Denny Pattyn on What will Matter at the End of Your Leadership Journey

In this episode of the L3 Leadership Podcast, Doug Smith interview Denny Pattyn, Founder and President of Silver Ring Thing. Denny has been fighting an incurable cancer diagnosis for the last 5 years. Sixteen operations later, and a loss of 90 pounds, Denny is still continuing to lead strong. In this moving and incredibly inspiring episode, Denny shares what will truly matter at the end of your leadership journey.

6 Key Takeaways

1. Talks about how his time with the Lord is richer knowing that he’s going to be meeting the Lord in a matter of months, or possibly even weeks. 

2. Denny talks about the new vision that God gave him for The Family Wins. 

The family is the number one group of people who evangelizes. Parently are the world’s largest evangelists. 

“The way a family wins is when the mother and father spend personal time with the Lord every day”... Because God’s word does not return void.  

3. Denny Talks about how to discern God-given vision from what might be your own vision.

I’m always very very careful to say that something is God’s until he demonstrates His power and provision through it. 

Vision is like throwing spaghetti against the wall. 

What stays and what falls away? What stays is God. What slides down and falls away, I forget about. What sticks, I stick with.

4. “Everyone who comes across my path is in danger of being evangelized.”

Denny talks about taking a job as an Uber driver, just to have an opportunity to share the Gospel with young people.

I  want to be remembered as someone who couldn’t help but to share the Gospel. 

Every second of my life, it was the joy to share Jesus with people.

5. I’m most proud of my family.

I want to be remembered first of all as a good husband, then a good father. 

6. My last advice to leaders is to try and stay as singularly focused as possible. 

Don’t lose sight of the one thing you’ve been called to you. Stay singularly focused on it. 

Links Mentioned in Episode 271:
The Family Wins

The Family Wins Devotional Bible

About Denny:
Denny Pattyn, husband, father, visionary and an evangelist at heart was raised by two atheist parents which has fueled his passion for reaching under-churched people with the Gospel. Over the course of his ministry, he is most well-known for founding Silver Ring Thing (SRT) in 1995, in response to concerns for the escalating teen pregnancy rates in Yuma, Arizona. In 2000, he and his family returned home to Pittsburgh bringing the SRT vision with them.

Since that time, SRT has hosted nearly 1,500 peer-led events in 9 countries impacting 725,000 attendees, with 265,000 students choosing to wear silver rings as a commitment to purity and nearly 133,000 students receiving Christ as Lord and Savior. From its inception, SRT recognized that true change in a person’s life only comes about with heart change. SRT events provided a unique platform to talk with teens about God’s plan for sex, love, and dating. Addressing their pain and acknowledging the guilt associated with sexual sin proved to be a powerful avenue to share God’s grace and the power of the Gospel.

Hearing countless parents express their concern for their children and families at SRT events, coupled with the fact that a strong family is universally valued, supplied the motivation for Denny to step into a new role. This compelled him to pursue his latest project - The Family Wins (TFW). TFW’s vision is to see families strengthened and lives changed by embracing God’s wisdom and by spending time daily in his Word.

Denny has been fighting an incurable cancer diagnosis for the last 5 years. Sixteen operations later, and&

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

[inaudible]

Speaker 2: 0:07

Well, Hey, podcast, family, and welcome to another episode of the L three leadership podcast, where we are obsessed with helping you grow to your maximum potential and to maximize the impact of your leadership. My name is Doug Smith and I am your host. And today's episode is brought to you by my friends at bear tongue advisors. If you're new to the podcast, welcome, we're so glad you're here. And we really do hope this episode. And every episode we offer adds value and helps you grow and develop as a leader. If you've been with us for awhile, it would mean the world to me. If you would subscribe to the podcast and leave a rating and review on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts, it really does make a difference and helps us reach more leaders. So thank you in advance for that. So today's episode is a very special episode. You're going to get to hear my conversation with Denny Patton and Denny has been a mentor in my life for well over a decade. And he's a good friend today. And he's been on the podcast before. He's also spoken at our L three events before, and he's a phenomenal leader. He started a ministry called silver ring thing. And if you haven't heard about that, that's a ministry that literally went all over the world. 300 plus media stations covered at CNN 60 minutes, et cetera. And, uh, it was incredible how God used that ministry to change the world. He recently started a ministry called the family wins, and you'll hear us talk about that in this episode. Uh, but what makes this episode so special? Isn't just Denny and what he's done as a leader. What makes this episode special is where Denny is at this time in his leadership journey. Denny's been battling cancer for over six years now, and he's at a place in that battle that unless Jesus intervenes and does a miracle, um, he does not think he has very long to live. It could be a matter of weeks, maybe a matter of months. And we're certainly believing in praying that God will intervene, but what makes us a conversation so special is, you know, I always ask leaders at the end of an interview, what they want their legacy to be. And a lot of leaders dream about that and, and tend to think that it's far off, but Denny had a stage in his life where he realizes he may only have a few more days on this earth to have that perspective and to share about legacy and to share about life and ministry was just so significant and so special. And so I think this is really going to make an impact, not just in your leadership, but in your life. And I really hope that this will help transform you and listen, if this interview impacts you, please share it with other people. And, uh, and again, with Denny's doing with family wins, I think is going to be a huge part of his legacy. And I think it's going to help families transform all over the world. And so I hope you enjoy this conversation with Denny. Uh, it can be a little bit emotional, but, um, but wow, is it powerful? So before we dive into the interview, just a few announcements, this episode of the podcast is sponsored by bear tongue advisors, the financial advisors at bear tongue advisors, help educate and empower clients to make informed financial decisions. You can find out how bear tongue advisors can help you develop a customized financial plan for your financial future by visiting their website@beartongueadvisors.com. That's B E R a T U N G advisors.com, securities and investment products and services offered through Waddell and Reed Inc member. And SIPC bare tongue advisors wide own read. And L three leadership are separate entities. Hey leader, if you're looking to 10 extra growth this year, I really want to challenge you to either launch or join in L three leadership mastermind group mastermind groups, or groups of six to 12 leaders that meet together on a consistent basis for at least one year in order to help each other grow, achieve their goals and to do life together. Mastermind groups have been the greatest source of growth in my life for the past six years. And I really do believe that every leader needs to be in a mastermind group. If you're interested in learning more about launching or joining an L three mastermind go to L three leadership.org forward slash masterminds. Hey Denny, thank you so much for being willing to take the time and energy to do this interview. And, uh, I've known you for well over a decade. You've been a huge mentor in my life. You, uh, from the day I've met you, you've always believed in me and encouraged me and saw leadership in me and just cast vision of the impact that I can make in Pittsburgh. So I'm just forever grateful for the impact that you've had on my life and leadership. And you've also been a great friend in the ministry and, um, it's just been awesome to see the work that God's done through your life here in Pittsburgh and all around the world. And so I'm really excited for you to be on the podcast today. Uh, you have been on the podcast before and we'll make links to those other episodes so that people can listen to that as well. But, um, I wanted to have you on today and just share a little bit about where you are in your life and your journey. So can you just give us some context for who you are and where you are in life? So everyone listening knows.

Speaker 3: 4:25

Yes. Well, I guess I'm best known as the founder and president former president of the silver ring thing. Uh, I handed that over to our vice president. Who's now president of that in 2015 and not knowing of course God knew, but I didn't know that I was about to find out. I had a, uh, incurable cancer diagnosis, which I found out about two months after I stepped down from the silvering thing presidency. So, uh, for the last five and a half years, I've been fighting cancer, um, 16 operations, multiple bouts with, uh, chemotherapies and radiation and experimental drugs, that type of stuff. Uh, so I'm in a pretty bad place. I've lost 90 pounds of weight. So it's been a real struggle for me physically. Uh, but, um, spiritually I've actually gotten stronger as I started to see some new focus that I couldn't see before of, of seeing heaven and realizing that, you know, there's, I'm having a devotional, I'm having a devotional with God who I may be seeing next week, you know, or next month. And it really is weird to have that kind of time with the Lord or, or even the guilt feeling of not wanting to have your devotions today and thinking, well, what's really so important that you're doing when a month or two from now, that's not going to matter at all. So I've had a really unique spiritual awakening if you will, into the reality of what our final destination really is and the importance of that in my life. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:10

Given that, I'm curious, can you just talk to anyone who may be listening to this who may be going through a very similar thing, maybe they have cancer and they're listening to this. Uh, maybe they're just going through an extremely tough battle in their life. What have you learned about walking through the battle and the Lord we're walking with you in the Valley of the shadow of death over the past six years, that, that you would encourage people who are going through a tough time with,

Speaker 3: 6:32

Well, I don't know, like, uh, people keep telling me what a great example I am. Um, how they've never seen anybody like this. Um, I don't know how you do it. And I get kind of embarrassed by that because I'm really not trying to do anything. I'm not trying to be a hero by how I deal with my health. I'm not trying to, you know, prove something to somebody. I just don't know what else to do. Um, I get up in the morning and if I feel okay, I try to do as much as I can, uh, for the kingdom, because that's what I've always done with my life. Um, I've been in ministry and if I'm not feeling so well, it may be a shorter version of that, but it's, it's better than laying in bed and being sick or having people feel sorry for you or something like that. I can't imagine that I'd ever choose that. So I would say to people, you know, when you're sick, that's your physical body and it does affect you, but it doesn't necessarily affect your spiritual life. Um, I have the gift of, um, you know, when you go through spiritual gifts tests, I have the gift of evangelism, the spiritual gift of wisdom and the spiritual gift of faith. And so I think the spiritual gift of faith has really helped me because I just don't doubt what God's doing. It doesn't cross my, my body. I don't ever feel like he's been mean to me, or why does this happen to you? Not to somebody else. My spiritual gift of faith is not allowed me to go there. So I don't know if everybody can say that. So I just don't know how different people would handle it, but for me, it's just been, I don't know what else to do, but to pursue my faith. Wow.

Speaker 2: 8:22

That's incredible. And while pursuing your faith, uh, you mentioned that you were, you're probably most known for starting the silver ring thing, which is a ministry, literally God birthed in you that went all over the entire world. You were on 60 minutes, you were on all kinds of media coverage. And literally you changed the world through that. And, uh, six years ago you got this diagnosis. And while a lot of people, you know, in your situation may give up, I love how you said it didn't affect your spirit. And you've always been a visionary. And, um, over, I believe it was about two years ago, maybe a year and a half. God gave you a new vision and called the family. And I want you to talk about that, but he gave you a new vision. Can you talk about how that happened? And then what you've done over the past year and a half. And, uh, I have my, my family wins devotion right here and, uh, absolutely love it. So talk a little bit about this vision and how it came to pass.

Speaker 3: 9:10

Well, I don't know how most people operate, but the way it works for me is I get visions when I'm kinda like half asleep, half awake. And I don't even know what that's called, but I'm not up. I'm not out of my bed. My eyes are closed and I become conscious of something's going on inside me. Now, when you dream is always stuff going on, if you're dreaming, but you know, when you wake up, you cannot miss ever remember the dream. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. But I wake up with this on my mind. So this has happened to me multiple times. It scares my wife. You know, when I get up and sit on the edge of the bed, she goes, Oh, no, but, um, I guess that's because I am a visionary. God gives me vision through this dream state. But in January of 2019, I woke up, sat on the side of my bed. And all I had was the family wins. I had no idea what that meant. I had no idea where I was supposed to go. It just was the family wins and it wasn't family wins. It was the family wins. I remember that specifically. So from January to July of 2019, I didn't really know what to do with that. Other than I decided to try to see if I could form a nonprofit. I wasn't sure how things are working with nonprofits. I hadn't formed one for awhile, so I just decided it wasn't too expensive or distro this out there and see if, um, it can be approved. So sure enough, may I think it was 2019, I had a nonprofit called the family wins. Still having no idea what it was. I had to get board members to sign on. So what are we going to be doing? I really don't know. That's why I'm telling you. Could you be on the board? Because the, yes. You know, I mean, it was, I just got out the, you know, templates and wrote the documents. You have to write to do it. So, um, in July of 2019, I was in Colorado. I go out there almost annually to brainstorm for a week. There's out there. And I was reading my devotional, which is the same one. We now have just recovered that has been reading for 30 years. And all of a sudden it dawned on me. I should say, God dawned on me. That the way a family wins is when a mother and father spend personal time with God every day in a meaningful way in the scriptures, they will do that every day. I will guarantee your family will win. I'll guarantee it. Okay. Because God's word does not come back void. So I began to explore that and I started sharing with some people and they said, I'd like to get involved. And I said, what do you mean? Well, I'd like to support you. So people started giving me large sums of money and I'm like, we don't have anything yet. You know, I just know how God works. Know I believe it's going to happen. So that was another sign that this is supposed to happen. So then in 2020, we began to develop, we recovered a devotional. I've been reading for 30 years. We bought it up into the 21st century. And we created an app, a companion app, because with it, of course, I didn't know we're going to be in the middle of a pandemic. Right? So in the middle of this pandemic, God's doing all this work, getting all this stuff done, which included in, um, August, you had gone through publishing and, you know, editing and, um, printing, having them printed in Belarus, having shipped over. So we had 30,000 devotions shipped to my office. It was going to be 10,000 and somebody said, would you think that's enough? I said, well, I don't know. I'm nervous. I go, well, I'll give you some more money to get 20. I said, all right. And somebody else said, I think you should get 30. I said, have you prayed about that? You know, so long as sort of, as we went with 30 and, um, the goal was to, uh, have this be a come available Christmas 2020. And that's what we did. So, um, a lot's happened since then, but you, you held up, this is what it looks like. It's the family wins right there. And the idea is you put a picture of your family in the sleeve that we give you. Then every day after you read the devotion for the day in the scripture, whatever God taught you, you pray it back into your family at the end of your reading. And I believe God will bless your family, I believe with all my heart. So, um, that was the idea. And then this companion app that we put with it, I'll see if I can pull it up here real quick, but the companion app looks like this. Um, and it, you know, you can have somebody read it to you. You can watch a video that goes right along with the message. You can listen to a worship song every day. That's tied into the message. You can then track your progress. You can, um, write a, um, a journal. You can form a small group and, and work with people. And you can write comments out to the group as a whole. So you can have this unbelievable experience with a number of people or people you want to have it with. And you can be enriched by listening to a really great video, 365 different videos. You can watch 365 different worship songs. So this app really put this whole thing on steroids. You know, before that, I just read the devotional and I loved it. And all of a sudden this thing, it's in the steroids world. And, and all I hear about is how this app just puts it all together. So it's been a real joy watching it come together. And

Speaker 2: 14:49

I mentioned, I have my, my family Wentz. I've been doing this since January. I have to cut out my picture still to make it small enough, but here's a picture of me and my girls. Uh, yeah, I am. So anyway, that's my personality, but I'll cut it up, but it's a phenomenal devotion. I've been sharing it with people in our mastermind groups. I know several have boughten it. And I just want to encourage you. If you're listening to this, if you're a believer and you're looking to improve your devotions, I can't encourage you enough to get this and Denny, where can people find it and buy a copy? And we'll include links to this as well.

Speaker 3: 15:18

Well, our website is pretty easy to remember. It's just the family wins.org de family wins.org. You can go on there. You can see a couple of videos of us explaining it and read more about it, get more information, and then you can order it right on the website. So, and then you'll get a, you'll get a package from us very quickly, and we'll give you a link to the, uh, to the app and you can download the app. And then you're good to go.

Speaker 2: 15:45

And Denny, again, this is sort of just remarkable that God spoke to you two years ago and look at everything that's happened since the funding came in, you didn't even know what it was going to be like. Can you talk about, um, God given visions for leaders, you're a visionary. You've had tons of visions. You know, how do you tell something's God? And, and, or you just ate something bad last night, speak to leaders about going after some vision that God puts in their heart.

Speaker 3: 16:08

Well, it's hard for me to understand because when you're a visionary, you don't even know you are a visionary. People tell you that about yourself, but then you just think everybody is a visionary because Y Y you don't know how you're different than somebody else. You know what I'm saying? You just assume everybody has the same gift or whatever you have, but I've learned that no, some people are managers, they're not visionary. Some people are, you know, per warriors. Some people are just, you know, all kinds of different gifts, but when you're a visionary, you asked a very good question. How do you know when the idea is yours? And when the idea is gods, and I've been very, very, very careful throughout my life to not claim something as God's. So he demonstrates it to me. In other words, I can now say the family wins is God, because he's demonstrated to me. I can tell you that the silver ring thing was gods when 300 different TV stations, radio stations, media of all over the world, came to cover a site. I don't have the ability to pull that off. I could never put that together. Only God can do something like that. So I can say that was God's vision. But up till years before that, it was just something we were doing. But the best way not to describe this is I considered like throwing spaghetti against the wall. Okay. So I get a lot of ideas slash vision. Okay. They come into my head all day long. So if you throw it against the wall and it sticks there for awhile, that's what I consider God's vision to me. In other words, it stays there like the Holy spirit. Doesn't let it go. So that's what happened with the family when he didn't let it go. I mean, two weeks later, if I didn't think about the family wounds anymore, there wouldn't be anything, but he wouldn't let it go. He wouldn't let it go. He wouldn't let it go. It stayed on the wall, the stuff that slides down the wall and goes on the floor. I don't think about it anymore. I just walk away. I'm a very good at compartmentalizing. I'm a very focused person. Like my focus is real simple. I am on the planet to love God and to love my neighbor as myself and help people get into heaven. If people get into heaven, they win. If people go to hell, they lose. That's how simple this for me. So I am here to harvest. I am here to help people to the best of my ability yet to have it, whatever I do with my life. That's my simple goal. So when I throw stuff against the wall, the question is, is it focusing on those goals? Is it going to help people find Christ? That's why I've always stayed in youth ministry. 85% of all decisions made for Christ occurred before the age of 18. Some say now before the age of 14. So if I'm interested in people getting heaven, I have nowhere else to go, but to hang out with young people and families, like just now, uh, with the family wins, realized that, um, and through research, the family is the number one group that evangelizers people, they evangelize their kids, a bigger margin than youth ministry, pastors events. We can camps. So if the family wins is now the umbrella, it's the umbrella of evangelism. So all the more reason that the mom and dad need to be on their game as their kids grow up so they can lead them to Christ and then bring in the church, bring in youth ministry, bring in children's ministry to help them get through those years.

Speaker 2: 19:49

Yeah. Danny, I know evangelism has been a passion of yours and a focus of yours pretty much your entire life. Um, Eugene Peterson had had a quote about success in the kingdom that I love. And he said, success is simply long obedience in the same direction. And, and you said your life has been very simple. I'm going to love God. I'm going to love my neighbor. And I'm going to make sure people get into heaven. Um, but you've gone the distance. You know, our, our pastor, John Newso is a mutual friend mentor. Um, he says often that, that he believes only about 2% of Christian leaders make it to their finish line. Um, and I'm sure over the course of your ministry and life, you've seen lots of leaders fall. Lots of leaders not make it any advice to leaders out there on staying focused and making it to their finish line in ministry.

Speaker 3: 20:34

I think he just said it staying focused. Um, the world, you know, the three kinds of sin, you know, there's Satan, there's the world and there's the flesh. And you're going to get attacked by one or more of those. For instance, I always got attacked in the flesh. I couldn't shake it. I could not shake it. I would ask God to take it from me. I don't want to sit tack, do all men go through this mind? The only one, you know, I mean, I'm running a silver ring thing and I'm having flesh issues. Hmm. Holy macro Lord save me from this. And the battle was intense. And of course, people would say, well, you're not, it's just Satan attacking you. I don't care. Who's attacking me. I hated it. I couldn't, I just couldn't shake it until two years ago. God took it from me completely. And I have zero issue with that anymore. And I can't believe it's actually gone away. Wow. So I think the focus is you're going to get attacked. Like I think the biggest attack is the world. The world grabs people like nobody, nothing. I've seen people just get caught up in the world. Their sight is on the world. They have to have two of these and three of those and four of these and accumulate accumulate. And I don't think God has a problem with accumulating. As long as you have what I call the open hand, I try to demonstrate this. God gives you everything, including your very breath, your very air. You breathe, you hold onto it like this. That way God can put into your hand what he wants you to have, but he can also take out of your hand what he wants you to have. So you can have nice things, as long as you hold on to them like this. And then he can take things out for other needs. Okay. But if you hold on to it like this, okay. And you said, no, I'm going to, I'm going to run this. God can't put into your life. Anything because you earned it all you found it's yours fine, but he can't take anything out and he can't put anything in. So what I've been speaking to most recently is, especially to people of wealth, you have to hold onto your wealth like this because Jesus said not some man, not some writer, not some theologian. Jesus who came from heaven said it's harder for a rich man to get into heaven than a camel to pass through. And I have a needle. And so as I pointed my finger out, rich people, there's three pointing right back at me. You're a rich person. You live in America. So how do you hold onto what you have any, you know, how are you dealing with that? And so that's, um, the focus to not hold onto the world and to focus on being a harvester for heaven sake and balance those two. And you'll be a happy person. I guarantee you'll be a happy person.

Speaker 2: 23:33

Yeah. When you talked about it, you can do there. Hold on to what you think is yours or open your hand to what's God's um, you made a statement in an interview that you did with Brian tome that I loved. And can you talk about your use of the words I versus we, as far as what you do in life, I thought this was so powerful.

Speaker 3: 23:50

Well, Brian in the interview is saying, you know, then you keep saying the word we, we, we, we, you don't have any wheat. You don't have an organization. You don't have a group of people that formed the family wins. What do you keep saying? We, I mean, people think you've got some big organizations. And I said, Brian, you know, earlier in my life, I said, I way too often I did this. Or, uh, I led this person to Christ or I did this. I did that. And after I would say it almost immediately I'd feel guilty. You know, the, we is really, God, God did something and he let you participate. That's the wheat. God did it. And he didn't even need you. He chose to allow you to participate. So in Brian's actual life, Brian tome, I had the privilege of working with God to lead Brian tome to Christ in high school. But I'm not the Holy spirit. I didn't come into Brian's life. I don't have that kind of power. God did that. He used a person named any Patton and a personality. It was attractive to Brian tome, that he could actually hear the gospel in a language that made sense to him, which was me being silly, me being crazy and then sharing Jesus. So the, we is when we realize God is the we, the two of us. So I've been thinking a lot about, you know, like I said, getting to heaven pretty quick, myself. I mean, one of these days I'm going to close my eyes and I'm going to open them up and I'm not going to be in the world anymore. I'm be looking right at Jesus. And all I want to hear is well done. Good and faithful servant. You did a lot with the little I gave you. And now I'm going to give you more, enter into my joy and happiness. And if you ever want to hear one thing, you want to hear God saying to you, enter into my joy. It happens because I don't know what kind of invitations you get to a great dinner or an invitation to go to the Steeler game and sit in a big, nice box, all kinds of food and the parking pass. But if you get the invitation from God himself to enter into his joy and happiness AB you've won. And so I'm facing that with this diagnosis. And, um, I'm thinking a lot about it.

Speaker 2: 26:34

And I know one thing that you've been processing as you've thought about that is what are you going to do in heaven? You know, we talked about your passion for evangelism. For those of you who may not know Denny, he, this guy actually got a job with Uber driving people around just so he could evangelize to them, uh, which is just incredible. Um, but can you talk about what you've been processing about what you're going to do in heaven, but then specifically talk about, I know you have a message, uh, for the harvesters and, and this is kind of like your last message to leaders in the body of Christ. So can you just talk about that?

Speaker 3: 27:06

Well, you know, the Uber thing was I was starting a millennial Bible study and I wanted to really understand what unchurched millennials were thinking. And I don't know, again, this is one of those ideas against the wall. Uber go drive mover. Cause you'll meet a lot of millennials and you can ask them all kinds of questions from the driver's seat. Right. And I thought, no, I'm not going to do that. And so then I told my wife, she goes, no, you're not going to do. I said, I think I am. She goes, you're not going to drive. I think I am. And she called me. She goes, where are you? I said, I'm driving over. She goes, no, you're not. And said, no, I think I am. I'm actually, I went down and got my pocket and I'm, I'm driving you, but that's why I haven't come home for a while. Um, no, but the, um, your question was about, um, um, forgetting it the,

Speaker 2: 27:56

Yeah. What do you, well, first, what you processed about what you're going to be doing in heaven? Cause I just love this perspective.

Speaker 3: 28:01

So it's been a little bit silly, but in some ways I wasn't, I realized just recently that my entire life has been about influencing, trying to influence somebody to do something that's I spent my entire adult life doing that. Mainly try and influence people to know Christ. Okay. And I wondered when you get to heaven, can you still influence? And I was sharing that with John news. I said, what do you think about that? He goes, no, I don't think you can. I said, yeah, I don't think I can't either, because we were talking about the poor men who went to heaven and wanted to get back and tell us family, Hey, you know, I'm in how, or I guess it was, uh, the rich man was in hell and he wanted to send somebody back. That's what it was. He was trying to get the poor men to help him. And um, as a story, Jesus, again, telling the story. So, you know, it's true that, you know, hell was true and heaven is true and inhales forever. You're not getting out of it. Can you warn my people? So I was wondering, can you influence from heaven? And when Jesus said, no, you had your shot, your time is up and it can change from here. It's hopeless for you from now on. So, um, so that was something I was just asking the question about, is that even possible? Um, so that led me, I guess, to the scripture about being a harvester. Um, you know, in, in, in Matthew, Jesus tells a story about getting five talents to one of his servants, two talents to another of his servants and one to a third servant based on their abilities. And, um, he, um, the, the man, he, he came back later and the man, he gave five talents to a double D number of talents. And he said, well done, good and faithful servant. And during my happiness, the two talents, same thing. The third man buried his talents, buried what God had given him barrier. D G M what God had entrusted him with. And God was very, Jesus' very upset and said, you wicked and lazy servant. And it says he threw him into hell. And I was really taken by the word throw, cause that's angry. You know, why didn't you say, just get out of my presence, says you threw them in the hell. And so that got me to thinking about the harvest in Matthew chapter nine, I've been really focusing on the scriptures where Jesus said, you know, he looked out at the crowds and he had compassion on them because they are, they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. And I just started wondering, what does it, what's it like to have the compassion of Jesus for the world? What's that? What is that like? Cause he had, and he said he saw them as being harassed and helpless. He could see Satan actually doing what Satan does because we think we understand Satan. Jesus can actually watch him doing it. He's got x-ray vision, he's got MRI vision. He can see Satan doing what he's doing. He could see him harassing these very people who were around him and they were helpless. He said like sheep without a shepherd. Then he went on to say, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send workers into his harvest fields. And so when you think about what is the purpose of life it's for us to do what Jesus told us to do to pray when God tells you to pray, he asks you to do it. And Jesus right there asks us to pray. He's going to answer that prayer for sure. And you're probably going to be part of that answer. You're probably going to end up in the fields almost for sure. And so I think that's been my life trying to help people get into the harvest with me, trying to help people get into the harvest before they get into heaven and be, you know, because otherwise it rots on the vine. Yeah. You know, it just rots on the vine.

Speaker 2: 32:26

That's so good to any, and you've clearly impacted people through the ministries that God put in your heart to start, but you've also impacted people up close. And um, you know, when I listened to your interview with Brian, I wasn't that familiar with Brian. Um, for context, for those listening, I think he leads the third fastest growing church in America. God's using him significantly in Cincinnati and I encourage you all to connect with him and follow him. But he, when he posted your interview, he also posted a picture of a, I don't know, all the gentlemen in it, but you were in it. He was in it as a young leader. I saw Brad Henderson. Who's a mutual friend and mentor. Um, and you, you lived in a leadership house with these guys and now, you know, I look at the ones I know, and they're all being used significantly by God. And, um, I was reflecting in my year end review and the question came up to me like, Hey, at the end of my life, what I'm going to care about, probably more than anything else is who are the men and women in my life that can say Doug was a spiritual father, a spiritual mother to me, and really helped me grow in who God called me to be. Can you talk a little bit about your view of discipleship and how you made such an impact on these young men who literally have gone on to change the world?

Speaker 3: 33:35

Um, well I think you've heard of the funnel that's used in a lot of marketing. You talk about the funnel on social media advertising, where the top of the funnel is the awareness campaign. We tried to get a lot of people in the middle of the funnel as you redirect the campaign, as they get to the middle. And then the bottom of the funnel is the conversion. They, they come out the bottom and buy your product or do what you ask them to do. I think that's very true of life. You know, all I want to do is just everybody I see comes across my path is in danger of getting evangelizers okay. They, if they spend time with me, they need to be careful because I am going to be doing my best to see them to know Christ. And that's the top of the funnel, the awareness. And so if your life is about just being the top of the funnel, you don't have to worry about the bottom. Some of it's intentional. Like we started the leadership house. We invited people to come move in. These weren't just anybody. These were people we thought that had leadership gifts and that could maybe do something for the Lord. Not all of them did, but some of them did. And so again, God chooses who he wants to bring out of it. So you are as you're the guy trying to get people in the top of the funnel, you know, you're just trying to, Hey, come, come see, come check out this, whatever you're doing. And as they go down and you try to redirect them, and then when it's your turn in, God's gonna use you with this person, that person, this person he'll let you know his divine timing. He'll let you know, this is a guy you really need to pay attention to right now. And let that personnel, there was a young man who was freshmen in high school, went to North Allegheny high school. And I called up, his parents said, I'd like to disciple your son. Could we meet about that? So we met at an, at a restaurant and the son was there and I said, look, I would like to decide your son. I think he's got unbelievable potential. Would you be okay with that? I've never done that before. I've never done it since. Right. But for that, some reason I felt like I needed to do that with that family and using the ministry now. But God put that kid on my heart, you know? And um, we discipled him. So it's just a matter of, you probably won't always know who you're discipling. I was just on vacation and my daughter went on, she sent an email out to like 200 people. Instead, if you'd like to send a, a video to my dad, just to kind of reflect on what you guys did together in the ministry and share anything you want. Cause you know, he's not necessarily going to be around that much longer. This is your opportunity to do it when she got back a hundred videos. Wow. Right. And we watched them as a family on vacation was three and a half hours long and where we being in. But to hear the stories of what they shared with me about how, when you know Danny, when you dah, dah, dah, and I go, not, I remember doing that then, you know, you said this to me at, uh, I remember saying that to you, right. You don't know, wow. You don't often know what gods, you don't know what's resonating inside somebody. But if you're saying biblical truth and you're, and you're putting it into a personality, I have to say that it's, you know, Jesus had a personality, you know, it's it's, I want to be winsome with the gospel. I don't want to be boring with it. I want to be fun with the gospel. I don't want my girls growing up is, is these religious girls grew up in this religious family. I wanted them to be able to handle traffic out there in their marketplace, you know, and love the Lord in the marketplace. And you know, I think that's kind of where I've always been. I've been kind of like outside the church, along the wall of the church, trying to help people find the latch, you know, to get in. That's where I've always seemed to find myself. I love unchurched people. I love hanging out with them. I love, um, sharing my life with them.

Speaker 2: 37:46

Yeah. And then he just thank you for the faithfulness, uh, to follow God's calling your life. Clearly it's impacted hundreds and thousands of people. Um, as we start to wind up, you know, a lot of leaders are told, you know, what do you want your legacy to be? You should process that early. Um, and I'm just wondering now whether you live for 20 more years or 20 more hours, um, as you reflect on your life, what do you want your legacy to be? And what do you want to be remembered for by these hundreds of people that have left you videos of the impact you've made?

Speaker 3: 38:16

Well, I want to be remembered first of all, as a, a good husband and a good father. Um, I think I did all right, but I don't, I, I look back and think of the things I didn't do well, but I, um, I have a great family and I have a great wife, so I want to be remembered for that. Um, but I think mostly, I just want to be remembered for somebody that just, um, I couldn't help myself, but to share the gospel, I literally don't need to be thanked. I don't need to be patted on the back. I don't need my name on anything. I really don't even want that. I like the fact that I enjoy doing it every second of it. It was the joy of my life. I didn't, it was never hard for me. Um, it was a calling. I was called to do it. And I thank God that he, he grabbed me before I got to captured by the world. And, um, I could talk about that for hours, but he got grabbed me while I was at Penn state and I got into leadership and I never looked back. So, um, I think I just like to be known as somebody that enjoyed every minute of sharing my faith with, with the, uh, planet that I lived on.

Speaker 2: 39:42

And as you look back at everything that God has done in and through you, what would you say that you're most proud of?

Speaker 3: 39:48

Say my family. Yeah. I'm very proud of my family because too many people come up to me and tell me stories about how their families, a mass or their one child isn't doing well. Or they have a waiver this, or wherever that, or my husband's thinking about walking out on me and I've never had that. I've never had to worry about that. My children never disappointed me. Um, I mean, never, I can't think of one instance where they disappointed me. Um, which is crazy. I just, when my parents weekly, you know, so I mean maybe daily. So for that to happen for me, it's a miracle, right? So yeah, no, I'm really proud of my family.

Speaker 2: 40:37

Uh, in Brian's interview, he asked the question, I just thought it was powerful. Um, and uh, I mentioned in the beginning of the interview that you've spoken into my life multiple times over the years and just affirm things and just in our time together, again, not sure how many more times we'll get to connect. Is there anything you want to say to me or would share with me just through our relationship?

Speaker 3: 40:55

Well, I love the fact that you have taken on the concept of leadership, leadership, leadership when that's not happening, you get into leadership, right? You, um, because that's what I think we need to harvest. We need people who put their hand in the pile and help move it forward. And each of us do it differently, but you focused on that and, um, you've got other stuff you're doing. It's not your only job. I mean, you've done this kind of, almost on the side of your regular work, which means it's even more of a focus to you. And I've always said, I really love the fact that God's put his finger on you and called you to do that. Because I tried to do that. I tried to lead people and get them into ministry or into leadership positions, but, um, you're much more focused on it than I ever was. So I'm really excited about how God's using you at a young age to be focused on that. And I'm calling people to, to the party, calling people to be part of a winning our world for Christ.

Speaker 2: 42:12

Thank you, Danny. And this will be my last question, unless you want to go anywhere else, but anything else you want to share with leaders today?

Speaker 3: 42:19

My only thought would be to try to stay as singularly focused as you can on what is the one thing you got to stay on track with? There used to be a guy on TV before you guys were born. Um, you'd be like on the ed Sullivan show and he was spinning plates, right? And he'd walk down the line and they were on like little polls and he hit the plate, hit the next and this one's loud and he'd run over and hit this. Then he'd run over and hit this one. And of course everybody's waiting for a plate to fall and crash and they never did because he was really good at, I sort of see that as all the things you're doing in your life, but in the middle of this really big plate. And every time you hit the small plate, hit the big plate and hit the small plate, hit the big plate. When you do this, hit the big plate. In other words, what is that one plate? It's the center of what you are to be focused on your life. Don't lose sight of that because the world's going to crowd that out. It's going to crowd it out. It's going to call you for, to give yourself over to a lot of stuff. It isn't all that meaningful. So stay singularly focused on what it is that you're most called to do with your life. And I hope that's helped people get into heaven. I really do,

Speaker 2: 43:46

Danny. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your life example. Thank you for long obedience in the same direction for your entire life. And again, just thank you for everything you shared here today. Again, for those listening, I can't encourage you enough to connect with the family wins. It's awesome. And again, there'll be links to all of that in the show notes. And, um, thanks again, Denny. Just appreciate you and thank you for the impact you've had on my life. Oh, bless you. Hey leader. Thank you so much for listening to my interview with Denny Patton. I hope that it impacted you as much as it impacted me. And, um, I really want to challenge you to think of, you know, five other leaders that this could impact and send this episode to them. Cause I really think this could change. A lot of leaders lives a lot of leaders, trajectories, and lot of leaders focus. And so thank you in advance for that. And again, I mentioned it several times in the conversation, but family wins. Devotional is incredible. And I think it will be a game changer for you personally, spiritually, but also for your family. So I encourage you to buy a copy or 10 for other leaders that you know, as well. And you can check that out. The family wins.org as always. Um, you can find ways to connect to everything with Denny, Denny. And I discussed in the show notes@lthreeleadership.org four slash two 71 as always like to end with a quote and Mae West is this one of my favorite quotes. She said this. She said we only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. I'll say that again because I thought it was so fitting for this episode. We only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough leaders. I hope this episode transformed your life. And until next time, Lauren, I love you. We believe in you go make a difference.

Speaker 4: 45:27

[inaudible].