Lessons from a Paint Brush and a Paint Can

What can a paint brush and a paint can teach us about leadership, ministry and life? More than you might think. In this episode, Kevin shares a lesson that will shape your life and leadership.

Luke 16:12
Colossians 3:23-24

Series: Lessons in Leadership
Speaker: Kevin Moore
Episode 1 of 4 Lessons from a Paint Brush and a Paint Can 
Episode Transcript: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2627823/19533996-lessons-from-a-paint-brush-and-a-paint-can/transcript 

Kevin Moore is the regional director at the North Central Region of the Missionary Church and the lead pastor at Noble County Community Church. 

Let's Talk: Life, Leadership & Making Disciples is a weekly Christian leadership development podcast for pastors, church staff, elders, ministry leaders, volunteers, church planters and disciple makers. Every week we provide valuable insights to train, inform and inspire healthy leaders who will go on to build healthy churches.
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The Missionary Church, North Central Region, in obedience to Jesus Christ her Lord, is committed to being holy people of God in the world and to building His church by worldwide evangelism, discipleship, and multiplication of growing churches, all to the glory of God. As a family of churches that is biblically grounded, we exist to inspire, challenge, and resource one another in that task. Find out more at https://mcncr.org/ 

Elevate Church Leadership Conference.
November 2, 2026
Nappanee Missionary Church in Nappanee, Indiana
Learn more and sign up at https://mcncr.org/events/2026-elevate-conference 

The Timothy Project (Youth Leadership Conference)
November 14, 2026
St. Mark Missionary Church in Mishawaka, Indiana
Learn more and sign up at https://mcncr.org/events/the-timothy-project 

Transcript

Speaker 0:02

Welcome to Let's Talk, a podcast about life, leadership, and making disciples. Let's Talk is brought to you by the North Central Region of the Missionary Church, where we want to empower everyday people to love like Jesus and live like missionaries. To find out more about our events and ministries, go to mcncr.org.

Kevin Moore 0:30

Well, thanks so much for listening to the Let's Talk a podcast about life leadership and making disciples. Hey, I'm Kevin Moore, the regional director here of the North Central Region of the Missionary Church, but I'm also your host of this podcast. And on this podcast, in fact, at our region, we want to help you live better. Life is short. I tell my kids all the time: you get one chance, one dance, one trip around a merry-go-round, man. That's all we get. We get one life. That's it. And we want to help you experience life to the fullest. Jesus said that the enemy comes, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but he came to give life and life more abundantly. And we want to help you live life more full. Also, we want to help you lead better. Everything rises and falls on leadership. And we want to give you some tips, some tools, some inspiration, information, practical principles, all those things. We want to give those things to you so that you can lead better. What you lead is important. What you lead is important. And we want to help you lead at a higher level. And we also want to help you make disciples. That's the Great Commission, right? I mean, that's what Jesus wants us to do. He said, go and make disciples. He didn't say go and fill up a building or go and raise a lot of money. He said, go and make disciples. And so that's what this podcast is about. We want to help you live better. We want to help you lead better. And we want to help you make disciples. One of the things that we do at the North Central Region to help make disciples, to help raise up leaders, and to help people live at a more full life is Prairie Camp. It's the camps that we offer. We have an amazing team at Prairie Camp. And just a few weeks ago with the recording of this, we just did our team camp. And at the region, we've got uh kids' camps, we've got team camp, we've got Discover Conference. There's so many things that we do, but Team Camp was exceptionally good this year. What an amazing team. What an amazing group of leaders. We had incredible speakers, small groups, activities. Team Camp every year reminds us that ministry isn't about uh creating some perfect atmosphere, some perfect event, some perfect week. It's about creating space for God to work. And that's what camp does. Camp creates a space for God to work. It's not that God's voice is necessarily louder out at team camp. It's that kids are breaking away. Young people are breaking away. They're unplugging so that they can hear God's voice during worship. They can hear God's voice during the message, they can hear God's voice during the small group, and they can begin to unplug and encounter God in deeper and more real ways. And that's exactly what happened this year at our team camp. So I just want to say thanks to all of our leaders out there that served at team camp. Thank you for parents for allowing your teenagers to come. And if you listen, if you would like to find out more about all the different camps and activities that we offer at Prairie Camp, all you need to do is go to prairiecamp.org. Prairiecamp.org, and it's going to give you more information about all the camps that we offer. At the North Central Region, we are about raising up the next generation. We want to see young people. We want to pour into the new and the future Timothies of our world so that the Christian faith continues to grow and it continues to thrive long after all our time on this earth is over. So that's why we do Discover Conference. That's why we do Prairie Camp. That's why we do a conference coming up in November, November 14th called the Timothy Project. We've got Josh Griffin coming in, a youth specialist. We've got breakouts all around them. And if you work with teenagers, we would like to invite you to come join us, whether you are full-time, part-time, whether you're from a big church, a small church, whether you're part of the North Central region, the missionary church, or just you're in the area and you are serving in local ministry. We would love to have you come join us on November 14th for the Timothy Project. To find out more about it and to register your team, just go to mcncr.org, click events, and you'll find the information about Timothy Project there. We'd love to have you join us. Well, hey, today I'm really excited about the topic that we're going to be talking about because, quite honestly, I'm going to be talking about it. We are doing a little four-week series here of I'm going to be sharing some thoughts, sharing some principles, sharing some stories over the next four podcasts. And today we're starting off this journey by talking about one of the most profound days of my life. This is a day that actually changed everything that I think. It changed the way that I acted. And it came from learning lessons from a paintbrush and a paint can. So today I want to introduce myself. Here's Kevin Moore with lessons from a paintbrush and a paint can. Well, today I want to tell you a story. I want to tell you a story that's very formative in the foundation of my life and leadership. I was a full-time youth pastor at a church in Ligonier, Indiana. The church was Trinity Assembly of God. And my wife Veronica and I, we'd been, we've been serving as youth directors. I was the youth director and officially the youth pastor for several years as a volunteer, but I wasn't full-time. But eventually I was able to be full-time at the church. And man, I was stoked. I was excited. I had prayed to be a full-time youth pastor. I had planned on being a full-time youth pastor. And the day finally came and I was a full-time youth guy and I loved it, and things were going good. By the time of this story, I'd actually been a full-time youth pastor for a few months. And as I was serving in youth ministry in this position, one day my pastor called me from his office phone to my office phone and said, Hey, Kevin, come on down to the office. I've got something I want to give you. Now, I'll be honest, he had never done that as of yet. He had never called me down to his office and said these words. I've got something I want to give you. So I started to think to myself, man, what in the world does Pastor want to give me? Hey, I've been here for, I've been here for, you know, a few months now. Maybe he's going to give me a raise. Maybe I'm going to give me a pay increase. That'd be pretty nice. I started thinking to myself, well, hey, there'd been some rumors about the need of an associate pastor. Maybe he's going to give me a position, associate pastor. I'd heard him and Esther talk about taking a little trip, and maybe he's going to let me speak on Sunday mornings more often, Sunday night, whenever he's gone. I don't know. Maybe he's going to give me more preaching opportunities. And man, I was stoked. I was borderline running down the hallway to go hear what my pastor was going to give me. And I'll never forget, I come around the corner, I go into his office and said, Hey Pastor, you said you got something for me. What you got? And he smiled real big and said, Well, Kevin, and all of a sudden he stands up and said, Here you go. And in one hand he had a paintbrush, in another hand he had a paint can. And I said, Well, what's uh what's that? He said, Well, it's a paintbrush and a paint can. I went, Well, yes, sir, I know it's a paintbrush, paint can, but what's it what's it for? He said, Well, it's for you. This is what I want to give you. And I said, Oh, well, okay. And he said, There's a the uh there's a backstop, uh, a baseball backstop in the backyard of the church, and you know where it is, and man, it is a mess. It's it's it's chipped, it doesn't look good, and we've got an event coming for the church, the kid ministry and the church. It's gonna be outside, and that backstop needs to be painted. And Kevin, I'm gonna give you this paintbrush and paint can because I want you to go out and paint that backstop. Now, I'll I'll be honest with you, with my face, I smiled and I said, Well, sure, Pastor, I'd I'd be happy to do so. Thank you. And I grabbed the paintbrush and the paint can and I turned. Now, with my face, I was smiling and with my tone, I was nice, but on the inside, I gotta be honest with you, my heart wasn't right. I was angry. And I'll never forget, I turned the corner, walked down the hallway, opened up the door, and as soon as I got of eye, just as soon as I got out of eyesight, as soon as I got out of of earshot of him, I literally said out loud, who in the world does he think he's talking to? Who's he think he's talking to? I'm not a I'm not a manager. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm not a facilities guy. I I don't paint. I preach. This is the wrong P. He's wanting me to paint. I'm a preacher now. Why do why is he giving me a paintbrush and a paint can? And I gotta be honest with you, I was bitter. I was upset. I walked all the way back to the backyard and I began to whenever I opened up that paint can, shoot, I didn't even, I didn't even, you know how you open it up and you start to stir it up? I didn't even stir it up. I just, I just started to paint. I didn't care. I didn't care how it looked. I was slapping paint on there. Who in the world does he think he's talking to? And I started to talk to myself, paint this fence. I'm not a painter, I'm a pastor. I didn't become full-time to be a facilities guy. I came, I'm gonna preach the word. And I was so, I was upset and I was slapping that paint on. I started to think to myself, this isn't my fence, this is my pastor's fence. This isn't my event, this is the event my pastor wants to do. This isn't my job. This is this is this is his job. I started to think to myself, you know what? This isn't my fence. It is my pastor's, this isn't my event, it's my pastor's event, this isn't my job, it's my pastor's job. He's the senior pastor, he's the leader of the church, and ultimately, yes, the church belongs to the Lord, but he's he's the sh he he's the overseer. In fact, my my job isn't even really my job. He's been given this job by God to raise young people up, and he's hired me to help him. This belongs to my pastor. This is my pastor's event, it's my pastor's ministry, it's my big pastor's sheep. It doesn't belong to me. It belongs to him. And God in his grace through his spirit brought a scripture to my mind. If you have not been faithful in that which belongs to another man, who will give to you that thing which is your own? Luke 16, 12. If you have not been faithful in that which belongs to another man, who will give to you that thing which is your own? And I started to realize everything I have in ministry, it actually belongs to my pastor. And and and what if instead of complaining about this, what if I actually was faithful with it? What if I was faithful with painting the fence for him? What if I was faithful in shepherding his sheep for him? What if I was faithful in doing what he asked me to do and helping his dreams come to pass? And I started to turn in my heart. And instead of being upset about painting, I started to pray. I started to pray for my pastor, pray for his ministry, pray for this event, pray for his family, pray for him. And the Lord began to give me a burden while I was painting that fence that what could I do to serve my pastor, to serve my authority. And so I went back to him and I began to say, I told him that day, I said, Pastor, here's the paintbrush and paint can. It's all painted, it looks good. And he'd say, Hey, thanks, Kevin, I appreciate it. I'm sure you did a great job. And I and before I left, I looked at him, and this time with a clear heart and a clear conscience and a sound mind, I look an honest heart, I looked at him and said, Pastor, if you need anything else from me, let me know. I'm here to serve you. And he smiled and said, I'll do that, Kevin. Well, the next thing I know, you know what he did? He gave me things to do. He wanted me to clean up this room and he wanted me to set up these chairs, and he wanted me to go visit somebody in the hospital. One time there was a guy that got drunk. Man, he was three sheets to the wind and got drunk and threw up all over his house, and Pastor was too busy to take him to the hospital, so he asked me to take this guy to the hospital, and I did. And every time I came back, I would tell him, Hey, Pastor, I cleaned up the, I cleaned up that room. If anything else you need for me, let me know. Hey, Pastor, I took that man to the to the um hospital. If there's any anything you need from me, let me know. What can I do for you? And it was very odd. It wasn't too long at all, maybe like literally, like weeks, months that went by that the more I said to my pastor, how can I help you? He is my authority began to say to me, Well, Kevin, how can I help you? And I remember him coming to me and say, Hey, Kevin, you've been doing a really great job. How can I help you? Would you would you like to have a pay increase? Well, uh yes, I would, Pastor. Thank you very much. And my pastor gave me a pay increase. Hey, hey, Kevin, you you your your office is a little small. Would you like to have a different office? Well, yes, sir, I would. Okay, I'm gonna give you a different office. Hey, hey, Kevin, we we we need to have an associate pastor at the church. Would you would you like to be the associate pastor? What will you? Yes, sir, I'd I'd be honored to do so. Hey, Kevin, where would you be able to start speaking on Sunday nights for me? You well, yes, sir, I would. And it was very odd. The more I helped my authority accomplish his goals by serving people, taking care of the facility, being a good steward of his student ministry, the more I served him as my authority figure, the more he as my authority figure began to bless me. And I began to realize in my life that authority is my friend. It's not my enemy. It's not my enemy. A lesson that I learned on that day changed my life, and I've seen it played out so many times in my life since. When I faithfully serve my authority, I not only make my authority better, I make my organization better. And in many ways, I become better myself. When I am faithful with those things that belong to another person, everything begins to get better. And what happens is from a young age, we are duped into thinking that authority is our enemy. Authority is out to get us. But really, is it? Is authority your enemy? Think about it. As a child, you you had food. Who'd your food come from? A parent, that's authority. Shelter, who'd that come from? A parent, that's authority. Clothes, who'd that come from? A parent, that's authority. Allowance, who'd that come from? Parent, that's authority. Keys to the car to go take a young lady out on a date, who'd that come from? That comes from your parent. That's that's authority. Let me ask you, start for sports, the starter on the basketball team, who's the one who picks the starters on the basketball team? Makes you a starter? The coach. That's authority. Who's the one that helps you get a chance to get a scholarship to college? That's your coach. That's an authority figure. Listen, food, shelter, clothes, allowance, keys to the car, starter on the team, chance to get a scholarship. Does that sound like an enemy? No, that sounds like a friend. Authority is not your enemy. Authority is your friend. It's been given you by God to bring a blessing into your life, not a curse. Think about it. As an employee, who gave you your position? Your boss? Who gives you the rage? The boss? Who gets you insurance? Your boss? Who gives you a chance to provide for your family? Your boss. Your boss is not your enemy. Your boss is your friend. And many times we get duped into thinking that authority's out to get me. No, I learned on that day that the more I serve my authority, the more I'm faithful, the more I'm faithful with my leader's vision, eventually I get my vision. The more I'm faithful with my leader's goal, eventually I get my own goals. The more I'm faithful with my leader's finances, the more I get of finances. The more I'm faithful with the position that they gave me, the other positions that I get. Authority is not an enemy. Authority is a friend. And in scripture, there are a lot of people, but there's two people in particular that really understood the blessing of serving well, the blessing of understanding and serving authority. One is David. In the book of 1 Samuel, David served his father as a shepherd. He was watching his father's sheep. And Samuel comes to his house and he tended, he tended his father's sheep until his father called him and he asked him to go take cheese to the battle for his brothers. So he goes but to take cheese to the brothers for battle, but before he goes, he makes sure that there's someone else there to watch the sheep. David served his authority well. He served his authority by tending his sheep, by going to delivering the cheese, and still making sure that the sheep were taken care of. David served his father well. And then when David got called to serve King Saul in his house, he played the harp for the king. He fought battles for the king. When the king was got you know kind of getting out of his mind, it was David, the ch that David was the one there to help. David actually had a chance to kill King Saul and overthrow King Saul, but he didn't do it because Saul was God's anointed. David served his authority well. And when you look at David's life, he was faithful with Saul's kingdom, and eventually he had his own kingdom. He was faithful with his father's sheep, and eventually he had his own sheep, the kingdom of Israel. David understood that authority is not my enemy, it's my friend. And if I am faithful in serving my authority well, it is my authority that's going to turn around and bring me a blessing. Another person we see fairly prominent in Scripture is Jesus, Philippians chapter 2. You know this passage. I don't need to read the thing. You understand this passage. That let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who did not think that equality with God was something that to be grasped, but he emptied himself and took the form of a servant. And then it goes on and it talks about how that Jesus was faithful with God's mission, and Jesus became a servant, and Jesus died on the cross, and then Jesus, because he served his authority well, the Bible says that God raised him up to be the greatest name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Because Jesus was faithful in serving his authority, God, God lifted him up to the greatest name. Authority is, listen to me, authority is not your enemy, authority is your friend. Authority is a channel that flows the blessings of God. God to Jesus, Jesus to us. Saul to David, David to his people. A business owner to the manager, the manager to the employee, the employee to the family. The pastor to the associate pastor to the associate pastor's family, and on it goes. And I and I know you're probably some are probably listening to this and think, well, that sounds great. Hey, that sounds great. Pastor Park sounds like a good leader. But you don't know my boss. You don't know my pastor. You don't know my direct report. You don't know my leader. You don't know my mom and dad. You don't know my family. Listen, listen, that's a them thing. That's a them thing, whether they are a good leader or a bad leader, where they are moral or immoral, where they do things right or they do things wrong. That's a them thing. I'm talking about a you thing. You have to control what you control. There are very few things in life that you control. You cannot control your leader's actions, you cannot control their thoughts, you cannot control their motives, but you can control your thoughts, you can control your words, you can control your motives, and you can control your actions. You make a choice. I'm going to be faithful with those things that belong to another person. Now, what that other person does, that's up to them. But I'm going to be faithful with this vision, I'm going to be faithful with this job description. I'm going to be faithful with this small thing that I've been given. Why? Because it's the right thing to do. Our thoughts, our words, our actions, our motives toward our leaders need to be founded on the teachings of Christ and the Word of God, not on our flesh. I'm not saying to be a yes man. And to serve your leader's vision, many times you gotta push back. You gotta say, hey, I don't know if I agree with this. Can I speak into this a little bit? But at the end of the day, we got to remember this passage in Colossians chapter 3, verse 23 and 24. Whatever you do, do it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. Since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ that you are working for. Your leader might be good, your leader might be bad, but you are not serving your leader. You're not serving your pastor. You're not serving your coach. You're not serving your manager. You're not serving your boss. You're serving God. He is the one who rewards our stewardship. So our thoughts, our words, our actions, our motives towards our leaders need to be founded on the teachings of the Word of God, not on our flesh. And this is what Jesus says. If you have not been faithful with that which belongs to another man, who will give to you that thing which is your own? Authority is not your enemy. Authority is a friend. And when you serve well and you take care of what belongs to the authority that God has placed in your life, it is through that authority or through other means or other people that God will bring blessing into your life. So as we wrap up today, here's a question. Question and applications for you. Who do you work for? Who do you sit under in some way? Think about that person. I got them in your mind right now. Who do you work for? Who do you sit under in some way? Okay. What's their vision? What are their goals? And what is the paintbrush and paint can they've handed you? What's the paintbrush and paint can they've handed you? Now with that in mind, what what's your heart posture toward it? What's your heart posture toward your authority? What thoughts do you have about them? What words do you speak about them? How can you be faithful with what they have handed you? So I'm gonna leave you with this. One of the most foundational days in my life was whenever my leader handed me a paintbrush and paint can. Was Pastor Bill Parks perfect? No. But am I perfect? No. Did God allow me to serve him for a season? Yes, he did. And it is because of understanding that if I will be faithful with those things that belong to another man, then I will have those things that belong to myself. It's because of understanding that and walking that out, even in imperfect situations at times, that God has blessed myself, my family, and the things that we lead. And he wants to do the same with you. I don't know what kind of leader you serve. That's a them thing. I'm talking to you in your heart. Who is it that you serve? And what is the paintbrush and paint can they have handed you? If you will serve them well, God will take care of the rest. Well, thanks so much for joining us for our podcast today. As you heard lessons from a paintbrush and a paint can. Remember, authority is your friend. If you are faithful in that which belongs to another person, God will begin to give you those things which are your own. So serve your authority well today and see God move in your life, in your organization's life, and in the lives of the people around you. Thanks so much for joining us. Hope this helps. Can't wait to speak with you next time.

Speaker 25:26

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