The Unconventional Path to Nonprofit Growth with Chris Whitney

00:00:03
            

Well, hey there, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Holy Donuts podcast. Today I am joined by the one and only Chris Whitney, founder and CEO of one generation away, an awesome ministry based out of Franklin, Tennessee, Nashville area. If you're familiar with Tennessee, that does great work with helping people who are in circumstances where they are hungry, are lacking in food resources. So, Chris, man, thanks so much for taking the time to join today.        

00:00:29
            

I wish you could be here in person in Tampa, but alas, you're in Nashville. I know it's really cold here, so I'd really like to be there with you right now. That would definitely sunny in 75. Man, it's the best year. That's why we live here this time.        

00:00:43
            

That is so wrong off the bat. Sorry to rub that. That's okay, though. No, I would expect nothing less. That's good.        

00:00:50
            

Why don't we just start with a little bit of your story. Similar to me, this is one of the reasons I think we vibe so well. Both of us used to be in ministry. Like pastors, right? Like working in a local church setting.        

00:00:59
            

Give the audience, I know a little bit of your story, but give the audience a little bit of your background and how you got to one generation away and then also a little bit more about the ministry and kind of what your journey has been like there. Yeah. So Elaine and I have been married, just celebrated 37 years of marriage. So that's pretty cool. Three grown daughters, six grandkids, and we've been in Franklin now just over 19 years.        

00:01:21
            

It was 19 years in July, so almost 19 and a half years now. We were in St. Louis, Missouri, Elaine's from Greenville, Mississippi. We got saved right after we got married. So we got married in December, got saved right after Easter of that next year.        

00:01:36
            

So we're coming up on 37 years of being, walking with God and committing our lives to Christ. And then we've probably been in ministry for 36 of those 37 years. And so we were unpaid youth pastors at a very large church in St. Louis, led mission trips overseas with kids, preached once or twice a week, ran a business, an insurance business. Not normal, not healthy.        

00:02:01
            

Just a lot of. And came out of the word of faith movement, which has some great stuff, but also has some not totally biblically accurate stuff, too. So, experienced a lot as far as the ministry side, but I think I've always had a heart to serve. I mean, I was a volunteer youth pastor, basically, and ushered, and I mean, a lot of stories about. So I just really enjoyed serving.        

00:02:25
            

Did some disaster relief work. We had a big flood in our church right after we opened our building, and we served our community, became citizens of the. Just. Just a lot of cool stuff. I watched what just being the hands and feet of Jesus could do to change how your church is viewed in your community.        

00:02:44
            

Literally, we saw that. So I think that was part of what motivated me. We wanted to start a church. So just for some strange reasons, which we don't need to get into now, I want to be a five hour radius of St. Louis.        

00:02:56
            

So it ended up being Nashville. We'd never been to Nashville, either one of us. We bought a laminated map and we saw a town called Antioch, which is part of Nashville. And anybody from here laughs at you, especially 19 years ago. So we just moved here.        

00:03:10
            

Literally, we didn't know a soul. We had no financial support, and we moved here and planted a church with nothing. And we joke and say, not the brightest move, but we were obedient. And I think if I'd say to anything to anybody is obedience is the key to your walk with God. And it is the easiest and the hardest thing to do all in the same.        

00:03:31
            

And you know what I'm saying? And I think anybody out there would, if you've done anything for God, you've had to make that decision. And then we say, out of God's sense of humor, he had to start a food ministry with nothing as well. So we started literally with nothing, out of the back of a Hyundai Santa Fe. And one of the funny things is it was right just before the flood hit Nashville in 2010, back in that time and ten or eleven, whatever it was now.        

00:03:57
            

So it was interesting coming from the flood in St. Louis and then here, and I ended up leading flood relief, and I was commuting back and forth to St. Louis to run my insurance business, to pay to eat and live, and planting a church and starting a food ministry. And then in that journey, which is really wild, I just thought about it. In a couple of weeks, it'll be ten years ago, December 31, I was diagnosed with stage three throat cancer.        

00:04:22
            

We signed our first warehouse lease in November for a space, and a month later, I was diagnosed with state street throat cancer. So that was a little bit of hiccup in the journey, right? And obedience isn't always easy, but it was never meant to be easy. It was meant to be impactful for the kingdom, right? But from then on now, we became our own 501 for one gen in June of 2013.        

00:04:50
            

So we just celebrated in June of this year, our ten year anniversary. We deviate under our church for a couple of years to see if it was going to make it or not, advice of an attorney, which I'm glad I took. So, yeah, man, that's been our journey. And our kids, we moved our kids. We're going into sophomore in high school, a freshman in high school, and into, I'm sorry, 10th grade, eigth grade, and 6th grade.        

00:05:14
            

And so they lived in this bubble. They were born into this massive church, and that's everything they knew. We totally ruined their lives and moved them here. But it's all good now. Everything's good.        

00:05:27
            

It had its challenges. We can share more about the story, whatever you want to hear, but, I mean, I think people can contact me and hear more about it, whatever, but I think the story is much deeper than that. Out of it. I wrote a book called the Dirty Church, which was kind of the story of how one gen started and a story of my life and as a believer and the things that early on about my hubris and God's grace to correct my arrogance, you know what I mean? I was passionate, but not really stewarding the gift in me very well, you know what I mean?        

00:05:57
            

And God humbled me and taught me how to serve. And now service has become the passion of my life and the driving of my heart. And we just do it through food, man. I love it. I love it.        

00:06:09
            

So one of the things that stands out. So we've gotten a chance to hang out in person before, and you have a tremendous, superhuman amount of energy. So it would seem. Right. And so I know for some of our audience members listening that they are in roles where they're pulled in a million different directions, where they're constantly feeling like they're drowning, where they feel like, oh, my gosh, if my team adds another product to my plate, I don't know what I'm going to do.        

00:06:35
            

I don't know how I'm going to do this. And I'm hearing your story and own an insurance business, commuting back and forth to Antioch. Right. 5 hours running a food ministry, pastoring at a church, being a dad, being a husband. Could you just speak to it for a minute?        

00:06:48
            

And this is off script, but this is why you meet people, right? These sort of conversations. How did the lord get you through that season of. There's probably. I probably took on too much at once, right.        

00:07:00
            

I think most leaders out there would say, if we're honest, usually it's not that someone forces us to do stuff. We just take on too much. If we're actually being honest, we didn't set the filters hard enough. How would you advise someone who's kind of in a season right now where they feel exhausted and they don't know how they're going to get through it and they've got four or five, six responsibilities on their plate? How'd you get through that?        

00:07:20
            

How'd the lord get you through that? And then maybe some kind of wisdom for how to help leaders get through that. Yeah, the cancer was a big deal, man. I mean, obviously cancer is always a big deal, but I speak for a living, and I was pastoring a church and I'm running a nonprofit, and so I speak. I'm in front of people.        

00:07:37
            

So when your throat gets attacked, that's a big deal, right? It really rattles you. I mean, I was 42 years old or 52 years old when I got hit with cancer. And I was with a pastor friend of mine in Gulf shores on vacation. And we sat on the back of a deck and he looked at me.        

00:07:57
            

He'd been friend for over 30 years now, and we're both crying. He looks at me, he said, I don't want you to die. That's a crazy conversation. And when I moved to Nashville, one of the things I wrote about in my book is.        

00:08:13
            

Hard. Not to get emotional sometimes, but. I. Did a horrible job of being a husband to an amazing woman that gave her life. I drug her.        

00:08:25
            

She followed and never kicked and screamed. I would never drag her. I'd think, this is not Caveman church. You don't drag your wife by the hair and say, we're going to go do this. She believed it was God.        

00:08:38
            

But in the midst of that, I'm pulled in all these directions. So I'm failing at my two primary responsibilities as a husband and a dad. I'm really good at going and selling insurance, and I'm good at starting kind of, right? I mean, I'm pulled in so many.        

00:08:56
            

God was my buddy, in a way, looked at me and said, you're a great pastor. I love your heart. But he goes, God's hands on one. Jen, I really feel like you need to figure out what you're going to do. But my hubris was, well, I could do both.        

00:09:08
            

I see these megachurch pastors and they're doing all this stuff, but I'm not behind the curtain with them either. I'm behind my curtain, dude. I'm in my kitchen, right? And now my budy's in my kitchen, and he's speaking truth to me. So they left, and Elaine and I are in the Gulf of Mexico standing in the water, and I walk out and she's crying and we're praying.        

00:09:30
            

It's where she goes. God's just challenging me. When are we going to trust him? We were not trusting him to the level that he asked us to trust him. So I would encourage those that are struggling right now.        

00:09:45
            

The reason you're struggling is you're controlling too much and not trusting him with everything. So I looked at Elaine. We had a five year lease with a five year option on our church. We were eight years in, and I said, I know what we're going to do. We're going to go back to Nashville.        

00:09:59
            

We're going to go back to Franklin, we're going to merge the church. We're going to finish out the lease. So we honor that commitment. That's God's. I'd put a black eye on God if I don't do that, and I would never do that.        

00:10:10
            

And then we're going to step aside and we're going to run one gen full time. And so that's what we did. We came back, I made a call to somebody, a pastor I knew, and he had already merged his church with somebody else. We actually merged three churches together, but ultimately it all played out correctly. And I had pastors that thought I'd lost my mind when I merged the church.        

00:10:35
            

And then two years later, when I just stepped away from the church, they really thought I'd lost my mind. And I know you know what I'm saying right now. Totally. How could you leave the ministry? Well, that's just one form of ministry, right?        

00:10:47
            

Yeah. And you and I had this conversation. I pastor more people now in parking lots than I would ever do in a building. Absolutely. We have people that go to churches, but they'll tell you, my church is on Saturday morning with one gen.        

00:11:00
            

It's amazing. And I'm not knocking the church. We've created names for the church. We call other ministries that aren't a building on Sunday parachurches. When I'm like, in their church, in the Old Testament, I mean, in the New Testament, those were just churches.        

00:11:15
            

They weren't parachurches. They were just churches. But the people that are struggling with that, I think. And so God really convicted me, and I wrote this story in my book. My wife went to work outside the home for the first time in 1718 years.        

00:11:28
            

She wanted to be a stay at home mom. So we did everything we could to make that happen. When we moved to Franklin, she had to go to work, and she would work at Embassy Suites Hotel. She'd have to be there at 630 in the morning. And God literally spoke to me.        

00:11:42

He said, I want you to get up every morning and cook your wife breakfast before she goes to work. And that's what I did. That's amazing. That's amazing. And I learned that.        

00:11:52
            

And I wrote this in my book as well. I don't mean to keep, but it's just. That's great. This is who I am. And I tell people all the time, if you're not serving your spouse, you're not serving anybody else.        

00:12:04
            

Well, you're kidding yourself. And that's what God spoke to me, that I am not serving her. So anything else I am doing is fruitless until I learn to do. Yeah. And we had a great marriage, and now we have an amazing marriage.        

00:12:18
            

But it's because, not because my wife, I mean, she's from Mississippi, man. I remember the first time we had dinner there. I'm like sitting watching a football game. The women are know, and then she walks in with this plate of food and hands it to me and I'm like, what is this? A light from heaven shined down?        

00:12:36
            

And she's like, well, this is your plate of food. And I'm like, I could get used to this. This is awesome. But that was her heart. She was a servant, man.        

00:12:49
            

In my thick head, though, I just received it, but never reciprocated. And so God really taught me some things about it took some time, but he really taught me about honing what we do. So as a ministry, we've honed what we do. We do three things within our ministry. But, dude, I'm like, squirrel, you know what I mean?        

00:13:12
            

If you call me and got an idea, I'm like, well, let's go do this, man. I can do this. And my boards really helped me with that. But now I've gotten where I'm dialed in. I won't take on something that's not for me.        

00:13:25
            

It doesn't mean I won't help somebody or I coach or whatever, but I'm not going to take it on and I'm not going to own it. And I don't take anything on without my team speaking into it. That's awesome. Does that make sense? Oh, 100%, yeah.        

00:13:39
            

It just gives you that opportunity to say, hey, listen, there are a million great things we could do, but ultimately, as an entrepreneur and as someone who's trying to juggle everything, we can't do everything right. The more you can strip away. Strip away. Simplify, simplify it. Sounds like that's kind of what God did for you guys.        

00:13:53
            

It gave you that clarity on the beach there, right? To say he did. He did and he will. You're seeking him. Yeah.        

00:13:58
            

The one thing, that book, the one thing, it's a great book to read and finding your one thing. And you know this, in ministry, we tell people all the time, it's like this is as a pastor, man, you've just said this a million times, as I did. God, spouse, kids, right? Yes. Job, church, man, you want to talk about bass ackwards, man, I've got it all screwed up, dude.        

00:14:21
            

I'm so out of whack. But I'm preaching to people and telling them to do it, and I'm not listening myself. Anybody listening to this? I'm not trying to beat you up. I am not, man.        

00:14:32
            

I want to help you get set free from drowning. God doesn't want you to drown, but he needs you to trust him. Absolutely. And I think the thing you feel like if I let this go, it will fail. Well, if it does, then it wasn't meant to exist to begin with because you're not meant to do everything and you can't.        

00:14:52
            

And I struggled for years with delegation how to delegate, because if you're an entrepreneur, you're a control freak. I'm just admit it. I had to admit, dude, it's control freak. Anonymous I am a control freak. So I've had to learn.        

00:15:10
            

I don't have to be in control of everything. Totally. I need to know everything that's going on, but that's different than being in control of it 100%. Yeah. Right.        

00:15:20
            

And so I think that's what I'd want to help you with is find that difference between controlling it and knowing what needs to go on. What's happening. There's a difference. And if you're controlling too much, you're never going to be able to get the right people around you to do what they need to do because you'll never let them do what they're gifted to do, which is a systemic problem in the nonprofit world, especially with churches, churches being a nonprofit. It's a systemic problem that we don't allow people to flow in their gifting to the ability that they have because we want to control too much.        

00:15:54
            

And part of that is we're fearful that they'll take our job. And I'm not worried about that anymore. I've offered, man, you can have the key. My job, please take it. And jokingly, but sometimes seriously, but I've realized that if you can learn to let other people step into their gift, they don't want your job.        

00:16:15
            

They just want to do what they do really well. And if you let them do that, it'll free your life up. Yeah, man. One of the things that stands out that I always think about is as entrepreneurial leader, which you obviously are. Right.        

00:16:26
            

Like, all this energy, just, like, it can go off the rails where priorities, like you're talking about, completely get shifted. And we've got too much stuff on our plate because in a lot of ways, we probably have more capacity than a lot of people do. And so we can actually keep a lot of this plate spinning better than the average bear. But eventually, they do fall. Right.        

00:16:45
            

But that same energy that allows you to do that or make that mistake is also the same energy, I think, specifically has allowed you to, when you've dialed it in and focused it at one gentle way and have dialed in on being able to delegate and lead well, had allowed you guys to unlock some incredible growth. And that entrepreneurial spirit has really, I think, just been the thing that's driven you guys to grow at a pace that's not normal, I would say, for nonprofits at all, like, very abnormal. So can you maybe speak to a little bit of how that kind of mindset of entrepreneurship and even just that energy has. How has that made one generational weight different? How does that help spurn your growth?        

00:17:27
            

Are there any principles or kind of practices you guys do internally that kind of help make sure that you're constantly in that mindset as opposed to drifting into complacency? That's like seven questions in one, but I figured I'd just tee you up. No, they're great questions. So thanks for asking. So let me tell you how we approach donors, how we approach people we work with.        

00:17:50
            

Our first question is, what's your story? So that's how we lead in everything we do. How can we serve you? What's your story, and how can we serve you? That's how we lead everything.        

00:18:04
            

Now, you have to be intentional, and you have to be believable. So if you're watching me right now, you understand when I say that I'm not kidding. I want to know, how can I serve you? And once I ask that question, the people on the other side have never been asked that question, probably before or very seldom. And it kind of takes them aback a little bit.        

00:18:27
            

And I tell my team, I said, because if the relationship is supposed to happen, there will be another meeting, and then they're going to ask you. I didn't hear about you. And I know I need to raise money and I need to do all these things. I think that's one of the things that makes us unique. The entrepreneur side is I run our nonprofit like a for profit business now.        

00:18:50
            

I also run it like a ministry on the other side. So when we're giving food away, it's all ministry but the nuts and bolts of the day to day operation. I run it p l balance sheet. Like, if you can read A-P-L that's great, but you need to learn how to read a balance sheet because you can be bleeding to death and a PNL won't show it. So profit and loss for those that don't know what that means, but your balance sheet shows exactly what's going on.        

00:19:15
            

And so you need to be able to read both. So get some education financially on how to read a balance sheet and know the difference between A-P-L and a balance sheet. We've done those things. I view all that through the lens of stewardship. So God's allowed.        

00:19:27
            

So I hold my hands like this, so flat up, because the visual is one gen, rests in our hands. I'm the entrepreneur, founder, CEO, all those things. But this is God's baby. And the growth you talked about has been incredible. So God gets all that credit.        

00:19:45
            

No man can take credit for this. No woman can take credit for this. And we know that we have 14 employees, but we have thousands of volunteers. We're a volunteer led organization. To me, the other thing that makes us successful is that our volunteers get to see two things.        

00:20:01
            

They get to work with the end user, the person that's receiving food, right. People they would never come in contact with, because we live in the 7th wealthiest county, 10th wealthiest county in the United States of America. I mean, most people don't know that, but Franklin Williamson county is extremely wealthy. And then the other thing is, kids, our events are kid friendly, so you can bring your whole family to the event. It's huge.        

00:20:24
            

Now, that's not fair for everybody, right? There's some things people out there are doing that's never going to happen. I get that. But that is a draw for us. And it's a big deal because their kids get to see people they'll never come in contact with as well.        

00:20:37
            

You know what I mean? So they see the side of the tracks that they normally would. Was that an intentional decision from the start, or was that something that you guys just kind of through, kind of like people bringing their kids? You're like, oh, yeah, maybe we should do this. This is really helpful.        

00:20:50
            

No, that was that. Nothing seemed to be very. When I say that, I say that was all sincerity. The only thing I knew about food was I like to eat it. I never built a company like this.        

00:21:00
            

I'm not a logistics major, but God just gave me the ability to be logistic, to figure out the logistics of all this. And he put really good people around me once again, that just knew how to do things, and I just yielded to them. Hey, man, you do this for a living. How should we do this? Just having the courage to say that.        

00:21:21

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You don't need to have all the answers, man. All you need to do is surround yourself with really good people and then listen. And you have to lead. You have to have vision. I think the key to me is, as an entrepreneur, you need to be a visionary for lack of prophetic vision.        

00:21:38
            

My people perish, man. Vision, vision, vision. That's my job. Cast. Vision, vision, vision.        

00:21:46
            

And here we are, ten years in. We've done hundreds and hundreds of mobile food pantries. And I say the same thing today that I said ten years ago. And there's people that volunteer with us 35 Saturdays a year. I mean, they're there all the time.        

00:22:04
            

They've heard me say it over and they laugh every time. Like, people laugh at every joke you tell the same time, the same one. But, Matt, every time we do a distribution, there's 50% of the people have never been at one before. And I'm like, where have you all been? I mean, I can't believe that you haven't been here.        

00:22:21
            

But the thing is that consistency of message is critical for sustainability and growth. Right? So they know, man. One thing about us, we have not changed in our. We've changed operationally, some here and there.        

00:22:38
            

We tweak that all the time. But like I say, we protect the why with our lives. Yeah, that's good, man. The how, when and where is etched in jello. At best, it can change afloat.        

00:22:50
            

I really don't care. I use the phrase etched in jello a lot, but the why I guard with every fiber of my being, and that's the thing I drive, is the why. Our team knows the why. They know hope, honor and dignity shared through food. That's our why, man.        

00:23:05
            

We are here to love people well, to serve them well. And that energy and that passion is contagious. So that, I think, is why God's given us as entrepreneurs and leaders. Energy is so that it can overwhelm some people. But most people feed off that energy, right?        

00:23:22
            

They need that, and it feeds me to have that energy. Now, if you catch me at 07:00 at night at home, man, I am not this talkative or this much energy. And my wife would tell you, but, I mean, I give it out during the day, but I've learned those rhythms of life, too, that it's okay to have downtime. And I want to encourage people that do this that are drowning. You have got to learn how to unplug.        

00:23:50
            

You've got to learn how to turn it off. Like, whether it's 06:00 at night, I'm not checking my phone, whatever it is, you got to learn how to turn off. And when you go on vacation, you got to learn how to turn off, because if you don't, you are not an energizer bunny. There is no recharge. There is no plug into the wall.        

00:24:09
            

You know what I mean? Your recharge is downtime, and it has to be. And this is a guy that didn't do it very well, trust me. And I'm much better at it now than I ever was. And so I kind of tell people I appear very extroverted, but I am more introverted now than I am extroverted.        

00:24:26
            

But when I'm out, I understand this is going to sound crass, but when I walk out my door, I understand I have to be on all the time. Totally. It makes sense. No? I mean, if you are going to be the leader of an organization like you guys are, you got to have something, especially if that's your strength.        

00:24:44
            

And your gifting to not lead from that place is doing a disservice to everyone else around you. Right. Because that is the way God's gifted you. And so, yeah, if I'm being fully transparent, I feel the exact same way most of the time, which is like, all right, it's my job to have the energy that other people around me may not have, and they need me to give that. And if I'm not giving it on a day, then they kind of feel like, well, what's going on?        

00:25:05
            

Is everything okay? Are we all good here? And so it's me bringing that kind of energy as security for a team, for the people we work with. They just kind of expect that to show up. And so that's the responsibility, I think, of us as leaders to bring that kind of an energy.        

00:25:20
            

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00:26:26
            

So I know you do some coaching with leaders, but just more broadly, when you look at the kind of ministry, nonprofit space, are there any trends that have you really excited for what you're seeing out there? And also some trends that maybe have you a little bit concerned? Yeah, there is the ying and yang. So the trend that I'm seeing is that I'm really excited about is collaboration. I'm a firm believer that a rising tide raises all ships and we focus on things we're all fearful of money.        

00:26:54
            

How do we raise enough money? But if we could all figure out the fact that if we would all play together, that the real money that's out there will come in because people are looking, how do I stretch my dollars? So if we, as a food ministry, can partner with a medical ministry or with a homeless ministry, you know what I mean? And we all partner together, I believe big donor dollars will start to come to all of us. So I'm excited about that.        

00:27:18
            

I'm starting to see more and more cities and places where I'm hearing about collaboration. So the antithesis of that is the thing that concerns me the most is the silo factor of the church, of the nonprofit world. And I've said this for years, you will appreciate this just because of your journey. And we got to know each other. And it was like just instant connection, which I love is I said, if I ever spoke at a pastor's conference, I know exactly what I would preach about.        

00:27:46
            

And it would be corinthians when he talks. When Paul says, we're all the body of Christ, you're a hand. You're an elbow. I don't believe he was talking about a church. I believe he was talking about the church.        

00:27:58
            

Like, your church should be an elbow. The church down the street ought to be an ankle. The church across the street ought to be a wrist. So all the churches in a community would need each other totally to meet the need of the community. And I believe that's what we got to come to in the nonprofit world is I've got a function, and I say we're a one trick pony, but we ride that horse really well.        

00:28:19
            

So we're really good at what we do. But, man, if you want to do medical, you don't want me taking your blood pressure. You don't want me building a homeless, doing tents for the homeless. I don't know anything about it. You know what I mean?        

00:28:32
            

So it's like God wants us to need each other. That's how you build community. Yeah, absolutely, man. Those are the two things that has me excited, but the antithesis of that thing has me greatly concerned. If we don't ever figure that out and get out of a scarcity mentality, then we're never going to be as impactful as God wants us to be.        

00:28:58
            

Yeah. Had this conversation with Scott Harris friend from mission increase, who's also there in kind of Nashville area, and we were talking about the kind of big c church, right? Like the catholic little know, the universal church, right. And this idea that local churches, by design, almost by God's plan, have built in planned inefficiencies. Right.        

00:29:22
            

In order for a local church to do all the things a local church has to do, right. It has to, by nature, be inefficient. I think of it like, honestly, my children, right. One of the most beautiful gifts God's ever given me is my kids, but they are wildly inefficient. Right?        

00:29:38
            

And I think I read that one of John Mark Comer's books, and he talked about this, right. I was like, oh, my gosh, they are. They're the most inefficient thing in the world. And they drive me nuts because I'm the person who's like, let's go, come on. We got place to be.        

00:29:48
            

We got to be on a schedule here. Let's make it happen. And they take 35 minutes to pick out shoes and clothes, but yet they're beautiful, and I love them. And that's kind of the local church by design. It's wildly inefficient because it has to be.        

00:30:02
            

But in God's infinite wisdom and providence, right. He's also given us the big c church that include things like one generation away and feeding ministries and homeless shelters and a million other international aid organizations and trafficking ministries. All these great things that are actually not inefficient at all, but are wildly efficient at doing one thing. Yeah. Doing the one thing.        

00:30:23
            

And we all need each other. We just don't realize it yet. Yeah, that's probably more of an american thing, I think, than sometimes in other countries I've been in. You see more. They need each other because they just all have need, right?        

00:30:37
            

Absolutely. And this is weird for two entrepreneurs to say this, isn't it? Because here we are. Let's go do it, man. We're just pioneering this thing.        

00:30:45
            

We've also learned that we pioneering. We are just created for people to have opportunity to use their gifts. That's really why God created entrepreneurs, if we do it correctly. Right. So that's probably my biggest message.        

00:30:57
            

My message is really just to serve, man. I heard a great quote today about, I'm going to look at it here because I heard it on a podcast today, but it was just really know. We talk about discipleship and discipleship. Giving and serving are a byproduct of discipleship, not the other way around. If you're not giving and serving, you're not a discipleship of Jesus Christ.        

00:31:22
            

Right. And I mean, giving of your money, your time, your energy and your resources. So if you're a disciple of Jesus, you ought to be giving your money and serving somewhere. And so this 20% of the people doing all the work in a church means only 20% of the people in a church are discipled disciples. I mean, that's craft, but it's true.        

00:31:43
            

It's just truth. Right. And we've got to quit skirting around the truth. I believe, too, as leaders of ministries and nonprofits, we just have to in love speak the truth, man. I believe we are sitting on the greatest opportunity the church has ever seen in a generation of people, young people that are passionate about serving.        

00:32:09
            

And if I know the church as I've known the church for the last 35 years, we'll miss it like every other opportunity we've done. But if we would just give them opportunity to serve, they'll engage our church and our church will flourish. It won't flourish like we want it to look like to flourish. Totally. They're not anti Sunday morning, but they're just more passionate about, I want to do something.        

00:32:31
            

I want to go serve somebody that has a need, and I want God to use me to help someone.        

00:32:39
            

That excites me more than anything is the other thing that excites me is we have a generation coming, dude, that, whoa. If we can harness that, we could really expand the kingdom of God in a big way. In a big way, man. Well, what are some resources? Because you do talk to a lot of leaders.        

00:32:58
            

Are there resources that you guys have at one gen? There? Are there books, podcasts, articles, things that you love to just share with other ministry leaders that you think are really helpful? I love the Kerry Newhoff podcast. I think it's fantastic.        

00:33:11
            

He has great guests, and you can learn a lot on there. He talks about church, nonprofits, things in the world, great statistics. Craig Rochelle. I love Craig Rochelle's leadership. Know, those are two home runs for me.        

00:33:24
            

John Mark Comer's books are, you know, ruthless elimination of hurry will just wreck your world in a good way. John Mark's done a fantastic job. So those are the kinds of things I read. Those are the podcasts I'm listening to. I feel like those are.        

00:33:37
            

And then if you're going to start something and you're going to build a nonprofit, you eat an elephant one bite at a time. As a friend of mine used to say, man. So we're working on probably the last phase of Onegen now, marketing. You and I have had this conversation. I've built different silos inside of Onegen.        

00:33:54
            

I think we try to build everything at once. It's just not possible. Learn, build some things. Marketing happens to be our last. It probably shouldn't have been last.    

00:34:02
            

I don't know. We've done okay. But now we're really honing in on that. We have our donation side, our operations side. But your operations need to be first and foremost, man.        

00:34:11
            

You need to operate smoothly. Right. And then your funding. So those one and two have to be those. So, to me, if you're in something, get your operations down.        

00:34:24
            

That'll help your funding, because people want to be involved. If you want volunteers, they want to work the minute they show up. One of the things we do really well, we do a lot of things really well, but this is one that volunteers will tell you. They show up, they work, and they work till they're done. And understand that a day in today's world is 4 hours at the most.        

00:34:47
            

It's not eight. My generation a day was 8 hours, 10 hours. Modern day day is 4 hours, preferably three at the most. So that's all you got, right? And I'm going to give you one thing that we do that is so counterintuitive.        

00:35:03
            

And people are going to cringe when I say this. We don't sign up volunteers. We don't have any idea how many people are going to show up. Wow. Okay.        

00:35:14
            

Tell us a little bit more about that. Because the moment you sign up and don't show up, you'll never come again. Because you feel guilt. Yes. How many Bible studies have you not done your homework?        

00:35:26
            

And you quit going to the Bible study? Totally. Yes. So let's remove the guilt. I never knew you were coming.        

00:35:35
            

Yeah. So if you didn't show up, it's totally fine. So they don't feel like they let me down because they didn't tell me they were coming. I didn't ask them to sign up. And it's a trust God factor.        

00:35:44
            

And I know some people, it will just grate them like no other. And there's people that look at me and people on my team that looked at me and said, that is wrong. And I'm like, no, it's right. There's a beauty to it. And you have children, so guess what's going to happen when you have children.        

00:36:01
            

You will fail some commitments. Why? Because you have the most inefficient humans on earth living with you. Right. What you said.        

00:36:11
            

And so I think therein lies the. That's just one of the things I think is beautiful that we do and we've done, and we have thousands of volunteers, and it was hard early, man. Don't misunderstand me, because there'd be, sometimes we wouldn't have nearly enough volunteers, but we hung with it, we stayed with it, and now we very seldom ever now, if we have a bad turnout, it was like our greatest turnout eight years ago. We still don't sign people up. I think that's the beauty of it.        

00:36:38
            

So you just got to think about the side. Always think about the size of your end user. We serve people suffering, food insecurity, and then I serve volunteers. So I serve two demographics of people, and they both deserve the same respect, dignity, honor, and expectation. Right?        

00:36:57
            

I love it. That's so cool, man. I've learned a ton. One, I learned more about you, which is always a good thing, but I've learned a ton just about your mindset. The way that you guys run lunging away.        

00:37:07
            

I know people watching are going to just take a ton out of this episode, hopefully be spiritually encouraged, and just actually feel like, man, okay. I got a game plan for how I can get out of the overwhelm, but then also understand how to lead well within their ministry context and always grateful for that, man. If people want to reach out to you, Chris, what's the best way to contact you to learn more about one gen away? Email is really great. Chris at Onegen away.        

00:37:31
            

Just spell it out. Onegenaway.com Chris is C-H-R-I-S. That's probably the easiest I'll get the email and I will respond normally. You'll get a response within 24 hours for sure, probably shorter, but you'll definitely get a respond within a day. Check out our website, onegenoway.com.        

00:37:49
            

You can email through there too, but if you want me directly, it'll get to me either way. But that's probably the best way. I don't do a lot on social media. If I do, it's through one gen. I don't do a lot of personal I'm going to up that a little more know starting to coach and speak more.        

00:38:02
            

If you email me, it works, don't I? Don't get sucked in the vortex of social media too much. I know I need to do better at that. Matt's cringing, right? No, good call on that front.        

00:38:12
            

You're saving yourself a lot of time and headache, trust me. I hear the comments can be full of lots of vitriol these days. Yeah, that's what I've heard too, man. That's why I avoided just, I've not avoided it in the past. And I realized even if I just post something I thought was very innocuous, that somebody somehow feels a way.        

00:38:29
            

Know the last one I did a few years ago, two dudes I know, one of the guy that led me to the Lord and another guy here in Franklin were f bombing each other on a post I made that was just so. Yeah, that's not good. Yeah, so I'm just like, I'm done. I just don't. You know what I mean?        

00:38:43
            

It's like I just don't want to. We don't need to do that. I love it. So just email me. Let's go old school.        

00:38:50
            

Email Chris at one jet away. Well, Chris, thank you so much for taking the time. Join me today. Everyone, thank you so much for watching. If you haven't liked or subscribed to the show, please do.        

00:39:00
            

It helps more people find the podcast. Until next time, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks, man. Appreciate it, brother. 

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