37. Being Intentional with Marriage, Parenting, Rest, Personal Development, and Leadership with Pastor, Podcaster, and Author, Jeff Henderson
**Transcription Below**
Matthew 6:33 (KJV) “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Jeff Henderson is an entrepreneur, speaker, pastor and business leader. For the past 15 years, he has helped lead two of North Point Ministries multi-site locations in Atlanta, Georgia - Buckhead Church and Gwinnett Church. He also helped launch North Point Online which now reaches over 200,000 people. He is the founder of several organizations including Champion Tribes, a rite-of passage experience for fathers with middle school sons; Preaching Rocket, an online coaching program with over 20,000 participants; Launch Youniversity, a podcast for entrepreneurs; and the FOR Company, helping businesses and non-profit organizations grow. Jeff was recently named by Forbes Magazine as one of the 20 speakers you shouldn’t miss. Prior to working as a pastor, Jeff started his career in marketing with the Atlanta Braves, Callaway Gardens, Lake Lanier Islands and Chick-fil-A Inc., where he led the company’s regional and beverage marketing strategies. Jeff and his wife Wendy have been married 22 years and have a daughter, Jesse, and a son, Cole.
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Connect with Jeff on Instagram @jefferyhenderson or @gwinnettchurch
Look for Jeff’s upcoming book release on Oct 1st (FOR: How 2 questions can grow your business and change your life)
Jeff’s Recommended Book List:
Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
Draw the Circle by Mark Batterson
High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard
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Gospel Scripture: (all NIV)
Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”
Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”
Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of his glory.”
Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”
Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“
Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“
Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
**Transcription**
[00:00:00] <music>
Laura Dugger: Laura Dugger: Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.
[00:00:19] <music>
Laura Dugger: This episode was made possible by an anonymous donor to Midwest Food Bank. They paid the sponsorship fee to help spread the word that Midwest Food Bank works to alleviate hunger and poverty throughout the world by gathering food donations and distributing them to nonprofit agencies and disaster sites.
If you would like to learn more about Midwest Food Bank, make a donation, or see what volunteer opportunities are available, please visit them at MidwestFoodBank.org.
Today I have a very special guest to share with you. Jeff Henderson is a pastor, podcaster, and author who lives near Atlanta, Georgia. Jeff was recently named by Forbes magazine as one of the 20 speakers you shouldn't miss.
When my husband and I lived in Atlanta, Jeff was our campus pastor at one of Andy Stanley's satellite locations. There were thousands who regularly attended Jeff's campus each week, yet when I was baptized there, I received a handwritten letter from Jeff in the mail. That is a small example of the intentional and thoughtful leader Jeff is.
Today he's going to share how he lives intentionally. Here's our chat. [00:01:37]
Welcome to the Savvy Sauce, Jeff!
Jeff Henderson: Laura, it's great to be with you. I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for letting me invade The Savvy Sauce. I love it.
Laura Dugger: Well, we're so glad to welcome you. Many people already know who you are, but for any of the listeners who are unfamiliar with you, can you just share a bit about your story?
Jeff Henderson: Sure. I'm the lead pastor at Gwinnett Church, which is part of North Point Ministries. We started Gwinnett Church seven years ago. And Gwinnett's a suburb of Atlanta, so I've lived here most of my life. My wife and I went to high school in Gwinnett, so we're pretty boring. We haven't really strayed far from home.
But before that, I was the lead pastor at Buckhead Church, which is North Point Ministries' first multi-site campus. And this is where you and I have some similarities, Laura. Before that I worked in marketing at Chick-fil-A, so I spent a number of years in marketing.
My wife, Wendy, and I have been married for 22 years. We have a college sophomore, Jesse. She's nineteen and a high school junior. Cole, he's 17. They're very involved here at church. My father-in-law asked my son how church was going, and he said, well, Mom's in guest services, Jesse works in elementary school ministry, I work in high school ministry, and Dad does nothing. So that was his perspective of kind of my job here at the church. [00:02:52] So they helped us start the church, and it's been fun. But that's a little bit of the Henderson story.
Laura Dugger: That's incredible. Even that brief little introduction and then hearing you speak in the past, it just seems like you are such an intentional family man. So, first, how do you keep your marriage a high priority in your life?
Jeff Henderson: It's something I saw modeled for me, and Wendy saw this modeled for her as well. We have a lot of younger couples that we're mentoring now, and we just kind of laugh and say, You know what, we really don't have any excuse. We really saw marriage modeled really, really well.
For me as a preacher's kid, I saw this. I worked in church for a number of years, but he did everything from Wednesday night service to Sunday morning, Sunday night hospital visits, care ministry, fundraiser, all that kind of stuff. But he never let that overcome his most important role as being the husband to my mom and our dad. [00:03:46]
I'm often reminded by a mentor of mine, John Woodall, will call me very frequently at the end of the day and say, "You're actually headed home to your most important ministry. You're not leaving your most important ministry. You're headed home to your most important ministry, which is to be the husband of Wendy and the father of Jesse and Cole."
My friend and boss, Andy Stanley, says, "Hey, there's always going to be another pastor of Gwinnett Church. There's always going to be another pastor or another this person or Chick-fil-A operator, but there's only going to be the first husband to Wendy and the father to Jesse and Cole."
So those roles are my most important ministry. I think the scriptures are really clear for husbands that we're charged to love our wives like Christ loved the church. That's the highest calling. We'll never get there, but that's the goal. That's the aim. So as a result of that, I can't let my ministry or work here overshadow my ministry as Wendy's husband and Jesse's and Cole's dad. So I never want to lose sight of that. Because at some point, I will no longer be here at Gwinnett Church, but I'll hopefully have their respect. My friend Mark Batterson says this, "I want to be famous in my home." That's where I want to be famous. [00:04:56]
Laura Dugger: Oh, I love that quote. That's so good. You and your wife, Wendy, do seem to care so much about parenting. Did you have any certain goals that you aspired to achieve as you raised your children?
Jeff Henderson: Ultimately, we wanted our kids to know Jesus, and we wanted to model that. That was goal number one. We also were very, I think, clear that our marriage and our family really are number one. Now, it's easy to say that, and it's hard to do. And there are seasons that it's just incredibly difficult. It doesn't mean that there aren't seasons where, you know what, you're at work more than maybe you're at home.
But for us, one of our tactical things that would allow us to know whether we're trending a little bit more toward the busyness of life and not focus on our family is if we went three or four nights without having dinner together. I'm not saying that's wrong. I'm just saying for us, that was a warning light on the dashboard of our family going, you know what, we haven't had dinner together in four nights.
And just that awareness... I know a lot of people travel. When I worked at Chick-fil-A, I traveled quite a bit. So I totally understand that world. So it may be something different. But for us, it was, you know what, we haven't had dinner together. So those times we're just really, really important. So we fought for quality time and we fought for quantity time. [00:06:15]
Then we would make some decisions to go, you know what? There are some decisions we're going to make financially right now in this season that probably not great financially because we're going to sacrifice some money. But in order to sacrifice that money, what we're doing is we're actually building time with our family.
So if you've got young kids, I would really encourage you to ask the question, What are you willing to sacrifice? And for us there were times where Wendy and I were willing to sacrifice financial opportunities but we weren't willing to long term sacrifice time with our family.
So what are you willing to sacrifice as a family is a really important question to ask. So Wendy and I try to be on board with the answer to that question. And ultimately, at the end of the day, we were not willing to sacrifice consistent family time.
Now, we're almost anti-nesters, so that's going to change now. And we're able to do a lot more now, and we're able to go and travel and do some things that we weren't able to do in those younger years. So I think that's a good question. What are you willing to sacrifice as a family? [00:07:20] So for us, that was in those early days that helped kind of steer and guide us to where we are today.
Laura Dugger: You said you're almost empty nesters. As you reflect back on that time, were there any seasons either with your kids' stages or with you or your wife for work that were especially hard to fight for family time?
Jeff Henderson: Yes. I would say seven years ago when we launched Gwinnett Church. Anytime you launch something... and I'm a starter. I like starting things, Laura. That's just kind of who I am. Starting Gwinnett Church was a difficult season because we went through a season where we just went through a lot of tragedy.
My dad passed away. We had a five-year-old son of a staff person die of cancer. We had two of our staff members were hit by a drunk driver, one was killed. And then we had an intern two months after that, he was killed in just one car accident. So we went two months there was just this tragedy after tragedy and it just wrecked us from a grief standpoint. [00:08:24] But at the same time you're like, Hey, God's with us, and God's doing great thing, and then you're walking through this middle of tragedy. So it was really hard on our family emotionally.
Then you've got all this pressure of trying to raise money and where we're going to meet and set up and tear down. And if you've got any listeners out there that are in portable churches, you totally understand that and you have my immense respect.
So it was just really, really hard for us emotionally. But fortunately for us we have a group of people, you know, a small group around us, mentors, advisors that were really pouring into us and helped us get through that time. But those years were really, really tough.
Laura Dugger: No [00:09:04]
Jeff Henderson: No. Everybody grieves differently and grief is a really odd thing in the sense that... Like when my dad passed away, you're like, Okay, Father's Day's coming, Father's Day coming, and you kind of build yourself up emotionally and you kind of get through Father's Day. But then you're watching a television commercial that comes out of nowhere and just kind of wrecks you, you know? So you try to plan and prepare for grief.
I would say the most difficult thing was grieving and then also planting a church. Because you kinda have to have this positivity and enthusiasm while privately and personally you're really struggling because you've lost your hero, you've lost a staff person who was not only close to our staff, Celeste was a mentor to my daughter.
So going through all this... and my kids are now experiencing really grief and death for the first time that they can really process it. So those are some difficult times. But I would say that we grew closer as a family because one of the things that we wanted to do, Laura, and I totally understand this, I'm an overprotective dad, I think we wanted to shield our kids from the grief and from real life. And that's a mistake. [00:10:09] You gotta let them understand, dad is grieving, mom is grieving, we lost your grandfather, we lost Celeste, we lost Julia, we lost Creed, let's deal with that.
So I think inviting your kids into your grief and into your world won't take away your credibility as a parent. It'll teach them and let them know that, wow, mom and dad are actually real people. And it takes us a long time to actually realize our parents are actually real people. They're not superheroes.
Laura Dugger: And leading with that transparency, I can't even imagine what that communicated and taught your children through such a difficult time. I guess it kind of ties into this next topic, because I have heard you speak on rest before. One time you even said, sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap. Will you just elaborate on the importance of rest?
Jeff Henderson: I remember saying that in a message I did, and somebody told me that his wife leaned over to him after I said that, that the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap, and she said, "You're so spiritual." [00:11:12]
I don't know if that was a compliment or not, but I do know this. Your life moves to a better place when you move at a sustainable pace. You can crash against this principle or you can leverage this principle of rest. And our mutual friend, Dan Cathy, the CEO of Chick-fil-A, I remember back in 2008, Dan's goal is to get eight in 2008. What he meant by that is I'm gonna get eight hours of sleep in 2008.
I love that goal. But we have this mentality sometimes that rest is for the week. I disagree with that. Rest isn't for the weak. Rest is for the wise. I've noticed myself, Laura, that if I violate this principle, if I crash against this principle, my body will shut me down. It usually starts with a sore throat, and the next thing I know, I'm curled up on the couch sick. So either I'm going to shut myself down, or my body's going to shut myself down. And I don't want to get to that point.
But I do know this: — and I think this isn't just true for me. I think it's true for you. I think it's true for all of our listeners today — we're better spouses when we're rested spouses, and we're better leaders and better business people when we're rested. [00:12:24]
Now, you've got young kids, Laura, and I know our listeners out there that have young kids are like, yes, I would love to have rest, but my kid's getting up at three o'clock in the morning. So I totally understand that. I will give you some encouragement. This is a season. I totally understand that.
But now we've got to the place where my wife and I will be on a Saturday morning saying, you think our kids are ever going to get up? It's like 12. So you're going to get plenty of sleep. So you may be in a season, but you got to fight for rest. This is true throughout the scriptures.
Now, when anybody pushes against me on this, like, Oh, you know, I'm just so busy, I'm like, Okay, well, let me just give you a couple of examples. First of all, Jesus did this. Jesus was very intentional about this. I know we're all busy, but I don't think any one of us has won a world war like Winston Churchill did. But Winston Churchill was famous for taking a nap in the middle of the day every day, and yet he had to be a part of saving the world.
I just really feel like this is a principle that you can leverage, your life moves to a better place when you move at a sustainable pace, or you can crash against it. But I just think the value of rest and giving yourself the permission to rest is one of the wisest things that you can do, not just for you, but for the people in your life. [00:13:31]
Laura Dugger: That principle... would you repeat it one more time? It's so good.
Jeff Henderson: Sure. Your life moves to a better place when you move at a sustainable pace. Again, that comes at different seasons. We're recording this in a very busy season in the life of our church. It's a busy season. We're six weeks away from launching a second Gwinnett Church location.
So one of the things I've got to say and do is, okay, it's a very busy season, where can I make sure...? Am I going to bed at a good time? And if this is just too crazy of a time, when am I going to get past this season to be more restful? Because I know this, tired Jeff is cranky Jeff. And nobody wants to be around cranky Jeff.
Laura Dugger: That's good to have a longer-term vision that it's not all about that day or that week, but looking at it more of a season.
Jeff Henderson: Right.
Laura Dugger: You're so heavily involved... We've talked about your family, community, you're involved in your church, and yet it seems like you make time to consistently challenge yourself to be stretched. So why is personal growth such a value of yours?
Jeff Henderson: Well, I think it's a stewardship issue. I think at some point we're going to stand before God and give an account of what did you do with your gifts, what did you do with your talents. As I mentioned earlier, I've been blessed with two amazing parents.
In my role as a pastor, I hear stories of brokenness of people that did not have a great relationship with their mom or their dad and how that impacts them today. [00:14:56] And I've realized during these years of having those conversations that I had a great mom and a great dad. Well, that's cool. But that's a stewardship issue, all right? So how are you going to steward the lessons and the love and the guidance and the wisdom that your parents gave you?
Not only that. I've been fortunate to know incredible people like Truett Cathy, the late founder of Chick-fil-A. I've had the incredible privilege of working closely with Andy Stanley, one of the best communicators and leaders around. Well, those are stewardship opportunities, and I can't take that for granted.
So I feel a stewardship opportunity is I got to get better and I've got to grow. One of the things I learned at Chick-fil-A is never let the organization outgrow you. I just feel like it's one of the ways I worship the Lord is to say, I'm getting better. Here's my improvement plan.
Truett taught me the two ways people improve are the books you read and the people you interact with. There are lots of other ways, but those are two really great ones to have. I have a book list every year. I encourage our staff to have a book list. I've challenged our staff. I'm the oldest person on staff here, but I've told our team, no one will read more books than me this year on our team. And I'm not saying that from a bragging standpoint. I'm saying this is my commitment to you. I'm not going to let this place outgrow me. I've got to keep growing, and I'm going to surround myself with people who challenge me.
It's one of the reasons I get together consistently with David Farmer and Shane Benson, who I met at Chick-fil-A 20 years ago. They're constantly challenging me. They're constantly thinking in new ways, and so that's allowing me to get better. [00:16:25]
I really do believe personal growth is not only a stewardship issue. I also think it's an act of worship. Many times we think worship is just exclusive to music. That couldn't be further from the truth. If someone were to ask me, what's your personal development plan, what's your growth plan, I want to be able to show them here on my phone, here's what I'm doing to get better. I think that's an act of worship.
Laura Dugger: And that's kind of like the parable of the talents of what God has entrusted us with. We're responsible to do our part to help that grow.
Jeff Henderson: Absolutely.
Laura Dugger: You mentioned you have a long list of things that you want to read. Was there anything, as you look back over the past 12 months, any books that you would recommend to our listeners?
Jeff Henderson: Yeah. Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday is a great, fantastic read. Now, I will tell you, it's not a Christian book. So you'll see some language in there. But Ego is the Enemy is a fantastic book, and it's a short book. [00:17:20] Laura, it's one of those rare books that I've actually read three times. And part of it is I feel like I gotta remind myself, the biggest enemy in my life right now is my own ego. I am the biggest obstacle of my growth.
I would also encourage our listeners to read Draw the Circle by Mark Batterson. That's another book that I'm probably on my fifth reading. That's a 40-day prayer journey. We're currently praying through that as we launch this second location at Gwinnett Church.
And I would say a book that I'm almost done with by Brendon Burchard is High Performance Habits. So what Brendan has done is he has studied high performers and tried to distill down their six habits. And that's what this book is about, high-performance habits.
So I could keep going on and on, but those are three that have really had an impact. Two of which I've already read before, but they're so good, I'm continuing to read them.
Laura Dugger: Just out of curiosity, what is your typical goal for amount of books that you complete in one year?
Jeff Henderson: It really depends, but this year was 30 books. That's actually a little bit lower than the previous year because we're in the process of launching this church. I kind of wanted to kind of balance out a little bit.
But the other thing is, is people ask me what's the best book that I've read and I would say it depends. Because I remember one time, Laura, I was showing my wife my book list and she said, "Huh, all these books are about leadership and not about marriage." [00:18:40] So then I went to the shop to get some marriage books.
So basically, I think you need to have a well-rounded... There needs to be some biographies, some autobiographies, some books on marriage, parenting, finances, and leadership and organizations, because I was just trending all toward organizations and leadership. So that's kind of the direction.
The other thing I would encourage people to do is to have... there's something called goodreads.com, which I'm sure some of our listeners are familiar with. Once I'm done with a book, I'll just post a lot of my notes on Goodreads. And what's good about that is I'll come across a situation, and I'll go, "Oh, I remember that book I read, but I can't remember exactly what was the takeaway." So I'll just go to my Goodreads page, search that book, look at my notes, and find that lesson that I read.
So that allows me to keep the learnings that I'm having in a place that I can leverage months or sometimes years from now. I'm like, "Oh, I read that book, Leadership Challenge, but I can't remember what that particular point was. So I go to my Goodreads page and I find it and so I'm able to access it. [00:19:42]
Laura Dugger: That's a good practical tip. Do you take those notes as you're writing or do you sit down at the end of a book and just write a one-page summary?
Jeff Henderson: Sometimes if it's a tactile book like an actual book, not an e-book, so I'll write and just dog ear and then on the inside front cover, I'll write everything down. But with an e-book, it's easier. Obviously, you can just kind of highlight and then I go back through those highlights and just kind of cut and paste and put in there. But I don't want to get to an end of a book and not have any notes unless it's not that great of a book. But there's always something that you can kind of take away from.
And it's also an opportunity for me, for people to say, hey, is there a book about marriage? Yeah, there's a book about marriage. What did you learn? Well, just go to my Goodreads page, search that book, and you'll find my notes there.
Laura Dugger: Oh, so helpful. And now a brief message from our sponsor.
Sponsor: This sponsorship message is unique because an anonymous donor to Midwest Food Bank paid the sponsorship fee in hopes of spreading awareness. Midwest Food Bank works to alleviate hunger and poverty throughout the world by gathering food donations and distributing them to nonprofit agencies and disaster sites. [00:20:48]
Over $11.5 million worth of food is distributed to over 1,700 nonprofit organizations each month. In 2017 alone, over 132,000 family food boxes were distributed to disaster victims. Thanks to the generosity of donors, the valuable work of volunteers, and most importantly, the blessings of God, Midwest Food Bank shares the blessings worldwide. More than 3.6 million people were impacted last year. This is done from their eight United States and two international locations.
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Laura Dugger: What other practices do you have in place right now to ensure that you don't neglect your own personal development?
Jeff Henderson: Well, I would say the number one goal that I have before I go into any week is to have what I call kind of a planning session or a weekly focus. This is something I learned from a friend of mine, Tommy Newberry. He gave me this document probably 20 years ago.
Basically, it's an opportunity to reflect back on the previous week and how did you do in physical disciplines, spiritual disciplines, your marriage, your finances, all of that. And then put the most important projects of the week and then your strategic relationships that you need to focus on for the week. Is there a clutter project you want to knock out this week, you need to clean out the car, closet, or do something financially, what are you gonna read, what’s your reading plan this week? [00:22:27]
But at the end of this little document, it ask you this question: what needs to happen this week for it to be successful? And at least three blanks. In those three blanks you write in to determine what you need to do before the week start so when the week ends you look back and say I did these three things.
When I go into Monday having that planned out and knowing that the top three goals for this week are these three things, it does what Stephen Covey used to say when he had the rock in the jar example. I don't know if you ever saw that. But he had all these activities and he couldn't get everything in this big jar. And so he dumps everything out and he says, let me show you how you get everything in this jar.
So he puts the big rocks in first and then he puts all the small rocks in and everything fits. His point was, Get the big rocks, determine what the big rocks are and all the other things will take care of themselves. That's what I've found that's happened. [00:23:27]
So the weekly focus for me I'll do it on Sunday night. It's just helpful for me to go into the week before I hit the ground running on Monday morning, here's what I got to get done. The weeks that I don't do this I just am kind of a victim to what's happening that week and kind of a victim to the urgency and of what may come up. So when I don't do this, I just don't feel as focused as when I do this. So that's a really important process for me to make sure that I'm planning each week before the week arrives.
Laura Dugger: I feel like this is an episode I'm just going to go back to and listen over and over again. There's so many tips. And Jeff, it just seems like you have these spiritual principles and scripture ingrained in you, and then you're kind of showing us how to live it out, because I just keep thinking, Matthew 6:33 while you're talking about, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.
Jeff Henderson: That's right.
Laura Dugger: Jeff, you're just such an incredibly humble leader. There's a story that I think many listeners would love to hear. [00:24:30] So can you share why you used to keep a Chick-fil-A plush cow on your desk?
Jeff Henderson: So you're really going to bring this up, Laura?
Laura Dugger: My husband and I can't get enough of this story.
Jeff Henderson: I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Well, I'll try to make this as brief as possible. But part of my role at Chick-fil-A was I managed the regional marketing for Chick-fil-A. At the time, Chick-fil-A was mainly a regional brand in the southeastern United States.
So one of the things we did is we were very involved in college sports, and Chick-fil-A sponsored a college football game called the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. So as our team was planning for this, I was in the Georgia Dome, which we recently blew up in Atlanta, because we've built more stadiums and we've won professional championships here in Atlanta. So the game is no longer played there, it's played in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
But I sat down, and this was in the summer, the game's in the end of the year, and I just thought, "How could we create a great moment for fans to interact with the Chick-fil-A brand so that they would eat more chicken?" And I noticed a cup holder at the seat and I thought, "You know what? What if we just put one of those Chick-fil-A eat more chicken plush cows in all the cup holders? [00:25:33] But the problem was I didn't have money in my marketing budget to do that but I knew someone who did have the money. His name was Truett Cathy. He didn't invent the chicken, he invented the chicken sandwich.
I got my car, drove back to the home office, Truett was in that day, walked up, knocked on the door and told him my idea. And I said, "But I don't have money in the budget to do this but I think you ought to pay for this personally." So pretty bold, you know.
And Truett was an incredibly generous, humble, wonderful man, but he was very shrewd businessman, very, very sharp. So he had a lot of great questions. But finally, he said, "You think we ought to do this? I said, yes, sir. So he said, "All right, go for it." So I bought 72,000 cows. Fast forward to the end of the year...
Now I got to figure out, Laura, how do I actually do this? How do I get 72,000 cows in all these cup holders? My wife, Wendy, says, You're wow, but you're not how. You have absolutely no idea how to do any of these ideas you come up with.
So long story short, day of the game, 72,000 cows are in the cup holders. It took like two and a half days to get them in. It's University of Georgia versus University of Virginia. The gates open. People come in. They get their cows. They're thrilled. I'm thinking, "This is awesome." How cool is this? Little did I know that the disaster was about to strike. [00:26:37]
So Virginia scores first. They score again and before the end of the first quarter, it's 21 to nothing Virginia... And it's in the Georgia Dome and the University of Georgia fans and I'm a Georgia grad, we're all wondering if we're gonna get blown out.
So they get the ball, they're heading down their end zone but an official drops a penalty flag basically ending the drive and there's a guy in the end zone. He looks at his cup holder and he sees his cow there and he's really, really frustrated. Georgia's down 21 to nothing, they just got a bad call so he takes his cow and he throws it onto the field.
Guess what happens, Laura. 20,000 of his closest friends take their cows and they throw it on to the field and I'm standing in this press box and I see my marketing career flash before my eyes. They had to delay the game and sweep all the dead little cows off of the Georgia Dome field. And then ESPN... I know we've all had bad days at the office but my bad day was broadcast nationally on ESPN. And somebody on ESPN said, "Who is the marketing genius that came up with this idea?"
So I tell people that's how I got from being a marketing to a pastor. But the end of the story is my boss, David Salyers, came up to me and said... I thought he was gonna say, "You're fired." But he said, "There's an idea here," which is an important moment to pause and to note that you have two people looking at the same situation but coming to different conclusions.
One of them, being me, I'm thinking this is a disaster. David looks at this and sees there's an opportunity here. His point was we were gonna get massive PR value out of this because the game is delayed, they were sweeping dead little cows off the field, the plush cows and he was right. The media values astronomical because of this happening. [00:28:19]
We started getting phone calls of people apologizing because of Georgia fans throwing the cows on the field. But later that week, David got us all together and said, "Hey, what if we came up with a different idea to get the cows on the field for next year's game?
So what ended up doing is we ended up putting small little parachutes on the cows and we went up to the top of the Georgia Dome. And when the teams ran on the field we dumped thousands of parachuting cows on the field and into the stands. That was over 20 years ago, and it's become a tradition ever since. Not just in Atlanta, but in other Chick-fil-A events, the parachuting cows.
In fact, as you know, Laura, if you go into the Chick-fil-A headquarters and you do the backstage tour and you go into the kind of the first room that you have that, where they welcome you, if you look up, you'll see parachuting cows or cows with parachutes on.
Laura Dugger: You're right. I can visualize that room.
Jeff Henderson: I know where that idea came from. It came from what I thought was the worst day of my marketing career but actually it ended up being one of my best days in my marketing career. [00:29:23] But it all goes... So I would say this to your listeners. If you're facing a very difficult situation, personally or professionally and your thinking, "This is the final chapter of this story," it's not. I thought that died.
The final chapter of the story is this is my final day at Chick-fil-A marketing. I would not know that 20 years ago when guests come to Chick-fil-A and their escort to this room that when guests look up they see the parachuting cows, and it's one of the things Chick-fil-A is known for in their sports marketing strategy.
So I think that just goes to show a principle that God brings beauty out of ashes. So if you're in a season of ashes right now, God's bigger than the ashes. And I know you could say, well, Jeff, this cute little cow story it doesn't compare to what's currently going on in my life which I would totally agree with. You have to know in the moment that was a crushing blow to me because I felt like I had wasted Truett Cathy's money because most of the cows are now on the field.
So, if the story doesn't relate, because my story is kind of this cute little story, and your story is a health issue, a relationship issue, a job issue, I would just say the principle here still applies, that God does bring beauty out of ashes. [00:30:36]
Laura Dugger: I think everybody can rest assured it's okay, you were not let go of your job, and like you said, you contributed so much to the marketing.
Jeff Henderson: Well, not only that. David and I became closer friends. We were close friends at that point, but we became closer friends. Then a few months later, he invited me to a church leadership conference in Chicago, and it was at that leadership conference that God revealed to me that I was going to help start a church someday. So I trace all of that back to my friendship with David that was really solidified and cemented in that moment, that David didn't power up, didn't get mad. He said, "There's something here." And he showed that he still believed in me, even though he had every reason not to.
So I wouldn't be here if it weren't for David Salyers. And so that was a bigger moment than just a marketing moment for me.
Laura Dugger: And I think that just communicates so much hope to anyone listening, regardless of what their story is right now. I do think that everybody will learn from your stories. So I have one more that I would like for you to share. You had led a creative campaign for Gwinnett Church before it opened. Can you share that story with us too?
Jeff Henderson: Sure. Laura, so much of what I've experienced here, or tried to lead here, so much of it is learned from Chick-fil-A. And one of the questions I learned is, what do you want to be known for? And so when we started Gwinnett Church, we just began to ask the question, what do we want to be known for and what are we known for? [00:31:57]
And so we weren't even started as a church. So we said, what is the church known for? And the church is known for a lot of great things. But for many people who aren't affiliated with a church, or they have a distance with a church, or church isn't on their category, many people are more familiar with what the church is against rather than what the church is for.
In our brainstorming sessions of what we wanted to be about as a church, we said, well, okay, well, if that's true, and people in our community may know more about what the church is against rather than what the church is for, what do we want to be known for? And obviously, we want to be known for Jesus, but also for being for Gwinnett schools, for Gwinnett children, for Gwinnett businesses, for Gwinnett city officials. We wanted to let the community know in our county, Hey, we are here and we are for you. [00:32:42]
One of the other questions we ask is, years from now if Gwinnett Church closed down, would the community even notice? So I said, I don't want us to close down, but if my dream would be if we said, you know what, it's been a great run, but we're going to close the door, we're going to sell the property, give all the money away, I would want the mayors of our county and cities and the school principals and parents and students to come knocking on our door and go, No, no, no, you can't close down because if you close down, the value that you are generating into our community right now will go away. We don't want that.
I'll give you a quick example of this. One of the things we try to do is we try to talk more about the community than we do our church. And when I talk to businesses and I talk to churches, I encourage them to go to their Instagram page and count how many of their posts are about the business or church and how many are about the people in your community. And often it's nine to one or ten to zero.
This week we actually promoted about a little cookie store and asked people to go buy cookies from them to help them have a great end of the year. [00:33:46] And we just got word this morning, Laura, that they sold $16,000 worth of cookies yesterday. It was their biggest day of business. And 100% of that were Gwinnett Church people coming in and going, Hey, I want to buy some cookies. So that was their biggest day of business.
Now, here's the cool thing. They don't even go here but they have an appreciation for Gwinnett Church. I've just heard a few minutes ago that they're actually going to come here on Sunday. But that really wasn't the goal. I mean, if they come here on Sunday, that's awesome, but at the end of the day, we just want to be a value-add to the community because we are for Gwinnett.
So the fun thing is that I've seen other churches adopt this, and I started experiencing this two years ago. I started getting coffee mugs in the mail. I got a church from Winnipeg in Canada that said, We're for Winnipeg. And then I got a hoodie that said, Hey, we're for Pittsburgh, and thanks for what y'all are doing.
So for me, it's just so fun to see other churches trying to tell their community, hey, we are for you, and we want to be a value add to this community. Because for me, this is really built on the most famous Bible verse of them all, which starts with the word "for". For God so loved the world. That's our message. We gotta stay on that message. Just like Chick-fil-A wants to stay on "eat more chicken," we gotta stay on "for God so loved the world". [00:34:58]
And so for us, one of the ways we interpret that and communicate that from a messaging standpoint is that we are for Gwinnett. Certainly, there are things that we are against. Absolutely. But we're going to land on what we're for more consistently. And we've seen that really be a catalyst for growth for our church.
Laura Dugger: That's incredible. And I think this principle "for" can be applied to anyone who's listening to their own business or even their family mission statement. So I love all these practical tips.
By now, I'm sure that you've heard us talk about Patreon before. I just want to give a simple reminder of each of the levels of contribution available. For $2 per month, you're going to receive a free quarterly downloadable scripture card.
For $5 a month, you get the perks of the $2 contribution plus access to extra podcasts that are only available to our patrons. For $20 a month, you get all of these incredible perks and one Savvy Sauce popsocket. We hope you consider joining today. Visit us at thesavvysauce.com and click on our "Patreon" tab for more information. Thanks for participating. [00:36:09]
Jeff, listeners are probably loving this and wanting to hear more, and there are quite a few ways they can connect with you. Do you mind just sharing where you're at online?
Jeff Henderson: Absolutely. I'd love for them to follow me on Instagram. It's Jefferey Henderson, J-E-F-F-E-R-Y. My mom named me after Thomas Jefferson, so that's how she spelled my name, J-E-F-F-E-R-Y, Jeffrey Henderson on Instagram.
I'll soon be launching at jeffhenderson.com, so if it's not up, just hang with me, and then gwinnettchurch.org. And I would love for you to follow @Gwinnettchurch on Instagram, because you're going to see a lot of things that we're learning, and things that... Some things are working, some things are not, but it's kind of real-time in terms of trying to reach people in our community.
As you know, my friends David Farmer and Shane Benson, we launched Launch Youniversity. And that's Launch Y-O-University and it's for entrepreneurs that are just trying to latch things. [00:37:05]
Then finally for any parents that have middle schoolers, I would encourage you to check out championtribes.com. It's a right of passage journey that we help parents and dads, particularly with a middle school son, a 12-year-old that's transitioning into the teenage years, we help them in that transition because we feel like it's a missing milestone in our Western culture, that we aren't initiating in a more intentional way. And that's what you do here at The Savvy Sauce. You're very intentional.
What we want to do in this particular way is to help dads in particular transition their sons into the teenage years by giving them a blessing. ChampionTribes.com. Actually started by my friend and I, David Salyers. We actually started that last year at this time. So those are a few ways.
Laura Dugger: We will link to all of these in the show notes. There's one more resource. It's not out yet, but will you tell us about your most recent project?
Jeff Henderson: Sure. So I'm writing a book called For, F-O-R, and it's really kind of based on the For Gwinnett strategy that we've implemented. But really, it's based on the fact, Laura, that I've been blessed to work with two thriving organizations in some respects at the top of their fields, Chick-fil-A and North Point Ministries. [00:38:18]
And I just thought that was a blessing until somebody convicted me and said, "You know what? It's not just a blessing. It's a stewardship opportunity. You should tell us what you learned." And I thought, Wow, you're right. A lot of people ask me, what's the biggest difference between Chick-fil-A and North Point working there? I said, well, the biggest difference is now I'm open on Sundays. Before Chick-fil-A, I was closed on Sundays. So that's kind of like the biggest difference.
But what I've discovered is there are more similarities. And as I reflected on this, I feel like I discovered what made these two organizations grow. And then I began to apply it to other organizations, and I thought, Oh, that's what caused them to grow as well. So what For is, For helps organizations grow by asking two questions. And so that's what it's about. The subtitle is A Better Strategy for Work and Even Better Strategy for Life.
And what I've discovered is that growing, thriving organizations have growing, thriving people. And so what I do in the book is I just tell people how these organizations grow and how you can grow your organization. Because I think we need more growing churches, I think we need more growing businesses, I think we need more growing nonprofit organizations. [00:39:23] Because if we have growing healthy organizations, we're going to have growing healthy communities. And growing healthy communities create growing healthy cities, and that's how you change the world.
So that's what the book's about. It's called For and I'm very excited about it. So thanks for asking.
Laura Dugger: Yes, I can't wait to get my hands on that in October. Maybe you can come back again closer to the launch date and we can feature more about the book.
Jeff Henderson: I would love that.
Laura Dugger: Listeners already know we are called The Savvy Sauce because "savvy" is synonymous with practical knowledge or discernment. And so Jeff, as my final question for you today, what is your savvy sauce?
Jeff Henderson: It's such a hard question, but it's such a great question. Because this is one of those questions, Laura, you're like, Oh, I should have said this. But let me just give you this. This is one of the first things my late mentor Steve Polk told me. He said, "Jeff, there's not a limit to what a person can do when she or he doesn't care who gets the credit." There's not a limit to what a person can do when he or she doesn't care who gets the credit. Don't worry about the credit. [00:40:24] If you aren't worried about that, there's not a limit to what you can do. And he was one of the most humble leaders that I've ever seen. And so I'm just trying to follow in his footsteps.
So again, such a wonderful question, such a hard question to boil down to one thing, but I would say that, that there's not a limit to what you can do if you don't care who gets the credit.
Laura Dugger: That's such a good challenge to end with. Jeff, you're just such an admirable leader. My husband, Mark, and I have looked up to you for years, and now I'm just so excited to share your wisdom with our audience. So thank you for giving us your time today.
Jeff Henderson: Absolutely, Laura. So honored to be here.
Laura Dugger: One more thing before you go. Have you heard the term "gospel" before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you. But it starts with the bad news. Every single one of us were born sinners and God is perfect and holy, so He cannot be in the presence of sin. Therefore, we're separated from Him.
This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So for you and for me, it means we deserve death and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved. [00:41:33] We need a savior. But God loved us so much, He made a way for His only Son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute.
This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with Him. That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live and died in our place for our sin. This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus.
We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished if we choose to receive what He has done for us. Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
So would you pray with me now? Heavenly, Father, thank You for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to You. Will You clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare You as Lord of their life? We trust You to work and change their lives now for eternity. In Jesus name, we pray, amen. [00:42:48]
If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring Him for me, so me for Him, you get the opportunity to live your life for Him.
At this podcast, we are called Savvy for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So you're ready to get started?
First, tell someone. Say it out loud. Get a Bible. The first day I made this decision my parents took me to Barnes and Noble to get the Quest NIV Bible and I love it. Start by reading the book of John.
Get connected locally, which basically means just tell someone who is part of the church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you.
We want to celebrate with you too. So feel free to leave a comment for us if you made a decision for Christ. We also have show notes included where you can read Scripture that describes this process. [00:43:49]
Finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.
If you've already received this good news, I pray that you have someone else to share it with today. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.
Welcome to The Savvy Sauce
Practical chats for intentional living
A faith-based podcast and resources to help you grow closer to Jesus and others. Expect encouragement, surprises, and hope here. Each episode offers lively interviews with fascinating guests such as therapists, authors, non-profit founders, and business leaders.
They share their best practices and savvy tips we can replicate to make our daily life and relationships more enjoyable!
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