Welcome to the Bandit and Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Chris, Manager of Marketing and Business Development Care President. And today's podcast are top manager at Carey Summer Steve First. Steve is the founder of Alex Partners and the Global Ambassador for LifeBooks Leadership. After serving as its president for 20 years, Lightbook is known by marketplace executives and church leaders for its leadership development excellence and renowned communicators network. In this conversation, Steve discusses how Christian business leaders can incorporate their faith into their everyday work and find like-minded individuals who share their vision. He advocates for leaders of all industries to come together, share ideas, and learn from each other. We hope you enjoy this conversation.
SPEAKER_01Welcome everybody to the Vanderblumen Leadership Podcast. I'm Carrie, your host on this episode here at Vanderblumen. We exist to make your team whole. And one of the ways that we do that is by helping you with leadership. And so I'm excited today to welcome on one of our strategic partners, Steve French. Steve is the intern president at King's College. He's the founder of LX Partners and the Global Ambassador for Lifework Leadership. We're proud to have Steve as one of our strategic partners here at Vanderblumen. Steve, welcome to the podcast.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, Carrie. It's great to be here. And I certainly love your audience because I've lived in that world for a long period of time. And certainly I'm familiar with those that worked there at Vanderblumen and kind of the privilege to be a strategic partner.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Let's kick off. Let's share a little bit about yourself, kind of your journey, maybe a little bit, and uh what you're doing currently to get some of our newer audience members who who may not have crossed paths with you yet, familiar with who you are and what you do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, I was born in a foreign country called New Jersey. I don't know if many are familiar with that, but um uh was there for the first 22 years of my life for the most part. Uh, spent 10 years in the Chicagoland area where I was on staff at a church, a youth pastor there, and then went on staff at a church I'm sure everyone's heard of uh called Willow Creek and really enjoyed uh the relationships I developed there over the over the years there. Then went and planted a church in North Jersey where I grew up for 10 years. But now for the last 25 years, I've been living in Orlando, and uh the opportunity to help Christian business leaders integrate their faith with work through an organization that we call life work leadership has been just a joy of mine. So that's the big picture of what I've done in my career. And uh, you know, I'm a husband of one, a father of two, and a grandfather of five. And I I made a big mistake. Uh, I thought I was being wise with having two kids, but I didn't take into the equation the impact of grand grandparents. And I just wish I had those years back and maybe thought about a third and a fourth kid to give me more chance for more grandchildren. But you know, it is what it is.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's great. That's great. Well, I love the sunshine state. I'm from the sunshine state as well, so uh definitely near and dear to my heart. So you've had a great uh run here, both from the pastoral side and in the Christian leadership side. Uh, and you're stepping into kind of a new world here with King's College. Uh I think just yesterday, named interim president. Uh, talk just a little bit about King's College uh and kind of what you're excited about in helping them in this next season.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, King's College is an 85-year-old school uh that has had uh numerous different campuses, of which the last 20 years uh has been, no, 24 years has been at in in New York City. And uh certainly like most independent Christian schools, has their struggles just to uh be able to live on rage of razor small uh uh margins, you know, and you get to the point where you get slammed uh with COVID in New York City, you don't have much of a chance. And so that, along with I think where some strategically bad decisions to try to recover from that, has led to them really struggling right now. So they reconstituted the board four weeks ago, and I was invited to come onto that board. And then then uh just about three weeks ago, realized we really need to find someone else to be the interim president. And they looked at me and uh asked me to step in. And uh frankly, um I felt like I don't have any background in education, but I know a little bit about relational leadership. And I think they're leveraging the white hair for their good. And I'm happy to use it because when you're my age, you're just happy to have hair. And so if it's white and it can be leveraged for good to give a sense of uh stability, a chance for relational um, you know, capital to be to be built, uh, that's what I'm I'm able to do. And so right now it's a real privilege to be uh serving them in what is really a transition period for them.
SPEAKER_01Sure, sure. You know, it's one of those interesting things being right in the center of a place like New York City, uh, with uh a Christian liberal arts college and really trying to raise up future business leaders, maybe not necessarily pastors, but you know, future leaders who are going to end up uh in the business world, but also then sitting in churches, you know, where so many pastors who listen uh to the podcast here. Uh talk a little bit about just your perspectives going in. I think your work with Life Work Leadership probably really applies here because so many of these young leaders eventually they're gonna sit in these leadership positions on boards and committees in churches. Uh what is that responsibility like? And in as you said, in a transitional time, uh, really taking serious the call of the gospel for that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. And you're you're right. I mean, I I really looked at this opportunity to uh double down on people more than half my age, right? So I just really wanted to do whatever I can to invest in this next new generation. I was looking for opportunities, frankly, to do that. And never did I think that uh you're really coming aboard and just kind of leading an organization that really invests their mission in these young, very bright students that aren't going into these strategic places in society, and particularly New York. Uh, they have uh, I think something like 83% of the students end up staying in New York. And so it's a big deal to be salt and light there. And they're getting great opportunities to get internships at these key places of influence. And uh, my so my heart is really trying to figure out how we can really uh leverage that for kingdom good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's great. That's great. Let's let's use that as kind of maybe a transition point to talk about your work with life work leadership, uh, because that really has been a journey of helping business leaders in various different communities uh be salt and light, not in a church building, but actually in the entirety of their lives. That I've got some familiarity with it, but maybe share with our listeners just a little bit about life work leadership.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, it's based on the idea that Jesus was really biased toward business people. So and and so I tend to be a little bit biased toward them. And the reason why I say that is because here is a guy that comes down the model not just how to do life, but how to do leadership. He just doesn't do the weekend thing where I die on Friday and raise from the dead on Sunday, and then I'm gone. I've done the you know the gospel thing. No, he intentionally obviously comes and lives and prepares for 30 years. Yeah, now he's gonna choose not 12 synagogue guys, but 12 business guys. Yeah, so what's that all about, you know? And so the whole idea that plan A to get the gospel worldwide is to get it with some business guys that can't help themselves. They have this bias toward action. They gotta be doing things with this gospel, and so uh the idea of taking people, particularly Christian business leaders, through a chronological approach of how Jesus is developing leaders over those, particularly those three and a half years after we take a look at his preparation period, it's just an amazing thing. So we set up LifeWork does this nine-month experience where in their own cities, they get a chance to go through this curriculum. And instead of having pastors, I which I've been one, and college professors uh come in and speak to them. We have their peers speaking to them. So I've now been able to train and develop over a hundred different business leaders to really come in and share the insights, the practical part of how to live out the Christ-like life uh in business.
SPEAKER_02Compensation is a critical component of building a great team and retaining your staff members. Talk to our team today about our customized compensation solutions or visit Vanderblumen.com slash compensation to learn more.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's great. How many cities is life work in at this point?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we're only in uh just a few in the US in comparison to the to the globe. So as you as you well can imagine, there is a plethora of different leadership opportunities that are frankly, it gets to be a blur after a while. But globally, there's such a hunger for leadership development. So we've really decided to put our main focus globally, a number of different cities in South Africa, number of different cities in Europe. Uh, we are now moving into Australia, New Zealand, and uh Lord willing, Singapore soon as well. And so I'm just really excited about the idea of when he turns to his original 12 guys and say, listen, we've only done the Galilean thing for the last three and a half years. I know we've only been 70 miles away from where home is, but I need you to be thinking and going globally. And so, as you know, right, uh you open up the book of Acts and they go wild with the growth, they're you know, it the momentum is building, but by chapter eight, they just haven't taken the global thing seriously. Yeah, so what it creates persecution, gets them intentionally scattered to set up Paul coming in chapter nine to start following up on that. So I have just been pushing the organization and my leaders that I'm personally developing and mentoring to be thinking strategically and globally.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's great. I feel like we're in such a great time in history for that. Uh, my wife and I actually got to go to Israel this past January for the first time. And so we got to go to Galilee, see those places, and it's very small. Like that's something that shocked me how close together everything was. And you know, if you think about those original 12, I that was their life. They'd probably never ventured out of there, and suddenly Jesus is pushing them way out of their comfort zone. Uh, maybe talk a little bit about that sense of being pushed out of the comfort zone, especially as uh Christian business leaders, uh, what they're experiencing and trying to be active in their faith, uh, but also living in a culture that's right now not always uh accepting uh of their faith walk, being being engaged, maybe where their business practice is.
SPEAKER_00You know, I think this is one of the reasons why Jesus, after 30 years of preparation, he gets baptized, goes through the final phase of preparation, that wilderness experience, that he now turns to the next three years of developing business leaders. And he decides not to play the miracle card at all. I mean, you think he'd be smart enough to, you know, say, hey, listen, let's get the momentum going. The stakeholders are really uh clamoring for this. Let's get some miracles going and get this whole big deal. No, for a year and a half, 18 months, he only does two miracles. Both of them are in Cana. So they're not even in Jerusalem, where you can get the Twitter and all the publicity going. You know, he gets it over in Canaan, this remote area, peeling the nobleman's son, changing the water into wine. And even then he said, Don't you tell anyone about this? Okay, that's bad marketing, right?
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
SPEAKER_00Right. So, my point is that he's really focused in on, hey, come follow me. Come come follow me. It's relationally driven. And Jim Collins, of course, 2000 years later will say, just get the right people on the bus, first of all, right? So don't even worry about the seat that they're sitting on, get the right people on the bus. So he is basically watching, he doesn't even choose the 12 until month 18. And he spends the night praying, comes down off the mountain, and he chooses those whom he wants to be with. So he's been focusing it on a competency and character for 18 months. Now he chooses chemistry. And does Peter and Judas and these other do they get along? No, they are really dysfunctional, really dysfunctional team, but they get along with him and he chooses those whom he wants to be with. The chemistry factor is huge to Jesus. Yeah, I say all this because as we move into places that may feel a little bit uncomfortable, are you willing to invest the time in relationships? Don't worry about getting the momentum going. Make sure you get the right people on the bus. Of course, Vanderblomen is really kind of committed to getting the right people on the bus, right? So this is a big deal to Jesus, and it should be a big deal to all of us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, I love that. That's one of the things I love about what I get to do day in and day out from a kingdom-building perspective, is uh getting into the nitty-gritty of the theology, the culture of a church or organization, and then setting our team out to really go find, hey, not just uh a warm body, not just pull a resume off of uh, you know, the internet, but but really get to know people in their core to understand, hey, is this going to be that good fit? You know, uh, as you were sharing there, that made me think of a question really from your journey. So you you did pastoring and you're still doing pastoring, right? Then your work is still that, but you did pastoring in local churches, and now you've spent uh this this last season with Christian business leaders. Is there anything that you would speak to pastors? If you could take some of what you've learned in this past season back to church planting or back to uh being young in ministry, that you would give advice to yourself, uh, those people who are our listeners right now, and you'd say, Hey, uh man, I wish I would have known this 25 years ago when I was leading a local church, how to engage a Christian business leader, how to you know bring those right people around me. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, so Richard Blackaby, uh he and his dad wrote this book and called Experiencing God that I'm sure most pastors would know about. Uh, he and I wrestle with this quite often, this kind of question. And um I would say the number one thing, please don't be intimidated by them. Yes, don't be intimidated by them. And and allow your allow who God's wired you up to be and move towards them. I think another thing that I would say is not only not to be intimidated by them, but be sure that you um understand that they are in Jesus' mind and his strategy, they're really priority A.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So so do whatever you can to envision them that they are to be salting light where they are. And so instead of trying to figure out how do I keep them coming towards me and my programs and what I'm doing, try to do whatever you can to equip them to be sent out and making sure that you are essentially that filling station, that equipping place, and making sure that whatever you can do as a pastor, get them out there, cheer them on, uh, have them uh stand and and uh and pray over them as they move into a new season, whatever it may be. But let's be sure that they do not feel like a second-class citizen compared to the missionary, the pastors, uh, whoever else it may be. But let's uh uh just align ourselves with how Jesus viewed them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love that. You know, one of the things in my former work as an executive pastor, I realized at one point was we had these great business leaders, and we were asking them to teach Sunday school with like five-year-olds, which is great. I had a president of a bank one time on the floor, like with these kids, and he was so loving pouring into them. Uh, and that's so valuable to the life of the church to see those strong leaders outside of the church pouring into the church. But at the same time, they have these uh gifts that the Lord has given them that can be so helpful to the local church. I I know uh I did my seminary degree, but I eventually went back and got a business degree as well, because the principals were so helpful in running an organization of that size. How would you encourage kind of as you talked about that move towards them? How would you encourage some of those pastors to really leverage some of those business leaders? Uh, not just in what we think of, like you said, as the missionary work, but actually the work to expand the kingdom through the through the local church.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, so I would certainly encourage them, you know, to actually show up where they were. So they come to your gig every Sunday and uh your pad, your crib. Let's what would it be like for you to spend one, you know, you know, one time a week just going to one of the key business people and going into their place and not just meeting them for lunch somewhere, but actually go and sit in their office, get to know who they are. You'd be amazed at how you get to know someone by stepping into either home or into their office. I mean, the stuff that's on the on the walls, the stuff that's on their desk. Now, all your, I mean, these are softballs just being thrown. You're yeah, I like I don't know this guy. Walk into their office, say, tell me about this picture. Tell me, tell me about that plaque. And now you got the guy talking. You got the gal just kind of just ranting and raving about you know what she's particularly passionate about. So moving towards them and being with them in their environment. I'm amazed. Jesus spends 87 of his time with his parent, his parables are focused in on the marketplace. 93 of his miracles are done where at church. No, no, in the marketplace. And of course, 100% of his team is from the marketplace. So I just see Jesus being, you know, doing his greatest work in where they are rather than expecting them to come to the synagogue.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I love Luke 5. Uh, Jesus shows up uh on the seashore, and not he's not sitting in the synagogue waiting on Peter and James and John to come in, but he goes to where they are, just like you're talking about, and not even just staying on the shore. He says, Hey, let's get in your boat. Like, let's go take this thing out and do it. That's so, so good. Great wisdom just for our pastors. Move towards, right? Have that passion and intentionality to be interested uh in who those.
SPEAKER_00Who those leaders are in your and I just pick up a little bit on Luke 5 because to me that's one of the key passages actually for pastors to really get a handle on it's just 11 12 verses there in the beginning of that chapter that you can focus in on. But one of the very the last things where it says, and they left everything to follow him, and pastors, I being one, have easily interpreted that to mean see, they dropped everything in the marketplace and they started doing the real work, they they started becoming apostles, you know. And that you know what? If you follow that type of thinking, then what happens when they uh when when in fact they uh are fishing again later on in the in the gospels? And you know, Jesus says uh after the resurrection, go back to fishing, you know, don't give up what you have, and also that whole thing about leaving everything, literally. When I took took a look at that, Josephus, the historian, uses that term, and frankly, I think it's one of the best use of it, and that is it's really used for of uh legally giving over ownership of. So I think what Jesus is basically saying at that point, hey, listen, uh you you I got you a whole bunch of fish today, so I really care about profit. Profit is a big deal to me, and I understand it's a big deal to you, business guy. So I gave you the fish because you obeyed me and you took a risk by going out into the deep when you know you hadn't caught anything. You just followed my instructions, you listened to my whisper. Now you got a whole bunch of profit, but people matter even more. Go be fishers of men, right? And so my gut on this passage is that God cares about profit, he cares even more about people, and but it's not saying no to profit. But as far as the making sure that you legally, or whether or not it's legally or whether or not it's symbolically, but there's got to be some way in which you say, in so many words, my business, what I'm doing, it's yours, God. It's yours, it's not mine any longer. I'm not gonna hold on to you've already proven to me that you care about profit and I'll care about people as well. It's yours. So uh I just thought that that chapter is a key chapter.
SPEAKER_01Oh, absolutely. And that's where you know, even as you're talking about it, understanding they leave the biggest catch they've ever had, how much money that was. But what does it do? It seeds their business to keep going while they're following Jesus. And so that surrender of hey, Jesus, I'm gonna trust you with everything, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna close up shop. The business keeps that fishing business keeps going, even though those key players go out. And so, man, what a what a great what a great passage uh for business leaders, but for pastors, really for us to embrace going into the marketplace and where those leaders are. Well, Steve, we got just a few more minutes left. Let's talk about LX Partners a lot and the work that you do with LX Partners and how that's helping uh businesses, churches, all of the like.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thank you. Yeah, so over the last 20 some odd years in developing life work leadership, we started with about 153 leaders here in Orlando. Now it's over 5,000 worldwide. Uh, and my phone is nuts right now. Over 15,000 contacts in there, of which about 10,000 are just genuine relationships I have with Christian business leaders overall worldwide. So, I as you can probably gather, I'm far more of a relationship guy, vision guy than I am, a management guy. And the idea of leading a growing global organization called Life Work Leadership was not in my wheelhouse. So, the opportunity to stay involved with the organization, represent them at different times as a global ambassador around the world, and start LX Partners, which just stands for leadership multiplication. And trying to do what I do, and I got two things: that is content uh resources that really help Christian business leaders integrate faith with work, particularly the Jesus journey that I call it. Uh, but then not just the resources, but also the relationships. So Christian business leaders all around the world now are uh you know, they inquire different times. Hey, can I have you for three, six months? Let's sit down with those contacts, those relationships you have. Could you possibly introduce me to someone that would leverage my business for greater kingdom good? So, right now, for instance, there's a Chinese man who owns the contract for Socks for Nike and the NFL. You've probably heard of those two organizations.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_00And he wants to uh really move his business and spread it out, not just be totally focused in in China. So he wants to figure out how do I, so what are we doing right now? Going around the different places and introducing them to Christian business leaders that may be interested in manufacturing. So LX Partners is helping Christian business leaders and really organizational church leaders as well, uh, being retained right now by uh a mission in North Jersey and really mentoring the leader of that organization. And I think it's could be greater kingdom good as a result. So LX Partners is helping leaders uh with resources and relationships.
SPEAKER_01That's great. That's great. Where uh can they get a hold of you? Where that can they find out more about LX Partners if they want to check that out?
SPEAKER_00Well, certainly can take down my mobile number. It's pretty simple. It's 407-881-5000. And then uh lxpartners.org is where you'll find some of the information.
SPEAKER_01Great, great. And we'll make sure to put that in the show notes as well. So you guys can go check those out. Uh, Steve, thank you so much for your time today for being a great partner uh here with Vanderblumen, helping our pastors, but helping our business leaders as well. Uh, we are all the churches, it's not just the the clergy running things here. And so we appreciate your kingdom investment, uh, seeing the big sea church get bigger. We are all about that here at Vanderblumen and consider it a privilege to have you a partner with us in that.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_03Thanks for listening to the Vanderblumen Leadership Podcast. At Vanderblumen, we help Christian organizations build their best teams through hiring, succession, compensation, and diversity consulting services. Visit our website, Vanderblumen.com to learn more, and subscribe to our Vanderblemen Leadership Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts to keep up with our newest episodes. Thanks for listening.