Legacy and Leadership Episode 23 | Chris Bell - Part 1

In this episode of Legacy and Leadership, host David McKeen sits down with Pastor Chris Bell—lead pastor of Three Circle Church and a seasoned leader with over 25 years of ministry experience.

Chris shares powerful insights from his journey growing up in small-town Mississippi to leading a thriving multi-campus church impacting thousands each week. From his early days in a dynamic church environment to being mentored by influential leaders, Chris unpacks how those formative experiences shaped his passion for leadership, faith, and long-term impact.

Together, David and Chris dive into:

What makes a church—or any organization—truly dynamic
The lasting power of mentorship and how to find the right mentor
Why leadership is about long-term impact, not just short-term results
The role of humility in personal and professional growth
How to build a legacy that lasts for generations

Chris also shares personal stories about his upbringing, influential mentors, and lessons learned from decades in ministry—including his perspective on measuring success in leadership.

If you’re a leader, aspiring leader, or someone seeking to make a meaningful impact in your family, community, or career, this conversation is full of wisdom you won’t want to miss.

👉 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share this episode with someone who could benefit from it!

🎧 Stay tuned for Part 2—coming soon!

#Leadership #Mentorship #Legacy #ChrisBell #DavidMcKeen #FaithLeadership #PersonalGrowth

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Legacy and Leadership. I'm David McKean. Join me as we talk to leaders in their field regarding their thoughts on leaving a legacy and impact in their families and in their community. Welcome to Legacy and Leadership with David McKean. I am honored to have as our guest today Chris Bell. Chris is a dynamic pastor with over 20 years of ministry experience. Chris loves helping people develop an understanding and love of the word. Chris has been a youth pastor, a church planner, and a campus pastor before coming lead pastor of Three Circle Church in Baldwin and Mobile County area. Three Circle Church is a four-campus multi-site church with thousands in weekly attendance. Chris has been featured in national publications like Outreach Magazine and in conferences including Sticky Teams, Exponential East Conference, and Velocity Conference. Chris also served as a coach with the National Leadership Coaching Network to the courage to lead. An honorable moment for Chris was his invitation to serve as the guest chaplain for the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. I can't wait to dig into that. So that sounds very interesting. Chris also released his first book in 2019 titled Broken Crown, which was a number one seller on Amazon for six weeks. Congratulations there. And Chris is married to Nan. They have three children. He studied theology and communications at the University of Mobile and Luther Rice Seminary. He enjoys spending time with his family, being outdoors, and watching Alabama football. So welcome, Chris, to Legacy and Leadership.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

I'm a little tired just hearing all that. Did I really do that stuff? You've been busy, man. I have, I have. But you as well. So man, what an honor to be uh with you today, and and I love what you guys are doing. So thank you. Uh when I hear all of that, really all that is is God has opened up some doors across really what is funny. That's that was written several years ago. Now it's 25 years of ministry experience, and I'm just blown away that God would give me any of those opportunities, really.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

That's great. That's great. I I really look forward to to digging in. But what you know, where I'd like to start is is is where did you grow up? What was what was life like for Chris Bell growing up and and how did that shape and mold you?

SPEAKER_02 2:28

Wow. Well, I think we're all shaped dramatically by the way we grow up. I grew up in the tiniest of places, uh, but a lovely place, uh Hurley, Mississippi. Yeah. So I'm Gulf Coast, I'm a Gulf Coast guy at heart. I mean, I I tell people when I go speak across the country, I'm like, I have muddy water in my veins. I I grew up in a swamp, okay? Right. So I grew up on a 200-acre farm. Okay. Uh my grandparents lived a quarter of a mile away from me, and it was my grandfather's farm. And we had uh we were very close to a river called the Escotaba River that we had nicknamed the Dog River. So I grew up rope swinging into the into the river that was my pool. Yeah. I had four-wheelers and three-wheelers and cows. We ran cattle, we farmed. It was a real working farm. And uh, yeah, and so and so I grew up really in the country. Yeah. And uh, but I had a dynamic church. I grew up with a dynamic church um uh in in the Moss Point, Escataba area, and that church just was doing a great job with kids' ministry. We had a kid's ministry called Sunshine Avenue, uh, which is where I kind of you know cut my teeth on the on the church and the gospel. And I I grew up loving church. I grew up, I could not wait for Sunday to get there, literally every week. Yeah, and uh then that continued into my teenage years. We had a dynamic student ministry. Wow. And so what a gift, right? To grow up where I can't wait for church. Church to me was awesome. Yeah, and so the idea that church would be boring or something I just had to do, that just was never in my equation. Wow. And it's not because I was such a good kid, I had I was a kid like anyone else. It was I had a dynamic church. And so early on I believed in the power of the local church. And so those things shaped me, and we had a great small community there. Um, I ended up going to the University of Mobile, and then I've been in Atlanta, I've been in Florida before we came here 14 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Okay, okay, that's that's wonderful. I'm I I want to understand, you mentioned the word dynamic a couple of different times. With with 25 years of pastoral experience, uh you may not have known what made it dynamic at the time, other other than teenage descriptors, but but looking back as a leader for a number of years, what what was so special about that leadership and that time of that church?

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Yeah, that's a fantastic question because you're right. There, there, you know, you did why would I use that kind of descriptor? But I am being intentional about it because to me I could have said effective, right? But there's a there were there was another gear. Right. Uh it was I think dynam uh dynamic demands and a level of effectiveness. Right. And uh, but there was for instance, the student ministry I was in, this was not a huge this was not a metropolitan area, you know, a small South Mississippi area. And yet our church, I I think there's probably eight to ten people in ministry right now that came out of that little youth group. Okay. So that's that's pretty that's to me, that's the dynamite, if you will, the dynamic side of it, that it was really changing people. So, yes, we we had a huge ministry there comparative to the town we were in, but I just think the deep, deep impact that it had, guys like me and others that that have gone on to do many things. And uh funny enough, and and sadly at the same time, recently, uh the death of the front man for Three Doors Down, Brad Arnold. Yeah, Brad Arnold grew up, we were in that youth group together, and Brad and I led worship together. He was the drummer for our youth band. Well, Brad was standing on stages with Three Doors Down telling people about Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

I mean, the the tributes to him when he died last uh couple of weeks ago was uh this guy loved God, loved Jesus. Well, I know where that started. It started in a little town, a little church that had dynamic ministry. And so I think now with my church, if I just measure by we're big, we got a lot of people coming, a lot of campuses, all that. I want I want another notch. I want to know is what we're doing now gonna matter 30 years from now, right? Is it gonna have that kind of impact? And to me, that's a different question.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

And that's and that comes from, correct me if I'm wrong, the legacy of the church that you grew up in that is having that impact even today.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Yes, and many others. I have to say that that you know, uh the church I grew up in, and then uh I have to say the University of Mobile was very formative for me. I ended up with incredible mentors there. A church called Redemption Church at the time it was First Baptist North Mobile. Yeah, that church became my church in college. These were formative times for me. I had mentors, and and so uh those things shaped me uh dramatically. And so to me, ministry is not just putting people in the building. Yeah, and I learned that I was taught that. Ministry, one of my favorite quote, one of my heroes, he's dead, but his name's Spurgeon. I never met him, but Charles Spurgeon, one of my heroes. Charles Spurgeon famously, you know, he would have these huge meetings, lots of people coming to Christ, all that kind of thing. And uh a reporter, this is the 1800s, but a reporter asked him after one of the weekends, how many people came to Christ this weekend? And Charles Spurgeon's answer was, I have no idea, ask me in three years. Wow. And what he was saying was, I don't know. I know how many hands went up, I know how many people walked down the aisle. But but what really matters is what sticks and last. So let's watch them for a few years, and then I'll tell you how many came to Christ. And I thought, wow, what a different measuring stick. Right. That is. Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

I love that. I love that. You mentioned the term mentor a moment ago. Who who is the the first mentor in your life that really sticks out that you could recall?

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Uh, my granddad.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Yeah, my grandfather and I were very, very close. He's in heaven now, but he was uh, you know, again, I have very young parents, and and of course my mom and dad were amazing, and and there that's a whole nother story about how God uh redeemed that and and and but I lived again, I said a quarter of a mile from my granddad. My grandfather was a huge personality, cowboy kind of guy. Okay, and so uh, and he loved Jesus. And so he was kind of a patriarch kind of figure. And uh yeah, pretty much uh I I I wanted to be him when I was a kid. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. And impossible not to. And then because I enjoyed that relationship so much, honestly, man, when I got to college and everywhere I've ever been, I sought it out. Okay. I did not wait for mentors to tap me on the shoulder. I sought out mentors. And it's I tell young leaders that all the time. Go, I've never had anyone tell me, no, no, I don't want to invest in you. Right. If I show up and knock on their door, they almost always go, Oh yeah, well, we'd love to help you.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

And and I I love that you said that because I I think and and we we live in a society now that that it's it's almost uh frightening or uncouth uh to some people, uh number one to mentor others, which which there's a a a long great history of that in leadership, right, right, through throughout our culture, but but also um to seek it out, right? Because it's it's one thing to have somebody you know kind of kind of bump into you and and take an interest in you, but it but it's but it's an altogether different idea uh to to seek out that mentorship. So so for for somebody who's who's watching or listening, can you please talk about more of the thought process behind that, but also the practicality of that, because I think that's that's a real hidden gem in the leadership process.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Yeah, well, I couldn't agree more. I mean, I'm a I'm a product of it, right? Um, and I deeply believe in it. I think that and and I I mentor people, and that's a part of what we do at our church here at Three Circle. I want to raise up leaders because so many people invested in me. Right. But it's kind of like this when I uh when I think about it, I I was a baseball player and and my son's a great player now. And I always was taught and I taught when I coached him, and and my son has this uh be aggressive at the plate and don't ever, especially if you got two strikes on you, don't put that last decision in the umpire's hand. I'm going down swinging. I want to go down in a blaze of glory, so to speak, right? Because I don't want him to decide was it a strike or not? I'm swinging. And and so to me, it's that that intentionality. Instead of letting stuff happen to you, let's go for it, let's be aggressive. So to me, I always thought, why am I gonna wait around for someone who's already busy? If I want them to mentor me, they're busy, they're thinking about a million things. What I have found is leaders that seem aloof maybe, or maybe they seem uh far off, it's just because they're busy and they want to mentor, but but they need someone to look at them and go, hey, would you mentor me? And so what I found very powerful uh early on is guys like that, if I would say, hey, I'm I'm new here, I'm an intern at the church, would you be willing to take me to lunch sometime? Uh I'll I'll pay for it, just want your time. I've never had anyone turn that down. And so, and then what what happened for me at least is those all of them started long-term relationships, mentoring relationships, friendships over the years. From my theological mentor, his name was James Bryant, Dr. Bryant. There were a lot of students at University of Mobile that sat under his leadership, but I kept knocking on his office door going, Can I have some time? Can I have some time? And uh they the answer was always yes. It was always, yeah, we'll make that happen. Well, that that developed these friendships. And so I would tell young leaders, you books are great, information is great, but when you add a relational dynamic to it, it becomes very, very powerful. And then I would challenge, so that my instruction to young leaders would be go find a leader right now. Go find a mentor right now. Call them. They can be remote. Call, do whatever it takes. You're probably gonna get a yes when you didn't expect it. Secondly, I would say established leaders like myself, like you, like others, we we need to be very open to if we get that call to say yes and impact the next generation of leaders.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Both sides of the problem. Yeah, yeah. And and and one thing I want to I want to point out to our audience is that there takes a certain level of humility to ask, right? To say that I don't have it all figured out. I don't I don't uh have everything mapped out and and know exactly where I want to do or what I need to do in every circumstance, but there takes a level of humility to to approach somebody in that regard.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

I I absolutely I think it is a it's a huge sign and and uh it's it's a demonstration of humility to say to anyone, I think you know things I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

And I want to learn from you. And and again, it's always, by the way, that's always a compliment to the person you're asking.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

I consider it a compliment when anyone asks me, would you help me, would you mentor me? What a tip of the hat from that person to me. What an honor.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

And so I try to work that in. My my team here, my assistant, the people that put together my schedule, they know that that is something I always want to try to say yes to. Um, because to me, that's that's not me building my platform or my ministry, it's me helping someone else. And I just so many people did that for me, man. Um, that I'm so very grateful. But I can't overstate the relational part of that. When you add information with relationship, it becomes a very powerful dynamic that shapes you. Information's great, but you can go get leadership information now, right? It is ubiquitous, right? I can go all over the internet and find almost a million different forms of leadership I can learn. But that relational thing, that's that's a different deal. It is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

And and and from my experience, and and I've I've had several mentors and continue to have mentors even in my mid-40s, right? And and um the the relational aspect is is where you get to ask those questions and you get to be real and you get to be genuine. Yes. And that's where to me the information goes from the head to the heart.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

Oh, yeah, totally. And it's modeled for you. The thing is, if I'm reading information off a page, and I'm not minimizing that, I do believe that that's important. Right, right. But when I can see someone actually doing it and modeling it, it's huge. And really, there's a theological thread, not to go deep theology here, but if I, you know, the law was given to Israel, it was written down, but they didn't see it lived out perfectly until Jesus came. Right. Jesus came and his very presence raised the bar because they had it written down, they had the info, but here's someone that lived every, to his words, jot and tittle of it. He crossed every T, he dotted every I, and now we go, oh, that's what living the law looks like. And so to me, that was very obviously we would say the apex of the redemptive history is Jesus. So, in the same way, in a shadowy way of that, right? Nothing touches that. But in a different way, I think me being around mentors and hopefully me being one to others, they go, okay, this is what you're telling me about leadership. Oh, and that's what it looks like. When those two things come together, there's a synergistic side to that, I think, that's very effective.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Yeah, I love it. So, so does uh does Chris still have a mentor at Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

Yeah, it was interesting you asked that a few years ago. A couple of my mentors were kind enough and complimentary enough to me to say, you know, and I didn't see it coming, but two different mentors who had been long-term mentors looked at me and said, Hey, we're learning more from you than you're learning from us at that point. And I was so kind. And I didn't see that coming. And they were like, we don't have any, you know, we're learning from you, and you've reversed this thing, which was, you know, they were being really kind, but it did make me realize, oh, I need, because to me, part of mentoring is I need someone out in front of me. Yeah, someone who's been where I've not been yet. And so, and it was so to me, it was a God thing. Um, I was teaching at a conference uh exponential in Orlando, and a man I had met uh I had uh admired from afar for a long time, best-selling author, Larry Osborne. He's uh pastor of North Coast Church in um San Diego, one of the biggest churches in the country, but also he's just renowned as a leadership expert. And um he and I ended up in a in a green room together and uh serendipitous, looking back at it, right? But um, we end up talking and hitting it off. And when I taught my session, I look up and one of my heroes that I had just met had found out where I was speaking and came to my session. There's Larry Osborne sitting there. And I thought, oh man. So I then I got nervous and and uh but I thought, man, I really want to do a good job here. Well, I get a call three days after that conference inviting me into this new mentoring group that he was gonna do. Wow. And so that was about 10 years ago. And so, right at the right time, Larry Osborne became a mentor to me, and he has been for the past 10 years. And he has helped me with book writing. He's a best-selling author. Uh, he developed stick a series of books called Sticky Church, Sticky Teams, Sticky Groups. And this was kind of a legendary set of leadership uh books for churches. And and so he again, he's just been another gift in my life to make me not just a better leader, better man, better husband. And I think that's what mentoring does.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

I that's that's incredible. And and I want to do some of our some of our viewers, some of our listeners, maybe they're believers, maybe they're not. What what specifically, I mean, were were you looking for somebody at that point? What what do you look for in a mentor to to really let's put a face on this, let's put some hair on it for those that that maybe maybe don't know where to start.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

Yeah. It's a fantastic uh thought there. I I think for me, because of uh it get you have to get specific about it. You have to know, okay, what am I trying to learn here? Yeah. So as a pastor, as a I was kind of looking for the total package. Early on, I was a different guy there. I'm going, anybody who's out there doing ministry and doing it well, I want to learn from you. And God bless me with those guys. Well, it becomes a little more specific as you uh as you grow and as you do your thing. It becomes more and more specific, right? And so um, when it came time for me to have this mentor over the past 10 years, I was looking for someone who had written, who had done because I was doing more conferences, it was expanding. What I was doing was going from kind of more local, regional, and it was becoming more national, at least my my opportunities. And I needed someone to help me navigate some of that. Right. And so to me, you go, okay, I I always want to know, is this person proven in their field?

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Is there some kind of uh uh track record? Obviously. Yeah, because to me, past is prologue in everything. So uh I don't want a novice to teach me. It's like here's I tell everyone, I don't want I like to work out, I don't want a trainer who's not in shape. And I always look at the dude's hair when I go get my hair cut. Right?

SPEAKER_01 19:00

His is the best. You're you're done sitting in the chair.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

Yeah, help a brother out here, right? And so so to me, if you're looking for a mentor, go, have they done this? Right. And then you want character too, because a lot of guys that can actually get things done and they don't have integrity. We, you know, we see the the uh the results of that across our culture. Right. So to me, it's I gotta have character, I gotta have that whole package. And then get specific. Where are you headed? If you are, you know, in your world, in a financial world, I'm sure that you look for guys who have done some of that, right, but also have your uh values, uh those are those are things I was looking for. And so really God gave me that total package with Larry, and he's been a huge gift to me. But again, everyone can't have him, right? That's yeah, but look for your, in my case, version of that.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

And it's gonna change. Don't be afraid, too, to I I didn't see that coming. I thought my mentors would be my mentors forever. Right. Well, they ran out of runway for me, and that was okay. That was a good thing. Now I look at it and I go, wow, there's guys I mentored that they probably should move on from me at some point, right? Right. Um, so I think all of that's important to kind of customize it, know where you're headed, and then find guys who can help you get there.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Yep. So so introspection.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

Yeah. Yeah, I think introspective before I go knocking on doors is helpful. Now, the younger you are, the less introspective you have to be.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

It's like when I when I walk in a gym and I've never walked in a gym, it just start doing stuff and it'll help, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 20:24

But after a year or two, it's like I got to get more specific here. I got to get more granular. Where am I headed? What am I doing? So if I want to be a great communicator, I need someone who knows how to do that to mentor me. If I want to write a bunch of books, which I did and do, I needed some guys who would know. That's a process.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:39

And I went looking for that, and thankfully, God just kind of put it right in my lap that day.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Hey, if you like this episode, please stop right now and share it with the friends so they too can benefit from it. Please join us in a couple of weeks as we drop the second part of this episode. I promise you won't want to miss it.