. Um, most like if you look at the scriptures, uh, there's a man by the name of Bobby Clinton that identified this, that we don't hit our strides until we're in our fifties. And so until we get there, it's always like, I always tell people if you're in your twenties and thirties, it's always more about what God's building in you than what he's doing through you. And if you, if you're obedient to him, he was going to do great things through you regardless of your age, but behind the scenes. Like if you pop the hood on it and look underneath. So think about it this way. God took 80 years to develop Moses for 40 that's two thirds of his life. He took 10 11 of Jesus's life, 30 for three. And we live in a culture where we skip. And this is in the new book. When we talk about seeing God being shaped by God and being sent by God. And oftentimes what we do is we see something from the Lord and we go on and go be sent by him. And we skip the entire shaping process. And I believe we're reaping generationally and leadership wise because we've not taken the time to focus on that. And that would be one of the things in my journey that someone grabbed a hold of me as a young 30 something and said, Dave, keep being obedient, do what God asks you to do. But in your journal, be writing down the deep things inside you that God is doing to make you more like him. Wow.

Doug Smith: 35:25

Um, you get to spend time with a lot of great leaders. I'm just curious. Do you have a go to question that no matter what meeting you get, you always ask.

Dave Buehring: 35:32

Um, yeah. I actually, um, like to ask the question, that's tied to what I just said. I'll ask people, are you on pace to finish? Well, wow. Like, do you know that you will run across the finish line? Well, like I got, I have several accountability groups and friends, but there's a group of three guys I've met with now for 14 years. We need once a month, we meet tomorrow and we laugh together. We go fishing together. I throw touchdown passes to them in the Thanksgiving table. Um, but we can go there. We can go there with like, so how's this area of your life. We've wept together. We've shared hearts because I told them I do not want to drag your butts across the finish line. I want to run with you and I want you to run with me. Okay.

Doug Smith: 36:18

What's your biggest leadership pet peeve?

Dave Buehring: 36:21

My biggest leadership pet peeve would be, um, we have a lot of great communicators out there who are, who are good leaders and they communicate well publicly, but privately their character sucks. That's a huge pet peeve of mine because sooner or later, the real you and your character will come out. And because of the influence you have as a leader, it means many are going to be damaged. And so it's, it's a thing for me that I run into a lot of great communicators. Like, like, so here's the thing just because you have the gift of God on you doesn't mean your character is where it needs to be. So good.

Doug Smith: 37:02

More of a fun lighthearted question. Um, I actually didn't put this on there, but I want to ask you questions about your bucket list. One, what's, something you've crossed off your bucket list that you would say everyone needs.

Dave Buehring: 37:13

Wow. Um, it's like, uh, I don't know if families regularly do this, but, um, as a, as a family, every other year, we go away for a week. My kids, their spouses, our grandkids. And, um, you know, it might not seem like a bucket list kind of thing for many people. But when I run into people, they just go, we never do that. Wow. We don't, we don't have time together like this. So we go to the beach and we eat good food and we laugh and we play and, and we, we have meaningful talks and, um, it's one of those things that I did once. And it's no longer on the bucket list. It's now in every other year thing that we had established as our something we do for our family and on a personal bucket list thing, I have not been to Israel yet. So that's one of the things that I want to do.

Doug Smith: 38:03

Okay. I love that. Yeah. I love asking these questions. Cause my bucket list gets fuller and fuller. Um, if you can go back and have coffee with your 20 year old self, what would you tell him?

Dave Buehring: 38:14

Yeah. So, um, I often say to a young leaders that I'm walking with, I'll say, okay. So if you were to ask me the question now at 60 years of age, rewind back to where you were at 20, what percentage of things are you doing now at 60 that you actually thought you'd be doing at 20? My and my is maybe 40 to 50%. And I would remind them again, focus. Like if you're saying, what do I need to be passionate about? Be passionate about finding people that can speak into your life to help your character look more like Jesus, because destiny is not a destination. It is a journey that God takes you on and builds you inside so that when the grace of God lands on you, you can contain what he wants to push through you. And so for me, I would just remind myself, Hey, some of those moments where you got jealous of somebody else doing something or those moments where you wished you could be doing that, slow down, slow down. Don't worry about it. I've got stuff for you later on. Just be faithful now. Wow. What do you want your legacy to be a godly man? Great husband, fun dad and Papa glorify Jesus by making as many disciples as I could.

Doug Smith: 39:39

Anything else you want to leave leaders with today?

Dave Buehring: 39:42

No, I just, you know, I just want to encourage you if there's anything that is Doug and I have been talking about that stood out to you. Don't just let it be. Oh, that was a good thought. Ask the Lord. Is there some obedience point for you in there that you can apply to your life? It'll make a difference.

Doug Smith: 39:59

Wow. Oh, Dave, this has been extremely rich. Now I can actually see why Ken is one of your biggest fans and literally talks about you everywhere and just, it's been awesome to see what he's been able to do.

Dave Buehring: 40:10

We do here in Pittsburgh. And even now that he's with the Steelers, it's just so fun to watch his life. And thank you for making a disciple of him. It's impacted a lot of people here in Southwest PA. And thanks again for the interview is great. Thank you. My privilege.

Doug Smith: 40:26

I'd like to thank our sponsor. Henny jewelers. They're jeweler owned by my friend and mentor John Henney, my wife, Laura and I both got our engagement and our wedding rings at Henny jewelers. And we absolutely love them. Not only do they have great jewelry, but they also invest in people. In fact, they give every engaged couple of books to help them prepare for their marriage. And we just love that. And so if you're in need of a good jeweler, check out Henny jewelers@hennyjewelers.com. I'd also like to thank our sponsor. Babb Inc. is an insurance broker, a third party administrator and consulting firm led by my friend and mentor Russell Livingston Russell was extremely passionate about developing the next generation of leaders, which is why he's partnering with us on this podcast. And he's also opened up his office is here in Pittsburgh to host our monthly leadership events. And we are extremely grateful for that. The nonprofit that I work at light of life rescue mission started using Babb as our insurance broker around three years ago. And we've had an unbelievable experience with them and we highly recommend. So if you or your organization has any insurance needs, please check out and learn more about that at babbins.com. That's babbins.com. Hey everyone, thank you so much for listening to my interview with Dave Buehring. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did. You can find ways to connect with him and links to everything that we discussed in the show notes at l3leadership.org/263. As I mentioned before, his brand new book is out today. So make sure you go and get a copy of it. It's called the great opportunity making disciples of Jesus and every vocation. So don't miss out, go buy the book now. And as always, if this episode made an impact on your life, I would love to see you share on social media. What impacted you, what stood out and as always pass this onto another leader that add value to, and if you'd be willing to would mean the world to me, if you would leave us a rating and review on iTunes, it really does help us grow our audience. So thank you in advance for that. And as always, I like to end with a quote and I'll quote Joe Brooks today. Cause I quote him pretty much every day. And he said this recently, he said, dreams always involve drama. So if you are going to have the dream, then you are going to have to deal with the drama. Love that. Hey, thanks for being a part of L3 Leadership. Laura And I appreciate you so much and we will talk to you next episode.

Speaker 4: 43:02

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