Welcome to the Christianity and Business Podcast with the Third Chair, an edition of the RTW College of Business at Eastern Baptist University. This is the show that helps Christian business players to integrate biblical values into business. You can get more information about the HPU Center for Christianity and Business and receive free access to all five pages of the Christian Business Review Journal by visiting our website at ChristianityInbusiness.com.
SPEAKER_00On this episode, we're joined by Jason and Noelle Cosby. Jason and Noelle are the co-founders of the Awake Coffee Community and the Awake School of Marketplace Leadership, and which is a very interesting combination. The way they blend these two is because they have a passion for discipleship and also for business, and they use the coffee company as a context to make disciples, which is pretty incredible. And they're going to be sharing more about that and how they're making an impact not only in communities but around the world. And the website is awakecoffee.co. Jason Noel, welcome to the Christianity and Business Podcast.
SPEAKER_03Hey, thank you for having us, Dan.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00So, what is the awake coffee community for our listeners?
SPEAKER_03I think I'll let my wife uh start that one off.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so awake awake coffee community was um a concept that we had while we were actually in Bible school, we've been in ministry, and we said, God, what do you want to do? And he said, What about a coffee house? So the idea behind it was that there would be a place in the in our community where people could come that would maybe never walk into a church and have the opportunity to still encounter the love of Jesus from the people who were serving there, and uh and and really to be a hub for the community to connect. So it's really about connecting people.
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah. I mean, yeah, it's it's discipleship, it's evangelism, it's anything you would want in terms of Christian impact happens through this company. I mean, and and you guys saw that, and it's just kind of mind-boggling that it's taking the church kind of this long to recognize the potential of ministry in the marketplace, not only as a way to uh share the light of Jesus with customers and people that come through, but certainly the people who work within the company. And and so what has awake coffee done? You guys have an interesting model. What have you guys done that not many, if any, Christian coffee houses or coffee for a cause shops have been able to do? What's so different about you guys?
SPEAKER_03Um, well, uh, I think first we didn't open a Christian coffee house. I think that was the probably the most important thing that we did not do. Um, I think what we did was we just happen to be uh just faithful lovers of God.
SPEAKER_00Wait a second, what's a Christian coffee house and and why do you why do you phrase it that way?
SPEAKER_03Well, I don't know about you guys, but or or the listeners, but our you know, when you go into a quote unquote Christian coffee house, you see crosses on the walls and and Bibles punching you in the face on the shelves, and uh you've got the guy behind the counter that says, you know, hey, Jesus loves you. Can I get you a latte with a mocha frepp or something deep inside of it? You know, kind of a thing. And that's never been our model. It's never been our heart, our heart. I mean, how are you gonna reach the world when you're just another swimming pool for Christians to hang out in? And so the idea was that we would create a place that would be a uh third space, that it doesn't look like a uh it doesn't look like a church would look. Um we or I I say I take I take that back. We actually do look like the church should look, but we don't look like a church, if that makes sense in the way that we would say it. So you want to add to that?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think that the biggest thing was, you know, people, I mean, we've had people that are um, you know, faithful church goers come in and go, Well, why don't y'all put a scripture on the wall? Um we're in the south, so it sounds just like that. And uh we said, well, we do have them on the walls, but they're under the paint. Um, because we have spent time in prayer and um, you know, believing God um in faith that He's gonna do what He said He's gonna do in these in this space. But at the same time, it is not at all designed to repel anyone that would maybe say, I've had a bad experience with church, I don't really want to be in that type of an environment. So we try to create that through um just the service that we have and the prayer that we that we put in behind it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you know, Darren, and we don't just turn away from uh the Christian label that uh we don't well let me say this we turn away from the Christian label, but we don't repel being believers.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_03You know, that's not the concept and I'm far I don't I don't want that to be anybody's thought processes either. We believe that your words can say some, but your action, your actions can say so much more. And so when someone comes into the coffee house, though they have no idea what goes on in here from a day-to-day basis, we hear all the time there is just something different about this place. What's that aura?
SPEAKER_02What's that uh you have you have good vibes, you got good vibes in here.
SPEAKER_03What is that?
SPEAKER_02You know, it's it's the we get to introduce him to the Lord that way, yeah. You get to tell him who it is, yeah.
SPEAKER_03And I love that sometimes when the Christians find out that we are a believers who have a coffee house, they recognize that something Christian can be done with excellence. I think there's been such a stigmatism on Christianity doing things kind of okay and not excellent. Our coffee is excellent, and we are believers.
SPEAKER_00And to paraphrase C.S. Lewis, who said, we don't need more Christian books, we need more books written by Christians. It's like you could say that about, you know, auto dealerships or coffee houses. We don't need more Christian coffee houses, we need more coffee houses run by Christians.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00You know, and and one of the incredible things that you guys are doing is this awake school of marketplace leadership. How does that synergize with the the coffee house?
SPEAKER_03Well, that's the brainchild of this beautiful woman, so I'll let her go with that one.
SPEAKER_02Um so it's been a longtime passion of mine because I was not raised in church to do two things. One, to help young people and young adults that say, I have a call to ministry, but I don't see myself behind a pulpit. Um, helping them, being equipped and empowered and inspired to pursue God in every sphere of influence wherever they're at. And then secondly, uh creating a really passionate desire, like a revival fire inside of young people to see the need for evangelism and to see the need that there is someone that is broken, that in your right in front of you, that you have the opportunity to just be Jesus with skin on. Um, and it doesn't have nobody has to get uh famous because of it. It's just be him where you are in the atmosphere and do it every day and lifestyle Christianity and actually teaching them that, and then not just teaching it in a classroom setting, but actually activating that in the coffee house marketplace leadership classroom where they spend most of their time actually in practicing doing um and activating what they're learning, not just not just learning it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's not just great ideas. Literally, the coffee house is a classroom for those that serve here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So can you give us maybe uh uh a hypothetical or or a real world scenario where somebody picked up something in the classroom, they went to work in the coffee house, there was a person who came in contact with this person who had been transformed by some new truth that had just gotten deep inside of them that then made an impact on that customer who walked through. What does that look like?
SPEAKER_02Wow, that's um so that happens all a lot uh and around here. One one story that's really coming to mind is a young man who uh when we very first started, we had gotten interviewed by a local newspaper. They ran our story, we talked about being willing to work with young adults that maybe have like anxiety or social issues, um, because community is such a core of what we do, and uh we're willing to help them move, you know, transition if they're stuck. And so this mom contacts me and she's got a 21-year-old son, and I said, Hey, you know what? I'd love to meet him, but I want to talk to him. Um, and because this has to be his decision to be a part of what we're doing. Anyway, the young man came in uh with terrible social anxiety. Um, and he was just didn't want to talk to anybody, uh, but through a process of being with uh with us for a year, and this is early on in the program when we started, he graduated, um, and then I get a letter from him about three months later telling me, Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of this. By the way, I am teaching and substituting at middle school. So it was able to really see a complete transformation into the I mean, scared of everyone to teaching middle schoolers.
SPEAKER_00It's just if you have social anxiety, teaching middle school as a substitute teacher is probably the last place you would want to go.
SPEAKER_03Right. You know, another really good story is Adam, um, who's yeah, I mean, we have a young, we have a guy here, he's uh middle, was he in his 30s yet?
SPEAKER_02He's in his mid-30s, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he had he was in an accident last year uh where he had a traumatic brain injury, and him and his wife were just happening to come into the coffee house and get tea every once in a while. And then one day they just kind of stopped and was talking to me, and as he was talking to me, he said, you know, I don't understand why you guys are you're so nice. This is so unique of a place, and then and you're like the owner, which there we don't really have an owner, but you're like the owner of this coffee shop, and yet you stop to talk to me and you stopped to engage with me. I just don't understand. And right then and there, I just tell you because I just believe that God has given us every person that walks into this place needs an encounter with him, and we believe that. And so I said that to him. It wasn't maybe a few months later that uh he came in, his wife had left. I don't think he would mind me sharing that because he shares it. Um they were in a really distraught situation, they were struggling in their marriage. Uh, they have a brand new daughter, he's struggling with learning how to live all over again. And he comes into the coffee house, happens to be what we call a second Friday night where we are in worship in the middle of the coffee house. The doors are wide open, and he encounters God immediately and was like, I don't what what is this? What's going on? And uh I shared with him, I said, you know what, just sit down in the chair and relax. Just let worship just kind of bathe you and just rest. We'll talk afterwards. I think he maybe sat there five minutes. He was up in the middle of the floor in a room probably full of 25 to 30 people, and he gave his heart to the Lord right there in the middle of the room, and he said, I can't stand this anymore. Yeah, I want more of this. If this is you, God, I want more of this. And so, and now he's gone so far, he serves here at the coffee house two shifts a week, and he now is encountering God in the way to where he's making disciples and praying for people.
SPEAKER_02And he's um actually uh we'll be launching our we've been piloting our school, we're launching it full force in the fall, and he will be uh our first year student. He's relearning how to live, um, learning how to be a believer and lead his family. It's absolutely incredible to just witness that and um yeah, it's unbelievable.
SPEAKER_03It's pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_00I think, you know, some business person is listening and thinking, oh, you know, that's great charity work you guys are doing, but isn't the reality that we're not just called to go into all the world and make a profit, but to go into all the world and make disciples and and of all nations, and that the business, as you guys are showing, and as anyone who will just open their eyes up to the harvest field of somebody that you're working with that struggles with social anxiety. I mean, and and who doesn't on some level. And what a what an incredible opportunity to, and it made me think about the disconnect between kind of the traditional local church model where your discipleship is supposed to happen on Sunday morning, and then hopefully you got it for the rest of the week, and then you come back and you know you you kind of come crawling back into church for a lot of us, you know, especially for somebody I'm and I'm this issue of social anxiety really stands out in my mind. But in a business where you're surrounded by people who love you, who care about you and your personal development, not just the development of the bottom line for the company, that that this is such a great what does that look like for somebody like, for example, the the gentleman you mentioned that struggled with this social anxiety. How do you how do you disciple somebody in that area during a a workday?
SPEAKER_03Patiently.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, patient. Um love, intentionality is huge and authenticity. We're um, you know, we don't uh pretend to be perfect whatsoever. You know, we're in community with the people that we're serving with every single day. It's it's it's Acts 242. They met in house houses uh daily and they broke bread together in fellowship. That is the model of what we're doing. We're like, hey, let's just do it. Let's let's coffee house seems like a good idea. Um, and we've seen, I mean, literally, like in Acts, we've seen the grapefruit and the numbers added. And the way it looks is just, you know, when we see uh that young man specifically, he was having a hard time. We just pull him aside and go, hey, you know what? We love you, um, and we believe in you. We're not pushing you, we're gonna walk with you, we're with you through this process. And just and then being vulnerable and talking about our issues and our testimonies and what you know things we struggle with and how we overcome those. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, beautiful. So I want to hear more about the curriculum for the School of Marketplace Leadership, the awake school of marketplace leadership. Um, what what do what are you teaching? What is kind of the process? I mean, you mentioned how you're gonna get an opportunity to go down to Honduras and see where the coffee is grown, interact with the farmers. I mean, it's a pretty hands-on, but there's still a lot of a very well-defined curriculum. What is that uh kind of in a nutshell? Sure.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Well, um, we're using a couple different things to integrate. The the baseline is um some online learning through Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. That's the they have a program called Equip where we can um use some of their material as well as upload material of our own in curriculum. Um we pull it together from different sources. My husband and I are both uh degreed, um, ministry degrees. So there's a curriculum I've written, um I'm writing called Lifestyle Christianity, kind of fits in with their. So we use that. Uh that's a Tuesday night class as well that we'll also have once a week where we just get together, we share testimonies, we talk about it, we talk about what we're learning online, and um and we have an intentional relationship time during that time with the students. Um, they do 10 hours plus a week in the coffee shop and activate themselves. Uh, part of that looks like when you're as a barista, you're not just a barista, you're actually being trained to intercede and pray for those that are walking in the door and you're praying for the people that are serving. We call those service assistants. Once you're in that position, you're learning how to hear from God for others and you're you're jumping out and stepping in in faith. Um, a lot of the another curriculum that we're bringing alongside is from Heaven in Business, uh, Andy Mason's ministry, and absolutely um love that guy, love what they're doing. Um, we've been involved in several conferences, and they are a marketplace leadership training. So those are some of the platforms that we're using. Um, definitely the students are also required to do community initiative outreach of some sort to serve the community outside of what they're doing just in the coffee shop to engage with the community. We do prayer walks, but everything's as you go. It's journey-based, it's a discipleship model that Jesus used. Hey, come follow me. Um, and and then let's sit down and talk about it. And so that's that's really the curriculum and the model that we're using. Uh, there's, you know, obviously there's there's reading and there's essays and things like that because we want to make sure that not only are you getting the information, but that you're able to digest it and understand it and break it down, yeah, and apply it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah you know, and Darren, we don't we believe in not recreating the wheel. Right. If someone, if someone is doing something fantastic, we have a our first year's will go through this thing called GPS, which is absolutely amazing. It helps discover you know their giftings, it helps discover what God has already placed in them. Um and so we utilize that. Um we utilize the the Bethel School, we utilize heaven and business, and then my wife and I, of course, are doing it, but we just we we know that there are great things out there, put to use what's already out there and being used, and and let's see God do some magnificent things.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, definitely focused on practical. That's huge.
SPEAKER_03It's very much about a practicum, putting it to test right away.
SPEAKER_00Right. And they actually go down to Honduras and kind of get an understanding of this industry, right? The coffee industry and kind of how from the roasting and the, you know, the blending of what all of the growing, what does that look like?
SPEAKER_02Right. So that's something that we're getting ready to launch uh this next year is our global awareness tours. And essentially what we want to do is taking the students not just through the process of coffee in the United States, but also giving them uh an opportunity to really understand what the coffee growers are dealing with on a day-to-day basis, um, going out there, being with the farmers, uh, picking. We've been invited to come to our farmers' farm in Honduras there and pick with him. And we say ours because it's we do everything through a global connection. Like Jason said, we don't do anything, we don't reinvent the wheel. We want to support the people that are already in the industry working. So we're not trying to go plant a coffee farm, we're trying to connect with the business leaders and at you know, government levels even, uh, and to help create sustainable change. Sustainability. Sustainability is a huge thing for us. You know, you talked about, you know, it's a nice charitable work that we're doing. Um, we are really, even though we operate as a nonprofit, we don't believe that we shouldn't have profit. Our goal is to create revenue and be sustainable so that we can actually make a significant difference in the lives of those that we are reaching globally.
SPEAKER_00Beautiful. I'm curious about you mentioned uh how you guys are nonprofit. What led to the decision to make this a nonprofit versus uh for-profit? Because I find in talking to other Christian entrepreneurs that this is kind of a question that a lot of people have.
SPEAKER_02It is, it's a great question. Um, I think for the coffee house and the school itself, uh, and the coffee house being part of the school, a lot of the reason we decided to do that is so that we can um have reserve our right to uh uphold our Christian standards and be intentional about you know what we are allowing in the atmosphere. The coffee house atmosphere is very important to us. So we want to make sure that it's um sustained with a kingdom mindset and atmosphere. So we get to do that. That's our right because we are incorporated that way. It also allows us to be extremely accountable with our stewardship. Um, you know, nobody's making a ton of money. What we want to do is create wealth for the kingdom and and allocate that in a way that's gonna build the kingdom of God. So it keeps us accountable. We have a board of elders and directors that helps us to set make big decisions like that. Um so it keeps us accountable as leaders.
SPEAKER_03That's it it also helps with our sustainability.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, big time.
SPEAKER_03You know, utilizing the internship to help operate the coffee house, utilizing the school to be a processing place, helping us to stay keep, you know, when you're when you're operating a school and a coffee house and entities such as what awake what ACI is, the overhead change happens when it's a one-on-one with these students, with the interns on a daily basis, with a healthy team that's been grown up, knows what the vision is, knows what the mission is. You never defer and you never default on anything that you said you were going to do from the very beginning. And a nonprofit helps that by setting the standard of here's the order of how things are gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and and our turnover rate is ridiculously low.
SPEAKER_00I'm curious, you mentioned about there's certain things that you're able to do as a nonprofit uh from you know being able to speak about certain things and and operate in a certain way that you couldn't. And do what is it that you're referring to that being a nonprofit enables you to do that you cannot do if you were not a nonprofit?
SPEAKER_02Well, for um for example, in if we were for profit, we would have a hiring process. Um, and that hiring process says that we can't discriminate against, and not that we want to discriminate, but when you're talking about religion, it is very important for us to make sure that the people that are serving here are bearing the image of Christ. Um, because that's what it's about. We're here to see people, you know, ignite on fire with love for Jesus. So that's something that I wouldn't be able to do necessarily as a for-profit with this particular um model as a retail establishment. That's what it looks like. You know, it's a classroom, that's what it is. So um in a in a center for community outreach. So it just depends. I'm not saying I don't think it's a bad idea at all. I'll just say that to business owners out there. I don't think it's a bad idea whatsoever. If you said, I want to, I'm a believer and I want to start a for-profit coffee house, go for it. If that's what God says to you, that's the other thing, is this is what the Lord told us to do. Um, and I think that it also gives us uh opportunities as ministers to go into the nations. Uh, you know, it's just different, different way of doing it, not not right or wrong. I don't think it's either or.
SPEAKER_03It honestly you can change the mindsets of some of the some of the business connections that we've had through the Chamber of Commerce, through the businesses that we partner with. A lot of people understand that as a nonprofit, uh, they there's some miscommunication, missed thoughts that don't operate very well. You know, well, you're a nonprofit, so you must be broke. No, that's what we're saying is that a nonprofit allows us to make sure all of our dollars are seen. We have we're accountable to that. If anyone asks about it, we can show you exactly where the money is going. Uh, you know, our board is here to give us direction, but also in the business realm, they know we're not out just for us.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_03And so we are we partner with people all the time in the business world and and let our interns go and serve them. You know, even like the small school right down the street right here. She knows that we're not just out to get another dollar in the coffee house. We send interns over to her to paint her building. You know, so it's it, those are the type of things it it changes people's mindset when you go, no, we're a non, we're a not for profit. Doesn't mean we are we don't have any profit. It just means that our mindset is we're here for our community.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_03We're here for that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's and it keeps, I mean, yeah, it goes back to we're you know, sometimes just as humans, we can be a hot mess. And uh for some reason, this model for us it keeps us humble and keeps us as well.
SPEAKER_00And you guys have to generate profit, you know, with that. I think that's kind of a misnomer that some people have about nonprofits. Not that you don't have profit. I mean, hospital systems have profit. It's just that you don't have shareholders that can't take that out of the business or out of the organization. Because without profit, you don't get to buy that new coffee roaster that you guys are about to invest in, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well, what's interesting about the coffee roasters, we actually, that's kind of a miracle story. Um, it is gonna be a for-profit, the roaster itself, the roastery. And it was through somebody that had come here to the coffee house, um, you know, at a radical transformation, themselves in relationship, had come to the Lord, uh, and they said, Look, God told us to start this. We want to, we want to give you the money to start this roastery, we want to be a part of doing it. And so, where it will be a for-profit, because it's just a better model for the roastery, um, then it's also gonna provide jobs, which is fantastic for uh a lot of our young leaders.
SPEAKER_03So Yeah, we do have a, you know, we we don't want our young leaders to be hungry. No, and we don't want our young leaders to be without pay. You know, you don't have a nonprofit just so that you can say, Oh, you're gonna work for free. No, that's a broken model. We believe that if if our leadership is not sustainable, neither are we, neither is our entity, neither is this thing that God's doing. It everything should be sustainable from the top, from it's not even the top down, it's the left to the right, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So and part of the way we created sustainability was obviously coffee, um, having excellent coffee. Uh we have a market, a market uh where we source items from um different regions of the world through a company called Mission Made. So they're working with Haiti and Guatemala and Ecuador, they're working with trafficking victims, um, and they produce beautiful jewelry and different products. We get to tell their story, and um, that also creates revenue. We're just trying to be smart business people at the same time.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. So, how can people get involved if if I'm uh uh maybe a student or maybe I'm looking for an opportunity to really get into it? Because it's it's hard to find a company where there's nothing but Christians there uh working to where I could be working in a place that is dedicated to Christian discipleship uh with other Christians. How would they go about getting uh enrolled with the School of Marketplace Leadership?
SPEAKER_02Okay, so you're gonna go to awakecoffee.co uh and under the our community tab, there is a link to Awake School of Marketplace Leadership. So you can just click on that. There's a pre-application online right there, but they can go fill that out. Um we have three different programs. So we have a local program that's just an internship. They can read about that. It's like a five hours a week. Just come in, get to know the community. Um, it's kind of like a taste and see what it's all about. And then, of course, we have our two-year, it's called Grafted. And then we have uh rooted is our school, our two-year school. And rooted is an opportunity to, you know, uh go through the curriculum that we discussed, and that's also there in that pre-application. Just click on rooted, fill that out. And then we also have a third-year program that um can be for someone, say you went to Bible school or you've already been in marketplace leadership, and you're like, I just want to take it to the next level. Um, I really want to dig in. Uh, and but I'm already working in my industry. We have a program called Cultivate, and that's also there on that pre-application online. And what that's about is it's an opportunity to actually have one-on-one mentorship, and we do destiny coaching through that. So we look at what is God saying to you and um in your place where you are right now, and how do we help you walk through that? Now, that's only available um uh obviously by interview and invitation only, unless you've been through our two-year school, then it's it's a third-year option.
SPEAKER_00And and you guys have a big vision for this. Let's say that I want to, for example, uh, let's say I I live in Houston, which I do, and I want to bring this model to Houston. What uh what is it gonna take to make that happen?
SPEAKER_02Capital. That's about it. Um it just takes, it takes it takes faith and capital. Uh, but we are prepared actually, have been working for a long time on reproducing the model. So we've got all the procedures, we've got a um we we are able to reproduce if that's something somebody said, you know what, I just love this concept and I want to do this. Um we actually have an opportunity in the Houston area. It's funny you mentioned that. So uh right now that's what we're looking for. Someone that says, you know what, I love this concept, I'd like to bring this to my city. And um, we actually have a team getting ready to be trained to go when um God says go.
SPEAKER_03So we that's a huge part of what so if you happen to be in the South Houston Sharpstown HBU area, maybe go by there and and talk to good Clay Trozo and uh ask him about a wake coffee community coming to South Houston.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we're and we are so excited to be able to do that. We have lots of opportunities. And I'm like the dream, of course, is to bring people into this environment, into the school, build them up and launch these marketplace leadership uh coffee houses, uh, you know, it could be an arts and entertainment agency, whatever it is that God's put on your heart. We want to train people up and launch them. You know, that's that's the number one uh that's the dream. So seeing these things happen all over the world and all over the nation.
SPEAKER_00Wouldn't that be awesome if we could record some of these podcast episodes from the coffee house there at HBU?
SPEAKER_03Come on, let's do it.
SPEAKER_02That would be amazing. Let's do it. Let's let's see that happen.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So there's some new and exciting things. You know, I don't unfortunately I don't get to make those decisions, but you know, listeners, those of you in the HBU community, um, you know, this is something that you really want to get behind, definitely uh reach out to the to the university and say, we want this cough, this kind of coffee shop model. We don't just want Starbucks or you know, whoever else to come in there just to have coffee for the sake of coffee, but but around kingdom values, you know, and and what a cool idea to use that on a university campus where you know it's not let's just learn about this in a classroom or or even an internship where you're gonna go work for somebody that doesn't have that mindset where they're gonna really invest and educate you personally as a student, but that this uh that that's what you guys exist for. You know, it's not just for coffee, but it's for uh discipling.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I would say to any of the um the students in that area that would be interested, you know, I can one thing we can guarantee that is that you'll find a community that loves you, that supports you, and that will dream with you and believe with you for whatever God says for your life, because that's really what it's all about.
SPEAKER_00Beautiful. Well, as we wrap it up here, what would be a parting piece of advice you would leave with our Christian business professionals today?
SPEAKER_02Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
SPEAKER_03Right. We have we have two really important things that we teach here as well. Uh after that, of course. But um, and one is um, you know, blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_03Um, that's one. And then the other one What verse is that? I think it's in the extra beatitude, yes. Um but uh and then we also say uh interdependency is so much more important than independency, and to see one another lifted up uh before the Lord uh means that you get to see someone else succeed, and there's and you can find joy in that, absolute joy in that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, just just love Jesus, be happy, he loves you.
SPEAKER_03I mean be in a good mood. It's okay to be in a good mood to own a business. It's really okay.
SPEAKER_02He's in a good mood, he's proud of you. That's that's what I would say, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Amen. Well, may God continue to bless, awake, the the coffee community, the I mean, the school of marketplace leadership, the communities that you guys are starting, and that God has already has already birthed in his heart, and that he's looking, he's already birthed it in your heart, and he's gonna birth it in other people's hearts, that they would then bring this model to their own to their own community. And uh may God continue to bless everything you put your hand to, your mind, your heart into, and your family. And thanks for your time today.
SPEAKER_03Thank you so much, Darren. I really enjoyed this one.
SPEAKER_01We hope you've enjoyed this episode, and if so, we would greatly appreciate it if you would leave us a quick rating and review for the Christianity and business podcast on iTunes. You can get more information about the HBU Center for Christianity and Business at Christianityandbusiness.com. Thanks for listening, and remember to keep integrating biblical values into your business.