Ken McMullen and Chris Lambert discuss the importance scripture places on remembering the poor.
Chris also discusses the work of the nonprofit organization, Life Remodeled, working to revitalize Detroit neighborhoods as well as the concepts in his new book, 'Next Level Nonprofit.'
Chris Lambert has been listed in Crain’s 40 Under 40, Building Design +
Construction 40 under 40, and SMART BUSINESS Dealmaker of the Year,
He received his Undergraduate degree at Indiana University's Kelley school of business, Master of Divinity at Fuller Theological seminary, Doctor of Ministry from Gordon -Conwell Theological Seminary and has completed fundraising training from Harvard University.
He is the founder and CEO of Life Remodeled, a nonprofit revitalizing Detroit neighborhoods.
liferemodeled.org
becomingoutlaws.com
facebook.com/becomingoutlaws
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Now the monkey Outlaws, he said, come follow me, people from all
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walks of life since then becoming alloys.
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Chris. And you're eating relations,
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too. And I get what, you know,
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sometimes re-stuff a hundred times and I get to the part
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where he, excuse me, Paul, let me let me back up a little bit.
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For those are listening that I can't just jump in.
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Everyone knows Galatians 2, right?
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So Paul the Apostle Paul was not original disciple and he was
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actually a persecutor of the church arresting involved, in
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killing Christians, and needing to put down this cult.
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Because it was disrespecting God and you know Judaism it kind of
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made sense and his perspective he was a high-level scholar in
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Judaism. It was very passionate about
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putting this group down and he has a Divine encounter with the
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Risen Christ who says, why are you persecuting me?
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You know, long story short. He realizes.
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This is Judaism. This isn't a cult.
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This is the Fulfillment of everything he had been In living
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and didn't see it. So, surprisingly, he doesn't go
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right to Jerusalem and meet the disciples and say, hey, here's
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what happened. He goes like Arabia, and he's
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preaching for about three years. And, you know, then he comes
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back Jerusalem, eat them then. It's like another 14 years
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later. Now we're up to like Galatians
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and he comes back because of controversy stirring in that
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he's preaching to what was called the Gentiles, which is
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now Gentiles are predominantly Christian, Now, which would be
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maybe you, I guess, but people who were outside to Judaism and
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people are getting mad at him. Some people are still mad at
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Paul's teachings. That's not a new thing, but
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really mad, then that he was not having new converts to
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Christianity practice Judaism, Customs, that maybe you need to
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go to Moses, then Jesus kind of situation.
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So he goes to Jerusalem. He has what I think is one of
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the most important me Meetings in world history with three of
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the major disciples Apostles and says hey here's what I'm
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preaching. Does it line up with what you're
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doing? It's a big deal.
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He leaves and says they added nothing to my teaching.
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They gave me the right hand of Fellowship not the left foot of
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Fellowship as we call, like the - but they said you're in,
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you're on board were 100% in sync, and then this is what Got
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me emailing. You is made me think of you.
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He says, the only thing they asked is that I remember the
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poor and I thought you know it sounds like a side comment you
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could just go after but this is like a very, very important
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meeting. They go over the doctrines of
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the faith. What does it mean to become to
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be a Christian to have a relationship with God?
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What are those doctrines? But they're in complete
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agreement that moving forward with this new faith and
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teaching. We can't forget the poor that
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just really struck me because this isn't judging the church or
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anything and most churches have a ways to go, oh, you know,
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programs more than others and helping the less fortunate.
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But it seems to me that that is a pillar of something that maybe
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needs to be a little stronger and it just struck me as here's
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a guy. And now I'm going to introduce
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people to you and then hand it over to you.
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So I with me, Chris Lambert here, CEO of Life are modeled
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and who Chris is. I actually have a little
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information here. He was listed in cranes, 40
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under 40, building and design, and construction, 40 under 40
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and smart business. Dealer maker of the Year
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excusing undergraduate at Indiana University and Kelley
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School of Business, has a master of divinity of Fuller,
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Theological Seminary, doctor of ministry from Gordon-Conwell
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Theological Seminary and had fundraising training from
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Harvard University. So you're no dumb, dumb, Chris.
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That's what I just read there. The jury is still out on top.
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Top of all of that, don't you this before?
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But you're seriously. The only guy, you know, that
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could truly pull off like a multi-pattern, pink flamingo
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shirt, and just rock it. I saw you wear one.
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I don't know what it was way back when you had like
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Fixing up their their neighborhoods and we'll talk
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more about that Chris. But this Galatians thing that
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hit me, it made me think of you because you wanted to Ministry,
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you became a pastor, then you've been here, you are a very
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successful leading, a philanthropic, nonprofit, urban
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renewal thing and I thought you know what that's I mean there's
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something different for everybody, but What let's start
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with? I've got the question is it
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seems to me that verse or not. That, that truth hit you
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somewhere along the line to transfer from a pastor to
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Hands-On, pull up your sleeves and help people what back up and
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what was your original conversion?
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What led you to the faith to begin with?
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So, I grew up in a small town in northern Indiana.
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And when I say small town, I mean, we didn't have a four-way
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stop light. It allows a middle school and
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when it came to spirituality, my parents would take my sister and
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I had a church service. Maybe.
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I don't know 25% of the sun days of the month, or something like
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that, but we never really talked about God and the home, but for
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whatever reason ever, since I can remember, I was this really
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spiritual kid. It's so much so that in eighth
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grade classmates kind of informally gave me the nickname
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Lambert. The Jesus Freak.
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All right, and I wasn't Very successful at my mission, to try
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to lead everybody to Christianity.
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But, but let's just say I was very passionate that lasted up
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until right before I turned 16, I hit a growth spurt.
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That didn't last as long as I hoped but long enough to kind of
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make me a big fish in a small pond when it came to Athletics,
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a my high school was a decent sized about 1 kids.
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Because three little cities all went to the same high school but
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long story short, I completely walked away from my faith.
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That point because I realized at least I came to the conclusion
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that my buddies who were not following God, we're having a
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lot more fun than me and my youth group.
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So I said, goodbye Jesus. I ran as far and as fast away
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from them as I possibly could basically pursuing a lifestyle
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of drugs, alcohol, girls and everything I thought was going
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to make me happy and I ended up going to Indiana University to
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study business in. 1999, I joined.
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What was the largest Fraternity on campus at the time.
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So I could have more of all the things that I was looking for.
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And, you know, life was going pretty good or so, I thought,
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but there be these nights when I would lie in bed and I think to
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myself, wow, this isn't really doing for me, but I thought that
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it would do for me. I'm not as happy as I expect it
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to be. So my solution to my perceived
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problem was just a double down and do even more of all the
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activities that I, you know, had just mentioned, my junior year
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of college, I decided to move. Australia to study and I put
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that in quotation. Marks overseas.
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There wasn't a whole lot of studying going on, but while I
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was there, I ended up experiencing what I would call
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radical encounter with God. The change, the whole trajectory
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of my life. So a couple things happen on
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that trip. One, I was traveling around and
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of course, Australia, South East Asia, the Pacific Rim and I
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began to realize the world was a very big place and it certainly
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didn't revolve around. My 22 year old ego and I also
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met a couple guys over there. Who became my closest friends,
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they happen to be what I would call Jesus followers, but they
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were pretty fun guys, that could go out to a bar, have a few
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drinks and go home and meanwhile I'd stay out doing all the
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things they weren't doing and they kept pressuring me to come
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with them to their church service.
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And I was like, no way and I use the number of choice words, you
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know? And I think that that's not
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going to happen, man. I certainly didn't come to Edit
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to meet with with Jesus, right? And they wouldn't stop and
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eventually they just convinced me and I said fine I'll go.
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And anyway we go to this little church service and it was okay,
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I went back a second time in the third time that I went I
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experienced hearing. God speak to me for the first
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time of my life and it was not an audible voice but it was more
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clear than anything I've ever heard.
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Another human being say to me and that was a climax.
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Well, a major crossroads in my life where The biggest
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transformation that came out of that experience that inspired me
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was prior to that experience. You know I lived in a bubble
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with my friends. I loved my parents, my sister,
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my friends, the girl I thought I was going to marry but I was
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paying no attention to the rest of the people in the world are
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very self-centered. And immediately after that
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experience, I began to be filled with what I would call like this
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radical curiosity where I wanted to connect with people.
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We'll find out about them, get to know them for who they were
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and I cared about people. So I moved back to Indiana
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University before my senior year and shortly.
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Before I left, I you to go to Australia.
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There was there wasn't a single Jesus follower, and this entire
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fraternity, I'm 180 guys before I got back and this had nothing
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to do with, to do with me, my three best friends.
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In the Frat had also had these radical encounters with Jesus,
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plus my drug dealer. Allure.
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So we got this Bible study going in the fraternity.
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When I came back, we started leading all these dudes to Jesus
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and I start thinking about my future and I realized I don't
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want to go to law school and become a real estate developer.
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I just want to help people connect with God and so, I felt
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like God was calling me to be to be a pastor.
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So, I moved out to Los Angeles, studied at a seminary out there
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called Fuller met, the woman who became my wife.
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We felt led to come to Detroit to start a church before we did
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that. We To Africa for nine months and
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and you know, I'll stop there. But yeah, it's been quite a
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journey. Yeah.
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So I'm speaking to a youth group in about a week in South
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Carolina and I have a list of questions from them.
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One is, how do you know you're hearing God's voice in the midst
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of a basically the summit up in a loud world and all the
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thoughts in your head so listening to you?
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You know, you talked about you felt like you had a word from
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God as your friends did, and then you, you went on using the
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terms like, well then, I felt lead while you're making major
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decisions but not a voice, could you for someone asking those
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kinds of questions? Like, what do people mean when
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they're saying that? I want to start with something,
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I believe is a very profound and important truth.
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So I'll use an analogy right now.
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Anywhere we are in the world. All of our listeners are
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experiencing every song, every TV station and literally every
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bit of information that's going on in on the internet that's
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available on the internet, all passing through their them and
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even their bodies as we speak, right?
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And we can tap into those radio stations, those TV stations and
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everything on the world wide web.
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If we have the right tool set to the right frequency, right?
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If we have the right radio, ZR, the right TV station or
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satellite, or the right internet connection or whatever.
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But all of those messages are literally running through our
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atmosphere 24/7. And I believe the same thing is
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true or similar. Things are true with God.
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I believe God is speaking to us his children and really all of
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us quite frequently and we're missing what he's saying most of
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the time because we're not tuned in.
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And so, I believe that first and foremost hearing from God starts
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with B Leaving that he does speak and he is speaking to us
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today and I believe that he speaks to us through a wide
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variety of scenarios, I mean and we can see it in the Bible,
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right? God even spoke through the Stars
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to the Magi, who ended up finding Jesus.
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And God speaks and audible voices, which I've never
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personally heard he speaks to our heart.
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He speaks when we're praying, he speaks through the scriptures.
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That's his word, you know, from cover to cover.
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So one of the ways I think we all know When God speaking is we
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take whatever we believe he said to the scriptures and see, does
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it line up with the scriptures? Because if it contradicts that,
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then we know that, okay, that's not God, right?
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And then sharing that with our brothers and sisters in the
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faith and people who know us well and processing, what we
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think we've heard and asking them, does this does this sound
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like, you know, something you could see the Holy Spirit doing
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in my life and of course prayer. And then, you know, looking for
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Or praying for discernment and looking for God to continue to
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lead us that direction. So it's a it's a wide variety of
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things but it always starts with faith ends with faith.
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You know, continues with faith, right?
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Yeah. I like you brought it back to
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scripture. I was at a youth Pastors
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conference years and years ago when I was a youth pastor and
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there was a pastor of a major firts of a Mainline
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denominations. I was just hanging out with them
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on a break. I'm or whatever talking about
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hearing from the spear. Having the same kind of
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conversation and he says, it was more rhetorical that he says.
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So what if you're praying and spending time in God's word and
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you hear something owner to God's word, a different voice,
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And I said, well that's not the voice you want to listen to, and
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unfortunately that Pastor thought, no, this is a new era,
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the new way to see, scripture boy.
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Yeah. So that's interesting.
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But scripture does say today when you hear his voice, but
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you're right. Number one, is you got to
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acknowledge that it's happening? Yeah.
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Yeah. And you know, specifically on
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the topic today, I want to thank you for spending so much time on
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this incredibly important truth. When my wife and I lived in
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Africa for nine months, I lived in a mud hut in a Muslim village
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with no running water in Liberia West Africa.
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Amongst some very, very difficult life circumstances and
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that experience in Africa, played a very significant role
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in helping me see? Aside and a perspective of Jesus
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that I hadn't seen as clearly before and I hadn't been taught
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when I was younger in the church and and you know, I came to this
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conclusion and some people may be a little off, you know,
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off-put by this, but I am absolutely convinced God is
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biased convinced that God is biased toward those who are
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suffering. Those who are downcast, those
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who are disenfranchised. Marginalized and oppressed and
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certainly those who are in desperation, right?
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And I believe that if we start coming to the scripture looking
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to see if that's true, we're going to see it.
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Literally from Genesis all the way to Revelation, and
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particularly in the life of Jesus, what we came really clear
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to me in Africa is when I started reading the Gospels, it
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just became so evident to me that Jesus was spending the
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majority of his time with people.
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People who were the most marginalized and oppressed.
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I mean, even the Jewish people themselves were among the most
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marginalized on the whole planet being subjected to the Roman
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Empire. One of the most vicious Empires
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that's ever existed and constantly mistreated, but then
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Jesus didn't stop there, right? He went to the drunks the
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prostitutes, the lepers, the outcast, he went into the red
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light district amongst, you know, the outcasts of the women
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who were outcasts and he was constantly with the poorest of
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the poor and Is trying to get his disciples to do the same
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thing, right? And so my conclusion is this, I
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don't think that that means that all of us need a pack up right
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now and move into a mud hut or move into the hood.
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Although that may be what God's calling you to do, right?
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But I do believe it means that all of us are called to invest
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our time, our talents, our resources in people who are
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marginalized, oppress and suffering, and God loves
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everybody. Right.
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But even, you know, Isaiah 61, which was the very first sermon
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that Jesus preached in his hometown.
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He starts it off with. You know, he came to bring the
00:18:02
good news to who to the poor, right.
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And he puts an extreme focus on people who are literally poor
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financially poor. Sometimes we like to over
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spiritualize that and say, oh well we're all poor spiritually,
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so everybody matters. Look, yeah, we Are all poor
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spiritually. Everybody matters.
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And God throughout the whole scripture is drawing the most
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close with people who are suffering and oppressed and
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marginalized. So Ken, thank you for for
00:18:37
spending this time on the such an important subject.
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You never said, when you've done it to the best of these, the
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most comfort of these, the most well-off of these, then you've
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done it to me, you never said that.
00:18:50
Wow. Right.
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Yeah, but there's nothing wrong. There's no respect.
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Guy has no respecter of persons. But yet Jesus says, when you've
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done it to the least of these, you've done it to me.
00:19:02
He never put himself as far as like our Behavior towards other
00:19:06
human beings in a light of helping him.
00:19:11
I think other than may be spreading the gospel, but I
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think the gospel is it sharing to the least of these the poor?
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So they're spiritually poor which of the People goes to
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everyone spiritually, poor to, they find the riches of Truth.
00:19:27
Amen. And then the physically for And
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that's why I mean the Galatians to not to just get stuck on that
00:19:35
particular verse but you know, backing all up a little bit.
00:19:41
Paul even says something there a couple verses before that sent
00:19:43
that sounds almost disrespectful to Peter.
00:19:46
James John, like the the pillars that spent time with Christ
00:19:50
himself. And now they're leading this
00:19:52
whole new movement, he's like some see them as esteemed and
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they meant nothing. Nothing to me.
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He's like not them. Personally, but their status not
00:20:03
to disrespect, it really means nothing to me because God is no
00:20:06
respecter of persons, but then they turn around.
00:20:10
Say, remember the boar they didn't say, hey remember, an
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honor and esteem Peter remembered honours team John,
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he's like just remember to respect us because of who we are
00:20:19
as remember, don't remember the poor and not that that's new to
00:20:25
me but you just the heart of it. Like you said, it's all through
00:20:28
scripture. And it's easy to look at the Old
00:20:31
Testament. Go, who is this?
00:20:32
God, he seems like he's still wrathful and vengeful and he's
00:20:35
killing all these people. But a lot of times it's
00:20:39
overlooked that he's always showing care and concern and
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he's always the father to the fatherless and a spouse to the
00:20:52
widowed, and the orphan, and the New Testament goes, as far as to
00:20:56
say, that that really is our faith, that our Religion.
00:21:01
Comes down to looking after those who are lonely fatherless
00:21:09
and and on their own, you know, and going back to God speaking.
00:21:14
I really believe that everything God is saying to us if it's in
00:21:18
one category or the other, right?
00:21:20
It's either a word of challenge or it's a word of invitation and
00:21:24
we can certainly find so many words of challenge in the Bible
00:21:28
when it comes to caring for the poor.
00:21:30
I mean the whole Parable of the sheep and the goats that Jesus
00:21:34
preaches like that that can be a very scary Parable, right.
00:21:37
But there's also so many words of invitation that God is giving
00:21:42
us when it comes to caring for the poor.
00:21:44
And that's what I really want to focus on right now and share
00:21:47
from my own experience and that you know, we don't we don't
00:21:51
change a lot in life when we just operate out of shame or
00:21:54
guilt, which there is no shame in Christ, right?
00:21:57
Shame is hating who you are. Guilt is hating what you've
00:22:00
done. We may be Variance in healthy
00:22:02
guilt around that we're not doing enough for the poor, but
00:22:06
oftentimes that doesn't really motivate us to do something
00:22:08
about it. And I want to say that the
00:22:10
invitation to care for the poor is actually life-giving and and
00:22:15
it brings so much joy. I can tell you that in the work
00:22:18
that I do. I experience receiving so much
00:22:23
more joy and fulfillment and happiness, from being with
00:22:27
people who see life, so differently because they've
00:22:30
experienced so much suffering. Ting and just being with them
00:22:33
and learning from them. I really do feel like I
00:22:35
experienced Jesus in a way that I cannot experience him doing
00:22:39
doing otherwise, right? And so, that's one of the things
00:22:43
I really want to focus on today, is the invitation to Greater
00:22:47
levels of joy and so much of our life.
00:22:51
I think in the west is trying to escape suffering.
00:22:55
It's trying to escape hardship. And so sometimes we try to
00:22:59
create these safe Bubbles and we Why we're lacking happiness,
00:23:03
right? And I wanted this make clear
00:23:06
that there is so much joy to be found in being with the people
00:23:10
that are experiencing this hardship because Jesus is
00:23:13
present in such a unique and Powerful way.
00:23:16
So I could never leave the work that I'm doing and and do
00:23:21
something else. Partly because I know that I
00:23:24
would be miserable and maybe that sounds selfish, but I kind
00:23:28
of think that's the way. God has wired us write that.
00:23:31
He's I'm so glad that it feels good to do good, right?
00:23:34
Because if it didn't, then it would be really hard to do.
00:23:39
You know what I mean? I think, you know, scripture New
00:23:42
Testament basically says, how if you don't have compassion on
00:23:46
those that are hurting, how can the love of God even be in you.
00:23:51
So I think about people that even listening to this there,
00:23:54
there treadmill, or they're driving in their car or that
00:23:57
kind of thing. And I think those that are
00:23:59
spirit filled right now, just Listening to this, coming to the
00:24:02
Forefront from scripture. They, it's not a mental thing.
00:24:06
They have a burning like, man, what could I do?
00:24:09
How can I up the ante of what I'm doing?
00:24:11
Maybe I don't have this quite prioritize, and I think those
00:24:14
that don't have quite that relationship with Christ or
00:24:17
they're living in Christianity, the religion and not a
00:24:21
born-again spiritual person will feel the guilt of the
00:24:26
obligation. The me that's almost a divider
00:24:30
is doing NG the work of Christ. Feel like it's an obligation or
00:24:35
when I hear the challenge, the spirits living.
00:24:39
And me, the spears is going to rise up to the challenge and
00:24:41
almost goes to the voice. Sometimes the voice is that
00:24:44
feeling. Yeah, I was in Ottowa this last
00:24:48
week and surprisingly amount of homeless, almost zombie
00:24:53
drugged-out homeless. It was a different.
00:24:55
It was really bad. But in extensive But as I was
00:25:00
walking, walking beautiful. Grounds of the parliament and
00:25:05
Common Grounds for the where the Senate is Most common but
00:25:11
everywhere you know homeless people and you can't help them
00:25:15
all in or you're expected to. But sometimes you feel like at
00:25:20
that time I didn't have any median money on me that I could
00:25:25
have helped somebody, everyone there spoke French practically
00:25:28
and I couldn't communicate with people but if I'd catch I was
00:25:32
somebody. I would feel like I at least
00:25:34
need to share a smile and acceptance that there are human.
00:25:38
Being in that I'm not just looking down at the sidewalk and
00:25:41
moving around. It could be that minimal.
00:25:43
Sometimes it just in our daily lives is that God is no
00:25:46
respecter of persons by the grace of God that could be me.
00:25:50
Who knows conversations? I've had with a lot of them.
00:25:53
You'll find out there World War Two vets are not World War 2,
00:25:55
but like Vietnam Vets, or they have this great service and they
00:25:58
just had some bad things in their life, but that urge it to
00:26:01
me. That's a voice of the holy
00:26:04
spirit that you can deny that. I think any time you reach out
00:26:07
Beyond yourself that you're not going to get anything back, but
00:26:11
you feel this urge to help somebody with no, rip
00:26:16
reciprocation coming that but that's the Holy Spirit working.
00:26:22
Yeah, I didn't believe there's people suffering all around us
00:26:25
right in our own backyard and you know, you may have listeners
00:26:28
right now listening to this podcast who say that's me.
00:26:31
I'm I'm suffering, right? I'm Experiencing poverty or
00:26:35
marginalization and we so we don't have to go necessarily
00:26:39
very far to find people who are struggling and I do want to stay
00:26:45
in the work that we do. We're very focused on the city
00:26:47
of Detroit, because the city of Detroit has experienced
00:26:51
unusually high levels of marginalization, and oppression
00:26:55
historically, for quite some time.
00:26:58
And so, because of that, what we believe in the organization, I
00:27:02
lead is life. Remodeled.
00:27:04
Is that detroiters have all the talent they need?
00:27:08
But many don't have access to all the opportunities they
00:27:11
deserve. And so what we do in response to
00:27:14
that reality is we repurpose large vacant school buildings
00:27:21
into what we would call One Stop hubs of opportunity for entire
00:27:25
families to thrive and we fill these buildings with the best
00:27:28
and brightest nonprofits who are moving the needle on youth
00:27:31
programs job. And health and human services.
00:27:35
And then together, we help these organizations collaborate to
00:27:39
make true lasting impact, truly Revitalize neighborhoods and
00:27:43
remodel lives in a significant ongoing way and the strategies
00:27:48
working. And I'm just so grateful that
00:27:51
the city and the suburbs here in Detroit, and the surrounding
00:27:54
region, there are so many people who are so passionate about
00:27:58
Detroit families and children, and really doing something about
00:28:01
it, right? And, and Back to what you're
00:28:04
talking about. We're finding joy.
00:28:06
In it there's so much joy. We're learning from each other,
00:28:09
we're working together and and God is there.
00:28:12
And God is blessing the efforts. Yeah, so give a story or two to
00:28:18
backup your so that's your strategy.
00:28:20
The mission how it works. But put a face on it and a name
00:28:24
and I know that, probably, if you give an example, is how
00:28:28
these things grow. Is, if someone receives help,
00:28:32
then they're full of Oh and wanting to give back and that's
00:28:36
part of the process, isn't it that?
00:28:38
Yep. Yeah well I won't name any
00:28:41
specific names of individuals right to protect identity but
00:28:46
you know imagine a child who was behind several grade levels in
00:28:51
reading and began attending programming here at the dirty
00:28:55
Innovation society and not only got to grade level in reading
00:29:00
but exceeded in grade level in reading and then because there's
00:29:04
Workforce Development initiatives right here in our
00:29:06
building and his mom was struggling financially and in
00:29:10
hopes of obtaining, a more sustainable livable wage job.
00:29:13
She actually found a new job opportunity, right here through
00:29:17
the program in this building. And now that that family is
00:29:21
receiving the variety of opportunities that they need to
00:29:25
thrive and they're thriving together.
00:29:27
And and of course, telling as many of their friends and family
00:29:30
and Neighbors about the opportunities that Are here and
00:29:34
that's one of the things. So unique about this model,
00:29:37
right? Because no one nonprofit has all
00:29:40
the solutions to society's challenges and take Literacy,
00:29:44
for example, as important as that is.
00:29:48
And it's it's incredibly important, it's not the be-all
00:29:51
to end. Although to success we we all
00:29:54
have received more opportunities in life than just literacy but
00:29:58
to kind of give you you know on a context of what the challenges
00:30:02
were facing. At the school building next door
00:30:05
to us. There's about 800 students and
00:30:08
about 550 of them are Elementary Middle School students.
00:30:13
The rest of them are high school students and just up until
00:30:16
recently only 1%, 1.2 percent of all the elementary middle school
00:30:20
students at this school were able to read at grade level or
00:30:24
perform a math at grade level and let me paint the picture of
00:30:28
how serious this is so many States including Texas.
00:30:33
They're number one, predictor win.
00:30:35
The states, are deciding how many jail cells to build for the
00:30:38
future. Their number one predictor is
00:30:41
how many students are reading at a third, grade level by the end
00:30:45
of third grade, because up until third grade, you're learning how
00:30:49
to read after 3rd grade. You're reading to learn and it
00:30:53
is literally a science that children who aren't at grade
00:30:57
level. By that time, we're creating a
00:31:00
pipeline to prison Ali. Increasing the number of
00:31:05
children, who will go on to commit crimes or end up in a
00:31:08
welfare system or so on and so forth and it's something so
00:31:11
basic as literacy that many of us just take for granted and as
00:31:18
important as literacy is there's so much more to the risk to
00:31:22
success for a family. And so we're bringing families
00:31:25
together by offering all these services on one roof.
00:31:29
Because typically you know, I have to go to one location.
00:31:33
Option for programming, for for, you know, Workforce Development.
00:31:37
I've got to go somewhere else for healthcare.
00:31:39
I've got to go somewhere else for resources for my newborn
00:31:42
infant, you come to the dirty Innovation Society.
00:31:45
All of, that's there Under One Roof and a whole family can come
00:31:48
together and Thrive together. Yeah.
00:31:51
And this isn't a small need. You may know the stats, not
00:31:53
trying to put you on the spot but the amount of illiteracy in
00:31:57
a city like Detroit. It's right now in the entire
00:32:01
city. 92% of third graders in Detroit are currently not able
00:32:10
to read at grade level at the end of third grade and it was in
00:32:14
the 90s. What about like graduation rate,
00:32:16
you know that? Well, I don't know graduation
00:32:19
rate but I also want to say that I don't necessarily think
00:32:21
graduation rate is the best indicator because there's,
00:32:25
there's, I mean, I do know of numbers but there's graduating.
00:32:28
And then there's graduating with proficiency here.
00:32:31
I am not a fan of just Graduating students and moving
00:32:34
them on, right? I, I'm a Believer in actually
00:32:37
educating kids. Yeah.
00:32:39
Then getting the opportunities, they need to thrive and I think
00:32:41
Detroit public schools is really growing significantly and and
00:32:45
moving in the right direction and I'm excited about that.
00:32:48
But when it comes to literacy throughout the city, actually,
00:32:51
50% of adults are functionally illiterate in the city of
00:32:56
Detroit, right now. And that's a cyclical impact,
00:32:59
right? That, if this Doesn't get
00:33:03
remedied. Now, it just produces the Next
00:33:06
Generation, the next generation of literate challenges, and so
00:33:09
there has to be a massive focus on literacy and we're doing that
00:33:13
as a city's. So, many great resources are
00:33:15
happening right now with early childhood education, which is
00:33:18
where it starts and adult literacy and and job
00:33:23
opportunities for adults that can get them out of poverty, and
00:33:27
so life for models playing a part in that, but there's so
00:33:29
many great organizations and people throughout the city.
00:33:33
City that God has really blessed their efforts because again it
00:33:37
goes back to what this your whole show is about today, God's
00:33:40
heart for the poor. And so I get excited when I see
00:33:45
Brothers, like you in the church that are bringing out the, the
00:33:50
scriptural basis for something, that is so important for our
00:33:54
whole lives. Right, so you your book Next
00:33:59
Level, nonprofit. Is about to come out.
00:34:04
Yes. So then what does that mean?
00:34:06
What does that mean? We've created an operating
00:34:10
system that helps nonprofits, significantly increase impact
00:34:15
and build dream teams and by operating system, I don't mean a
00:34:19
software, although I will use software as an analogy really
00:34:23
quickly. So, if you think about the
00:34:26
operating system on your computer, if you have a PC, it's
00:34:29
Windows. If you have a mac, its iOS.
00:34:32
The operating system is the most important software on the entire
00:34:36
device. And it takes extremely complex
00:34:39
inputs and programs and makes them very simple and it
00:34:43
integrates everything into a way that your machine runs the way
00:34:47
you want it to. So people like me can use it, we
00:34:50
can use it, right? But most of us take our
00:34:52
operating system for granted. And so we've created a an
00:34:56
organizational operating system that consists of four major
00:34:59
components. Again, it's not soft.
00:35:02
Software. It's about these four things.
00:35:04
One team unity to compelling Vision 3 right strategy and for
00:35:10
discipline execution and almost imagine a flywheel of these four
00:35:15
things that every time you turn this cycle of this flywheel,
00:35:19
your organization goes to the next level and the next level
00:35:22
after that. And so this book that I've
00:35:24
written, it's a step-by-step process of how to excel in those
00:35:31
four areas. And to create a system where
00:35:33
you're going to have an incredibly United team.
00:35:36
With the right people in the right seats you're going to know
00:35:38
how to attract and retain the top talent because who is always
00:35:43
more important than how you need the right Hooves and the right
00:35:46
seats. And then you'll have the right
00:35:48
house, right? If you have a United team and we
00:35:53
teach you how to create a two-page strategic plan because
00:35:56
either organizations don't have a strategic plan, or the other
00:36:01
extreme is they they have a 20-page plus strategic plan.
00:36:04
That's doing a wonderful job sitting on a desk collecting
00:36:07
shelf coming sitting on a shelf, collecting dust, sorry.
00:36:11
And no one in the organization actually knows what's in that
00:36:14
plan. So we teach you how to create a
00:36:16
two-page plan that everyone will know exactly where their
00:36:20
organizations going, exactly how to get there and be excited
00:36:23
about it. And then we give you the tools
00:36:25
to actually implement this plan on a daily basis.
00:36:29
And so this book is going to allow know Profits to be able to
00:36:33
self implement this system, anytime any place all over the
00:36:37
world. But for organizations who want
00:36:39
to go a lot further, a lot faster.
00:36:41
They're going to want to hire a coach from life from mild to
00:36:45
help them implement this model. And just to give you an idea the
00:36:49
there's a fork there. Several for-profit models out
00:36:51
there for for-profit businesses that are all excellent and the
00:36:55
average cost for the kind of services that I'm talking about
00:36:58
is fifty five to eighty five thousand dollars a year and
00:37:01
we've brought The cost down to only 15 thousand dollars a year
00:37:04
so we can make it accessible and to go back to your show here
00:37:08
that the core emphasis, the whole reason we created this
00:37:12
system is because the people that are nonprofits served at
00:37:18
all, nonprofits, serve, right? The people that we all serve
00:37:21
deserve the highest level of Excellence.
00:37:24
We can possibly give them and so by us, helping other nonprofits,
00:37:30
Impact more people in a more significant and healthy and
00:37:34
sustainable way. We're going to exponentially
00:37:37
bring fruitfulness and and blessing to people experiencing
00:37:42
poverty all over the world. So I'm really excited about what
00:37:45
this book is going to mean for our ability to serve God.
00:37:51
As through serving people, more effectively, how do you find and
00:37:56
attract top tier people to a non-profit when those same
00:38:00
Skills could be used or more revenue or salary in the
00:38:06
commercial Marketplace or is that the is a question.
00:38:09
The answer is that The people you're looking for would
00:38:14
gravitate towards you anyway, and be willing, I guess.
00:38:18
I'm assuming there's like a pay difference, but how you get
00:38:21
top-tier people in a non-profit, I guess.
00:38:23
Well, you know to keep it 100. The nonprofit sector doesn't
00:38:29
necessarily have as much talent as the for-profit sector, often
00:38:32
does, because a lot of the top-tier talent doesn't want to
00:38:36
work in the nonprofit world because it's not profitable,
00:38:38
doesn't pay anywhere near what the for-profit world pays.
00:38:42
And so in the nonprofit world, you have to be even more
00:38:46
targeted to attracting and wooing what we call reindeer,
00:38:51
right? Because sometimes we hear in the
00:38:54
world of venture capitalists that we want to try to find a
00:38:57
unicorn, right? Or if we're looking to find an
00:39:00
open role in our organization, we want to maybe look for a
00:39:03
unicorn, well unicorns, don't exist, right?
00:39:06
But reindeers do and they're almost still mythical creatures.
00:39:10
Thanks to the story of Santa As is reindeer and so we say we
00:39:15
look for reindeer and reindeer are the top 10% of the job pool
00:39:21
out there. So for any job that you want to
00:39:23
fill the role for we're saying, go out and attract the top 10%
00:39:28
most talented but they have to be team players, right?
00:39:32
And so there are quite a few steps to not only attracting
00:39:36
talent because it's not enough to get them to convince them to
00:39:39
come to your organization. You need to retain Them and the
00:39:43
more you retain top talent, the stronger your organization will
00:39:47
become and the stronger. Your organization becomes the
00:39:50
more attractive you are to the top talent.
00:39:53
So it's not a one simple you no magic pill that you're going to
00:39:58
be able to recruit top talent overnight.
00:40:01
You can only really recruit the level of talent that your
00:40:04
organization is is currently at and healthy.
00:40:08
And so it's a cycle though and it always starts with where You
00:40:12
are and coming up with compelling job, descriptions
00:40:17
that that attract individuals, that clearly Define what the
00:40:21
role is in a compelling way. And you know, being very
00:40:25
intentional about finding out if these people are the right fit
00:40:29
for your organization. And if they are paid them
00:40:32
really, really well. And I advocate for paying people
00:40:36
at the top end of the salary range in the nonprofit world,
00:40:40
because they will, Oh, more than pay for themselves.
00:40:43
If you have the best people, they're going to get more work
00:40:46
done than if you have one amazing person, they're going to
00:40:50
get more work done than to mediocre people, right?
00:40:54
And that's going to help you be more effective.
00:40:56
That's going to help you even raise more money for your
00:40:58
organization and they're going to want to stay in your
00:41:01
organization. It's actually very expensive to
00:41:04
lose people and there's so much turnover in the nonprofit world.
00:41:08
People are staying often in organizations for one year.
00:41:12
You crazy? So the economics of paying
00:41:15
people, pennies actually cost you more money in the long run,
00:41:19
right? And then once you get them on
00:41:20
your team, you got to make sure that you're developing them,
00:41:24
you're coaching them. Well, you're you're giving them
00:41:27
high affirmation and high Challenge and you're creating an
00:41:31
environment where people want to stick.
00:41:36
The circle back in the kind of close our conversation with the
00:41:40
remembering the poor, it's easy to, you know, remember is kind
00:41:43
of an odd word. It's don't know if we use it
00:41:46
that much in the context, scripture does like do this.
00:41:48
In remembrance of me, it's a lot deeper than just remembering
00:41:53
something in a thought. So remembering the poor.
00:42:00
What would be in your mind whether it's a non-profit in
00:42:04
individual Faith or not faith? That like if they went away with
00:42:11
one thing today and they think well okay I'll remember the
00:42:14
poor. I just remember don't have done
00:42:15
or I don't know what to do. It's a big problem but something
00:42:18
like practically in our busy lives where we're barely paying
00:42:24
our bills or we don't have time to do this or to do that.
00:42:28
Can you think of just like a step is what I want to send our
00:42:34
listeners with today is people who are experiencing poverty T.
00:42:41
They absolutely need your help. They need your access to
00:42:44
resources and opportunities that can help them Thrive.
00:42:47
But here's what I want to leave you with.
00:42:50
You need them more than they need you.
00:42:53
If you're experiencing your your believer, you love Jesus and
00:42:58
you're wondering why am I still experiencing emptiness
00:43:00
emptiness? You know, one of those
00:43:03
significant reasons might be, you're not spending enough time
00:43:06
with people experiencing poverty, and that's just going
00:43:09
to be a reality until you figure out that area of her life.
00:43:12
And so you need them even more than they need you.
00:43:16
And God has some really great joy in store for you when you
00:43:21
begin to invest. more of your time, talents and resources and
00:43:24
people that he's so passionate about All right, great.
00:43:28
Thanks Chris. All right.
00:43:30
Can I appreciate you brother? He said, come follow me people
00:43:37
from all walks of life. Since then the coming now laws,