Coach Tom Mullins on Servant Leadership, Team Culture, and How to Win Where You’re at

0:01 That bloomer you're planted concept really was a neat way to wrap around no matter what size the assignment you're given, you give your best at that assignment. Yes. So you never allow the size of the assignment to dictate the effort you put into that assignment. Yes. That speaks of your character. Coach Tom, you know, to sit down with you and I again I wanted to do this in this format because we're here at the Lead to Win Gathering and we've had a great couple of days, but I also wanted to be able to share this with a lot of other people because there's going to be people say, hey, what what I heard about that.

0:43 And I want to say, even as you know, I talk with you, that for me this is not a formal interview. I just I I you you know this. We've cried together, we've prayed together, we've traveled together, we've hunted everything on the planet together, and and you're you're you just have been a true spiritual father. I honor you, I respect you for your integrity, for your love for people. Um I was I was interviewing Natalie Grant, and I had never really met her a lot. I'd had a casual interaction, and I was I was actually doing a podcast interview with her. I visited with her for you know a little while, and she came here and led worship, and she said, Yeah, she said in the middle of it, she said, you know, pastors need to be servants, and and they need to serve people and this and that.

1:32 I was like, I agree, Natalie. And she said, Well, she said, I'm gonna tell you a story about when I saw that. She said, I was singing with the group Truth, and back then we had to like clean the bus and we had to set up the product and we had to do this. And and I was at this church in South Florida. You probably don't know about it. My ears perked up. She said, I went to go to the use the restroom and they had it locked because somebody said it was clogged and they were cleaning it. And I'd go to the restroom and open the door, and she said, You won't believe this. The pastor, Tom Mullins, was unclogging the toilet. And I said, Well, that's one of my spiritual fathers, and I'm not surprised one bit because he's got a servant heart and he loves people, and we love you, coach.

2:15 Yeah, we love you, Jeff. Thank you. Yeah, we we couldn't afford a custodian back then. So uh, you know, all hands on the city. So it was part heart and part practice. Yeah, it was just reality. Come on, baby. Gotta get after it. Whatever we need to do. Well, so coach, I want to talk to you. I mean, I I think when you talk about lead to win, like that embodies you because you uh love to help others, to serve others, servant leadership, and then you were a football coach. And I want to make sure everybody knows because I think a lot of people know you. First of all, you you started out as a football coach for many years. You had an encounter with Christ in Israel where God just touched your heart and you ended up in Palm Beach, Florida, and started a church called Christ Fellowship that now has 30,000 people.

3:06 And how many locations do you all have now, Coach? I don't know. About 17. We're 14, 15 somewhere in there. Yeah, 1415, and then you're you're you're all the time. You're still on you're 80 years old, you're still on the team, like finding buildings, and you're telling me, I mean, God provided this, and and so you're just I'm excited. Yeah, we're uh yeah, we're we just bought a a Macy's furniture store, a 50,000 square foot Macy's furniture store. We've we've already found a lot of success in buying boxes, big box stores, and converting them to ministry centers. So we bought a big target store and built a 1700 seat uh auditorium in it, and uh it's just amazing. So we've had a lot of success doing that.

3:47 And you've and you know, I've I disrespect you because you went through a great succession and transition, and now Todd, who I love as well, he's like my brother, and and we were down at your big ministry celebration. It was so amazing where we we had we celebrated, you had you know pictures of your grandfather. You and I had a picture with your grandfather's pulpit, and and and and it was right, it was all the years for you 50 years in ministry was the celebration. Yeah, we've actually been my wife and I have been in ministry for 60 years. But you know, we didn't really plant a church and become lead pastors until I was 38 years old. Yeah. Uh we'd we'd gone to Israel for our first time, had an encounter with the Lord on Via de la Rosa in the Church of Holy Sepulchre, just something hit me there that took me to a greater depth of God's love for me, it was revealed to me, and it wrecked me.

4:40 I mean, it literally wrecked me. I had to send my wife and my and I had uh my kids were teenagers, sent them back with the group to the hotel, and I just stayed there for hours praying, and I knew that God was calling me to something higher. We had always served the church. Grew up in the church, my grandfather was my pastor, my mother played the piano. We never missed church. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. Davy Crockett came out. You all won't remember this because you're all too young. And we had this little black and white TV, and Davy Crockett came out on Sunday night on on the wonderful world of Disney, or whatever it was. I tried to fake it. I said, Mom, I'm really sick tonight.

5:21 I I can't go to church tonight. So no, you're going to church, you're gonna be on the front row and you you'll be healed. So there we go. So so I I miss David Crockett. You missed David Crockett. I told that story one time. I think it was here. I told that story and kind of wind around a little bit, and somebody went back and bought me the entire Davy Crockett series. So God bless you, milestone. Thank you, Davy Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. Yeah. Now we got it imparted to the leaders' gathering. So so, coach, I I want to talk to somebody listening out there that says, okay, lead to win a scoreboard for my life, you being a coach, you're preparing teams, you're preparing them to get a little better every week in practice, that everybody is a part of the team.

6:15 I mean, there's a lot, even church, that's related to team sports and all being a football coach, really translated well. But how would how would you describe leadership? What's winning? What is it, what is that? What how do you describe that? What are your your measurements for that? Well, you know, uh what's so exciting today is that we have so many resources. We have podcasts like this that we're sharing, we have conferences that you you're hosting. You know, you you interviewed uh Dr. John Maxwell on on your podcast recently, and here's the guru of leadership, written over a hundred books on leadership, and we had all that. But interestingly enough, when I grew up, we didn't have that.

6:55 Uh we didn't have the resources like that, but we had people who modeled leadership for us. Right. I was very blessed to have my grandfather, um, who was I grew up and he was my pastor, and he really modeled what it meant to shepherd people, to love people. He had such a passion, and here's what I've known: your passions are contagious. Yes, and his passions were so contagious that I caught all of them. He was passionate for the things of God, he was passionate for the church, he was passionate about loving people at their point of need and and and serving them and lifting them to where God's purpose and call was on their lives.

7:38 And um he was passionate about the outdoors. Yeah. I caught all those things, you know. I I but so I kind of grew up uh, you know, trying to share that love, loving the church and having passion for the outdoors. So I had that model for me. He modeled the heart of leadership for me. And then I was blessed uh as a football player in high school and college, and then later became uh a football coach both on a uh high school and collegiate level. Yeah, and then I became a college athletic director. Um, all of that really gave me a great foundation for understanding how to build teams and how to get focused on purpose.

8:19 Yeah. Because in every locker room in America, there was a phrase that always was there preparation is the key to victory. So the one thing about coaches is the average coach puts in about an hour of preparation for every minute that you play the game. So average football coaches put in about 60 hours a week in preparation. So that whole mindset of preparation, evaluation, yeah, making adjustments, all of that fit into play to help prepare me uh to lead when when I really took those principles and carried them over into my leadership in the church.

9:01 So all those years as a coach, you're you're recruiting players, you're developing players. You then move into pastoring for many years. I I'm and I appreciate this about you. We're talking about Christ fellowship and its impact, but I appreciate your hunger for growth because I've gone to a lot of things with you and sat beside you and you're taking notes, and you went back, you had a doctorate degree, you went back and got a PhD, and everybody was like, Well, why do you need to get a PhD? And you're like, Well, I want to keep growing. This was just a few years ago. Yes. And so I think that's the key of all leadership. I mean, one of the marks of a leader is that they're they're always trying to grow themselves. Right.

9:41 And then I come from the old school that you lead by example. Yeah. Um, and you know, so how can I I remember when I sit down with the uh doctoral uh team uh at the university, they said, so why do you want a second doctor? I'm in my 70s going back to apply for a PhD in organizational leadership. And they said, Why? I said it's very simple. I've got to model growth. If I want my team to be growing, I've got to model growth. Secondly, I want to see if there's anything I can learn to become better at helping others grow in their organization with their structure and their processes uh to grow. Plus, it keeps me sharp.

10:21 You know, if if I'm being forced to study and to read and to write, it's all healthy for me because it's keeping me growing. And you helped me get my doctorate and you were my cohort leader, so you then turned around and did all that to us. I did, I did. And by the way, you did a great job uh with your your doctoral studies, and um uh they had to do uh the final oral exam. Uh the boys had to come on Zoom uh and and get ready, and Jeff looked so good, but then he made a mistake. He got up to get something, and he was wearing a pair of shorts. I'm like, Jeff, wait a minute. You don't you don't get a doctoral dissertation with your you know your suit and tie and everything, you got a pair of shorts on.

11:03 Anyway, so so but you did a great job, sir. To tell me this uh football teams and then and I think there's people listening, okay. There's listen, there's people here, they there's people that traveled 21 hours, we were just celebrating to get here. I want to talk about very practically football team, staff. If I'm if I'm a if I'm on a staff and and I want to be a good team member, I I want to, what are you looking for? What what do what kind of posture do I have? I I mean if someone doesn't want to be better, that's a whole nother set of problems. Right. But let's say, hey, I want to contribute, I want to, I want to play on the team, I want to be a contributor.

11:43 What are the attributes of that player? Well, obviously it it all starts with uh the tone and attitude that they're kind of reflecting. You know, the the one thing you that every coach is looking for is that that person that absolutely is all in. Uh and and that's gonna be reflected by they're gonna show up early and they're gonna hang out late. They're gonna do every drill they're called to do, and they're not gonna show you any attitude or about it, they're just gonna be all in. And and when you find someone like that, and then you find that they have skill as well, you're going, hello, I found that. You know, one of the things I was uh we we brought a new staff member on many years ago.

12:27 I I was observing him uh one day when I went to visit one of our campuses and we have in Royal Palm, Wellington area in there in South Florida, and uh we were doing an extension uh growth project and remodeling of the current facility, and he walked with me through and pointed out everything that they had been doing, and he said, By the way, coach, we're gonna make sure that's corrected and that correct. And I was going, no, wait a minute. Whoa. This kid's seen things that most people don't see. He's already a step ahead of me. I like him. There you go. He's this kid's this kid's sharp. Right away, his attention to detail captured me.

13:08 Because I'm I'm very I have a lot of attention to detail. Yeah. If I'm walking by one of my staff members and there's a piece of anything laying on the ground, I'm watching to see are they gonna pick it up? Are are are how are they in the small assignments? How are they doing in those? So, because if you don't pass the test in the small assignments, how can you be trusted with the bigger assignments? Yeah, so I'm looking for the amount of effort that they're gonna put into whatever their assignment is, whether it be in practice or in the game, because that tells me a lot about them as a person and their character. So I'm looking for that character trait, I'm looking for how they interact with people because I want to have people that love people.

13:52 Yeah. And not just task-oriented, and they can do a great job at the task, but they care about people. So how are they with people and how are they in the team dynamic? Yeah. Some people are great when you turn them, turn them loose on their own, but how are they in their team building skills? That's good. So I'm looking at all those dynamics. So we got we got attitude, I mean, there's a there's an overall demeanor and spirit, and and and is is this flowing? Is there a chemistry, right? And then the idea that I care, I'm ahead, I'm I'm I'm looking, I'm observing. A leader, a leader always, if if if you guys want to win with your pastor, with your department head, or you you if you want to get a raise, if you want to win, the leader's going, not even, not even, I don't always care if someone makes a mistake if they can see it, right?

14:45 If they go, oh, okay, I got I got it. And then but you're looking for the people who can see the piece of paper before there has to be an instruction. Those are ex excellent, excellent uh team members. But it's it's can you see it? And if someone can't see that, if they don't care, then then it then you're you start losing interest in development. You know, I I wrote a book years ago kind of coming off of Jim Collins' book, Good to Great, and and I I went to coaches who had won the national championship. Good. And so how did you go from being a good coach to now a championship coach? I interviewed seven different national championship coaches um uh in that process.

15:26 Uh and and it was really interesting that one of our coaches I interviewed was down at the University of Miami, and when I when I interviewed a coach down there, he said to me, he said, I've always had a philosophy, because one of my questions, what's your coaching philosophy? He said, My philosophy is bloom where you're planted. I said, Okay, unpack that for me. He said, No matter what assignment I've ever had, no matter what level I was coaching, I'm gonna give it my best. I'm gonna bloom there. And that bloom where you're planted concept really was a neat way to wrap around no matter what size the assignment you're given, you give your best at that assignment.

16:07 Yes. So you never allow the size of the assignment to dictate the effort you put into that assignment. Yes. That speaks of your character, that speaks of who you are, and especially in the hidden assignments. Yeah. That how conscientious are you on those hidden assignments? And what's your tone and attitude when you do that assignment? Isn't that what Jesus taught us? If we're faithful with a little, then we can be entrusted with more. Exactly. And the servant that had one went out and multiplied it. Yeah. He was given more. So I think those are the things I'm looking for in them. But Jeff, that kind of goes to the broader question of as a leader, um the people who follow us, especially in the church dynamic world, they don't follow title or position.

16:54 Right. They follow character. Right. So they're looking for character. And that gets back to the trust factor. Can I trust them? I mean, that is something that people have to answer. And so how do you prove or how do you earn trust is is a is a big question. And I think it's through the consistency of your performance, your tone, your attitude, your reactions, uh, the the level of excellence that you do with whatever your assignments are. Yeah. I when when no matter what I was doing, no matter what job I had, no matter where I was coaching, uh, whether I was working a summer job at a dairy, it didn't matter.

17:38 I always wanted to know what's expected of me, and then I'm gonna perform here. Right. And I call this difference between what's expected and where you perform up here. That's the zone of excellence. That's the zone. And that's what I want. I want you to keep honing in on that because I think you're giving some great traits, and I think you're also balancing not only the practical traits, but also the inner person, right? So when I when I when I'm lazy, when I don't care, when I don't, when I don't, when the when when my boss or pastor or department head has to have more passion for my job than I do, that's a character issue. Yes, right. That's a character issue, really, is what it is. Yeah. And I saw a clip, I'm gonna send it to you later today.

18:21 I saw a clip of Bear Bryant. It's a all black and white, and it's freshmen coming in to play for him. And he took a piece of chalk and he drew, he drew on the board, he looked at all the freshmen incoming football players, and he drew a 75 on the board, 75. And he said, This is this is this is potentially probably where you guys are at. And he said, But you're gonna face on Saturday a guy who's a 85. So what are we gonna do? He said, Well, we're gonna get better. We're gonna pay attention to the details. You're gonna get better every day. And if you'll continue to have a heart to get better, and you'll continue to do your job, and you'll continue to not worry about other and everybody, and we'll all get better.

19:05 What'll happen is is that guy you're playing, you're a 75, he's a 85, and what'll happen is we'll say he's not getting better. Let's say he doesn't have a good attitude. And let's say on game day he performs below average and he's at a 74 or 5, but you've gotten 10% better and you've got a better ad. He said, if we all do that, then we're gonna win the game. And he said, I want all of you to know it's only a two-minute clip, and he cuts it off by going, and we're gonna win the national championship, and I expect nothing less from all of y'all. Come on, that's what a coach is talking. But you know, uh not only are we that's a good we should I thought about playing it for my staff.

19:46 Come on, you know what I mean? We're gonna get better. Another characteristic that I look for is how they are interacting with other staff members and and even the the the we call them dream teamers, the volunteers that are serving along with them. Yep. And are are they making them better? How are they pouring into them? How are they calling them up? How are are they bringing the best out in them? Because the the great players bring the best out in their teammates. That's right. I remember when I was a freshman uh playing college ball and I thought it was hot stuff coming out of high school. And um I went to college and suddenly it's a whole nother level.

20:29 And I mean, I'm getting beat to death. And I played back in the air where they wouldn't give us any water. They wouldn't give you water, they gave you a salt tabu. You know, the and the concussion protocol was an ammonia capsule. They would break an ammonia capsule sticking in your own. Yeah, that was the thing over your helmet. No, no, we we had these old Rydale suspension helmets that ring your bell and it and and you'd have, I don't know how many concussions. I recently went to have my my retina checked by, you know, because I'm seeing flashes of lightning and the one goes on. The guy looked at me and he says, Were you a boxer? I said, No. He said, Well, you your retina is horrible. It's jaggered all around. You've had so much head trauma.

21:09 I said, I played football. And back in the day when there was no concussion protocol, he said, Well, that's about the worst thing I've ever seen. I said, We gotta keep an eye on you. That thing's gonna detach and whatever. And I'm going, well, thanks for the good word, Doc. Anyway, so that was my football coach. He said, Ringing my bell. But you know, in in those days, I had this guy come up to me in the middle of practice when I'm exhausted and can't do it. And he said, Come on, kid, run with me. And he literally lifted me to a new level when I was almost ready to quit. And and I thought I was a star, and I came in there and boom, boom. But learned out later this guy's senior all-American.

21:49 Just as a note for people, if they want to go watch that, that that message, you preached that in a message just this year uh here at Milestone, and it's a great message. And I think the most powerful part of it is you ended the message. The whole point of the matter was there was an older upperclassman, you were a little intimidated, tired, you were wondering if you had confidence, and an older uh letterman comes and pulls you and said, run with me. Run with me was what he said. Run with me, rookie. But then you ran off the stage at the end of your message. Come run with me. And I thought that's powerful. Come on, baby. You can need it. You can hide it. I can still run, baby. I can still run.

22:29 I still want to run the ball one more time. I know I can run it one more time. Now you'll probably have an ambulance out there like these, but I'm gonna run it one more time, baby. But give me back to staff, it's you know, you can really find out how people are reacting around them. Around them, really. That tells you so much about them, how those that are around them, yes, how they perform, how their tones, their body language. You know, my grandfather was an encourager. He had the gift of encouragement. And anytime my grandfather would walk in a room, you could physically see the body language of people in the room when he walked in.

23:15 First of all, there would be a smile, would break loose. Secondly, physically, they would lean in. I watch for stuff like that. When my staff walks in a room, are people leaning in or are they leaning back? Are they getting a smile or are they getting a oh Lord Jesus? Todd and I have talked about this extensively because at Christ Fellowship you guys went through an exhaustive staff value process. Something we're learning from you right now. Because we I feel like we've done even a great job at church value, like working real hard the church.

23:56 And we have a an organic culture, but I'm learning from Todd and Christ Fellowship that what are the staff values? And one of y'all's values is that. In fact, they go and look, fun, people leaning in. If they go to the children's environment and all the kids are crying, you don't get to lead anymore. Right, right, right, yeah. Like you, you it's like there there are cultural aspects that you guys have defined, and that and and this is good because we didn't plan this, but it's we're building a a teaching. One is you you have to you have to care. You do have to have an attitude. You have to really show that compassion. I I was doing a uh I was doing a little uh interesting podcast like this for our own leadership.

24:41 Exactly. That's what that was amazing. Christ Fellowship. And uh the uh film crew was all setting up for this to film it and and to show it into class. And um they had a couple of news team members on there, and then we had one of our uh coordinators who's been with us for many years, was standing there, and um we asked, I asked a question. I said, How many years have you been with us? And she told me, and I said, What's what's kept you here? What's really kept you on our team? And she looked around and she said, you know, it's because the team that I work with, they care about me and my family.

25:25 And they also demand the best out of me. And we know that we're making a difference in the work of the kingdom of God. It's a really good thing. But she opened up with they care about me. So I went, wow, I said that's so good. Because people do that, they they want to be able to trust you. It's a character issue, and you have to be consistent in the way you are with people and and your tones, your attitudes, your your work ethics, your character. I I tell our people, anybody joins our team, I tell them right up front, now listen, you know, when you join our team, you have now forfeited the right of a private life.

26:06 Yes. There is no such thing as a private life any longer. You live one life, no matter where you are, who you're with. You can be in hunting camp, you can be in fishing camp, or you can be on the platform. Yeah, you're the same person, your language is the same, your your characteristics are the same, your tastes are the same, whether you're whether you're at home watching Netflix by yourself, or where you're going to a theater, or whatever, whatever you watch, because you have to you have to guard your integrity. Yes. I mean, because that is such a key of about guarding your life that way, and and and live very that way you can live totally transparent. Yes. I mean my grandfather told me something I was a kid one time.

26:47 He said, Listen, son, always tell the truth. He said, because if you tell a lie, you're gonna tell another lie to cover that lie. So in a way, when you just live with transparency and and your honest desire is to please him and to love people at their point of need, that takes a lot of pressure off of you. So you don't have to perform, you just are striving to be what God's called you to be. And and none of us are perfect, let's face it, we're not perfect, but I believe we can have a perfect pursuit of heart. That's good. And that is we want to honor God in all that we can. So finally, people people want to know that they're you're trustworthy. Right. And that's proven in the way we are consistent and perform in whatever assignments we do and with people especially, and they want to know that we care.

27:35 Yeah. And then they want to know that we're competent. Right. Can can we act, I mean, what's the fruit of of what I've applied myself to? Yes. And if if you're an effective leader, there will be fruit. There'll be fruit. Uh there will be people will be better, everything will be better around you because you've you've you've poured into that. That's like back to that bloom where you're planted thing. Right. So, you know, when you're trustworthy of this, you've got true compassion, and you've really got some competency to lead. And as leaders, we're always growing, and and you never arrive, we're always on the journey there. You know, the interesting thing is that I've had some great Paul's in my life mentors, and some great barnabuses that are mutual encouragers, and I had tons of Timothy's.

28:24 But I'm learning more from my Timothy now than I am from my Paul's, because most of my Paul's have gone on to heaven, you know, they're in heaven. You know, John Maxwell is one of my barnabuses. We've been hanging out together for over 30 plus years, yeah, and and what a great learning journey. But when I hang with you, when I hang with a lot of the younger uh guys in ministry, I'm learning from you all. And it's motivating me too to keep myself fresh and to run my race hard. Because I I don't want you to ever trip over me because somewhere I have failed or I've slowed down. No way. It's beautiful. No way. You're such an inspiration, coach. You're amazing.

29:04 Isn't he amazing? Yeah, you're such an inspiration. May we all keep our integrity and keep our passion. But integrity, you know, per you know, I I know this is kind of an old-fashioned term, personal holiness. Yeah. I was raised in that dynamic. My grandfather talked about it. It wasn't a legalistic term. Yeah. It was a term of keep your heart set apart for God. Yes. That's what holy means, it's set apart. You know, we want to keep our focus, my motivation, my desire. The bottom line is at the end of the day, we want to live a life that brings honor to Him. And you know, in 1 Samuel, it simply says in there, when the unnamed prophet comes to Eli, and really he's coming to rebuke because of Eli's sons, Hopni and Phineas, were wicked boys.

29:54 And he was there to rebuke them, but he made this front comment. He said, Listen, those. God says, those who honor me, I will honor. Those who dishonor me, I will disdain. I don't like that part of it, but I like the front part of it, okay? So I want to live a life that's in striving to honor Him. And I know I do that by the way I try to live according to His word and the way I honor you and the way I honor others. And when we live a life with that mindset, especially as leaders, we live a life with a mindset, how can I bring honor to those I'm serving? That positions you uh to not only earn their heart, but you can now gain influence to help guide them to the place that God's wanting them to be and discover their purpose.

30:43 Because that's what our whole mission is. Isn't that that's so interesting? Because sometimes when you have, you know, what we have had a tendency sometimes to do is teach on honor because we need to honor the senior leader or honor the bishop or the apostle or people. But but you're saying we should honor them. Honor your people. You know, we're very blessed. Uh we just uh celebrated at Christ Fellowship 40 years of ministry uh this past year, and um we we had a wonderful time. But here's one of the most exciting things the families that started with us 40 years ago are still with us.

31:26 Yeah, their children are with us, their grandchildren are with us, and they're serving. Yeah, because we started off, we keep honoring them, and we still honor them, and we still reflect on that and honor them. I I may have told you this story, I don't know if I did or not, but one of our founding um leaders, and he was chairman of our board his whole life until he stepped into heaven, uh, a man by the name of Dick Smith, a businessman. And on Dick's deathbed, I'm there beside him with his four children and all of his grandchildren and family, and I'm holding his hand as he's literally taking his final breaths on this earth, and his two sons get up and leave the room and come back with a towel and a basin of water.

32:15 They rolled the blanket up, took the compression hose off their father's legs, and washed his feet. And they prayed out loud, Father, may our dad's anointing to serve the church fall on us. I'm weeping. I'm I'm in the floor, these boys washing their father's feet as he's about to step into eternity and asking for the mantle that was on their father to serve the church to fall on them. I said, wow, what a life. You're talking about, we were talking about legacy recently, a legacy of what was deposited in them.

33:00 A father's love for the church and for the pastors of the church. But I can't describe to you the depth of my love for that man and for his family and for our people. And one thing that I I have practiced, and I learned this from my grandfather, Jeff, and I would suggest all those listening to the podcast today, if you're in any form of leadership, tell your people often how much you love them. So good, coach. There's rarely a Sunday that I stood in the pulpit and proclaimed the word of God that I didn't at some point intentionally stop, look at the people, and say, I want you to know how much I love you.

33:51 And you tell them that often enough, they're gonna start understanding how much you love them. And I still to this day, I try to come out early before service starts, and I walk down the aisleways just loving on people. And you know, I know after we started preaching five times a weekend, it was hard for me to get out after the service, you know, but I still want to get out of, I want people to know I love them. I, you know, I keep telling them, and it used to be when the people wrote letters, we don't write letters anymore, you know. We send we send, you know, our texts and emails and everything else and Instagrams and I don't know what the other stuff is because I I'm not on that.

34:32 But I would get these notes from people, and they would say, you know, the only time I ever hear those words are when you speak them from the platform. Thank you for letting me know I am loved. Tell your people how much you love them. So good, coach. I want I've been this is this is a um we're in the kitchen making a from scratch recipe from Coach Tom, pastor, leader, you know. Um, and so I'm I'm hearing number one, I want I want to walk through all of them. Number one, a team member that wins is a a team member that that has a good attitude.

35:16 And you can't you can't lead someone that doesn't have a good attitude. You gotta have a good attitude. You gotta, it's like as I say, there's more lucrative ways to be miserable. Why are you choosing ministry when you're not excited to do it? And never and and I I want someone that never feels entitled about anything, and there's no task too small for them to take on. No tasks too small. And by the way, if they walk by something that needs to be done, do it. I I happened to walk by that bathroom that day, and somebody mentioned that that the toilet was clogged. Well, I'm not gonna I I was there. Yeah. So I know where the plumbing stuff is, the plunger.

35:56 I went and got the plunger. So that that one I saw as number two. You're willing to do anything. You you're you can see it. Like if your pastor sees you or your department head, anybody sees you saying, That guy walked around, we're gonna fix that, Pat, we're doing this, here's what we're doing. They they see it. Boy, that just makes you just go, oh, wait, that's weight I don't have to carry. Oh, they're with me, they're carrying that. So somebody who sees it, who cares, who's not above doing anything. The third thing you said that makes a winning team member, we we might write a book on this. Listen, the third thing is how they interact with other team members. Yes. Like they have to be able to flow with the rest of the team.

36:38 You're your team promotes you, actually. A lot of people don't realize that. Great team members make their team great. And and and they they think you get promoted from your boss, but actually there's a meeting that happens before your boss has his meeting with you and the team goes, vote them off the island. And that's what a lot of people don't realize. It's your team that actually promotes you. And if you tried, if we have to have layoffs, the team will storm the Capitol. It'd be like, you're not getting rid of this one. Like, I'm I'll give them my salary. I'll get and I have done that in challenging times at Milestone. I've had team members that go, I'll give them some of my salary.

37:20 I've deferred raises because I wanted a great team. And that's another problem a lot of times is you can't have a great team because you need it all for you. And there's a disparity. But wait, wait, I gotta finish my list. Okay. I got to finish my list. I got some more to give you guys, I'll see you. I'm ready. Okay, wait a minute. Then after work with the team, is it's character, really, right? It's character, it's character because laziness and lack of caring and taking paychecks for something you don't have a heart for. It's like it's it's character. It's it's character also character being integrity, which means whole number. So I'm the same person with my team as I am with my family.

38:03 So there's character, and the final one I heard was is honor that you know how to honor up, you know how to process up, and you know how to honor down, and you know how to be and and honor around. Like there's there's honor around your life, and really you honor others because you ultimately honor God. Right. Right? We don't we don't we don't act right because I told my kids, I think it's the worst thing you can do. Are we are we acting right because we're in the ministry or pastor? No, we're we're doing it because we we honor Jesus. It has nothing to do with what our job description is. If we were plumbers or or or painters, we we we we honor because we are followers of Christ.

38:44 That's my list, and I think there's probably more. You know, at my age, I've got to get things out while they're there. Okay. Because if I if I don't get them out quick, they're going back, you know. I I'm at what we call the write it down stage. Yes. You heard about the uh the older couple, they they went to the doctor and and uh they were having some memory challenges, and I said, you know, you're at the stage, you know, just write everything down. So they're sitting there, uh Jeff having dinner. Uh I'm not watching TV one night, and uh the wife says to the husband, Hey honey, can you give me some ice cream? He said, I don't want to get you no ice cream, I'm watching the game. So come on, honey, get me some ice cream. I'm tired. I fixed dinner. You you should get me some ice cream.

39:25 He said, Uh all right. So he gets up. She said, Well, write that down. You're getting ice cream, I'm not writing down, I'm getting ice cream. I'm just going in the kitchen and I'll be right back with your ice cream. Well, he goes in the kitchen, he's gone a long time. He comes back with bacon and eggs. She says to him, I told you to write that down. You forgot my toast. So, anyways, I'm at the write it down stage, so I gotta do it quick. When it comes, boom, I gotta do it. Okay. All right. I just added another, I added another C. You added another one. Yeah, it's not ice cream and it's not toast. Okay. So I add another C. So it's we're looking for character.

40:05 That that's non-negotiable. Integrity is is key. We're looking for that compassion, yeah. That's non-negotiable. Yeah. And we're looking for competence. Right. But here's another C. It's my 4C. Okay. Okay? Got my 4C here. That's celebration. That's good. I want team members who naturally celebrate other team members. So good. Because if if you're secure, you celebrate. If you're insecure, you don't celebrate others. Because you're intimidated by their success. Yes. I don't ever want to be intimidated by somebody else's success. I want to celebrate their success.

40:46 Now, at Christ Fellowship, we put stars on helmets. You know, I'm putting stickers on. You know, you performed well, you did well, you went above and beyond in practice. When I was a football coach, I took over this one high school football team, never had a winning season. That's the only reason I got the job. I was so young. They didn't even have a winning season. And so I realized I gotta teach these guys how to win. So I started to find any way I excuse I could to celebrate them. So I went to McDonald's, which you know I'd like to go to. Yes. And I went to the manager and I said, give me a bunch of Big Mac tickets. I'm gonna give them away at practice, and they'll come in, they'll get a Big Mac, they'll buy a drink, they'll get some fries, and they'll bring their friends. So I said, fine. So in practice, I started giving away the Big Mac award.

41:28 And anytime a kid fired out on a drill and did anything, I said, Big Mac, baby. Yeah. Big Mac. Matter of fact, it changed one of my players' names. He he earned and saved up five Big Macs and went and ate them all at one time. So and he never wanted to wash his uniforms, and so he actually got the nickname Dirty Mac. So it was you know, it looked like it was Big Mac, Dirty Mac. But celebration is so critical. We do that every week in staff meetings. Yes. And our staff meetings, we always have great worship and everything else. Your staff meeting model is one of the best in the country. Starting with celebration, the whole process, how y'all do that.

42:10 I think if every staff would do that, we we adopted that from you guys. We try to have a moment, celebrate, right, have people stand up, tell celebrations. And we're cheering them all, we're celebrating them. So celebration becomes a part of our culture. Part of it. In celebrating others, I'm looking for team members who love to celebrate their team members. Yes. Insecure people cannot celebrate others. Insecure people are critical. They got to, oh, it wasn't that good. Tear it down. That's a sign of insecurity. Right. So and celebration. We either got to get them out of that or get them out of there. I don't want to be around a bunch of insecure, small-minded people. Um and by the way, it's very tough. And when I was coaching, if you didn't perform, baby, hit the road, Jack.

42:54 Don't you come back? No more, no more, no more, no. No, but in the church world, it's a little bit tougher. And everything by the Lord and Jesus and everything else, but come on, baby. Yeah. Celebrate with me. Coach, I think this is amazing. Those are some great points that I think if I want to be a better team member, or if I want to be able to evaluate what team members I'm looking for, I think that is such helpful information. Would you pray for all of us gathered here at the leaders' gathering? Lead to win. I love you. Have your lead-to-win pullover. Come on, baby. And I want you to wear that everywhere representing. I am.

43:34 You are. We're going to take this actually as our new mantra back at Christ Fellowship. We will have a lead-to-win conference next year. No, no, no. I'll tell you one thing. I'm bringing our team here next year for this conference. I want our team as a part of this conference, baby. You got my own. You're awesome. All right. Pray for us, Coach. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the honor and privilege that you've given us to be a part of helping your church, your people fulfill their mission, that we are to be the light that you've called us to be. And you said, so let your light shine that men will see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

44:18 And Lord, as you laid on my heart, is what you were really telling us that we as leaders need to live a life that's so attractive that others are drawn to us so we can lead them to you. And we realize that, Father, that we must be fully surrendered to you. And I pray for your wisdom and your guidance to be upon our hearts. I pray for all those joining on this podcast today that God, you will touch them with the grace of heaven, and you will bless them with the wisdom of heaven. And you will help them as they look into the word of God, that you will bring revelation to them in the word. As they pray, you will build a stronger bond of intimacy in their hearts and lives with you and the Spirit of God within them.

45:04 And as they begin to lead, people will see and sense your heart, your spirit upon them. And they will be drawn to them so they can help others, Father, fulfill their purpose and their calling. For that's our mission, is to help others fulfill their calling and for us to call the champion out in them. So, Father, I pray that you will inspire these champions to go back into their arenas of ministry you've called them to, and they will be able to call the champion out in their people, and we will see a true transformational movement of people's lives that are so transformed by your power and your love, and they will become so attractive and their lights will shine so bright that we will begin to see a movement of where the darkness is dispelled and people are brought to the freedom and life that is in Christ and Christ alone.

46:03 So bless them, Father, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to say thank you for checking out this episode of the Lead to Win podcast. I want you to know that I love and my team loves getting this kind of content into your life so it can help you lead and win at what matters most. So I'd love for you to do me a favor like, comment, especially subscribe if you would, so that we can make sure that we're able to get to you some of the things that are gonna help you lead to win.