WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.200 There is a natural way to lead people. 2 00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:06.440 There is a God-ordained way to lead people. 3 00:00:06.440 --> 00:00:09.080 And it's organic in that it's God's way. 4 00:00:09.080 --> 00:00:12.280 It's God's natural way of how we treat people. 5 00:00:12.280 --> 00:00:16.000 It's God's natural way for our environment 6 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:19.520 that blesses others and brings forth 7 00:00:19.520 --> 00:00:21.800 and enhances the kingdom of God. 8 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:23.080 And it's life-giving. 9 00:00:23.080 --> 00:00:33.440 So the whole family has always been involved in organic food 10 00:00:33.440 --> 00:00:35.080 without even knowing it. 11 00:00:35.080 --> 00:00:39.800 I grew up on a ranch in South Carolina. 12 00:00:39.800 --> 00:00:43.080 And my grandmother had this massive garden. 13 00:00:43.080 --> 00:00:45.280 I mean, it would be, I would say it was probably 14 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:50.920 like 40 yards long by 20 yards wide. 15 00:00:50.920 --> 00:00:53.000 And it had all organic food. 16 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:56.360 There was no Monsanto, pesticides, or anything. 17 00:00:56.360 --> 00:00:58.880 This would be in the 60s and 70s. 18 00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:01.960 And then dad, my dad, wherever we lived, 19 00:01:01.960 --> 00:01:03.680 always did a garden. 20 00:01:03.680 --> 00:01:07.600 So even though we lived in suburban places, 21 00:01:07.600 --> 00:01:10.680 my dad was a pastor, and we moved about every six years, 22 00:01:10.680 --> 00:01:12.120 always dad did a garden. 23 00:01:12.120 --> 00:01:16.160 So I just grew up eating great vegetables 24 00:01:16.160 --> 00:01:19.720 from organic gardens that were in our family. 25 00:01:19.720 --> 00:01:21.680 And organic wasn't even a word. 26 00:01:21.720 --> 00:01:24.400 I mean, we weren't even using the word I eat organic 27 00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:26.040 or inorganic or whatever. 28 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:28.400 And then when Liz and I got married, 29 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:33.000 we lived the first seven years or so in Japan. 30 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:34.720 Japan is very organic. 31 00:01:34.720 --> 00:01:37.480 Even the way in which they process their food 32 00:01:37.480 --> 00:01:42.040 back in the 80s and then into the early 90s 33 00:01:42.040 --> 00:01:43.800 would be considered organic. 34 00:01:43.800 --> 00:01:47.720 They did have imports that came in 35 00:01:47.720 --> 00:01:49.320 from other countries in Asia. 36 00:01:49.320 --> 00:01:51.640 And all I can tell you is the taste. 37 00:01:51.640 --> 00:01:56.640 All I remember is the taste of the food in Japan 38 00:01:56.920 --> 00:01:58.400 tasted like organic. 39 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:02.880 So when you tasted a tomato or a cucumber in Japan 40 00:02:02.880 --> 00:02:06.720 or an onion in Japan, whether it came from Japan or not, 41 00:02:06.720 --> 00:02:08.320 it tasted organic. 42 00:02:08.320 --> 00:02:13.320 And so what does it mean to grow foods organically 43 00:02:13.400 --> 00:02:15.400 or not organically? 44 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:17.240 Some of the terms that have been used 45 00:02:17.240 --> 00:02:20.800 is genetically modified foods. 46 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:24.640 And these are foods that have pesticides and hormones 47 00:02:24.640 --> 00:02:27.680 sprayed or injected into them. 48 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:30.600 And it's become a big problem for our nation. 49 00:02:30.600 --> 00:02:32.640 I think we could say health-wise, 50 00:02:32.640 --> 00:02:36.880 we are one of the most unhealthy nations in the world 51 00:02:36.880 --> 00:02:40.160 because of GMOs, because of pesticides. 52 00:02:40.160 --> 00:02:44.640 I would call it fake food, fast food, and forever food. 53 00:02:44.640 --> 00:02:46.360 Forever food I made up. 54 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:48.760 But forever food means it's got 55 00:02:48.760 --> 00:02:52.080 so many injected preservatives into it 56 00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:54.240 that it's infecting us. 57 00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:57.880 And if we were to grow just organic foods, 58 00:02:57.880 --> 00:03:01.800 we would be a much, much healthier nation as a result. 59 00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:04.480 And what would happen if we didn't have 60 00:03:04.480 --> 00:03:07.680 growth-regulating drugs, steroids, and hormones 61 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:10.160 or antibiotics in our food? 62 00:03:10.160 --> 00:03:12.080 It would just be huge. 63 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:16.200 So inorganic food is basically food 64 00:03:16.200 --> 00:03:18.640 that has synthetic chemicals, 65 00:03:18.640 --> 00:03:21.920 such as pesticides and artificial fertilizers, 66 00:03:21.920 --> 00:03:26.120 genetically modified into the food system. 67 00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:30.280 And so it's a chemical-laced system. 68 00:03:30.280 --> 00:03:34.000 So in a nutshell, if we did not have chemicals 69 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:38.400 in our system, we would not have cancer-producing, 70 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:41.240 heart disease-producing, diabetic-producing, 71 00:03:41.240 --> 00:03:44.360 and dozens of other autoimmune diseases 72 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:46.760 ravaging our population. 73 00:03:46.760 --> 00:03:48.120 We'd be healthier. 74 00:03:48.120 --> 00:03:49.680 We'd be more energetic. 75 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:51.480 We'd be more thriving. 76 00:03:51.480 --> 00:03:53.960 But think about this. 77 00:03:53.960 --> 00:03:57.960 It also means that the cancer industry 78 00:03:57.960 --> 00:04:00.040 wouldn't have as many patients. 79 00:04:00.040 --> 00:04:05.040 And the diabetic industry wouldn't have as many patients. 80 00:04:05.320 --> 00:04:08.680 And we wouldn't have as many heart doctors 81 00:04:08.680 --> 00:04:11.800 because more and more people would have healthy doctors. 82 00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:16.800 So the whole system is set up based on greed, in my opinion. 83 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:21.399 So I'm talking about being as organic 84 00:04:21.399 --> 00:04:22.960 as possible with our food. 85 00:04:22.960 --> 00:04:27.760 And that's just simply, this is just a metaphor. 86 00:04:27.760 --> 00:04:30.120 This is only a metaphor that I'm using 87 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:33.160 as it relates to leadership. 88 00:04:33.160 --> 00:04:35.280 Let me tell you what I think organic means 89 00:04:35.280 --> 00:04:36.920 in relation to what I'm talking about. 90 00:04:36.920 --> 00:04:41.840 And that is, what is God's kingdom way? 91 00:04:41.840 --> 00:04:44.160 So what would be God's kingdom way for food? 92 00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:47.560 What would be God's kingdom way for how we raise our animals? 93 00:04:47.560 --> 00:04:50.640 What would be God's kingdom way for growing crops? 94 00:04:50.640 --> 00:04:54.720 It would mean treating the soil, the animals, 95 00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:58.400 and our food supply in the, listen now, 96 00:04:58.400 --> 00:05:00.080 the most natural way. 97 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:07.920 I'm using this as a metaphor for leadership because I believe that when we lead God's 98 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:13.400 people in the most natural kingdom way, it's healthy. 99 00:05:13.400 --> 00:05:15.080 It's the healthiest way. 100 00:05:15.080 --> 00:05:20.400 So I'm calling this kingdom leadership or natural leadership, or the term I'm going 101 00:05:20.400 --> 00:05:22.920 to use is organic leadership. 102 00:05:22.920 --> 00:05:25.720 Let me give you some points to this. 103 00:05:25.720 --> 00:05:36.000 Organic literally means things that are natural, organic, or related to nature as God intended. 104 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:41.560 In common uses, when we think of organic, we say healthy or close to nature. 105 00:05:41.560 --> 00:05:48.880 It can also be described as foods or animals grown without artificial pesticides or fertilizers. 106 00:05:48.880 --> 00:05:56.440 In other words, organic refers to living things or living materials birthed from that. 107 00:05:56.440 --> 00:06:02.640 So when dad or my grandfather were doing their gardening, and in the case of my grandfather 108 00:06:02.640 --> 00:06:05.720 on the ranch, he was doing his farming. 109 00:06:05.720 --> 00:06:08.680 He let the soil be natural. 110 00:06:08.680 --> 00:06:15.720 In other words, he let the vitamins and the enzymes and the supplements that were a part 111 00:06:15.720 --> 00:06:23.800 of the soil come into those plants that then grew fruit that bore forth what we now call 112 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:25.120 organic food. 113 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:27.720 He just considered it natural. 114 00:06:27.720 --> 00:06:33.440 And so what granddaddy would do is every seven years, he would actually burn a part of his property. 115 00:06:33.440 --> 00:06:37.020 It was a, what we call a controlled burn. 116 00:06:37.020 --> 00:06:45.280 So it was not uncommon for me as a kid going along and seeing these burned areas that would 117 00:06:45.280 --> 00:06:48.240 be for a whole year, nothing grew there. 118 00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:51.720 They would just burn it and they'd rest it for a year. 119 00:06:51.720 --> 00:06:54.200 And then the next year he would farm it. 120 00:06:54.200 --> 00:06:55.720 And so you understand what I'm saying? 121 00:06:55.720 --> 00:07:04.160 So imagine say 150 or 200 acres of farmland where 15 acres was not being used. 122 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:06.060 It was burned over. 123 00:07:06.060 --> 00:07:08.180 He rested it for a year. 124 00:07:08.180 --> 00:07:12.840 And the reason he did that was for the soil to repair itself naturally. 125 00:07:12.840 --> 00:07:15.040 And then he would take another 15 acres. 126 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:18.880 He would do the same thing with that, but then he would now take the other 15 acres 127 00:07:18.880 --> 00:07:20.600 and he would plant on that. 128 00:07:20.600 --> 00:07:27.880 So here's what I see when I speak of organic leadership is that there is a natural way 129 00:07:27.880 --> 00:07:29.400 to lead people. 130 00:07:29.400 --> 00:07:32.680 There is a God ordained way to lead people. 131 00:07:32.680 --> 00:07:35.200 And it's organic in that it's God's way. 132 00:07:35.200 --> 00:07:38.540 It's God's natural way of how we treat people. 133 00:07:38.540 --> 00:07:46.260 It's God's natural way for our environment that blesses others and brings forth and enhances 134 00:07:46.260 --> 00:07:47.940 the kingdom of God. 135 00:07:47.940 --> 00:07:48.940 And it's life-giving. 136 00:07:48.940 --> 00:07:54.940 So I debated about calling this life-giving leadership or the kingdom of God way of leadership. 137 00:07:54.940 --> 00:07:57.100 I'm calling it organic leadership. 138 00:07:57.100 --> 00:08:06.420 So I'm talking about God's natural living ways that I believe were best modeled by Jesus 139 00:08:06.420 --> 00:08:07.420 Christ. 140 00:08:07.460 --> 00:08:15.220 So the way in which Jesus grew people, the way Jesus built people, the way Jesus empowered 141 00:08:15.220 --> 00:08:19.060 and equipped people is the best leadership. 142 00:08:19.060 --> 00:08:21.380 It's the best leadership in the world. 143 00:08:21.380 --> 00:08:27.580 And so I'm going to contrast that to what I'm going to call inorganic leadership or 144 00:08:27.580 --> 00:08:29.700 corporate leadership. 145 00:08:29.700 --> 00:08:33.980 So when we look at the American landscape, there's a lot on leadership. 146 00:08:33.980 --> 00:08:39.539 There's probably more nonfiction books on leadership and psychology, kind of in those 147 00:08:39.539 --> 00:08:41.100 two categories. 148 00:08:41.100 --> 00:08:46.620 If we were to go to a Barnes and Noble or even Amazon, as far as nonfiction books, those 149 00:08:46.620 --> 00:08:51.540 would probably be the biggest categories on the shelves, the biggest categories that you 150 00:08:51.540 --> 00:08:58.140 can order from because everybody that's in the corporate world is wanting to know about 151 00:08:58.140 --> 00:08:59.140 leadership. 152 00:08:59.140 --> 00:09:01.460 Well, I'm going to challenge that system. 153 00:09:01.460 --> 00:09:08.580 There's a different kind of leadership that is called what I'm calling organic leadership. 154 00:09:08.580 --> 00:09:11.020 That's kingdom of God leadership. 155 00:09:11.020 --> 00:09:19.620 And it's in contrast to the inorganic, maybe American corporate system that we have today. 156 00:09:19.620 --> 00:09:25.220 And I've had to learn this the hard way, even as a pastor and a leader and a coach, much 157 00:09:25.220 --> 00:09:32.660 of my leadership in the past has been built on the wrong principles, on the wrong attitudes 158 00:09:32.660 --> 00:09:36.380 toward people and even toward getting things done. 159 00:09:36.380 --> 00:09:41.980 And so what I'm going to do in this series is begin to break down what I mean by organic 160 00:09:41.980 --> 00:09:46.580 leadership, why I think it works, why I think it's the most effective way. 161 00:09:46.580 --> 00:09:51.340 And so wherever you are in your journey, if you're in college, maybe you've never been 162 00:09:51.340 --> 00:09:57.340 to college or you're in a job or you started a company or you're an entrepreneur, whatever 163 00:09:57.340 --> 00:10:00.020 your background, I believe. 164 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:03.240 The Jesus way of leadership is organic. 165 00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:04.080 It's the best. 166 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:07.320 It will be the most natural to your heart 167 00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:10.520 because you are created in the image of God. 168 00:10:10.520 --> 00:10:13.360 And so the image of God flowing through you 169 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:16.840 is going to be the most natural way for you to lead. 170 00:10:16.840 --> 00:10:20.080 And I would say this, that just like a tomato plant 171 00:10:20.080 --> 00:10:23.920 or a cucumber plant or asparagus plant, 172 00:10:23.920 --> 00:10:25.480 everybody's different. 173 00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:27.360 Everybody's gonna lead different. 174 00:10:27.400 --> 00:10:30.480 I'm gonna be talking about broad principles 175 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:33.600 that relate to organic leadership, 176 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:38.040 but the actual way in which you lead 177 00:10:38.040 --> 00:10:41.560 will be very, very different for you than it is for me 178 00:10:41.560 --> 00:10:42.900 or from your neighbor. 179 00:10:42.900 --> 00:10:44.280 So we have different ways. 180 00:10:44.280 --> 00:10:47.240 So I wanna set your heart, first of all, 181 00:10:47.240 --> 00:10:49.120 in this beginning to just say, 182 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:51.520 when I speak of organic leadership, 183 00:10:51.520 --> 00:10:55.480 the natural living ways of God and leadership, 184 00:10:55.480 --> 00:10:58.280 kingdom of God way of guiding, coaching, loving, 185 00:10:58.280 --> 00:11:01.760 and leading God's people or people in general 186 00:11:01.760 --> 00:11:03.400 created in the image of God 187 00:11:03.400 --> 00:11:05.600 will be different for each person. 188 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:07.640 It'll be unique to you. 189 00:11:07.640 --> 00:11:09.400 So I hope it'll be a blessing to you. 190 00:11:09.400 --> 00:11:11.680 And in the next episode, 191 00:11:11.680 --> 00:11:13.640 I wanna talk about what Jesus said. 192 00:11:13.640 --> 00:11:15.680 I think it's his most poignant, 193 00:11:15.680 --> 00:11:20.060 most powerful passage in scripture on the contrast 194 00:11:20.060 --> 00:11:22.600 between what I call corporate leadership, 195 00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:25.600 corporate in inorganic leadership 196 00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:28.820 and God's kingdom organic leadership. 197 00:11:28.820 --> 00:11:31.820 So I wanna talk about what Jesus said. 198 00:11:31.820 --> 00:11:36.820 In the next episode, I wanna talk about what Jesus said.