Leadership Where It's Needed Most | Leaders in the Arena Podcast

Speaker A: Welcome to Leaders in the Arena. My name is Jenny Whitener and I'm the executive director for the Brock Barnes center for Leadership at Covenant College. Leaders in the arena is about real stories, hard earned insights, and practical guidance from leaders doing the work of Leadership in the arena. Today we're going to be talking with a very special guest, but before we get to that, just a bit about the Brock Barnes center for Leadership. We're focused on equipping servant leaders to faithfully build institutions and communities in Christ's work of making all things new. And our guest today will talk a lot about that. At the Brock Barnes center, we, uh, have focused on, um, bringing that mission to life through four capabilities. The Institute for Student Leadership, the Institute for Innovation and Impact, our Institute for Executive Education, and our Wisdom, um, and Insight series. Which brings me to today's program and our guest, Jed Medefin. Jed, welcome to today's program.

Speaker B: Thank you, Jenny.

Speaker A: It's great to have you as president of the Christian alliance for Orphans. I know that you didn't start there right after graduation situation, so maybe start by sharing with our listeners today a little bit about your journey to get to where you are and about a little bit about your background.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Well, uh, you know, so I'm married to Rachel. We've been married 25 years. We have five children. Uh, and just that those are the, the two biggest joys of my life. We're part of a wonderful church here in Northern Virginia, just outside Washington D.C. as well. So very blessed in those things. Um, and then vocationally, I would never have expected to be doing what I'm doing actually coming out of college, um, was planning to go to law school and ended up talking with a bunch of people who had gone to law school. And a fair number of them did not like what they were doing. They were making a lot of money and didn't love it. Um, and I thought, oh my goodness, I don't want to wake up that way someday. Uh, and so, long story short, I had three great friends. We were at a small Christian college, um, and they were, uh, wanting to live for the Lord, but just not sure what would that look like in life beyond. And so we decided together to spend that year after graduating, traveling the world and living in the homes of committed followers of Jesus who are really serving the Lord, serving their neighbors all over the world. And so we actually ended up doing that. And it was just incredible, Jenny, to be with faithful followers of Jesus, not necessarily famous, but who are serving their neighbors, serving orphans, serving, uh, you Know, helping, uh, the poor, helping in leadership positions, um, and we saw up close what it looks like to live faithfully amidst ordinary places. And so, although when we returned we went a lot of different directions, what we had experienced then just really formed and shaped us. And that really has been a key part of my journey. Even though after that I went into the political world. I worked in Sacramento for many years in the state legislature, then came out and worked in the George W. Bush administration, um, and loved the public policy and political space. And then God led me on a left turn, uh, into the realm of serving orphans and vulnerable children through the Christian alliance for Orphans through cafo. And that's what I'm doing now. I've been doing that for 17 years and honestly love it as much as the day I started. So just feel very blessed in that.

Speaker A: It's amazing. You were talking about how that moment when you got so close to the problem at hand, you know, and how that led you through your faith and through all the leadership that you bring to the bear, like, working with these children and working with orphans and how you're helping to solve that problem. Amazing story. I know that we had the opportunity to meet, actually, through one of our students, Peyton Price, who, um, told me a bit about you and the amazing work that you're doing globally. And I was thankful for that introduction. And I said, jed, you've got to come to tell your story. Because I think so often we all, as faithful leaders, um, become aware of causes, become aware of needs in our community, but often have a hard time mobilizing solutions at scale. And you all have done that in an extraordinary way at the Christian alliance for Orphans at cafo. So can you talk a little bit? We start off today from a leadership perspective, talk a little bit about the challenges. Just orient us to the industry challenges in foster care, the challenges with vulnerable children, and just orient us first to the situation, to the group that you serve, and then we'll get into some things about the programmatic solutions you bring to bear.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Well, um, you know, in the US there are more than 300,000 kids that are living in the foster system. So that means through no fault of their own, the people that should have cared for and protected them either were unwilling to or unable to through addiction or other issues. And so these children are in the US Foster system. Um, and then likewise around the world, there are millions of children who, for a variety of reasons, are apart from the care and protection that parents provide. Um, and really, what we see in scripture and what we see among Christians throughout the last 2,000 years is a special concern for those kids. You know, God says, these children who lack the protection of an earthly, uh, father and perhaps an earthly mother. These children I care especially for, and I call my people to care for them in a distinct way. And that's something beautiful that throughout history, God's people have been known for that. Even in the ancient Roman Empire, when Christians were a persecuted minority, they earned a reputation for going out to side of the cities and finding children that had been abandoned there to die and taking them home and caring for them, sometimes raising them as their own children. And so that identity is something that's been true of the church all throughout history. And so we're just. I see CAFOs work as just stepping into a beautiful, ancient, you know, stream of God's people. Um, and we're, of course, trying to do that with the best tools and knowledge of, uh, of our era, and to do it also in a way through this alliance that is not just fractionalized, not just lots of good people and organizations working in all these different places, but actually joining together, joining their strengths, joining their knowledge so that we can do this more fruitfully and effectively. And so it, you know, really is a, uh, joy to be a part of something that's both very deep and ancient in the Christian tradition. But at the same time, we're trying to be really innovative and effective today.

Speaker A: Right. It sounds like that you've been able to master the spirit of collaboration through your alliance. And so often, I think entities get passionate about solving this cause and being called as Christians to do that, to help to make all things new. And they go at it in what I would call their own swim lane. And you've intentionally decided to form this alliance to be collaborative. Can you talk a little bit about forming the. The alliance and how that alliance has brought together a broader continuum of care for the children?

Speaker B: Yeah, well, you know, I love the story, and I can't take any credit for it because it was before I got involved. But it was in 2004, a group of about 29 Christian leaders gathered, uh, in Little Rock, Arkansas, the headquarters of Family Life. Um, and Dennis Rainey and others were involved with that. And they, you know, they really said, hey, we know God cares about this. All of us are passionate about it. We're working, but we're working in isolation or even in competition with each other as organizations. And the phrase that was used was, can we leave our logos and egos at the door?

Speaker A: I love it.

Speaker B: And Join our strengths for a bigger kingdom impact than any one organization could on its own. And that was really the founding of the Christian alliance for Orphans. And although the alliance has grown a lot since then, there's about 320 organizations that are now members of the alliance as well as a global network of churches, all working together. Um, the DNA is really the same. We're trying our best, not always perfectly, but really I would say substantially and effectively, to leave logos and egos at the door. Join the strengths of actors from across the field to more effectively address issues, particularly issues that are big and complex and require a coordinated cross cutting response. That's CAFO's specialty, is coordinating the strengths of really good organizations, leaders, experts across the field working together to address particular challenges in our field.

Speaker A: And uh, I remember when we first met this concept of leading in complexity or leading through complexity, or you might call it simplification, but the problem that you're addressing with the children that are in foster care and then the fact that your solution itself is an alliance of uh, 320 organizations seems complex. How do you make that simple? How do you streamline that, ah, as a leader so that the human problems are really being solved?

Speaker B: M. Yeah, that's a great question. I'd point to two things. One is of course all 320 of these organizations and every person in this work, they're passionate people, they love Jesus and they really care about kids, whether in the US foster system or orphans or street kids or you know, our struggling families that have come apart, they're trying to get back together. Right. Everyone has uh, feelings and opinions about things. Right. And they're not always the same. And, and so what we really have to do is define what is most important here. What are the things that we need to agree on our core commitments to Christ? Some core, core philosophical commitments, like the idea that family is God's best for children, whenever that is possible. So we're pressing toward the ideal of family even when we have to uh, have imperfect solutions. Right. Uh, those are some of our North Star concepts. But then within that there's a lot of space for different approaches, different perspectives, and we can simultaneously agree on the core things, disagree on broader strategic questions, and come together to continually refine and learn from each other, which creates a very dynamic environment of people who are grounded in the same core commitments but have different perspectives on a broad number of other things. And we're continually refining each other, working together, growing together.

Speaker A: M Just your comment about making a commitment, what's it take to lead without logos and egos. Your point about defining what's most important, and then it sounds like getting the organizations and the leaders of those organizations to align around those most critical things allows you to leave the logos and egos behind. Is that right?

Speaker B: That's right, Absolutely. Yeah. When we are centered on what matters most, secondary things no longer have the power to divide us like they did before.

Speaker A: Okay, well, I mean, uh, this has to be a follow up question because that in and of itself is difficult for some leaders. How do you determine, how have you gotten that alignment around what matters most?

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, what we have centered that in is, um, we, first of all, we use the Nicene Creed as a core anchoring historic document. Then we have what we call our five, uh, core commitments, which are five basic, you know, very simple, very straightforward statements about, uh, you know, the authority of scripture and our desire to love God and love neighbor and, and um, a handful of other things that are very central. These are the kind of the North Star elements for our work together. And then alongside that we have what we call our guiding principles. So these are less like if you think of kind of a target, like there's the bullseye, which is the Nicene Creed. And our five core commitments. Uh, uh, uh, I'm sorry, yeah, core commitments. And then the next level out is our, are guiding principles. And these are things that the CAFO board and the broader community have worked through together to uh, express kind of what we call philosophical guiding points. And that would include things like the idea that family is God's design for children. Um, and so while we may need to use, uh, residential care, like orphanages or group homes, that we want, uh, always be pressing toward the ideal of family. If we can keep kids in families to begin with, we want to do that. If there's kids in orphanages and there's a way to safely return them to their biological parents or relatives, we want to do that. And then if there is a need for a group home, which sometimes there is, we're going to try to make it as family, like as possible, you know, rather than just having caregivers coming and going, that there would be permanent people that is that are there for the long haul, developing long term relationships with these children and they're not just completely separated from a broader community, but like any family that they interact, they shop at grocery stores, they're part of the community. And so, you know, and again, there will be differences in uh, the ways in which different organizations work this out and different Priorities and all those things. But we're saying these are our North Star things. Or another metaphor would be this is how we're setting our compass. Right. And set your compass together. You can be fellow travelers because you're headed in the same direction. But as you travel you might disagree about a lot of the things. And that is of course also benefit because you're refining and growing together.

Speaker A: I love that. This concept of doing it together, refining and having these alignments around the 19 creed, your four core, uh, commitments and then the guiding principles gives you the structure, um, to bring disparate organizations who have this common alignment together. Um, one of the things that we also talked about in preparing for our discussion today was that it felt like the alliance wasn't just an organization, that because of the structure that you've created as the leader, that it really enables it to be a movement. Can you talk a little bit about that and how, and was that intentional? Like when you chartered, you know, you've been there for so long now. But if you think back, was that an intentional and purposeful design organizationally? And how has that equipped you to be beyond an organization to a movement?

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Well, I think you're perceiving that correctly. I will add, before affirming that, I'll add a caveat that I have realized that some measure of organization really is necessary. Right. For people to work together over time. They need leadership. We all do. Right. And that's because at uh, least part of it is because we're all extremely busy. If you're just asking everyone to work together while also dealing with all of their competing personal and organizational priorities, it's going to be very hard to sustain that. Having some infrastructure that coordinates and facilitates the work together is really critical. Um, we're not actually just talking about, hey, everybody, get together, everybody, you know, just bring some good things. That, that's just, I don't, I don't believe that is sustainable, however, um, given. But if we do have at the core, we've got our core, you know, commitments, meaning we're setting a compass together. And then B, you have some measure of what I might call the elbow grease leadership that makes that, that, that coordination and co laboring possible. When you have those ingredients and then you can indeed have something that feels more like a movement than just uh, a machine. And one way we would talk about that is when we think about what CAFO is the Christian Islands for Orphans. What is it? Is it the 40 staff members or so that work with me part time or full Time. Is it that? Or is it this much vaster community of 320 organizations and churches all around the world and a whole host of other leaders and researchers and experts who are part of this community? No, I would say at its essence it's the latter. It's this expansive community that is able to work together because there is that organizational core and the shared principles. That's what keeps us together. That's what gives a certain effectiveness and focus to our work. But the real essence, what is Cavill, it's this whole community growing, working together.

Speaker A: Right. I feel like that's kind of a magical structure to some degree. It reminds me recently I had an opportunity to be down at Chick Fil A at a, uh, conference they were hosting called Accelerating Impact. And as you might know, the corporate headquarters for Chick Fil A is called the support center. And that. So that corporate headquarters, that support center then supports all the different operators, the restaurants. And so a little bit of the structure of what you're talking about. You've got your team of 40, you've got organizational systems there at the alliance, but it's really this broader network of Alliance Partners at 320. And you think about the organization at its breadth. Right. And the largest component of scale, and that allows you to really mobilize, I think, at a larger scale as a movement rather than just an organizational structure.

Speaker B: That's right. That's right. Yeah. And you know, you may remember this, Jenny, a number of years ago there was kind of this book, the Starfish and the Spider. And there was a lot of, I think, um, interest and kind of breathless adoration for this idea of being very decentralized, very flat. Um, you know, it was so much better to be a starfish that could really didn't have any leadership. It could just keep replicating. And I think what many of us have seen, including me, is that, you know, that is, um, uh, is not going to, in the long run, either be sustained or be highly effective. You do need leadership, but it doesn't in any way need to be controlling, domineering. It is ideally a Christian vision for leadership. That is, yes, it's providing a central, uh, organization structure. And it provides a, uh, kind of coordinates, a clarity of mission and vision and shared values. It provides some of that elbow grease support. But like you said, it's largely a support leadership that is strengthening and building up all the component parts as opposed to telling everyone what to do.

Speaker A: Right. I mean, we think of it often at Brock Barnes as servant leadership. Right. And so how a Leader comes together humbly knowing that there's talents and assets and resources of others that they need to help, to orchestrate, to bring the best from all those individuals to get the job done or to meet those commitments or through the guiding principles. Right. And that whole aspect of servant leadership.

Speaker B: Yeah, you know, our internals internally, as, uh, staff will often talk about, you know, kind of the essence of our work, uh, as staff, is to strengthen champions. The champions are the people out there, the people who are leading organizations. It's the people who are serving in the organizations. It's church pastors and church leaders who are building these things in their churches. It's foster parents, it's adoptive parents. Those are the champions. We exist to strengthen them, including bringing a lot of people together in organizations and experts in different ways that then work together to strengthen those champions, make them more effective and sustained in what they're doing.

Speaker A: Uh, it's not about me, it's about them. It's about strengthening the, the champions. A great perspective. I think that as more leaders were to have, that at heart could really mobilize their capability. Um, let's turn a little bit and go more inwardly focused a bit and talk a little bit about faith and practice. I know as, as a Christians, we, we have our vocations, we have our gifts that we are taking into the world, uh, and making all things new with Christ. But talk a little bit about how your faith comes to life through, in practice with your work there at cafo and what it takes to sustain this combination, uh, of your faith and your leadership working together.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Well, they are absolutely inseparable. And I would say I would articulate two core reasons for that. One is, uh, I, especially after many years of working in this field, which, you know, for those who are on the front lines, it is extremely difficult. You are following Jesus into the world's most broken places, you know, into the lives of children who've been abused or severely neglected, into the lives of families that have disintegrated because of addiction or mental illness, into the lives of street children around the world, you know, who have suffered terribly. And when you follow Jesus into these places, you share in that pain. Right. That is something that, uh, we have to know from the very get go. And so if what is impelling us into this work is just a sense of activism, you know, a sense of guilt, you know, oh, it's just so bad out there. I need to do something or duty, like I really ought to do something, or even an idealism, you know, like, hey, friends, we're going to go out there and solve the world's problems. You know, we're going to. We're going to do xyz. Like, if those are the things that are impelling us, then the realities of the world will just chew us up and spit us out. We will not sustain for a lifetime. Um, and I could tell you many stories of people who I've known and respected, but who I think were being motivated and fed by that activism or by an idealism. And when the world and its problems did not yield to their work in the way that they had imagined, they became very disillusioned. Um, and so if those things are what feeds us and motivates us, we will run dry. Um, but what I have seen is that when what is impelling us is the gospel, when we have this deep down sense that before anything else, that I have been pursued and loved and welcomed into the family of God. And that is my core identity. Before anything I achieve in justice work, uh, or mercy work. Before any of that, the Father says over me what he said over Jesus before he began his earthly ministry. This is my beloved son, you know, this is my beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased. Right. If that's our identity, if that's the core of us, if that is, then what's sending us forth into the world to be about our Father's work, then we can sustain. We can sustain when things are going great and we're solving problems and kids are responding to our work like we hoped, and we can sustain when it's not going as we hoped and it's far more complicated. And someone we poured five years into falls off the wagon again and we become very disappointed. Our organization is struggling to raise funds. If we're impelled by the fact that, hey, God has called me into this and it is his love that sustains me, then we can continue in both the plenty and in the want, you could say. Um, and so I believe that has to be the center. It has to be the center at the beginning. That's what m. Impels us. And then it has to be also what sustains us continually, uh, dwelling in the life of God, fed by Him. And so we could talk about more of that second part, because I believe that really requires particular habits of life.

Speaker A: Talk about this. Talk about those.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, the basic, you know, metaphor. There would be this idea that all ministry is a pouring out, you know, in any form of ministry, whether we're, you know, caring, uh, for a little Baby, in our home, whether we're mentoring someone, whether we're with, um, a dear friend who's facing cancer, we're sitting next to the hospital all night long holding their hand. Whatever the m Ministry is, life and health and strength pour out of us into another. And by God's grace, brings good to them, right? That is a wonderful thing. That's the best life, right? If that's not happening, we become stagnant and dry and self absorbed. It's terrible. Um, and so that is the life we've been called to. But if we are doing that, if the life's pouring out of us and life is not pouring in, we will run dry. Um, and so we need to have means of that life pouring in. Now, the good news, the wonderful news, is that God, our good Father, he delights to pour in. He is always desiring to pour in. Like it says in Isaiah 55, come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters. That's his invitation continually. I mean, every breath we take is his life pouring into us. Every meal, every time we sleep. You know, just literally walking outdoors and seeing the beauty of creation. Um, you know, and there's wonderful research and studies that confirm. There's hundreds of studies that show just being out in nature, life and restoration spill into a human being or even when they don't know God, right? This is common grace. He spills out. You know, he puts his rain and sun on the righteous and the unrighteous. So it's always there. But I also believe he invites his children into particular practices, what you would you might call rhythms of receiving. And so we, as kefo, talk a lot about particular rhythms of receiving. Um, and as an organization, even internally, we kind of have these particular commitments where we, you know, without any legalism or judgment. But we are saying together as an organization that, um, you know, our desire is to receive. We have a daily rhythm of receiving, meaning spending a little time alone with our Father each day. That's one of our anchor daily. That's our daily rhythm of receiving. Our weekly is some form of Sabbath that each week, no matter how much we're carrying, we're trying our best to have a period of time, ideally 24 hours, where we have set the work and the to do list aside. And it is solely there to receive life from God in rest and worship and play. Um, and then we have a yearly rhythm of receiving as well. We actually have two. One is a day of solitude, at least one full day completely away with God. And the other, we actually call Something called Pilgrim feast, which is pilgrim feast playing off the Old Testament practice of, um, you know, God's people. Every year, often three times a year, but at least once a year, leaving everything behind for a whole week, traveling up to Jerusalem together for a time. What really is an extended Sabbath of rest and worship and play. And of course that's, you could call that a vacation. Right. But I think if we see this as a sacred gift from our Father, who's calling us out of our normal tasks and loads, I would say, away from our devices and all the things that normally stimulate and distract and divide us and to just really enter into his rest and his joy in a particular way, um, those anchor rhythms of receiving really help to sustain us over the long haul in a life of pouring out.

Speaker A: It's so great to hear you talk about that because I'm starting to see a pattern. Just being new to this executive director role at Brock Barnes, um, and having the opportunity to talk to leaders like yourself, Christian leaders who are doing great work in the field. Each of them are bringing two things to bear. One is how they continue to nurture their faith, right. First and foremost as a Christian, and then secondarily, their vocation or their role, their journey as a leader here on Earth. Right. And so recently we had Brent Beshore with permanent equity with us CEO there, and he was talking about his daily morning routine of reading the Bible. And he has like a chat group of other CEOs where they're reading the scripture together, they're holding each other accountable for a commitment that day. And then hearing you talk about the robust capability that you're describing, about how you stay connected to your faith and continue to nurture this relationship with Jesus and to bring that home every day, that's first and foremost. Right. And then going on from there, is that something that you just described? Is that what you do for all of cafo or is that just your own personal, um, pathway?

Speaker B: Yes. So the whole CAFO staff does this together. Yeah. And, you know, um, it'd be a longer story, but the gist is that really, you know, more than a decade ago is I was actually, I was working on CAFO strategic plan. So in every good organization, right, has its strategic plan for its external work. But I also began to realize, man, when I was, I just sat back and thought, you know, the effectiveness of this plan and its long term fruitfulness will hinge more than anything else on the thriving of the people who are executing it, right. If they're exhausted and irritable and in conflict with each other and separated from, you know, people they love and strained in marriage. And with God like this fruit is not going to be good, even if it's a great plan. But conversely, even if my strategic plan were kind of mediocre, if the people within are thriving and they're connected deeply with God and they're, um, perseverant and creative, then good fruit is going to grow. That's what Jesus said. A good tree will produce good fruit. And so we created a parallel document called our, in essence, our internal strategic plan. We call it the Strategic Plan for Thriving Souls. Yeah, uh, so we articulated there are plans and policies for caring well, for the whole team in regard to all five dimensions of a human being. Intellect, emotions, relationships, their spiritual life and their physical bodies. And of course, it's much more invitational than directive. Right. We're just inviting people into things. We're providing ways of nurturing health in each of those areas. But what we have seen is that as we cultivate these things together, um, and then B, as we ground that in a spiritual life together, specifically these three anchor rhythms of receiving that we seek to engage together, um, again, invitationally not, you know, there's your job performance, you're not evaluated on it, but everyone is invited into that. And I would say if you ask any member of the CAFO team, they'd say, oh, these anchors have been so significant in my own life and journey and formation, um, that, uh, it's a wonderful thing to get to do that together with our team.

Speaker A: Amazing, wonderful story. I'm so thankful. I wish we had another half an hour together. This has been amazing, Jed. And I want to thank you so much for being so open and transparent about your leadership, because I truly have been touched today around this personal connection of, uh, first being a Christian and nurturing that with your team and then taking that to the organizational leadership level. And I think so often when leaders today begin to think they separate those things, sometimes they'll say, yes, I am a Christian, but I'm, um, the CEO of X, Y or Z Corporation. And what you so beautifully shown us today is the power of connecting those two things and intertwining them. Keeping the core of, um, nurturing your Christian self as a child of God, and then taking that to the next step through your team and through the different individuals that you're touching with your mission and your vision for your organization. So thank you so much.

Speaker B: Absolutely, Jenny. Yes. Well, I love being a part of it. And it is not a vision for, you know, kind of a soft self care, uh, a well padded life. This Jesus calls us to lay our lives down, to take up our cross. It can be at times, you know, it is a very passionate self giving and yet right alongside that, if we have these habits and grounding in life and rhythms of receiving, we can sustain that pouring up for a lifetime.

Speaker A: I was going to ah, ask and you could obviously say no, but this strategic plan, you called it, uh, of giving, of caring.

Speaker B: Strategic plan for thriving souls.

Speaker A: Yes, yes, yes, the strategic plan for thriving souls. Will you share that with me?

Speaker B: Oh, glad to, absolutely.

Speaker A: I think it would be lovely and I think it would be a great model for us to think about and talk about, about how uh, a leader articulates something like that and begins to shape that with her team and it becomes a core and it fuels them every day because I sense that, that. But while you were talking about people saying how important it is to the work they do every day that you have that. So thank you and thanks for sharing and we'll share that forward if you are okay with that.

Speaker B: Totally.

Speaker A: Yep. Thank you, Jed. Have a great day.

Speaker B: Great talking with you.

Speaker A: Okay, see you soon.

Speaker B: Bye.

Speaker A: Bye. Bye.