Why Great Leaders Must Be Generous Leaders

Dean Sweetman:  Hey everybody, Dean Sweetman and Frank Barry here.

Frank Barry:    What's going on Facebook?

Dean Sweetman:  And we are live at Catalyst.

Frank Barry:    Yes.

Dean Sweetman:  Which is the premier leadership training conference in the calendar and we're great sponsors. Got a great mate of mine.

Frank Barry:    In the country.

Dean Sweetman:  In the world, mate.

Tyler Reagin:   That's strong.

Frank Barry:    Come on.

Tyler Reagin:   That's strong.

Frank Barry:    Tyler Reagin, good to see you, mate.

Tyler Reagin:   Good to see you guys.

Frank Barry:    Good to see you. I'll just wave.

Tyler Reagin:   Hey, Frank.

Dean Sweetman:  Queen wave. Queen wave.

Tyler Reagin:   We're actually not sitting in Catalyst right now.

Dean Sweetman:  It's just down the street.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah good because I wanna make sure everybody knows this is a little like ...

Dean Sweetman:  It's been big and massive.

Tyler Reagin:   A little bit.

Dean Sweetman:  I walked into the arena and I'm like I haven't been in that arena for a while and I forget how big it is.

Tyler Reagin:   It's awesome.

Dean Sweetman:  We're expecting north of 8000.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah, maybe something like that.

Dean Sweetman:  People are flying in from all over the world right now into Atlanta, Georgia and it's just gonna be awesome.

Tyler Reagin:   It's gonna be awesome.

Frank Barry:    So all the prep's going on right now?

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah, our team's rocking and rolling with their sound check, running everything.

Frank Barry:    That's excellent.

Tyler Reagin:   So we're sponsors here and we're pretty pumped for a great week and we're involved with you guys on a day to day basis right down there.

Tyler Reagin:   Right.

Dean Sweetman:  But we wanted to take this opportunity to talk to you about generosity.

Tyler Reagin:   Love it.

Dean Sweetman:  That is what we do on this podcast and we approach it from all different kinds of angles and Tyler has just written a phenomenal book about leadership. And so we're going to talk a little bit about that today. Frank's got a bit of housekeeping, mate. You want to get everyone [crosstalk 00:01:47] up on the social.

Frank Barry:    So it's great to be with everyone on Facebook. We're live from Catalyst, like we're saying, but since we've got Tyler here, we wanted to do a book giveaway. So, just make sure you're paying attention. We're not going to do it right now but we're going to give away free books. And also, Catalyst is going live in a lot of their sessions so we want to give away, they were kind enough to give us some free passes, so we want to get free passes to Catalyst live.

Dean Sweetman:  So if you can't make it here to the venue [crosstalk 00:02:15]

Frank Barry:    That's awesome.

Tyler Reagin:   See I don't even know these things, like they just do it. I'm like, "Sweet."

Frank Barry:    It's wrong.

Dean Sweetman:  You mean they have this technology now?

Frank Barry:    That is awesome. It's probably like this one.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Frank Barry:    Technology.

Tyler Reagin:   Streaming.

Frank Barry:    So anyways, right now in order to sort of win one of these prizes, we want to make this a fun and engaging show so, you know, give the show a like, share it on your Facebook timeline, comment, let us know where you're from, what's your home church, things like that, like interact with the show and we're going to be just picking people at random towards the end of the show to win one of these prizes. So stick with us and we'll have a great conversation today.

Dean Sweetman:  Awesome. So you are the President of Catalyst.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  This incredible organization that, like I said, gathers Christian leaders from all over the country and beyond. And 20th year coming up.

Tyler Reagin:   Next year. Yes sir, 19th.

Dean Sweetman:  So for 19 years now.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Frank Barry:    Have you been around for all 19?

Tyler Reagin:   No.

Dean Sweetman:  He's not old enough to be around 19 years.

Tyler Reagin:   I'm not. I actually am probably. My old production director left a couple of years ago. He was with it for 17 years.

Dean Sweetman:  Wow.

Tyler Reagin:   So, and we're the same age, but John Maxwell started it. It's funny because we're literally looking at the John Maxwell Leadership Center but John started it 19 years ago. I actually, then, I was working with Andy Stanley at Northpoint Church for about 12, 13 years so I've been around it but then I came over full time or I started producing it as a contractor while still at the church for about three years, about nine years ago and then six years ago I've been here full time.

Frank Barry:    Man.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  I have a great John Maxwell story that we don't have time for but I'm going to leave that for another day.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Frank Barry:    I've read his books.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah. There's a few.

Frank Barry:    Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   He's written over a hundred books.

Dean Sweetman:  Is that right?

Tyler Reagin:   It's crazy.

Dean Sweetman:  It's a story about when I played golf with him one time.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  Talk about generosity that guy.

Tyler Reagin:   He is the top. He's one of the top.

Dean Sweetman:  He let me win. I didn't let him beat me but he was just so phenomenal. He's running around picking the flag up. Just a legend.

Tyler Reagin:   That's the way he lives his life, man. That's what I love about him.

Dean Sweetman:  So good. We should get him for a show one time. Okay, you wrote this book and it's just coming out.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  The Life Giving Leader.

Frank Barry:    Less than a month, right?

Tyler Reagin:   Two weeks ago.

Frank Barry:    Two weeks?

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah. It was intentional. They wanted to do it two weeks and then be ready to release it this week.

Dean Sweetman:  That's pretty smart.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  Why did you write it?

Tyler Reagin:   This one took me awhile. I've never written a book before. I made a 420 on the sat in English so it wasn't like I was set up for success when it comes to writing.

Dean Sweetman:  Probably more than I've got.

Tyler Reagin:   It wasn't something I was thinking about and when I took over about five years ago, I think the Lord just started stirring in me but the big thing, it took me awhile because I never came to Catalyst for that and I never want anybody to think I came to Catalyst for that because a lot of people you watch them and you kind of concede their trajectory and what they're trying to do.

Dean Sweetman:  Sure.

Tyler Reagin:   And I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just saying it's not me. So it took a while. It's stuff I've been teaching as a coach for years. It's stuff I've been doing and trying to create culture like that and I remember the two things that kind of took me over the edge was, one, I went home one day and I said, "Carrie, I think I'm supposed to write a book." She goes, "I know." But that's not what my wife normally responds.

Dean Sweetman:  The wives always know first.

Tyler Reagin:   And then I had a friend just looked at me and he said it, "If for any other reason write everything you believe about leadership for your two boys."

Frank Barry:    Wow, wow.

Dean Sweetman:  Very cool.

Tyler Reagin:   And that was worth it to me. I thought, you know what? That was the final. But that was what took me over the hurdle of finally doing it. For me, the book itself was really my kind of leadership belief of what does it mean to lead and lead well as believers? As Christians, we have a divine directive to lead at a certain level and the responsibility is taking care of the people that you've been entrusted with and John Maxwell, who I've mentioned, he always says that leadership is influence. Because one of the things I realized is just by having the word leader in the title, there's a group that goes, "That's not for me."

Dean Sweetman:  Yep.

Tyler Reagin:   Which is not true.

Frank Barry:    Absolutely

Tyler Reagin:   Leadership is influence. Everybody has influence with one, two, fifteen, twenty.

Frank Barry:    Your family.

Tyler Reagin:   So how you steward that influence is your leadership.

Frank Barry:    Yeah, very good.

Tyler Reagin:   That's it. And so what I've really been on a journey is going, how do we get everybody understanding this is for them and how they do that? But the biggest hurdle is when the subtitle is learning to lead from your true self, that's got to be me in there.

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   And so I had my team read it consistently going, "Do I do this because if I don't it shouldn't be in here."

Dean Sweetman:  So this isn't just some like ethereal?

Tyler Reagin:   No.

Dean Sweetman:  This is stuff that you've lived and put it on paper and hopefully people can really [crosstalk 00:06:44]

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah and I tried to make it simple in the sense of leadership's hard.

Dean Sweetman:  For people like me, right?

Tyler Reagin:   Exactly. You'll get 15 principles, you don't know where to start.

Dean Sweetman:  Right, yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   So I made every chapter 10, 11 pages. You can read it in about 10, maybe 12 minutes, something like that. But it's kind of one idea, one thought, let's just stay there for a minute and then move on to the next thing. But it really is just trying to simplify the importance of taking care of the people that you've been entrusted with. It's pretty straightforward.

Dean Sweetman:  Fantastic.

Frank Barry:    For those on Facebook, chime in because we have some questions Tyler we wanted to ask you but if we can get at least one from Facebook.

Dean Sweetman:  That'd be cool.

Frank Barry:    Someone chime in, what do you want to ask Tyler? What do you want to ask him about the book? You might win a free book but give us some of your questions and we'll try to get some in [crosstalk 00:07:26]

Dean Sweetman:  And so the miracle from the Tithe.ly elves

Tyler Reagin:   So the Tithe.ly elves sleep in trees too, like the Keebler elves or are they different?

Dean Sweetman:  Well, green is our logo, right? So it's all woven together.

Tyler Reagin:   Fair enough.

Dean Sweetman:  They're awesome.

Tyler Reagin:   Fair enough.

Frank Barry:    In the book, are you big on using stories from the Bible? Do you have a favorite verse, story, parable?

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah, I don't really write about the Bible very often. I'm just kidding. This whole concept is which way is life flowing from you? Is it being required for you because you're not leading well? Are you taking from the people around you or is it flowing the way it should? And, for me, it comes out of this place as a believer in knowing that the only life giver, the source of life, is Jesus.

Frank Barry:    Amen.

Dean Sweetman:  Amen.

Tyler Reagin:   So if I'm not being invested in, if I'm not in devotional life and prayer life, if I'm not connected to the source, I'm not going to have anything to give the people around me. I'm just not. It has to be an overflow of who we are. So that's the big picture in the sense of, yeah, the whole thing, Jesus himself is the reason for this, that's the whole point.

Frank Barry:    Right.

Tyler Reagin:   for me, it really goes back to what our theme is for this year of being fully alive. John 10:10 is a life verse for me, which is, that he came, that we may have life and have it to the fullest. I just know too many leaders that are not living that.

Frank Barry:    Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   They're not there right now.

Dean Sweetman:  Why do you think that is?

Tyler Reagin:   I think there's a lot of reasons. I think they're depleted. It's harder. A lot of people are not life giving leaders because it's harder but things of value require sacrifice.

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah.

Frank Barry:    Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   And what happens is, I was just telling a friend of some stuff we've been going through and I've been going through personally and he just looked at me and said, "You know, most people I know would have already left or walked away." And I was like, "I couldn't." And I think it's because I have this belief, this is worth it. That leading is worth it and it brings abundant life and when you come out of hard seasons you're thankful that you fought through them because you're better on the other side. You get an upgrade, you move into a better place. But I think most people don't lead at a high level because it's too hard. But the reality is people are worth it and you get grace. Now, I don't want life to have to flow to me from my team but there are seasons I'm going to need it, I'm going to need some grace.

Dean Sweetman:  Absolutely.

Tyler Reagin:   But if I'm not pouring into them day in and day out, there's not going to be any grace to pull around. So that abundant life thing is not just for let's go whatever, free.

Frank Barry:    Right.

Tyler Reagin:   It's also I want to lead at a level that I feel fully alive, that I'm abundantly living, that my boys and my wife see a dad and a husband who goes to work and loves his life.

Frank Barry:    That's right, yeah. Someone who comes home and loves it.

Tyler Reagin:   And it's hard, home's hard, you know, this is hard. Not eating chicken flavor meal. That's hard, right? But there's sacrifice required.

Frank Barry:    Yeah, that's good, man.

Dean Sweetman:  So you wrote a fair bit about generosity in the book, about God calling.

Tyler Reagin:   Totally.

Dean Sweetman:  Lead us to be generous people.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  Where did that come from? How do you approach the whole generosity thing and leisure?

Tyler Reagin:   So the first half of the book is really the identity piece because I think the most life giving leaders have embraced their Psalm 139 uniqueness, which is he knit us together.

Dean Sweetman:  Sure.

Tyler Reagin:   So many leaders spend their life chasing somebody else's uniqueness. Psalm 139, whether or not it's clear, he knit us together while looking at the breadth of our life. Our vocation or calling or life has to be connected if we believe that's true.

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah, sure.

Tyler Reagin:   Which is beautiful, that God would actually give me a unique personality for unique purpose. there's a thing that I quoted this lady who is a hospice nurse in Australia actually.

Dean Sweetman:  Where all amazing things come from.

Tyler Reagin:   That's right. Most, almost. Some things. But for seven years she interviewed people on their deathbed and said, "What is your biggest regret in life?" By far number one, was I was never my true self, that I was never the person that I really wanted to be. But our circumstances, our cultures, our family scenarios, our work environments, they dictate for so many who they are. And I just think we have to learn we cannot dismiss the lessons from the dying in that and going, "I don't want to get to the end of my life."

Dean Sweetman:  And have all these regrets.

Tyler Reagin:   And feel like I'm never myself. I'd see so many young leaders, I've got 24 year olds, 25 year olds, the quicker you can become proud of that God given uniqueness, the quicker you'll be the leader that he has for you.

Dean Sweetman:  Right. How hard is that today? Because there's the social media, it's stuff that's coming in, especially to young people. This is how you should look. [crosstalk 00:12:11]

Tyler Reagin:   We are in a day and age that it looks like overnight success. It looks like these things. I remember when the band Fun released Some Nights. It was like this huge hit and everybody's like, "These guys are like overnight successes." That was their ninth album.

Dean Sweetman:  Wow.

Tyler Reagin:   There's not an overnight success. It's the men and the men and women who go, "Okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna work on me right now. I'm going to figure this out."

Frank Barry:    Consistency, sticking to it.

Tyler Reagin:   You have to. It's the process. What if the destination isn't the answer?

Dean Sweetman:  Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Tyler Reagin:   But so many of us want to shortcut the process to get to the destination. The truth is, if I had gotten even to this position before I was ready, I would have been crushed.

Frank Barry:    Yep.

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   It's just the way it is.

Frank Barry:    I mean, I can look back, same kind of thing, sorry, when you start off, coming out of college, you get your first job, career kind of thing and I just remember thinking like, "Oh, I should be at this level or doing this kind of thing."

Tyler Reagin:   Right.

Frank Barry:    But then now I look back and I'm like, "Oh yeah, what was I thinking at that stage of life?" Right?

Tyler Reagin:   So that's it, that's exactly right because it's this process but the first part is the process. How do we find our identity? What does that look like? The second half I talk about the practice and what that looks like when your life giving and one of those, there's a section called the four S's, which is we're called to sweat, work hard. We're called to surrender, sacrifice and serve. So that's where the generosity comes in. And the truth is a life giving leader lives a life of generosity.

Dean Sweetman:  Right. It's not something that you just got to do every now and again. It's who you are.

Tyler Reagin:   It is, what do the people around me need?

Dean Sweetman:  Yep.

Tyler Reagin:   You know, again, I've mentioned Maxwell but he always said people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Dean Sweetman:  That one sticks, right?

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  That particular quote just sticks.

Tyler Reagin:   It stays with you because it's true. How you steward your influence, if you have two people in the circle, how you care for those two is going to determine if you get more.

Dean Sweetman:  Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Tyler Reagin:   And I think that's what generosity is, going, "I'm going to have to surrender to something bigger than myself. I've got to sweat." Like we're over here, we're pushing pallets. I'm the best and I'm very proud of this, I'm the best pallet wrapper on our team because I teach every one of our new staff ...

Frank Barry:    How to do it.

Tyler Reagin:   ... how to wrap pallets. The reason is, I don't have to. I've earned the right to not wrap a pallet for the rest of my life. But I'm the president of the organization where the president of the organization wraps pallets with the 24 year old, but just started ...

Frank Barry:    Pretty cool.

Tyler Reagin:   ... it says something to them ...

Frank Barry:    Absolutely.

Tyler Reagin:   ... that I'm not asking them to push pallets and I'm not going to do it. I'm working because as believers, I feel like to be life giving, we have to be right next to them. Now again, when I had to leave and go do what I have to go do, which, and there are nights that they don't know the weight that I carry and there are days that they don't understand what I'm going through and work never stops. Your brain, there's no office hours. But that's generous to me. That's a life of generosity which says, "I'm with you. And what you need is what I'm willing to do. How can I help?" And so I think it's that, it's serving next to them, it's those sorts. So, to me, yeah. And then honestly, it's financially, where are my wife and I, how are we showing our boys what it means to be generous financially as well? And a lot of that's in that circle of influence. What can I do to serve their needs?

Dean Sweetman:  And hey, just on that, what we're gonna do this week in the generosity moment at Catalyst is we're going to support Convoy of Hope, who are doing phenomenal work in the Carolinas from the Hurricane.

Tyler Reagin:   From Florence.

Dean Sweetman:  Florence and so yeah, as a community of leaders, we're gonna step out and take up [crosstalk 00:15:45] for Convoy of Hope. These guys are doing a phenomenal job.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah. I mean honestly, they're the best at disaster relief of anybody I've ever seen. And they stay, that's what I love about it.

Dean Sweetman:  Right. I like how it's a local church too.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah, it's all through the church, which is beautiful.

Dean Sweetman:  It's first in, last out, right?

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah. It's a beautiful thing and these are our neighbors. We have a lot of people that'll be here this week that were affected by it. So it's an easy thing for us to get behind.

Dean Sweetman:  Convoy of Hope.

Tyler Reagin:   Convoyofhope.org and then you can do slash catalysts.

Dean Sweetman:  Boom. And go and give. So if you're watching or even if you watch later on the recorded show, make a contribution.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah, come join us.

Dean Sweetman:  It'll be very well received.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah, it's gonna be cool.

Frank Barry:    I love what you said. We interviewed Larry Osborne from North Coast Church two weeks ago.

Dean Sweetman:  He's such a cool dude.

Frank Barry:    Yeah, he's just amazing but we asked him, "Tell us a little bit about sort of the history of North Coast." And one of the things he mentioned was about early on, one of his lessons about doing it wrong that he learned was when it was all about me, God only gave me a little.

Tyler Reagin:   Mm-hmm (affirmative),

Frank Barry:    But when I started to take care of and ...

Tyler Reagin:   That's right.

Frank Barry:    ... leave the little, God started and it got bigger and bigger and bigger, right?

Dean Sweetman:  I think God, if you care for what's given to you, in a small way-

Frank Barry:    God will take care of it all, right?

Tyler Reagin:   That's really one of the main in the book, which is when life flows, influence grows.

Frank Barry:    Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   I heard Alex Seeley, who's one of the pastors at the Belonging Co. in Nashville, she did a talk a while back where she talked about when they first started the church they had five people. Five, in their basement. And the presence of God one night was so real and so incredible and she said through tears, "I remember saying to God, if I'm only called to pastor this five, I'll do it the rest of my life."

Dean Sweetman:  Right.

Tyler Reagin:   That's the posture of understanding that it doesn't matter if I'm ever going to get 500.

Frank Barry:    That's hard. It's not a formula.

Tyler Reagin:   Right.

Frank Barry:    It's a choice to serve.

Dean Sweetman:  In the church world, and I've been around that for years, I've planted so many churches, if you're not growing, you feel like, "Oh my gosh, [crosstalk 00:17:46]."

Tyler Reagin:   Right.

Dean Sweetman:  But you know what? If you care for and pastor ...

Tyler Reagin:   Faithful.

Dean Sweetman:  ... and feed a hundred people and that's what God gave you ...

Tyler Reagin:   [inaudible 00:17:52]

Dean Sweetman:  ... and you do that for the rest of your life ...

Tyler Reagin:   That's right.

Dean Sweetman:  ... you are in the front lines in heaven.

Tyler Reagin:   Yep.

Dean Sweetman:  And it's like we kind of think like, Well, I've got to have 500. I don't have 1000. That's how you burn out in the ministry.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah. But I mean, Martin Luther King was quoted as saying, and I'm going to botch the quote, but it's something like this around, "If God's called you to be a street sweeper, be the best street sweeper you've ever seen."

Dean Sweetman:  Absolutely.

Tyler Reagin:   And that that's what it is. It's like, you know, even this week, I get a lot of credit for this. This is not my platform. This is a god movement. We go with it everyday. Going forward, we're stewarding this to the very best of our ability because you get the glory.

Dean Sweetman:  And that all ties in. That's all generosity thinking.

Tyler Reagin:   It is. It's stewardship. It's not mine anyway.

Dean Sweetman:  Right. Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   It's the same thing with money. This is not ours.

Dean Sweetman:  Absolutely.

Tyler Reagin:   How do we steward it to the best of our ability so that God gets the glory?

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   I think it's pretty simple and I, honestly, that is exactly what this is about. How do I steward the influence I have in a way that brings God glory at every turn? And guess what? I think the reason a lot of people don't believe, they wouldn't say they're great leaders is because leadership is an ideal. Like if you write a leadership book, number one, you're accountable. Great. But number two, you're going, "This is what I believe should be. Guess what? I screw this up every day, all day, but I am trying to do this."

Frank Barry:    It's like being a husband and it's like I mess up every day.

Tyler Reagin:   But I don't stop being a leader because it's hard and I don't stop being a leader because I made a mistake.

Frank Barry:    Absolutely.

Tyler Reagin:   But we want to sometimes, right?

Frank Barry:    Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah. You're like, "Oh God, I don't want to do this again." Yeah, I mean, I've had to make two decisions in the last eight days that I hated with every ounce of my being. I hate it but they were the right decisions.

Dean Sweetman:  That's what leaders do though.

Tyler Reagin:   and they hurt people and yet they were the right decisions and you just have to do it.

Dean Sweetman:  You have had the privilege of being around a lot of heavy hitting leaders.

Tyler Reagin:   I'm glad you finished that. Not just having leaders, but heavy hitting leadership. That's good.

Dean Sweetman:  We're talking like Craig Rochelle, Andy, of course.

Frank Barry:    Chris Hodges.

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah, there's tons, right. We could go on. You must have learned a bit, seen a bit.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  What have you kind of gleamed from these as far as the kingdom goes, some of the highest level leaders we have on the planet? I'm sure you've got some insights just observing them, watching them.

Frank Barry:    Have you seen generosity in their lives?

Tyler Reagin:   Totally.

Frank Barry:    As you've interacted.

Tyler Reagin:   I think they are perfect examples of what we've been talking about. Every one of them can point back to a time. Craig will tell you about when they started the church in the garage and they put mirrors in the garage to make sure it looked bigger.

Dean Sweetman:  Sure.

Tyler Reagin:   But he stewarded 10, 15 people.

Dean Sweetman:  We all do that.

Tyler Reagin:   Right?

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   He stewarded them to the time when Bobby Grunwald walks in and goes, "Hey, there's this new thing coming out. It's an iPhone. They're going to put apps on it. What if we were the first Bible App?"

Dean Sweetman:  Boom.

Tyler Reagin:   And it came from a failed website that was terrible.

Dean Sweetman:  Wow.

Tyler Reagin:   And they thought, well, what if we did this? And now that's called YouVersion and 250 million people have downloaded that.

Dean Sweetman:  Have you been to their office?

Tyler Reagin:   No, it's awesome. It's awesome. And now it's in the book.

Frank Barry:    Command Center in there?

Tyler Reagin:   Yep. It's in the Museum of the Bible too now where you can see every time it pops up.

Dean Sweetman:  Everybody who uses it.

Tyler Reagin:   It's amazing.

Dean Sweetman:  When I saw it, you look at a place like North Korea, right? No one's ...

Tyler Reagin:   It's dark.

Dean Sweetman:  But then you see these little dots in China.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah, yeah. It's so cool.

Dean Sweetman:  It was just a cool thing.

Tyler Reagin:   But I say that because every time they've just taken that little bit that's in front of them and they've gone, "God, we're going to do the best we can with that." Andy Stanley's the same way. Christine Caine. I mean, A-21 came out of her Santa sign walking through it. I mean, it just, "Okay Lord, this is what I can do today." You know, for some of us our spiritual act of worship today is showing up.

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah, it's true.

Tyler Reagin:   Today I got to show up. I don't know what this means and I don't know what this is going to look like but I'm going to show up today. So, to me, none of them got there. Now, if they did because they worked their way through it ...

Dean Sweetman:  Most guys [crosstalk 00:21:54]

Tyler Reagin:   That's not the case. They steward what was in front of them really well in the communities they were in and they were faithful. I saw and I share this story quite often when I talk about some of this but about a month or two ago, Brian Houston posted on his Instagram a picture of him sitting on this chair of this bench overlooking Los Angeles where 30 years ago he sat on that very same bench. Nobody knew him. He didn't know a soul in this country. He didn't know a soul in that city. They were a small church starting in Sydney and he said he felt like God said, "You're going to have not just influence over this city but this country and this thing." That was the beginning of his leadership legacy. He had a choice. Do I believe what God's saying and anywhere along the way if he stewarded inappropriately or whatever, which I'm sure he may have, but if he chose differently, he would not have the influence that Hill Song now has.

Dean Sweetman:  Oh by gosh, wow.

Tyler Reagin:   Do you know what I mean? And I know you know him and what a beautiful story.

Dean Sweetman:  Guys like that, I've had the privilege of meeting a lot of guys way above where I've ever made it and they're all the same.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  They're really humble. Even some of the guys that are very kind of out there when they preach.

Tyler Reagin:   Right.

Dean Sweetman:  When you get em ...

Tyler Reagin:   Behind the scenes it's different.

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah, they're just chill dudes and they're always like, "Was that good? Did I do okay?"

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  Dude, you're the best ever.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah, I mean, he told me before the one day recently, he's like, "I was kinda nervous." I'm like, "What are you talking about?" B

Dean Sweetman:  But that's the posture.

Tyler Reagin:   That's exactly right.

Frank Barry:    I remember being at one of Craig's recent one days.

Tyler Reagin:   Yep.

Frank Barry:    And just kind of getting to sit in the back and sort of watching it. I was shocked and just sort of amazed at his approach to teaching. There were only maybe 30 pastors or something there and I was just blown away by his humility towards that group.

Dean Sweetman:  You rang me up straight after. You were like, "Dude, that guy was just [crosstalk 00:23:52]

Frank Barry:    You see them from afar but he's just so humble in how he approached saying, "Look, this has worked for us. This may not work for you." [crosstalk 00:23:59]

Tyler Reagin:   And one of the five pieces of the identity thing for me is humility.

Frank Barry:    Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Tyler Reagin:   It's a choice that you make. But that's a generous choice, which says, you know, Simon Sinek quotes a Lieutenant General or something who says, "The cost of leadership is self interest." That's humility, it's going, "It's not about me." But I would say this, why not try it? And, again, I worked with Andy Stanley for years and his thing is just give a percent. Just pick a percent, percentage given.

Dean Sweetman:  Start with one.

Tyler Reagin:   Exactly. Start with something but don't do it one time. Do a percentage giving and try it for a few months.

Dean Sweetman:  That's right.

Tyler Reagin:   And just see. And if, again, if it's one percent, great. Half a percent.

Dean Sweetman:  Whatever.

Tyler Reagin:   But just try. This is not a cosmic soda machine where you can hit this and God's gonna all of a sudden, bless you. That's not what we're talking about. What we're talking about is every time I give that one percent, a little bit of my heart gets loosened up.

Dean Sweetman:  Exactly right.

Tyler Reagin:   Because the point is, it has control over us. And I know that because of the emotion connected to the depths ...

Dean Sweetman:  Massive.

Tyler Reagin:   ... of pain when it comes to finances. I don't want that pain in my life.

Dean Sweetman:  No.

Tyler Reagin:   And the only way I've ever seen it subside is to give it away.

Dean Sweetman:  So be it.

Frank Barry:    All right, we gotta ...

Dean Sweetman:  We gotta wrap it.

Frank Barry:    We could talk for another hour but I think we're already ...

Dean Sweetman:  You get us talking about money and generosity and I'm like you, you could do the same.

Tyler Reagin:   Talk to me about leadership, I get excited.

Frank Barry:    We're going to give away a few books. We're going to mention this, we've got some folks on Facebook.

Dean Sweetman:  I think we have winners, don't we?

Frank Barry:    We've got some winners. [crosstalk 00:25:36]

Dean Sweetman:  You get Keebler cookies.

Frank Barry:    Tyler, we're grateful you spent some time with us.

Tyler Reagin:   Absolutely.

Dean Sweetman:  Thanks man.

Frank Barry:    Where do we go to get the book? Amazon? Apple store?

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah. Any of those. Any bookstore, they have it.

Dean Sweetman:  The Life Giving Leader.

Frank Barry:    The Life Giving Leader.

Tyler Reagin:   You can go to tylerreagan.com too, if you want to know more about it.

Frank Barry:    Go to tylerreagin.com. That's where you want to go. Check it out. We're going to get away a few so we got Sarah Ferrell.

Tyler Reagin:   Way to go, Sarah?

Frank Barry:    Hopefully you're still on with us.

Tyler Reagin:   We bored her, she's out.

Frank Barry:    [crosstalk 00:26:03] ship you this book.

Dean Sweetman:  We will.

Frank Barry:    I did not know how to say [Jassi 00:26:13]

Dean Sweetman:  Jassy. Figueroa.

Frank Barry:    Figueroa.

Dean Sweetman:  And Gina Dukes.

Frank Barry:    And Gina Dukes.

Tyler Reagin:   What if they all live like in ...

Dean Sweetman:  [inaudible 00:26:19]

Frank Barry:    [crosstalk 00:26:21]

Tyler Reagin:   No, they all live in international countries. Like, oh shoot. Just kidding.

Dean Sweetman:  No, no. We'll get it to ya. We'll use a carrier pigeon.

Frank Barry:    Yeah. We're going to give you guys copies of the book. I think we're giving away some live stream passes but we'll handle that on Facebook.

Dean Sweetman:  Sounds good.

Frank Barry:    Thank you guys for being with us.

Dean Sweetman:  In two weeks, we're going to be live at Sticky Teams.

Frank Barry:    Sticky Teams.

Dean Sweetman:  On the west coast in San Diego, California, interviewing Chris Brown, the Executive Pastor of ...

Frank Barry:    North Coast.

Dean Sweetman:  ... North Coast Church.

Frank Barry:    Teaching

Tyler Reagin:   Nice.

Frank Barry:    Teaching pastor.

Tyler Reagin:   Super pumped. Thank you for tuning in today, guys. Can't wait to see you next time. God bless and we'll see you soon.

Frank Barry:    Have a good one.

‍

Dean Sweetman:  Hey everybody, Dean Sweetman and Frank Barry here.

Frank Barry:    What's going on Facebook?

Dean Sweetman:  And we are live at Catalyst.

Frank Barry:    Yes.

Dean Sweetman:  Which is the premier leadership training conference in the calendar and we're great sponsors. Got a great mate of mine.

Frank Barry:    In the country.

Dean Sweetman:  In the world, mate.

Tyler Reagin:   That's strong.

Frank Barry:    Come on.

Tyler Reagin:   That's strong.

Frank Barry:    Tyler Reagin, good to see you, mate.

Tyler Reagin:   Good to see you guys.

Frank Barry:    Good to see you. I'll just wave.

Tyler Reagin:   Hey, Frank.

Dean Sweetman:  Queen wave. Queen wave.

Tyler Reagin:   We're actually not sitting in Catalyst right now.

Dean Sweetman:  It's just down the street.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah good because I wanna make sure everybody knows this is a little like ...

Dean Sweetman:  It's been big and massive.

Tyler Reagin:   A little bit.

Dean Sweetman:  I walked into the arena and I'm like I haven't been in that arena for a while and I forget how big it is.

Tyler Reagin:   It's awesome.

Dean Sweetman:  We're expecting north of 8000.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah, maybe something like that.

Dean Sweetman:  People are flying in from all over the world right now into Atlanta, Georgia and it's just gonna be awesome.

Tyler Reagin:   It's gonna be awesome.

Frank Barry:    So all the prep's going on right now?

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah, our team's rocking and rolling with their sound check, running everything.

Frank Barry:    That's excellent.

Tyler Reagin:   So we're sponsors here and we're pretty pumped for a great week and we're involved with you guys on a day to day basis right down there.

Tyler Reagin:   Right.

Dean Sweetman:  But we wanted to take this opportunity to talk to you about generosity.

Tyler Reagin:   Love it.

Dean Sweetman:  That is what we do on this podcast and we approach it from all different kinds of angles and Tyler has just written a phenomenal book about leadership. And so we're going to talk a little bit about that today. Frank's got a bit of housekeeping, mate. You want to get everyone [crosstalk 00:01:47] up on the social.

Frank Barry:    So it's great to be with everyone on Facebook. We're live from Catalyst, like we're saying, but since we've got Tyler here, we wanted to do a book giveaway. So, just make sure you're paying attention. We're not going to do it right now but we're going to give away free books. And also, Catalyst is going live in a lot of their sessions so we want to give away, they were kind enough to give us some free passes, so we want to get free passes to Catalyst live.

Dean Sweetman:  So if you can't make it here to the venue [crosstalk 00:02:15]

Frank Barry:    That's awesome.

Tyler Reagin:   See I don't even know these things, like they just do it. I'm like, "Sweet."

Frank Barry:    It's wrong.

Dean Sweetman:  You mean they have this technology now?

Frank Barry:    That is awesome. It's probably like this one.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Frank Barry:    Technology.

Tyler Reagin:   Streaming.

Frank Barry:    So anyways, right now in order to sort of win one of these prizes, we want to make this a fun and engaging show so, you know, give the show a like, share it on your Facebook timeline, comment, let us know where you're from, what's your home church, things like that, like interact with the show and we're going to be just picking people at random towards the end of the show to win one of these prizes. So stick with us and we'll have a great conversation today.

Dean Sweetman:  Awesome. So you are the President of Catalyst.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  This incredible organization that, like I said, gathers Christian leaders from all over the country and beyond. And 20th year coming up.

Tyler Reagin:   Next year. Yes sir, 19th.

Dean Sweetman:  So for 19 years now.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Frank Barry:    Have you been around for all 19?

Tyler Reagin:   No.

Dean Sweetman:  He's not old enough to be around 19 years.

Tyler Reagin:   I'm not. I actually am probably. My old production director left a couple of years ago. He was with it for 17 years.

Dean Sweetman:  Wow.

Tyler Reagin:   So, and we're the same age, but John Maxwell started it. It's funny because we're literally looking at the John Maxwell Leadership Center but John started it 19 years ago. I actually, then, I was working with Andy Stanley at Northpoint Church for about 12, 13 years so I've been around it but then I came over full time or I started producing it as a contractor while still at the church for about three years, about nine years ago and then six years ago I've been here full time.

Frank Barry:    Man.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  I have a great John Maxwell story that we don't have time for but I'm going to leave that for another day.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Frank Barry:    I've read his books.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah. There's a few.

Frank Barry:    Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   He's written over a hundred books.

Dean Sweetman:  Is that right?

Tyler Reagin:   It's crazy.

Dean Sweetman:  It's a story about when I played golf with him one time.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  Talk about generosity that guy.

Tyler Reagin:   He is the top. He's one of the top.

Dean Sweetman:  He let me win. I didn't let him beat me but he was just so phenomenal. He's running around picking the flag up. Just a legend.

Tyler Reagin:   That's the way he lives his life, man. That's what I love about him.

Dean Sweetman:  So good. We should get him for a show one time. Okay, you wrote this book and it's just coming out.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  The Life Giving Leader.

Frank Barry:    Less than a month, right?

Tyler Reagin:   Two weeks ago.

Frank Barry:    Two weeks?

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah. It was intentional. They wanted to do it two weeks and then be ready to release it this week.

Dean Sweetman:  That's pretty smart.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  Why did you write it?

Tyler Reagin:   This one took me awhile. I've never written a book before. I made a 420 on the sat in English so it wasn't like I was set up for success when it comes to writing.

Dean Sweetman:  Probably more than I've got.

Tyler Reagin:   It wasn't something I was thinking about and when I took over about five years ago, I think the Lord just started stirring in me but the big thing, it took me awhile because I never came to Catalyst for that and I never want anybody to think I came to Catalyst for that because a lot of people you watch them and you kind of concede their trajectory and what they're trying to do.

Dean Sweetman:  Sure.

Tyler Reagin:   And I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just saying it's not me. So it took a while. It's stuff I've been teaching as a coach for years. It's stuff I've been doing and trying to create culture like that and I remember the two things that kind of took me over the edge was, one, I went home one day and I said, "Carrie, I think I'm supposed to write a book." She goes, "I know." But that's not what my wife normally responds.

Dean Sweetman:  The wives always know first.

Tyler Reagin:   And then I had a friend just looked at me and he said it, "If for any other reason write everything you believe about leadership for your two boys."

Frank Barry:    Wow, wow.

Dean Sweetman:  Very cool.

Tyler Reagin:   And that was worth it to me. I thought, you know what? That was the final. But that was what took me over the hurdle of finally doing it. For me, the book itself was really my kind of leadership belief of what does it mean to lead and lead well as believers? As Christians, we have a divine directive to lead at a certain level and the responsibility is taking care of the people that you've been entrusted with and John Maxwell, who I've mentioned, he always says that leadership is influence. Because one of the things I realized is just by having the word leader in the title, there's a group that goes, "That's not for me."

Dean Sweetman:  Yep.

Tyler Reagin:   Which is not true.

Frank Barry:    Absolutely

Tyler Reagin:   Leadership is influence. Everybody has influence with one, two, fifteen, twenty.

Frank Barry:    Your family.

Tyler Reagin:   So how you steward that influence is your leadership.

Frank Barry:    Yeah, very good.

Tyler Reagin:   That's it. And so what I've really been on a journey is going, how do we get everybody understanding this is for them and how they do that? But the biggest hurdle is when the subtitle is learning to lead from your true self, that's got to be me in there.

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   And so I had my team read it consistently going, "Do I do this because if I don't it shouldn't be in here."

Dean Sweetman:  So this isn't just some like ethereal?

Tyler Reagin:   No.

Dean Sweetman:  This is stuff that you've lived and put it on paper and hopefully people can really [crosstalk 00:06:44]

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah and I tried to make it simple in the sense of leadership's hard.

Dean Sweetman:  For people like me, right?

Tyler Reagin:   Exactly. You'll get 15 principles, you don't know where to start.

Dean Sweetman:  Right, yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   So I made every chapter 10, 11 pages. You can read it in about 10, maybe 12 minutes, something like that. But it's kind of one idea, one thought, let's just stay there for a minute and then move on to the next thing. But it really is just trying to simplify the importance of taking care of the people that you've been entrusted with. It's pretty straightforward.

Dean Sweetman:  Fantastic.

Frank Barry:    For those on Facebook, chime in because we have some questions Tyler we wanted to ask you but if we can get at least one from Facebook.

Dean Sweetman:  That'd be cool.

Frank Barry:    Someone chime in, what do you want to ask Tyler? What do you want to ask him about the book? You might win a free book but give us some of your questions and we'll try to get some in [crosstalk 00:07:26]

Dean Sweetman:  And so the miracle from the Tithe.ly elves

Tyler Reagin:   So the Tithe.ly elves sleep in trees too, like the Keebler elves or are they different?

Dean Sweetman:  Well, green is our logo, right? So it's all woven together.

Tyler Reagin:   Fair enough.

Dean Sweetman:  They're awesome.

Tyler Reagin:   Fair enough.

Frank Barry:    In the book, are you big on using stories from the Bible? Do you have a favorite verse, story, parable?

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah, I don't really write about the Bible very often. I'm just kidding. This whole concept is which way is life flowing from you? Is it being required for you because you're not leading well? Are you taking from the people around you or is it flowing the way it should? And, for me, it comes out of this place as a believer in knowing that the only life giver, the source of life, is Jesus.

Frank Barry:    Amen.

Dean Sweetman:  Amen.

Tyler Reagin:   So if I'm not being invested in, if I'm not in devotional life and prayer life, if I'm not connected to the source, I'm not going to have anything to give the people around me. I'm just not. It has to be an overflow of who we are. So that's the big picture in the sense of, yeah, the whole thing, Jesus himself is the reason for this, that's the whole point.

Frank Barry:    Right.

Tyler Reagin:   for me, it really goes back to what our theme is for this year of being fully alive. John 10:10 is a life verse for me, which is, that he came, that we may have life and have it to the fullest. I just know too many leaders that are not living that.

Frank Barry:    Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   They're not there right now.

Dean Sweetman:  Why do you think that is?

Tyler Reagin:   I think there's a lot of reasons. I think they're depleted. It's harder. A lot of people are not life giving leaders because it's harder but things of value require sacrifice.

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah.

Frank Barry:    Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   And what happens is, I was just telling a friend of some stuff we've been going through and I've been going through personally and he just looked at me and said, "You know, most people I know would have already left or walked away." And I was like, "I couldn't." And I think it's because I have this belief, this is worth it. That leading is worth it and it brings abundant life and when you come out of hard seasons you're thankful that you fought through them because you're better on the other side. You get an upgrade, you move into a better place. But I think most people don't lead at a high level because it's too hard. But the reality is people are worth it and you get grace. Now, I don't want life to have to flow to me from my team but there are seasons I'm going to need it, I'm going to need some grace.

Dean Sweetman:  Absolutely.

Tyler Reagin:   But if I'm not pouring into them day in and day out, there's not going to be any grace to pull around. So that abundant life thing is not just for let's go whatever, free.

Frank Barry:    Right.

Tyler Reagin:   It's also I want to lead at a level that I feel fully alive, that I'm abundantly living, that my boys and my wife see a dad and a husband who goes to work and loves his life.

Frank Barry:    That's right, yeah. Someone who comes home and loves it.

Tyler Reagin:   And it's hard, home's hard, you know, this is hard. Not eating chicken flavor meal. That's hard, right? But there's sacrifice required.

Frank Barry:    Yeah, that's good, man.

Dean Sweetman:  So you wrote a fair bit about generosity in the book, about God calling.

Tyler Reagin:   Totally.

Dean Sweetman:  Lead us to be generous people.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  Where did that come from? How do you approach the whole generosity thing and leisure?

Tyler Reagin:   So the first half of the book is really the identity piece because I think the most life giving leaders have embraced their Psalm 139 uniqueness, which is he knit us together.

Dean Sweetman:  Sure.

Tyler Reagin:   So many leaders spend their life chasing somebody else's uniqueness. Psalm 139, whether or not it's clear, he knit us together while looking at the breadth of our life. Our vocation or calling or life has to be connected if we believe that's true.

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah, sure.

Tyler Reagin:   Which is beautiful, that God would actually give me a unique personality for unique purpose. there's a thing that I quoted this lady who is a hospice nurse in Australia actually.

Dean Sweetman:  Where all amazing things come from.

Tyler Reagin:   That's right. Most, almost. Some things. But for seven years she interviewed people on their deathbed and said, "What is your biggest regret in life?" By far number one, was I was never my true self, that I was never the person that I really wanted to be. But our circumstances, our cultures, our family scenarios, our work environments, they dictate for so many who they are. And I just think we have to learn we cannot dismiss the lessons from the dying in that and going, "I don't want to get to the end of my life."

Dean Sweetman:  And have all these regrets.

Tyler Reagin:   And feel like I'm never myself. I'd see so many young leaders, I've got 24 year olds, 25 year olds, the quicker you can become proud of that God given uniqueness, the quicker you'll be the leader that he has for you.

Dean Sweetman:  Right. How hard is that today? Because there's the social media, it's stuff that's coming in, especially to young people. This is how you should look. [crosstalk 00:12:11]

Tyler Reagin:   We are in a day and age that it looks like overnight success. It looks like these things. I remember when the band Fun released Some Nights. It was like this huge hit and everybody's like, "These guys are like overnight successes." That was their ninth album.

Dean Sweetman:  Wow.

Tyler Reagin:   There's not an overnight success. It's the men and the men and women who go, "Okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna work on me right now. I'm going to figure this out."

Frank Barry:    Consistency, sticking to it.

Tyler Reagin:   You have to. It's the process. What if the destination isn't the answer?

Dean Sweetman:  Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Tyler Reagin:   But so many of us want to shortcut the process to get to the destination. The truth is, if I had gotten even to this position before I was ready, I would have been crushed.

Frank Barry:    Yep.

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   It's just the way it is.

Frank Barry:    I mean, I can look back, same kind of thing, sorry, when you start off, coming out of college, you get your first job, career kind of thing and I just remember thinking like, "Oh, I should be at this level or doing this kind of thing."

Tyler Reagin:   Right.

Frank Barry:    But then now I look back and I'm like, "Oh yeah, what was I thinking at that stage of life?" Right?

Tyler Reagin:   So that's it, that's exactly right because it's this process but the first part is the process. How do we find our identity? What does that look like? The second half I talk about the practice and what that looks like when your life giving and one of those, there's a section called the four S's, which is we're called to sweat, work hard. We're called to surrender, sacrifice and serve. So that's where the generosity comes in. And the truth is a life giving leader lives a life of generosity.

Dean Sweetman:  Right. It's not something that you just got to do every now and again. It's who you are.

Tyler Reagin:   It is, what do the people around me need?

Dean Sweetman:  Yep.

Tyler Reagin:   You know, again, I've mentioned Maxwell but he always said people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Dean Sweetman:  That one sticks, right?

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  That particular quote just sticks.

Tyler Reagin:   It stays with you because it's true. How you steward your influence, if you have two people in the circle, how you care for those two is going to determine if you get more.

Dean Sweetman:  Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Tyler Reagin:   And I think that's what generosity is, going, "I'm going to have to surrender to something bigger than myself. I've got to sweat." Like we're over here, we're pushing pallets. I'm the best and I'm very proud of this, I'm the best pallet wrapper on our team because I teach every one of our new staff ...

Frank Barry:    How to do it.

Tyler Reagin:   ... how to wrap pallets. The reason is, I don't have to. I've earned the right to not wrap a pallet for the rest of my life. But I'm the president of the organization where the president of the organization wraps pallets with the 24 year old, but just started ...

Frank Barry:    Pretty cool.

Tyler Reagin:   ... it says something to them ...

Frank Barry:    Absolutely.

Tyler Reagin:   ... that I'm not asking them to push pallets and I'm not going to do it. I'm working because as believers, I feel like to be life giving, we have to be right next to them. Now again, when I had to leave and go do what I have to go do, which, and there are nights that they don't know the weight that I carry and there are days that they don't understand what I'm going through and work never stops. Your brain, there's no office hours. But that's generous to me. That's a life of generosity which says, "I'm with you. And what you need is what I'm willing to do. How can I help?" And so I think it's that, it's serving next to them, it's those sorts. So, to me, yeah. And then honestly, it's financially, where are my wife and I, how are we showing our boys what it means to be generous financially as well? And a lot of that's in that circle of influence. What can I do to serve their needs?

Dean Sweetman:  And hey, just on that, what we're gonna do this week in the generosity moment at Catalyst is we're going to support Convoy of Hope, who are doing phenomenal work in the Carolinas from the Hurricane.

Tyler Reagin:   From Florence.

Dean Sweetman:  Florence and so yeah, as a community of leaders, we're gonna step out and take up [crosstalk 00:15:45] for Convoy of Hope. These guys are doing a phenomenal job.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah. I mean honestly, they're the best at disaster relief of anybody I've ever seen. And they stay, that's what I love about it.

Dean Sweetman:  Right. I like how it's a local church too.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah, it's all through the church, which is beautiful.

Dean Sweetman:  It's first in, last out, right?

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah. It's a beautiful thing and these are our neighbors. We have a lot of people that'll be here this week that were affected by it. So it's an easy thing for us to get behind.

Dean Sweetman:  Convoy of Hope.

Tyler Reagin:   Convoyofhope.org and then you can do slash catalysts.

Dean Sweetman:  Boom. And go and give. So if you're watching or even if you watch later on the recorded show, make a contribution.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah, come join us.

Dean Sweetman:  It'll be very well received.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah, it's gonna be cool.

Frank Barry:    I love what you said. We interviewed Larry Osborne from North Coast Church two weeks ago.

Dean Sweetman:  He's such a cool dude.

Frank Barry:    Yeah, he's just amazing but we asked him, "Tell us a little bit about sort of the history of North Coast." And one of the things he mentioned was about early on, one of his lessons about doing it wrong that he learned was when it was all about me, God only gave me a little.

Tyler Reagin:   Mm-hmm (affirmative),

Frank Barry:    But when I started to take care of and ...

Tyler Reagin:   That's right.

Frank Barry:    ... leave the little, God started and it got bigger and bigger and bigger, right?

Dean Sweetman:  I think God, if you care for what's given to you, in a small way-

Frank Barry:    God will take care of it all, right?

Tyler Reagin:   That's really one of the main in the book, which is when life flows, influence grows.

Frank Barry:    Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   I heard Alex Seeley, who's one of the pastors at the Belonging Co. in Nashville, she did a talk a while back where she talked about when they first started the church they had five people. Five, in their basement. And the presence of God one night was so real and so incredible and she said through tears, "I remember saying to God, if I'm only called to pastor this five, I'll do it the rest of my life."

Dean Sweetman:  Right.

Tyler Reagin:   That's the posture of understanding that it doesn't matter if I'm ever going to get 500.

Frank Barry:    That's hard. It's not a formula.

Tyler Reagin:   Right.

Frank Barry:    It's a choice to serve.

Dean Sweetman:  In the church world, and I've been around that for years, I've planted so many churches, if you're not growing, you feel like, "Oh my gosh, [crosstalk 00:17:46]."

Tyler Reagin:   Right.

Dean Sweetman:  But you know what? If you care for and pastor ...

Tyler Reagin:   Faithful.

Dean Sweetman:  ... and feed a hundred people and that's what God gave you ...

Tyler Reagin:   [inaudible 00:17:52]

Dean Sweetman:  ... and you do that for the rest of your life ...

Tyler Reagin:   That's right.

Dean Sweetman:  ... you are in the front lines in heaven.

Tyler Reagin:   Yep.

Dean Sweetman:  And it's like we kind of think like, Well, I've got to have 500. I don't have 1000. That's how you burn out in the ministry.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah. But I mean, Martin Luther King was quoted as saying, and I'm going to botch the quote, but it's something like this around, "If God's called you to be a street sweeper, be the best street sweeper you've ever seen."

Dean Sweetman:  Absolutely.

Tyler Reagin:   And that that's what it is. It's like, you know, even this week, I get a lot of credit for this. This is not my platform. This is a god movement. We go with it everyday. Going forward, we're stewarding this to the very best of our ability because you get the glory.

Dean Sweetman:  And that all ties in. That's all generosity thinking.

Tyler Reagin:   It is. It's stewardship. It's not mine anyway.

Dean Sweetman:  Right. Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   It's the same thing with money. This is not ours.

Dean Sweetman:  Absolutely.

Tyler Reagin:   How do we steward it to the best of our ability so that God gets the glory?

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   I think it's pretty simple and I, honestly, that is exactly what this is about. How do I steward the influence I have in a way that brings God glory at every turn? And guess what? I think the reason a lot of people don't believe, they wouldn't say they're great leaders is because leadership is an ideal. Like if you write a leadership book, number one, you're accountable. Great. But number two, you're going, "This is what I believe should be. Guess what? I screw this up every day, all day, but I am trying to do this."

Frank Barry:    It's like being a husband and it's like I mess up every day.

Tyler Reagin:   But I don't stop being a leader because it's hard and I don't stop being a leader because I made a mistake.

Frank Barry:    Absolutely.

Tyler Reagin:   But we want to sometimes, right?

Frank Barry:    Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah. You're like, "Oh God, I don't want to do this again." Yeah, I mean, I've had to make two decisions in the last eight days that I hated with every ounce of my being. I hate it but they were the right decisions.

Dean Sweetman:  That's what leaders do though.

Tyler Reagin:   and they hurt people and yet they were the right decisions and you just have to do it.

Dean Sweetman:  You have had the privilege of being around a lot of heavy hitting leaders.

Tyler Reagin:   I'm glad you finished that. Not just having leaders, but heavy hitting leadership. That's good.

Dean Sweetman:  We're talking like Craig Rochelle, Andy, of course.

Frank Barry:    Chris Hodges.

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah, there's tons, right. We could go on. You must have learned a bit, seen a bit.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  What have you kind of gleamed from these as far as the kingdom goes, some of the highest level leaders we have on the planet? I'm sure you've got some insights just observing them, watching them.

Frank Barry:    Have you seen generosity in their lives?

Tyler Reagin:   Totally.

Frank Barry:    As you've interacted.

Tyler Reagin:   I think they are perfect examples of what we've been talking about. Every one of them can point back to a time. Craig will tell you about when they started the church in the garage and they put mirrors in the garage to make sure it looked bigger.

Dean Sweetman:  Sure.

Tyler Reagin:   But he stewarded 10, 15 people.

Dean Sweetman:  We all do that.

Tyler Reagin:   Right?

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah.

Tyler Reagin:   He stewarded them to the time when Bobby Grunwald walks in and goes, "Hey, there's this new thing coming out. It's an iPhone. They're going to put apps on it. What if we were the first Bible App?"

Dean Sweetman:  Boom.

Tyler Reagin:   And it came from a failed website that was terrible.

Dean Sweetman:  Wow.

Tyler Reagin:   And they thought, well, what if we did this? And now that's called YouVersion and 250 million people have downloaded that.

Dean Sweetman:  Have you been to their office?

Tyler Reagin:   No, it's awesome. It's awesome. And now it's in the book.

Frank Barry:    Command Center in there?

Tyler Reagin:   Yep. It's in the Museum of the Bible too now where you can see every time it pops up.

Dean Sweetman:  Everybody who uses it.

Tyler Reagin:   It's amazing.

Dean Sweetman:  When I saw it, you look at a place like North Korea, right? No one's ...

Tyler Reagin:   It's dark.

Dean Sweetman:  But then you see these little dots in China.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah, yeah. It's so cool.

Dean Sweetman:  It was just a cool thing.

Tyler Reagin:   But I say that because every time they've just taken that little bit that's in front of them and they've gone, "God, we're going to do the best we can with that." Andy Stanley's the same way. Christine Caine. I mean, A-21 came out of her Santa sign walking through it. I mean, it just, "Okay Lord, this is what I can do today." You know, for some of us our spiritual act of worship today is showing up.

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah, it's true.

Tyler Reagin:   Today I got to show up. I don't know what this means and I don't know what this is going to look like but I'm going to show up today. So, to me, none of them got there. Now, if they did because they worked their way through it ...

Dean Sweetman:  Most guys [crosstalk 00:21:54]

Tyler Reagin:   That's not the case. They steward what was in front of them really well in the communities they were in and they were faithful. I saw and I share this story quite often when I talk about some of this but about a month or two ago, Brian Houston posted on his Instagram a picture of him sitting on this chair of this bench overlooking Los Angeles where 30 years ago he sat on that very same bench. Nobody knew him. He didn't know a soul in this country. He didn't know a soul in that city. They were a small church starting in Sydney and he said he felt like God said, "You're going to have not just influence over this city but this country and this thing." That was the beginning of his leadership legacy. He had a choice. Do I believe what God's saying and anywhere along the way if he stewarded inappropriately or whatever, which I'm sure he may have, but if he chose differently, he would not have the influence that Hill Song now has.

Dean Sweetman:  Oh by gosh, wow.

Tyler Reagin:   Do you know what I mean? And I know you know him and what a beautiful story.

Dean Sweetman:  Guys like that, I've had the privilege of meeting a lot of guys way above where I've ever made it and they're all the same.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  They're really humble. Even some of the guys that are very kind of out there when they preach.

Tyler Reagin:   Right.

Dean Sweetman:  When you get em ...

Tyler Reagin:   Behind the scenes it's different.

Dean Sweetman:  Yeah, they're just chill dudes and they're always like, "Was that good? Did I do okay?"

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  Dude, you're the best ever.

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah, I mean, he told me before the one day recently, he's like, "I was kinda nervous." I'm like, "What are you talking about?" B

Dean Sweetman:  But that's the posture.

Tyler Reagin:   That's exactly right.

Frank Barry:    I remember being at one of Craig's recent one days.

Tyler Reagin:   Yep.

Frank Barry:    And just kind of getting to sit in the back and sort of watching it. I was shocked and just sort of amazed at his approach to teaching. There were only maybe 30 pastors or something there and I was just blown away by his humility towards that group.

Dean Sweetman:  You rang me up straight after. You were like, "Dude, that guy was just [crosstalk 00:23:52]

Frank Barry:    You see them from afar but he's just so humble in how he approached saying, "Look, this has worked for us. This may not work for you." [crosstalk 00:23:59]

Tyler Reagin:   And one of the five pieces of the identity thing for me is humility.

Frank Barry:    Yeah.

Dean Sweetman:  Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Tyler Reagin:   It's a choice that you make. But that's a generous choice, which says, you know, Simon Sinek quotes a Lieutenant General or something who says, "The cost of leadership is self interest." That's humility, it's going, "It's not about me." But I would say this, why not try it? And, again, I worked with Andy Stanley for years and his thing is just give a percent. Just pick a percent, percentage given.

Dean Sweetman:  Start with one.

Tyler Reagin:   Exactly. Start with something but don't do it one time. Do a percentage giving and try it for a few months.

Dean Sweetman:  That's right.

Tyler Reagin:   And just see. And if, again, if it's one percent, great. Half a percent.

Dean Sweetman:  Whatever.

Tyler Reagin:   But just try. This is not a cosmic soda machine where you can hit this and God's gonna all of a sudden, bless you. That's not what we're talking about. What we're talking about is every time I give that one percent, a little bit of my heart gets loosened up.

Dean Sweetman:  Exactly right.

Tyler Reagin:   Because the point is, it has control over us. And I know that because of the emotion connected to the depths ...

Dean Sweetman:  Massive.

Tyler Reagin:   ... of pain when it comes to finances. I don't want that pain in my life.

Dean Sweetman:  No.

Tyler Reagin:   And the only way I've ever seen it subside is to give it away.

Dean Sweetman:  So be it.

Frank Barry:    All right, we gotta ...

Dean Sweetman:  We gotta wrap it.

Frank Barry:    We could talk for another hour but I think we're already ...

Dean Sweetman:  You get us talking about money and generosity and I'm like you, you could do the same.

Tyler Reagin:   Talk to me about leadership, I get excited.

Frank Barry:    We're going to give away a few books. We're going to mention this, we've got some folks on Facebook.

Dean Sweetman:  I think we have winners, don't we?

Frank Barry:    We've got some winners. [crosstalk 00:25:36]

Dean Sweetman:  You get Keebler cookies.

Frank Barry:    Tyler, we're grateful you spent some time with us.

Tyler Reagin:   Absolutely.

Dean Sweetman:  Thanks man.

Frank Barry:    Where do we go to get the book? Amazon? Apple store?

Tyler Reagin:   Yeah. Any of those. Any bookstore, they have it.

Dean Sweetman:  The Life Giving Leader.

Frank Barry:    The Life Giving Leader.

Tyler Reagin:   You can go to tylerreagan.com too, if you want to know more about it.

Frank Barry:    Go to tylerreagin.com. That's where you want to go. Check it out. We're going to get away a few so we got Sarah Ferrell.

Tyler Reagin:   Way to go, Sarah?

Frank Barry:    Hopefully you're still on with us.

Tyler Reagin:   We bored her, she's out.

Frank Barry:    [crosstalk 00:26:03] ship you this book.

Dean Sweetman:  We will.

Frank Barry:    I did not know how to say [Jassi 00:26:13]

Dean Sweetman:  Jassy. Figueroa.

Frank Barry:    Figueroa.

Dean Sweetman:  And Gina Dukes.

Frank Barry:    And Gina Dukes.

Tyler Reagin:   What if they all live like in ...

Dean Sweetman:  [inaudible 00:26:19]

Frank Barry:    [crosstalk 00:26:21]

Tyler Reagin:   No, they all live in international countries. Like, oh shoot. Just kidding.

Dean Sweetman:  No, no. We'll get it to ya. We'll use a carrier pigeon.

Frank Barry:    Yeah. We're going to give you guys copies of the book. I think we're giving away some live stream passes but we'll handle that on Facebook.

Dean Sweetman:  Sounds good.

Frank Barry:    Thank you guys for being with us.

Dean Sweetman:  In two weeks, we're going to be live at Sticky Teams.

Frank Barry:    Sticky Teams.

Dean Sweetman:  On the west coast in San Diego, California, interviewing Chris Brown, the Executive Pastor of ...

Frank Barry:    North Coast.

Dean Sweetman:  ... North Coast Church.

Frank Barry:    Teaching

Tyler Reagin:   Nice.

Frank Barry:    Teaching pastor.

Tyler Reagin:   Super pumped. Thank you for tuning in today, guys. Can't wait to see you next time. God bless and we'll see you soon.

Frank Barry:    Have a good one.

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