Flourishing: How the World is Discovering God’s Divine Design of Mankind

Flourishing: How the World is Discovering God’s Divine Design of Mankind

Oct. 15, 2024

Hosts: Dr. Jamie Mitchell

Guest(s): Steve French

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 10/15/24. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Jamie Mitchell:

Well welcome again for an hour of education, encouragement, enlightening and equipping as we start the Tuesday edition of Stand In the Gap. Today I am your host, Jamie Mitchell, director of church culture with the American Pastor’s Network. Today’s discussion may be a little different, stretch us a bit in regards to subject matter that we normally don’t talk about here on Stand of the Gap, but I think will be really informative for us throughout the scriptures, there is a consistent theme that the God of the universe wants to redeem, fallen mankind, and transform us into usable and purposeful servants for his kingdom and his glory. It is the reason that God fills us with His Holy Spirit. It’s why he gives us gifts and ability. It’s why he keeps us here on Earth. It’s why we’re called ministers, ambassadors, coal laborers. It’s also important to note that each of us has been given a unique design and purpose, your personal collection of experiences, talent, story, relationships, and situations make you and I distinct.

Jamie Mitchell:

With that said, it’s behooving upon us then to take what God has bestowed on us, cultivate it, nurture it, see it grow into full bloom and bring forth the maximum fruit. Jesus said it this way in John 15, in the parable of the vine of the branches that we are to give all fruit, more fruit and much fruit. Interestingly, this idea of divine design and the need to be fruitful is a discussion that’s happening in the academic and business world. And even though they may not understand the connection to God’s transformative power, they are encouraging people to consider what is a direct biblical truth. The secular world uses the word flourishing. The idea comes from a Latin idea of to bloom or to reach the fullness of personal potential, socially, relationally, productivity, and mentally all of that good in a person is exhibited and functioning for the good. What is fascinating is major colleges and universities are now dedicating themselves to study this issue and many evangelicals are getting to weigh in those conversations. Our topic today flourishing how the world is discovering God’s divine Design for mankind. And our guest is Steve French. He’s the pastor of LX Partners, a leadership multiplication organization impacting schools, colleges, businesses, churches, ministries. See’s been on the forefront of interacting on leaders on this subject and can help us understand a bit about what’s happening in the world in regard to flourishing. Steve, welcome to Stand in the Gap today.

Steve French:

Well, thank you very much. It’s great to be with you. Thanks for the invitation,

Jamie Mitchell:

Steve. We have a lot to discuss and so let’s get to introduce this whole subject from your vantage point. What is flourishing and why is it a big issue in the secular world today, and how did you find yourself interacting with the subject?

Steve French:

Well, what is flourishing is something that it means the total wellbeing of a person, and I just have been amazed at how much there’s been this emphasis, as you said in your opening to this idea of flourishing, but it is so biblical that I got really excited about understanding this whole need to really look at the total wellbeing of a person.

Jamie Mitchell:

So Steve, this whole idea of flourishing and people finding out exactly the design that they have and then bringing forth the fruit. We talk about this in the Christian realm a lot, but the secular world has grabbed onto it and they see this as a great value. They

Steve French:

Sure do. It’s amazing. I’ve been in leadership development particularly focused the last 25 years with Christian marketplace leaders, and I also spent 10 years as a senior pastor and 10 years as a youth pastor. So I really get the audiences that not only listening in but just that are all around this subject right now. And I’ll tell you, I’m just amazed at how much there is interest in it. And for instance, in the Christian marketplace, public square, a lot of Christians who own companies have talked about this total employee engagement. I want my employees to actually come to work, I want their full selves. And so I’m seeing more and more interest not only from the Christians but also from the secular owners and business leaders that are saying, you know what? It sure would be nice to have a total person there with me nine to five, but they’ve realized that because you just try to dismiss faith, particularly that secular business leaders are realizing, oh my goodness, I can’t force an employee to divorce their faith, nor do I want them to force it, but I do want them to show up. I do want all that Christianity provides, like the ethics, the integrity, humility, compassion, all those things. So I’m seeing this turnaround of people in the marketplace particularly and academics. We can talk a little bit about that later where it’s just amazing how the biblical principles are still really important today when they start connecting dots between really good living and what the Bible has to say,

Jamie Mitchell:

Steve, from the marketplace side of thing, an employer or an owner of business, he’s looking at it as, I want somebody to be productive. I want somebody to do their work. I want somebody to make me some money. But they’re finding that part of that productivity or maybe a great portion of that productivity ties back to these flourishing issues, isn’t it?

Steve French:

Yeah, it really is. And particularly when you are really focused in on the total wellbeing of an employee, there is so much money now being spent all the more after covid where there’s so much money being spent on the health of the employee. And I do think that particularly coming out of Covid, this focus on mental health has caused the employer to say, you know what? Mental health actually matters. I used to dismiss it, but it matters. And now since I’m talking about mental health, maybe I should be talking about the full health of an employee. So it’s just been encouraging to me to see how employers are starting to care about their employees.

Jamie Mitchell:

It’s interesting as I work with seniors and within the senior world, there is this definition of optimum living for seniors, and they say, when seniors get older, we got to make sure that we are making sure they’re mentally and physically and relationally and vocationally and spiritually hitting the optimum of their life. That’s the other term of flourishing. And what we’re going to find out is the secular world, the academic world is focused on this, which opens the door to ask the question as how does fate play a role in us flourishing in the marketplace, in the community? That’s what we’re talking today on Stand in the Gap Today. We want you to flourish and to be an agent for flourishing. So come back and join Steve as we continue this discussion here at Stand in the Gap today. Well, welcome back. My guest today is Steve French, and we are discussing the topic of flourishing.

Jamie Mitchell:

Now that term and concept might be foreign to you, but I assure you as a believer in Christ, we’ve discussed the ideas and may not have used that word. As a matter of fact, the idea can be traced all the way back to the Old Testament. In Genesis one, God told Adam that he was to be fruitful and multiply, indicating that human beings from the beginning were called to flourish and therefore to bear fruit, which is not only biological offsprings, but also in relationship to all elements of creation. And again, the New Testament, we see numerous references with this same idea and as always the secular world from time to time, they’ll take a biblical idea, they’ll humanize it, and in some cases remove the idea of God’s involvement in maybe the flourishing process. Nevertheless, human flourishing is an important topic and one that the world, especially the academic and business world has locked onto. Steve, I’ve hinted at the potential problem of discussing this topic of flourishing. I want you to weigh in from your conversation with people, and probably you talked to a lot of unbelievers about this. What are some benefits to the flourishing discussions that have been occurring, and what are some potential problems that arise as you interact with people?

Steve French:

Yeah. Well, I certainly believe that it’s a great benefit for employers to really have healthy employees, so there is some huge benefits to that. I love, as you could probably tell Jamie, throughout the years you’ve known me, that the idea of just being salt and light and just when a biblical topic essentially comes up to just, I love this idea of creating curiosity in the marketplace, creating curiosity in the academic world and saying, huh, I didn’t realize that Genesis one had something to say about that, and to now open up a discussion, it’s like, yeah, this is a conversation guys that we’re having now that’s been around for a long time and since the beginning of time, in fact. And so I see a lot of benefit to just conversations being had as well regarding some pitfalls. I mean, certainly anytime that you begin to talk about biblical things and then the world hijacks it and takes God out of it, that is certainly something that it can be a pitfall, but it’s important for us as Christians to step into it and to lean into it and to really be clear as to how this is whatever we’re talking about in this case, flourishing.

Steve French:

It’s a biblical principle and it really does work well. So I do think a pitfall is when we have essentially the Lord taken out of the conversation, we as Christians do not step back into it with being clear as to how biblical it truly is.

Jamie Mitchell:

And Steve, one of the things as Christians, the mistake we make is to think that we can’t speak on these issues. I mean, when we talk about the wellbeing of a person, their intellect, their emotions, physical wellbeing, relational wellbeing, and then obviously the spiritual end, but of those other things, Bible, and as a Christian, we have a lot to say about it. We can add a lot to the conversations, and God’s word gives us some standards and some practical insights on how to flourish in those areas. And I think as Christians, we have a lot to offer, especially if we have these conversations with unbelievers. But Steve, I want you to address something I know from our relationship and just for full disclosure, Steve and I, we’ve known each other for 30, 35 years. I’ve done some ministry together over the years and I’ve heard a lot of these conversations, but I know one thing that’s a heartbeat of yours, and that is Jesus, the ultimate disciple maker, and should I say Steve, the one who really brought the best out of a rogue group of teenagers and helped them flourish, how do you apply the life and ministry of Jesus Christ to this issue?

Steve French:

Sure, and your audience would probably, it would be good to tell ’em that I spent the last 25 years carefully studying the chronology of how Jesus is developing 12 business guys, and so did not only study the life of Christ but the leadership of Christ. And so one of the really amazing things is just when you study the chronology of Jesus dealing with Christian, well at that time they weren’t Christian. They were just marketplace guys, young marketplace guys that he says, come follow me. And for the first 18 months, he is just developing relationships with them. He’s getting to understand who they really are, the person that they are. And after 18 months, he then goes up to the mountain prays and he calls those whom he wants to be with. It’s this sense of being relational, the chemistry. He really has a good chemistry with them and wants to be with them.

Steve French:

So here’s 18 months of really getting to know the person, the whole person, and now he calls them, I want to be with you on a more intense intentional basis. And now one week later, the first thing that they do as a team is they have this thing called a Sermon on the Mount where Jesus declares, you said at the opening a biblical worldview for the first time, he’s going to say to his team, Hey guys, the world thinks this way. I think this way about it. The world sees life this way. I see life this way. And he introduces a worldview. And what is amazing is that Jonathan Pennington, out of Southern Baptist Seminary, has written a wonderful book called The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing, and he does an excellent job of breaking down that this sermon all on the Mount, really when it says blessed are they, it’s really the word flourishing.

Steve French:

Flourishing are the poor in spirit because the kingdom of God is there’s flourishing are the mourns because they will be comforted and we can get into that if we wanted to. But the point being is that Jesus was all over flourishing. In fact, so much so that he spending 18 months before he even starts doing any major miracles to just get to know the people on his team, chooses them. And then he’s really clear on the fact that this is the way I see the total person, this is the way that we’re going to flourish together. Just a little thoughts there regarding Jesus and his disciples.

Jamie Mitchell:

Yeah, Jesus was not myopic, was he, Steve? He wasn’t just about creating a bunch of guys who could go out and convert a whole bunch of people. Jesus viewed each one with their unique issues, their unique concerns, their unique design, and brought the best out of them, and then even better he fit them all together. I mean, that’s a model in itself, whether you’re in the workplace, you’re a teacher in a school, you’re a leader in the church or just in your home, isn’t it of how to unleash that whole idea of bringing the best out of people and helping people flourish.

Steve French:

I also see Jesus modeling for this. So we all see Jesus obviously, Hey, a big time teacher. I mean the guy could really teach well and he came, but it’s amazing how much time he spending with the emotional concerns of people modeling what it means to care about the mental issues, the physical issues. And so I see Jesus over the next 18 months with his disciples. He’s just modeling what it means to be caring about the whole person. And so it’s just amazing how much more effective his teaching is when he lays the bedrock, the foundation of human flourishing.

Jamie Mitchell:

Steve, we got a couple of minutes left for this segment, and we’ll probably get more into this in a moment, but you get to share these principles of Christ, his life, his modeling, his leadership development. Do you get to share this sometimes with people who are not people of faith, people who are not believers, how do they receive these insights?

Steve French:

They are like, they’re often, not always, but often their mouth just kind of drops and wow, I’ve never thought about that. In fact, I come across Christians who say, I’ve really banked my life on Jesus. Never thought about banking my leadership on him. But when you do talk to non-Christians and you start creating this curiosity of, Hey, I know a leader that did a pretty good job of developing employees, yeah, yeah, a dysfunctional team quite a bit, but they all ended up giving up their lives for ’em. So needless to say is that the principles that Jesus, like we talk about worldview in the nine months course that I provide, and worldview talks about compassion and integrity and humility and compassion, all the courage and legacy. So all the issues that employers are interested in, but they’ve never thought of it in terms of a biblical perspective on it. And when they start getting a biblical perspective on it, there is a lot of eyebrows that are lifted.

Jamie Mitchell:

Interesting friends, when I listen to people on tv, discuss about how to have a great marriage, I can hear underneath what they’re saying, biblical truth, without them believing the Bible. The same is true about parenting. The same is true is about how to handle finances. It’s amazing how much of God’s word and this biblical worldview that we talk about here on Stand of the Gap, find its way into the world. Our job is to connect the dots to help people see that it’s the God of heaven who’s the originator of these ideas. When we come back, Steve’s going to share how the academic world is researching flourishing and really taking a lead to help unveil God’s divine design. Come back and join with us here at Stand of the Gap today. I’m so glad that you’ve come back and you’re continuing with us with a unique conversation about human flourishing.

Jamie Mitchell:

This is the idea, God having a specific unique purpose for all of our lives, to see us reach that potential of being full bloom or flourishing, but also to have a total wellbeing of our life relationally, socially, intellectually and spiritually. And Steve French is our guest today. We’ve been talking about it. He’s a pastor, he’s a consultant, he’s been training leaders. He’s even gotten thrusted into becoming the interim president of a Christian college. And Steve, it’s in this academic world. I want to discuss during this segment, they’re very interested in this idea of human flourishing. They’re devoting all kinds of resources to its research and even developing entire departments to the subject. I want you to share with our audience what is it that you’ve discovered, and I think our audience would be encouraged to hear how believers are playing a role in these discussions in the academic world.

Steve French:

Well, Jamie, I got thrust into this whole discussion. I’m not an academic at all. I have an MA from Wheaton College, so I have a little bit of academic behind me, but I am just a primarily a relationship guy that loves leaders and I love leading leaders, but I got thrusted into the academic side of things where I just feel so inadequate sometimes. But God often uses our weaknesses for his glory, and that’s what he seems to be doing with me right now because my son-in-Law, who used to hang around my house when he was in sixth grade, fell in love with my daughter, and eventually they got married and he ends up being the first in his class at Duke. So he was not only smart to meet to marry my daughter, Jamie, but he’s also smart in a lot of other areas, but finished first in his class at Duke, and then Harvard saw that and invited him to be a part and lead the human flourishing department, the research team there. And so all of a sudden I’m in the middle of the discussion on human flourishing with big minds. And so anyway, it’s been a lot of fun watching and seeing what’s been going on at not only Harvard, but at Baylor and a few other schools as well on this whole topic of human flourishing.

Jamie Mitchell:

And Steve, what exactly are they looking for when they are doing this research? For what benefit? What is the application that they will take this research and try to turn it loose on?

Steve French:

Well, I think that they would say that at the end of the day, it’s actually for humans to benefit. It’s actually, if we can better understand what it means to flourish, then maybe people can start making smarter decisions with their lives. Maybe employers can start making better decisions. Maybe pastors can start thinking about the whole council of God and maybe even talking more and more about issues of health and the importance of it. So I do think that Harvard, Baylor, all these other schools that are really into it, one of the big takeaways would be that if we can really get a handle measure and really see the data as it relates to human flourishing, maybe just maybe humans would flourish more, that they would have better lives as a result.

Jamie Mitchell:

Steve, obviously in places like Harvard, it’s not a bastion of the evangelical faith. Probably they don’t have the same high value of the scriptures like we do. Their view of God may even be much different than ours. But your son-in-law is having a unbelievable opportunity to not only weigh in on these things, but obviously bring his faith perspective into it. What kind of reception is he getting and is there an openness within the secular academic world to hearing the Christian perspective?

Steve French:

So it’s really exciting for me to see a young 30 something making such a significant dent in what’s going on there at Harvard. And the whole department in fact is really taking that biblical adage of being wise, this serpents and gentle as doves, and just to carefully walk through landmines and be able to say in so many words, Hey, listen, if we’re going to talk about the total wellbeing of a person, should not that include faith? Well, the Harvard brass says, well, of course that needs to be included. So then all that, our research that we do will have the element of faith incorporated into it. Well, of course, why not? So there’s this sense of instead of just saying faith, faith, faith, faith and pushing it right into the faces of the administration, you just come around the backside of it and think wisely about how do we approach this total wellbeing that includes faith. Let’s begin to include faith in all that we do in our research.

Jamie Mitchell:

Now, Steve, recently this past year you hosted and were part of a gathering, a conference or a forum right there at Harvard with faith leaders. Can you give me a little report on that?

Steve French:

Yeah, no, it was just wonderful. So as any dad would imagine to be able to do anything with your son or your son-in-Law, he’s deeply love and to be in the same room and be in both zones together where he is all over research and data, and I’m all over relationships. And so for him to say, why don’t we just report on what’s happening with our studies and human flourishing and why don’t we bring Christian business leaders that you have in your network over 23,000 men and women who are in my network, why don’t we just bring a select group of influencers and let’s share with them not just an inspiration, but also the data. So you go to conferences and it’s either data driven or inspirationally driven, and to have this data that’s presented and then, hey, here, here’s the biblical application that you can apply at work. So we also brought in companies that are doing well with this, like Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby, other organizations that we think are really attempting to really get the human flourishing done well in their companies. And so I’ve been really excited about that. That’s going to be an annual thing for select groups, and I’m just really thrilled to be a part of what is going on there at Harvard.

Jamie Mitchell:

Steve, have you had any follow-up conversations, especially with companies or organizations that aren’t necessarily led by Christians? I mean, when we think of Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby, we know that in their heritage they’ve had people who’ve loved Jesus and loved the Bible, but there were obviously other people and companies that were represented that didn’t have that full faith expression. Have you been able to have some follow-up conversations with them as well about some of the research that you found and how it may impact them?

Steve French:

Yeah, so the answer to that question is very little. We have had some, but we think that the smartest thing to do is first of all, start with those that are already believers who really want to see this study go beyond just the walls of Harvard. But as you know me, there’s this, I always want to bring some other people in the room that just aren’t quite there. And what I love seeing happening is that if you create communities of their peers, it creates curiosity. And I’m a pastor. I’ve been that for many, many years over, and I could speak to ’em blue in the face, but then if a peer says the exact same thing that I’ve said, all of a sudden they have ears to hear. And so it’s our hope that annually as we report out on what the data saying, how to apply it to the business world, that we’re going to have a multiplied impact as a result.

Jamie Mitchell:

Steve, I’m reminded as Psalm two speaks on how the nations are raging against the people of God. And that whole Psalm talks about how the secular world, the unbelieving world, both looks at Israel, but really the people of God and their anger and their disdain for us and all of that. But the same time, the psalmist then writes at the bottom of how merciful God is and how God wants the best for the unbelievable. That’s why he came. A matter of fact, in the psalmist, the Psalmist prophetically talks about Jesus, and he says, there’s going to come a time where you’re going to have the opportunity to kiss the Son, and he even makes the appeal bow your knee and kiss the Son, worship this coming son of God. We sometimes think when we engage in the academic world, business world with people who aren’t of faith, that they’re raging against us, but when we do get a chance to have clear dialogue with people about what we believe and the valuable elements of our faith in the Bible and God’s desire for mankind, we really get a platform with them. Isn’t that true? You’ve seen that over the years with the multitude of business people that you’ve worked with.

Steve French:

Yes, it really has. I mean, I remember a season of my life in the early two thousands when I had a relationship with the president and the two main vice presidents of Disney World, and to be able to really help them start understanding how they can be salt and light where they are, and there’s so much more work to be done, but the same thing’s happening at Harvard as well. So all these schools, all these places, you’re right. If we can just pray and really encourage those that are in those spots to be salt and light, oh, what a difference that could make.

Jamie Mitchell:

Hey, we’re going to be back to our last segment. We’re talking about flourishing and making a difference in the world. Join back with us in just a few moments here at Stand In the Game. Well, we’ve been discussing flourishing and helping people reach their full life’s potential and to find full wellness in all areas of their life and become the most productive people that they can. It is a discussion that the world is talking about, and even though they may not fully understand the theological influence behind that topic, they’re reaching out to believers and believers are having an influence. One of those people is Steve French. He’s interacting with business and the academic world and helping them see why Christians have something to say about flourishing. Steve, before we go any further, you have a website, an email address, someplace where people can find out about your ministry, maybe reach out with questions, who should reach out to you and for what purpose would they get some needed information from you?

Steve French:

Sure. I would say that anyone that has a Christian marketplace leader in their lives, that they ought to reach out because we have this nine month program that really helps Christian marketplace leaders integrate faith with work. And that’s www lx partners.org, that’s lx partners.org. And if any time that they want to reach out to me in regards to that or reach out to me regarding the human flourishing initiatives that’s going on at Harvard, I’d be happy to really help them navigate how they can get more information on that. Also, Jamie, you may be interested in knowing that we’re right now making plans for not only that annual marketplace conference at Harvard that I mentioned, but also one that’s going to be a day long for nonprofit and church leaders. And so if they would like more information on that once it becomes available in the next two months, I’ll be happy to send that to them. And they can reach me at steve@lxpartners.org. So that’s steve@lxpartners.org.

Jamie Mitchell:

Outstanding and really would encourage you if this program has both enlightened you and interested you, follow up with Steve and follow up with what they’re doing at Harvard, and especially if you’re a church leader, tell your pastor about this because I think there’s some things to learn. Steve, with that in mind, I just want to take a little quick turn here and talk about the faith community and this whole issue of flourishing. This is a subject we should be talking about in the church. We should be talking about it with one another. What have you discovered about believers understanding and engaging and flourishing, and how would embracing and engaging this topic help followers of Jesus Christ?

Steve French:

Well, I’ll tell you, it begins with us as individual Christ followers. I mean, how well is our lives reflecting God’s wholeness in us? In other words, practical application. I got on the scale yesterday. I am five pounds heavier than what I was about two months ago ago. I got to put a check on that because I want to be physically healthy, and I know that if I get overweight, it affects my emotional wellbeing. It reflects perhaps some lack of discipline and other areas like my spiritual walk. So it starts first of all with just getting honest and humble before the Lord, saying, Lord, you have given me this body. It’s your temple. I need to start moving in the direction where I honor you and that I want my life to flourish for your sake and for your glory, but I need to take care of myself to follow your instructions and to be better at caring for that.

Steve French:

So I do think that sometimes we don’t talk about this as Christians is because it only takes us to start talking about it, and people look at us and say, you’re not the most emotionally stable person I’ve ever come across, or the most mentally stable person or the most physically fit. And of course, you don’t need to be at the top of your game on all those things, but you’re at least in a place where you’re moving in a direction to be flourishing. So I think Christians often don’t talk about this because it hits home too quickly and too deeply. And I would like to encourage our friends to step on the scale of whatever scale it’s and take an honest inventory and begin to move forward in your own human flourishing. I think if we started to take care of ourselves and challenge one another in those realms, that we would be better spokespeople for it.

Steve French:

And then of course, I think it starts with pastors often creating conversations once last time that there has been a sermon series on flourishing, just a four part five part series on mental health, physical health, spiritual health, on down the line. So I do think that pastors as well, if they would just step up and step into this topic and start out with Genesis one, just talk about what it meant for God to make man, and he looks at him and says, not only is this good, the whole thing is really very good, the total wellbeing at this point, and to just be able to take scripture, take a sermon on the mount and just talk about what does it mean to flourish these types of insights would be helpful for Christians to do.

Jamie Mitchell:

And as we have already talked a little bit, Jesus had something to say about this in John 10, Steve, when he said that he has come to give us life and to give us life more abundantly. He wasn’t just talking about getting to heaven there. He was talking about the whole person he

Steve French:

Was. And the apostle Paul follows that up, I think in one Corinthians 15, I think it’s verse 22, where it says to become fully alive. It’s that word. And I just think that Jesus as well, it was just so committed to making sure that he modeled the love and care and concern for the whole person. So yes, Jamie, spot on this abundant life wasn’t just a spiritual part, it was the whole life.

Jamie Mitchell:

So Steve, practically speaking, if I was leading a small group of let’s say couples or I had a small group of men, and next week I kind of threw a little curve ball. I said, I’ve been listening to this stand in the gap, guys. And they had this guy on there talking about flourishing and Well, you know what? We’re going to do a little inventory. How are you all doing intellectually, mentally? Are you reading some things that are stretching you? How about emotionally? Where are you sitting emotionally, physically? Are you taking walks? Are you watching your weight? That’s what we’re basically encouraging, right? The kind of conversations where as believers, we’re iron sharpening iron, we’re practicing the one another’s, but helping each other get to the of a wellbeing.

Steve French:

That’s exactly right. And I tell you, it begins with that word inventory. Taking an inventory, for instance, Harvard, they’re creating all sorts of conversations around the world now. Why? Because they have a 12 question inventory of what it means to be totally flourishing. So then they take that data and they present it to different people all around the world. This is what people are saying. Templeton Foundation just gave Baylor and Harvard $40 million to do the first ever global study of what does it mean to flourish. And so I’m convinced that even in our own little small groups, if we would simply start taking an inventory of where are we as it relates to the total wellbeing of our lives, I think that it would create conversations that would go pretty deep and would be pretty significant.

Jamie Mitchell:

Well, thank you Steve French for giving us insights needed to understand, to engage in our culture, lever these conversations. My guess is employers are thinking about it. Pastors should be thinking about it, academics are, and our prayer is that you always share what you’ve learned here on Stand of the Gap. To do that, you’re going to need courage. Courage makes a difference in the world. Courage is a pathway to flourishing. And so, as I say at the end of all my programs, live and lead with courage. Join us back tomorrow for another Stand in the Gap today.