CGR MONDAY 071723 Bill Courtney

So there you go. I was letting somebody hear it. I'm really fascinated by, you know, a couple of the things you said, and I want I just want to ask you about a couple of them. One of them you mentioned was is I don't want to beat somebody over the head with the Bible, but you sound like a strong believer. I mean, you're you're espousing a very strong Christian ethos.

So, so what, what does beating somebody over the head with the Bible sound like in that vernacular when you're talking with these normal people? I have, when this is a long, are we airing this somewhere? We are. We're on. Yeah, no, we're talking. And I'm recording this.

And it's audio and video, so you'll get both. Okay, so first, I think the root of Christianity, if you had to boil down Christianity, the one word, which is impossible, it's, it's too complex of religion, and a way of life to boil down to one word. But if you held a gun to my head, I would say the words grace. And the grace is God sending Christ gracefully to wash us of our sins as a result of his death. And I am a failed human being.

And I don't have I don't have it right, ever. And the only way I really face every morning is that at night, I pray, and I ask for God's redemption, and his grace. And so in the same respect, how hypocritical would I be as a failed human being to accept and expect the grace of God, the grace of who I think is the ruler and founder and construct of our universe, if then I'm not willing to turn around and give that same grace to other failed human beings that are no better than me. That's what I think Christianity is at its root. So with that background, I think Christianity in the United States and Europe has done itself a horrific disservice with leading with, if you don't believe like me, you're going to hell. And we can get into theology and scripture if you want to.

But in general, we have chased a lot of vent sitters away from our faith. Because we didn't talk about grace. And we didn't talk about love. And we didn't talk about redemption first. We talked about it's like, if you got a book, there's 32 chapters, let's not start at chapter 31.

Let's start at chapter one. And I think by showing that grace and living that grace and living that redemption and showing that redemption, and the way that you walk and the way that you interact with people, your employees, the people you coach, the people that coach you, your family, your children, your spouse. I think if you illustrate that and make it known that you're a Christian, that maybe you shine a light on what Christianity is and how it works in your life and what a personal relationship with Christ looks like. Not by saying, believe like me or you're doomed, but by saying, look how faith and Christianity work in my life in a redemptive way and illustrating it and then answering questions when the questions come. And so that's what I mean by illustrating faith rather than hitting people in the face with it. I understand what the Great Commission is.

I understand all those things. I think there's a better way. And so I choose to surround myself with lots of people that aren't necessarily faithful right now and ask questions and develop relationships and talk about common ground on basic tenets and fundamentals, and then just let Christ shine through the way that I try to lead my life. So when you talk about an army of normal folks, we have a very diverse country and I have no desire to use my platform to go out and tell everybody that, you know, this is how you're supposed to live your life. Rather, I like to explore how lots of different people lead their life and the things that they do in their communities, regardless of who they are or where they come from. And hopefully the fundamentals and tenets that are espoused in that shine through. Let me ask you, let me ask you a question. That's a long-winded answer.

No, no, no, no. I appreciate that. I really do, Bill.

I really appreciate that. And I think that we are, you know, the Bible says that there are hands, feet, fingers, toes, parts we hide, parts we expose. Paul talks about the body of Christ. And I think that we all have been given as different parts of the body, different callings, what you're doing is reaching some people that might not ever be exposed to the gospel, except in the manner that God is leading you to expose them.

I appreciate you saying that and I think that's, you know, I don't know if that's, I don't know what God's plan and purpose is for me, but if that is part of it, great. I will tell you this, you know, my wife loves fresh shrimp and she told me to go get some shrimp and put in a cooler when I was on the coast not long ago. And I did, and I was waiting on the docks for the boats to come in. And if you've ever been at a wharf, it stinks.

It's disgusting. But I was waiting because I'm scared of my wife and she told me to bring shrimp. So I sat there, you know, doing this and then the boats came in. And the only thing that stunk worse than the wharf were the fishermen themselves.

They were sweaty, deodorants, more of a suggestion than reality. They'd probably burned a pack and a half of marble reds while out there are shrimping and they're just not very attractive people. But the shrimp are fresh.

And so I put the shrimp on ice and I headed home and I was about it's about a six hour drive from the coast. I was about midway, Jackson, Mississippi, when I thought those people are putrid, but that's exactly who Christ surrounded himself with fishermen and prostitutes. And people will repute. And I think if Christ first coming were today, he probably wouldn't descend on my neighborhood where there's nice houses and lots of wealth.

He would actually go to the docks where they're bringing in the shrimp. And so with that mindset that I have, I have to constantly remind myself that I think I'm called to surround myself with people who Christ would have surrounded himself with. And now I agree with you. Now, here's here's the the other thing that Christ brought them was transformation. He didn't and that's something that I think is important for us to understand, too.

He didn't leave them in the condition that he found them. That is true, he challenged them to step to a better place and he and he encouraged them that they could, I think, just throwing this out here. I think one of the biggest mistakes that the church has made is we present people, OK, yeah, so if you're not saved, I mean, scripture tells you this. If you're not, if you haven't accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the word of God says you're going to go to hell.

That's just that's plain and simple. What scripture says? John chapter three, Jesus says, I didn't come. And I think it's interesting that it follows right for God to love the world because it says after that, it says, look, I didn't come to judge the world. Why? Because the world's already judged. You already made your choices. You already made your decisions and oftentimes when the light is presented to those walking in darkness, they're going to choose dark and they're going to leave the light behind because they don't want the light to shine on their darkness. And and but we're called to share that light. But more importantly, we're called to tell them, guess what?

God can fix your darkness. We you know what I'm saying? It's like we get into these we get into these groups, right? And it's everybody's got their little sin thing and the world comes in and the world looks at that and goes, well, yeah, you're telling me one thing, but you're living something else because you're giving you're giving your sin a pass, but you're not giving my sin a pass.

How how how's that work? Well, it's because they don't believe in the finished work of the cross. You said I'm not where I need to be, except that I would say to you, Bill, you are exactly where you need to be. You may not realize it every day, but even the fact that you go to bed at night and before you lay your head on the pillow, you say, God, you know, I know I did some things today. I know I made some mistakes today. Father, please forgive me because I want to be right with you.

And you put your head down. Brother, that is beautiful. That's that is that is that is golly.

That is absolutely beautiful. Now, I would encourage you to know that when you put Christ at the center of your life, you've been perfected. Every part of you has been perfected. Agreed completely.

You're you're you are a finished and a completed work. And that's so much the good news that we get to share with people. Right. And it's and to me, it's not it's not taking this book and and and hitting them with it. It's taking this book and saying, guess what? Have I got good news for you?

All those struggles. I agree with everything you're saying. The problem is, I think.

In some past decades and I'm not criticizing and I'm not and Bill, please, I hear my heart because I'm not criticizing what you're doing. I want that's that's why I started out by saying hands and feet and callings and what we're called and and yeah, no, no, no. It's yep, yep, yep. I mean, I love it. You know. It's it's it's it is it's both.

It's how we walk and how we talk. I agree. And the thing is, I can't tell you how many times I get asked, you know, are you a Christian? Yeah.

Why? Then I get to tell praise God. It's a lot more readily received when someone asks you. You bet. You know what I'm saying?

And so live in a way that people are curious. Yeah, yeah. No, I I hear you. That's been my approach.

Yeah. Look, it may be right. And like everything else, I'll be judged one day about all of it. And if I screwed it up, I will apologize. Well, you know what, here's the deal. That's where that grace comes in. Right.

OK, that's where that grace comes in. And, you know, I think that I said something earlier today. It was it was a quote that I that I shared in 2010, actually on this date in 2010.

Facebook isn't good for a whole lot of things, but but occasionally it's good for reminding us of something. We might have said that actually had some profoundness. I said to the lost, we preach salvation to the rebellious.

We preach repentance and to the saint, we preach the promises of God. I love it. And I love it. And and, you know, I mean, that that it's I mean, that sounds to me exactly that's what you're saying. You're saying, look to the lost, I'm telling them, here's how you get saved by how I act. And when you ask to those that know better and are and are doing it wrong, I'm saying, hey, you know what? You really need to start changing how you're doing things.

And to those that are already in the fold, I'm saying, hey, guess what? Look at all the amazing things God wants to do in your life. That's that's right. And I will add to that. Yeah, we need to we need to remember that human beings have a an ability to communicate non verbally. And all communication does not have to come from your mouth. It can come from actions and your walk and the way you interact with people.

Many things you do communicate things even better than if you just spoke them. And I'm very mindful of that as I walk through my life. And so important to understand our podcast Army of Normal Folks is specifically not a faith based. Enterprise at all is very much not, but I am what I am. I am who I am and I believe what I believe and I believe how I believe. And I respect other people to have the right to believe things and vote and act and worship and everything differently than me.

But I also expect that same respect. So I think it's high time we have real conversation about race and faith and politics and creed, but just do it in a nonthreatening civil way so that we can have growth. And so that is the approach as we interview all these different people from all walks of life. And, you know, I have interviewed now 26 people. We've only released six episodes so far.

Episode seven comes out tomorrow, actually. And I am I am I am amazed at every interview how basic humanity is universal and how people. Being willing to give up their their talents in areas where they're passionate is always redemptive and inspirational. And if we can tell those stories and grow a community of people who are at least convalescing around the idea that we're not going to be saved by the government, we're not going to be saved by Fox and CNN, we're not going to be saved by social media. And and culturally, the best thing for us to do as normal folks is to get out of our cocoons and go to work. And then through that, people see where that work comes from. Then I think it's a I think a win win.

Yes, it's a win win. Well, and we're going to have to close up here in a second. But, you know, I think about it. We're coaching people up. I mean, that's really what we're trying to do. We're coaching them up at the end of the day.

We're we're we're just trying to coach them up. You know, I did I did business management for 20 plus years. And and one of my philosophies always was, you know, it's it's so much easier, right? To work with somebody, first of all, that's moving, you know, like you think about one of those big ships. You know, it's a lot easier to take somebody that's moving in their ship and change the direction of the sail. Than it is to try to drag somebody along that doesn't want to move. And then and then you have to find out, are they are they are they willing?

Are they are they are they are they at least willing to come on board and have a conversation about it? Because you can't even with an employee, you can have all I mean, employee handbooks are for the people that that that actually are trying to figure out how not to work for you. I mean, at the end of the day, that's really what that employee handbook is for. It ain't for the guy that's sitting there trying to make you and your business and him a success. It's for the people that are trying to sabotage you that that's that's the bottom line. Otherwise, you don't need an employee handbook. You don't need to tell people to show up on time and here's the bathroom and they don't you know, don't lark on the job.

I mean, come on, man. If they're with you, they're with you. You know, and and so my philosophy was always spend your time with the ones that that are with you. It's true.

And also, you know, we don't love because of we love despite. Sure. And as long as as long as you're surrounded by people who even though they have failings or are screwing up, they continue to try to do it right.

Boom. You know, that's worth investment. And so both I've got one hundred and thirty employees.

I've coached football for thirty one years and, you know, that's two thousand kids probably. And you find a whole larger percentage of people that are much harder to deal with, that they are easy to deal with. But if they're trying to get it right, the continuous show effort and they're legitimate and their approach you love and work with, not because of the despite. And I think that's exactly how Christ approaches me, because he loves me, not because I'm perfect. He loves me despite all my failings. And so I think we're called to love the same way.

Well, and and and people know the difference. You know, the biggest compliment that I ever got, I was at started this show about 11 years ago at a local station and a sales gal came into work for the station that had lived in the town where I had managed a restaurant back in the 80s. And and so I you know, we got to talk in and I was like, yeah, I said, you know, I used to live there. And she said, oh, really? I said, yeah. And I told her the restaurant that I managed and she went she was just like, you manage that restaurant. And I said, yeah. She said, I went to the high school there and every kid in our class wanted to work for you.

That's awesome. And I was like, what? And she said, I'm every kid wanted to work for you. And my heart had been I knew that these kids weren't going to work.

I mean, fast food wasn't going to be their career choice. But my deal with them was is I'm going to help. I'm going to pour into you to teach you what work ethic looks like, what value looks like. And I will reward you in accordance with that and show you how to be successful. If you'll just give me your best effort. And that's what I did.

That's awesome. The greatest measure of the success of a leader is the actions of the followers. And I would tell you that if you if you're in any organization, that the people in it aren't doing well before you start griping about them, you might want to look in the mirror and the best leaders of our time serve in order to lead. So if you serve by teaching and instructing and loving, despite not because of I think more times than not, you're going to have success with the followers, which will be a reflection of proper leadership.

And again, that is a Christ centered ideal. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Hey, Bill, this has been awesome. Tell folks about your podcast and how they can listen real quick as a close army army of normal folks, normal folks dot us. OK, subscribe. Listen, if you like it, rate it, review it, share it on social. You can also find everything at Coach Bill Courtney dot com and all the social media stuff is at I am Coach Bill.

So between those, you can find me and find the content. Awesome. Awesome. Bill, this has been lovely. I greatly appreciate the time today. I really appreciate you having me. I'm sorry again for being late and I appreciate the club. Absolutely.

Absolutely. All right, folks, we're out of time and I will be back with you tomorrow. God bless you. Remember Children Generation Radio dot com. You can re listen to this and everything that Bill and I've shared. Just it's it's it's normal people talking about real stuff. And that's that's the key right there. God bless you all. All right.