Why Most Christian Leaders Get This Wrong at Work | Allen & Stacy Jo

You have access to people in your workplace that a pastor or missionary will never have access to. So the real question isn't whether your work is sending a message — it's what message it's sending.

In Episode 5 of Season 7, Allen and Stacy Jo Thorne take everything they've built this season and load it into Monday through Friday, because the legacy you leave in the marketplace is just as real and just as eternal as anything built inside a church building.

The anchor and the shift:

Rooted in Colossians 3:23–24 — "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as unto the Lord" — this episode challenges every believer to make a complete paradigm shift in how they approach their daily work. When every decision and interaction is viewed as serving Jesus, it changes everything about everything. And when Daniel 6:3 shows us a man distinguished above all others — not because he was the most spiritual in the room, but because an excellent spirit was in him — we have our Kingdom marketplace model.

The 3 traps that quietly derail your marketplace legacy:

1. Integrity Pressure — When the easier path on a business deal isn't the most honest one, and the culture around you has quietly normalized what doesn't sit right with your spirit. This is where marketplace legacy is actually forged.
2. The Compartmentalization Trap — Keeping faith and work in separate lanes sounds respectful and professional, until the separation goes so deep that your work self and your kingdom self become two functionally different people. James calls it double-mindedness. It's unstable in every way.
3. The Success Trap — When revenue increases and margins expand, there's a gravitational pull toward protecting what you've built rather than continuing to advance the kingdom. The legacy quietly becomes about the brand instead of the one the brand is supposed to point to.

Tune into the episode to hear the three practical resets!

Your one takeaway this week: Ask yourself — Does the way I lead at work point people toward God or toward myself? The answer tells you exactly where your marketplace legacy currently stands, and where it needs to go.

📖 Key Scriptures: Colossians 3:23–24, Matthew 5:16, Daniel 6:3, Luke 12:48, James 1

🔗 Mentioned: U.S. Christian Chamber of Commerce (SWC 2026) — https://business.uschristianchamber.com/

Faithfully Invested is a podcast for Kingdom-minded leaders navigating faith, business, and purpose. New episodes drop weekly.

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Transcript

Allen 0:01

Are you ready to build a life, business, and legacy that truly lasts? Welcome to Faithfully Invested with Alan and Stacey Joe Thorne, where faith meets real talk, biblical wisdom meets everyday life, and leadership meets laughter.

Stacy Jo 0:15

Together we will uncover God's blueprint for leadership, marriage, and mission, helping faith-driven leaders invest in what matters most.

Allen 0:23

Each episode we explore biblical wisdom, have real conversations, and of course, have some fun along the way. Because let's be real, walking in faith is an adventure.

Stacy Jo 0:34

It sure is. So pull up a seat, grab your coffee or your sweet tea, and join us as we steward our callings with intention. Because when we invest in his kingdom, he brings the increase.

Allen 0:53

Okay. Lovely lady. My lovely lady, I have a pop quiz for you.

Stacy Jo 1:01

A pop quiz. It's not too many questions.

Allen 1:04

Only one question.

Stacy Jo 1:05

All right.

Allen 1:06

Monday morning. Your first alarm goes off. What's your first alarm?

Stacy Jo 1:14

When my first alarm goes off, I think, oh, I got 21 minutes to sleep.

Allen 1:19

It's not really sleep.

Stacy Jo 1:22

Well, it kind of is. Because I'm not really awake when the first alarm goes off. But you know, when my second alarm goes off. Um it depends. There's variables, but I would say that most mornings I'm like, good morning, God. Thank you for this day. And then other mornings, um, depending on what the my week is looking like, sometimes I will say, Good God, it's morning.

Allen 1:54

We gotta be careful looking too far ahead.

Stacy Jo 1:57

Oh yeah.

Allen 1:59

One day ahead of time.

Stacy Jo 2:00

That kind of moment. Sometimes it's that kind of moment. But why do you ask?

Allen 2:07

Uh first I can absolutely relate to that. Uh I'm a more of a uh good God, it's morning kind of guy.

Stacy Jo 2:15

I'll attest to that.

Allen 2:17

Yeah. Thank you for that. I appreciate your honesty, sweetheart.

Stacy Jo 2:23

Especially after you listen to my 11 alarms. Yeah.

Allen 2:27

On a uh on a Sunday morning, that 11th alarm is, you know. Actually, it's the third one. I'm like, where does your take off?

Stacy Jo 2:36

It's on for a reason.

Allen 2:38

Anyway, uh, yeah, I'm up.

Stacy Jo 2:41

I know, but you're you're an up on the first alarm kind of guy.

Allen 2:45

Most of the time, yeah, because you know, there's anyway. So that's that's the thing here with this episode, is uh it's the Monday morning addressing the Monday morning tension between purposeful calling and and facing exhaustion before the week even starts. Uh this is a part of our discussion today. Welcome to Faithfully Invested. I am Alan.

Stacy Jo 3:08

And I am Stacy Joe, and we are in season seven, Kingdom Legacy, and this is episode five. And today we are taking everything that we've been building this season and loading it into our Monday through Friday workplace, like Alan said, because we believe that our job is not just a job, but it's a actually a kingdom assignment. God has placed us there for a reason. And the legacy that you leave there is just as real and just as eternal as anything you build in the church building.

Allen 3:42

Yeah, we're not just talking about being a good Christian at work, a good Christian. Uh, we're talking about what it means to build a kingdom legacy in the marketplace. And those are two very different things. So let's get started, babe.

Stacy Jo 4:00

So let me ask you something. When you think about the most influential people in your life, you know, the ones who helped shape your character, how many of them were pastors or ministry leaders?

Allen 4:16

A couple.

Stacy Jo 4:17

A couple.

Allen 4:18

A few.

Stacy Jo 4:19

How many of them were coworkers or um you know, your bosses or someone higher up than you?

Allen 4:28

I uh uh a few more, uh quite a few more.

Stacy Jo 4:32

You know, sometimes it's the leaders or our co-workers who treated us with dignity amid a falling down moment or a or a me sometimes a mentor who saw something in us before we saw it in ourselves.

Speaker 1 4:46

Right.

Stacy Jo 4:47

Or maybe it's a working culture that reflected something that looked closer to God than you had experienced before. Have you experienced that?

Allen 4:57

Yeah. Um, and I can only speak for myself, but some of the most profound kingdom uh impact that I've ever experienced happened outside the church building. You know, not not to say that some didn't happen inside, but it happened in a conference room or or in a job site. We have some amazing leaders in the company that I work with. And uh and I uh uh honestly, some of them are new Christians and some of us are uh there are some of them are loose Christians. But uh uh that's where I've ex experienced uh a lot of it. It's either either in uh mostly out on the job site, uh, where someone was just living out their faith. They were just living it out, uh, and they they led in a way uh and how they treated people and and the standard that they held themselves to. And and that's and that's it right there. That's that's what we we must hold ourselves, and that it's that example uh that has helped me be a better leader uh today. Uh we must hold ourselves to a higher standard that's depicted by Christ. If we expect to uh if we expect to hold others to the same standard, just like Jesus did, you know, we gotta lead by example. And he was the greatest example, greatest leader ever to walk the planet.

Stacy Jo 6:21

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Jesus named it for us. If we're gonna lead well, we first have to learn to follow.

Speaker 1 6:28

Right.

Stacy Jo 6:28

You know, the disciples learned to follow Jesus before they ever led anybody else to cry to him. And we like Jesus said, we have to deny ourselves, we have to pick up our cross and we have to follow him. And just like everything else, it's oftentimes more easily said than done.

Allen 6:48

Always easier said than done.

Stacy Jo 6:50

Yeah. But likewise, it's one of the most underestimated, underappreciated, and probably the most powerful form of kingdom impact available to a believer. Because you have access to people in your workplace that a pastor or a missionary will never have access to. You know, the people on your team, your clients, your vendors, even your competitors, they're watching how we operate every day. And whether you have ever thought of it this way or not, you are already preaching to them. But the question is, what message are they hearing?

Allen 7:32

Yeah, that's a that's a great point, babe. Uh, because our workplaces already have a cultured spirit. Our our work is already communicating something about our beliefs, our values, and our vision. The question, it's not whether our work is sending a message, but what message are we sending through our work? Um, what message are we sending through our already established culture? Are we allowing the culture to affect us toward the world? Or ideally, uh, are we in Christ affecting the culture for his kingdom purposes?

Stacy Jo 8:11

And for kingdom leaders, for people who grow through cultivating intimacy with God, faith, biblical stewardship, unity, how we consistently yield to him carries a lot of weight because he has given us much with which to work. But have we received his gifts and are we using all that he has given us, especially in the face of adversity? We appreciate in Luke 12.8, 1248, rather, where he reminds us that to whom much is given, much will be required. So how are we following his lead into the marketplace?

Allen 8:51

Yeah.

Stacy Jo 8:51

Because the marketplace is the primary place where kingdom requirements are fulfilled, forfeited, or quite honestly, flat out forgotten.

Allen 9:00

Forgotten. Yikes.

Stacy Jo 9:03

Yeah.

Allen 9:04

Uh what a waste. Yeah. Forgotten kingdom principles in the workplace. What a waste it would be if we if we failed to carry all of everything that we've learned uh from him into our workplaces. Um, and that brings us to uh today's anchor scripture, capital S scripture, and the anchor verse. The word specifically speaks uh to that through Kingdom Legacy lens. Uh Colossians, uh Paul's letter to the Church of Colossae, uh, chapter three, verses twenty-three and twenty-four encourages us whatever you do, uh do your work heartily as unto the Lord, rather than for men, knowing that the Lord will um the that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. Uh, it is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

Stacy Jo 10:00

Right. And the point is that Paul encourages us to work heartily as for the Lord.

Allen 10:06

Yeah.

Stacy Jo 10:07

Not for your client, your boss, or even your reputation or the bottom line.

Speaker 1 10:13

Right.

Stacy Jo 10:14

But as for the Lord. And this is a complete paradigm shift on how to do what you do daily. And when we get that, when we actually get that, every decision and interaction is serving Jesus. It changes everything about everything.

Allen 10:33

Yeah, it changes everything. I love that. It absolutely does change everything. Uh, likewise, uh Jesus' admonition noted in Matthew chapter 5, verse 16, reminds us that uh we must let our light shine before others so they don't see our good works and give glory to our Father who's in heaven. And it's so important for us as Christ followers to recognize that what Jesus his values, what he's pointing to here, is it's not about oppressing people, it's not about personal elevation. Uh Jesus's interest, which should always as his followers be our interest. His interest is is um not our is that our good works would point to our creator father God, and that's the point in a nutshell. All of our work should be directing everybody to Christ. Whoever crosses our path, our actions, our words, our everything that comes from us, our heart, should be pointing them toward God. It's and it's it's his light. He is the the life who is the light for all mankind, and where the where his light shines, the darkness doesn't overcome it. Uh it's his light that shines through us. Uh but are we transparent enough for his light to shine through us? Sometimes we gotta step away. Uh in the in the challenges of the day, and say, Lord, I need your light, I need your love, I need your grace, and need your mercy in this moment. And it's it's that it's it's his light, his love, his grace, and his mercy that brought us to producing good works in the first place. So, so wouldn't it be uh the right move to use all that he's given us to reflect back to him so that others might receive his good gifts as well? Uh that kind of sounds like the great the great commandment, uh loving God and loving others. So, and that's if we're if we're only doing that, then I think we're doing a pretty good job.

Stacy Jo 12:46

Yeah. That's a that's a really good word, Alan. But I'm gonna see your Matthew and I'm gonna raise you a Daniel because if you want a biblical marketplace model for kingdom legacy, Daniel, Daniel's your man.

Allen 13:01

Daniel's he's I mean that's a good raise.

Stacy Jo 13:04

It's a good raise. You know, Daniel 6 3 says, then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Did you know that Daniel was not in a ministry context? No, he was in the ungodly pagan marketplace court of Babylon, but yet his faithful integrity to Yahweh in Babylon made him the most distinguished leader in the refused to bow.

Allen 13:43

Yeah. Most of us that's that's a I'm I'm definitely in in a in a in a card game, I'm definitely folding, man, because you uh you got me on the Daniel as compared to Matthew. Sorry, Matt. So Daniel takes that one. But uh most of us, in one way or another, we've we've been taught that the uh the sacred and the secular are two different worlds. Uh and it's that our our real kingdom work happens in the church or in the ministry, and your job is just how you pay the bills. And friends, the the separation between sacred and secular is one of the most damaging lies a believer could ever carry into their professional life. Because it leads to the consistent chameleon behavior, the flip-flop, you know, the uh the wishy-washy, the as as James would call it, the double-mindedness. And a double-minded person is unstable in all their ways. Uh so the chameleon behavior estraits drastically from from our identity as Christ followers. And we got to remember the people around us are watching. And uh, and as no and as known Christians or known Christ followers, uh we're even more in the eye, we're even more in the spotlight. Uh, because really people are just waiting for us to fall. I got I've been I've been sober now for almost 13 years. I've been a Christ follower for about fifth fifteen, sixteen years, and there are still people back where I came from waiting for me to drop the ball. But the cool thing is, is I'm not the one carrying the ball.

Speaker 1 15:36

That's it.

Allen 15:36

Yeah, I'm not carrying the ball. So and he's not dropping anything. Uh, he's certainly not leaving me behind. Right. Uh so the quite another question is is our is our character shining toward Jesus, or is it creating uh is it creating a wider gap between Jesus and our co-workers? Are we a thermostat or are we a thermometer? Because when we're striding in step with the Savior, Christ Jesus our Lord, we ought to be shifting the atmosphere in whatever room we walk into, whatever area we're at, we should be shifting the atmosphere uh by his power and by his glory and by his light. And if we're not doing that, then then it undercuts the very legacy that he's attempting to build through us.

Stacy Jo 16:25

Absolutely.

Allen 16:26

And it's push and quite honestly, it's pushing people away from him. Or he's he's just another one of those Christian guys, you know.

Stacy Jo 16:33

Right. Because the marketplace isn't a mission field in addition to your real life. The marketplace is part of your real life, right? So there should not be a separation between the two. If you think about it, our chosen professions are where we spend the majority of our time. I know I do. I'm I'm speaking for myself. The majority of my waking hours are spent in the marketplace. And likewise, it's where we have the most consistent relationships with people who are far from God. In my case, I'm blessed to work with everyone that I work with is a Christian, but my many of our clients are not necessarily Christians. So if we have compartmentalized the massive portion of our lives from kingdom purpose, we're leaving an enormous kingdom assignment on the table.

Allen 17:30

Yeah.

Stacy Jo 17:31

Enormous. And I just came back from the US, and you know, I mentioned it last week, the US Christian Chamber of Commerce event, which if you didn't know about the US Christian Chamber of Commerce, you need to know about it. And I will drop the link in the show notes because if you're a business owner or you are in the business world in any way, shape, or form, I highly urge you to check it out. Uh 750 business leaders from across the country. From across the country at this conference. And that was the whole goal was to know how to effectively take our faith into the world through the marketplace.

Speaker 1 18:19

Right.

Stacy Jo 18:19

And it was powerful. And we need to be living that out day to day.

Allen 18:25

We do, and that's that's what we're called to live live out our faith day to day, to let his light shine.

Stacy Jo 18:31

That's right.

Allen 18:32

Right, right. So we uh we certainly don't want to minimize the struggle because the marketplace isn't easy. No, it's not easy. Uh the and quite honestly, you know, Jesus never said it'd be easy. He said right up front, he goes, Hey, y'all are gonna have struggles, y'all y'all are gonna face trials and tribulations, but take heart, have courage. He said, I've overcome the world, and that's and that's it right there. Right. He he overcome the world. So we gotta uh, and as we follow him, you know, he's got us. Yeah, he's got us, he's got this. We don't got this. Uh so the marketplace isn't easy. Uh trying to lead with kingdom values in a culture that doesn't have the same values takes courage. Take heart, have courage. I've overcome the world. It takes courage and consistency. And that's that it's not always welcome, and it always comes with a cost. You know, so one of the first uh struggles that we face is integrity pressure. Uh gonna do the right thing. It's one of our core values at the company I work with is do the right thing.

Speaker 1 19:43

Yeah.

Allen 19:44

It's uh with it's uh in uh excellence. Uh so integrity pressure, which is uh when there's an easier path of the business deal, uh it might not be the the most honest one. The Lord values honesty. Um, we could maybe like uh cutting corners uh when it was save a little money, and hey, nobody no one's gonna see this. Right. Hey, I might even get a little promo on, I might get an attaboy for saving it, cutting this corner, saving these dollars.

Stacy Jo 20:14

You don't want to do that in the construction field.

Allen 20:15

You don't want to do that in the construction world, but you know, uh anyway, moving on. Uh how about um when your industry culture discreetly normalizes something that doesn't really sit well with with your spirit as as you've been transformed from the inside out, it just doesn't sit well with you where you're at in your faith. And we as Christ followers, we have to decide whether our convictions are real or or are they just theoretical? Are they words on the page or have the words from the from God's word transferred from to the tablets of our heart? Uh it's in these cultural pressures that like these that that's where the uh the marketplace legacy is actually forged. You know, we we we get we got in forging to it it it's it's a hot messy it's a trial.

Speaker 1 21:08

Right.

Allen 21:08

It's a and and we we will be put through the trials, will we successfully stride through the trials behind him?

Speaker 1 21:17

Right.

Allen 21:18

And uh and as we as we do, then uh then we will be forged into the men and women that he created us to be.

Stacy Jo 21:26

Yeah, and I want to say something to the people who are in the high pressure industries like finance, real estate, law, healthcare, etc., etc., etc. Y'all know that the ethical gray areas are constant and the stakes are are high. Your call to faithfulness in those environments is enormous because you are in rooms that most kingdom voices never get access to. So our standards and integrity in Those rooms, as well as how you treat people at the bottom of the org chart with the same dignity that the people at the top are even more relevant. So are you treating the people at the bottom of the org chart as well as you are treating the ones at the top? How do you make people feel? That is what they'll always remember. You know, it's been said, I've heard it said that they'll most likely forget what you said or did, but people will always remember how you made them feel. So are you lifting people up or are you tearing them down? It's definitely something that we need to consider.

Allen 22:39

Yeah, it is absolutely something.

Stacy Jo 22:41

Regardless of what position we're in in the marketplace.

Allen 22:45

And that doesn't mean that you know we're I got this rule. Um it's challenging out there. And and I don't get out and I got and I travel a lot of miles and I go to a lot of job sites and I see a lot of guys and gals out there, and I don't walk into the room until it's time re until I if I know I know me, uh, and I wear everything right here, and I don't get out of the truck until I'm ready to get out of the truck, until until I can get out of the truck and and shine. You know, because I don't want them to see the frustration. I don't want them to, you know, that I don't they don't want to see that, you know. And and and because I'm I'm not that guy, but you know, that doesn't mean I'm walking around on rainbows and puppy dogs. And I do have a couple of puppy dogs that I dearly love, but life in Christ isn't just rainbows and puppy dogs. We do struggle and and and we do go through it. Uh, but you know, I know that I don't want to be seen like that. And I know it's so there's a prayer that goes on, and there's a just man, you gotta, I gotta release some of that junk, you know. And uh so before I get before I walk in the room or before I get out of the truck, man, I gotta just bang. And that it's not faking it till you make it, it's releasing it to the Lord and and allowing the spirit to lead me out of there uh the way that uh he's transformed me from the inside out to be. Yeah, you know. Uh the next one, uh, our next challenge is the compartmentalization trap. Uh compartmentalization is a is better better sneaky.

Speaker 1 24:31

Yeah.

Allen 24:32

Because it's well-intentioned, you know. Uh we don't want to ruffle any feathers. Uh hey, don't be that guy, don't be that person who beats everyone over the head with your faith at work, right? After all, we we don't want to make people feel uncomfortable or cross professional lines. We don't want to do that. We don't want to be that guy. So you you keep your faith and your work in separate lanes. You're you you're professional at work and you're spiritual at church, right? Right. No. That's not who he calls us to be. The challenge isn't uh that you're being wisely respectful and professional boundaries, but the challenge is that when the separation goes so deep that your work self and your kingdom self become two functionally different people.

Stacy Jo 25:29

Yeah.

Allen 25:29

Not too cool.

Stacy Jo 25:31

No.

Allen 25:31

Not who you're called to be, not who not who any of us are called to be. No.

Stacy Jo 25:36

And friends, here's the point we don't have to preach to our team to let our faith be visible.

Speaker 1 25:43

Yeah.

Stacy Jo 25:44

What makes faith visible at work is is really powerfully simple. How do you handle a crisis? How generous are you when it costs you more than you wanted to give? Yeah. How do you talk about people when they're not in the room? The other day, somebody was saying something to me about someone else, and I thought they probably are talking about me to other people, you know?

Allen 26:08

So it it's it's you can guarantee that.

Stacy Jo 26:11

Right, right. So is his peace evident in you in the workplace chaos? You know, that is the testimony because authentic actions always speak louder than words.

Allen 26:23

Always speak louder in words, and I could go, I could add to that, but we'll keep moving and we'll move right into our third challenge, which is the success trap.

Stacy Jo 26:33

Oh, yeah. I just that one's kind of sneaky too.

Allen 26:36

Yeah, yeah, success.

Stacy Jo 26:38

Yeah.

Allen 26:39

Because we we all want it, but who do we attribute it to? Uh sometimes the biggest threat's not failure. Right. I mean, quite honestly, failure is where we should be learning our greatest lessons. But to the point, uh the biggest threat here isn't failure. It's could be success when the business takes off or when revenue increases and when margins expand, there's a gravitational pull toward protecting what you've built and playing it safe to preserve the success uh rather than continuing to focus on what advances the kingdom. Uh and this may be subtle. It's a subtle shift from building for God, uh losing sight of the foundation, and just building up. And it gets a little crooked if we're if we decide to do that. If the if we're not building from his firm foundation, if we're not building from his his plum and level cornerstone, if we lose vision of whose we are and who allowed us to get to the point of of building what we're building, then then we're losing it. And it will it will fall to pieces. And the legacy quietly becomes about the brand instead of about the one the brand is supposed to point to.

Stacy Jo 27:58

Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's good. So and we say all of that not to condemn, but to awaken, because awareness is the beginning of realignment. And the beautiful thing about kingdom marketplace leadership is that it's never too late to recalibrate and bring your work back under the lordship of Christ. Repent and consecrate the work back to Him. And all you have to do is just tell Him, Lord, this is yours. I leave it with you. So guide me and show me how you want me to use it for your kingdom. I yield to you and ask you to show me how my work can point people back to you.

Allen 28:38

That's it right there. Yield. Key word. Write that down. Yield. How might you yield to his presence today?

Speaker 1 28:47

Yeah.

Allen 28:47

And uh, and now and he'll probably he's probably gonna show you how to reset your zeros.

Speaker 1 28:51

Yeah.

Allen 28:52

Which is our next question. How do we reset our zeros? First, we gotta we gotta know the why, because the why always reveals, it reveals the root. So we gotta know the why before we return to the workplace. Uh remember, Paul says work heartily as for the Lord, and that means we gotta settle the claim. We gotta settle whom for whom we are working, you know, not for whom we're working with, or who are we working for? Are we working for man or are we working for as unto the Lord? And this doesn't have to be difficult, it's it's a uh a genuine act of surrender. And you're saying, and someone out there is saying, surrender! You said it didn't have to be difficult. And just a simple act of surrender. Father, this workday and all the business here, this is yours. You Lord, I understand that you love the people that I work with, uh, and I just I surrender my heart to you for them. I surrender and I ask you to use me, Lord. Let my work today point to you. It's it's it's a simple prayer, and and then we're listening. And letting that settle. Just starting with a simple and consistent recalibration, resetting the zeros. It shifts our spirit, realigns our spirit with the spirit, Holy Spirit, and uh and it empowers us to arrive alive in Christ one day at a time.

Stacy Jo 30:35

Yeah, we need to pursue Daniel excellence.

Allen 30:39

Yeah, that's our second point there. Daniel had it going on, man, and he was in it.

Stacy Jo 30:44

Yeah. And he wasn't distinguished because he was the most spiritual in the room. He was distinguished because he had an excellent spirit that was in him.

Allen 30:55

He did.

Stacy Jo 30:56

And his faith produced excellence, and it opened doors that no amount or of networking or self-promotion ever could have done. Friends, excellence is one of the most powerful forms of witness available to you. Not excellence as a performance, but excellence as an overflow of doing your work as unto the Lord. Because when you bring that level of quality, integrity, and care to all you do, people see him in you, and eventually they ask, Why you're like that?

Speaker 1 31:29

Yeah.

Stacy Jo 31:30

Why why are you different? Why are you like that? And there it is. I mean, that's the door for sharing. That's the that's the door to share Jesus with a heart that's willing to listen.

Allen 31:44

Yeah. Our our actions, our words, our that being that guy or that that gal, uh, that'll open more doors than a hat or a t-shirt ever will.

Stacy Jo 31:54

Right.

Allen 31:55

I really appreciate Daniel. And then when when we model his excellence consistently, then we're we're setting a standard that outlives us. We're we're establishing that legacy. And uh, and then your team your team sees that and they're like and they adopt it. And the and your culture starts to reflect it, and the people you you train carry it into their next role and and and reflect it and and share it with their next team, and and the excellence that flows, it just keeps flowing uh from your kingdom values, and uh it becomes embedded in your organization's DNA.

Speaker 1 32:35

Yeah.

Allen 32:35

Over time. Uh, and long after we're gone, that faith standard is still shaping people, and that's what we're talking about. That's what we're called to, and that's the powerful marketplace legacy that we want to leave behind us. Right. And the third point we want to mention here is we gotta invest in the people on the team the way God invests in us.

Speaker 1 33:00

Yes.

Allen 33:02

We uh we gotta trust that their God-given potential is greater than their current performance. Right. It's easy to cast people away, but I will say that again. We gotta trust that their God-given potential is greater than their current performance. And the the leaders who who leave the deepest marketplace legacy are almost never the ones squeezed out the most uh productivity out of their people. Uh they're the ones who who saw what was what was in the people and they called them out and more so called them up to their potential. The people who created environments where where people were genuinely developed, not just deployed, where people are people and not just numbers. Uh great kingdom ladies send people out better than they came in.

unknown 33:55

Yeah.

Allen 33:56

Leaders begat leaders, begat leaders.

Stacy Jo 33:58

Yeah.

Allen 33:59

Etc. etc.

Stacy Jo 34:01

Etc., etc. etc. You kind of have to roll your R a little bit.

Allen 34:04

Whatever, I'm not rolling my R.

Stacy Jo 34:08

So what Matthew 5.16 is asking of us in the marketplace is to let our light shine so that they see your good works and glorify your father. The good works are not what you produce, okay? Let's understand that. They are who you produce. Yeah. We're talking about the leaders and the team players who were developed under your kingdom values and leadership.

Speaker 1 34:32

Right.

Stacy Jo 34:33

The people are the good works that make others sit up and take notice that there's something different here. And their curiosity begins with the most important conversations that you will ever have.

Allen 34:45

How about a takeaway? Would you all like a takeaway? Because we got we got one takeaway for you this week, and that that takeaway is something for you to ask yourself does the way that I lead at work point people toward God or toward myself? And the answer, the answer to that question, and sit, you don't have to answer it right now. But the answer uh it tells you exactly where your marketplace legacy is currently, uh and and where it needs to go. It's a it's a good gauge.

Stacy Jo 35:21

Yeah, and if the answer is uncomfortable, that's good. That discomfort is the Holy Spirit moving in you, and he is not pointing it out to condemn you because the Holy Spirit never condemns, God never condemns, he convicts, but he is pointing it out because he has something greater in mind than you have been settling for.

Speaker 1 35:42

Right.

Stacy Jo 35:42

The Spirit wants your Monday to be just as anointed as your Sunday.

Speaker 1 35:47

He does.

Stacy Jo 35:48

He's not interested in you being a part-time kingdom person. He wants all of you 24-7.

Allen 35:55

24-7, yo.

Stacy Jo 35:58

24-7, you know.

Allen 36:00

Anyway. Um, so that is uh that's the most exciting invitation in the world. And I I'd like to uh we're gonna put this prayer in the uh in the show notes, put it up in the up in the chat, and uh, and we invite you to copy and paste this uh for yourselves through the week. The prayers that Father, we release our our workplace business to you now. It's so important to release. Father, we release our workplace business to you now, and we declare that that our work belongs to you, and that we decide today to do it heartily as unto you and not for men. Father, we ask you to lead us to Daniel Excellence. We ask you for the courage to unapologetically let our light shine in every professional space that we occupy. Reveal the people who need someone to just believe in them and to call out and call up what you've put inside of them. We thank you, Lord. We thank you for using us to to shift our workplaces to where people encounter your kingdom, whether they know it or not. And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Stacy Jo 37:26

Amen. Friends, episode six is coming, and we are going into the role of the Holy Spirit in kingdom leadership, because you can't build what God is building without the one that He sent to guide you into all truth. So it's gonna be a powerful one, and you don't want to miss it.

Allen 37:46

Don't miss it, and until then, stay faithfully invested because when you do, God brings the increase. Have a great week. God bless you. God bless. Thanks for joining us on Faithfully Invested with Alan and Stacey Joe. If today's conversation encouraged you, challenged you, or helped you see your calling more clearly, don't keep it to yourself.

Stacy Jo 38:13

That's right. Share it with a friend, leave a five-star review, and keep leaning into God's blueprint for your life, your leadership, and your legacy. So until next time, remember when you invest in his kingdom, he brings the increase.