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Kevin Lowe: If you've ever felt lost, stuck, or like your life was falling apart,
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Kevin Lowe: then today's episode was recorded specifically for you.
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Kevin Lowe: Our guest today, JR, he went from betrayed and bankrupt to leading a purpose-driven
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Kevin Lowe: ministry that's changing lives, starting, of course, with his own.
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Kevin Lowe: His story is sure to challenge you, encourage you, and to show you what is possible
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Kevin Lowe: when you say yes to God's plans for your life. That doesn't mean that the journey ahead is easy.
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Kevin Lowe: No, it could quite possibly be extremely difficult.
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Kevin Lowe: It could have you questioning every move you make, but at the same point,
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Kevin Lowe: you know deep in your soul that you are exactly where you're meant to be.
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Kevin Lowe: That has been made possible for JR, and I believe it can be made possible for you as well.
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Kevin Lowe: And if you are ready to take on this new chapter in your life,
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Kevin Lowe: to listen to God's plans, But maybe you would love to harness a little bit of
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Kevin Lowe: that new AI technology that's out in the world.
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Kevin Lowe: Well, my friend, I created a guide specific for you.
00:01:06.917 --> 00:01:10.837
Kevin Lowe: It's for beginners to AI, helping you to not be scared of it,
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Kevin Lowe: but instead to realize how you can harness it for your own personal growth and development goals.
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Kevin Lowe: It's super easy. It's a free ebook that you can download right now.
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Kevin Lowe: A link is at the top of today's show notes. You can also head on over to the
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Kevin Lowe: website where you can also find a link to download today's free resource called the AI Advantage.
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Kevin Lowe: And with that, my friend, I'm, of course, your host, Kevin Lowe.
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Kevin Lowe: And this is episode 384 of Grit, Grace and Inspiration.
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<Theme Song: I Got Grit, Grace, & Inspiration on My Mind!>
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Kevin Lowe: What's going on? And welcome back to another amazing interview here on Great Grace and Inspiration.
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Kevin Lowe: Today, I have the pleasure of being in the studio with JR.
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Kevin Lowe: JR, welcome to the podcast.
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JR: Hey, Kevin. I've been looking forward to our conversation. This is going to
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JR: be fun. So yes, thank you for the invitation.
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Kevin Lowe: Yeah, man. Well, I'm excited to dive into your story. I'm excited to understand
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Kevin Lowe: the wild world of following God's plans, which I always say are rarely what
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Kevin Lowe: we have planned. But in the end, his plans are always the best.
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Kevin Lowe: And so I would love to start,
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Kevin Lowe: though, if we go back in time, because before really getting into the whole
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Kevin Lowe: Brushfire Ministries, your story really starts with you creating a software company back in the 80s.
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Kevin Lowe: Would you mind kind of diving into that a bit?
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JR: Well, I found myself in programming in 1979 when I landed a job as a software
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JR: trainer and they asked if I wanted to learn how to program.
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JR: And I had a natural proclivity towards it.
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JR: I picked it up very quick and excelled at it. And I left that company,
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JR: went to another one for a short period of time.
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JR: Then ultimately it was in the last company I worked for.
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JR: And the owner was a psychopath. I mean, he was just a nutcase.
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JR: And even though he had created a good product and had assembled a really talented team,
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JR: his personality and his inability to be able to be grateful for what he had
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JR: received from other people and to be able to build a cohesive team really caused
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JR: the whole company to fall apart eventually.
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JR: And so I left and called a employee that had already left before me,
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JR: or I was in the process of leaving, I should say,
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JR: And he said, well, why don't you come over and see what I was doing?
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JR: And he was working on a new replacement product from the ground up, a whole new concept.
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JR: It had a number of advances in it. And because I was at the end of my patience
00:04:06.388 --> 00:04:09.588
JR: with my prior employer, I said, you know what?
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JR: All the hours that I would have normally worked over 40 for my other employer,
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JR: I'll start just working for you for free and helping you out.
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JR: So I started showing up there after hours during the week and on Saturdays and
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JR: just kind of, you know, putting in the legwork to get his product to where it
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JR: needed to be to be released.
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JR: And one Saturday he goes, you know, we could really make a business of this.
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JR: And I go, Philip, dude, you're single. I got a wife. I got three kids. I got a mortgage.
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JR: You know, if you're going to do this, you have to be all in.
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JR: I can't just do this on a lark.
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JR: Anyway, about a month later on a Saturday, he reached his hand out to me and
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JR: he says, if you want to do this as a business, I'm all in. And I was like, okay, now what?
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JR: So I then had to say, all right, well, if we're going to do this,
00:05:01.808 --> 00:05:05.688
JR: the very first thing is developing software doesn't pay any bills.
00:05:06.248 --> 00:05:10.208
JR: So I'm going to have to go to all my current clients with my current employer
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JR: and go, hey, I'm leaving and I would love for you to come with me and I'll charge
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JR: you the same rate that I'm charging you, that you're being charged now.
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JR: And every one of my customers, Kevin, went with me.
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JR: Oh, wow. Every, every single one of them. It was such a relief.
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JR: So once that happened, I gave notice after I had the verbal agreement with the clients.
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JR: And over a short period of time, like about a year and a half,
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JR: every employee I had hired and trained at that prior employer,
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JR: ran into the boss, ran into the, this guy's crazy thing that I had been protecting him from.
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JR: And I simply replied, well, why don't you come over and see what we're doing?
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JR: And within a year and a half, I had 90% of the staff and 90% of the client base.
00:06:02.588 --> 00:06:08.288
JR: Yeah, it was a God thing. And we continue to work really hard hours,
00:06:08.468 --> 00:06:13.148
JR: 16 hour days for six days a week, Philip and I, to release the product.
00:06:13.388 --> 00:06:14.928
JR: And the very first version of Assist,
00:06:15.766 --> 00:06:19.326
JR: was released in December of 1989, two years later.
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JR: At one point, we were able to add some other programmers to the project,
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JR: but all the core development work, all the templates and so forth were developed
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JR: by either Philip or myself.
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JR: And yeah, that's how it all started.
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JR: And with that client base, with that software product being released in 89,
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JR: we started selling that, converting some of those older clients to the new product
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JR: because they were not Y2K compliant.
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JR: And that business is still going.
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JR: We are still servicing clients in both Canada and the United States.
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JR: And we are in the process of trying to wind down that business.
00:06:58.986 --> 00:07:03.506
JR: But our clients love the software and it's that good that they don't want to
00:07:03.506 --> 00:07:05.946
JR: leave it. So it's been a difficult transition.
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Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. Out of curiosity, what kind of like industry type of companies
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Kevin Lowe: are that we're using this software?
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JR: We developed wholesale distribution manufacturing accounting software.
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JR: So basically anybody that has an inventory that resells it to a retailer or
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JR: direct to market or manufactures things and then sells those.
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JR: So, for instance, one of our largest clients was a toy importer out of Miami,
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JR: and they bought toys, designed toys,
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JR: assembled toys, and then sold them to Walmart or places like SeaWorld,
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JR: just all kinds of various outlets where you would have a gift store or a toy department.
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JR: And that's the sort of client that we had. We also did a lot of work in the
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JR: aerospace industry, providing nuts and bolts and fasteners and tracking that inventory.
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Kevin Lowe: Okay. Okay. Fascinating. Very, very interesting. Okay.
00:08:08.024 --> 00:08:11.584
Kevin Lowe: So that business, you said, launched in what year?
00:08:11.824 --> 00:08:17.024
JR: We started the development or established the corporation in 1987.
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JR: And in 89 is when we actually released the first version of the software.
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JR: But 87 is when the company was formed.
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Kevin Lowe: Okay. Okay. Interesting. Because I know that in 2014, I believe was the year.
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Kevin Lowe: So we're fast forwarding quite a while later.
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Kevin Lowe: You kind of had I'm going to say a big moment happened when you had to get involved
00:08:40.844 --> 00:08:45.984
Kevin Lowe: in the stuff that you know the the well the bad side of being the business owner
00:08:45.984 --> 00:08:50.324
Kevin Lowe: where you have to deal you know sometimes firing employees and whatnot and so
00:08:50.324 --> 00:08:52.304
Kevin Lowe: talk to me about that situation.
00:08:52.884 --> 00:08:59.644
JR: So the company at that point was was really fairly stable we had a ongoing list
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JR: of new clients and we were really kind of managing well with a relatively small group of employees.
00:09:07.104 --> 00:09:11.424
JR: And one of my employees had a problem. I don't want to go into the details just
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JR: for privacy sake. And I had to let them go.
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JR: When I let them go, I realized within about six months that they had damaged
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JR: the relationship of our two largest clients.
00:09:25.464 --> 00:09:33.104
JR: And by the end of 2015, we had lost about two-thirds of our revenue and I knew
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JR: that it was no longer sustainable.
00:09:34.864 --> 00:09:40.924
JR: Even in the beginning of 2016, when I cut all expenses, I realized it wasn't enough.
00:09:41.304 --> 00:09:45.664
JR: So I personally had to stop taking a paycheck as of January 2016.
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JR: And I did that because I didn't want to leave the rest of my employees in the
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JR: lurch without being able to provide for their families.
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JR: And I didn't want to leave our clients in the lurch because if all of a sudden
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JR: we went out of business and they had nobody to support them,
00:10:02.527 --> 00:10:07.287
JR: their businesses would come to a halt because we controlled everything about
00:10:07.287 --> 00:10:10.447
JR: getting their products in the door and out the door.
00:10:10.787 --> 00:10:15.627
JR: So it was a difficult decision, but that's what I decided to do.
00:10:16.147 --> 00:10:20.207
JR: And because I knew I was winding down the business, I also knew that I couldn't
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JR: sell the software because I can't sell the software to a new client for,
00:10:24.207 --> 00:10:30.667
JR: you know, 80, 100, 250 thousand dollars and not know if I was going to be in business in six months.
00:10:31.027 --> 00:10:34.807
JR: And you kind of know if you're not going to be in business when you're not getting a paycheck.
00:10:35.007 --> 00:10:40.427
JR: That kind of is a big clue that something isn't going well in the finance part
00:10:40.427 --> 00:10:44.967
JR: of it. So by me not taking a paycheck, I was able to keep the business going
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JR: and pay bills and meet our financial obligations.
00:10:49.167 --> 00:10:53.907
JR: But it basically cleared my entire schedule for 2016.
00:10:54.547 --> 00:11:02.007
JR: No software development, no sales and marketing, no sales presentation, no new installations.
00:11:02.007 --> 00:11:08.307
JR: All that was going on. and it was a very hard year for me personally because
00:11:08.307 --> 00:11:12.527
JR: for men, our identity is really tied to what we do.
00:11:12.847 --> 00:11:17.527
JR: And when a man loses that, they lose who they are in this world.
00:11:17.587 --> 00:11:24.707
JR: They lose their sense of self-worth, their concept of being productive and useful.
00:11:25.207 --> 00:11:28.407
JR: It's a huge part of a man's identity when they lose their job.
00:11:28.827 --> 00:11:30.307
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely.
00:11:31.584 --> 00:11:38.544
Kevin Lowe: I mean, how were you able to make it in your home life, not taking a paycheck?
00:11:38.824 --> 00:11:44.064
Kevin Lowe: Were you guys, had you had enough money set aside that you guys were able to survive?
00:11:44.244 --> 00:11:47.844
Kevin Lowe: Because I mean, not taking a paycheck in, you know, in support of the company
00:11:47.844 --> 00:11:50.484
Kevin Lowe: sounds great, but I'm like, how were you making it?
00:11:50.664 --> 00:11:57.084
JR: So we did have a number of very successful years and I was never really into big material things.
00:11:57.104 --> 00:12:00.144
JR: So we didn't go out and, you know, waste a lot of that money.
00:12:00.724 --> 00:12:05.524
JR: We put a lot of it into savings and we had virtually no debt personally.
00:12:05.824 --> 00:12:09.884
JR: So we had used the money wisely to make things worse.
00:12:10.564 --> 00:12:14.764
JR: The stock market was not good to me. So probably about half of that money got
00:12:14.764 --> 00:12:21.304
JR: lost through the financial downturn in 2007 and 2008 and a couple others.
00:12:21.564 --> 00:12:25.704
JR: But we still had a substantial amount of savings to be able to do that.
00:12:25.704 --> 00:12:29.884
JR: But it got also provided, there were some, at the end of each year,
00:12:30.044 --> 00:12:35.644
JR: there's money left over in the business due to certain contractual agreements that we have.
00:12:35.884 --> 00:12:41.164
JR: So towards the end of the year, I would get, you know, maybe half a dozen or so paychecks.
00:12:41.644 --> 00:12:45.124
JR: Going nine months without a paycheck, and then January would come around in
00:12:45.124 --> 00:12:49.864
JR: 2017, and the whole process would start over again with, all right,
00:12:49.924 --> 00:12:52.544
JR: you're going nine months without any money coming in at all.
00:12:52.664 --> 00:12:58.884
JR: And that's sort of the way that worked. Guy also had a couple surprise bonuses
00:12:58.884 --> 00:13:04.204
JR: that showed up every once in a while that was like, okay, I didn't see that coming.
00:13:04.384 --> 00:13:09.924
JR: So it was like, all right, I got you back. But we had to cut back on trips and
00:13:09.924 --> 00:13:14.744
JR: all kinds of discretionary spending really got curtailed.
00:13:14.744 --> 00:13:22.664
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. Now, during this time period, I mean, what are you thinking
00:13:22.664 --> 00:13:25.604
Kevin Lowe: personally as far as the future?
00:13:25.784 --> 00:13:30.884
Kevin Lowe: I mean, are you are you at all thinking that there's a way to rebuild this business
00:13:30.884 --> 00:13:34.664
Kevin Lowe: or are you thinking of an exit plan at this point?
00:13:34.904 --> 00:13:39.904
JR: The business itself, I had reinvented it by that time. So we're 2016.
00:13:40.304 --> 00:13:43.584
JR: So we're nearly 30 years at that point.
00:13:44.268 --> 00:13:52.228
JR: And I had reinvented it three times, and it had sucked all the joy and drive and ambition out of me.
00:13:52.468 --> 00:13:57.548
JR: And I knew that I couldn't rebuild that business as it was again.
00:13:57.908 --> 00:14:04.628
JR: Now, I had really unique talents in the fact that a business owner,
00:14:04.788 --> 00:14:10.828
JR: but I also understood how to implement software and how to help guide people in choosing software.
00:14:10.828 --> 00:14:18.028
JR: So I thought a logical approach would be for me to go out and do consulting
00:14:18.028 --> 00:14:22.628
JR: work and help other businesses find software and help them with the implementation.
00:14:22.868 --> 00:14:27.308
JR: But I got to tell you, man, I might have had a bust nose because God slammed
00:14:27.308 --> 00:14:29.008
JR: that door so hard in my face.
00:14:29.148 --> 00:14:32.388
JR: It was not going to happen. He was like, no, you're not doing that.
00:14:33.148 --> 00:14:39.608
JR: As unique and as hard to find as my skill set was, there were no opportunities
00:14:39.608 --> 00:14:43.328
JR: for me to cash in on that. So I thought, okay, this is weird.
00:14:43.688 --> 00:14:46.848
JR: So that's not going to happen. And so I just started, I don't know,
00:14:47.488 --> 00:14:51.208
JR: flashing around, trying to figure out some way of bringing in money.
00:14:51.728 --> 00:14:54.708
JR: At some point it was like, all right, this isn't working.
00:14:54.848 --> 00:14:57.948
JR: I'm not, there are no doors being opened to me. And that's kind of,
00:14:58.368 --> 00:15:02.568
JR: again, that was unusual with my walk with the Lord, because he's always provided.
00:15:02.788 --> 00:15:06.928
JR: It led me to a point where I was sitting in a chair just one day,
00:15:06.928 --> 00:15:10.708
JR: really frustrated because you start doing the self-analysis.
00:15:10.868 --> 00:15:12.788
JR: Okay, did I deserve this?
00:15:13.828 --> 00:15:17.388
JR: Did I do this to myself? And so you go through that and I go,
00:15:17.808 --> 00:15:20.288
JR: no, I treated my employees with respect.
00:15:20.488 --> 00:15:25.788
JR: I gave this guy every last opportunity to come through.
00:15:26.008 --> 00:15:31.108
JR: I did all these things. I treated my clients, and we have a great product.
00:15:31.288 --> 00:15:38.768
JR: I don't deserve this. This is not because of the consequence of my sin. I couldn't see that.
00:15:39.443 --> 00:15:42.383
JR: So then it was like, all right, God, you're behind this.
00:15:42.903 --> 00:15:46.763
JR: And I remember one day just being frustrated and saying out loud,
00:15:47.023 --> 00:15:50.243
JR: I know you're behind this. What do you want?
00:15:51.303 --> 00:15:56.723
JR: And that was probably the beginning of the process of him saying,
00:15:56.843 --> 00:16:00.763
JR: all right, now that I got your attention and you're no longer thrashing around
00:16:00.763 --> 00:16:04.943
JR: trying to figure out how to save yourself, pay attention to what I'm telling you.
00:16:04.943 --> 00:16:08.903
JR: Pay attention to the people that I am sending to you, what they're saying,
00:16:09.103 --> 00:16:11.523
JR: and say yes when I tell you to say yes.
00:16:11.723 --> 00:16:14.763
JR: And that was the implied message.
00:16:15.023 --> 00:16:18.043
JR: He didn't actually say any of that. I had to kind of figure that on my own.
00:16:18.463 --> 00:16:23.683
JR: But at the end of 2016, a acquaintance reached out to me and says,
00:16:23.783 --> 00:16:28.183
JR: you know, hey, I've got this personality assessment training stuff that I do,
00:16:28.303 --> 00:16:29.623
JR: and I think you'll be really good at it.
00:16:29.823 --> 00:16:33.343
JR: Now, he's charged a lot of money for this training.
00:16:33.563 --> 00:16:37.743
JR: So it was, you know, there was no altruism in his offer.
00:16:37.923 --> 00:16:41.623
JR: It was, I'm going to make a lot of money off of you attending this class.
00:16:41.823 --> 00:16:45.043
JR: So, you know, that was his motivation.
00:16:45.503 --> 00:16:48.783
JR: And I initially said no, because again, I had cut all expenses.
00:16:49.003 --> 00:16:52.443
JR: I was, you know, and this made no sense to me because I didn't see how it connected
00:16:52.443 --> 00:16:56.763
JR: to my valuable experience and skillset.
00:16:57.023 --> 00:17:02.183
JR: And it just made sense. So I told him, no, And then later that day, I felt this tug, do it.
00:17:02.483 --> 00:17:06.803
JR: I go, it makes no sense, do it, okay?
00:17:08.203 --> 00:17:13.223
JR: And so I signed up, I negotiated a better price and had my wife do it with me
00:17:13.223 --> 00:17:16.143
JR: so I had somebody that I could kind of bounce ideas across.
00:17:16.823 --> 00:17:21.643
JR: And it was within a week or two that I was convinced that these were the most
00:17:21.643 --> 00:17:30.003
JR: intuitive assessments and had accurately described me and my wife in a way that
00:17:30.003 --> 00:17:35.983
JR: was easily understood by a layman because I don't have a psychology background at all.
00:17:36.363 --> 00:17:41.403
JR: And I'm going, these are powerful. And so I continue with that training and
00:17:41.403 --> 00:17:46.663
JR: just like I did with programming where it was like this was natural and I could
00:17:46.663 --> 00:17:48.803
JR: just automatically just run into it.
00:17:49.203 --> 00:17:51.963
JR: That's the way the assessment training was. It was like, oh,
00:17:52.143 --> 00:17:54.523
JR: this is for you. You get this.
00:17:54.683 --> 00:17:59.503
JR: And so I went through the training through three different series of sessions,
00:17:59.803 --> 00:18:05.243
JR: and it was that that ultimately led me to starting the ministry.
00:18:05.443 --> 00:18:10.143
Kevin Lowe: Interesting, so talk to me more about this assessment.
00:18:11.456 --> 00:18:16.436
Kevin Lowe: Because I guess I'm trying to understand, I mean, is it one of those like where
00:18:16.436 --> 00:18:22.716
Kevin Lowe: you're just answering questions like, you know, is that all it is? As simple as that?
00:18:22.896 --> 00:18:28.996
JR: Well, it is and it's not. Okay. So there are an unending number of assessments
00:18:28.996 --> 00:18:33.456
JR: that are out there, but there's a very small sliver of assessments that are
00:18:33.456 --> 00:18:35.116
JR: known as psychometric assessments.
00:18:35.756 --> 00:18:40.936
JR: Psychometric assessments are ones that figure out how you are wired internally.
00:18:41.496 --> 00:18:45.936
JR: And that wiring is consistent with the rest of your life.
00:18:46.076 --> 00:18:50.856
JR: So for instance, if you are a 18-year-old and you like to take risks,
00:18:51.096 --> 00:18:57.776
JR: it kind of excites you and interests you, you'll still be taking risks at 68 and even at 88.
00:18:58.236 --> 00:19:02.796
JR: The difference is that the risks that you'll take at 18 or 28,
00:19:03.116 --> 00:19:07.316
JR: maybe physical, maybe at 68 you've learned not to do that, but you'll still
00:19:07.316 --> 00:19:08.776
JR: take risks emotionally.
00:19:08.896 --> 00:19:12.756
JR: You'll take risks business-wise. You'll take risk financially.
00:19:13.016 --> 00:19:15.716
JR: And so these things are ingrained in you.
00:19:15.816 --> 00:19:20.456
JR: And there's a very small sliver of assessments that are out there that have
00:19:20.456 --> 00:19:26.996
JR: this accreditation and requires third-party testing and to be able to get that certification.
00:19:27.416 --> 00:19:33.216
JR: Ones that others have heard of would be like DISC or Myers-Briggs or GALP Strengths.
00:19:33.416 --> 00:19:36.316
JR: Those are all psychometric assessments.
00:19:36.616 --> 00:19:41.276
JR: The YMI assessments have also gone through them. The difference between our
00:19:41.276 --> 00:19:47.516
JR: assessments and everybody else's, and I didn't know this at the time in 2016 and 17th.
00:19:48.023 --> 00:19:51.523
JR: Is that our assessments were developed by born-again believers.
00:19:51.783 --> 00:19:56.283
JR: They were used in the corporate world, always intended to be used in the church.
00:19:56.463 --> 00:20:02.223
JR: The church said no, not interested, and so it was used primarily in private
00:20:02.223 --> 00:20:04.203
JR: practice for consultation.
00:20:04.603 --> 00:20:08.363
JR: The other difference is that our assessments do not put you in a box.
00:20:08.583 --> 00:20:17.643
JR: They do not say that you are sanguine or melancholy or some kind of weird personality definition.
00:20:18.023 --> 00:20:24.383
JR: The way our assessments work is this. We measure a very specific aspect of who you are.
00:20:24.683 --> 00:20:29.303
JR: Like in a group effort, what do you like to do? Or what is your most impactful
00:20:29.303 --> 00:20:32.243
JR: tool that you have? Or how does your mind work?
00:20:32.443 --> 00:20:36.263
JR: Or what really interests you? What are your natural abilities?
00:20:36.843 --> 00:20:41.423
JR: What are your values? And then, of course, we've also include,
00:20:41.663 --> 00:20:45.363
JR: and these are not psychometric, but we also have a five-fold ministry,
00:20:45.603 --> 00:20:48.783
JR: the gifts from Jesus, spiritual gifts from Jesus.
00:20:48.983 --> 00:20:52.803
JR: And we also have a spiritual gifts assessments, which are the gifts of the Father.
00:20:53.163 --> 00:20:56.483
JR: We also include those as part of our assessment.
00:20:56.643 --> 00:21:01.763
JR: And what happens is in a three-hour coaching session at the end of our program,
00:21:02.043 --> 00:21:07.283
JR: a person will go through that and we individually analyze every one of those,
00:21:07.943 --> 00:21:10.663
JR: aspects of who they are. So what motivates them?
00:21:10.803 --> 00:21:14.503
JR: What's the big way of impacting the world? all the different ways that their
00:21:14.503 --> 00:21:17.743
JR: mind works and their interests, abilities, and values.
00:21:17.983 --> 00:21:23.983
JR: We pull all that together and we holistically assemble a fingerprint of who
00:21:23.983 --> 00:21:26.063
JR: you are as God created you to be.
00:21:26.643 --> 00:21:30.683
JR: And from that, we then produce a purpose statement that says,
00:21:30.823 --> 00:21:33.743
JR: this is what God created you to do.
00:21:33.903 --> 00:21:40.143
JR: There's no expiration date on that. So if you learn this at 25, God bless you.
00:21:40.343 --> 00:21:44.883
JR: If you have to be hardheaded and wait till you're 60 like I was,
00:21:45.563 --> 00:21:47.363
JR: you know, God still has a plan for you.
00:21:47.969 --> 00:21:54.069
JR: All these things are a natural byproduct of going through this process.
00:21:54.329 --> 00:22:01.069
JR: And they all create a unique purpose statement that says, this is what God wants to do through you.
00:22:01.249 --> 00:22:05.349
JR: This is how God has created you to serve other people.
00:22:06.049 --> 00:22:09.669
Kevin Lowe: Fascinating. Way more cool than what I was thinking.
00:22:11.469 --> 00:22:17.949
JR: This is not about your love languages or, you know, it's a lot more.
00:22:17.969 --> 00:22:20.569
JR: More involved, and it is unique.
00:22:20.769 --> 00:22:27.469
JR: It is uniquely you. As unique as you are, as your DNA is, we believe that this
00:22:27.469 --> 00:22:33.609
JR: purpose that's in you, these interest, abilities, and values are actually ingrained in your DNA.
00:22:33.829 --> 00:22:39.949
JR: When God breathed you into existence, this is part of what he did in that creation process.
00:22:40.409 --> 00:22:46.229
JR: So that's why saying that somebody is, you know, one of these 16 different personality
00:22:46.229 --> 00:22:50.849
JR: types or, you know, you're one of these nine different personality types or
00:22:50.849 --> 00:22:52.269
JR: whatever. That's just baloney.
00:22:52.489 --> 00:22:57.429
JR: It's insulting to God because his creativity is infinite.
00:22:57.929 --> 00:23:02.689
JR: He doesn't reproduce himself. Just like every snowflake is different,
00:23:03.249 --> 00:23:04.929
JR: every one of God's children is different.
00:23:05.129 --> 00:23:10.049
JR: And so when we can help them figure out where they fit in the body of Christ,
00:23:10.229 --> 00:23:14.689
JR: that is our job, is to help them figure that out so that they can start to be
00:23:14.689 --> 00:23:18.669
JR: used by God and experience that relationship that God wants to have with all of his children.
00:23:19.049 --> 00:23:20.309
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely.
00:23:21.368 --> 00:23:28.628
Kevin Lowe: So I'm curious, JR, what, I mean, when you finished this and you got your results,
00:23:28.988 --> 00:23:35.008
Kevin Lowe: I mean, what were those results to then end up setting you on this path,
00:23:35.148 --> 00:23:36.368
Kevin Lowe: getting you to where you are today?
00:23:36.568 --> 00:23:40.428
Kevin Lowe: I mean, because, I mean, I'm like, there had to be something truly profound.
00:23:40.648 --> 00:23:45.468
Kevin Lowe: I mean, was it totally out of the blue? Like, were you really shocked at it?
00:23:45.588 --> 00:23:49.848
Kevin Lowe: And then, you know, was it, again, just trusting in God to go that direction?
00:23:50.408 --> 00:23:54.088
JR: There's a thing about our spirits, especially for believers that have the Holy
00:23:54.088 --> 00:23:56.828
JR: Spirit bound to our personal spirits.
00:23:57.008 --> 00:24:01.388
JR: Believe it or not, your spirit does know what God wants to do through you and
00:24:01.388 --> 00:24:04.328
JR: will confirm it and nudge you in that direction.
00:24:04.748 --> 00:24:08.988
JR: So the process actually went this way. It was being taught from a counselor's
00:24:08.988 --> 00:24:11.168
JR: perspective how to help people in relationship.
00:24:11.328 --> 00:24:16.208
JR: It had been used in the corporate world for many decades to help put the best
00:24:16.208 --> 00:24:22.828
JR: people in the right spots and to learn how to motivate their staff and to deal with, you know,
00:24:22.988 --> 00:24:27.928
JR: people that are having blocks in their development and so forth.
00:24:28.068 --> 00:24:31.028
JR: And it was proven and vetted to be a very effective tool.
00:24:31.248 --> 00:24:35.048
JR: And the person that was teaching this, they were a Christian,
00:24:35.208 --> 00:24:37.928
JR: but they were not teaching it from a Christian perspective.
00:24:38.088 --> 00:24:45.328
JR: And in fact, they had a real edge to the church whenever they talked about the church.
00:24:45.568 --> 00:24:49.228
JR: So they definitely weren't interested in working with the church in this area.
00:24:49.368 --> 00:24:52.948
JR: But I'm going through this and I'm putting together these pieces.
00:24:53.148 --> 00:24:55.528
JR: I'm going, no, this is for the church.
00:24:55.748 --> 00:24:57.848
JR: This was intended for the church.
00:24:58.128 --> 00:25:01.028
JR: How I knew that, simply my spirit saying that.
00:25:01.268 --> 00:25:05.028
JR: So as I said, a byproduct of our program is to create a purpose statement.
00:25:05.268 --> 00:25:12.268
JR: So in spring of 2017, I'm looking at my purpose statement and my purpose statement reads this way.
00:25:12.268 --> 00:25:18.188
JR: I must strategically lead a gifted team to embrace the power of their God-given
00:25:18.188 --> 00:25:20.928
JR: design for long-term positive results.
00:25:21.088 --> 00:25:24.008
JR: There's three aspects to that. I must strategically lead.
00:25:24.508 --> 00:25:27.448
JR: Well, Kevin, I've been a leader since I was 18.
00:25:28.948 --> 00:25:32.248
JR: I joined a group and then somehow I wind up leading it.
00:25:32.608 --> 00:25:38.728
JR: It happens to me. I start a business and my partner three years later says,
00:25:38.848 --> 00:25:41.748
JR: I want you to buy me out. I want to go off and do something else.
00:25:42.268 --> 00:25:46.668
JR: You know, it's just, that's just how my life has been. So, okay, that part I got.
00:25:47.028 --> 00:25:50.928
JR: Embrace the power of the God-given design. All right, well, I've got these assessments
00:25:50.928 --> 00:25:53.828
JR: which tell you how God created you and wired you.
00:25:53.968 --> 00:25:56.508
JR: Okay, that makes sense. And building a team.
00:25:57.148 --> 00:26:01.008
JR: And the last thing is for long-term positive results. So I'm thinking about
00:26:01.008 --> 00:26:02.968
JR: this going, okay, this is for the church.
00:26:03.348 --> 00:26:06.808
JR: You were created to bring it to the church.
00:26:07.405 --> 00:26:13.385
JR: You're supposed to help people embrace their God-given design for long-term
00:26:13.385 --> 00:26:15.205
JR: positive results, which is good fruit.
00:26:15.385 --> 00:26:18.325
JR: That's what God's good fruit is, is long-term positive results.
00:26:18.685 --> 00:26:21.505
JR: And we're like, all right, well, these assessments are agnostic.
00:26:21.805 --> 00:26:24.145
JR: There's nothing Christianese in them.
00:26:24.365 --> 00:26:27.205
JR: And I go, all right, well, you got to bring it to the church.
00:26:27.425 --> 00:26:28.425
JR: What are you going to do about it?
00:26:28.705 --> 00:26:34.405
JR: I go, I guess I'm going to write the curriculum so that I can bring this assessment
00:26:34.405 --> 00:26:38.385
JR: to the church and help people discover their purpose, their God-given purpose.
00:26:38.625 --> 00:26:42.485
JR: And as soon as I came to that mental agreement that, all right,
00:26:42.565 --> 00:26:46.005
JR: this is what I'm going to do, God then spoke to me and said,
00:26:46.105 --> 00:26:47.885
JR: and you're going to call Brush Fires Ministry.
00:26:48.225 --> 00:26:52.825
JR: And Kevin, I got to tell you, I know that I'm the very first person that spoke
00:26:52.825 --> 00:26:54.285
JR: those words out in public.
00:26:54.705 --> 00:27:02.405
JR: I know it was in my head that that title was conceived, but in all modesty,
00:27:02.645 --> 00:27:06.325
JR: I cannot claim responsibility for the naming of the ministry.
00:27:06.545 --> 00:27:10.425
JR: God said, this is what you're going to call it. And I thought, first of all, cool name.
00:27:12.445 --> 00:27:18.585
JR: Cool name, God. Yeah, I get that. And then it was later on as people were asking
00:27:18.585 --> 00:27:21.385
JR: me about the name, because I had already gone on to the, all right,
00:27:21.465 --> 00:27:24.805
JR: now I've got to write the curriculum, which eventually became our first book.
00:27:25.305 --> 00:27:32.365
JR: It was, oh, I'm teaching people how to pursue their God-given purpose.
00:27:32.625 --> 00:27:36.845
JR: And then they go out and live out that God-given purpose, creating fires in
00:27:36.845 --> 00:27:45.165
JR: the lives of the people that they touch, who then go out and create fires in lives of who they touch,
00:27:45.665 --> 00:27:48.185
JR: brush fires. It made sense to me.
00:27:48.185 --> 00:27:48.725
Kevin Lowe: Yeah.
00:27:49.305 --> 00:27:52.085
JR: Anyhow, so I'm thinking, all right.
00:27:52.804 --> 00:27:57.004
JR: I never wrote a book before, never wrote church curriculum before for certain.
00:27:57.184 --> 00:28:01.584
JR: I mean, again, I come from the corporate world and I was attending church and
00:28:01.584 --> 00:28:06.544
JR: was in certain leadership positions in church, but I didn't go to college to become a pastor.
00:28:06.824 --> 00:28:12.924
JR: So over the prior 20 years, I had written various articles,
00:28:13.224 --> 00:28:18.804
JR: articles that all of a sudden something would strike me, like the concept of
00:28:18.804 --> 00:28:24.484
JR: joy and the difference between that and happiness and why I was not experiencing it.
00:28:24.864 --> 00:28:29.804
JR: So I did a deep dive and I wrote an article about that and put it on social media.
00:28:30.064 --> 00:28:33.604
JR: And prior to that, I'd written poetry and different other thoughts.
00:28:33.744 --> 00:28:41.044
JR: In 2004, I wrote an article or a message that I gave at a men's retreat called, What is Your Purpose?
00:28:41.284 --> 00:28:46.824
JR: And I did all these various things and read various devotions that I would go,
00:28:46.944 --> 00:28:50.564
JR: oh, that's really interesting. I want to hold on to that for some unknown reason.
00:28:50.964 --> 00:28:56.144
JR: So I would take a photocopy of, you know, a daily devotion out of Our Daily
00:28:56.144 --> 00:29:01.424
JR: Bread or My Journey with Christ or all these various things.
00:29:01.564 --> 00:29:03.864
JR: And I said, you know, I'm going to grab that folder.
00:29:04.064 --> 00:29:08.844
JR: So I went downstairs and grabbed that folder of these articles and poems and
00:29:08.844 --> 00:29:11.324
JR: short stories and messages and plays.
00:29:11.524 --> 00:29:15.584
JR: And I started reading them and I started putting them in piles.
00:29:15.844 --> 00:29:18.364
JR: Oh, that's identity. Oh, that's purpose.
00:29:19.004 --> 00:29:20.764
JR: Oh, that's service.
00:29:21.764 --> 00:29:26.584
JR: Oh, that's worship and praise. I'd been writing the curriculum for Brushfires
00:29:26.584 --> 00:29:29.144
JR: for nearly 20 years and didn't even know it.
00:29:31.344 --> 00:29:32.024
Kevin Lowe: Wow.
00:29:32.624 --> 00:29:40.124
JR: So the hurdle of me saying I got to write this curriculum was immediately overcome
00:29:40.124 --> 00:29:46.084
JR: because God had been writing it through me in all these private messages and
00:29:46.084 --> 00:29:48.924
JR: devotions I read or wrote and,
00:29:49.905 --> 00:29:55.105
JR: It was like, there it was. And all I needed to do was weave it together for
00:29:55.105 --> 00:30:01.725
JR: the final product that we wound up presenting in February of 2018 when we did
00:30:01.725 --> 00:30:04.025
JR: our first eight-week session.
00:30:04.505 --> 00:30:11.825
Kevin Lowe: Wow. How was that first session? I mean, you had to be a nervous wreck, I would imagine.
00:30:12.785 --> 00:30:16.865
JR: I want to say this because I'm hoping that there's some church leaders that
00:30:16.865 --> 00:30:21.605
JR: are listening to your broadcast. I got to say that there were some church leaders
00:30:21.605 --> 00:30:23.405
JR: that really discouraged me.
00:30:23.665 --> 00:30:28.305
JR: One in particular, and I'm not going to name names, but went out their way to
00:30:28.305 --> 00:30:31.765
JR: delay, discourage, and so forth.
00:30:31.965 --> 00:30:35.785
JR: Now, there were other church leaders that said, oh, dude, yeah, you need to do this.
00:30:35.905 --> 00:30:42.085
JR: But, you know, you don't need that many negative voices in your life to really get you off track.
00:30:42.345 --> 00:30:47.565
JR: In fact, I think there's a quotient where you need 10 positive comments and
00:30:47.565 --> 00:30:53.265
JR: observations on you or your life to overcome one seriously negative one.
00:30:53.445 --> 00:30:59.205
JR: It's really that way. We will focus and obsess over that one negative comment
00:30:59.205 --> 00:31:04.805
JR: that somebody said and ignore the 10 positive ones that other ones are saying around you.
00:31:04.945 --> 00:31:07.745
JR: And I was really struggling with this because it was a four-
00:31:11.358 --> 00:31:17.078
JR: To do that. So it took me a while. I had a fight to actually get that going.
00:31:17.918 --> 00:31:24.018
JR: And I did. And it was my wife and I who, my wife helped me in the presentation
00:31:24.018 --> 00:31:27.958
JR: as far as the administrative side of things.
00:31:28.518 --> 00:31:34.258
JR: And we had, I think, six people. Three of them were from one family.
00:31:34.378 --> 00:31:36.018
JR: Two of them were from another family.
00:31:36.658 --> 00:31:41.998
JR: And there was a couple other individuals. And they heard about it through there
00:31:41.998 --> 00:31:45.598
JR: might have been one announcement at church, and we didn't get much church support at all.
00:31:45.918 --> 00:31:49.718
JR: Most of it, I think, came through social media. I did Facebook postings and
00:31:49.718 --> 00:31:54.838
JR: created an event and did that sort of thing. It went extremely well.
00:31:55.418 --> 00:31:59.398
JR: The people that were at that very first event are still friends today.
00:31:59.738 --> 00:32:04.138
JR: They are people that I've impacted their life. I helped change their lives.
00:32:04.358 --> 00:32:12.358
JR: The one young man that was in there was working as a cashier at a car wash,
00:32:12.538 --> 00:32:15.698
JR: went through his design discovery meeting, said, you know, hey,
00:32:15.758 --> 00:32:20.838
JR: you've got a real calling and proclivity to finances and understanding numbers.
00:32:21.278 --> 00:32:25.298
JR: Have you ever thought about maybe going into accounting or some kind of finance training?
00:32:25.558 --> 00:32:29.818
JR: Six months later, he enrolled in college, took those courses,
00:32:29.818 --> 00:32:35.098
JR: and now he is a finance advisor for Vanguard in Dallas, Texas.
00:32:35.338 --> 00:32:35.938
Kevin Lowe: Wow.
00:32:36.918 --> 00:32:41.958
JR: So another lady that was in there, I love her because about halfway through,
00:32:42.438 --> 00:32:45.398
JR: she ghosted us, just stopped showing up.
00:32:45.458 --> 00:32:47.798
JR: You know, I'm thinking, okay, well, who did I offend this time?
00:32:49.218 --> 00:32:52.258
JR: And I'm contacting her and she's not returning a call.
00:32:52.878 --> 00:32:58.578
JR: And a year later, she walks into the next workshop with her husband. I'm going, okay.
00:32:59.018 --> 00:33:02.118
JR: And she won't mind me sharing this story because she's done it publicly.
00:33:02.118 --> 00:33:03.758
JR: I go, Izzy, what happened to you?
00:33:03.898 --> 00:33:10.018
JR: And she goes, well, I was doing the assessments and I disagreed with what they said I was.
00:33:10.118 --> 00:33:12.778
JR: I completely said, that's not me. That's not who I am.
00:33:12.998 --> 00:33:17.458
JR: I'm large and I'm in charge and that's who I am. But it was haunting her.
00:33:17.678 --> 00:33:21.298
JR: So at some point down, you know, a few months later, she brought it to her husband,
00:33:21.678 --> 00:33:25.978
JR: Peter, and she goes, see, this is what these assessments say I am.
00:33:26.338 --> 00:33:29.378
JR: And Peter's looking at that and he goes, that's you?
00:33:29.378 --> 00:33:37.058
JR: That's you, that's you, and so they sheepishly attended the next class,
00:33:37.418 --> 00:33:41.258
JR: or the next session of eight classes and completed it and graduated and went
00:33:41.258 --> 00:33:42.478
JR: through the purpose statement together.
00:33:43.361 --> 00:33:50.341
JR: And changed her life. She went from being the president of their company to
00:33:50.341 --> 00:33:55.781
JR: taking training to become a therapeutic tattoo artist.
00:33:56.081 --> 00:33:59.201
JR: And if you don't know what that is, join the group, because I didn't know what
00:33:59.201 --> 00:34:02.661
JR: that was, until I asked her, I go, what is that?
00:34:02.901 --> 00:34:08.901
JR: Well, women that go through mastectomies are left scarred and are left not looking
00:34:08.901 --> 00:34:15.741
JR: like they did before. And we use tattoos to restore their image of what they look like.
00:34:16.161 --> 00:34:22.141
JR: We also help people that have done self-harm by cutting themselves.
00:34:22.441 --> 00:34:27.421
JR: And we help minimize the evidence of them trying to commit suicide or whatever
00:34:27.421 --> 00:34:28.261
JR: it is that they were doing.
00:34:28.621 --> 00:34:32.541
JR: And she goes, you know, JR, it's exactly what I was created to do.
00:34:32.621 --> 00:34:36.781
JR: Because while they're in my tattoo or in my chair for hours,
00:34:36.961 --> 00:34:40.381
JR: I just pray over them. I introduced them to Jesus.
00:34:41.401 --> 00:34:47.541
JR: She sits there and she ministers to all the people that are in her chair as
00:34:47.541 --> 00:34:48.741
JR: they're going through the service.
00:34:49.161 --> 00:34:54.381
JR: So yeah, that's just one of many stories of the people that we've touched.
00:34:54.601 --> 00:34:58.941
JR: And that was from the very first day, the very first class that that stuff happened.
00:34:59.161 --> 00:35:04.361
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, I think that's what I think is so amazing about that story in particular
00:35:04.361 --> 00:35:10.501
Kevin Lowe: is the fact I think it highlights the power of something like this training
00:35:10.501 --> 00:35:14.101
Kevin Lowe: and the fact that we're too close to our own selves.
00:35:14.261 --> 00:35:20.141
Kevin Lowe: We're too stuck in the mess of it to understand, you know, who we are and what we are. Yeah.
00:35:20.381 --> 00:35:25.201
Kevin Lowe: And I mean, it's why kind of like that situation. I mean, our family members
00:35:25.201 --> 00:35:28.741
Kevin Lowe: can describe us better than we can describe ourselves, you know?
00:35:29.081 --> 00:35:32.661
JR: Yeah. It's that combination of the negative thought. We call them intrusive
00:35:32.661 --> 00:35:38.601
JR: thoughts that are going through your head that overemphasizes a criticism or
00:35:38.601 --> 00:35:40.861
JR: a setback. It overemphasizes it.
00:35:41.732 --> 00:35:45.752
JR: Focuses your attention on the problem and not the problem solver.
00:35:46.052 --> 00:35:53.072
JR: So we, we obsess over this criticism or this setback and we don't take it to
00:35:53.072 --> 00:35:55.152
JR: God. We don't go, God, what was that about?
00:35:55.472 --> 00:36:00.832
JR: You know, like that day in 2016, when, when I did that self-analysis,
00:36:00.832 --> 00:36:06.032
JR: I'm going, okay, I didn't bring this on myself. I did not cause the destruction
00:36:06.032 --> 00:36:08.732
JR: of this company. That was not my doing.
00:36:09.212 --> 00:36:14.592
JR: God could have easily have intervened and prevented this from happening.
00:36:14.792 --> 00:36:18.552
JR: He allowed this to happen. Okay, God, what do you want?
00:36:18.852 --> 00:36:24.332
JR: It's that process where we get our minds off of our problems onto the problem
00:36:24.332 --> 00:36:30.392
JR: solver that allows us to start to grow and to move into the next season of our lives.
00:36:30.572 --> 00:36:34.172
JR: And God brings these things, allows these things to happen as terrible as they
00:36:34.172 --> 00:36:40.452
JR: might be so that he can get our attention and say, now you're doing what I created you to do.
00:36:40.632 --> 00:36:44.552
JR: And you and I are going to work very closely together going forward.
00:36:44.832 --> 00:36:50.072
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. Wow, so very powerful, JR.
00:36:50.392 --> 00:36:57.112
Kevin Lowe: This is really amazing. So I'm curious, after that first class that you go through,
00:36:58.072 --> 00:37:02.112
Kevin Lowe: what happens after that as far as the program itself?
00:37:02.112 --> 00:37:06.832
Kevin Lowe: Did you find where you need to make any adjustments and then even just growing
00:37:06.832 --> 00:37:09.352
Kevin Lowe: this into something more?
00:37:09.832 --> 00:37:14.312
JR: So I think the next class doubled in size or nearly doubled in size because
00:37:14.312 --> 00:37:16.192
JR: of word of mouth and so forth.
00:37:16.572 --> 00:37:20.932
JR: We eventually started doing workshops as large as 50 live ones.
00:37:22.152 --> 00:37:26.672
JR: And a number of our graduates came and assisted us and worked alongside of us,
00:37:27.152 --> 00:37:31.452
JR: volunteered in different ways. and I was encouraged to do a video series.
00:37:31.872 --> 00:37:38.132
JR: Prior to that, I was encouraged by one of my business friends to establish it as a 501c3.
00:37:38.472 --> 00:37:40.632
JR: So I believe we did that at the end of 2021.
00:37:41.052 --> 00:37:46.212
JR: We became a 501c3. Didn't have anybody lining up to give us donations.
00:37:46.472 --> 00:37:49.772
JR: There have been a handful that have come in.
00:37:50.252 --> 00:37:56.972
JR: But then this push of saying, all right, the workshop is as solid as it can be.
00:37:56.972 --> 00:38:02.692
JR: We now need to bring this to video so that we can stop being regional and stop
00:38:02.692 --> 00:38:08.252
JR: requiring people to show up in person and allow them to be able to do this online.
00:38:08.532 --> 00:38:13.132
JR: And so a couple of the business people came up and they financed the video production
00:38:13.132 --> 00:38:20.172
JR: and we hired a director, video editor, and did the filming or the shooting of
00:38:20.172 --> 00:38:22.972
JR: the video on our property in.
00:38:23.638 --> 00:38:28.318
JR: The end of 2023. We got the financing at the beginning of 2023,
00:38:28.698 --> 00:38:31.778
JR: got the video shot in 2023,
00:38:32.218 --> 00:38:40.618
JR: did the video editing and production in 2024, and then developed the LMS software.
00:38:41.098 --> 00:38:46.358
JR: LMS stands for learning management software. It's unique software that is designed
00:38:46.358 --> 00:38:55.458
JR: to host video training sessions and tests and various documents to train people how to do things.
00:38:55.698 --> 00:39:03.018
JR: And we purchased that software or at least that software and developed that site at the end of 2024.
00:39:03.478 --> 00:39:09.198
JR: And at the beginning of this year, we launched the program nationwide or actually
00:39:09.198 --> 00:39:13.438
JR: throughout all of North America so that people can do the assessments online,
00:39:13.438 --> 00:39:15.558
JR: they can watch the videos online.
00:39:15.818 --> 00:39:21.938
JR: They can do the design discovery meetings online and basically do the entire program.
00:39:22.198 --> 00:39:26.138
JR: And since then, we've been helping people in Pennsylvania, Florida.
00:39:26.698 --> 00:39:33.438
JR: Oklahoma, and various places throughout North America to be able to start to
00:39:33.438 --> 00:39:34.518
JR: walk into their purpose.
00:39:34.518 --> 00:39:38.198
JR: We still are really
00:39:38.198 --> 00:39:41.778
JR: limited by the founders
00:39:41.778 --> 00:39:49.138
JR: lack of marketing and messaging I'm a very good programmer I can close the deal
00:39:49.138 --> 00:39:56.258
JR: I can develop software I can organize I can lead people but marketing and sales
00:39:56.258 --> 00:40:00.718
JR: market development that is not my gifting that is a different person.
00:40:01.448 --> 00:40:06.688
JR: And I trust that God is going to bring that person to us at some point who says,
00:40:06.948 --> 00:40:14.248
JR: oh, I can play the role to help get this regional ministry to become a international ministry.
00:40:14.548 --> 00:40:19.588
JR: Because that's the prophetic words that I've received from various people is
00:40:19.588 --> 00:40:21.288
JR: that this is going to be huge.
00:40:21.628 --> 00:40:25.088
JR: When people come up to you and go, this is going to be bigger than love languages,
00:40:25.368 --> 00:40:27.608
JR: and love languages is worldwide.
00:40:28.068 --> 00:40:30.728
JR: This is going to be bigger than that. it's like, okay.
00:40:31.568 --> 00:40:37.908
JR: And it's the unique sense that we are bringing the truth of psychometric assessments
00:40:37.908 --> 00:40:45.248
JR: developed by born-again believers into the church to invigorate God's children,
00:40:45.248 --> 00:40:52.068
JR: to become who he created them to be, to prepare them for the harvest that God has coming.
00:40:52.468 --> 00:40:52.988
Kevin Lowe: Yeah.
00:40:53.288 --> 00:40:56.328
JR: That was a lot. That was a lot. So I'll just let that sit in.
00:40:56.328 --> 00:41:03.588
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, no, I mean, I'm still just like, I'm just blown away at this, the whole thing.
00:41:03.768 --> 00:41:07.988
Kevin Lowe: And especially when you've just told us about taking it online.
00:41:08.008 --> 00:41:15.168
Kevin Lowe: In my brain, as you're talking, I'm just thinking about the possibilities of where this could go.
00:41:15.168 --> 00:41:20.648
Kevin Lowe: And because what I'm wondering is, is even though it's online and somebody can
00:41:20.648 --> 00:41:28.088
Kevin Lowe: do it on their own, is it still able to be done through at a church, like in a group setting?
00:41:28.088 --> 00:41:31.688
Kevin Lowe: Is that something that you guys like work with people on?
00:41:33.388 --> 00:41:39.088
JR: I thank you for that question because, so there have been different milestones,
00:41:39.448 --> 00:41:42.428
JR: different plateau areas that our ministry has gone through.
00:41:42.708 --> 00:41:47.628
JR: Obviously, the very first one, getting it started and then getting it to a point
00:41:47.628 --> 00:41:48.968
JR: where it's really perfected,
00:41:49.528 --> 00:41:55.668
JR: getting it to where it is right now, where the introductory workshop materials
00:41:55.668 --> 00:42:00.088
JR: are available for any lay person that wants to discover what their purpose is
00:42:00.088 --> 00:42:03.288
JR: and find out how to minister properly based upon their design.
00:42:03.388 --> 00:42:09.708
JR: The next step is for me to be able to duplicate what we do, what I personally
00:42:09.708 --> 00:42:14.928
JR: do, into the lives of church leaders, the elders, the pastors,
00:42:15.448 --> 00:42:18.848
JR: the deacons, the team leaders,
00:42:19.148 --> 00:42:27.928
JR: the forge group leaders, and teach them how to lead and raise up God's children
00:42:27.928 --> 00:42:31.968
JR: in the way that they should go based upon how he created them.
00:42:31.968 --> 00:42:37.288
JR: So that's the next plateau is, first of all, partnering with church leaders
00:42:37.288 --> 00:42:39.308
JR: so that I can train them in design.
00:42:39.628 --> 00:42:44.168
JR: We are, after I get this next book, which I mentioned before we went on there,
00:42:44.628 --> 00:42:48.828
JR: after I get that book done, the next project is what we're referring to as a
00:42:48.828 --> 00:42:53.688
JR: discipleship framework, where it combines the best of discipleship techniques
00:42:53.688 --> 00:42:56.828
JR: and foundational items that every believer needs to have.
00:42:56.828 --> 00:43:01.688
JR: But we are marrying it with the training that we provide for designs.
00:43:02.537 --> 00:43:07.017
JR: The movie The Forge was a great movie, and I was immediately inspired to partner
00:43:07.017 --> 00:43:14.197
JR: with groups like that, because here you have a senior, mature male Christian
00:43:14.197 --> 00:43:17.137
JR: pouring into the life of a young Christian.
00:43:17.297 --> 00:43:20.717
JR: Now, a young Christian, you can be 58 and be a young Christian,
00:43:20.817 --> 00:43:23.817
JR: so I just want to be clear this is not chronological.
00:43:24.017 --> 00:43:28.237
JR: You can be very immature, and starting to establish that foundation so that
00:43:28.237 --> 00:43:29.737
JR: God can start to work through them.
00:43:30.297 --> 00:43:33.577
JR: Well, the unique thing that we bring into this, where we can sit down there
00:43:33.577 --> 00:43:40.297
JR: with that forged leader or small group leader, we can say, Mark was set aside to be a counselor.
00:43:40.697 --> 00:43:45.937
JR: Start to encourage him to take the classes so that he can get a degree or some
00:43:45.937 --> 00:43:47.797
JR: kind of certification in counseling.
00:43:48.117 --> 00:43:53.557
JR: Mary was set aside to be a leader of women and children.
00:43:53.877 --> 00:43:57.017
JR: Start giving her opportunities to be able to do that.
00:43:57.637 --> 00:44:03.357
JR: Start teaching her what it's like to be accountable to the people that she is shepherding.
00:44:03.557 --> 00:44:07.057
JR: This person was designed to influence others.
00:44:07.477 --> 00:44:11.517
JR: Start giving them a platform where they can start to speak, be it a podcast,
00:44:11.837 --> 00:44:16.797
JR: be it a teaching opportunity, be it a speaking opportunity from the pulpit.
00:44:16.957 --> 00:44:19.777
JR: Start to train them up in the way that they should go.
00:44:20.217 --> 00:44:26.457
JR: Current church leaders are so overwhelmed with the amount of personal trauma that's going on.
00:44:26.577 --> 00:44:31.157
JR: And the sad thing is that the people that they could share that burden with
00:44:31.157 --> 00:44:34.557
JR: are quite likely sitting in their congregation.
00:44:34.897 --> 00:44:38.677
JR: But because they're so focused in on the problem,
00:44:38.937 --> 00:44:43.477
JR: they are not looking at the solution to the problem, which is develop your people
00:44:43.477 --> 00:44:50.037
JR: to be who God created them to be so that that burden is no longer yours to carry,
00:44:50.077 --> 00:44:54.757
JR: but you can start to shift it to other people that that you've invested your life into.
00:44:55.117 --> 00:45:00.017
JR: I mean, how many churches are out there where if all of a sudden their pastor
00:45:00.017 --> 00:45:04.217
JR: had a heart attack, which is happening more and more frequently nowadays.
00:45:05.058 --> 00:45:10.578
JR: Would be completely lost because you've got one recognizable leader.
00:45:10.938 --> 00:45:16.538
JR: That leader's very first job, if they don't know this, is to make their job
00:45:16.538 --> 00:45:23.178
JR: replaceable so that the church can move on to the very next day if all of a
00:45:23.178 --> 00:45:25.258
JR: sudden they were out for an extended illness.
00:45:25.518 --> 00:45:30.558
JR: That the church and the flock does not suffer, does not scatter, does not get harmed.
00:45:31.318 --> 00:45:35.858
JR: Every church leader should be looking to duplicate themselves into the next
00:45:35.858 --> 00:45:40.038
JR: generation so that they have a long and deep bench.
00:45:40.438 --> 00:45:44.838
JR: And that's also, by the way, if you want to grow your church and do church plants,
00:45:45.058 --> 00:45:46.298
JR: you should be doing that anyway.
00:45:46.678 --> 00:45:51.458
JR: You know, there's a church that we were working with that has this theory,
00:45:51.498 --> 00:45:56.078
JR: and I think it's a good one, that a pastor can only manage about 200 people.
00:45:56.438 --> 00:46:01.118
JR: So if you were, you know, 5,000 member church, senior pastor,
00:46:01.278 --> 00:46:05.558
JR: do you really know the names of all 5,000 of your flock? Do you know what's going on in their life?
00:46:05.778 --> 00:46:09.098
JR: Do you know if their marriages are safe or are about to fall apart?
00:46:09.318 --> 00:46:14.318
JR: You need to have enough pastors so that every one of your flock is being cared
00:46:14.318 --> 00:46:18.918
JR: for, because there's no way you personally can manage a flock of that size.
00:46:19.378 --> 00:46:23.258
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Wow. So amazing.
00:46:23.498 --> 00:46:29.398
Kevin Lowe: And you are so right in the fact of everything you've just said about what this
00:46:29.398 --> 00:46:31.658
Kevin Lowe: can do to a church as a whole.
00:46:32.078 --> 00:46:37.118
Kevin Lowe: And I've never really thought of it in the way that you just explained it about
00:46:37.118 --> 00:46:42.278
Kevin Lowe: the pastor and about this idea of spreading it out,
00:46:42.418 --> 00:46:48.958
Kevin Lowe: of using this as a mechanism to not only help people, but to help the church as a whole,
00:46:49.718 --> 00:46:55.458
Kevin Lowe: I think is, again, just another amazing benefit of this entire program.
00:46:56.378 --> 00:47:00.018
JR: Two things that you said there. The very first, the last one I'll deal with first.
00:47:00.800 --> 00:47:04.600
JR: I've got a pastor right now that I'm working with that, you know,
00:47:04.840 --> 00:47:07.360
JR: I mean, he's a young man. He's in his late 30s.
00:47:07.560 --> 00:47:11.680
JR: Tremendous amount of energy. But this guy is burning the candle at both ends.
00:47:12.180 --> 00:47:15.560
JR: And they are interested in implementing our discipleship program.
00:47:15.960 --> 00:47:21.000
JR: And he is so burdened by torn marriages and deaths, you know,
00:47:21.080 --> 00:47:24.240
JR: fentanyl deaths and all these things.
00:47:24.600 --> 00:47:28.940
JR: I mean, you know, you tell me I got two funerals to attend on Saturday.
00:47:29.600 --> 00:47:34.060
JR: He's got marriages that are falling apart. He's just absolutely overwhelmed.
00:47:34.440 --> 00:47:39.420
JR: And because they are so reactionary to the problems, because it's so overwhelming,
00:47:39.700 --> 00:47:41.980
JR: that they can't really look at the solutions.
00:47:42.380 --> 00:47:45.880
JR: The other thing that you mentioned at the beginning of that statement was,
00:47:46.140 --> 00:47:49.720
JR: you never thought of it. That's our biggest challenge, Kevin.
00:47:49.920 --> 00:47:55.760
JR: We are so cutting edge. We are so at the tip of the spear of the solution for
00:47:55.760 --> 00:48:02.140
JR: what God has for His church, that most of the churches don't even consider what
00:48:02.140 --> 00:48:04.520
JR: we're offering because it's too new.
00:48:04.680 --> 00:48:06.900
JR: It's too different. It's too whatever.
00:48:07.160 --> 00:48:11.520
JR: And I got to ask the leaders if they're listening, what do you got to lose?
00:48:11.880 --> 00:48:17.640
JR: If your leadership group is so overwhelmed, if you're aging out,
00:48:17.780 --> 00:48:23.280
JR: if all your leaders are in their late 60s and 70s and so forth,
00:48:23.540 --> 00:48:25.720
JR: where is the next generation of leaders?
00:48:26.280 --> 00:48:31.660
JR: How are you making a difference in the 25-year-old young father out there?
00:48:31.820 --> 00:48:33.600
JR: How are you impacting them?
00:48:33.920 --> 00:48:38.700
JR: Are you leading your flock based upon your agenda or what God was?
00:48:39.100 --> 00:48:40.720
JR: What does God want to do?
00:48:41.200 --> 00:48:46.100
JR: In fact, here, picture this visual. Let's say that you got a church of 200 men.
00:48:46.300 --> 00:48:53.440
JR: And every Sunday, those 200 men come into the church, and metaphorically speaking,
00:48:53.440 --> 00:49:00.080
JR: they are walking in with two-by-fours and drywall and nails and roofing materials.
00:49:00.540 --> 00:49:05.660
JR: And you took inventory of their giftings represented by those attributes,
00:49:06.300 --> 00:49:08.200
JR: two by fours and roofings.
00:49:08.540 --> 00:49:12.920
JR: What do you think God is trying to tell you, leader, that he wants you to do
00:49:12.920 --> 00:49:15.920
JR: with the men in his church? He wants you to build houses.
00:49:16.400 --> 00:49:20.640
JR: That's what he wants you to do. So use a program like ours.
00:49:20.640 --> 00:49:26.100
JR: Get a scouting report on all of your people to figure out where their giftings
00:49:26.100 --> 00:49:33.280
JR: are, and then begin to align your ministry agenda with the people that God has given you.
00:49:33.520 --> 00:49:35.500
JR: If he's handing you two-by-fours and
00:49:35.500 --> 00:49:39.680
JR: nails, your job is not to rebuild a transmission. It's to build a house.
00:49:41.080 --> 00:49:44.320
Kevin Lowe: Yes. Yes. So simple.
00:49:44.840 --> 00:49:45.780
JR: Well, yeah.
00:49:46.235 --> 00:49:50.035
JR: That's the challenge. And that's why I'm doing podcasts like this,
00:49:50.075 --> 00:49:57.535
JR: you know, three and five times a week is to get the message out there because we need ambassadors.
00:49:57.755 --> 00:50:01.735
JR: We need champions out there that say, you know what, I'm going to,
00:50:01.835 --> 00:50:05.775
JR: first of all, go through this program and vet it because if I'm going to champion
00:50:05.775 --> 00:50:07.315
JR: something, I want to make sure it's right.
00:50:07.575 --> 00:50:12.175
JR: And then second of all, I'm going to bring it to my church leadership.
00:50:12.175 --> 00:50:15.795
JR: And if they don't want to do it, then I'm going to take it to my small group,
00:50:15.915 --> 00:50:19.935
JR: and our small group will do it as a test study, and then we'll bring it to the leadership.
00:50:20.415 --> 00:50:25.435
JR: But I want to see how this can impact the people that are part of my community,
00:50:25.655 --> 00:50:26.895
JR: that are part of my church.
00:50:27.815 --> 00:50:33.975
JR: And that's what we need. We need people that will catch this vision that say, wow, that makes sense.
00:50:34.715 --> 00:50:40.535
JR: Why don't we try that? Why don't we try to focus on the solution and not the
00:50:40.535 --> 00:50:42.315
JR: symptoms of the problem?
00:50:42.615 --> 00:50:45.335
JR: Let's focus on the solution to the actual problem.
00:50:45.855 --> 00:50:52.315
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. So for the person who is listening, who is interested,
00:50:52.575 --> 00:50:54.015
Kevin Lowe: where do we send them to learn more?
00:50:54.315 --> 00:50:58.775
JR: At brushfire.com. That will tell you all about our ministry.
00:50:58.955 --> 00:51:00.115
JR: There's a testimonies page.
00:51:00.335 --> 00:51:04.255
JR: Please look at that because we're quite proud of the pastors that we've worked
00:51:04.255 --> 00:51:06.695
JR: with and the graduates that have gone through our program.
00:51:07.275 --> 00:51:10.655
JR: There's also letters of recommendation from pastors.
00:51:10.795 --> 00:51:15.315
JR: There's a crisis pregnancy center that we worked with last year and other churches.
00:51:15.755 --> 00:51:20.955
JR: But start there. If you register as a user, you will get two books for free.
00:51:21.215 --> 00:51:26.315
JR: One of them is one that I wrote called Spiritual Warfare Scriptures Guide.
00:51:26.555 --> 00:51:30.855
JR: And it is, if you're going to start doing what God asked you to do,
00:51:31.115 --> 00:51:36.915
JR: created you to do, without you knowing it or not, you are now actively involved in spiritual warfare.
00:51:37.395 --> 00:51:43.035
JR: This is a collection of scriptures that are very useful in helping you to deal
00:51:43.035 --> 00:51:45.795
JR: with the attacks of the enemy. So that's for free.
00:51:46.155 --> 00:51:51.055
JR: Also, you can do one of our assessments. We always make our spiritual gifts assessment free.
00:51:51.375 --> 00:51:56.155
JR: It's not a psychometric assessment. It's not part of the YMI assessments themselves,
00:51:56.155 --> 00:52:00.915
JR: but it is part of what we make available. And so you can do that one for free.
00:52:01.095 --> 00:52:04.295
JR: Those are the gifts of the Father as in the Book of Romans.
00:52:04.575 --> 00:52:09.375
JR: Sign up for our premium package that is the psychometric assessments.
00:52:10.235 --> 00:52:14.775
JR: It includes all 11 assessments. It includes the workbook.
00:52:14.975 --> 00:52:20.515
JR: It includes the eight session series, which is about 130 hours of training that
00:52:20.515 --> 00:52:24.955
JR: we include as part of that package, as well as a three-hour coaching session
00:52:24.955 --> 00:52:28.815
JR: where we will develop your own unique purpose statement.
00:52:29.035 --> 00:52:34.955
JR: I just did two this Saturday prior to this, and both of them were powerful,
00:52:35.175 --> 00:52:39.935
JR: and both of them were unique, and both of them are releasing people into their ministry.
00:52:40.235 --> 00:52:44.795
JR: And so I would encourage people to do that first, test this out,
00:52:44.915 --> 00:52:49.035
JR: go through the premium package, get your purpose statement, and then please,
00:52:49.215 --> 00:52:51.815
JR: please, please have your small group do it.
00:52:52.115 --> 00:52:57.515
JR: Have your church leaders vet the program, let them know what it meant to you.
00:52:57.775 --> 00:53:04.395
JR: And you can start that journey by registering for free at brushfires-digital.com.
00:53:05.215 --> 00:53:10.155
Kevin Lowe: Amazing. And I will be positive that the web address that you've just given
00:53:10.155 --> 00:53:12.275
Kevin Lowe: isn't the show notes for anybody interested.
00:53:12.615 --> 00:53:17.475
Kevin Lowe: So that's easy access. You can also just find today's episode on the website,
00:53:17.675 --> 00:53:19.635
Kevin Lowe: gritgraceinspiration.com.
00:53:19.755 --> 00:53:24.215
Kevin Lowe: And that will have the link so that you can be sure you have easy access to
00:53:24.215 --> 00:53:27.515
Kevin Lowe: what I'm considering a pretty darn amazing resource.
00:53:27.595 --> 00:53:32.555
Kevin Lowe: I'm really excited about this, JR. And I can't help but be thinking of people
00:53:32.555 --> 00:53:36.475
Kevin Lowe: who I want to tell about this, who I know are involved in the churches.
00:53:36.735 --> 00:53:39.435
Kevin Lowe: And because I think it's really powerful.
00:53:39.775 --> 00:53:43.815
JR: Thank you for that. Maybe you and I will meet face to face one day.
00:53:44.035 --> 00:53:49.995
JR: Kevin, I know that you live in the area that I attended school in before moving to California.
00:53:50.015 --> 00:53:54.195
JR: So who knows, maybe you and I will have an opportunity to minister at your own
00:53:54.195 --> 00:53:58.875
JR: church or just be able to see one another. But the thing is,
00:53:58.915 --> 00:54:03.915
JR: the way the program is set up right now, it's accessible for all people.
00:54:04.255 --> 00:54:10.495
JR: They can go ahead and nothing is a surprise to God.
00:54:10.995 --> 00:54:17.375
JR: So the fact that you might wait like I did until you're 57, 58,
00:54:17.475 --> 00:54:20.655
JR: 59 years old to be able to start this journey, that's okay.
00:54:21.155 --> 00:54:23.875
JR: God's already laid the groundwork like he did for the curriculum,
00:54:24.035 --> 00:54:28.495
JR: for the ministry in your life. and you'll know it and you'll recognize it and
00:54:28.495 --> 00:54:29.575
JR: your spirit will confirm it.
00:54:29.735 --> 00:54:35.815
JR: And there is nothing, no physical limitation, no relational limitation,
00:54:36.175 --> 00:54:42.355
JR: no spiritual limitation that will prevent you from accomplishing what God wants to do through you.
00:54:42.555 --> 00:54:44.735
JR: Remember what Romans 8, 28 says.
00:54:45.632 --> 00:54:49.652
JR: For those who love God, for those who are called according to his purposes,
00:54:50.472 --> 00:54:53.312
JR: God causes all things to work together for good.
00:54:53.532 --> 00:54:58.912
JR: If you love God, that's the only qualifier. Are you actively wanting him to
00:54:58.912 --> 00:55:03.192
JR: live his life out through you and to be obedient to his call?
00:55:03.392 --> 00:55:06.112
JR: That's his agenda. Then it's going to work out.
00:55:06.592 --> 00:55:12.752
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. JR, man, is it a pleasure getting to meet you today to get
00:55:12.752 --> 00:55:17.632
Kevin Lowe: to hear about Brushfire Ministries. I am really excited about this.
00:55:17.792 --> 00:55:20.632
Kevin Lowe: I'm really excited for the world to get to hear this today.
00:55:21.052 --> 00:55:25.092
Kevin Lowe: And so, man, thank you in the most sincere way possible for being here.
00:55:25.632 --> 00:55:28.892
JR: Oh, it's quite welcome. And if any of your listeners do reach out to me,
00:55:29.392 --> 00:55:32.792
JR: let me know that you heard about me through Kevin's podcast.
00:55:33.152 --> 00:55:39.612
JR: I would love to be able to let him know of the good work that was accomplished
00:55:39.612 --> 00:55:45.172
JR: through his obedience to God's calling by having this podcast and reaching his audience.
00:55:45.472 --> 00:55:49.832
JR: So simply in the comments section or whatever, shoot me out of words,
00:55:50.012 --> 00:55:53.572
JR: say, hey, Kevin sent me and I'm here because of him.
00:55:53.712 --> 00:55:56.492
JR: That would bless me and Kevin both. So thank you.
00:55:56.692 --> 00:56:02.652
Kevin Lowe: Oh man, absolutely. Well, for you listening today, I hope you've got some amazing takeaways.
00:56:03.112 --> 00:56:08.112
Kevin Lowe: Hopefully you're fired up just as much as I am. Please be sure to go check out
00:56:08.112 --> 00:56:12.112
Kevin Lowe: the website for Brushfire Ministries so you can learn more,
00:56:12.312 --> 00:56:18.332
Kevin Lowe: get involved in this amazing resource that I think can be an absolute life changer
00:56:18.332 --> 00:56:24.932
Kevin Lowe: in your life and hopefully in others' lives as well that you know through the church and elsewhere.
00:56:25.312 --> 00:56:28.212
Kevin Lowe: Until next time, my friend, I'm Kevin Lowe with Grit, Grace,
00:56:28.272 --> 00:56:31.612
Kevin Lowe: and Inspiration. Get out there and enjoy this beautiful day.
00:56:35.120 --> 00:57:04.906
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