Transcript: Called to Flourish: God’s Original Design for Fruitful Life and Leadership // Jay Bransford, Best Christian Workplaces

Jay: Yeah, when we think of Called to Flourish, and what God's heart is for creation and for humans to flourish, Rob, I think it's pretty amazing to go back just to the very beginning pages of the Bible, in the very first chapter of Genesis, because I think it describes so well there God's creation of the universe and his intent for human beings. It's helpful to remember what God intended for life to be like.

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Narrator: This is the Called to Flourish podcast where leaders and cultures grow.

Robert: Hello everybody, and welcome to the Called to Flourish Podcast. If you're new joining us for the first time, welcome. And if you have been on this journey with us for some years, tuning into the podcast, welcome back. We're so glad to be back putting out these podcasts for all of you.

My name is Robert Wachter, I'm the Global Marketing Director here at Best Christian Workplaces. I am honored to be your host today for this podcast. So welcome.

And as we launch the first episode of our kind of revitalized podcast in 2026, we have our very own President and CEO of Best Christian Workplaces, Jay Bransford, with us. Welcome to the podcast, Jay.

Jay: Hey, Rob. Great to be with you today.

Robert: Absolutely great to have you. Most of you probably know Jay, or have watched a podcast or have met him in person, but I think a short introduction is would be helpful.

So, Jay is 30 years of experience in organizational consulting, leadership development, and change management. He has coached corporate work, and ministry work with coaching, and guided cultural transformations with many, many organizations. He's also 16 years as a missionary in Asia, and so that was his ministry work just prior to becoming our leader here at Best Christian Workplaces. During his missionary work he oversaw staff, launched leadership development, and many, many other things that he has done in his vocation and in his ministry work. So, Jay is the leader of Best Christian workplaces, and I'm excited to have him on the podcast today.

As we as we kick into the topic for today, we're launching this Called to Flourish Podcast as a 2.0, as Phase 2 of 10 plus years of podcast work that our visionary, that our co-founder, Al Lopez began many, many years ago.

And as we began to pray about and assess and think about and strategize, what's the direction for this podcast? You know, we decided that the content around helping leaders grow and organizations flourish was a worthy endeavor. There's so much wisdom and insights to provide to all of you, our audience.

We began to think about, well, what should we call it? What is the focus? What's the intention? What's the purpose? And long story short, we landed on the name, Called to Flourish. I thought it would be appropriate for the very first episode to pause before we jump into data, before we jump into everything about leadership, growth, and flourishing cultures at our ministries and workplaces. What if we just paused and thought about the concept, the idea of what it means to actually be called to flourish? Because the calling implies some kind of duty that Christians have, a duty to flourish, a duty to prosper, a duty to be fruitful.

Jay is the perfect individual, not only as our leader, but as a missionary and a believer himself, to speak into these things. So, I hope you enjoy this content. I think the most appropriate place to start is to focus on this idea that God is the one who designed the idea of flourishing, right? It’s his heart. It’s his intention that every human being would flourish in every way. We know that as believers. There's so much scripture that talks about the concept of human flourishing is God's idea. That's his plan, that's his desire for us. And I would go so far as to say it's rooted in his character that he's the giver of life, the source of abundance, and the one who provides the blessing and the ability for us to function and to flourish as humans. So, we see this all throughout Scripture.

I'm going to kick it over to you, Jay. But I wanted to point out the Scripture John 10:10. Which is where Jesus says, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. That is the heart of God, the heart of Jesus. That we would have life flourishing, blessing abundantly. And when you think about God's heart for creation, Jay, I'd love just your thoughts. What does that stir in you? What’s the sense of gratitude that you have when we kind of pause for a moment and think about, you know, God has designed us and desires for us to flourish? I'd love to just hear your thoughts on that.

Jay: Yeah, thanks, Rob. And I just say, Rob, I love the name of this new podcast Called to Flourish. And I totally agree with everything you just said. And I'm very thankful, by the way, Rob, that you've agreed to take the mantle of this new Phase 2, Release 2, of our podcast from Al Lopez. So, thankful for Al and his many years of leading us in an incredible podcast and looking forward to the years to come.

But yeah, when we think of called to flourish and what God's heart is for creation and for humans to flourish. Rob, I think it's pretty amazing to go back just to the very beginning pages of the Bible, in the very first chapter of Genesis. Because I think it describes so well there God's creation of the universe and his intent for human beings. It's helpful to remember what God intended for life to be like. We're all familiar with the verse where God says to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiplied and to fill the earth and to subdue it. That comes from Genesis, Chapter 1, Verses 27 and 28.

I see those verses, Rob, as God's original, you could call it mandate, or intent for human beings to flourish. And this is, of course, before sin had entered the world. And we see that God blesses humanity, and he gives them a vocation. He tells Adam and Eve to be stewards of all that he created. Thereby giving them purposeful work. And he also tells them to be fruitful. And to me, being fruitful is the evidence that something is indeed flourishing, right? Because we know that all good fruit comes from a healthy, flourishing plant. It doesn't come from a diseased or weak plant.

So, from the very beginning of time, with the very first humans God created, he is clear that he wants humans to work, and that he wants the world and everything in it that he created to flourish. And that includes wanting Adam and Eve to flourish. Now, obviously, original sin happened soon thereafter, which brought about pain and challenges and division. We all live with the consequences of that sin every day. We experience pain, we experience challenges, and division at various times throughout our lives. But it is incredibly important, I think, to remember, and it's even encouraging to remember that God's heart is for us to flourish and to produce much fruit.

And thankfully, I'm thankful he provides us with knowledge. And God gives us wisdom, and he gives us resources, and he provides other people in our lives, and he gives us the power of His Holy Spirit to enable us to do everything he wants us to do, including to flourish.

So, again, Rob, I love the name of this podcast, Called to Flourish, because I truly believe that God wants us to flourish, and he calls us to flourish. And so, in this podcast, I'm looking forward to every episode talking about, what does a flourishing workplace look like? What does a flourishing employee look like? What are some of the common challenges that we may face, and what can leaders and staff do to help us move closer and closer to flourishing?

And I think in some cases, we're going to talk about how to protect and how to maintain the flourishing workplace culture that may already exist. But super excited, and I appreciate, again, Rob, that you're leading us in this.

Robert: There going back to Genesis, and really when you mentioned the fall at the original sin and how we don't live in a perfect world, we live with a fallen humanity. We are broken, fallen people. Even though we're born again, we're regenerated, we're filled with the Holy Spirit, we still come with flaws, and we're imperfect, we're finite. And with that comes lots of challenges. We've got a lot of things working against us, so all the more need for Christ and His help, as you mentioned, Jay, in this process. But to just know, like you said, that’s God’s heart, that is his desire. We’ve got God, his spirit, like you mentioned, all of these resources, all of Heaven, rooting for us, helping us, empowering us, enabling us. The wisdom of the Word of God and everything else is extremely encouraging.

I can tell you that is our brand promise for this podcast is to help leaders and cultures grow. And that's our intent for every podcast. If you take time out of your day to tune in, it's our heart and our desire to do excellent work with our content to just walk away, hey, I learned something that will help me flourish. I learned something that I can apply to my life as a leader. Maybe even in my personal life. But also in helping my organization and my team grow and flourish so that we can flourish as Kingdom people and the Kingdom of God can flourish on Earth.

I love your response, Jay. And it gets me thinking about the role of leadership in flourishing. So, you know, we are all leaders. I've always kind of heard that and believed that. Everyone's a leader. You're leading somebody. If you're a kid in the schoolyard at recess, you're leading your friends. You know, your example is leadership. You might not have a team at work, you might not be leading a large organization, but we're all leaders. Which means we're all called to this process of flourishing. It kind of gets down to the—It’s a bit of a theological question, but I don't think it's too difficult to lay down some good foundational understanding about God's intent here.

There is this tension between self-improvement and the work that only the Holy Spirit can do. And I want to touch on that a little bit, because there is a tension there. I don't think that God's idea of flourishing can happen independent from him. We know that. We know that without him, we cannot do anything. I have a friend who would always say that I’m a loser without the Lord. I believe that myself. Without the Lord, we lose. We lose.

So, there is this tension and I want to explore that a little bit. There’s a calling, which implies a duty. But at the same time, we cannot manufacture or produce divine flourishing. We can't produce salvation. We can't produce the things that only the Holy Spirit can produce. I believe, and I know you believe this too Jay, that God desires to partner with us in this process.

I'm reminded of First Corinthians, 15:9-10. It's one of my favorite scriptures. Apostle Paul says, For I am the least of the apostles, and do not even deserve to be called an apostle. That's some real humility and understanding of where God had brought him from and who he was. Because Paul says, I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them-yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. And this scripture to me underscores this so beautifully. Paul is saying, I don't get any credit. I couldn't do this. And at the same time, he says, I'm working harder than everyone. I'm working harder than all of you, yet it's not even me. Somehow, it's the grace of God that was with me, that is working in me to work and apply and pursue and I think that's so important. Because this process of growth can be difficult. It’s challenging. It’s confronting our own shortcomings and weaknesses in areas where we need to grow. And sometimes we can try to take the reins.

And I see Paul here saying, I've done more. I've worked harder than all of them. Help us understand that from a theological way? How does this work, Jay? We're not going to grow if we don't engage in the process. But at the same time, it's God who's going to do it?

Jay: Thanks, Rob. It is so interesting, like you said Rob, to contrast the concepts of God's power to accomplish things, because he can accomplish all things, and contrast that with our own effort to accomplish things. And I think, John, Chapter 15:5, it’s the verse that says, I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. But apart from me, you can do nothing. Which is very similar to what you just read in First Corinthians.

But you know that last part it says, apart from me, you can do nothing, right? Whoa. For me, Rob, that's a great reminder for me of who it is that gives me, and all of us, the power and the ability and the knowledge and the wisdom and the resources to do anything at all. It reminds us where that comes from.

But God has invited you and me, like you said, he's invited you and me to join him in his great plans for the world. But really for us to be successful or to be fruitful, it does require our effort and our action. And I think this is true for everyone. God wants to do great things in and through us, and he will enable us to do so, especially when we're following his lead.

So, at Best Christian Workplaces, we believe that that same principle about individuals is true of every Christian led organization. We believe that God has called your organization into existence for a certain Kingdom purpose. And he wants to empower you and your staff and your organization to flourish to accomplish those purposes.

So, to me, I think a great question for us all to consider is what can or should I do as a leader? And Rob, you reminded us we’re all leaders. What can you or I do as a leader to steward my organization to succeed and flourish in God’s purposes?

Robert: Yes, so we abide in Him, and He causes us to be fruitful. And I guess it's really a trust that when we come to him, when we invite him into this process of flourishing, whether it's personal growth as a leader or the organization, when we invite God in, there's a certain promise connected to that. We know he wants us to flourish. We know he wants us to grow. And when we apply ourselves and bring him into it, rather than trying to make it happen on our own, we all know that doesn’t work. It always leads to a dead end. Then he's going to bring that forth.

That's very encouraging to me. It doesn't matter where your organization is, or where you may be as a leader, or how many areas you need to work on, or what it might be, you invite God into that process. Just like Paul did. And it’s not even you. And God will take you and your organization places that you couldn't even imagine, places of flourishing and health in your culture, and growth with individuals as leaders that you can't even imagine. You’ll be able to say, “Wow, I can’t take any credit for this. We're working hard. We're effective. We're productive. We're applying ourselves. We're doing these things. We're active in it.” But at the same time, we take no credit for it, because it was clearly only God who produced that outcome.

I'm curious, Jay, we work with so many organizations and leaders, and I'd love to hear any examples you can provide of maybe a leader you've seen where it is so clear that God and the Holy Spirit is just working through this individual to bring about maybe transformation in that leaders life or growth in that leader’s life, or maybe an organization. But any examples you have, I think would be really interesting.

Jay: Examples. But if it’s okay, I think I’m going to refer to an example in our book that’s called, Road to Flourishing, from Chapter 2. Our listeners may remember that Al Lopez, our co-founder, is the author to Road to Flourishing. And in that book, in Chapter 2, Al shares a great example of one of the many, many transformations that we've had the privilege at Best Christian Workplaces to see over the years. And for the sake of confidentiality, in the book Al refers to this organization as, I think, LMIO. I don’t even know what that was supposed to stand for. But in reality, they're a well-known and established worldwide mission organization. And years ago, they contacted Al about utilizing our employee engagement survey, and their original founder of this mission organization had just stepped down, and they were in the process of identifying who the next leader would be.

And they were pretty sure that their workplace culture was unhealthy, and they ended up being right. It wasn't actually just unhealthy. It was one of the lowest scoring organizations that we had ever worked with at the time. To this organization's credit, they wanted to know the truth about the culture of their organization. And they also had a sincere desire for their workplace to be healthy and to be God honoring. As much as hearing the truth of their current workplace culture had to have hurt, I imagine, those leaders were just as humble in accepting the survey results from their staff as they were also courageous to conduct that survey to begin with, because it takes courage. These leaders showed great courage to ask for input, and they showed great humility in listening to the feedback from their staff.

So, upon reviewing their results, which happens during our 90 minute debrief with a consultant, these leaders decided to take action. And so, we at BCW facilitated a number of focus groups with their staff to help better understand what the staff were seeing, and what they were hearing, and feeling, and experiencing in the workplace. And to get their ideas of what they felt the organization would be doing if the culture was indeed healthy, what would this look like? What would it look like in our mission organization, if we were doing these things great, right?

And at the end of it, one of our consultants made a number of recommendations to their leaders based on their staff's input from those focus groups. They helped them to prioritize issues and actions. And really at the end of the day, with hard work and discipline by those leaders of that mission organization to follow through with the goals they set, that organization went from being one of the unhealthiest we've ever seen to being flourishing. The transformation was dramatic.

So, we give credit again, as you said, Rob, to God, but we also give credit to the sincere efforts of those leaders for that success. And I guess Rob, I can say, thankfully, we've seen many organizations over the years move from very unhealthy to flourishing. And time and time again, it's always a result of leaders who humbly consider the feedback from their staff and who are committed and disciplined and taking action. So, that's one example for you.

Robert: In and around BCW is to see those transformations happen, and it's very humbling, I think, for all of us to think that God would use a tool, whether it's our tool or another tool, that God can actually use those tools in his process of him doing the work and to see those things happen. And is really exciting. I love that story about that transformation. It is very encouraging. If you are a leader and you're looking for some transformation in your organization, there is a process that God can take you through, that will bless you and that will bring about that. That’s what he does. If he can take us from death to life, he can certainly take us from unhealthy to healthy culture and grow us as leaders as well.

So, I want to say that whatever your profession. Jay, you know, I think I'm preaching to the choir here, but every leader, no matter what our profession is, whether you're in a Christian organization, whether you're in a secular business, whatever it may be, whatever area you lead. As a believer, I believe that we're called to lead with a shepherd's heart. We are called to bring our heart of God with us to wherever we are, wherever God places us, and plants us. God has called leaders of organizations to lead with that shepherd's heart. I believe that He invites us in to guide and protect and nurture those we influence, as imperfect as we are. And I guess you know, we tend to know that if you work at a church, if you work in a ministry, but even if you're in the marketplace. God has put you there. And he has given you his spirit, his heart, his desires, and his perspective in many ways, to see the people around you and say, I want to guide them. I want to protect them. I'm going to nurture them, anyone that we influence.

So, God desires this care to be extended through his people. And you know, that’s the thing about it, he sends his people everywhere. He plants us places. And a lot of times we're trying to get planted somewhere else, you know? And no, I planted you here. And you're here for a reason for this season.

And I think about Psalm 78:70-72. This speaks of David. And the Psalm says this, He chose David and took him from the sheep pens. This is a young guy who was out dealing with sheep. And from tending the sheep, he brought him to the shepherd of his people, Jacob of Israel, his inheritance. And David shepherd them with integrity of heart, with skillful hands, he led them. And you know, David wasn't a pastor, he was a king. He was in training to be a king. And he had a different kind of call on his life. Yet still, his calling ultimately, was to shepherd with integrity of heart. And he did that so well, despite his flaws and mistakes. He did it skillfully, and he led.

So, Jay, I want to get your thoughts on this. You know, examples of maybe a leader that God has used to reshape an organization or culture through this same kind of humble shepherd-like leadership that we see in David? Is there anybody who's inspired you over the years that you can think of that you'd like to share what that looked like for you?

Jay: Yeah, absolutely, Rob. And I was actually just reminded this this past week, I was in Nashville, and I was with a gathering of about 10 of our ministry partners across various sectors like you were saying, Rob, we can have a kingdom, godly impact, no matter what we do in what sphere of society, no matter what kind of work we do, we can have an influence on the kingdom.

And I was together with 10 different leaders on Monday for lunch. We had invited people together. And it was so encouraging for me to hear some stories from these 10 leaders of various organizations in Nashville, and hear their stories of what they had done, how they had listened to their staff and employees, and what actions they had taken to really impact the workplace culture of their organization.

So, I could probably talk about all 10 of those. But instead, today, I think I'll give you an example of a different person that I did have the honor of meeting a few years ago. An example of one of the many, many humble leaders over the years that we have had the opportunity to work with and seen them turn their organization's culture around. So, this example I'm going to share with you Rob is from Alpha USA. Many people know Alpha. And their leader at the time was a man named Craig Springer. Now some of you may know Craig Springer, he actually just passed away recently, very, very tragically. He was an amazing, wonderful man of God.

But Craig, at the time that he came in to start working and leading Alpha USA, he inherited what I would say is a very unhealthy ministry, and it had struggled with unstable leadership for several years. But Craig understood that it was unwise for leaders just to assume that they know what their workplace is like, and they know what their staff are feeling and experiencing. He knew that was unwise to make that assumption. So, he immediately, when he came on board with Alpha USA, he immediately brought in Best Christian Workplaces to evaluate their culture using our employee engagement survey. And Craig displayed what I would call just one of the critical principles of inspirational leadership, which was a willingness to listen and to embrace the truth of what his staff said. So, their survey results showed a reality that some leaders might have found very hard to swallow. But Craig showed humility and he accepted that to staff's feedback as their reality. And then he worked to determine how to change it. He and his leadership team owned the reality of their current culture, instead of choosing to defend it or to deflect it, they chose to listen to their people and to find out what they needed. And Craig even spent time talking with his teams individually and apologizing for the ways things were and committing to finding a solution.

So really, I think because Craig prioritized deep listening along with taking focused action, within the span of just a couple of years, Alpha USA moved from being in a very unhealthy state to a flourishing state, according to the staff's feedback on our survey. So, that's one example Rob of a great leader that we got to work with.

Robert: Yeah, yeah. And there's so many others. Well, that that's encouraging. Again, both of those stories, so encouraging. Just want to say, and what a great place, I think we’ll wind up our conversation here on that note, on encouragement. There's no way these organizations can turn around like that and have a shift from unhealthy or maybe toxic, or whatever term you want to use, into a flourishing, healthy, flourishing organization.

Why does this matter? Because God's desires is for flourishing and fruitfulness, as Jay already pointed out. And so, it's impossible for an organization to be fruitful in its Kingdom work or marketplace work, if it's not healthy and flourishing in terms of its culture and its people and its leaders. The two just they go hand in hand, and the outcome happens from a healthy place. And so, I'm grateful for this episode in your wisdom and insights, Jay. I'm grateful for the knowledge and of knowing our God is faithful in this way that he will take broken things and broken people, broken organizations, broken cultures, from wherever they are, and from that place, when we invite Him into it, he causes us to grow, and ultimately, he gets all the credit, and the increase happens because of him.

And so, thank you for your wisdom and insights for today's episode. But I'd like to close out with a couple rapid fire questions, just so we can get to know you a little bit better as a leader and as a person. So, just quick, just a quick little answer. Couple questions. What's a verse or passage that most inspires your approach to leadership?

Jay: Yeah, okay. So Rob, thankfully, it's an easy one for me. Since I went on to the mission field, which is now 20 years ago, God gave me a particular verse that has continued to inspire me over the years. And it's John, Chapter 17:21, although it's several verses in that area. It is where Jesus is praying to his Father for the unity of believers. And really he prays about how our unity as believers, people will come to know Jesus. It basically says, Father, make them one. Jesus says, Father, make them one, so that the world will believe you sent me. And for me, this inspires me because it's incredibly motivating just to think about what Christian led organizations can achieve as we lead healthy, unified, flourishing workplaces and how that can affect people coming to know Jesus. So, that’s the passage that inspires me the most. I’m glad you asked, Rob.

Robert: Amen, love that passage. Okay, second question, last question. What's a daily rhythm that helps you stay spiritually grounded as a leader? Just a daily rhythm habit that you've developed that you think would work for others?

Jay: Yeah, you bet. Well. So, for me, it's pretty simple. I love starting my day in quiet solitude, by myself, reading some scripture and just letting it speak to me and ground my day. So, I always have a Bible reading plan that I'm following, which makes it really easy for me to have a scripture waiting for me every morning when I open up my YouVersion Bible app. And I think I've had this routine for well over 10 years now. And oftentimes a scripture just pops out to me that I feel relates to my current situation, either personally or at work. I often copy and paste those verses to myself for later references, and sometimes I'll pray into an upcoming work meeting. But that morning routine of reading scripture, having that quiet time that's super helpful and important for me.

Robert: Amen. Well, sometimes the best, the best approach is the simple and sometimes the most obvious ones, that sometimes we don't do. Just getting up, having a planned scripture reading, and spending some time in the word, Amen. Okay.

Well, thank you for that, Jay. Thank you for your time and insights today for the podcast. If you're watching, if this has meant something to you, if you feel inspired, I'd encourage you to both subscribe to our podcast and also share it out. Share it to a colleague, a friend, just anybody you think would benefit from the conversation that we had today.

But please tune in to the next episode of Call to Flourish. And God bless you, Jay, And you as listeners, we'll see you next time.

Jay: Thanks, Rob. Bless you.

Robert: Bless you.

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