Transcript 

Welcome to the Hundredfold Business Podcast, where Christian men learn the principles, strategies, and tactics to grow their businesses, top line, bottom line, and finish line. I want you to discover the secret to applying Biblical truth to business growth for the greatest kingdom impact, so in the end you hear from your Heavenly Father, well done. Welcome to the Hundredfold Business Podcast, where Christian men learn how to grow their business, top line, bottom line, and finish line.

And I'm Josh Fonger, founder of 4th Soil Ventures, and today we have a special guest, we have Lee Wood. Lee is the founder and initial catalyst of One Body Church, as well as a missionary and apostolic leader with a world vision to launch disciple multiplying movements until the whole world knows Jesus. Lee's honored to collaborate with City to City, a family of churches across cities in the U.S., as well as five other continents.

Lee also co-leads the North American region, and Lee and his wife Stacy are the owners of Catalyst Community Wellness in Fort Myers, Florida. All right, Lee, well, welcome to the show. Hey, it's good to be here, thanks for having me.

All right, very good, and I'm excited to have Lee on the show today to discuss his approach to integrating his Christian faith into his work, into his business, and into his discipleship-making movement. I think you're gonna learn a lot from this, and hopefully it's gonna spark some ideas about how you can be more bold about integrating your faith into your business. So let me start off, Lee, with an open-ended question, which is, why don't you share with the audience how God has directed your path to get where you are right now? Yeah, so long story short, I was an orphan, homeless at 16, came to faith at 24, began following Jesus, married for 23 years with five kids, lost my first wife to pancreatic cancer at 45, and God has given me a wonderful second helpmate that I've been married to for 16 years, and we've been pursuing multiplying disciples and simple expressions of church from our homes since 2013.

An expression of that in a decentralized way, we believe there are disciples, simple expressions of church from homes with biblical leadership across cities, and those will include all spheres of influence, including businesses. So we believe that we should see in an organic, decentralized way disciples, simple churches, biblical leadership in a decentralized way in all spheres of influence, and for those to actually be scaling and sustainable in decentralized ways, that will include businesses. So we launched Catalyst Community Wellness in Fort Myers, Florida.

This is beginning our third year, but in Tampa, a number of businesses, including the Fectal Company in Fort Myers, Trinity Commercial Group, so multiple businesses that are owned or people are working in as an expression of the body across cities, because we think that the kingdom of God manifests through the church should be able to be both demonstrated and proclaimed house to house, city to city, and nation to nation. Hopefully I just exercised lucid brevity, brother. That was, wow, a lot there, a lot we can unpack, and I think what I'm going to start with is the business expression that you're talking about in this decentralized way to live out being the church.

What does that look like in the businesses you've been involved with? I think if I recall, you own some, maybe you've started some, maybe you're partners in some. Yeah, so what that looks like in Fort Myers is Catalyst Community Wellness is a gym, and we think that every customer, employee, and supplier are potential disciples and simple expressions of church. So we're intentional as a kingdom business as a part of L1A Church, which is a network of house churches, but obviously included in there, which is hard for people to understand, are the businesses, the business owners, so we're actually shepherding while simultaneously being business owners.

So Catalyst, we function like a Tyrannus in Acts chapter 19 or 20, which was the school of Tyrannus, I believe a business that where Paul held daily discussions, and he said in chapter 20, he did that publicly from Tyrannus and from house to house. So we're actually trying to follow a biblical paradigm from the church at Ephesus in Acts chapter 19 and 20, because we think that that's a reproducible model, again, from micro to macro, house to house, city to city, nation to nation. So let's say that I lived in Fort Myers, and I wanted to go work out, and so what would that be like for someone who's like, hey, there's a gym nearby, sounds like, I'm not sure what kind of gym you have, what does the membership look like, and can they tell a difference when they're walking in? Oh, absolutely.

So that's actually our tagline for our church, not just another gym. So we're a boutique gym. We're not a big box gym, okay? We're always going to be somewhere between 100 and 200 clients.

We either do small group, very small group, always with a personal trainer, or individualized personal training. And that's on purpose, because we want to pursue relationships in small groups or one-on-one. And so, yeah, it's going to be always with a trainer, always with being able to have accountability with measurement, what people's goals are, and it starts all the way from, we have people, we have from kids in elementary school, younger, all the way through our oldest client, I think is 78 years old.

So when they're paying your money to help with their fitness, are they coming there with the intention of learning about Jesus while they're there, or are they coming there thinking, this place is nearby, they have a good track record? Yeah, so both and, not either or. We're forward leading when we say not just another gym, we put a quote of the week up. There are people that meet in the gym for discovery Bible studies, seven days a week, and then work out.

But lots of people have shown up at the gym. We've had several people that showed up, I'm thinking about a young man right now named Manny, that showed up because he was trying to get ready for the Coast Guard PT test, and he had to have some requirements for being able to run at a certain pace, number of push-ups, etc. Totally didn't know Jesus, okay, but began training him over time, obviously hears the gospel, actually gets connected with a group that's meeting at a church, comes to faith, is baptized, but the good news, so the greater, that's great news, the best news, but he makes it into the Coast Guard.

The old man graduates from boot camp is going to be based in Texas now. So, lots of stories like that where people show up. So, we look at customers as potential.

Same thing with people that sublease space from us, okay, that they can be believers, that we begin to start having influence in their lives. So, we sublease some of the space, we're a fourth out, just about 4,400 square feet is the size of the gym, so we have some people that sublease space from us, and we get to coach into their lives as well, but we're intentional about what we're trying to do, is we're basically looking at it as a kingdom business that has to make money, okay, it's a business, okay, but the reality is it's a kingdom business. So, people will show up, and they'll be in both of those categories.

They'll be lost and having no interest or inclination toward that, or they'll be believers that we can come alongside of. So, we're basically looking for people, meeting them where they're at, and being able to respond appropriately, and we think that business is a great vehicle for that. Well, let me take on a kind of a side note there.

So, what is your theology of the body? Because I know that in a lot of churches, they don't think so much about and for your body, that's not really an issue. They don't really think about it based on the way people eat there, and the way that they interact. Is that something that kind of steered you towards this business in particular, or not so much? Yeah, so I started basically always, even before I knew anything about disciple making in Thessalonians, it says, Paul says, I pray God sanctify you, Holy Spirit, soul, and body.

So, I think things proceed from the inside out, that the Holy Spirit communicates with our spirit that never existed before, or was dead in trespasses and sins and alive, but communication occurs from spirit. The soul is the medium for that, and externally, the manifestation, so it should proceed from the inside out. Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man.

You're bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your spirit and in your body. So, I think it's an inside out piece of basically sanctification, can and should look like that. Not condemning people, but if we are his workmanship, to be able to carry out that workmanship over time, we definitely need to be able to glorify him, spirit, soul, and body, and we should be able to do that.

We think that muscles are what gets you around, so we're going to focus particularly on strength inside of the gym, because mobility is everything as we get older. Perfect, yeah, well, that's great. I bought a fitness class as well.

It's a free one, Tuesday morning, so that's what I did early this morning at six in the morning outside. Ready to go. Same thing, it's just so that we can integrate with Christian men and actually do a message and have shared leadership and also ideally multiply it, but be able to pray for each other and to realize that we can actually worship God through our physical bodies as well.

We offer that. That's pretty good. I just thought to step on you.

So, one thing that we do for the community is we offer faith and fitness as a free, no membership. Everybody's welcome, okay? On Saturdays, it's experiential learning. We build the workout around the passage of scripture, and it becomes a discovery Bible study so that the workout is actually where we're doing the workout, and the discussion around the passage of scripture is experiential learning where we combine both the workout and the word together.

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, well, so hopefully the people listening are getting some creative ideas about how they can integrate this into their business, whether it's, you know, a restaurant or now. What other businesses have you been a part of that have tried this similar model, you know, with actually trying to integrate their faith in a very open way? So, from a multiplication perspective, and I don't know how much of your audience knows about that, but we're a part of a business incubatorship model at Broadway in Fort Myers, which has a number of businesses, plumbing, handyman services, real estate.

And so, the key is that Spurgeon said every Christian is a or an imposter, and we see a separation in many cases between secular and sacred. I think that businesses can and should be an expression of the body across, in obedience to Jesus, across cities. So, if people actually think, oh, that's business.

No, actually business catalyst to me is an expression of the body of Christ, the church across Fort Myers, so that we do that with a number of business owners across the city in Tampa, in Fort Myers, in Rochester, and other cities, because the reality is all the churches in the New Testament were churches at the city level. So, those spheres of influence, including business, should manifest the kingdom of God in what they're doing. So, we think that's just as important, maybe, as the prevailing model of church or church as we know it, so to speak.

Yeah, definitely, and you've got certainly a lot more time with your customers and your employees 40 hours a week to make an impact. Exactly. So, when you're out, and I'll use the word, you know, discipling your employees and customers, what have been, and you mentioned that one story, it sounds like, again, you're talking about decentralized and multiplication.

Are you finding that sometimes these people are then taking what you've done with them, and then they're multiplying other places? Is that what you're seeing? Correct. So, we've sent people out already from, in Tampa, we were sending people out to the nations within two years, and Fort Myers, the same thing. We've sent people out getting the business piece, Gen Z people that are doing business in Michigan, in D.C. already, because people come and they spend time with one another, and as you pour into them, that's actually what occurs.

In Ephesus, you see Paul from Tyrannus, and house to house, you saw that the seven churches of Asia actually came out of Ephesus, that work that he spent three years doing there. So, we're basically trying to follow that pattern or example that we believe is in the New Testament, and we're trying to do that simultaneously, not sequentially, by sending people or actually going and starting and strengthening and sustaining the same thing in other places. So, a lot of changes gears to mistakes, because you've been doing this for a number of years.

So, what are some lessons learned for those who are like, hey, this sounds exciting, I want to do this, I don't really know how to do it. Maybe I can put a, I don't know, a cross on the bottom of my website, or I can, you know, put a figurine of Jesus somewhere, and I'm not sure what to do. So, what are some things you've learned that you'd say, hey, just make sure you're aware of this or think about this before you get started? I would say that that's funny, but that's a way to do those things.

So, I think that the key is really that we hear what Jesus is saying, and we respond to that, but you cannot love someone into competency. You have to have examples or models. So, one thing that I suggest is, I didn't have any models or examples to do this, and there are models and examples of this in various cities around the United States now that are not, they're not the traditional model, the existing model of what disciples and churches and businesses are.

So, I would suggest that connecting, and to, on City to City, you could do that, that website, citytocity.church, is you can connect to cities that are actually doing these same things across the United States, from San Francisco to New York to Tampa to Houston to Fort Myers to Indianapolis, because I think you need to be able to see it and hear it and actually get no first steps. So, I think the journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step, and so being able to connect with models of people that are actually doing it would be a great first step. So, beyond connecting them, can you share with us what is a model, or is there just so many out there that you can't really pick one? I think there's, depending on where you're starting at, what your idea is.

So, there's pioneer business planning, there's basically, if you have an existing business, how you incorporate that into your actual business of looking at. That book, A Light Shines Brightly in Babylon by Buck Jacobs, I think he was the founder of C12, is a great book. The DMM-CPM side of that is, if we want to multiply that out, then I think actually understanding that piece of that of, hey, how do I actually do this inside of my existing business? I think first steps that they were very helpful to connect and get first steps.

So, I think there's basically four things that you need. Knowledge, you need to have some degree of dissatisfaction with like, hey, I want things to be different, I want my business to be different. You have to have knowledge of a better way, knowledge of first steps.

The fourth thing, those three things in greater measure to continue in the status quo. So, I think basically getting some basic tools from someone that's doing it somewhere, which is, okay, how do I actually incorporate this stuff inside of my business? There's lots of tools out there from pioneer business planning with all nations with Jonathan Falker. There's basically lots of cities across the United States.

There are models of this. I think one of the biggest things in the United States is people just aren't aware of other people. So, I'm happy to be on your podcast because there are lots of other businesses that are walking in these ways in the United States now.

Defecto Company in Tampa, Florida, Trinity Commercial Group in Fort Myers. There's tons of really big businesses and smaller businesses like Catalyst Community Wellness as well. So, any way we can facilitate and help people with knowledge of a better way and knowledge of first steps, we're willing to help with freely.

That's great. Well, hopefully people listening to this will take you up on that and actually go to those websites, look at the resources. Yeah.

And I'm thinking about, in your case, for your business, was it a pioneer or were you kind of, did you take your business and then you retrofitted it afterwards or did you go into it initially saying, this is why we're doing this business, this is the purpose, and let's be intentional from the very beginning? Yeah, 100% started CCW intentionally that way. So, I did this at other gyms that weren't mine in conjunction. I started at a place called Sports and Field in Tampa, Florida, and then Impact Fitness that were run by other people or owned by friends.

And then I said, hey, I can actually do this as a part of the ecosystem of the network of churches across Fort Myers with other people. So, we intentionally started CCW as this kind of kingdom business that was going to be a part of a network of house churches. I didn't start that way initially.

I discovered those things. Then I bumped into business owners like Jay Fechtel in Tampa, Florida, that said, hey, I can do that with my company. And I happen to be on the board of C12.

And so, some other people, actually some people inside of there would say, hey, we're willing to do that. And then there's people like my friend Bob in Salt Lake City that owns an AI software company that are pursuing the same thing. There's lots of businesses that are pursuing this in multiplying ways.

I just think that a lot of people don't know about them. Yeah, I think that's the whole point of this show, is to share those stories and hopefully encourage people. And that kind of leads me to the final question I'd like to ask everybody who's on the show, which would be, what encouragement do you have for any Christian man who's running business right now? And they've previously kept their faith quiet.

They've kept it to a Sunday morning. But they're being spurred on by this show. What encouragement would you have for them today? I'd 100% exhort them that God has called them, chosen them, blessed them to have influence.

If people can understand their identity in Christ, if those are our brothers and sisters, that, hey, you're a child of God, and he's gifted you from a leadership perspective and given you resources. He wants us to model what that kingdom looks like, the opposite of the love of money. For us to actually model actually what it looks like to have a kingdom economic, the kingdom of God, including a kingdom economy across cities in our relationships.

So I would exhort them to go for it. I think many business owners are actually shepherds. They're actually the pastors of the people that make up their business, and they love them and they care.

So what does that look like to represent that as the body across their city? So I'd pour gasoline on those people that are interested and say, hey, get a hold of me. The water's warm. Let's do this together.

I think that Jesus prayed three times in John 17 for exactly the answer to the question, that we might dwell together in perfect unity, oneness with Jesus as he's one with the Father, that the world might know the Father sent the Son, and that it's his intention for that to be made manifest through our businesses for his glory. So everything I have, I'm 66 years old. I'm not slowing down.

I'm still saying like, Caleb, I want that mountain. So I'd encourage everyone to be encouraged and realize that nobody's future is behind them. It's ahead of them, and let's get after it together.

Awesome, Lee. That was awesome. And I appreciate you being on the show today, sharing your energy, your wisdom, your experience, and hopefully just breaking some paradigms for people so they can actually see, hey, this is possible, and I can be an entrepreneur in this new way and make a huge impact for the kingdom.

So again, Lee, thanks for being on the show. I definitely think I'm a paradigm breaker, man. So hey, thanks for having me on the show.

I appreciate your humility and the way that you are, in fact, leading, brother. Thank you so much. Yeah, thanks, Lee.

Where can people go to find out more about you, your resources? You mentioned a lot of things, so any websites they should go to at the end here? l1achurchfortmyers.com, l1achurchfortmyers.com. That, my gym, is a part of, or ccw.fit. That's the actual business. Okay, awesome. All right, well, Lee, thanks again, and thanks, everybody, for joining us on the episode today where we're talking about how you can grow your hundredfold business to one that glorifies God as it grows.

And if you need help specifically with your business, you can always go directly to my website, 4thsoilventures.com. Thanks again, Lee, for being on the show, and thanks, everybody, for tuning in. Until next time, grace be with you, brothers.