fan. He includes off the court
stories I didn’t know about some
of the superstars in the NBA. It
prompted me to ask him about
grace. He told me: “The very
first step to being someone who
doles out grace is acknowledging how much of it we’ve been
given. When we realize that,
then we just give it out like potato
chips, I mean we’re happy to.
It’s just that we forget how much
grace has been piled upon us.”
It follows, both in the book and in
our conversation that when you
realize how much grace we’ve
been given, there’s not much
room for cynicism. Kent and his
French partner had the displeasure of enduring a three hour
rant of an employee of a company they were meeting with for
the first time. From the employee’s perspective, there seemed
to be no hope for the company.
Kent spoke in a French accent
relating his partner, Alexi’s, comments when they finally got
alone after that meeting. “Rule
# 1, there will be no cynicism in
our company. What Alexi figured
out was that all of the griping
was keeping them from finding a
solution to the problem.”
big chunk of his ministry in preparing for his own exit. Not just
in the provision of the Holy Spirit,
but in the mechanics of what to
do next and don’t be afraid and
let me tell you what’s going to
happen. Wouldn’t it be interesting to go through and divide
all of Christ’s spoken words
into words he spoke about the
past, the present, or the future.
A big giant chunk of that would
be about the future and about
the future without him physically
there. And so, if we are to model
Christ’s work, inside and outside
the church, that should always
be our focus.”
applied to the church? “I think
some people look at church
like it’s a business. And, I don’t
think it is, I mean, there’s a business component, you’ve got to
manage your money and deploy
resources, I get it, but the church
is way bigger and more important than any business, clearly!
I do think there are some good
principles to be learned from
business that we can apply in
the church environment. What’s
really interesting to me is when
a member of a church goes from
seeing themselves at the bottom
of the church pyramid, with a
Pastor at the top and some
elders, … when they go from
Kent told me “all pastors are seeing themselves at the bottom,
interim pastors.” We were dis- sitting out in the pew, to seeing
cussing the importance of pre- themselves somewhere in the
paring and making way for the middle. It doesn’t have to be
next generation. An example in the top, it doesn’t have to be the
Kent’s life was in his own church. bottom, but seeing themselves
His Pastor, Bob Russell, had as a co-laborer in the ministry,
been leading that congregation as opposed to simply a recipifor 40 years. “He’d come every ent of the benefits of the minisSunday and hit a home run. For try. That’s a great switch, when
40 years, almost as long as I’ve people flip that switch mentally
been alive. And the transition and it happens different for all of
at that church was amazingly us. … In this transition, he will
smooth. You know why, because have to do things differently.”
of him personally. … It was pure
inspired genius. He wanted the We closed our conversation talkWe had some personal discus- church to get better after he left. ing a little more about how Wise
sion about divorce. Kent was He saw that as a testament to Guys related to Manhood Jourolder when his parents divorced. his leadership, not an indictment ney. Kent sees Wise Guys as
I was very young when my par- against it. … I was blessed to a “parallel path.” “One of the
ents separated. Both of us had have a very close second row things that really helps, when
very good relationships with our seat watching that happen at our dads or sons walk into that Manfathers. Kent introduces us to his own church. Two or three amaz- hood Journey context, is the
father toward the end of the book. ing individuals who were humbly willingness to learn and listen to
One of the philosophies that had trying to defer to one another each other. In that context, the
clearly passed from father to and, man, what a great lesson it book is a good tee up … and
son is that of preparing the next was.”
I think it would feed Manhood
generation. Kent relates: “How
Journey in that context.”
many times in Jesus’ ministry do The discussion of this smooth
we see him talking about what is transition reminded me of Kent’s One of the illustrations that Kent
going to happen after he’s gone? business background. I asked uses when explaining the 4D
It’s often. John 17. He spent a him what business practices he Community concept of Manhood