The Craig And Greg Show: Be Clutch For Your Team

September 26, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the audio-only version of this podcast by clicking on the player below, or scroll down to watch the video.

The game-winning field goal, the bottom of the ninth home run, the last-second fadeaway jumper! In sports we are quick to recognize a clutch player. You might not perform in front of millions of fans, but you can be a clutch player for your organization as well! Join Greg and me as we discuss what it means to be clutch for your team, and lay out how your leadership can help empower others to do the same.

  • [0:23] Some people’s clutch-ability makes them stand out from the crowd.
  • [2:20] A clutch person won’t always succeed, but when it matters most they’re the one you trust to deliver. 
  • [3:20] How do people gain the confidence to be clutch? 
  • [5:05] Greg talks about his first college football play, and how the experience helped him learn how to succeed in the long run. 
  • [6:50] As leaders we can’t be afraid of mistakes, we need to view them as learning opportunities. 
  • [10:55] How much can we do as leaders to help our team be clutch, and how much do they need to figure out themselves? 
  • [13:10] Setting the right tone helps your team feel empowered to learn from their mistakes. 
  • [15:23] We can name a lot of greats by looking back at their career, but in the moment they didn’t always feel like greats. 
  • [16:29] As the leader, you have an extra responsibility to acknowledge your mistakes to your team. 
  • [18:11] Why do people quit, and how can we help them stay in the game? 
  • [22:37] Greg shares some wisdom about preparation. 
  • [23:50] Greg tells a story about a compliment he received while coaching high school football. 
  • [26:07] A coach can help you excel and become a clutch member of your team. Check out how our coaching services may benefit your game. 

Check out this episode and subscribe on YouTube so you can watch all of the upcoming episodes. You can also listen to our podcast on Spotify and Apple.

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We Are All Gifted

September 23, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

Last week I concluded by saying I wanted to help all of us discover our God-given gifts so that we could stretch outside of our comfort zone. Remember that your comfort zone is much smaller than your gift zone. 

I’m concerned that some people might be confused about what I mean by “gifts.” Some people look at someone who can preach, or write, or sing, or compose music, or paint, and say, “They are so gifted! I could never do anything like that.” Yes, those are very visible gifts, but let’s not limit “gifts” to just those kinds of things. 

God has designed our physical bodies to do some astounding things! We see some people using their bodies to run fast, jump high, lift heavy things, or catch a ball, and we may marvel at their talents. These amazing feats are only possible because of a thousand other gifts. Even the simplest of tasks is far from simplistic. Isaac Newton noted, “In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence.” 

Something that is invisible to the human eye but indispensable to absolutely everything that happens in our physical bodies is the vital functions of enzymes. 

Enzymes are proteins that help facilitate metabolism, or coordinate a chemical reaction. Some enzymes build things up and some break things down. Enzymes help with things like… 

  • turning the food we eat into energy 
  • breathing 
  • building muscle 
  • nerve function 
  • ridding our bodies of toxins 

There are thousands of individual enzymes in the body. Each type of enzyme only has one job. 

For example, consider the enzyme sucrase. If it is deficient in the body, sucrose from food isn’t broken down to glucose and fructose. As a result we would experience dehydration, malnutrition, and developmental delay. 

Every enzyme is vital. It’s not coincidental at all the the New Testament uses the analogy of our physical bodies to portray the Body of Christ (Romans 12:3-6; 1 Corinthians 12:6, 18, 27). 

(Check out all of the verses in this post by clicking here.)

In the New Testament church it’s easy to spot the highly visible gifts like preaching, evangelism, and church leadership, just as it’s easy to spot physical accomplishments like a professional athlete or a world-class pianist. But let’s not overlook the thousands of indispensable “enzymes” in the Church that allow the Body of Christ to function in a healthy way. 

Read through the Book of Acts and you will see gifts in the form of people who…

  • agreed together in prayer 
  • affirmed God-honoring, biblical decisions 
  • organized feeding programs 
  • hosted people in their homes (house churches) 
  • prepared food for others 
  • handed out that food 
  • sewed clothes for those who needed them 
  • faithfully visited the sick and imprisoned 
  • earned a paycheck to pay for ministry expenses 
  • distributed funds to those in need 
  • used their official positions open doors or provide protection 
  • wrote important correspondence

Peter wrote, “God has given each of you a gift from His great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another” (1 Peter 4:10). 

What happens if an “enzyme” is missing? Quite simply: The Church cannot grow to our full potential (1 Corinthians 12:26 AMPC; Ephesians 4:12-13). 

Each of us needs all of us. All of us needs each of us. Jesus hasn’t just saved you from death, He has also saved you to life—an abundant life for you, for the Body of Christ, and for those who don’t know Him as their Lord and Savior yet. 

You are gifted. More precisely said: You ARE a gift! 

If you’ve missed any of the other messages in this series, you can check them all out here. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Links & Quotes

September 21, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

By it’s very definition, stepping out of your comfort zone is UNcomfortable and sometimes fearful. God promises to be close by while you’re in the Discomfort Zone!

I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel. 

Scientists have long endeavored to comprehend the transformations that take place in trees and plants throughout the autumn season. While lacking complete knowledge, they possess sufficient understanding to explain the fundamental aspects of these spectacular displays. Interestingly, the colorful leaves are not only aesthetically pleasing, they also serve a crucial role in the trees’ survival.

“Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I have found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” —J.R.R Tolkien

“It cannot be exaggerated how much God hates our trying to do His work when it comes to vengeance or vindication. Whether it be vengeance or vindication, either is solely the Lord’s sovereign right. He does not like it when you or I try to punish someone, to vindicate ourselves, making ourselves look good or clearing our own names.” —R.T. Kendall

The world’s arguments are a lot of noise and very little substance. Don’t get into a shouting match, but quietly, gently, and respectfully keep returning to God’s Word. Charles Spurgeon was once asked how he could defend the Bible and he responded, “The Bible is like a lion: I let it out and it defends itself!”

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The Difference Between Mentoring And Coaching

September 19, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

Both mentoring and coaching are valuable skills in leadership development, but they are not interchangeable skills. Check out how Greg and I unpack this important distinction. 

You can watch the full episode of The Craig and Greg Show from which I took this clip here. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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The Power Of “Yet”

September 18, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

I’d like to teach you an important lesson from 2nd Grade. I had the opportunity to interact with some young students, and I think we all learned something valuable.

Check out this episode of The Podcast. 

My wife does a great job promoting a growth mindset in her classroom. Check out A Safe Place For Mistakes where I talk about how she fosters this learning environment. 

C.S. Lewis shared some great insight about eliminating the Scarcity Mindset, which is a huge hindrance to the growth mindset. 

And the blog post and sermon video I mentioned in this post is Talk Back To Your Thoughts.

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Getting Uncomfortable With Staying Comfortable

September 16, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

We as a Church are underperforming. How do I know this? Look at the way the world treats Christians; specifically, look at what’s NOT happening. 

  • “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Jesus said this right after He served His disciples by washing their feet. Is this happening today: Do people know you are a Christian by the way you put your love into servant-hearted action, or do they just know what you are against? 
  • “Be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). When was the last time someone saw your hope-filled life in such contrast to everyone else’s response that they said, “How can I have what you have?” 

(Find all of the Scriptures I’ve used in this post by clicking here.)

Peter said our adversary prowls like a lion. He is perfectly willing to bide his time, picking the strategy that works best. One of his favorite strategies is lies—sometimes half-truths or out-of-context truths. 

…Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short. … The dragon was enraged with the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus (Revelation 12:12, 17). 

Lies are his native tongue. He lied to Adam and Eve right in the beginning (Genesis 3:1, 4-5), and he still lies now (Revelation 12:10). Jesus contrasted this with the truth that He came to proclaim (John 8:42-45). 

The devil has learned that with many people, outright attacks drive them TO God. We see this in the oldest book of the Bible (Job 1:6f, 20-22), and in modern times (churches were filled after the 9-11 terrorist attacks). 

What the devil would rather do is lie to you to keep you comfortable. In The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape implores Wormwood to keep his patient indifferent and comfortable. Indeed, we all have a comfort zone and we love to stay in it. 

King Saul went from 3000 men to 600 men, from a full armory to only two swords, from defeating the Ammonites to being hemmed in by the Philistines. King Saul was enjoying life as the king, hanging out with his friends, sitting under a pomegranate tree, far away from his enemies. Life was good for Saul, life was familiar and comfortable. Saul was living in his comfort zone. But the comfort zone is a lousy place to live. 

In the comfort zone you only tell stories, but never live an adventure. In the comfort zone, you only hear about what God has done for others, but you never experience Him move in miraculous ways for yourself. 

God has given us all gifts so that we can live as overcomers and bring Him glory, but we settle for living only in our comfort zone. Our comfort zones are always way smaller than our gift zones, and the devil is perfectly happy to see us stay there.

Moses was comfortable in the desert, but God sent him in His power (Exodus 3:11, 14). 

David was comfortable in the pasture, but God equipped him to lead a whole nation (2 Samuel 7:18; Psalm 78:70-71). 

Jeremiah was comfortable being an anonymous priest, but God gave him words to prophesy to a wayward nation (Jeremiah 1:4-8). 

Saul was comfortable as a Pharisee, but God sent him to tell the world the Jesus is the Messiah (Acts 8:3; 1 Timothy 1:16). 

What lies have kept you in your comfort zone? 

  • Maybe a parent said, “You’ll never amount to anything.” 
  • Maybe a teacher said, “You’re slow.” 
  • Maybe a classmate said, “You’re weird.” 
  • Maybe the devil said, “You cannot make a difference in the world.” 

You need to silence those lies with God’s truth: 

  • God created me on purpose and for a purpose—Psalm 139:13-17 
  • He has given me all the gifts I need to soar—2 Peter 1:3-4 
  • He wants to help me, if I will trust Him—Isaiah 41:10, 13-14 

Charles Spurgeon said, “The extent of power God can infuse into a person is immeasurable; when divine strength is granted, human weakness ceases to be a hindrance.” 

So, friends, it’s time to get uncomfortable with staying comfortable. It’s time to stretch and soar out of your comfort zone and into more of your gift zone! 

How do you discover your gifts? That’s what we are going to unpack in this series over the next few weeks, I hope you will continue to follow along. And you can catch up on anything you may have missed in our series called Living in Your Gift Zone by clicking here. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Links & Quotes

September 14, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Christians should run their entire race with joy—we should soar across the finish line! Check out this full sermon on Psalm 132.

I have lots of new content every week, which you can check out on my YouTube channel. 

“Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is.” —C.S. Lewis

John Piper points out that thinking and knowing are essential for Christian maturity, but there is also a danger in knowledge. How do we find the correct balance?

I talked about a Christian’s self-examination this week, and then I came across this from T.M. Moore: “Christians do not fear to examine themselves. Especially when it seems something may be lacking in our walk with and work for the Lord, we need to heed the words of the apostle Paul and do some serious soul-searching and altering of our life course (2 Corinthians 13:5). Examining ourselves involves carefully considering how we use our time (Ephesians 5:15-17) as well as what’s going on in our soul and our life. We must not fear to examine ourselves nor resent when others may encourage us to do so.”

Darryl Cooper’s revisionist history of Winston Churchill and World War II is flawed on so many levels. John Stonestreet does a great job debunking most of Cooper’s points, but we should also read history for ourselves and be able to answer those who would twist it for their own purposes.

God’s messengers call people to consider the way they are currently living in comparison to the way God has called them to behave. Wise people will heed this call and repent from any ways that deviate from God’s way. I talked in more depth about Haggai and his message of considering our ways in my series on the minor prophets.

“Come to Jesus by quitting every other hope, by thinking of Him, believing God’s testimony about Him, and trusting everything to Him. If you thus come to Him, the rest which He will give you will be deep, safe, holy, and everlasting.” —Charles Spurgeon 

One more from T.M. Moore: “We will only hunger and thirst for more of the Lord and His promises as we consider how far short of that might and greatness we fall. … I suspect that most Christians today are fairly satisfied with the state of their faith. They have a ‘good enough’ experience of Jesus and they’re not really thirsting for much more. But the work of shepherds is to help people realize that splashing around in the mud puddle of faith is not to be compared with sailing on the ocean of God’s grace and power.”

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The Craig And Greg Show: Leaders At Every Level

September 12, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the audio-only version of this podcast by clicking on the player below, or scroll down to watch the video.

You might be checking out this episode with the hope of one day being a leader. Well, Greg and I have good news for you—you already are! Leaders are not just the person at the top, but if you have a leadership mindset you can be a leader in whatever position you currently occupy. Join us as we chat about how important it is to start being a leader before you have the “leader” title.

  • [0:24] What if you’re not the point leader in your organization? 
  • [1:22] Regardless of your title or position, you are still a leader.
  • [3:13] Leaders—whether at the top or in the middle—need to try to raise up other leaders.
  • [5:29] One trait that will increase your value to the organization is cross-training.
  • [8:20] Another trait is curiosity that keeps you a lifelong learner.
  • [11:07] An example from Tom Brady about how important passion is for those who aren’t starters yet.
  • [13:47] Two other important traits for emerging leaders is patience and self-discipline.
  • [14:37] How do point leader keep their bench players engaged until there is a new leadership position available for them?
  • [17:07] Mentoring and coaching aren’t the same things. How do we know which one to use in our organizations?
  • [21:22] Maximize Leadership can help coach you on how to mentor your emerging leaders. Check it out at https://www.maximizeleadership.com/coaching
  • [23:21] What you can do if you don’t have any mentors within your organization?

Check out this episode and subscribe on YouTube so you can watch all of the upcoming episodes. You can also listen to our podcast on Spotify and Apple.

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Agreement With Scripture

September 11, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

The first Church in the Book of Acts could have easily become the first two churches right from the beginning. Why? Because of a deep disagreement that pitted two camps against each other.

Unity was ultimately maintained because they all agreed to only listen to the counsel that agreed with Scripture. 

This is a clip from a sermon I shared called Unity Is Not Conformity. 

The Scriptures I reference in this clip are Acts 15:1-35 and 2 Chronicles 18:11-13. 

You may also be interested in my blog post and sermon video called The Inspiration of Scripture. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Do Not Judge?

September 9, 2024 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

As we learned last week, we are not the judge, nor the jury, nor the prosecution, nor even the sin police in deciding appropriate retribution. With that in mind, let’s consider Statement #15 in our series—Do not judge. Is that in the Bible? 

Yes, those three words are there, spoken by Jesus, in Matthew 7:1. But then again, we need to say, no, because these words don’t mean we are not to make determination about the rightness or wrongness of something. 

(Check out all of the Scriptures in this post by clicking here.)

Let’s zoom-out a bit get the context of the words Jesus spoke. Who was His audience for these words? This is a part of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7). Notice in the opening words, “His disciples came to Him, and He began to teach them” (5:1-2). So Jesus isn’t speaking to the world at-large, but He is talking with His disciples. 

Jesus was very specific in His wording. In talking about the world, He uses words like people (5:11) or men (5:16; 6:1, 5). When talking about His disciples, He uses one word quite frequently: brother (3x in 5:22-24). 

Matthew 7:1 is still in this sermon, and the word brother appears 3x in vv. 3-5. So these are instructions primarily for Christians to use with other Christian brothers and sisters. 

The words judge here in the Greek means, “Those who judge severely (unfairly), finding fault with this or that in others.” To me, “this or that” sounds like a deliberate searching for something wrong, but Jesus assures us that this will boomerang on the judgmental person (v. 2; Luke 6:37). 

In modern psychology, we find terms like:  

  • mirroring = a psychological term the means quickly seeing what’s in others because it’s in me 
  • projection = taking the negative things in me and projecting them onto others

Paul addresses both of these thoughts in Romans 2:1-3, where the word for judging here is the same Greek word Jesus uses in Matthew 7.

Paul concludes his remarks by reminding us that God treats us kindly (Romans 2:4). David echos this same thought in Psalm 103:8-10, 13-14. 

When you read the whole passage in Matthew 7:1-5, please notice the words “brother,”  “first,” and “then.”  

Jesus does not mean that I am not to point out to my brothers and sisters any areas of concern. Jesus did this, as well as nearly every epistle writer. What it does mean is that correction needs to be gentle and never condemning. In other words, I want to lovingly help someone before they have to stand before The Judge. 

That’s why I need to first humbly recognize that what I see in others may be apparent to me because I am afflicted with the same thing. That’s why Jesus says first deal with my own plank. Examine myself  before I try to correct a brother or sister (1 Corinthians 11:28; 2 Corinthians 13:5). 

After I have allowed the Holy Spirit to deal with my plank, I will then have the empathy to help my brother or sister (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). Trying to get someone else to repent of something that still exists in my life is hypocritical. 

If I see something wrong in someone else:

  1. First ask the Holy Spirit to search me. 
  2. If necessary, confess it, repent from it, ask forgiveness, make things right. 
  3. Then lovingly and humbly share with your brother or sister (Ephesians 4:15). 

If someone else sees something wrong in me, I should follow the exact same steps! 

This is not easy, but it is vital for the Body of Christ to grow in a healthy way. 

If you’ve missed any of the other messages in this installment of our series Is That In The Bible?, you can find them all here. 

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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