Pursuing Excellence in Our Work

Pursuing Excellence in Our Work

September 19, 2025

Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett

Guest: Rod Reasen

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 9/19/25. 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.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, welcome to the program and on this Friday edition of Stand In the Gap. You might be super happy that it’s Friday, maybe TGIF. Thank God that it’s Friday and it’s a chance to escape work and to coast through the weekend. I know for some maybe Monday is a dreadful event, getting up and going back to work or back to school on Monday. Maybe you see those things as just a necessary evil, but today we want to talk about seeing our work as part of our living sacrifice. If you know Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit indwells our bodies and we are to give our lives as a living sacrifice unto the Lord. And God has called us to a different mindset, a mindset to pursue excellence in all that we do, to pursue excellence in our work, in our calling of what we do, and to see that really as an act of worship.

Well, I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and I’ve talked about this on past programs. One of the guests that we’ve had, it needs a return. Guest today has talked about this with us Rod Reasen. Rod is the CEO of Daniel Defense, a Georgia based firearms manufacturer committed to excellence and committed to impacting God’s kingdom. They’ve got a motto that guides them, a desire to honor God and defend freedom. A Daniel defense, they build products that perform when your life depends on it. So it’s kind of an important thing. Rod Reasen, welcome back to Staying in the Gap today.

Rod Reasen:

Thanks Isaac.

Isaac Crockett:

Rod, the last time you were on, this goes back I guess to July we talked about work again. You’ve worked with many different businesses, built a lot of things, been CEO of a whole different types of conglomerate of things, but this kingdom base seeking Christ’s kingdom first above all has really been a passion of yours and you and I have known each other. In fact, we’ve known each other so long. I don’t want to say it on air because people will think that we’re old, but going back to what we talked about in July, it was really intriguing how you’ve been working there at Daniel Defense and putting Christ First Kingdom of God. First. You talked a lot about it and we want to look today at five core values that you are emphasizing at Daniel Defense. But before we do that, could you just tell us a little bit about Daniel defense again? And I know we talked some about it last time, but just to refresh our memories again.

Rod Reasen:

Sure. Before I do that, just want to say I love the program and in this day and age when we need good leaders to stand up and present the gospel, it is good to see that literally the headline of your organization is to stand in the gap when others are not available or fall. We need people to stand up and I’m glad to be on the program sharing what we’re doing here at Dana Defense. Just as a brief background, we are a firearms and accessory manufacturer based near Savannah, Georgia. We provide the highest quality products to the elite war fighters around the globe. Literally 52 countries around the globe, over a thousand state and federal law enforcement agencies and of course are proud to a community civilians out in the marketplace looking to keep freedom real in their own homes. At the core of our founding, Marty Daniel launched the business nearly 25 years ago.

Next year we’ll celebrate our 25th year and his original guiding principle was to have a meaningful financial impact on God’s kingdom, protect the Second Amendment so the gospel can be preached. And we’ve codified that now into a more simple version which simply states honor God, defend freedom, and as we’ve done that and been rolling that message out to the marketplace, it’s quite simple. It’s very similar to as Jesus talks about the New Testament, these two things that the law hang, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, and mind and love thy neighbors as thyself To us, these are the two guiding principles to what we do honoring God from our profits, how do we do that? How do we think about a bibliocentric organization, the values that we espouse, how we treat our people? And you’ll see that in the values you’re going to hear in a minute.

And on the defending freedom freedom’s not a topic that or a word that’s uniquely American. It’s a topic or word that is literally worldwide and spans generations. So when we came into this culture discussion, which we’re going to talk about today, I like to say every organization has a culture. It’s either something that forms you or is formed by the people you hire or you become very intentional about how you think about culture and we’ve chosen to be very intentional. So the backdrop to leading into this is we took a lot of time over a year serving our employees, meeting with our team, hearing the stories of the history of Daniel defense, one off. We then real fast was during COVID our team would go out and buy the things that you couldn’t get access to, gas and toilet paper, toothpaste, necessities, and we stored ’em here to give to our people, to give to our employees. Just one example and helping tornado victims and other things just caring for the people that we employ. So hearing those stories and doing surveys and then meeting with our team ultimately came up with what we’re going to walk through today, which is what we’re setting out as our values and our operating principles.

Isaac Crockett:

And I love how simple the beginning is. If you love God and you love your neighbor, you want to honor God and defend freedom and that is so simple, yet profound as we sometimes say. But these five core values, these defining principles for Daniel defense. Before we get into this and we want to go through each of the five, can you maybe just talk to how these points were developed? You mentioned some of it, their development and the hopes for incorporating this into your company at Daniel Defense.

Rod Reasen:

Yeah, I mentioned a second ago just the intentionality around making sure that we are pouring into the things that you want to grow and kind of moving aside the things you don’t want to grow. You think about a garden, if you throw a fertilizer out into your garden, it’s full of weeds. Your weeds are going to grow and so will the other good plants and culture’s very similar. And if you’re unintentional about it in a growth organization, you’re going to end up with a lot more people and the substance of the people that you have in the organization will become your culture. So what we did is we took a step back and we said, we don’t want to change the culture. We want to find what’s good in the culture and expose that and tell those stories in a way that says, man, that is amazing.

I want to be part of something that people always look back to and say is good. One story I’ll weave in real fast was there was a tornado that went through here in Black Creek, Georgia where we’re located and there were quite a few victims and our team assembled and put a group of people together and we had chainsaws in hand and we’re out serving the community because it’s the right thing to do, it’s just part of our culture. We didn’t have a team, we just assembled the team when out bought chainsaws and did the right thing. And we’ve done that now multiple times through multiple hurricanes in the last two years since I’ve been here. So we sat in a room with our leadership team and said, tell the stories we want to hear and extract the stories that have made up the history of this brand and they were peers being shed in the room of stories of people doing what the Bible would call us to go do care for the widows and the orphans and those that are hurting and in need and doing it even in the employment world. So doing those things. Then we coupled that with doing surveys with our team to make sure that we’re extracting the words to ultimately come up with what we’re going to walk through.

Isaac Crockett:

Wow, that is very moving. That’s so cool. How those work out and how these characters qualities, these core values, how they’re shaped biblically and how they’re shaped by God. We want to look into these. We want to see work is more than just a paycheck, it’s a calling from the Lord. We have a lot to talk about from these five core values when we come back on stand in the Gap. Well welcome back to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and we’re talking with our friend Rod Reason, the CEO of Daniel Defense, who many of you are familiar with that company because they are a leader in precision made top of the line rifles and accessories. Just even when you were talking earlier, rod, I didn’t realize you were in so many different countries and things, but serving so many people, and I love the motto there, love God and defend freedom.

It’s very simple and very biblical. And so today we want to look at core values that you’re setting in place there at Daniel Defense. These are operating principles, these are values that are biblical from our biblical worldview. We see the need for these in all parts of our lives really, but this is the intentional culture that you are building and has been built now for almost a quarter of a century at Daniel Defense. It’s neat to see this. It’s exciting to see what happens when Christians come together and try to do things the way the Bible calls us to do it. So with all that Rod, let’s go ahead and get started. There’s five of these principles. Would you go ahead and start us off with the first of these five principles?

Rod Reasen:

So I’m going to give context on how we’ve actually framed this document and there’s a document that we’re providing and if listeners want to send me an email, I’m happy to send this to them, but we go through each of the five elements and then what we decided to do with this particular session is do a guiding principles associated. So in backing the honoring God, we wanted to make sure that we were biblically rooting all of the values to make sure that there was sound wisdom, not just man’s wisdom behind it. So the first one is we will pursue excellence in all we do. We have this paragraph that goes underneath of it that says, we don’t just maintain standards, we raise them, we pursue world-class quality in every product we design, process we build, and innovation we deliver. Excellence isn’t just in our past, it’s our path forward. Proudly American maned and owned our products reflect our heritage’s strength and our future’s boldness. Everything is built to perform when your life depends on it. But the one thing I’ll push out here is excellence in the firearms industry. That means accuracy, quality. You can’t build an inexpensive high quality product. You need excellence in everything we do. So it weaves naturally into the precision manufacturing that we believe is core to one of the benefits we offer.

Isaac Crockett:

And I like that obviously with firearms when you’re talking law enforcement, others that are using this, even family defense that makes sense. But so many things, I think we should be looking at it from the same perspective. Would this be something I would want if my life depends on it or is this something I’m just trying to cheat here or cut some corners there. And I like this idea of pursuing excellence because it’s so biblical and the Bible verses that, go with that Colossians three, whatever you do, do heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men. Many, many, many other places in scripture that talk about serving God and what we do and really true craftsmanship is more than just making something to quickly turn around and sell, but it’s doing it first and foremost putting into it as part of who we are as Christians, that this would be honoring unto the Lord. We want to pursue excellence in all that we do. And that is a good starting point. I think you need to start there with any of these and that leads to the second one then where do we go from there? You start with pursuing excellence and then what comes next for number two

Rod Reasen:

And number two is we will lead with uncompromising integrity and in this day and age, without a moral centricity integrity, it can be dependent upon the user. And so what we say, the paragraph underneath says, we do the right thing always, even when it hurts. Every decision is rooted in trust and personal responsibility. We speak the truth, follow through on our commitments and choose character over convenience. Our integrity is not situational, it is foundational. We leave with honesty, operate transparently and hold ourselves accountable even when it’s difficult. The guiding principle there is Proverbs 10, nine, whoever walks in integrity walks securely. One example of this, we offer a 100% lifetime guarantee on our products. So yes, sometimes products get out of the market that weren’t what you expected. It slips through our quality control. And so what we’ve said is even when that does happen, 100% lifetime guarantee, you send it back and we’ll replace it. No questions asked. That’s uncompromising integrity.

Isaac Crockett:

Well you don’t see that in many manufacturing places anymore. You used to see it at times more. It is interesting that it seems more and more things have gotten shifted away from where they were founded or started, not just that they’re going to other countries but that they’re further away, out of sight, out of mind. And I noticed even in your first one in pursuing excellence, you talk about it being proudly American made and I know that Daniel defense has started in Georgia and stayed right there. What do you think geography, what do you think the staying in the same place in that commitment like that, what part do you think that plays with these first two roles of the excellence and the integrity that you’re working for?

Rod Reasen:

Well certainly excellence and integrity can be done worldwide. We see it in the mission field and other organizations, but for us, we are Americans and we believe that you don’t need to outsource overseas. You can build it right here, provide jobs right here in Georgia. You can provide culture here. You can affect the lives of the people here. And there’s many, many opportunities for us to sharpen each other, to pour into, and as you’ve heard even in the stories, to love on people that are hurting and it’s harder to do, the more distance you become and we’ve just chosen to do as much as we possibly can right here in the state of Georgia and in the United States.

Isaac Crockett:

It’s interesting the stories you told even in the first segment of our program about the desires of those working there at Daniel Defense to help in the community and that Daniel defense, the leadership of the company says, yeah, let’s do this. You can’t plan for certain natural disasters or certain tragedies that a community and yet your group of people quickly did respond when those things happen. And I think back to even the founding of America and the communities that would come together in the good times and in the bad times. That’s part of what made us so good was that we came together when things were difficult and when things were hard. How do you think that these two principles, this pursuing excellence in everything, and again, we could apply this anywhere, but we’re talking here in our workplace and then leading with integrity, uncompromising integrity, how do you see that? There’s so many challenges that come up to that when you’re dealing with customers and you’re dealing with products and all the different things that could go wrong, these two values as they play out at Daniel Defense, what does that look like and how could maybe other people apply that in their settings?

Rod Reasen:

I’m working on a whole list of these as we action these for our company, but one of the examples that, this is going to be a number five and rooted in people, but we have this principle that is right at the bell curve and there are many, many verses that talk about paying a man a fair wage, making sure that we do not hold back the difference between the fool and a wise man and how he treats his people. And so one of the ways that we action this is we have a right of the bell curve compensation thinking, which simply means that in the marketplace based on job function and structure, we want to be above the 50th percentile on base level compensation and then being the 60 to 75th percentile overall on target earnings, I mean bonuses and so on. Where excellence weaves its way in is the performance management tools that we’re deploying to say those employees that overachieve, they should get an excessive amount of the potential bonus because they have been contributing more towards it. And those that are the underperformers would get less. We’re not a socialistic organization here, we’re an organization that rewards performance, that’s excellence. It keeps the best people, it rewards the best people and I believe it also fits directly into the high integrity. I want to be rewarded based off of what I do because I’m doing everything I hope back to as we talked about in Colossians, doing everything for the honor of God, not for myself, not for my own glory.

Isaac Crockett:

And so when we look at these things, biblical worldview, I think without the biblical worldview glasses on, just looking at profit margins and just natural humanistic greed for more stuff, more money for someone who maybe owns a company, there’s this part of okay, well I got to make the customer happy because I need customers, I need a demand if I’m going to create something for them. But the idea of the integrity here and the excellence of helping the workers do an excellent job and helping have job security and have the money they need, rod, that is not something that you hear very often from the workplace. And for those listening right now, some of the people are probably in a job where they say, I wish my boss did it that way. But there are people listening right now who are in management, who are bosses, who are owners, and I think this is so good to hear, but how would this apply maybe in another setting as parents as we instill values in our children or teachers trying to train the next generation through education to do excellent things and to have integrity or even in churches.

We’re almost out of time here, but I don’t know if you have any ideas or encouragement you would give to places we’re talking workforce, but other parts of our lives where this would help.

Rod Reasen:

We jokingly, I’ve started to use the term God math because throughout the miracles in the New Testament, God does not perform the math that we do. We’re limited by the constraints of humanity and physics, but God’s not feeding the 5,000 and other things we have to trust when God asks us to do the right thing, we do the right thing and we watch him perform in ways that we could never do on our own. It’s more principle versus specific, but I hear the music coming, so I’ll wrap it there.

Isaac Crockett:

I’m sorry. Yeah, I asked you that right on the edge of our break here, but the God math, and so we do what’s right and God works things out. Rod, these explanations of excellence and integrity are really transformational for us. We’re going to take a quick break. We’ll be right back to hear more of these core values. Well welcome back to Stand in the Gap today. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and if you’re just now joining us, we’ve been talking with Rod Reasen, the CEO of Daniel defense and we’ve been talking about five core values or operating principles that they are embracing there at Daniel Defense and about the intentional culture that designs each workplace. And Rod’s been talking about feeding the good things that you want to grow and trying to take away the things kind of like weeding out a garden and fertilizing the right things.

And I’ve really appreciated his heart and the biblical worldview that has come into this with these guiding principles and core values that are so helpful for all of us even outside of the workplace. But especially if we get tired of just going in and going to the daily grind and we’re just looking forward to the weekend or we’re dreading Monday or something like that. Understanding that our calling is to be a living sacrifice to the Lord in all that we do, even what we’re making or even what we’re doing as far as work and paychecks go, that ultimately we’re doing it unto the Lord. But before we go back to get more of these, we’ve done two of the five values. Before we go back to that, I just want to go to our program producer, Tim Schneider and ask Tim if you could tell our listeners some of the exciting things that are going on, some of them behind the scenes and some of them very much we’re making as public as we can, but at the American Pastors Network and stand in the gap media.

Tim Schneider:

Yes, I can. Thank you very much, Isaac. Good afternoon to everybody. Hopefully having a great September afternoon or morning or evening, whatever time you are listening to this. I want to ask you a question. Do you ever find yourself too busy to listen to the whole Stand in the Gap today show while we are under an hour, but I understand we have busy schedules and we have busy life, so you may not be able to hear the whole entire program or you may only be able to hear portions of a program. Well, did you know that we have shorter audio segments of somewhere between two and 11 minutes, somewhere in that timeframe covering various topics discussed on our standing gap today radio show. We call these podcast q and as. These are podcasts which are good for listeners who desire to hear a short segment on a certain topic.

We have lots of topics, Islam, finances, the Constitution, current events, cultural issues, biblical worldview, lots of different podcast q and a’s in the thousands, we have probably over 3000 something podcast q and ass that have been created since we started doing this. If you like what you hear, you can find whole show in our archives if you desire. So check out our podcast q and as on our app and at our website, stand in the gap media.org. Also, if you do streaming services, we are on a lot of the major streaming services. Apple Podcasts tune in Spotify at her radio. So if you are on one of these, subscribe to us so you can hear truth every day. Sign up to get our podcast downloaded to your smart device every time a new podcast is released. And additionally, if you’re a subscriber to our podcast through one of these streaming platforms, please rate us ratings will allow other like-minded individuals to find us as they search for podcast. And thank you in advance. Also, we want to encourage you to check out our websites. We have two great ones, American pastors network.net and stand to gap media.org. Also, if you’re over on American pastors network.net, consider signing up for our e-newsletter. You can find out all great information about things that are happening in the American Pastors Network, news, prayer request, bunch of different stuff. Sign up for that newsletter@americanpastorsnetwork.net. So that’s what I’ve got here, Isaac, and I’ll send it on back to you.

Isaac Crockett:

Thank you for that, Tim. I do hope that you’ll go to those websites or follow us on social media. If you’re just listening on radio, there’s a lot more or if you’re listening right now through a podcast, there’s a lot of other things, other options. We have these broadcasts and things of course are a big part of it, but there’s much more in our community, in our ministries here. Well, rod, these first two core values are so important and really start the ball rolling in the right direction. This pursuing excellence. Colossians chapter three, reminding us that we are doing things unto the Lord, not just for our boss, not just for our customer, not for some other person, but as unto the Lord. One Corinthians 1440, let all things be done decently and in order, and that applies to our churches and our congregations, but it applies in our homes and it applies wherever we’re working, whether it’s computer work or manufacturing.

And then after that, you have this idea of leading, seeing yourself even in the workplace as leading and leading with integrity. So important. Proverbs 10, nine, reminding us that we walk securely in the Lord when we do this honestly and with integrity. Also, Proverbs 21, the horse is ready for the day of battle, but victory ultimately comes from the Lord. And you were talking just as we were so rudely interrupted by the break about God math that we do what’s right for those that are employed by us. We do what’s right for our customers. You’re talking about lifetime guarantees. You’re talking about ways of boosting morale by honoring those who do an excellent job with a paycheck that reflects that all of these things are biblical and all of these things are natural that way, but they don’t seem to be happening in a lot of places. And so it’s exciting to see your group, Daniel Defense, thinking about this and implementing these things. But it brings us, there’s three more points still. Could you take us to the third point now of your core values?

Rod Reasen:

Okay, so first two, obviously very centered around how we act, but ultimately business is about creating value out into the marketplace. So this one’s at the center intentionally, it’s number three. It’s at right in the middle of the five and it says we will demonstrate customer obsession. The paragraph that we have here says we purposely focus on understanding and serving those who depend on us. Every decision begins with the end user in mind. We anticipate needs, exceed expectations and earn loyalty through humility, clarity, and action. We stay curious, ask hard questions and solve problems others walk away from because grit without growth is wasted. Motion a statement here, this is not here, but we’ve got the guiding principle. Philippians 2:4 says, let each of you look not only on his own interest but also to the interest of others. Sometimes what happens in the marketplace is that the customer’s forgotten and the business starts to forget that they are there to serve and create value and you don’t listen.

You stop thinking about your own product design as what you want to bring versus listening to the pain points in the marketplace. And this has become a new central point of who we have become over the last several years is the customer knows the problem. They may not always know the solution, but if you work relentlessly with them to find out what that is, you can actually solve amazing problems together. And we’re having fun doing this with our product development team and it’s an exciting kind of central piece of who we are in the future.

Isaac Crockett:

Rod, what I love about this point, all of these points, they’re kind of gaining momentum together. They work better together, but many times they hear people complain, oh this corporation. And it’s like this corporation becomes this living organism that just lives to see the corporation proliferate. But it’s not really helping anybody or anything other than itself just continue to exist. And what you’re doing by starting by pursuing the excellence and pursuing doing it unto the Lord, but you’re making sure everything you’re done is with integrity, starting even with your workforce that they’re treated right then it makes it possible to listen and to show that humility to the customer to help solve problems. I love that idea that it’s solving problems, it’s there to help. And so that kind of customer obsession is not looking on your own interest. How does this benefit me the best, but how do we solve these problems? That’s perfect, that’s biblical. Well, as we finish up here with this segment, I think we have time to get to the fourth one. What is the fourth value that you’re emphasizing at Daniel Defense?

Rod Reasen:

Alright, number four is we will embody a relentless work ethic to say at Daniel Defense, we believe success is earned when we use our God-given talents to the fullest. This principle reflects our culture. We hire talented individuals, but it’s the intensity of their work, their resilience, and their daily drive for excellence that truly sets us apart. It’s not just about the ability, it’s about the effort multiplied, centered on the unity of our purpose. We embrace challenges, learn from mistakes and believe in failing forward because growth often comes from getting back up stronger. Got some verses here. I won’t read all of them, but Proverbs 11, sorry. Proverbs 1423, Proverbs 2229. This one I’ll mention it says, Proverbs 2229 says that, do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings. It’s one of my favorite verses to use in my one-on-ones when I see people that have great opportunity but maybe aren’t quite too delivery of what they can do.

I’ve mentioned this first because the last piece says, the first place says, do you see a man’s skillful in his work? He will stand before kings, he will not stand before obscure men. All to say God has given every single human being a unique talent. And when they can expose that in the workforce united to the unity of that business, whatever that problem they’re going to solve, it is an absolute explosion of innovation, excitement. You unite the enthusiasm. It is so fun to watch when you see this happen in people, but there’s also a demand there that it is work in a good way using all those talents in a really meaningful way. It’s so fun to watch and workforce

Isaac Crockett:

Well, and this is one of the fears that we have here is with you see so many things happening with artificial intelligence and you see so much happening that seems to be discouragement in some of the youth, especially I would say a lot of young men almost discouraged or ashamed of their masculinity or their unique abilities that you were describing. And this idea of realizing that God created us to do things and to build things and to manage things and that this is God-given and that these skills will put us before the Lord and before kings and what they can lead to in embracing what am I good at? What do I enjoy doing? What can help? And we talked actually quite a bit about this back in July when you were on finding those things that can be used and be useful. This is just so important to have that kind of relentless work ethic.

And again, that’s a biblical thing too, is to be a hard worker. Go to the ant, thou slugger, consider her ways and be wise if you put in reliance on other things or just give up. Well, yeah, you won’t see some of these accomplishments come, but if you will have that self-discipline and trust the Lord that you will delay certain things, certain delayed gratification through discipline, you’ll reap what you sow. And I love these points. I love that last one, that relentless work ethic. Well, we have one more point we want to get into with you, rod. We’re going to take another quick time out to hear from some of our partners. We’ll come back, hopefully wrap everything up. And here are the final of the core values that we’ve been talking about when we come back for our last segment.

Welcome back to our program, to our final segment of today’s Stand in the Gap program. And I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett. I’ve been talking with Rod Reasen, a long time friend of mine and the CEO at Daniel Defense. We’ve been talking about their core values there at Daniel Defense, and these are values that all of us with a biblical worldview can really grab a hold of and use in our daily lives, but applying them in the workplace, whether you own a company or self-employed or you work for somebody else, all of these are very, very helpful. Great biblical insight. Rod, we’re actually ready for the final of the five core values, but could you maybe review the first four for us before we get into the final core value?

Rod Reasen:

Absolutely. Let’s walk through number one, we will pursue excellence in all we do. Number two, we will lead with uncompromising integrity. Number three, we will demonstrate customer obsession. Number four, we’ll embody a relentless work ethic. And now under number five, which is my favorite, we will be rooted in people. Paragraph we have attached says people are our greatest strength. And when working as a team, we excel, we attract, hire and develop exceptional talent, fostering grit, growth and high standards in everything we do. We work to bring out the best in people, helping them ignite their internal passions to achieve their full potential. We build strong relationships with our employees, customers and suppliers and treat others with honor and dignity. Grounded in southern hospitality and biblical respect. Iron sharpens iron and we make each other better. The two biblical verses for guiding principles, you’ve heard one props 27 17, iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another and then Matthew seven 12 says, so whatever you wish that others would do to you do also to them.

I’ve been in business a long time and what you come to realize through many years of working is always about the people. People will sink a business, people will grow a business. And the relationships you have to be able to foster and grow sometimes listen to hard feedback. I get it often from my team and sometimes being willing to give hard feedback. The people are always at the center and we have this as number five, almost as this bottom of the pyramid that you cannot have a business without people. So it is at the heart of everything we do here at Daniel Defense.

Isaac Crockett:

There’s so many things we could say about it, so many facets. But I love the part of that phrase you read, doing it with grit, growth and high standards. And that just all wraps up in that looking out for others, helping others. I want to ask you, because we’ve talked kind of a little bit about some of these points individually and how they can be used in other venues and other ways, but when you just said this is kind of like the bottom of the pyramid, and I love that because each of these points, it’s building upon the other and each of them are by themselves are very powerful. But when you have all of them together, you just have this overwhelming, this is how scripture works. It just kind of compiles on us. But can you talk to maybe how these values work together as you bring all five, if you have one working, that’s great, but if you could have really all five of these core values at play, how important that is and how they kind of help bolster each other.

Rod Reasen:

So in the workplace we would say you need to have a unified strategic vision that everyone can look to and say, this is where we’re going. And the clear that vision is, the easier it is for people to go do in their daily work actions that actually move the needle towards executing upon that strategic vision. In the Bible and in church setting, we hear this all the time, talk about the body of Christ. I mean in Romans it actually talks about the analogy of the body of Christ. And if your foot’s out of joint, you’re not going to be very effective no matter how healthy the rest of the body is. Well, businesses work the same way when there’s really good unity within an organization and they’re all working together, it is fun. You accomplish a lot of things together. But when it’s at a joint and things are going different directions, you end up with chaos, frustration, people quitting.

So organizations are just like the human body. We have to bring back unity, set common vision. And sometimes the hard part is holding people account accountable. That’s that iron sharpening iron. But at the end of the day, when you do all of these things, you end up with an organization that thrives that gets people telling their friends about it. And it is amazing. And I know there are plenty of listeners that are saying, I’ve seen it, and when it works, it really is awesome. We’re starting to feel that here and feel the momentum and it really is amazing.

Isaac Crockett:

Yeah, and that’s funny. I was just counseling a young couple who I’m about to officiate their wedding and talking to them about signs that there’s problems in their relationship, what to look for. And I talked to a lot of pastors about these things and it’s like, well, why isn’t your church where you think it should be? Let’s dig into it. And really all these principles, all these operating principles are at play in those, whether it’s a family, a couple children and parents, whether it’s a pastor in the congregation, whether it’s the workforce, whether it’s manufacturing or online or sales or whatever. These are things to be understanding to be looking for. How would you though maybe apply some of these things? How can they impact our lives and other communities before we close our program? Some people who are listening, maybe they say, okay, well I can see how that would work for your company, but maybe this is somebody who’s retired or somebody who’s a homeschool parent or a grandparent or a pastor. What are some ways that we can apply these to our other relationships? So much of what you’re talking about is between us and God and others, and that’s kind of life.

Rod Reasen:

I’ll tell you one of my favorite things currently I’m reading through the New Testament and I’ve started a daily, almost daily group text that’s grown to almost a hundred people at this point, about eight weeks. But one of the things that God has really struck me is when Paul is talking about the armor of God. In Ephesians chapter six, he starts with the warning and then he talks about the armor of God. But then he says this in verse 19, the whole reason we put on the armor of God is so that he can open his mouth. He says, open my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. So why all of this? It’s right there in verse 19. It’s so that we can exemplify a life of excellence and uncompromising integrity so that people see Christ in us, so that when we open our mouth and we speak the name of Jesus, people, listen. If our lives don’t exemplify these things, then we’re a tainted vessel that cannot communicate that. So for me, one of the biggest things that I’m driving to is that God will give me opportunities just like this to open my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. That’s the why

Isaac Crockett:

I’m so glad you were on with us. We had a great time in July when you were on. I’m so thankful for this. This is really a message, and that’s what’s so neat is that no matter what you’re calling is, as a Christian, we are giving forth a message. We are living it. And even at the start of the program, we talked about being a living sacrifice. And so if you’re listening, and I know we have listeners who businesses or workers, and many of you have a workplace environment that represents the Lord and many of you have homes and family, cultures that show forth the good news, the mysteries of the gospel like Rod was talking about. But Rod, I’m just so thankful for you sharing this for what you’re doing. Hearing these five core values rooted in scripture really help shape our mission to honor God and to serve others.

I’m just going to close in prayer now as we finish this program and give God the glory for the good news of the gospel that transcends into every part of our life. Dear heavenly Father, we do, we thank you for the good news that Jesus Christ has died for our sins, so that if we will accept him as savior, we can have eternal life in heaven with you. We can find redemption and forgiveness. I thank you for these five core values that we’re talked about today. I pray that everything we do, we would do it as unto you and to point others to Jesus Christ, that we would have a love for you that grows in us, a grace and a love for others. Pray that you would just bless those who are listening and that you would draw us closer to you. It’s in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Well, Rod, thanks so much for being on our program today and that for you who are listening, I hope that you will stand in the gap for truth wherever you are today.