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This week, we hear from Zachary Garza's own mentor, Steve Allen, on what it looks like to come along side and cultivate your mentee's vision and personal mission statement, how to deal with disappointment and discouragement from apparent silence while reading God's Word, and what fruits can be borne out of the mentor/mentee relationship.
Show Notes
- Allen Coaching (https://allencoaching.com/)
- steve@allencoaching.com
Creators and Guests
What is You Can Mentor: A Christian Youth Mentoring Podcast?
You Can Mentor is a network that equips and encourages mentors and mentoring leaders through resources and relationships to love God, love others, and make disciples in their own community. We want to see Christian mentors thrive.
We want to hear from you! Send any mentoring questions to hello@youcanmentor.com, and we'll answer them on our podcast. We want to help you become the best possible mentor you can be. Also, if you are a mentoring organization, church, or non-profit, connect with us to join our mentoring network or to be spotlighted on our show.
Please find out more at www.youcanmentor.com or find us on social media. You will find more resources on our website to help equip and encourage mentors. We have downloadable resources, cohort opportunities, and an opportunity to build relationships with other Christian mentoring leaders.
You can mentor is a podcast about the power of building relationships with kids from hard places in the name of Jesus. Every episode will help you overcome common mentoring obstacles and give you the confidence you need to invest in the lives of others. You can mentor.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the You Can Mentor podcast. My name is Steven, and I'm here with another Steven. Our very own Steve Allen from Steve, where do you hail from?
Speaker 3:Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Speaker 2:Come on, Steve Allen. Steve Allen is an amazing man of God. He leads Allen coaching, and he invests in a very specific way into our organization. He mentors our executive director, Zach Garza. And so I wanted to have Steve on the call today to share about mentoring, the impact of mentoring in our relationships, and creating a vision for our life through a mentor relationship.
Speaker 2:And so I'm really excited to have you, Steve. Thanks for taking the time.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's it's a real honor to be here.
Speaker 2:So, Steve, if if someone wants to know who is this Steve Allen guy, could you kinda describe for them a little about who you are, what you look like, what you're passionate about? I don't know if you have any anything you'd like to share with our listeners to help them get to know you.
Speaker 3:So, born and raised in South Korea on the mission field, 3rd generation missionary. Grandparents were in South Korea right after the Korean War for 38 years, and then my parents, 16 years. Born and raised there, then came back, did my schooling at Abilene Christian University in West Texas, where Zach also went to school. Got a degree in missions, went to Saint Louis, Missouri, spent 3 years there studying to be an evangelist. Did a lot of, work in inner city prisons and did a lot of work on college campuses.
Speaker 3:Loved discipleship, loved mentoring. Helped formed a team during those 3 years, and all four couples were married in the year of 1989. And then in October of 91, after a year and a half of training, we went to Bangkok, Thailand, where we spent 16 years in church planning, campus ministry. Every summer, we would have American college students that would come over for 2 or 3 months, live in our homes. Our kids were discipled by these godly college students, and this is an incredible atmosphere environment for our family to be a part of.
Speaker 3:So we spent 16 years in Thailand and then came back in, 10 years in Nashville, Tennessee, working with, different organizations, a missions organization going into Bangladesh called Missions International. I was doing leadership development with house church leaders, and rapidly multiplying house church movement amongst MBBS Muslim back background believers went into Bangladesh 5 times during an 18 month span. And And then I was director of training with Caleb Company. They're in Nashville, Tennessee. Caleb Company, their vision is to help disciple the church with God's heart for Israel, to stand with Israel in these days and these end times.
Speaker 3:So I did that for 6 years. And then our 2 oldest sons, moved to Colorado Springs in 2017, and, they asked if we would come join their ministry. I was real briefly, I was diagnosed with ALS in, September of 2015. And because of the the nature of this neurodegenerative disease, we needed more care from help from families. So instead of them moving back to Nashville, they asked if we would move here to Colorado Springs to be a part of the ministry here at Contend Global, which is focused on prayer and fasting, raising up houses of prayer on college campuses across this nation to see America turn back to God and see the nations come to the Lord.
Speaker 3:So I've had the privilege of being on the teaching staff, the leadership team of Contend Global the last 2 years. I run Allen Leadership Coaching. I have 10 paying clients, and then I work with what I call exchange coaching with 4 other clients. And then I do I'm mentoring for young leaders right now through that ministry. I'm writing my second book.
Speaker 3:It's on the, life of Joseph, a historical fiction, which will come out on Amazon in December. And it's also the second part of the book is called the Vision Journey. It's talking about this topic of vision, why it's important, why it's transformative, why it's important for a man, a woman of God to know their vision. And then I'm gonna have the hall of vision where I'm gonna have, along with Zach and Sarah Garza, they're gonna be sharing their vision statements and then how it impacted their life. So right in the middle of finishing that book, we'll finish this summer.
Speaker 3:And then in this in the fall, we'll be working on the layout, the publishing, and then on Amazon in December finish in December of 2020. I finished my first book in December of last year. It's a 40 day devotional journal on the life of Elijah and my personal battle with ALS. So super excited to be on this call. Steven, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2:Steve, I I don't know if there's a person in the Internet that would not be listening right now after what you just shared. Just the wealth of experience and wisdom, and I'm excited, and I already know everything about you, but I'm even more excited now after you shared. And and so listeners, I would just I would encourage you just to to lean in as Steve shares today, and I ask him a few questions because I think there's there's a wealth of knowledge you could glean from Steve today. And, Steve, I I wonder I mean, I know you shared your training on the life of Joseph with our staff, and I just I found that so powerful. But I I wonder if you could unpack more about what Alan Coaching and and the stuff that you're doing within that, just just so if someone is interested in in looking into that, what does that entail?
Speaker 3:So I've been in this arena of leadership development, discipleship, mentoring, and fathering for 30 years. And 10 years ago, I was certified in life coaching and leadership coaching, and actually worked on my master's in coaching this last year, and just got my certification with the International Coach Federation as an associate, a certified coach. And within the next 4 months, I'll be certified as a professional certified coach. So I love this arena of coaching for this simple reason. It's transformative.
Speaker 3:Instead of telling people what to do, you help champion champion and empower them to see them fulfill God's calling on their life. So, Allen, leadership coaching is a coaching service for people who are in leadership. And let me define what I believe a leader is. I believe a leader is someone who has influence. So if you're if you're a mom raising kids, you're a leader.
Speaker 3:If you're a father and raising sons and daughters, you're a leader. If you're in the marketplace, if you're at working at Verizon, a cashier at Walmart interacting with people, you are a leader. Now, of course, both of us know that there's different different tiers, levels of impact, but we need to define most so many people disqualify themselves. They said, well, I'm I just don't have any leadership calling on my life. If you're interacting with people and you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you are a leader.
Speaker 2:Amen. Amen. Come on. Well, I'm a leader then. Steve, I'm a leader.
Speaker 3:You are. Exactly.
Speaker 2:That's good. Well, I I really encourage anyone after listening to today's interview just to to check out what Steve's doing and see how he could be a resource to you, a coach to you. So, Steve, I wanna jump into our questions for the day. You mentored Zach Garza. You've mentored him over the years.
Speaker 2:And I'd love for you to share the story of your relationship with him from your perspective as a mentor. So could you share with us how you guys met, significant moments in your relationship, even seemingly insignificant moments you guys have had together mentoring him over the years that our listeners could learn from?
Speaker 3:I met Zac in 2009 in a summer internship program. It was actually the first school for Caleb Company training. And a good friend of Zac, Alex Eagle out of Abilene, Texas, invited Zac to come to that summer. I remember the first day that Zach walked in the door. You don't miss Zach.
Speaker 3:He's 6 foot 8. He dominated the whole room, and he's just full of life, just loves people, life of the party, and just really fell in love with Zach. Just he has a charisma. He is a leader of leaders, and he he's had quite the story. Many of you have heard his story on you can mentor.
Speaker 3:He had a really hard upbringing. You know, his father left the family at, an early age when I think Zach was maybe 10 or 11. You can correct me, Steven. But, you know, because of that, there was a lot of hardship in his, you know, his upbringing years at high school and college, and I think a lot of anger he was dealing with. I didn't see that anger for the 1st few weeks.
Speaker 3:It wasn't till later, probably in the fall after, you know, that summer internship, you know, a month in in Nashville, Tennessee, we talked about God's heart for Israel. We were doing discipleship, mentoring, leadership training with those 10 or 11 interns. And then we went into Israel for 3 weeks. It was a transformative summer. It it changed literally changed Zach's life.
Speaker 3:And because of the decision to come that summer, I believe that we're having this conversation today. If I could distill everything down into the last you know, if we could look on the trajectory of the last 10 years, I would say the word is fathering. That was something that was missing in Zach's life. That was something that was given to me as a a really precious gift is I was fathered well by my own father. My father passed in April, 2018 with Parkinson's at the age of 84, but he was a godly man, missionary, career in military, veterinarian, an elder in the church, a man of great a man of great wisdom and humility, but I was fathered well.
Speaker 3:I knew who I was. I knew my identity. And because of that, I feel the calling on my life is to father others. Not only my own children, my wife and I have 7, one's with the Lord. My son Michael, 26, all the way down to Tirzah, who's 13.
Speaker 3:3 sons, 3 daughters. 2 of them are married. But my first church, my first calling is to my children, to instill in in them identity, and then it's to be a spiritual father to many. So in terms of my relationship with Zach, after that summer, Zach was very again, this word intentional. He was very intentional in reaching out to me, and we started calling at home in that season once a month.
Speaker 3:But about once a year, I was going to Dallas. My wife's parents were living in Carrollton, North Dallas. And so we would connect every time I would go. Once a year, I would connect with with Zach. We would have breakfast together.
Speaker 3:I would find out what he was doing. He was a high school football coach, and he was working with a young life, mentoring, you know, young men in the inner city. And after a few years, he started talking about his dream of starting a ministry, a mentoring ministry to inner city kids. Because of his own upbringing, the loss that he experienced, the hardship he experienced, he wanted to reverse the curse. He wanted to be able to pour into young men and to see them mentored and to have a father figure in their life, not just for an off season, 6 months or a year, but for, you know, 7, 8, 10 years to walk with these young men.
Speaker 3:I was blown away by this vision. And part of my calling is to champion leaders, champion, young men in their vision. And so, it was just such an honor to be able to walk beside Zach those early years. We're talking, you know, 8, 9, 10 years ago. And to see him start dreaming, and then to see him actually walking out his dream.
Speaker 3:You know, it's to have a dream that big and to be willing to step out, you know, to quit his job, and to step out in faith believing that God would meet him there takes a lot of courage, takes incredible faith, it takes stamina, it takes perseverance and hard work, and it's just such a incredible privilege to see Zach, you know, fulfill that dream. You know, he's he's, you know, built a team. He's he has staff. He has mentors, that are are working in the inner city there in Dallas and not just spending a few weeks, but dedicating and giving themselves then for the next 10 years of these young men's lives. So an an incredible incredible vision and incredible incredible fruition of that vision because of the the determination and intentionality that Zach has.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Can can you even share just from investing in him the dream that you're hearing? As you begin to hear it, how are you as a mentor responding to the dream and the vision that I think God is placing in Zach's life? What was that like?
Speaker 3:You know, it's interesting. Mentoring is a two way street. It's it's not didactic, you know, collegiate classroom teaching mentoring is, is what I call life on life building kingdom community. You know, one of my favorite quotes, about relationship is that relationship happens at the speed of trust. And so Zach and I have built a relationship over 11 years over consistency.
Speaker 3:And so hearing the vision and the dream and Zach Hart in his heart has inspired me to fulfill my my calling. I'm called to raise up 10,000 fathers. That comes from 1st Corinthians 4,15 and 16. Paul speaking to the church in Corinth, even though you have 10,000 guardians in Christ, you have very few fathers. Therefore, through the gospel, I became your father.
Speaker 3:And back in 2007, that was given to me in in a prophetic ministry time, and I received that. And I haven't looked back. And I think I think because of Zach's life, I've seen the incredible fruit, the fruition of the intentionality of pouring into an individual. You know, I love working with leaders because I know they'll multiply the bread. And Zack has done that for me personally in the last 2 years, there's been a shift in the way that I've mentored.
Speaker 3:And part of that is because of my experience with Zack. I used to wait around for men to come to me and say, Hey, Steve, would you mentor me? And that would happen periodically. But there's a shift that happened 2 years ago. I was praying.
Speaker 3:I felt like the Lord said, no, there were Jesus had hundreds of followers, but he chose the 12. After a night in prayer with the father, he chose those he wanted. And so for the last 2 years, I've prayed, God, who do you want me to mentor? Who do you want me to disciple in the season? And then I call them, or I send them a voice memo or a text and say, I want you to pray about this.
Speaker 3:I would like to offer you 4 weeks of mentoring. And we'll talk about leadership. We'll talk about wisdom. We'll talk about what it means to be a man of God. And, if you're interested, we'll pursue that for the next 4 to 6 weeks.
Speaker 3:And 80%, 90% of the time, these young men, these young leaders will say, Yeah, I'd love to. And because of the intentionality I've, I've mentored and discipled over the last 18 months, probably 15 young, young leaders, both men and women. And I don't do it for a year. Zach, of course, is an exception. I've been walking with him for 11 years, but I see what I'm doing is I'm planting seeds in the hearts of these young leaders.
Speaker 3:And in my, my exhortation to them is for them to turn around and disciple at least 3 to 4 others. And so we see the multiplication process as we pour into others and we raise them up and we exhort them and we challenge them to multiply their bread. We're going to see a movement happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's great. When when you hear this dream of wanting to reverse the curse coming out of Zach's heart, that just it just sounds like what god would want to do in Zach's life because of his experience, that that god would want to do that exact dream. And you as a mentor coming coming toward his intentionality and just breathing belief, breathing, faith over his dream can can lead to fruition. And I know that you might not take as much credit for Zach walking in the fruition of the thing God has called him to.
Speaker 2:But as a mentor, you played a significant role in encouraging him and helping him take the next step and removing discouragement from the road that that was out in front of him for him to to walk in. And I I just think there's so many principles that translate to other mentors that we're investing in, who are mentoring kids from hard places. Most of the dreams we hear from the kids that we're ministering to are I wanna be an I wanna be a NBA player. I wanna be the president. I wanna be a paleontologist.
Speaker 2:It might not necessarily be as refined as I want to father young boys who haven't had a father figure. But, I mean, I just wanna I wanna ask. How did you how do you help how as a mentor, how do you help your mentee refine that vision to really just dial it in to what God is is calling them to? And how do you discern that as a mentor? Can you discern it?
Speaker 3:Proverbs 29/18 says, without vision, my people will perish. And I think a lot of this generation, this younger generation are looking for purpose. They're looking for a vision. And I think the bedrock of vision is identity. Identity is who we are and whose we are in Christ.
Speaker 3:And the enemy has worked over time to destroy the identity of the sons and daughters of God. He hates, he hates the image of God. We are the icon of God. We are made in his image, according to Genesis 126, and he hates the image of God. And so his mission statement, and the enemy has one, is John 10 verse 10.
Speaker 3:He's come to kill, steal, and destroy. And so as I come alongside someone I'm mentoring, as a spiritual father, I want to call out their identity. So first and foremost, I call out their identity. Ephesians 11112, it says this, in him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we who are the 1st to hope in Christ might be for the praise of his glory. So Steven, would you help me right now?
Speaker 3:Could, could you step into the role of a young Zack 11 years ago? Could you, just step into his shoes? And I'm going to mentor you for 60 seconds, on identity. Would that be okay?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Let's go.
Speaker 3:Okay. So from this verse, Ephesians 11112, I call it an identity passage. I want you to repeat after me. Say I'm chosen.
Speaker 2:I'm chosen.
Speaker 3:I'm predestined.
Speaker 2:I'm predestined.
Speaker 3:God has a plan for my life.
Speaker 2:God has a plan for my life.
Speaker 3:And he's working out that plan in real time.
Speaker 2:And he's working out that plan in real time.
Speaker 3:For the praise of his glory.
Speaker 2:For the praise of his glory.
Speaker 3:And so as I mentor young leaders, I encourage them to memorize this passage. There's probably half dozen verses that I have them to memorize as a foundation for their identity. So remember that that that identity is the rock that we stand on. And identity is actually built upon the rock of Jesus Christ. So one of the names of Jesus is the rock, the rock of ages.
Speaker 3:And as we stand on as we stand on the rock, as we stand on Jesus, and and as we encounter the storms of life, we're not going to be knocked down. We're going to stand secure. We're going to be anchored in him. So as we talk about vision, as we talk about purpose, we understand that it comes from this place of identity first and foremost. So my leadership coaching, I actually call it vision coaching because I love helping an individual find their vision, find their voice, find their lane, find their path that they're going to run-in, and then to champion them in that that vision.
Speaker 3:You know, when I was growing up in a Christian home and a mission field, I thought that the ultimate, like, if you were to be the super Christian, you quit your job and then go become a pastor or missionary. Well, that sounds good. But I think it's an old paradigm. There's what's called the 7 spheres of influence, the 7 mountains. And that's government, it's education, it's it's the family, it's it's religion, it's finance, it's entertainment.
Speaker 3:And what we need is men and women who will climb those mountains for the glory of God. And then it's that they would radiate the resident the presence of God, that they would be God's sons and daughters in that sphere of influence. We need godly politicians. We need godly leaders leaders. We need godly businessmen.
Speaker 3:We need godly teachers and educators. We need godly men and women in entertainment and sports. So that in these spheres of influence, they will reflect God's glory to all those around them. And so when I come alongside a person and I'm mentoring them as a spiritual father, and I hear their dream and they say, well, you know, I want to I want to go to the moon. I want to be an astronaut.
Speaker 3:You know, it sounds, you know, it sounds a little far fetched. Well, where does it start? Well, I've got to get a degree. I've got to maybe I'm going to be an engineer or a biochemist, and then I'm going to go study down in Houston and I'm going to be a part of the NASA team. And so you you breathe life on them.
Speaker 3:The word encouragement, if you, if you look at the etymology of that word, it means to infuse with courage. This is where the enemy attacks. He stills courage from young men and women. He deflates them. He he steps on them.
Speaker 3:He he attacks them. He just he tries to destroy their dreams. And so remember, a dream is a God seed. A dream is God planting in our hearts a picture of our future. Graham Cook says it this way.
Speaker 3:He says, the prophetic is God going into your future with a Polaroid camera, taking a picture of Stephen Murray 10 years from now, coming back, handing the picture to you and say, Stephen, this is you in the future.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Become that man. And so this is why vision is so important. And this is why the enemy tries to still vision because a man or woman of God that has vision will change the world. 13 years ago, I I taught my kids how to write a vision statement. They read the 7 habits of highly effective people for teens by Stephen Covey junior.
Speaker 3:And they started decreeing their vision statement on a daily basis. We had, we crafted a family vision statement. So in Franklin, Tennessee, 6:30 in the morning, my wife has a hot breakfast on the table. You know, we're eating and it's not a long breakfast, 15 minutes. We're doing our family devotional, but we decree our family vision statement.
Speaker 3:You know, and and if with your permission, I'll, I'll, I'll share that with you.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:So here's our family vision statement. We decreed it this morning and we decree it every morning as we have breakfast with our family. As a family, we pursue God first. And as we honor others, we seek to reflect God's heart to the lost, the orphan, and the poor. We are called to the nations to be world changers and history makers, first to Israel, the current peninsula, Thailand, and then to the rest of the earth.
Speaker 3:We move mountains through intercession. We advanced the kingdom through music and the arts. The Allen family will be recognized as a family full of love, life, and laughter. And then I'll ask one of my children, what is our highest aim? And they'll respond to love.
Speaker 3:We did that for the last 13 years, and I believe that my 2 sons are in full time ministry today because they've been walking in their vision for the last 10 years. They went to Lee university. They got degrees in international business and missions, but they were part of the house of prayer there that the, the, the prayer movement on campus. And they're a part of a ministry that's focused on that to raise up houses of prayer across the nation today because they walked in their vision 10 years ago. And so I believe that vision is a catalyst to change environments, to change families, to change communities, cities, states and nations.
Speaker 3:And so, you know, it says in the Old Testament and Ezekiel 22, God was speaking to Israel. He said, I look for a man who would stand in the gap and intercede for that nation to see a nation turn back to the to God. And so it doesn't take thousands of people to change the environment. It takes a few with courage, determination, and vision to shift the atmosphere, to shift the nation. Think of William Wilberforce in England, you know, this parliamentarian, you know, in in the UK government that spent 40 years.
Speaker 3:He spent all his life for abolition to see the overturning of these of the slave trade in the UK. At the end of his life, it happened. It, you know, he, he suffered greatly. He, his, his health, you know, was very precarious and many times he was sick, but because of all he poured into this movement, he gave his whole life to see the ending of the slave trade in the British empire. And it happened on his watch because one man stood up.
Speaker 3:Now he didn't do it alone. He had many, many, he had, he had many men and women, women that stood with him that supported him, that were a company that walked with him, that believed in this call. And so in this day and age, when you talk about mentoring, when you talk about pouring into individuals and you hear a dream, it's not a small thing. Because that dream, when it's it comes to full fruition, will not only change that individual's life, but it'll change the lives of those all around them.
Speaker 2:That's really good, Steve. What I'm what I'm hearing from you is is that there is an importance of who you are, not just what God's calling you to. And, I think in the business world, everyone talks about your why. Why why do you do what you do? And in mentoring, it's, well, who are you?
Speaker 2:Like and is god defining who you are? And as god defines who you are, you can refine the vision he's calling you to. And and I think that's just that's just a great reminder for every mentor of a kid from a hard place is that we are declaring and defining who they are, not based off of what we see, but what god sees. That's just what I I hear from you. I think that's that's really powerful, Steve.
Speaker 2:So, I mean, it sounds like those two things are are part of your mentoring philosophy of identity and vision. And, I mean, you kinda make it sound like there's no way to separate those 2. But I just wonder if you could unpack a little more about your mentoring philosophy of just how you approach it. How has God informed that approach? And maybe you could share any practicals of, you know, every time you're meeting with someone you're mentoring, what do you do?
Speaker 3:So yesterday, I was on 2 calls, 1 with a young leader in Amarillo, Texas, and another in in Franklin, Tennessee. And, one of my I did vision coaching and helping them, with their vision. You know, what has God called them to do? And then another one I'm coaching for 4 weeks mentoring and we're using, I'm very practical. You know, I want, if I want it to work, I don't want to talk about theory.
Speaker 3:I want it. I want whatever we're talking about to be actually integrated on a day to day basis in the life flow of that individual. So there's some real practical things that I'm using some what I call, you know, core curriculum, some resources that are helpful. I read the book, the 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey 30 years ago, the year it came out in 1989 And it was voted the top business book of the 20th 21st century several years ago. You know, and there's thousands and thousands of business books out there, leadership books, and it was the number one book.
Speaker 3:And it's not rocket science. You know, the 7 habits are their principles, their core values. And so I use this as a resource. This person I was coaching yesterday, they read the first two first four chapters, the first two habits. And so each week we're talking about these different habits.
Speaker 3:We're also talking about wisdom. How do you attain wisdom? Yeah. The book of Proverbs is full of incredible wisdom that we can glean if we read it as we, and we memorize it, and then we integrate it into our life. So I'm a firm advocate of, of, reading, reading books while leaders are readers.
Speaker 3:Write that down. That's really important that we're, I have a core value of being a lifelong learner. So learning doesn't stop when you get a diploma from high school or college. It's a lifelong pursuit. It's a, it's a full contact sport.
Speaker 3:So listening to podcasts, listening to audio books, reading books, leaning from the lives of others, biographies, autobiographies. So in this 4 weeks span that I'm going to be spending with this young leader, they're reading that book by Stephen Covey, the 7 habits. They're memorizing scripture each week. They memorize Philippians 2:1 through 11 on imitating Christ's humility. I believe that humility is one of the foundational pillars that a leader stands on.
Speaker 3:And why is that so important? Because Christ exemplified that. He said, according to Matthew 23, 11 and 12, he said that the greatest in the kingdom of God is the servant leader. A servant leader, if they're going to lead, must lead from humility. We see in the life of Christ, the reason why he he opposed the proud is because pride is so destructive.
Speaker 3:Pride will blind a man. A man who walks in pride is spiritually blind. He effectively is walking in the dark. So pride will blind a man. Humility, conversely, will give that man discernment.
Speaker 3:You talked about, well, how can you how can you discern? It actually says in Romans 12, 12, 12, that you can know the good and pleasing and perfect will of the father. Now, in order to know the will of the father, you have to know the father. You have to have a relationship with him. You have to know his ways because his ways are not our ways.
Speaker 3:If we try to look at this world from the perspective of man, we're going to miss it. We're not going to understand this narrative. And so there's an invitation from the father in this this walk of life to join him in the narrative. History broken down is his story. And he's inviting us into his story to actually make history.
Speaker 3:And so going back to my sons in Franklin, Tennessee, they're in high school, we have we would have breakfast, we would have a devotional, we would pray together. And then we would decree our vision statement. And then they would grab their backpacks, walk out the door, they're heading up the driveway to get on the bus, and I follow them out the door. I stand on the front porch and I yell after them as they're going up the driveway. So my 2 sons, Michael and Canon, I would yell, you're history makers, you're world changers and history makers.
Speaker 3:And they would turn around and they would say, so are you dad. And I did that for years. And they're, they're walking in that path today. They are truly world changers in history makers today. And so I don't, I don't blow smoke, meaning I don't just say that just to sound, you know, cool, or it sounds like it's like a cliche, you know, it's, it's, it sounds neat to say that.
Speaker 3:No, I actually said because I believe those words are transformative. So remember that words are containers of power, either for good or for evil. It says in Proverbs 18, 20, and 21, it says from the fruit of his mouth, a man's stomach is filled. From the harvest of his lips, he is satisfied. The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Speaker 3:So when I'm mentoring a young leader, I want them to know the word of God. I want them to memorize the word of God. I want the Holy Spirit to tattoo the word of God on their hearts. And so when you memorize the word, what you're doing is you're taking ownership of that word. So in a 4 week mentoring relationship, they're going to be having, I'm giving them resources.
Speaker 3:I'm giving them tools. I'm giving them in a virtual leadership toolbox, the 7 habits, the word of God. I encourage them to pursue wisdom. It says that in Proverbs 17 it says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools hate wisdom and discipline. So I I I encourage them to pursue wisdom, and wisdom begins with the fear of God.
Speaker 3:And the fear of God begins with the word of God, knowing the word of God. And so as we read the word, we develop a healthy fear of God. Now both you and I, Steven know what that means and that the fear of God is respect. It's honor. It's obedience to his commands.
Speaker 3:It says in 1st John 5, 5, that this is love for God, that we would obey his commands. And so in that relationship, as I'm mentoring a young leader, I want them to know the word of God. I want them to walk in the word. And as they walk in the word, they're walking in the light. They're walking in the revelation of of the nature of God.
Speaker 2:I've received that text. You're a history maker, world changer. You've added emojis to that that now instead of screaming it at your children or yelling it at them as they go away. And yeah. I mean, I I think for mentors, it can feel awkward to say things like that.
Speaker 2:And I I think what I'm hearing from you is that you're there's faith behind the words that you're saying, and I like how you said that you own your words. And and so I I was talking to another mentor the other day, and we were talking about why we don't say things like that more often to kids who probably need that more than anyone else, who who probably have issues believing in themselves, have, self confidence issues, and are at the end of our conversation, we just boiled it down to we don't have enough faith. Like, we don't believe what god thinks about the kids that we're mentoring, and we need to repent, and we need to to elevate our our, our vision for the kids that we're mentoring. Do we actually believe god could move and change the world and change history through their life? And I think that that's that's a level of faith that gets you excited.
Speaker 2:It gets you to believe and gives you fresh life within the relationship that this meeting matters, that when I get together with my mentee, God God is shaping his future, and that future is shaping his spheres of influence and and all of those things. So I I now that's just that was my response to what you shared. There's owning your words. I think that's really powerful.
Speaker 3:You know, I think that this power of belief I think if I look back on my relationship with Zach, to 11 years ago, 2 things that I think is so important as a spiritual father and as a mentor is to listen well. You know, listening is saying, Hey, I value you. Not interjecting, not waiting for them to quit talking so I can tell it, tell them what I think, but really empathetically actively listening. And, and they know when you're listening. But when you listen and you hear their dreams, then to champion them.
Speaker 3:Because when you champion an individual, basically what you're saying is what you said. I believe in you. I believe that what God's put in your life is not a pipe dream. It's not smoke and mirrors. It's it's it's not, something that is insignificant.
Speaker 3:But I believe that what God has put in your life is massive. It's huge. It's going to change the trajectory of family lines and lineages and inheritances because you chose to step forward in faith. And so I look back on my life on, on my relationship with Zach. I believe that I listened well with Zach, and then I believed in him.
Speaker 3:I championed him in his dream, and he's running in it. 1 of my life versus the Psalms 1 1930 2. It says, I run-in the path of his commands for he has set my heart free. It's kind of this picture of William Wallace, you know, Braveheart that, you know, I've, I've found my lane. I found my, my path to run-in.
Speaker 3:I found my voice and I'm running, I'm running in it. I'm running my race with all my heart. And so as you do that with other, leaders, as you do that, as you mentor others, you're gonna you're gonna release an incredible synergy of of of the Lord's presence, of his empowerment, of his grace. That word grace in in in the Greek is his empowerment of us. He gives us his grace so that we'll fulfill his vision for our life.
Speaker 3:You know, Lou Ingalls, one of my my heroes and we, we get to work on a daily basis with Lou here. He was the founder of the call. There's been over 24 calls. The first one in Washington, DC at the mall, 400,000 young people came a year later after Columbine in April of 1999, where that carnage happened just 35 minutes North of here up in Columbine up in, this suburb of Denver. When those 2 gunmen in, you know, those classmates who were demonized and they gave themselves over to the dark side, walked into their, their, their school and murdered in cold blood, 12, 13, young students.
Speaker 3:And a year later, out of that, out of those ashes came the call. 400,000 young people went to the Washington DC to pray for our nation, to see this nation turn back to God. Lou Ingalls says this. He says, God takes a dream and wraps a man around it. He also said, pay attention to your tears, they point you to your destiny.
Speaker 3:And and what I believe is between identity and destiny is vision. Vision is the bridge that bridges identity with destiny. It's the boots on the ground. My help young people, young leaders craft their vision statement. In my book on Joseph that's coming out in December, we'll have a hall of vision.
Speaker 3:And, you know, young people are young leaders are gonna be sharing their vision statements and then how it impacted their lives. Every morning, I decree my vision statement out loud in the mirror, and I've done that for about 12 years. Now, why do I do that? The power of words, the power of declaration. Job 2228 in the NIV 1984 says this, you will decree a matter and it will be established and light shall shine upon your path.
Speaker 3:Do you mind if I share my vision statement, Steven, as a father, I'm called to walk in passion, purity, power, and perseverance in the Lord. I seek to know that Yeshua and to make him known. I delight to love, cherish and champion my Proverbs 31 wife and to father, sons, and daughters who are changing the world for they walk in the steps of the world changer. As an Abraham, I will climb my mountain, overcome giants and re see my full inheritance as a father. I will not die, but live and proclaim what the Lord has done.
Speaker 3:The living word of God is a sword in my hands, a fire in my heart and truth upon my tongue. I will live it, pray it and proclaim it until the desire to the nations returns. As a watchman for Israel, I will stand on our walls and in the spirit, cry out for her salvation day and night until the mighty river of revival flows to the earth. As a leadership coach, I will help others break through their barriers, overcome their obstacles to take hold of their destiny. I will wholeheartedly seek to make others great as I help empower and propel them in their God given assignments.
Speaker 3:My mission is to raise up 10,000 sons who become 10,000 God fearing, God loving fathers who disciple nations until the return of the King. And finally, I will lay down my life for the one who's laid down his life for me.
Speaker 2:That'll get you up in the morning. Amen.
Speaker 3:Amen.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's so good. I I I love how you framed. It's listening. Mentoring is listening. It's believing, and then it's helping your mentee create a vision to live out their destiny.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, I I I think within that vision piece as well, I think there's modeling that happens. And I wonder if you could share just even specific things that you modeled to Zach within your mentoring relationship. Because I've heard him say, he's brought up on multiple occasions that Steve taught me how to father my kids. And I don't think that happens without something being modeled, someone else living out their vision to then help you walk in yours. Does that make sense?
Speaker 3:Yeah. No. That that's that's that's a great point. I think that again, that it was modeled well for me, my father, Sid Allen, just a great man of God, a very humble man, a man of wisdom. He modeled for me what it meant to be a godly man, a man of God, to be a man of prayer, to be a man of humility, to be a man for others, to be a father, to be a husband, to be a son, to be a leader.
Speaker 3:He modeled that in real time. He walked the talk. He was not a verbose man. He didn't, you know, wasn't talking all the time. He was quiet.
Speaker 3:I would watch him at church and after church, because he was a shepherd and an elder, I would watch, you know, members of our congregation come to him and, you know, they would come and share, you know, their, their prayer requests, the things that they were going through, the trials that they were going through. And he would put his arm, his hand on their shoulder and he would just listen. And then I would watch him pray for them. And I would, I'll watch that from a distance, but he did that in my own life. And he just modeled so well what it looked like to be a shepherd, to be a father.
Speaker 3:I think for me, in terms of modeling the word consistency, it just comes to mind in a, in a translation of that word would be faithfulness. And so, there's a great quote by Steven Mansfield. It says that that the small and consistent is much more powerful than the large and sporadic. And so what that means is, is the consistent day in, day out life walk of a disciple and mentoring and discipling it and fathering your own children and your spiritual children will change, change the earth. I do discipleship with my 2 youngest.
Speaker 3:So every Sunday afternoon we have discipleship and, and, my daughter tears is she's memorizing the word and we're, we're talking about what does it look like, you know, to be a follower of Jesus. You know, how do we know when we have conflict with siblings, how do we work through that? How do we work through conflict? Now, what do we do with bad attitudes? And and what I found in discipleship and mentoring is consistency.
Speaker 3:So it's not a one off, you know, like once every couple months. Okay. Let's have a devotional. No, it's actually every morning. No, we don't do 45 minute devotionals.
Speaker 3:We'll, we'll eat breakfast. And during the devotional, you know, we'll, we'll, I'll read from Proverbs. We have a prayer board in our dining room and we'll pray from our prayer board from different missionaries. We have an unreached people group that we pray for each day. We have a Bible app that we look at and it tells us the unreached people group of that day.
Speaker 3:We pray for our leaders. We pray for our government. We pray for the president. We pray for each other. And then we decree our family vision statement.
Speaker 3:That's not more than 7 to 10 minutes long. But what I found is, is in a, and I, at my dad's Memorial, I said this, I said, you know, I can't remember a devotional that stood out and a family devotional stood out, you know, growing up. But it was the consistency of my father. I can see him right now at sitting at the head of our table, having breakfast and leading us in morning devotions. And we did that day in, day out, week in, week out, month in, month out, year in, year out, month for my upbringing.
Speaker 3:And so that that consistency, that faithfulness created a foundation, a solidity in my identity that enabled me to walk in my calling and to fulfill the destiny that God's given me as a father.
Speaker 2:I I hope that becomes more of the standard within America as you pray. I mean, you mentioned just contending for America in prayer. Currently, the trend is toward fathers being absent from their sons' lives. And just whether it's divorce, whether it's incarceration, whether it's death, whether it's a myriad of issues that we face in this life, a lot of kids come from the same background as Zach who haven't had that example and need a mentor to model those things that they've received. I mean, it reminds me of what Jesus said to his disciples.
Speaker 2:Freely you've received, freely give. And so as a mentor, you acknowledge you've received a lot from from your father, from your upbringing that can be a blessing to others and to give them a vision for what it looks like to love their own sons and daughters, what it looks like to lead devotionals. I know for me, I didn't grow up in the church. And so for me, I never associated my relationship with my dad as he's a spiritual father. I had to look elsewhere.
Speaker 2:And I just I'd I wonder what encouragement you would give to men who want to mentor kids from hard places, but did not have what they're looking to give, if that makes sense. And and maybe maybe they've received it from somewhere, but they didn't have it necessarily, and they just feel this nagging like they're missing something. I don't know if you've experienced that with Zach, if if you'd ever just felt like he was communicating that he's missing something. And I wonder how many mentors have felt that and if you could address it.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Well, I think there was a, you know, the early years of my relationship with Zach, there's good 3 to 4 years that I think he was just working through a lot of his, baggage out of his, the heartache and the hard things that he, he came from and, you know, working through the anger and then looking to God, it's like, sometimes there was a disconnect. It's like, because he didn't have a good relationship with his own physical father. Often for many young people, it's hard to look at our heavenly father and have that, that feeling of warmth, of closeness of proximity of, of a father, son, father, daughter relationship, because of the experience that they had with their own physical father. The beauty of our walk with Jesus is, is that he redeems all things.
Speaker 3:There is a redemption for the fall of man that we know we're sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. We're, you know, we're in this fallen in our humanity, there's a fallen nature. But in the second Adam, in Jesus Christ, there's redemption. And so he restores all things so that we can have a relationship with our heavenly father where he heals those father wins. I think that, you know, going back to this word of intentionality, it's important that you pursue, spiritual fathers, spiritual mentors to help you walk and to grow in those arenas.
Speaker 3:Don't do this alone. I have 4 men that I look to on a weekly basis. And the irony is there, none of them are here. I have a spiritual son. I have my best friend, who's my peer.
Speaker 3:And I have a mentor. I've walked with Clint McDowell in Fort Worth, Texas for 28 years. Then we talk on a weekly basis. We pray together and we're studying Proverbs together out of the passion translation. And he, he shares with me what he's learning from the Proverbs.
Speaker 3:He has been phenomenally influential in my life over the last 28 years, many junctures that I've had many intersections that I've had to make decision life decisions about vocation and geographical moves. He's been hugely significant in speaking into my life. David Fitzpatrick in Franklin, Tennessee, a spiritual father in these last few years. These are men I intentionally reach out to and they're pouring into my life. Now on a, on a day to day basis, I'm seeking the father.
Speaker 3:I'm seeking the heavenly father in prayer and worship in the word all throughout the day. I'm talking to God. It's, it's not a, it's not a religious box that I check on Sunday. It's, it's a life flow. And so, you know, in, in terms of Zach, I've seen him grow tremendously in the Lord because he's, he's pursued the Lord, even when it feels like it's my God, I just feel like I'm just kind of walking through molasses, you know, and what seem it, you know, I just, I'm crying out, I'm praying and I'm not feeling anything.
Speaker 3:There was, there was literally 2 or 3 years in my mentoring of Zach where he said, I just, you know, I'm, I'm talking to God and praying. I don't feel anything. And I really appreciated his, his honesty, his transparency. I think he's, he's gotten through that season and there's a much more dynamic real relationship with the father. He had to work through a lot of stuff.
Speaker 3:And I think that our heavenly father is incredibly patient with us. You know, you look in Luke 15, the story of the prodigal son, that the father had incredible wisdom not to try to enforce or control his son. He let his son go. I know he must have been torn up because he had wisdom to know what the son was doing. And he realized the destructive pattern the sun was walking in, but he let the sun go because of the nature of wisdom and the nature of love.
Speaker 3:Love is not controlling. Love is is is free and allows freedom. And so the sun, he had to run until he ran out of himself. And then it says he came to a census. And when he came to his senses, what did he remember?
Speaker 3:The love of the father. He said, if only I could be a slave and a servant in my father's house, they're treated much better than I'm being treated right now. And so he returned to the father. The father received him, not as a slave, but as a son, put the robe on him, the signet ring, the sandals. What was that?
Speaker 3:Those, those in Hebrew culture was signifying identity. I receive you back as a son and he restored that relationship between the father and son. And so in terms of, of what we're talking about, when you're talking about kids coming out of hard places, they don't have that history. They don't have that relationship. And so what you do is you point them to the father.
Speaker 3:You become a want you become a father to them, but you point them to the heavenly father. Because we're we're finite. We're human. We're we sin. We fell.
Speaker 3:But our heavenly father is perfect, and his love is transformative, and his love will transform these young men and women.
Speaker 2:Steve, what you just said just wrecked me of just thinking about a kid sitting, eating from pig the pig trough, and having no memory of the love of his father. Having no no desire to run back and even just be a slave. And, that that hurts. And and thinking about the power the power of a mentor to come to that place and to express the love of the father to to someone who who hasn't known it. I've just I've never looked at that story through the lens of kit some of the kids that we serve.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, I just I think that that's powerful to consider to consider that yeah. So there's a need for a revelation of the father. And and for for most of us, we may have experienced a taste that leads us back, and maybe a mentor is the taste is is a taste of the love of the father that that would lead you to, yeah, to Jesus. So I love that man. Sorry.
Speaker 2:You got me.
Speaker 3:You're good, Andy? Yeah. Father's our father's so good.
Speaker 2:Oh, man. Well and I was just gonna say that as you call out to your to your sons, you're a history maker. You're a world changer. You too, dad. I mean, that's that's what this is.
Speaker 2:You can mentor. Like, we I mean, we see men and women in the church walking through their lives, not believing that they could make an investment that matters in the life of a kid. And, I I mean, we we hear as this podcast are just standing here. You can mentor.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And, I I mean, I just think it's it's powerful to to believe in that redemption that you talked about of that really god could redeem all things, and that anyone who feels like they're disqualified or don't have what it takes, that that the lord can shore them up and and call them into something that that's bigger than they could ever imagine. I I love how you said god takes his dreams and wraps a man around them. That is that's a different way of looking at it than god takes a man and plants his dreams. It's like, no. God takes men and puts them into his dream.
Speaker 2:That's right. I just, there's so much that you shared, and and that's one side. The other side is kinda what you shared is that you're not just operating from what you've experienced from your upbringing. You are intentionally placing yourself before the father to glean from him, to receive from him what you need today to be the leader that you are. And so for anyone who's frustrated or experiencing, I just ongoing trauma from what they've experienced in the past, for them to hear from you that it's a daily thing that you're seeking out the father's heart to join his heartbeat for what he has as a mentor for you to walk in.
Speaker 2:I think that's that's encouraging for someone to hear that they can take a step today, into god's heart. And it doesn't just it's you're not just operating from your past. You're operating from god's presence in the moment. So, yeah, I'm I'm just processing externally what you've been sharing, but it's it's just so good, Steve. Well, I mean, I'd love to hear I mean, just to as we kind of close our time, just everything in mentoring points back to relationships, and relationships are something that God has has called us to and made us for.
Speaker 2:So I wonder if you could just share any final thoughts you have on the importance of relationships and the importance of mentoring because of that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Absolutely. You know, one of my life versus is Malachi 4, 56, and the closing words of the old covenant. And it says, before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes, I will send you the prophet Elijah, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, or else I will come and strike the lamb with a curse. I believe that the enemy, his number one focus is destroy marriage and family.
Speaker 3:He's worked overtime in this nation. And you can see the carnage across the landscape of, of this nation is that there's so much divorce and brokenness, you know, addiction to pornography and, you know, these counterfeits, that you see the incredible destructive power of the enemy, because because of this reason, he knows the power of the family. He knows that when a father and mother are loving well and loving and raising up sons and daughters who know their identity, it changes everything. And so in the, in these days, the spirit of Elijah, the prophets are coming in. They're turning the hearts of fathers to the children, to the sons and daughters, and the hearts of the sons and daughters, to the children, to their, to their fathers.
Speaker 3:And you see this narrative in Hollywood. There's so many movies that are, that are based, you know, Finding Nemo, you know, it's there's this, this narrative of the father of relationship between father and son, father and daughter is this played out multiple times throughout, no Hollywood and movies that you hear it in songs. It is such a powerful picture because it's the picture of the father with, with us as his children. And so I believe that in these last days, that that God is moving powerfully across the earth, You know, because we're believers, we know the word of God, we know the book of Revelation. You know, the times that we're living in are not for the faint of heart.
Speaker 3:These are very tumultuous times. If we focus on the circumstances, on the raging of the enemy, on the riots in the streets, in plagues and earthquakes, if we focus on that, we will get sucked into a vortex of discouragement, depression, we'll be overwhelmed. No. No. We're not to be ignorant of this, but we're to lift our highs higher.
Speaker 3:So right now, I'm I'm sitting in my office looking at the Rockies. I'm I'm I'm at the foot of the Rockies here. Pike's Peak is is just to the left of me, 14,000 footer. It's it's incredible. God speaks to me in mountains.
Speaker 3:And every day, I get to look at at these, majestic giants that are glorifying God. And there's one of my favorite Psalms, the Psalms 121. It says this, I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does the my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.
Speaker 3:He will not let your foot slip. The one who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. You know, in this, this narrative of the Psalm, you know, in, in Israel, but in the times of times of the Kings is that they would, they would, set up idols. They would set up altars on the high places.
Speaker 3:They would go to the mountain tops and they would put up Asherah poles. They would set up, you know, altars to Baal and, you know, who controlled the high places, controlled that nation. And God would judge kings on what they did with the high places. And what it says in the Psalmist says, I lifted up. I lifted my eyes to the hills.
Speaker 3:And then it says, I lifted my eyes higher. So we lift up our eyes not to what man makes, but we lift our eyes up to the creator who created the hills, who created the Rockies, who created the mountains. And so I want to encourage the listener right now to not focus on the the raging of the enemy, but focus on the promises, the destiny, the word of God, what what the word of God says, because we know that Jesus is returning. The king is returning, and he will reign and rule. He has the final word.
Speaker 3:The enemy's not gonna win. We know the end of the story. Now, in the midst of what's happening right now with pandemics and riots in the street, we have to keep our eyes on Jesus. We have to lift our eyes higher and keep our eyes on him and cry out to him and call for him to change atmospheres, to change nations, to shift the demographics, the the the cultural trends, because there's great chaos right now. The enemy has caused great confusion, but we don't focus on those circumstances.
Speaker 3:We focus on the one who reigns and rules above the culture and the circumstances. And so I'm going to encourage the listener as they think about being a mentor, a spiritual father to another is to keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep your eyes on him. No, the word decree, the word every day, cry out to him, Decree the living word of God, and you'll see a transformation in your own life, in the life of the one that you're mentoring, and in your own family.
Speaker 2:Such a great encouragement, Steve. Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast and investing in our mentors. We really appreciate it. Can you can you tell our listeners how they could connect with you after listening to this if they're interested in hearing more about what you're doing?
Speaker 3:You can go to the Internet, www.allencoaching.com, and, you can reach out to me through the website. It gives a brief description. It has testimonies. It tells what I do in leadership coaching. You can connect.
Speaker 3:I have my phone number and my email address if you'd like to reach out to me. I'd I'd be honored to give you a free 45 minute vision call and, just walk through some questions on vision on, God's calling on your life, and would love to dialogue with you about leadership coaching.
Speaker 2:Do not miss out on that opportunity, what he just said. Please take him up on that offer. Well, Steve, thank you so much for investing in Zach, investing in us, and yeah. Just for for the the things that you've stand stood upon, even just in your vision statement, hearing how you look to to receive and live from the word of god. I think that comes through very clearly just from an hour spending time with you.
Speaker 2:So thank you so much, Steve.