#61 Breakneck Pace, Pt 2 | Too Fast to Hear

Lasting ministry isn’t built by going faster—it’s built by abiding deeper. 

Mark and Erica get practical about the dangers of leading at a breakneck pace—hero-complex, thin defenses against sin, and drifting into “man’s wisdom” over God’s. They unpack how prayer, Scripture, and Sabbath keep leaders grounded, how to disciple a team into healthy rhythms, and why slowing down actually increases trust in God. Expect honest stories, biblical guardrails, and simple, repeatable practices for a rest-first leadership culture. 

📋 Key Takeaways 

•   Impress vs. Impact: You can impress from a distance, but you impact up close—healthy leaders model rest and dependence, not nonstop hustle (cf. John 15:5). 
•   Hero-Mode is Hazardous: When pace rises, defenses thin and temptation spikes; accountability and humility are non-negotiables (1 Cor. 10:12; 1 Cor. 1:19). 
•  Man’s Wisdom Autopilot: Competence and knowledge are good, but dependence is better; without abiding, our “wins” don’t last (2 Pet. 1:4–7; 1 Cor. 13:1). 
•  Rested = Smart & Strong: Sabbath, time off after big pushes, and “camp time” seasons form a culture where creativity, discernment, and holiness thrive (Gen. 2:2–3; Mark 2:27). 
•  Only Do What Only You Can Do: Early leaders should explore broadly, then narrow to the two or three God-assignments—and build a home team that frees you to do them (Acts 6:2–4; 1 Cor. 12). 

💬 Quotes & Soundbites 

"You can impress people from a distance, but you can only impact them up close." (01:11) - Dr. Carter quoted Rick Warren while explaining that if leaders truly wanted to impact people, they needed to model a healthy, sustainable pace rather than just appearing tireless. 

"The moment that I think that I am sufficient with my wisdom, I've already jacked it up." (04:59) - This was his direct response when asked about the difference between man's wisdom and God's wisdom, emphasizing that self-sufficiency was an immediate failure. 

"You can't bear more fruit than you have roots." [11:35] 

"Relying on God to do it teaches you that he does it." [31:24] 

🕐 Timestamps 

• 0:00 – Intro + why Part 2 matters 
• 1:11 – The hero temptation & why pace thins your defenses 
• 3:10 – Humble leadership: play the long game 
• 5:00 – “Man’s wisdom” vs. God’s wisdom; posture of dependence 
• 9:30 – What hurry does to prayer & Scripture (lean, perfunctory) 
• 11:25 – Abide in Christ for fruit that lasts (John 15) 
• 13:20 – Long-term fallout: sin, lack of accountability, church hurt 
• 16:20 – Early warning signs: stress, mis-ordered loves (politics/hobbies) 
• 18:05 – Leadership wins when you name busyness and slow down 
• 19:30 – Discipling your team into rest rhythms; staff “camp time” 
• 22:10 – “The rested are smart and strong” culture 
• 23:10 – “Only do what only you can do” (young leaders → narrowing focus) 
• 24:58 – Build your home team & align family around God’s call 
• 31:05 – Slowing down increases trust: God really does the work 
• 31:55 – Close: God gives the growth (1 Cor. 3:6–7) 

📖 Scripture Tie-Ins 

• John 15:5 – “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” 
• 2 Peter 1:4–7 – Add to your faith… knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness. 
• 1 Corinthians 1:19 – God frustrates the wisdom of the wise. 
• 1 Corinthians 13:1 – Without love, noise not impact. 
• 1 Kings 19:11–13 – God’s voice in the gentle whisper, not the frenzy. 
• Matthew 6:33;

Follow us on Socials:  @bibleleaderpod

Check out our website: Bibleleadership.com

Sign up for our newsletter:  http://bit.ly/3NmVmNM

Transcript

Mark Carter (00:00):

What up everybody? Welcome back to the Bible Leadership Podcast. My name is Dr. Mark Carter. I want to connect your Bible to your leadership and your leadership to your Bible. Hey, have you ever been going at a breakneck pace? Last time we talked about this idea of a breakneck pace. I described what I consider really was kind of an emotional breakdown I had in 2021, but there's a lot of lessons that came from that. We started that last episode. Now we're going to get into some of the nitty gritty, some of the tips. I think you're going to be super encouraged. By the way, if you haven't already, do me a favor and like and subscribe or follow if you're on Spotify or leave a comment that it helps people find us and get to the word out there more. But let's jump into some breakneck pace tips. Here we go.

Erica Adkins (00:42):

Hey y'all, welcome back. We finished up our last episode kind of talking about breakneck pace, what that looked like for Pastor Carter and what that might look like for you and maybe just a little bit of an encouragement and some warnings in the last one. But today I want to dive in a little bit more specifically as leaders. Like what can go wrong and where does this manifest at? If we're going in too fast of a pace, what can be messed up in that?

Mark Carter (01:11):

Yeah, I think there's a temptation for leaders to want to be the hero, which it would seem like that means you have to be able to do the most and you're the first one there. You're the last one to leave. You're the one who, well, when everyone else gives up, they'll just keep going. And I think that as Rick Warren, many of you know this as Rick Warren says, "you can impress people from a distance, but you can only impact them up close." If you just want to impress people, You Can act like you're all that and you never have to rest. If you really want to impact them, we've got to lead in the rest that Jesus is asking us to do.

(01:50)
We've got to intentionally over time build in things that slow the breakneck pace, that help us to hear from God more clearly, that refill the tanks that aren't filled, that call us back to the integrity that is beginning to slip because we're going too fast. I think we need to model that. I think another thing that could go wrong, we talk about any of these... I think it's always a setup, dude, I think sin is around the corner and the faster we're going, the thinner our shields are, our defenses against little temptations are going to come. So I think another thing that might even be a sign that we need to rest is, dude, there's just a lot of temptation that is just springing up everywhere. A stronger us might do better against that or might not even ever get near those anyway. So those are two big things I think we need to watch out for. Wanting to be the man or the woman; be that, but be the healthy version of that. That's what that person would really be. They'd be healthy.

Erica Adkins (02:58):

Flesh that out a little bit. What would that look like between just the "pride-filled, I'm going to solve it" kind of feel like "Holy Ghost Jr." saving the day versus what's a good humble leader?

Mark Carter (03:10):

I think the humble, I think I'm not necessarily humble, so I think, okay, look, I'm trying. I think what it looks like is you're playing the long game now. You're thinking about, I'm not just trying to look cool for the online world. I'm not just trying to leaders. I mean everybody can be this way, but leaders maybe too we can be competitive with. I see someone over there doing that now I'm looking at my little apple orchard and they've got a giant orchard. I've got this little one. I've got to get to that thing. If I'm playing the long game, I'm thinking about "I've got this little orchard here and I want to make sure everyone who comes to partake of these apples gets really good apples." And so if I go healthy, they all get good apples. And even the people that are watching me lead who are going to lead someday, I want them to want the people to want to have good apples. So I think competition, one of the things that can spin us right out into, "I've got to keep going, I've got to go harder, I've got to go better." I think there is a version of godly ambition that still does want to do that, but I'm going to go to heaven pretty soon anyway. I want to have the version that leaves people a trail to follow that is healthy, so that they don't just think I'm this when I die or when I move on. I don't want people to be like, "man, one of a kind. Dude, ain't nobody going to be like him." I want them to be like, "he left us an exact recipe of what to do to survive this thing. Let's do that."

Erica Adkins (04:39):

Yeah. So thinking in that competition mindset, I know it's easy for us to slip into that's really actually manly wisdom. That's like "how can I build this empire more" instead of how can I develop the kingdom? How would maybe when you're slipping into that mindset more of man's wisdom instead of God's wisdom?

Mark Carter (04:59):

Yeah, I think, and this is what I wish I would've said right off the bat, I always have man's wisdom. I always have man's wisdom. The moment that I think that I am sufficient with my wisdom, I've already jacked it up.

Erica Adkins (05:18):

Wow.

Mark Carter (05:18):

So I think there has to be a general persistent hunger for wisdom knowing that my default, I am man, I'm still in the sinful body. I'm just going to draw conclusions that are earthy and that they're from below. And so if I can just maintain a posture of like, "this is way too hard for me. I need your wisdom. I need your wisdom still about my marriage. I need your wisdom still about how we do Sundays and weekends. I need your wisdom still about how managing the situation over here, I need your wisdom still about my kids." If we don't do that, I feel like, bro, you're just waiting for the wisdom of man to reap whatever it's going to reap in your life.

Erica Adkins (06:02):

Life. Yeah, that's good. That makes me think of kind of going into autopilot with a lot of things instead of, okay, "no, Lord, this was always yours. Help me to keep thinking about it like it's yours and not just, This can just keep going." No, no, no, no, no. The Lord gives you manna for today. "Jesus, what do you want me to do with the manna that you're giving me for today."

Mark Carter (06:26):

And I think that's a trick of the enemy, Erica. I think this is true. Whether you're just growing more competence, so you just have more experience. You've just done this longer. Maybe I see this, I saw this a little bit in academic circles when I was pursuing my higher education. You can start to rely on, "but I've done this so much I know" or "I've learned so much about this. Well now I have all this vast reservoir of knowledge." You do, but what Jesus needs you to need is a posture of dependence. Once you start to lean on that reservoir of knowledge, baby, good night, that's not going to go very well for very long. And in our pride, we think that that's good or it's good enough. But really it's the posture of dependence because Jesus doesn't actually need you to be smart.

Erica Adkins (07:22):

He's got enough,

Mark Carter (07:23):

He'll use it and he does use it.

Mark Carter (07:27):

Whatever you have, he needs you to be full of faith and dependent on him. So I think that's where man's wisdom jacks us up.

Erica Adkins (07:37):

That just brings me to Second Peter 1:5 and starting back in verse four. "Through these, he has given us his precious and magnificent promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature now that you've escaped the corruption of the world. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and then to knowledge, self-control and self-control. Perseverance and perseverance, godliness." it's great that you have all this knowledge. But if it is not connected to the heart of God, it is just going to be earthly.

Mark Carter (08:10):

And everything you just mentioned there that Peter mentions there isn't just about getting it done, it's about the internal man or woman of the heart as they relate to God. So even that is not about productivity unless we're talking about spiritually productive.

Erica Adkins (08:28):

And then in one Corinthians, Paul drops this bomb, "for it's written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the intelligent of the intelligent, I will frustrate." y'all if you are in your own brain and that connected to the Lord.

Mark Carter (08:42):

That's so good Erica. And that was again, a message of that season for me when I had that implosion, when I had that panic-attack/breakdown, learned all those lessons of the breakneck pace, it really was, it was just my wisdom bearing the fruit of my wisdom. I got there by doing what I thought was the right thing to do. So just having that posture of... I think Jesus wants us to be losing confidence in the flesh all the time.

Erica Adkins (09:12):

That's good. That's good. Alright, Mark, let's think about our internal life, our prayer life, our time just with the Lord. What happens to prayer life and scripture time when busyness starts to take over? I think we talked about this a little bit in the last episode, but elaborate on it.

Mark Carter (09:32):

I think it becomes lean and we don't want the Lord to send leanness into our souls. I think it becomes... I mean just think about if you're eating stuff that is barely nutritious.

Erica Adkins (09:47):

Yeah,

Mark Carter (09:47):

It is a little, but it's not everything that you need throughout the day. It's the same way with the Lord. If you're not feasting on his manna and you're, "I'm going to take a crumb today," you ain't going to last very long. You ain't going to be very smart, very long. You're going to eat weak, quick. So I think what happens to those things is they become perfunctory. They become, "I'm doing them to do 'em." And this is where I think it's a trick from the enemy for everybody, I start to replace... it just becomes more about getting it done or checking the box potentially than drawing near to the heart of Jesus and knowing him.

Erica Adkins (10:27):

Yeah.

Mark Carter (10:28):

Because dude, he's the goal. And this is a giant lesson of this entire lesson. He's better than anything I could achieve. I already have him. So I have him right here. You're the best thing. Lemme go over here and get a bunch of stuff done. This is the best thing though. Getting all that done won't get you something better than this. So I think that is a setup from the enemy. I think it's a setup from our own flesh too. But I've got to keep those things in place lest I lose the very prize itself. Not that you're going to lose heaven, but you're going to lose the heaven on earth that you could have had.

Erica Adkins (11:08):

Well, and chances are if we keep the main thing, the main thing, if we keep our focus on the Lord, "he who began the good word will be faithful to complete it."

Mark Carter (11:18):

Word

Erica Adkins (11:18):

And "all these things will be added unto you." He will make that thing be accomplished.

Mark Carter (11:25):

So true. And that was part of what I feel like the Spirit was showing me in that season was John 15. So "if you abide in me, you'll bear much fruit apart from me. You can do nothing."

Erica Adkins (11:36):

"You Can do nothing."

Mark Carter (11:37):

He was teaching me, "Carter, in ways, you do abide in me every day, but there's also ways that you're not trying to abide to me because you're trying to bear fruit On Your own. And if you'll just trust me, do less and trust me to bear the fruit you're supposed to bear. But it'll actually be fruit that lasts.

Erica Adkins (11:54):

Yeah. Pausing to think, "apart from me, you can do nothing." That's a scary, oh man. Anything that I'm producing, if it's not via abiding, it's worth nothing. It's like back to that one Corinthians 13, it's just clinging symbols and loud noise. It's nothing. It's not impactful.

Mark Carter (12:20):

That's really helpful. And I think here's a balance. I know I can look back at my life in ministry and be like, "I think that was probably nothing. I think that wasn't the fruit God was asking. That was the ingenuity of man." Now I think to balance that out, you got to try stuff, like The Lord doesn't just give you every specific direction. You got to be creative. You got to like, "let's try this new project and see if it's God." All I'm saying is that there were things borne of the heart of man that I was just like, "this is going to be awesome." And the truth is, bro, God was not the one leading you to do that.

Erica Adkins (13:01):

Yikes. Yeah, there are a lot of potential pitfalls ahead in this. Okay, this one, this next question makes me kind of tremble a little bit, because I have seen how this plays out long-term for leaders. But yeah, what long-term effects have you seen in leaders who don't slow down?

Mark Carter (13:23):

As we've mentioned sin and specifically lack of accountability. So again, it's that root of self-sufficiency. There's no sense that I should have to answer to anybody. We become increasingly haughty or self-sufficient. So then, "why do I need you?" And it's subtle. It's not like you would say that, but I've seen leaders entirely implode because of lack of accountability. I was just with a friend the other day who largely... it's so sad when it leads to church hurt that is self-caused. So someone is going after it and we've done this, we were like, "honey, you better slow down bro. Slow down."

Erica Adkins (14:11):

Yeah. You give them the friendly warning.

Mark Carter (14:12):

Yeah, you're about to, at the very least you're going to get a bloody nose here.

Mark Carter (14:17):

Because They're just going so fast and they're like, yeah, God. And they haven't learned yet that ministry is a lifestyle and you got to abide and you can't bear more fruit than you have roots. And what it did was it totally knocked this dude out. It knocked him out of church, got him into a season, he's back into sin mean, and he... God his merciful and got him out. But it was a wipe out that he was like, "what the heck, what just happened?"

Erica Adkins (14:44):

That's good. I think of some things that I've witnessed, I think there's compromise in decisions. There's not treating the people around you as though they're valuable and "Imago De," the image of God and they're valuable around you. I think I have seen it impact marriages just absolutely destroy marriages.

Mark Carter (15:09):

So sad

Erica Adkins (15:10):

And we've all seen this in the news, but leaders have made such compromise that they are taken out and no longer allowed to serve and needing, rightly so, to have a very long season of not being in leadership in any time. So this may seem trivial, like, "oh, I'm just going fast." But no, a fast pace ultimately leads to not hearing the Lord's voice in the middle of it. It makes me think of, why can think of the Bible character who was in the mountain cleft and there was the wind and there was the... Elijah Elijah... and it was all really loud and then it all got quiet and that's where the voice of the Lord really was. And so yeah, slow down to hear his voice.

(16:08)
Mark, Now as you've come through a lot of this, you've learned a lot of big things. How do you personally know, what are some things that are showing you now where you've begun to run in your own strength again?

Mark Carter (16:21):

So this is going to sound maybe pretty basic, but just for me, I would suggest there's a certain amount of stress you should be able to just lob onto the Lord most of the time. So if I'm really starting to take a lot of and really stressing out... I'm not offloading that onto Jesus enough.

Mark Carter (16:46):

So stress is a big sign to me that something is starting to go wrong. Maybe another trap is being overly focused on things that are I not the kingdom?

Erica Adkins (17:01):

Okay,

Mark Carter (17:02):

So I'm going to step on some toes here,

Erica Adkins (17:04):

Do it.

Mark Carter (17:05):

It can be everything from a hobby. You're just really getting into this hobby now. Dude, love the hobby. Give God praise for the hobby. But when that starts to become like, "this is becoming a larger chunk of life for some reason," I think it's worth poking at that. I think when stuff like politics becomes all consuming, something got misplaced there, dude, Jesus kingdom is not of this world and I get it. Let's fight and let's do what we can to make things better. But there's nothing in the scriptures that would lead me to believe Paul was primarily concerned about what was happening in the government of Rome. You know what I'm saying? I'm sure he cared. I'm sure he had opinions and he would've done whatever he could to help it. But his focus was on "this is all ending. This is a Giant flood and we need to get everybody on the arc as fast as possible."

Mark Carter (17:54):

Alright, with that out of the way, let's talk about some leadership opportunities.

Erica Adkins (17:59):

What leadership opportunities open up when you start addressing busyness openly?

Mark Carter (18:05):

I think number one, you probably seem more real to people. It's attractive to see weakness.

Speaker 3 (18:14):

So

Mark Carter (18:15):

I mean that's good. Everybody knows we're all freaking stressed out. Everybody's living up to the very limit man. So if we really want to lead again, it's attractive to be honest about it. I think it also probably gives you more credibility when it's time to speak into those People Because you, "I'm not asking you to do anything I didn't have to do." I get people are like, well... so in other words it becomes legitimate that "you actually have lived through the hard part. Therefore you can tell me, I trust that you actually know how hard it is," because what you're going to ask me to do if you're leading me is you're going to ask me to make some pretty big changes potentially about whether or not I take a Sabbath, about how often I get away, about how I'm prioritizing my marriage. Maybe all kinds of little things could be happening there and I need to be able to trust that that leader knows what they're talking about. So leaning into that I think hopefully helps us be a little bit more of a lighthouse so that when people are in trouble, they know they can come to us.

Erica Adkins (19:24):

Mark, maybe how have you or how can leaders just in general disciple their teams, teach their teams, lead them in some of those healthier rhythms?

Mark Carter (19:32):

We talk about this all the time, honestly. We take a staff advance and this is largely a reason, is to teach people to stop. After Christmas, we tell people don't show up for two weeks because this is about rest. We have language that we say, "Hey, this is camp time. We're going into a season of camp time. We just got done with Easter. We're in a couple more events, but then summer is you still got to do church but go slow." So just the messaging of, "it's healthy for you to slow down." Obviously you have to model that in our culture, and I'm not saying this works the greatest for everybody. We're trying to get people their time off. If someone wants time, in fact, we probably want it more than they're going to do it as you and your family know. But there's got to be that push from the top of, "get rest, get rest, get rest." We'll find a way. God is powerful. We'll figure it out. Obviously, hopefully it leads to more trending up of people, but ideally it's coming from the top. Not only they're doing it, they're reminding

(20:43)
"Get rest." Even just celebrating Sabbath, just telling people, "oh, I was on my Sabbath the other day and it was, listen, my Sabbath is awesome by the way," that at least hopefully creates that thirst for, oh, I should probably have that kind of a margin.

Erica Adkins (20:57):

Yep. I'm a little more recently on staff at our church and I was shocked when we told our staff the other day, "we're going to eject for just a few days as a family," and everybody was like, yay, you have such a great time. That was a foreign concept to me because I had previously been in jobs where you don't take time off. You were in the role where you could not take time off. Though I was allotted that time, I never took it because I felt like I was the only one who could do that job. That was refreshing.

Mark Carter (21:31):

It wasn't a cultural value at that Point, At that other space to say, "you must rest."

Erica Adkins (21:38):

Yes. And one of our core values here at Fierce is "the rested that are smart and strong," and so slowing down a little bit, I think you lead us well in that.

Mark Carter (21:49):

And if you don't know what that is, so it's a phrase that we say "the rested are smart and strong." What we're saying is, and this is just from my own personal experience, when I don't rest, I'm dumber and weaker and that's not just cute. That's really real. That's true. Yeah. I'm weaker against sin. I'm not making his creative Decisions, I'm cutting corners. So if you really want to get the best from your team, like dude, tell him to go home.

Erica Adkins (22:14):

Home. Yeah. It makes me think of the time where I, was it Elijah again where he's running away because everything is crazy and intense and the Lord is just gracious to him. He sits underneath this tree, he's like, I might as well just die, but the Lord brings him food and gives him a nap. Sometimes y'all, you just need to slow down and eat some food and take a nap. That would be really good for most of our souls on many days.

Mark Carter (22:42):

And I think we have to even work against this. I think it leads to resentment when people don't get enough rest, they're just like, why isn't anyone watching out for me? And partly we need to take responsibility for communicating, "You need to take Rest." Partly they need to go ahead and do it, but I don't want a bitter team that's going to hurt us eventually.

Erica Adkins (23:04):

Yes, agreed. How would you encourage them to have that mindset of only do what only you can do?

Mark Carter (23:13):

So for young leaders, so in their Twenties...

Erica Adkins (23:16):

building that character in probably is where it starts.

Mark Carter (23:19):

Definitely become the leader you would want internally, but also take your time to figure out even what you're good at. There's the stuff you're assigned, so you got to do that. But there's also the stuff that God has gifted you that's going to take several years to find out. Most of us when we start in our twenties, early in leadership, maybe even younger than that, we're probably good at seven things And We don't yet know the two or three that God is actually asking us to do with our lives. And so I would take the pressure off young leaders and say, "just try a bunch of stuff dude; Figure Out what you're good at." But also be content with: you can't be good at seven things. You can't be really good. You can't do seven things for the kingdom. You need to take 70% of your focus and put it on those two things. And that just takes a long time to figure out and let go of that graciously.

(24:18)
I can just remember seasons. So when I was a much younger man, I love to sing. I love to be on worship teams and love to do that. I wasn't a leader very long. I was like, "okay, I like this but I just need to get rid of this entirely because I've got to go other places." There's plenty gifted people that can do this just fine. So I think I'm just saying let go of stuff that, "I know you're good at, honey, but that's not a big rock that God is asking you to carry with your life." So really younger I'd say take the time to figure out what it is that only you can do.

Mark Carter (24:58):

As they get older. I think it's a lot about setting up life. So it enables you to do those things and to do that, I think you need a home team, if you can have it. Either need a friend group and/or you need a family group that understands, "this is what we're trying to do with life," and positions everybody to help toward that. So

(25:23)
I love being on our staff team, everyone on our team, not just staff but leaders and that volunteers here at Fierce. All the ones that are kind of closest to me, they're the people, honestly, by the grace of God, with his help, I've intentionally placed them in my life because I like to be with them, They energize me, and they're really good. But that took a lot of years to get all those pieces in place and there are a lot of times where, and we'll talk about this in a coming podcast, you got to get rid of some of those that are around because they're not helping that happen.

(25:57)
We've just seen this again recently with a family, but when the marriage isn't healthy, it's not postured to help you do what only you can do. It's probably, in some way at least hamstringing that thing. It's slowing it down, it's handicapping it. You've got to, with God's help, you can't force it, but you really got to do everything that you can do to have a family that is helping you do the will of God. That has to be a core value of the family. It's not that we're trying to make our dreams come true or trying to make, God made us for something and we're trying to make God's dream come true.

(26:36)
And family members that can't get on that boat, they just have to be tertiary. They can't be part of what we're trying to, I don't mean your spouse, your spouse, baby keep working, You got to get that thing tight. But I'm saying like a sibling that's like, there's the uncle that doesn't like this. There's even the parent that doesn't like this. Yeah, sorry. We got to do, I need the primary voices and the primary support

Erica Adkins (27:05):

System to be unified

Mark Carter (27:06):

Systems. I need them to be my peeps that are making this easier. It's hard.

Erica Adkins (27:11):

Yeah. Again, we have four kids in our home and there's this season where we know and we will set up the conversation for them, "Hey, these next few weeks, as we go into a big season or a big push for something, our family, all together" my older kids will maybe babysit our younger kids. "Guys, you are actually advancing the kingdom by watching the little kids so that mom and dad can go and do this thing."

(27:38)
That's part of the push.

(27:41)
It's an all-in thing. Our whole family. My husband is the worship pastor here. I assist Mark and help with some digital things at the church, but we are all working together. My husband can't do it on his own. He needs my support and my encouragement, and my kids need to help us so that we can all work together on this.

Mark Carter (28:03):

This is maybe an under talked about conversation among young leaders. So in their late teens, twenties, it's not just about developing yourself and in our very transient culture where you're just going to move around a lot potentially it can feel like, well it's just me and I got to work on my product and get that thing out there and be the best leader I can be. I would encourage you, even very young, to start thinking about and praying for God, I need the "five smooth stones" around me relationally that are going to help me do the will of God and whom I'm going to help them do the will of God. Be deciding right away, "I'm not an island, I'm not going to be able to do this on my own." God may lead me to a place I'm alone and like what? Okay, well then he's got to form those there.

Mark Carter (28:54):

As far as it depends on you and you can't force it, but you can pray for eyes to see it. God bring me people no matter how long it takes That Are going to help me do the will of God because it makes everything easier. And when we say, "how can I do what only I can do? Well, you're going to need those people other stuff to do."

Erica Adkins (29:14):

Yeah. Those support people are going to free you up to do the thing that only you can Do. And I love that you touched on that for a second. The looking for those "five smooth stones," asking the Lord to reveal them, those people to you,

(29:30)
And then that idea of waiting, you may be walking along the riverbank for a while, looking for those "five smooth stones" is probably not going to come. We didn't have, well maybe I'm putting words in your mouth, I dunno that you would say you had the super awesome most killer staff supporting you when we first started our church. That has shifted and morphed over time. And I don't dunno that you would even say they're the perfect people now, but it has taken some time to get the right people in the right seats to support you Well.

Mark Carter (30:04):

Yeah, we can talk about this a little bit in the next one, so I don't want to get there too much, but I will say I think I got at least two, you and your husband, right away and that was a life-wise thing to do.

Mark Carter (30:21):

There's Some others I would put in that "five smooth stones," but I got that one right right away. But there's a lot. There could be potentially some, maybe a lot, that are only the right person for right then.

Erica Adkins (30:36):

Ooh, for a season. Yes.

Mark Carter (30:38):

But they're ultimately not that person, and you need to be okay with that. And some of those, if they are the "five" and we'll talk about this again, that might get really challenged at times. That's actually part of the strength of it though, long-term. So yeah, that's it.

Erica Adkins (30:55):

I want to close this one down with this question: How does slowing down actually increase your trust in God?

Mark Carter (31:05):

Yeah, I like that question. VBecause it shows you that God himself is really doing the stuff.

Erica Adkins (31:13):

Yeah,

Mark Carter (31:15):

It's slowing down and praying more and going slower. And, guyds, it is sometimes it's like, "but I'm not getting as much done." But over the long haul, you're seeing God do stuff that you're like, "God did that, and God did that." And I much more enjoyed now being able to look at the stuff like, "holy cow, can you believe God did that? That's crazy." Versus the stuff that, "yeah, we really tried hard and did that thing that now is completely fallen apart and no, it doesn't matter and isn't anywhere to be seen because we were trying to do it in the strength of the flesh." So relying on God to do it teaches you that he does it.

Erica Adkins (31:55):

Yeah, that makes me think of one Corinthians 3:6-7. "I planted the seed. Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but God word. Who makes it grow." Word. It's good. Alright, y'all come on back because we've got one more thing with breakneck pace, thinking about the "threats and surprises" when it comes with that. So see you next time.

Mark Carter (32:17):

Time. All right everybody, thank you so much for tuning in today. Hey, if this was helpful, would you consider liking and sharing, putting it places where other people who need this kind of content are going to find it? Also, you may know that we have a lot of other places you can find our stuff, TikTok, Instagram, all the things. So go ahead and check those out in places where you're going to be anyway. And don't forget to lead strong today.