Reflections and Takeaways from Kingdom Advisors 2020
Coming home from the Fearless themed Kingdom Advisors 2020 conference reminds me of the prophet Elijah in the book of 1 Kings. What could be a better demonstration of fearlessness than standing alone against 450 prophets of Baal, taunting them as they danced frantically around their altar in the divine contest of power on Mount Carmel? Then to witness God rain down fire, consuming a water-logged sacrifice, personally preside over the slaughter of God's enemies, and then see God bring an end to a desperate famine in the land? Talk about a mountain-top experience! Yet one chapter later, he’s in a cave fleeing for his life, feeling alone and dejected.
How quickly fearlessness is replaced by fear as he faces pushback and opposition, the mighty power of God recently experienced reduced to a distant memory.
I can identify with Elijah! One moment I’m at Kingdom Advisors, filled with resolve, emboldened convictions and zeal to align purpose with practice, and the next I’m back in the real world dealing with volatile markets, demanding clients, deadlines and business issues and trying to remember what it was exactly that so impacted me in Orlando.
Fearlessness finds its strength in convictions and community. For the lessons to stick, it’s a useful exercise to reflect on the takeaways from the conference, to be intentional about putting them into practice and to embrace accountability within community. So as I'm sharing mine, I encourage you to write down your own, share them with someone else, and decide what you can do this week to start putting lessons learned into practice and developing new habits.
Here are mine:
Eric Metaxis shared how the reformed slave trader John Newton advised William Wilberforce to use his influence and gifts right where he is. Our circumstances are no accident and neither is our unique mix of individual life experiences, influence, position and resources. How would God have me use them in my business?
I was particularly struck by his reminder that giving financial resources for God's purposes, in whatever form that takes, is effectively banking money in heaven. Think wisely and cleverly about how to lay up treasures in heaven.
Dr. Henry Cloud reminded us that where our treasure is, our heart is there also and he pointed out that no one has more of a window in people's lives than financial advisors. That reminded me of the adage that with great power comes great responsibility! How will we handle that power and what kind of impact can we have in the lives of our clients?
He also reminded us that because we were designed to have agency and control over ourselves, we experience anxiety when we feel out of control. Having a well-designed and appropriate financial plan provides the structure that helps us have a sense of control. A plan is effectively a long-term narrative, as opposed to today's markets which are just a scene in the story. Thinking in terms of a narrative actually moves the story to a part of the brain that is not anxiety producing, but anxiety reducing.
Michael Kitces categorized clients into 3 groups, self-directed, validators and delegators and challenged the audience to come up with different business models for the different types of clients. I’ve particularly been chewing on his closing assertion that biblically based advice is a (great) differentiator, but it’s not the trigger causing someone to seek an advisor in the first place.
Alistair Begg raised the question, “What does it look like to live as a Christian in a society that does not believe what Christians believe?” and then used the story of the fiery furnace & the lion's den to illustrate how Daniel and his friends were Focused, Faithful and Fearless in a pagan culture. He closed encouraging each of us to stand firm in our convictions with the words of Tom Petty, “No, I won’t back down.”
Last, but not least on my list of takeaways, was Jon Tyson’s call to holy ambition as illustrated in the life of Nehemiah. He reminded the audience that the gospel is not about personal peace and affluence and posed the searching question that’s worth regularly revisiting, “how much of this sneaks into our own heart?”
As you get back into your own routine, what steps will you take to apply your lessons and takeaways in your own business?
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