Serving Before The Seat: Driving your Gift with Marc Montgomery

What if the seat you’re chasing is unlocked by the service you’ve been avoiding?

Returning guest Marc Montgomery joins Just Clifton to get honest about the quiet work behind real influence—serving before leading, building character before chasing a title, and staying close to the Source so your gift doesn’t outrun your life.

We pull back the curtain on our five-day masterclass, Driving Forward Your Gifts, walking through what it actually takes to steward your calling well. It starts with heart posture, because sustainable ministry begins with a life that can hold the gift—not just the skill to use it. From there, we get into what it really means to hear God in fragments: how to honor a ten-second vision, ask better questions, and steward pieces faithfully instead of waiting for the full picture to drop.

We don’t skip the hard edges either. Marc opens up about a lifelong speech impediment that still tries to haunt new platforms—and how that pain became fuel for humility and dependence. We name perfectionism for what it is: not a standard, but a culture of fear. And we replace it with iteration, correction, and courage. Because growth sticks when your community tells you the truth, prays you forward, and keeps you moving when your confidence dips.
If you’re ready to align your gift with 

God, serve with joy, and build something that lasts, this conversation is your on-ramp. Follow Just on Instagram at JustCliftonRJ for the masterclass drop, grab Marc’s book Samuel’s Awakening on Amazon, and share this episode with someone who needs a nudge to start. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us—what gift are you ready to serve?

Driving Forward Your Gifts Masterclass: Driving Forward Your Gift | 5-Day Masterclass by 5:23 Project

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Transcript

New Season And Guest Return

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Hello, hello, hello. What's up, fam? How you doing? This is Jess Clips and coming to you another episode of the Summit Podcast. And I am elated for you to be here. I'm excited. We're in this new season. We're talking about sustained greatness. And look, I got my friend here from season two, Mark Montgomery. And we are about to get into this conversation. I got some great news for you. I can't wait to share it with you. Go ahead, Mark, tell us people's up.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Hey, how y'all doing? Glad to be here. Thank you for the invite. And uh looking forward to uh getting into this episode.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Yes, sir, yes, sir. So on the first episode, and I I'm gonna have the clip of, I mean the complete podcast in the show notes of the previous episode. We're gonna get dive into because we got something great that is launching very, very soon. We're doing a masterclass and it's gonna be dealing with how to cultivate your gifts and how to sustain your gifts and how to just position yourself in the kingdom God nowadays with those gifts because I think it's vital that mu other people start to understand how to move forward in Christ better with their gifts so that they could be a better, better for the kingdom of God. So we don't talk about that in this um masterclass that we're gonna be putting on, but we're just gonna do like a brief synopsis of what we're gonna be going over and also just kind of just shit a chat it up just to catch up a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Mark, how you doing? How's the family? What's going on? Ain't nothing being bad. The family uh is uh at home and uh and I'm in the ears, but everybody is doing well, and I'm I'm glad about it. Wife is doing well, my four-living ones are doing well, so yes, yes, yes.

Serving Before Position

SPEAKER_00 1:58

So we want to talk about this. Look, so in the first episode, it was called Serving the Gift. And we have this is how crazy this uh masterclass we're gonna do. It's five-day masterclass, and only one in a day is dealing with serving the gift, but that was like the main like catalyst of the conversation where we had during the podcast. So tell tell us a little bit more about serving the gift. Let's get jump into that a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

You know what? I miss uh at in preparation of this episode, I was actually thinking about the subject matter. And one of the things that I think is so important that people do not understand the power of serving, that I've noticed in my ministerial career is everybody wants a position and then serve. As if the position is a prerequisite to serve, and not realizing that serving is technically the prerequisite to the position. And why is that so important? It's because so many people, Clisten, have a position and they discover in the position that the position is not weighty. Have you ever seen somebody in a position and their they still is voiceless? Yeah. Their influence is is weak. The other people have more influence than they do because they they they have a position, but they don't have no influence. They that they don't really have no weight in their position. And and what I discovered in preparation of this and God revealed this to Lou today, uh, is the reason why they do not have influence in their position or in their leadership role is because they put leadership or position before the serving. And what people did not realize that serving builds credibility.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

That's it.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

And and and people get to know you based on your ability to serve a gift. So if the position is given to you, you already know you're credible in that position is because you've been serving the gift all along.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

You've been serving the gift all along. That's great. That's great.

Misaligned Roles And Influence

SPEAKER_01 4:11

So people don't realize that there's power in serving. So serving comes before the position. I've been serving my gift before I even stepped into the lawyers that I I've been having.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

And that's when you get into situations where you get somebody that gets into a position, right? And their gift, gifting, don't even match the position that they're in. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

So, like for instance, you get the grumpy pants that's in that's in the uh the hospitality department. You're all talking about you. Right. Grumpy pants. Exactly. So you get all these different people working these different roles because there is a need and they see there's an open position. So they just step into those roles without even having the gifting part.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Exactly. And a lot of times, they wondering why, and and that's where you get a lot of chatter and people like, well, they got that position, but like you said, it it doesn't even match. And the reason why it doesn't match, because people like w you just came out of nowhere. And what, you know, what in the history spoke to this position. The history is developed by serving. By serving. David, uh, before he became king, he was serving uh in the field. And he had a history, and the reason why that that lie uh that he knew that we have called a flame shot, you know, the reason why he was made for the kingdom and as a king was because he is in the field serving his gift. And everything that he did while he was a simple boat was listed on that line. His history was on that live.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Good.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

And so that's why he was made for the kingdom because he had history that follow him on his way to the kingdom.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

So what you're saying is that as you're serving in your gift, you're building up reps for the position that God actually attended you for.

Character And Heart Posture

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Exactly. Gotcha. And a lot of times, people on their path to leadership have not, they have not uh been serving. What you just said, the reps, they they haven't been doing that. We need to rediscover the importance of serving because serving is almost has become a taboo word in church now. Yeah. And people don't realize that serving is what builds that include. That's why a lot of times people are trying to have these different platforms and they want their platform to flourish. Yeah. And so they're doing uh marketing streams, they're doing uh, you know, different theories to boost their market or their life so that it follows. And you know, I I really believe with all my heart, we don't have to do that if we've been already out there serving.

Hearing God In Small Pieces

SPEAKER_00 6:59

That's so good, that's so good. So to kind of scale it back a little bit, it seems like uh, like you said, we're missing the different steps when it comes to service. And that's the reason why I say that this masterclass is important because in day one, we're actually gonna be dealing with your heart posture. Your character has to be matching your gift. You can't go, you can't serve to a capacity until you get that character together. Exactly. You have to know who you are, know what your flaws are. It's even gonna be an assessment that's going to tell you what areas of your character you are flawed that they are weak, so you can become stronger. I'm telling you, this masterclass is going to be dope. So, so going back to the service piece, okay. So now we got the character together. Now we understand that we have to serve the gift. The gift is not meant for us. It's meant for God to serve us to God. The next step is, okay, now, okay, how do I hear from God? Right? Yeah, how do I hear from God? How do I know that I'm serving at the capacity? So it's like, so we get into that, you know, when you when you're here for God, he only tells you so much in the beginning. He tells you in parts. How do we get to that pet that point where we are serving the gift, but then we're trying to listen to God and we're receiving what he has at that moment?

Vision, Questions, And Stewardship

SPEAKER_01 8:16

I think one uh the one other thing that I've been focusing on is is found in Mark 4 and 24. And I think this is where we need to begin in hearing from God. And it's simple. It said, then he said to them, take heed what you hear, take heed to what you hear. The same measure you move, in other words, the ability, the the same measure that you hear, it'll be measured to you. And you to hear and to you who hear, more will be given. I live by Mark 4 and 24. I'm in a posture or in a position to where I want to hear. I want to hear, right? Yeah. And the more that I'm willing to hear, yeah, then the more I'm showing God by going to Him that I'm hearing by asking questions. You can't ask questions if you're not paying attention. You can't ask questions if you're not willing to hear, right? Yeah. So that's very important for all prophetic people. Whether you're a hear by ear or you are a seer, which I started off as a seer and I evolved into being a prophetic person that hear from God, right? But because God isn't giving you the land, you have to be willing to pay attention, to question everything that you hear, question everything that you see. And so, and then he said, and then you do that. So I would say this for all my jailers, uh, and I think we said this in episode, uh, the first episode, that if you you, you know, somebody out there right now talking about uh I don't vision that may come across your screen, across your eyes, right? And I I think I even mentioned this, like yeah, I remember one time there was just a quick vision that came across my eyes. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and I saw something. Yeah. And I turned around and I said, God, what was that? God likes that. God liked me. Say, okay, if it's a big, we we looking for the movie. And and God likes, I'm not gonna show you the movie because we're not ready for the movie. Come on. Let's give you this uh 10-second commercial. Yeah, commercial is all you can digest. And that's all you can digest. Hey, let me see what you do with this 10-second commercial. And if you can take that 10-second commercial and go to the Lord and say, what the what does this leave, then God will entrust you with more. Remember the scriptures that says that a king search out a matter. And so no matter how minute you may feel that it is, or how big that you think it is, God doesn't want to know and we're gonna pay attention.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

That's good, that's good. So, so to break that down, we we have activities and we have homework in the math class. And one of the homeworks is actually helping you how to understand your dream, telling you you want to be a part of this math class. Let's jump into it. So in day four, we're gonna be talking about pain is your mentor, weakness keeps you close to the source. Yeah. So, so as so we understand that we gotta serve the gift. We understand that God is speaking to us now. Now we gotta deal with the rejection part of it.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Yeah, right, right.

Pain As Mentor And Humility

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Now, how do we deal with that? How do we get over that rejection part of dealing with it with this realm? And I understand that we're talking more so from the prophetic gift, but we're talking about all of this. This applies to all gifts. Yeah. You know, if you don't understand your gifts and you want to be a brief synopsis, go to 1 Corinthians 12. It teaches you all the different gifts and just ask the Lord, talk to the Lord, what gifting is do I have? What gifting do I possess? So that way you can understand your role that God has for you in the kingdom. So let's jump into this. Okay, now we're confronted with the pain of our gifts. So in that first episode, you were talking about how you had the speech impediment. Yeah. Right. And how your gifts was to see, but also to speak.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

So break that down a little bit. Like when you're confronted with your pain and you're confronted with that, how does that how does that work out for you?

Confronting Rejection And Growth

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Well, I'll tell you one thing, your pain will always keep you humble. And God designed it that way to keep you humble. Because remember, God is supernatural. You're natural. But sometimes when God means you, you really feel supernatural, right? Drinking your own cooler, you can start going thick-headed. Just because you are going, you, you are doing things beyond your natural ability. You know, mellow, right? Uh, and then he does that. So you can always remember that he's the source behind real ability, right? And so um I didn't, uh, I can't tell you, like, as old as I am, my speech impediment was back in the, I was what, five, six, seven. I went through my entire elementary years. I went through uh a part of my pre-tur. And here I am, I'm seasoned. 30 years, 40 years later, and I still am confronted with my speech impediment. New platforms remind me of my speech impediment, new conversation, me people that I am placed in front of, I'm reminded of my speech impediment. Um, every stumbling word, every difficult word that I can't pronounce, it's taking me back to that pain. Bro, but but that really low moment, guess what? I I feel my help. You know what I mean? Like how them creeping the other teachers, I feel my help. I literally emotion my help, because then I re I rediscovered that it's not me. And God reminds me, it's not me, it's him. And so, so whenever something is accomplished, guess what? He gets the glory out of it. And I think that's what God uh does. He he desired it that way so he can get the glory out of it, and that we can glorify him at the end. So, yeah.

Take Yourself Seriously, Not Perfectly

SPEAKER_00 14:30

That's so good. That's so good. So, so in day four, we're going to be doing homework where you're going to confront your pain. And this masterclass, I'm telling you, uh, what we're doing, we're building a different construct so that you can have no excuses. No excuses. We need you. We need you to serve the kingdom of God because there's so much work that needs to be done. This world is in shambles because you're not serving, you're not giving yourself an opportunity to win, and we need you to be able to do that. I mean, it's even crazy. Like, I'm actually putting together another uh masterclass that just focused strictly on confronting your pain. That is how deep this subject matter is. That you have to be able to confront. But for this particular one, we we have a section that's going to be to break down, you're gonna break down what that pain is. You're gonna have a conversation with God. How can I use it to my strength? Like, for instance, for me, even putting together this masterclass was confronting my pain because I didn't learn how to read to the fifth grade. So, me looking at the screen, reading, talking to you guys, all this type of stuff, it it's a it's me constantly confronting my pain as well. Right. So that's that's great. That's great. So let's get into week five real quick. So, week five, the last week, we're gonna be talking about how we're gonna tie everything all together. And we're gonna be talking about taking yourself seriously, right? Taking yourself seriously and building a different scholarship. Now it's time for you, now that we got the foundation in place, now it's time to build. It's time to get to work. It's time to hit the ground running. What is what did that look like for you? What what when did you realize that, okay, now that I confronted my pain, now it's time for me to actually get the groundwork and get and do what I need to do for the kingdom of God?

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Yeah, uh, I'm glad you said uh the most important thing is to take yourself serious, right? Um, I think that's the part that uh if you don't take yourself serious, you are going to really uh be very passive. And uh at the end of the day, you're gonna start, you're gonna probably most likely uh sympathize yourself, right? You're gonna come up with um, I you know what I like to call it. You you're gonna operate in a culture of fear. And um I think a lot of times uh one of the things when I start moving in the year for the calling of God, I had to confront my culture of fear. Um, you know, uh, and I even write this in the the book that I wrote uh is, you know, I I think I named seven different cultures, but um one of the cultures that I had to uh confront was building that perfection. You know what I mean? I I can't I won't build unless it's it's perfect. And and and that's really uh not a um a good excuse, is because if you feel like you have to be perfect in everything in every task that you do, then there's no room for growth.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Yeah.

Cultures Of Fear And Practice

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Right? And again, remember your gift doesn't come from you. You're not the source of your gift, you're not the power of your gift. God is the power of the gift, right? So you have to be willing to go through, you gotta be teachable. You gotta be somebody that's willing to be corrected by God. You gotta be willing uh to hear from him and say, you know what, you can you can do this better, you can tweak this, you can change this, right? And as you've grown into your gift, if you're a perfectionist, most likely you're not gonna give no grief for no critique. You're not gonna even give yourself the opportunity to grow in something because you're trying to go in there and get it right the first time. So and a lot of times people don't realize a perfectionist is really operating in the cultural fear. It's not people that make an excuse talking about, I just like things to be done right. No, you you fearful. You fearful. And you want things to be done the first time you do it because you don't, you don't, you don't want to make any mistake, but it's in the mistake that you come back and and and become better.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

That's so good. That's so good, so good. So you did mention your book, so I got it right here. Uh it's Samuel's Awakening. Man, I'm telling you, this book is a powerful book. My brother is like amazing when it comes to this uh gifting, prophetic gifting, any gifting for that matter, uh cultivating, bringing it out of you. Uh, I'm excited about this master class. So it's driving forward your gifts. Driving forward your gifts is gonna be the masterclass. Uh it's coming out very soon. Uh follow me on social media to get all the updates on when it's gonna drop because uh it's going to be a powerful tool for churches, for individuals, for people that just want to understand their gifts. So uh if you're not following me already, my my link is in the show notes. Uh it's JessClifton RJ. JessCliftonRJ uh on Instagram. So talk about your hands as well before we wrap as we wrap up this episode.

Book, Community, And Pricing

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Well, you can uh find me uh out on Instagram uh at Mark McGummer Ministries. I know it's a long name, but uh it was just easy for me to uh put it in Mark McGovern Ministries. And then of course you can find my book out there on Amazon as well. So you can put in Samuel Awakening and it's shit.

Accountability And Closing

SPEAKER_00 19:46

Pop up. Absolutely, absolutely. So I'm gonna have a link to his book in the show notes as well. Look, good apart is massive. I'm telling you, this is not a sales pitch. This is not something that I'm just trying to do, this is something that I truly believe in. I believe and this managed guy, I believe in this meta God. That's why he's joining me on this. Uh, because I feel like that this is needed. This conversation is needed. Everything that we're about to do, everything we're about to subscribe to, uh, is truly needed for the kingdom of God and the building of his glory. Uh I'm telling you, your pastor, your churches, anything that you can think of. Uh we're gonna have individual prices. Also, you'll have an opportunity to get into part of my community, which is a 523 project. So that you'll have access to all of my master classes, all of those different things, including the one that I'm talking about, striving for your gifts. So you're gonna have access to all of those different things. So you got to uh so you're going to also too, you're gonna have group prices as well. So for individuals that want to have the group crisis as well, make sure that you bring a friend with you because I'm gonna have special prices for groups because uh the content is about accountability because you're gonna be more in apt to be able to apply this to your life if you have accountability partner. The reason why Mark is here, he's my accountability partner. You see what I'm saying? I can't do this without him. You can't either. You gotta make sure that you have an accountability partner with some bring. So let'll be discounted rates for that. Prices, all that stuff is gonna be discussed and shortcoming, and we're gonna go on here and do this thing. Anything else you want to add before we got?

SPEAKER_01 21:21

Man, no, no, awesome.

SPEAKER_00 21:23

Well here we get another episode of Sunday, yes, of the Summit Podcast, and we are talking soon.