How did Jesus lead? Is that something I can learn and apply today?

Jordan Ames asked that same question and so began a journey through the Gospels to document and define the various leadership skills demonstrated by Jesus.

In his new book Red Letter Leadership Jordan not only talks about how Jesus lead but also how we can apply those same principles in our life.

Whether leadership in your home, business, or as a professional, we can learn and should learn how Jesus led.

As a former Marine Jordan stayed connected with his family by being intentional to spend time with them and live out his faith in everyday life.

When kids are younger, time spent with our children is quality time, no matter what you are doing. Learn to invest in your children when they are young so they will continue with you when they are older.

Join us as we talk about leadership as a whole and specifically how we lead our family in the home to bring up children who love the Lord.

Redeem Your Business Today by the Following:

How can we honor God in our business?

Day by day live out your faith. People will not listen to what you have to say unless you have the character to back up what you are saying.

One challenge from today.

Fathers, spend time with your children. Under 13 years old, any time spent with your kids is quality time for them.

More About Jordan Ames

Website: https://www.redletterleadership.com

Order your copy today: Red Letter Leadership

More About David Schmidt

Subscribe to Redeeming Business Today Podcast Newsletter

Book a call: Get Unstuck and Move Forward

Website redeemingbusinesstoday.com

LinkedIn

Donate to the Show

Leadership is actually the act of guiding, directing, or showing the way. And leadership is needed not just in the business, but also in the home as well. And today I brought on Jordan Ames. He's been in the Marines for 21 years. And he has also gonna talk about a book he's written called The Red Letter to Leadership. And also about how leading at the home and to guide the children up in the way they should go.

Jordan, welcome to Redeeming Business Today. Glad to have you on.

Glad to be here, David. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to a conversation.

Yeah.

Yep, it's really exciting. I have a few sons who've been in the Marines and it's nice to have a fellow Marine to talk with today. But before we start, you've worked in the Marines, worked with a bunch of things. What is one way that you have found to honor God in your business that other people may not know about or might not be firsthand to them?

I think it really comes down to just the day-to-day ways and how you carry yourself. I was actually just giving a message at a local church a couple weeks ago, and I just told them, I said, it's important that people see Christ in us before they hear Christ from us. Because as leaders, you lead with your character. People are going to follow character and not just what you say.

If what you say, if your character doesn't back up what you say, then what you say isn't worth much. So they need to see Christ in us before they hear Christ from us. And so that just comes in our day-to-day interactions on how we carry ourselves, how we interact with other people, how we value other people, whether they align with us in politics and religion and anything. Are we still treating them as a child of God?

as we should treat anybody.

That's really good. I like the character bit because you're right. I've had some people who are leaders and character wise, they wouldn't be my friends outside of work, whatever. And, you know, so you don't really follow them, absolutely. Because you're right. If you do not walk the walk, as they say, why would they listen to you? So.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Well, well Jordan, you served in the Marines and you have worked your way through the gospels, compiled a book on leadership from Jesus teaching. Give us a brief description of the book on this leadership and what led you to write that.

Sure, so the book is a little over 370 lessons, leadership lessons directly from the Gospels. I think it's right around 376. And I was led to write them because coming out of the military, I just had a passion to go into leadership development space. I really wasn't sure what that looked like. And I just really felt the call in my heart to...

do it with a very much Christ-centered approach. A brand that has the Christ-centered leadership ⁓ aspect all around it. And so I registered a company, I called it Red Letter Leadership. And as I started thinking about what kind of content, like how do I even go about doing this, I just remember the Lord speaking to me and saying, we'll start in the red letters. It's like, well, duh, if I'm gonna call it Red Letter Leadership, that's where I should start. ⁓

I was always very passionate. ⁓ From the early time in the Marine Corps, I always focused on following Christ's example of leadership. And if I learned any leadership that didn't align with him, well, then I was going to kind of brush that aside. ⁓ And so with that effort to start in the red letters, I just started really for myself taking notes. I started reading Matthew 1. I just started taking notes.

And I went through Matthew and by the time I got to the end of Matthew, I was able to get two partners to join me. One, an Army soldier who's still actively serving. I met him a little over a decade ago and went through some training together. He has a lot of experience, a lot of deployments with the Army 75th Ranger Regiment, as well as a lot of experience in the conventional infantry units of the Army.

And then another gentleman I met shortly after I retired from the mutual contact, and he's actually just retiring from the Marine Corps as a Harrier pilot, has several deployments, combat. I think he flew over 250 combat missions in his Harrier jet. And so these guys just have a lot of experience. have ⁓ wonderful families and they're just, they're just on fire for the Lord. And they, as I share with them, my vision,

yeah.

read through the entire book. if you also read the scriptures, which hopefully people do, we have them listed with each lesson, you would have read through the entire four gospels and read over 370 leadership lessons. And we got a lot of encouragement to publish a book. We've got several endorsements waiting for our forward to come back. And yeah, it looks like it should be the book should roll out here by the end of the summer.

So we're really excited for it. We think it's going to add a lot of value to leaders, ⁓ large and small, from frontline workers to CEOs, from fathers, mothers, husbands, wives. We think it's going to add a lot of value and it's going to be foundational for the business.

Okay, very good. Sounds like a neat book to read. ⁓ How many kids do you have?

Yeah, thank you.

I have seven.

Seven, very good. I know the Marines are not always at home. What did you do to stay connected with your family, like if you were deployed or if you're not able to be around home all the time?

Sure.

Yeah, I phone call me and FaceTime, the way technology is nowadays, it allows certainly for us to stay connected as far as just chatting on the phone. Certainly as far as like pictures and stuff, I love to on Facebook whenever I was gone, so my wife would be posting things that we're doing and everything. But really, like the deeper connections I was able to have, and it was really with my

Older three are my boys and I have four younger girls. ⁓ So now my oldest four, three boys and a girl, they're my young adult children. And then I have three children that are still minors. ⁓ But where I was going all the time, my boys were the older ones. So I tried to invest as much as I could in time, just doing some small devotional time with them, you in the evening. ⁓ And then of course, just living.

living the church, being the body of Christ, ⁓ not just attending church on a Sunday morning, but really instilling those values of the Christian faith and trying to instill a passion of my kids to follow God. Because it's not, they can't adopt my faith. That's not even possible. It has to be their own. And trying to instill that in them, ⁓ whether I was there or whether I wasn't was number one.

and number one for me as a father.

Sure. And I know the main goal, I know what I look at is to pass on the faith. You want to pass on your faith to your kids. You want them to love Jesus as you do. ⁓ Any advice to fathers and families to help ideas to do that? Because it's not always, we don't always have good examples to follow. And people around us aren't teaching that, but we want to pass on the faith. Do you have any one or two things to say about that?

⁓ really like practice with them, include them in the things that you're doing. ⁓ I look back and I, you know, I failed at that many times. You know, it's so easy for us to go, I need to get this done. need to get that done. ⁓ and having a child be included in that might make it take a little longer. ⁓ it might be a little more inconvenience, but that's so important.

I wish I would have done a better job at doing that in the past, especially since I was gone so much, the times that I was physically there. ⁓ I showed him some things. just look at the other areas. I probably could have done a better job at doing that. But yeah, it's one thing I really have learned is that at a child's very young age, like zero to probably pre-teen, time, ⁓

is quality time with the child. So whether it's just sitting next to them on the couch, ⁓ watching a show or something, or reading a book, or just doing some drawing with them, whatever the case, it might seem very minimal or ⁓ not important to us, but it's extremely important because it's time. Now, once they get in their teenage years, they'll kind of...

judge what's quality. They want to go do something with a friend. They want to go do this, go do that. But when you invest in just time with them, again, something I wish I would have done better, I focused on, well, I want to reserve the time for quality time. And I think that was a mistake. as I look back, like, that little bit of time that I could use to do this or do that would have been

would have been really good. So that would be my biggest advice is that any sort of time with your children is quality time and don't ever forget it.

Yeah. No, that, makes sense. And I've heard some people say, you know, between zero and five, they need a lot of, a lot of little bits of time, but as they get older, they can have fewer chunks of time, but further apart, but they're longer, longer chunks of time. ⁓ I know I have kids outside the home right now and I like to make it a point to talk to them least twice a month. You know, even if I carry on a 20 minute conversation twice a month, I feel like we stay connected and I stay a part of their life.

⁓ yeah.

No.

⁓ But like I couldn't do that one in the home, you know, ignore you all week and just say hi once a week. But ⁓ yeah, very much different, the different ages. And that's, that's good to remember.

Yeah, and understanding their behavior

style as well. I joined the John Maxwell leadership team and became a consultant with the Maxwell Disc Method. I've learned a lot about that whole idea of understanding behavior and communication styles. Each child is going to need a little something different from you. One may need shorter bursts, but more often, whereas one could be like, 20 minutes every month is good for me.

Yes.

yeah.

Yeah, and I definitely have extroverts and definitely have introverts and they completely different. Yeah.

Same. When you guys make kisses, we're

gonna have them all over the place.

yeah, yeah. when you look at, it's interesting, you said something earlier about ⁓ leadership that was taught in the Marines that may not have aligned to the Bible and that you just like, I'm not gonna do that. I don't try to bad mouth things, but what would be an example of something that they teach today in leadership that is something that we as Christians probably shouldn't be doing?

Tom.

Can you share anything? I don't know.

Zinke!

I mean, certainly like the do as I say, not as I do, you know, concept, that's not biblical. You know, there's a time to be very direct and, you know, dominant. I think Jesus showed that several in several instances, but he didn't, he didn't like move forward with that. Usually if he was that way, it was in a response to who he was talking to. Like he was the

perfector at understanding their behavior and communication style, the people he was talking to, not only that, he understood their hearts, which we can't do like he did, but we can gauge their hearts based off of their behavior and their communication. ⁓ So I think at the same time, we're responsible for how we speak. ⁓ But I think if we just lead with a showing of

valuing the other person. That's going to go so far with influence. A lot of people look at the military and they're like, leadership in the military, you just have to do what you're told. So being a leader is easy because you just tell people to do it they have to do it. I'm like, that's not at all how it works. Sure, they have to do it. And there's a whole UCMJ that has your back if they don't do it. But that's no way to lead.

Some leaders, I think, they led that way. They led by coercion and not persuasion, so to speak. So they're leading because I say it and not because I've shown you this is the best way, this is the best decision, this is the best course of action, and that's why we're doing it. A good leader is you're going to know and trust them, and that's why you're going to follow them, not because you're threatened with some sort of court action.

So.

Yeah. And you said a key word there is trust. You know, I trust you because your past competence, because your past track record and, hey, you didn't know what to do. You told us you didn't know what to do. And you're not afraid to take input from other people. I believe that's a good leader. Yeah.

Absolutely.

not the character.

Yeah, I can share a quick example.

Well, I found a couple specific, very important roles and responsibilities as a team commander, I needed to be able to do. ⁓ And it made my whole team look bad. So that's as a leader, as a commander in any situation, when you foul up your whole unit, your whole team's gonna look bad. ⁓ But I was very, I knew I screwed up and I knew trying to...

like act like it was just something all of us were going to fix was not the right answer. Trying to act like it wasn't fully on me was not the right answer. ⁓ I knew I had to be humble with my commanders. I knew I had to be humble in front of my team, take ownership from it, and actually tell them how I was going to fix it. And I think that even though I did lose some trust with the team and even with the commanders, ⁓

they were able to, think my follow-on actions were able to reinstate some of that trust and confidence. And so we went and had a pretty successful employment.

Good, good. That goes along with the book that I'm he talked to a leader and the basically leader said, I'm not going to promote anybody who has a perfect track record because basically nobody's perfect. And I want to see what happens when they make a mistake, because when they make a mistake, they're either going to brush aside or delegate the responsibility to somebody else, or they take ownership of it, admit they're wrong and make it right.

And depending on how you react, tells your character and shows if you're promotable or not. And I've seen that in different companies I've been in and different people, how they respond. I'm like, okay, that makes sense. know, take ownership, take responsibility, come clean is what I tell people. Just come clean and go forward. So.

Yeah.

That's great.

Yeah, so ⁓

what book was that?

It's actually called The Awe of God. I forget the guy's name, Awe of God. And he's talking about the fear of the Lord. And he spent 20 years or so studying the fear of the Lord, how we need to fear the Lord. And that's the foundation, not just of wisdom and knowledge, but yeah, it's how you look at God. And it's very, very good book. I'm just started into it, but I haven't finished it. So, well, you have...

Okay.

That's great.

gone through all the gospels, you've got all these lessons, is there one or two favorite lessons that really stand out for you that you're like, this is, I love this?

Yeah, there's a cup now.

I would say I think our writing, well, my writing specifically got better, of course, as I continued on. ⁓

yeah.

I think the, I love the parable of the talents. learned that's a, that is a passage that has really been on my heart throughout the past year or so as I'm stepping out, you know, I retired from the military, stepping out into entrepreneurship. ⁓ Cause when I always thought of stewardship, I just thought of, okay, I got to be very careful about how I use God's resources.

⁓ But the parable of talents takes that little step forward and it actually encourages us to take risk with God's resources. That includes our own—that's not just financial resources, ⁓ but that includes our own situations, ⁓ our own vision. If you want to take a little risk, if God puts a vision on your heart to see it into fruition and trust that He's going to

give you additional resources for it. that's something that's been really weighing on my heart, making sure that I trust God in that. The Parable of Talents in Matthew 25, I think we titled the lesson Add Value to Multiply It. And so the idea there is that we are focused on giving, focused on

⁓ adding value to people day in and day out with what God has given us. And then in turn, if they're focused on doing the same thing, we will be multiplying our value. We'll just be exponentially multiplying. ⁓ But with the potential He's given us, with our talents, our abilities, with the financial resources He's given us, if we just sit on that and we just enjoy it for ourselves, like that guy who got one talent, he just buried it. And when the Master came to call on it,

that's all he had to give. it's not like he was a prodigal son who just completely squandered what he was given. This guy actually had it to give back. So you think, that's not terrible. But the master called him wicked. That's a pretty strong word. And so that's really convicted me over the year. It's like, am I doing to take

take risks, calculate a risk, of course, we're not going to be foolish. No, it's not just some big gamble, but a calculated risk to where I need to take a step of faith and trust God for what's next, even if I don't have all the answers. So that one and I think I'll say, I mean, there's a lot of good ones in John, even my partners wrote.

I mean, honestly, it's funny, ⁓ but I'm excited to like get the book and start going back through it because it's a resource for me. It's like a library, you know, that that we'll use to, ⁓ I mean, for probably for years, ⁓ we'll use it. And I could see us even refining things, maybe five, 10 years down the road, just like a second edition, because it's it is a very comprehensive study, but it's not an exhaustive study. you know, it's God's Word is living.

Mm-hmm.

and it's going to speak to us differently again. It's going to speak to those that are reading our book. They're going to read the passage and get even a different leadership lesson. I love the one where Jesus, and he's telling his disciples, look at the Last Supper, that he's going to leave them a counselor. And that got me thinking, especially when I have young adult children now, I have teenage children.

And I'm thinking about like, how can I lead them better? How can I influence them? They're kind of past the time. And I'm sure this resonates with lot of fathers of teenagers out there, but.

teenagers don't always want to listen to their parents, right? It's like just that time in life where they're like, you know, I got things figured out, I'm going to listen to you, But they can still be influenced. And ⁓ if they have a attitude, it can be influenced by, of course, anybody that they're willing to. And so I just I was looking at that how Jesus was leaving the Holy Spirit. It made me think of

I I titled the lesson, leadership is a relay. As I got sometimes we need to pass the opportunity for somebody else to influence even our children and empower that person or those individuals. Of course you want to be selective with that, but empower people at your church, empower the people at the school, your sports coaches at my leisure, your kids.

If you feel like you're not getting somewhere with your children, ⁓ it could be they've like they literally just heard enough from you and they want to go out and try things on their own and they need to, right? Again, they need to have their own faith. And so leadership is a relay. Other people can influence your children just as well as you can.

You just wanna get good people to influence them. That's right. ⁓ I've always thought over the past couple of years, it's like, you know what? I feel like this is a God given thing for teenagers and that they have so much confidence that they know what they're doing. If they would just listen, they'd be making a whole lot better. But I'm like, you know what? I figured they have to have this confidence or they would never leave home. They'll never go to college. They'll never try to get a job if they didn't feel like they could do anything.

Absolutely.

Wait.

And so I think that that is God given this confidence to go forward in life and to do things. And then you hit later on in life and then you realize you look back saying, yeah, I guess I can do things and God is there. But yeah, I think if we don't have that oomph, yeah, lack of confidence, I don't know what's gonna happen to us. So your book's coming out.

Yeah, absolutely.

By time this comes out, your book will be out. How can we get a hold of your book or do you have a website or anything that we can learn more?

Yeah, my website is www.redletterleadership.com. The book will be out on Amazon. It will be uploaded on Amazon. You'll be able to buy it. We're doing a hardcover paperback as well as an e-book. It's going to be pretty big just because all the lessons are to be a six by nine. And so, yeah, I think the most valuable

Okay.

though will be the most expensive form on Amazon, I think it's the most valuable as a hardcover, because not only is this just a book you can sit down and read cover to cover if you so choose to do so, ⁓ we're compiling a very comprehensive index so you can use it as a resource book as well and something that you can sell on your bookshelf for years to come.

Hmm, okay, very good. ⁓ In summary, do you have one challenge for our audience today? If you could leave them with one challenge from your book or from your life, what would it be?

That's a big one. I think it's where my heart is. I don't know if I mentioned since we've been recording here, but my oldest six are adopted. We had a miracle baby, I'm a number seven. And so I've always had a heart for, really my wife was the first one to kind of...

come to me and say she wanted to adopt. And since then, we've really had a heart for the least of these. And I just really, with all my time away, I'm just so ⁓ passionate. the whole Bible cover to cover is about relationships. And for fathers, the most important one is our children. Aside from our wife and our relationship with Christ, like...

at work, ⁓ friends we have, the most important relationship is our children. And they're going to be the ones that are susceptible to most to our influence. So again, I challenge every father out there to spend time with their children. And again, even if you don't think it's quality time, it's quality time.

And thank you very much. That is a good perspective on that. Well, Jordan, thank you so much for today and for your encouragement. Next steps is to, hey, I'm going to put into practice what you heard, checked out the show notes. I'm going to have links to his site and his books. You can get that when it comes out. And I encourage you to sign up for the newsletter, subscribe to the podcast and continue fighting the good fight of faith. And friends, that's all for now. Trust you've been inspired to redeem your business, redeem your time, buy it back, walk worthy of God's great name.

Absolutely.