“I want to see leaders live from a place of rest where they’re not working for rest, they’re working from rest.”

Three Main Takeaways

1. Rest is foundational, not optional. Sabbath creates space for intimacy with God, healthier relationships, and sustainable leadership.

2. Redesign before you resign. Sometimes the answer to burnout isn’t leaving your calling. It’s rebuilding boundaries, responsibilities, and rhythms.

3. Your worth isn’t your productivity. God’s love doesn’t increase with your accomplishments or diminish when you stop serving.

Journey

Mikelle grew up surrounded by ministry. Her father served in Christian nonprofit leadership, her grandfather was a pastor, and extended family members served as missionaries internationally. Early exposure to the global Church cultivated her passion for Kingdom impact while revealing the personal costs of leadership.

Later, Mikelle and her husband spent six years church planting while working full-time, approaching burnout themselves.

As a mother of three young children, she stepped back from career-building and began exploring Sabbath practices for her family. An unexpected dream emerged: helping others learn to rest.

Through Alan Briggs’ book AntiBurnout, a leadership cohort, and an apprenticeship opportunity, that dream became her calling at Sabbatical Coaching Group.

Her own transformation included navigating church hurt, releasing unhealthy expectations of sacrifice, and rediscovering spiritual disciplines.

One defining moment came while sitting on a stump in the woods. She sensed God reminding her that even if she accomplished nothing more, His love would remain unchanged.

That revelation became foundational to her ministry.

Calling & Ideal Client

Mikelle serves pastors, nonprofit executives, ministry leaders, and other professionals carrying overwhelming responsibility.

Her gift combines attentive listening, strategic discernment, and spiritual hospitality.

“The lie in leadership is that you’re alone.”

Through coaching, she helps leaders find clarity, practice Sabbath, establish boundaries, and return from sabbatical with sustainable rhythms.

Her approach makes room for both practical redesign and spiritual renewal.

Big Dream

Mikelle envisions a movement of rest transforming organizational cultures and helping leaders flourish across work, family, and faith.

She also dreams of guided spiritual hiking, combining nature, movement, Scripture meditation, silence, and prayer to help people encounter God beyond traditional ministry settings.

Collaborate

Connect with Mikelle to explore sabbatical coaching, leadership renewal, or spiritual rest.

Website: https://www.sabbaticalcoachinggroup.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikellemosier

Join the Community

Discover your Kingdom Superpowers and connect with believers pursuing meaningful Kingdom impact.

• Subscribe: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/subscribe

• Discover your superpower: https://learnyoursuperpower.com

Affirmations

Were you inspired? Don’t keep it to yourself. Connect on LinkedIn and give a shout of encouragement.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikellemosier

Remember: You are a human being before you’re a human doing. Your Kingdom calling flows from who God created you to be, not how much you accomplish.

*I use AI in the production/refinement of some written content. See my boundaries for ethical AI usage in the content I create: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/ai-policy

Three Main Takeaways

Choose life, not merely the avoidance of death. David reframes suicide prevention around hope. “My motive can’t be death. My motive must be life.” That shift changes the conversation from fear toward belonging, purpose, healing, and abundant life.

Choose curiosity over criticism. One of David’s most powerful observations came while helping a mother understand her daughter: “I stopped being curious about my daughter and started being critical about her.” David believes listening communicates dignity. Inquiry creates connection where investigation can create distance.

Choose community over isolation. David says, “You cannot find yourself outside of the context of community.” We discover who we are partly by bumping into other people, receiving grace, extending grace, and learning to belong.

Journey

David calls his journey “accidentally on purpose.” He grew up without a strong family faith background, yet a church began bussing neighborhood children to Sunday school. Around eight or nine years old, David encountered Jesus and sensed the beginnings of a call.

His professional path was anything but linear. Restaurants and hospitality gave way to ministry, leadership, pro-life work, and eventually suicide prevention. Along the way came pain, mistakes, tragedy, and unexpected doors.

Those experiences became part of David’s ability to connect. He describes himself as “as much holy as I am hood,” someone able to sit with a teenager sharing a painful secret and later help parents understand what their children are trying to communicate.

His mother once believed he was selling himself short professionally. Then she saw the fruit: lives changed, family members seeking his wisdom, and people finding help. Eventually, she became one of his biggest advocates.

Today, David’s Harmony drive is expressed through reconciliation: turning hearts toward one another and helping people rediscover life through relationship.

Calling & Ideal Client

David serves churches, schools, businesses, parents, leaders, and communities through speaking, workshops, seminars, certifications, and conversations.

His calling is not to make himself indispensable. A broker helps two parties connect, then steps away.

David wants leaders asking better questions, parents becoming curious again, young people feeling heard, and faith communities becoming places where people experiencing suicidal desperation encounter hope.

Big Dream

David dreams of equipping churches across America to become frontline communities of listening, belonging, suicide prevention, and hope.

“What does every small town in this country have? They all have churches.”

His vision is beautifully decentralized: equip ordinary people to listen well, recognize suffering, build connection, and “increase hope and decrease loneliness.”

Collaborate

David currently serves as Director of Innovation and Development and Trainer with Soul Shop™ Movement, which equips faith communities to recognize and respond to suicidal desperation. His current public biography also reflects years of training and facilitating conversations around whole-person health.

Soul Shop Movement: https://www.soulshopmovement.org/

David’s Soul Shop email: david@soulshopmovement.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/djgalvan

David is also President of Pikes Peak Suicide Prevention Partnership and Mental Health Trainer-in-Residence at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church.

Join the Community

Kingdom Superpowers is about discovering how God uniquely designed you and putting those gifts into motion alongside others.

• Subscribe: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/subscribe

• Join the paid community: https://connections.kingdomsuperpowers.com

• Discover your superpower: https://learnyoursuperpower.com

Affirmations

Were you inspired? Don’t keep it to yourself. Connect on LinkedIn and give a shout of encouragement. https://www.linkedin.com/in/djgalvan

David closed with words worth carrying into our own communities:

Maybe that is a Kingdom Superpower available to every one of us: noticing someone, listening long enough to know them, and reminding them that their life matters.

*I use AI in the production/refinement of some written content. See my boundaries for ethical AI usage in the content I create: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/ai-policy

Hero Profile

Aaron Alba

• Company: R&R Advisory / Alba Coaching & Consulting

• Title: Author, Speaker, Consultant & Advisor

• Industry: Thought Leadership, Brand Strategy, Sales & Consulting

• Core Drive: Progress

• Power Words: Visionary, Clarifying, Decisive, Relational, Tenacious

Aaron is a dreamer who learned how to execute. His Kingdom Superpower lives at the intersection of vision and action: seeing what someone could build, clarifying the path, and helping them actually move.

As Aaron puts it, “If I can do anything, I work hard. If I can do anything, I make a decision. If I can do anything, I can put in effort.”

Three Main Takeaways

1. Calling still requires craft. Aaron learned early that energy and ideas were not enough. A mentor challenged him to develop real skills. Eventually, he doubled down on the craft of helping thought leaders gain revenue traction.

2. Great mentorship sometimes hurts. Aaron distinguishes encouraging mentorship from the kind that transforms us. Great mentors tell us what we may not want to hear. His approach is simple: find people whose lives you respect enough that their wisdom can outweigh your ego.

3. Never be above work. After Aaron’s father lost a corporate job, he quickly took a management job at Taco Cabana. When young Aaron questioned it, his father gave him a sentence that still shapes his life: “Never be above work.”

Journey

Aaron was wired to dream. As a child, he imagined himself behind a microphone, speaking, teaching, preaching, and writing books. But vision without execution eventually exposed a gap.

Mentors including Joe Elliott challenged him to build skills and steward his gifts. Sales initially felt awkward, but working around Donald Miller and experienced sales leaders taught Aaron that selling could be done with honor, kindness, and leadership.

Marriage brought another defining moment. When Aaron was piecing together part-time work, his wife asked a practical question: “What’s the plan?” He remembered his father’s example, took work he did not particularly want, and discovered the dignity of getting paid while learning a skill.

That journey turned a Dreamer into an executor. His natural vision remains, but Aaron has deliberately developed the disciplines required to carry ideas across the finish line.

Calling & Ideal Client

Aaron serves executives, founders, authors, speakers, and emerging thought leaders who possess valuable expertise but need clarity about how to turn it into something useful, sustainable, and revenue-producing.

He helps leaders transform expertise into authority through consulting, workshops, speaking, brand development, and revenue strategy.

His philosophy is refreshingly practical: “We solve a problem with a solution for an audience, and then we get money in return. To me, that’s a craft.”

Revenue, in Aaron’s worldview, is not the calling itself. It is stewardship that can fuel the calling.

Big Dream

Aaron’s trajectory points toward three connected dreams:

1. Become a full-time author who turns hard-earned lessons into wisdom for others.

2. Speak on stages about faith, failure, leadership, story, and revenue.

3. Help leaders turn their God-given experiences and expertise into impact that outlives them.

That childhood picture of a man standing behind a microphone is becoming increasingly literal. Aaron’s first book, Failing Well, is currently scheduled for late 2026. It explores how leaders can grow through failure rather than simply hiding it.

Collaborate

Connect with Aaron for speaking, workshops, consulting, and thought-leadership strategy.

• Website: https://aaronalba.com/

• Book a conversation: https://rradvisory.co/bookaaronalba

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronalba/

Aaron’s upcoming book, Failing Well, is scheduled for late 2026. Updates are available at https://aaronalba.com/

.

AI Impact Partner

Joshua Aguirre @ Cressio (cressio.com) has become our first Kingdom Superpowers & Connections sponsor. Cressio builds AI-powered infrastructure with a specific emphasis on Empowering the Underprivileged. Joshua is an expert in empowering Kingdom initiatives with AI. Connect with Joshua on LinkedIn to learn more about how he can help your cause, the way he’s helping us to grow at Kingdom Superpowers & Connections. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshaguirre/

Join the Community

Your Kingdom Superpower is not meant to remain buried. Discover it, strengthen it, and find people whose gifts complement yours.

• Subscribe: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/subscribe

• Join the paid community: https://connections.kingdomsuperpowers.com

• Take the Superpower survey: https://learnyoursuperpower.com

Affirmations

Were you inspired? Don’t keep it to yourself. Connect on LinkedIn and give Aaron a shout of encouragement.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronalba/

I use AI in the production/refinement of some content. See my boundaries for ethical AI usage in the content I create: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/ai-policy

Hero Profile

Brooke Hodnefield

• Company: Slingshot Group / Remarkable Teams Consulting

• Title: Director of Remarkable Teams Consulting

• Industry: Leadership, Team Health & Nonprofit Consulting

• Power Words: Discerning • Encouraging • Strategic • Curious • Courageous

Brooke Hodnefield has distilled her calling into two powerful words: “unveiling glory.” She sees God’s fingerprints in people, organizations, cultures, and creation, then helps others see what may have become hidden beneath the noise.

“I love helping people see the things that are in them that God’s created.”

Three Main Takeaways

Obedience can lead to delight. Brooke stepped away from work she deeply loved because God was inviting her into what she describes as a “spacious place.” Sometimes faithfulness means releasing something good before we know what comes next.

Calling needs healthy boundaries. Her work was fulfilling, meaningful, and aligned with her gifts, yet it had begun squeezing out community, church, people, and play. Calling is not permission to let one good thing consume every other good thing.

Healthy teams require more than remarkable hires. Adding a talented person cannot repair unresolved dysfunction. Brooke helps organizations hold up the mirror, name what is actually happening, and address the foundation first.

Journey

Brooke describes herself as a builder. Over seven years with Slingshot, she helped build its nonprofit division, serving Kingdom-minded organizations through staffing, executive search, and succession coaching.

Then came an unexpected invitation from God. Rather than burnout, Brooke sensed a need for recalibration. Work had become disproportionately large in her life, despite being work she loved. She stepped away from her VP role without knowing exactly what would follow.

For three months, she created room for family, church, community, play, and God’s delight. Eventually, she returned to Slingshot with a different pace and focus.

That new chapter became Remarkable Teams Consulting, where Brooke helps teams examine the deeper organizational realities that hiring alone cannot solve. Her journey reflects her Progress drive beautifully: she builds, releases, learns, and builds again.

“I don’t need to do anything because God already delights in us just as we are.”

Calling & Ideal Client

Brooke serves leaders and mission-driven teams who sense something is off but cannot quite name it. Through Slingshot’s Team Awareness work, she helps teams examine conviction, message, culture, roles, systems, friction, and risk, creating language for problems people may already feel.

Her gift is not merely diagnosing organizations. It’s also seeing the human being inside the organizational problem.

“Sometimes you just need someone to call something out and name it what it is.”

Big Dream

Brooke’s work points toward a compelling vision: healthier leaders, healthier teams, and greater mission impact. She wants organizations to stop assuming another hire will solve every problem and instead develop the awareness to recognize what their mission truly needs.

And beneath that organizational work is something even deeper: helping people recognize the dignity, gifts, and glory God has placed within them.

Collaborate

Brooke is currently Director of Remarkable Teams Consulting at Slingshot Group.

• Website: https://slingshotgroup.org/

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brookehodnefield
  

Explore Remarkable Teams and the Team Awareness resources through Slingshot Group. Brooke also hosts conversations around the seven signatures through the Reaching for Remarkable podcast.

AI Impact Partner

Joshua Aguirre @ Cressio (cressio.com) has become our first Kingdom Superpowers & Connections sponsor. Cressio builds AI-powered infrastructure with a specific emphasis on Empowering the Underprivileged. Joshua is an expert in empowering Kingdom initiatives with AI. Connect with Joshua on LinkedIn to learn more about how he can help your cause, the way he’s helping us to grow at Kingdom Superpowers & Connections. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshaguirre/

Join the Community

Kingdom Superpowers is about discovering what God uniquely placed inside you and learning to steward it alongside others.

• Subscribe: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/subscribe

• Join the paid community: https://connections.kingdomsuperpowers.com

• Discover your superpower: https://learnyoursuperpower.com

Affirmations

Were you inspired? Don’t keep it to yourself. Connect on LinkedIn and give a shout of encouragement.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brookehodnefield

I use AI in the production/refinement of some content. See my boundaries for ethical AI usage in the content I create: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/ai-policy

Three Main Takeaways

Generosity begins with love. Joe returns repeatedly to John 3:16: God loved, so He gave. Giving without love misses the deeper invitation.

Success requires stewardship. Joe has embraced the idea that business success can present spiritual dangers alongside opportunities. Growth is not merely about accumulating more, but stewarding more faithfully.

Your workplace can be your ministry. After a decade working for churches, Joe had to untangle the assumption that vocational ministry was somehow more sacred. Today, he says, “If you’re a Christian, you’re in ministry. It’s just a matter of where you get a paycheck from.”

Journey

Joe grew up in Minnesota and came to faith young, but his early Christianity often focused on outward performance. During his teenage and young-adult years, hidden struggles forced him toward greater authenticity, community, accountability, and dependence on God.

Professionally, Joe moved from medical devices into a decade of church ministry. Meanwhile, leatherworking became a hobby on his kitchen table. Daly Goods grew from hobby to side hustle until Joe was effectively carrying two full-time jobs.

In 2024, Joe and his wife sought prayer and counsel from roughly 15–18 trusted people. The answer was remarkably consistent: pursue Daly Goods.

He transitioned full-time in October 2024. What initially looked like leaving ministry became an expanded understanding of ministry itself. His drive for progress now shows up in a desire to improve gifting, employment, stewardship, and generosity while remaining teachable about the shadow side of his strengths.

Calling & Ideal Client

Joe describes his calling simply: spread the message of biblical generosity.

Daly Goods primarily serves businesses, churches, conferences, and organizations wanting meaningful gifts rather than disposable branded merchandise. Joe encourages clients to separate gifting from marketing. Marketing tends to point toward the company; a great gift points toward the recipient.

That philosophy also shapes Daly Goods internally. Its handcrafted products are made in Waco, Texas, by a team currently composed of moms whose flexible schedules allow family to come first. Joe wants the business to create jobs people remember as some of the best they ever had.

Big Dream

Joe’s vision centers on three outcomes as Daly Goods grows:

1. Put more quality, meaningful gifts into the world.

2. Create more loving, encouraging, well-paying jobs.

3. Give more money away.

Long term, Joe dreams of Daly Goods outliving him. Rather than building simply to sell, he hopes eventually to entrust the company to someone who will continue stewarding its mission.

“We’re trying to do this decades, not days.”

Collaborate

Want to give a gift that makes someone feel genuinely seen? Daly Goods specializes in handcrafted, customizable leather gifts for clients, employees, prospects, events, churches, and organizations.

• Website: https://dalygoods.com

• Joe Daly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-daly-67b31928/

• Daly Goods on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/daly-goods/

Join the Community

Your Kingdom Superpower was designed to be developed and deployed alongside others.

• Subscribe at https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/subscribe,

• Join the paid community at https://connections.kingdomsuperpowers.com

• Discover more about your own design at https://learnyoursuperpower.com

.

Affirmations

Were you inspired? Don’t keep it to yourself. Connect on LinkedIn and give a shout of encouragement. https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-daly-67b31928/

*I use AI in the production/refinement of some written content. See my boundaries for ethical AI usage in the content I create: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/ai-policy

Hero Profile

Erik Smith has a gift for setting the table. Not simply with food or around a firepit, but by creating the kind of environment where people can lower their defenses, tell the truth, and discover they aren’t alone.

That gift now stretches across two worlds: leading Amp’d Adventures in Colorado Springs and helping men find authentic community through The Forge.

Three Main Takeaways

1. Waiting doesn’t mean you’re behind. Erik once planned to attend seminary and become a pastor. Instead, he spent roughly 15 years in technology sales. Looking back, he sees that calling through a different lens: “I think God’s bigger than that. I think he’s got plans and reasons that we are in spaces that may not seem right.”

2. Truth creates room for freedom. Erik has watched men enter The Forge carrying things they believed nobody else could understand, only to hear another man respond, “Yeah, dude, me too.” Vulnerability breaks isolation.

3. Marketplace and ministry don’t have to be separate worlds. Taking over Amp’d Adventures has opened a new question for Erik: What does faithfully following Jesus look like outside a predominantly Christian workplace?

Journey

After graduating from Colorado State University, Erik expected ministry to become his vocation. Dallas Theological Seminary was part of the plan, but the path changed, eventually leading to a long career in software sales.

Still, the desire to serve never disappeared.

Years later, at a gathering of Christian leaders in the Colorado mountains, that thread resurfaced. Erik met The Forge founder JD Small and heard about a community helping men live authentically and intentionally. Something clicked.

“I knew this was it.”

Erik helped launch The Forge’s first tribe outside Lubbock, Texas, in Colorado’s Front Range. Today, The Forge describes its mission as helping men live in community and on purpose across faith, family, fitness, finance, friendship, and fun.

Meanwhile, another transition arrived. Erik stepped away from technology sales and into ownership of his father’s e-bike adventure business, Amp’d Adventures. He is learning entrepreneurship in real time while exploring how business, faith, hospitality, and ministry might intersect.

Calling & Ideal Client

Erik’s Kingdom Superpower is creating belonging that makes honesty possible.

Through The Forge, that means men across generations who need friendship, purpose, challenge, and a place to become known. Through Amp’d Adventures, it means employees and visitors who may encounter faith less through a sermon and more through the way they are welcomed, served, and valued.

As Erik puts it, “If a man can move from isolation…to a point where that’s no longer a barrier, it’s gonna get messy along the way…[but] there’s movement in a direction that I believe we’re called to.”

Big Dream

Erik is still discovering the full shape of the dream, but several pieces are emerging: seeing men become healthy and connected, discovering how Amp’d Adventures and ministry might serve a greater purpose together, and helping raise the next generation of young men.

Most personally, he wants to look back and know he created an environment where his own sons could “thrive in their faith, in being vulnerable, in their care for others.”

Collaborate

Experience Colorado Springs with Amp’d Adventures:

• https://ampedadventures.com/

• 719-590-6500

Learn about The Forge and find a tribe:

• https://www.theforgehq.org/

• The Forge’s vision is to see 100,000 men across the United States living in community and on purpose.

Join the Community

Your Kingdom Superpower was never designed to stay hidden. Kingdom Superpowers & Connections is a place to discover your design, connect with others, and put your gifts to work.

• Subscribe: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/subscribe

• Join the paid community: https://connections.kingdomsuperpowers.com

• Discover your superpower: https://learnyoursuperpower.com

*I use AI in the production/refinement of some written content. See my boundaries for ethical AI usage in the content I create: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/ai-policy

Hero Profile

Dan Woolley | Digital Spry | Founder, AI & Marketing Consultant | AI, Technology & Marketing

• Core Drive: Progress

• Power Words: Innovative. Strategic. Curious. Creative. Empowering.

Dan Woolley sees change coming and moves toward it. From embracing the internet before many organizations understood its significance to helping leaders navigate today’s AI revolution, Dan’s Kingdom Superpower is turning technological disruption into human opportunity.

His philosophy is wonderfully simple: “I want to make staff heroes.”

Three Main Takeaways

• Your work can be ministry. Dan spent much of his 30-year career serving nonprofits and mission organizations, but God expanded his understanding of calling. Kingdom impact is not confined to explicitly Christian organizations. Excellence, service, compassion, and trust can advance God’s purposes wherever He plants us.

• Innovation should serve people. Dan isn’t interested in using AI simply to eliminate jobs. He wants technology to remove low-value work so people have greater capacity for creativity, relationships, mission, and meaningful contribution.

• Your strengths need maturity. Dan’s CliftonStrengths include Input, Ideation, Strategic, Command, and Responsibility. Over time, he learned that leadership wasn’t about having every great idea. It was about helping others bring their gifts forward.

Journey

Dan traces his sense of calling back to a mission trip around the end of high school. Preaching, serving through Vacation Bible School, and building things awakened something: What if serving God didn’t have to be a side activity?

He expected that calling might take him overseas. Instead, God led him through decades of nonprofits, missions, marketing, digital strategy, technology, and leadership.

Dan became an early internet adopter and the person helping organizations make sense of what was coming next. Eventually, Digital Spry became the home for his marketing work. Then AI rekindled something deeper.

“What I’m good at is looking at the new and figuring out how to use it.”

Today, Dan is once again standing near the front of a technological wave, helping others move from uncertainty to practical action. His Progress drive isn’t about chasing shiny objects. It’s about discovering what could be and helping people get there.

Calling & Ideal Client

Dan serves small businesses, nonprofits, and mission-driven leaders who know AI matters but aren’t sure where to begin. He describes himself as something of a “technology whisperer,” translating complexity into practical next steps.

His sweet spot is the bridge between business, marketing, technology, and people.

Dan believes AI can help us rediscover the dignity of work.

That perspective matters. Work existed before the Fall, Dan points out. Technology should therefore help people flourish in meaningful work rather than simply turn human beings into units of production.

Big Dream

Dan wants to help organizations catch the AI wave without losing their humanity. That means helping leaders transform operations, giving employees higher-value work, and making technology serve mission rather than allowing mission to become subordinate to technology.

Ultimately, it’s about something larger: redeeming work.

Collaborate

Dan offers AI training, coaching, and consulting through Digital Spry, helping organizations move beyond experimentation and put AI to practical use.

• Website: https://digitalspry.com/

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/woolleydan/

Join the Community

Your Kingdom Superpower was designed to be used. Join a growing community discovering how God has uniquely equipped them to serve others, build meaningful relationships, and advance!

• Subscribe: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/subscribe

• Join the paid community: https://connections.kingdomsuperpowers.com

• Discover your superpower: https://learnyoursuperpower.com

  Affirmations

Were you inspired? Don’t keep it to yourself. Connect on LinkedIn and give a shout of encouragement.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/woolleydan/

*I use AI in the production/refinement of some written content. See my boundaries for ethical AI usage in the content I create: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/ai-policy

Three Main Takeaways

1. Your assignment can change without changing your calling. Matt’s transition out of pastoral ministry forced him to reconsider what ministry looked like. He discovered that while his path changed, his purpose remained: “I’m always going to be serving leaders.”

2. Marketplace work can be Kingdom work. A business is more than a mechanism for generating money to fund ministry. Serving employees, customers, communities, and the world through excellent products and services can itself become ministry.

3. Frustration can become fuel. Matt describes frustration as a “check engine light.” Leaders often see a gap between reality and possibility. Instead of burying that tension, healthy leaders examine it and ask what needs to change.

Journey

Matt grew up in a ministry family near Denver, watching his father model faith, integrity, perseverance, consistency, and hard work. He followed that example into pastoral ministry and eventually led the church his father founded.

Then his personal world changed. A painful divorce brought his pastoral leadership chapter to an end and forced Matt to ask what remained when the path he expected was no longer available.

What remained was his calling.

Matt realized he had spent decades coaching leaders without calling it coaching. Developing staff, pouring into volunteers, communicating truth, spotting blind spots, and calling potential forward had been woven into his design all along.

That realization opened a new road. Today, his Progress-oriented leadership helps executives and entrepreneurs move toward what could be, without disconnecting faith from work or professional success from personal health.

“The path may have changed, but your purpose doesn’t change.”

Calling & Ideal Client

Matt especially loves serving faith-based, values-driven business owners, founders, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and ministry leaders who know there is more inside them.

He helps leaders integrate faith and leadership while seeing opportunities and blind spots they may miss alone. His conviction is powerful: “The world is not going to be all it could and should be unless that thing fully comes out the way that it was designed to.”

That is Kingdom Superpower language at its core. God deposits something unique in each person, and healthy leadership helps bring it into the world.

Big Dream

Matt’s dream isn’t defined by a revenue number, client count, or stage. He wants to keep serving through whatever doors God opens, helping faith-driven leaders reach their potential and recognize their marketplace influence as Kingdom impact.

“It’s not how fast can I go. It’s just how far can I go?”

Collaborate

Matt currently helps high-level leaders grow their businesses without losing themselves in the process and offers 1:1 coaching, consulting, and speaking.

• Website: https://themattware.com/

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/themattware

• The Matt Ware Show:

Join the Community

Your Kingdom Superpower was never meant to stay hidden. Join a community committed to discovering God-given design, building meaningful relationships, and putting those gifts to work.

• Subscribe: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/subscribe

• Discover your superpower: https://learnyoursuperpower.com

Affirmations

Were you inspired? Don’t keep it to yourself. Connect on LinkedIn and give a shout of encouragement.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/themattware

I use AI in the production/refinement of some written content. See my boundaries for ethical AI usage in the content I create: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/ai-policy

April Minatrea’s Kingdom Superpower might be described as carrying keys. She listens deeply, recognizes the lies and wounds keeping people confined, and helps them encounter truth that opens the door.

Her mission traces back to Isaiah 61: binding up the brokenhearted and setting captives free. Her purpose goes deeper: “Be intimate with God.”

Three Main Takeaways

1. Intimacy begins with receiving, not achieving. April sees self-disqualification as one of the biggest barriers between people and God. We confuse love with approval, trying to earn what God freely gives.

2. Listening is loving. Sometimes transformation doesn’t require brilliant advice. Presence itself can become a counter-experience to the lie, I am not loved.

3. Your freedom serves your assignment. Healing isn’t merely about feeling better. As old hurts and limiting beliefs lose their grip, we become free to carry what God entrusted to us.

Journey

The clues appeared early. At eight years old, April wrote a paper about Jesus, another about psychology, became class president, and wrote and directed a play. Faith, psychology, leadership, and creativity were already converging.

As a college senior considering graduate school, she asked God whether psychology was truly her path. Isaiah 61 became her answer. Here’s an excerpt:

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound …

It became clear to her in that moment: “That’s your mission.”

Then came the distinction that shaped everything else: her purpose was intimacy with God.

Her professional journey took her through the VA, work with combat veterans, and a decade of private practice in Dallas-Fort Worth. Eventually, God led her toward ministry school and a new expression of the same calling. Today, rather than primarily moving people from illness toward health, she helps leaders, entrepreneurs, creatives, and military operators move from good toward great, bringing psychological insight together with spiritual discernment.

Calling & Ideal Client

April serves leaders, dreamers, world changers, entrepreneurs, creatives, and military operators who know they carry an assignment but sense something is restricting their freedom.

Her beautiful operating belief is this:

“Every person you meet is His dream wrapped in flesh.”

April listens in two directions: to the person in front of her and to the Holy Spirit. She describes God giving “keys of truth” that unlock beliefs, wounds, and patterns that have sometimes held someone captive for years.

Big Dream

April dreams of helping prepare a warrior bride, bringing together intimacy with God and a Kingdom warrior ethos.

She wants military warriors drawn deeper into friendship with God while seeing the Church recover qualities warriors understand well: mission, brotherhood, discipline, excellence, sacrifice, perseverance, and a willingness to remain in the fight.

Her vision is an army of lovers of God, advancing rather than retreating.

Collaborate

Connect with April for speaking, executive coaching, leadership development, consulting, and spiritual development.

• Website: https://www.aprilminatrea.com/

• Speaking: https://www.aprilminatrea.com/dr-april-speaks/

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/april-minatrea-phd/

AI Impact Partner

Joshua Aguirre @ Cressio (cressio.com) has become our first Kingdom Superpowers & Connections sponsor. Cressio builds AI-powered infrastructure with a specific emphasis on Empowering the Underprivileged. Joshua is an expert in empowering Kingdom initiatives with AI. Connect with Joshua on LinkedIn to learn more about how he can help your cause, the way he’s helping us to grow at Kingdom Superpowers & Connections. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshaguirre/

Join the Community

Your Kingdom Superpower was never meant to operate alone. Discover your gifts, meet others carrying complementary keys, and find opportunities to advance the Kingdom together.

• Subscribe: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/subscribe

• Join the paid community: https://connections.kingdomsuperpowers.com

• Discover your superpower: https://learnyoursuperpower.com

Affirmations

Were you inspired? Don’t keep it to yourself. Connect on LinkedIn and give a shout of encouragement.https://www.linkedin.com/in/april-minatrea-phd/

*I use AI in the production/refinement of some written content. See my boundaries for ethical AI usage in the content I create: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/ai-policy

Hero Profile

Joel Byler lights up around one word: capacity.

He believes God has placed abilities in people that often remain undiscovered until someone recognizes them, calls them forward, and gives them permission to move. That conviction shapes everything from Joel’s work in technology to evenings spent mentoring young people.

Three Main Takeaways

Excellence can be ministry. Joel rejects the idea that Christians must choose between serious faith and exceptional work. “I want my Sunday Joel…to be the exact same as my Wednesday, my Thursday, my Friday, my Tuesday, my Monday Joel.”

Someone may need you to see what they cannot yet see. Joel remembers a former VP telling him, “The world is so much bigger.” Those few words expanded his vision of what was possible. Now he wants to call that same potential out of others.

Leadership means giving yourself away. Joel connects leadership with sacrifice. Whether through time, talent, treasure, humility, or simply laying down pride, his growing definition of leadership looks increasingly like service.

Journey

Joel’s story begins with what he calls “a second chance.” Adopted at birth alongside his twin, he grew up experiencing grace through parents who continued loving him through difficult teenage years.

At 18, while volunteering with inner-city youth, something shifted. Joel realized he was helping young people pursue transformation while hiding behind his own Christian mask. During a mission trip, James 5:16 confronted him with a remarkably simple invitation: confess and find healing. Joel acted on it.

That encounter helped turn inherited faith into an active walk with Christ.

Soon, another turning point arrived professionally. While leaving a software-engineering role, a VP challenged Joel to recognize how much larger the world was than the horizon he could currently see. The words ignited something already inside him: resolve.

Today, that Progress drive is becoming less about personal achievement and increasingly about expanding Kingdom impact.

Calling & Ideal Client

Joel’s calling, as he currently understands it, is beautifully simple: lead others toward Christ by giving himself away.

Through Elevia Group, that includes helping small and midsized businesses and nonprofits use technology, data, software, and AI without assuming AI is always the answer. As Joel puts it, “80% of AI solutions are just going to be normal, boring, super boring software.”

His heart is particularly drawn toward organizations doing ground-level community work but lacking the resources and technical capacity of larger institutions.

Big Dream

Joel wants to help tackle problems big enough to require courage, technology, collaboration, and faith.

He dreams of seeing nonprofits gain access to technology that multiplies scarce resources, seeing younger Christians bring excellence into the marketplace, and seeing his generation recognize its capacity to address problems that currently appear unsolvable.

“I don’t want to be worse than what I can be.”

For Joel, that isn’t simply ambition. It’s stewardship.

Collaborate

Connect with Joel and follow his work in technology, leadership, faith, and community impact:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-byler-50306117b/

* AI Impact Partner

Joshua Aguirre @ Cressio (cressio.com) has become our first Kingdom Superpowers & Connections sponsor. Cressio builds AI-powered infrastructure with a specific emphasis on Empowering the Underprivileged. Joshua is an expert in empowering Kingdom initiatives with AI. Connect with Joshua on LinkedIn to learn more about how he can help your cause, the way he’s helping us to grow at Kingdom Superpowers & Connections. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshaguirre/

Join the Community

Discover your own Kingdom Superpowers and connect with Christians committed to bringing their gifts into the places God has called them.

• Subscribe: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/subscribe

• Join the paid community: https://connections.kingdomsuperpowers.com

• Take the Superpower Survey: https://learnyoursuperpower.com

Affirmations

Were you inspired? Don’t keep it to yourself. Connect on LinkedIn and give a shout of encouragement. https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-byler-50306117b/

*I use AI in the production/refinement of some written content. See my boundaries for ethical AI usage in the content I create: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/ai-policy

Hero Profile

Brad Lomenick
Founder, BLINC | Leadership Advisor, Author, Speaker, Podcaster & Strategic Convener

• Industry: Leadership Development & Strategic Convening

• Power Words: Curious. Relational. Strategic. Discerning. Humble. Hungry. Hustling!

Three Main Takeaways

1. Be interested, not interesting. Brad believes influence grows from curiosity. Walk into the room asking questions, listening closely, and paying attention rather than trying to prove you belong. As he puts it:

“You become interesting by being interested.”

2. Become a courage injector and gold extractor. Encouragement injects courage into another person, while relational intelligence helps us recognize what God has placed inside them. Brad describes it beautifully:

“You’re injecting somebody with courage … but you’re also calling out the things in them that are true.”

3. Relational intelligence matters more as technology grows. Brad sees a looming paradox: AI can reduce our need to interact while people are increasingly hungry for friendship and community. His response is memorable:

“In an age of AI, we need more RI [Relational Intelligence].”

Journey

Brad grew up in small-town Oklahoma with church woven into everyday life. At the University of Oklahoma, involvement with Young Life deepened his understanding of grace and helped establish his path as a follower of Jesus. His career eventually placed him near leadership voices such as John Maxwell, and at the helm of Catalyst, where he helped convene thousands of leaders.

Then his assignment changed.

Instead of gathering thousands, Brad began curating tens through intimate, highly intentional gatherings. After roughly 60 gatherings over seven to nine years, he has learned to create what he calls “organically structured” environments: shared experiences, vulnerable conversations, spiritual moments, and enough freedom to read the room and follow where God may be leading.

Brad is creating conditions where high capacity leaders can truly encounter one another and impact the world.

Calling & Ideal Client

Brad serves high-capacity leaders, pastors, marketplace leaders, entrepreneurs, creatives, and movement makers. He sees leadership as influence, and connection as stewardship.

His distinction between networking and connecting is crucial. Networking can reduce people to transactions. Connecting requires understanding them first. Brad’s approach honors the person before considering what they can accomplish.

His H3 framework summarizes the kind of leaders he hopes to cultivate:

“Be humble, stay hungry, always hustle.”

Humility keeps leadership grounded, hunger keeps leaders teachable, and hustle turns calling into action.

Big Dream

Brad’s vision for the next decade is laser-focused: identify, know, convene, connect, and release roughly 1,000 of America’s most strategic and influential leaders.

“I didn’t go from a big vision to a small vision,” Brad explains. “I went from a big vision to a different vision … that I would argue is even bigger.”

Collaborate

Connect with Brad, explore his leadership work, or invite him to consult or speak:

• Website: https://www.bradlomenick.com/

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradlomenick

• H3 Leadership Podcast: https://www.h3leadership.com/

H3 Leadership: Be Humble. Stay Hungry. Always Hustle:

https://www.amazon.com/H3-Leadership-Humble-Hungry-Hustle/dp/0718088506/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0

AI Impact Partner

Joshua Aguirre @ Cressio (cressio.com) has become our first Kingdom Superpowers & Connections sponsor. Cressio builds AI-powered infrastructure with a specific emphasis on Empowering the Underprivileged. Joshua is an expert in empowering Kingdom initiatives with AI. Connect with Joshua on LinkedIn to learn more about how he can help your cause, the way he’s helping us to grow at Kingdom Superpowers & Connections. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshaguirre/

Join the Community

Discover your Kingdom Superpower, build relationships with people who recognize your gold, and find opportunities to put your gifts to work.

• Subscribe: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/subscribe

• Join the paid community: https://connections.kingdomsuperpowers.com

• Take the Kingdom Superpowers survey: https://learnyoursuperpower.com

Affirmations

Were you inspired? Don’t keep it to yourself. Connect on LinkedIn and give a shout of encouragement. https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradlomenick

*I use AI in the production/refinement of some written content. See my boundaries for ethical AI usage in the content I create: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/ai-policy

Hero Profile

Mike Farag | Founder, CEO & Chief Strategy Officer,

• Company: Fervor Marketing

• Industry: Christian Nonprofit Marketing & Growth

• Power Words: Strategic • Passionate • Persistent • Intentional • Catalytic

Mike Farag’s Kingdom Superpower is growth, but not the flashy, hockey-stick variety. He wants organizations, marriages, leaders, and disciples to experience healthy, sustainable growth that bears fruit for generations.

His calling has become remarkably clear: “Help those that help others.”

Three Main Takeaways

1. Redefine growth. Mike once measured progress through money, titles, and corporate advancement. Today, growth means deeper faith, stronger relationships, healthier organizations, and greater Kingdom fruit.

2. Obedience can precede clarity. When God prompted Mike to leave his corporate career, He didn’t hand him the next chapter. Mike had to move before he could see where the road led.

3. Pay attention to what matters to people you love. Mike’s painful lesson from his first marriage became a call to intentionality: “Your marriage is not accidentally good,” much less, great. Great relationships require the same steady investment as healthy organizations.

Journey

Mike’s first version of growth was achievement. A self-described goal crusher, he climbed the corporate ladder until divorce exposed the cost of pursuing success without deeper alignment. Journaling, Scripture, and prayer began reorienting his life.

Then came a risky act of obedience. Mike left his job without knowing what was next. Unexpectedly, his employer provided a lengthy paid runway. A year later, Mike traveled to Haiti, where he met an orphan named Daniel whose joy overturned Mike’s assumptions about prosperity.

Mike wrote, “Daniel and his buddies worshipped with fervor, yet they had nothing.”

That word became a banner. The nonprofit behind that trip became his first client. Haiti was also where he would eventually meet his wife. Seventeen years of building Fervor followed, turning Mike’s drive for Progress toward something bigger: helping Kingdom organizations grow so more “Daniels” can be reached.

Calling & Ideal Client

Fervor serves Christian nonprofits that need both strategy and execution. Mike describes his team as a “supply line for the front line.” Writers, designers, strategists, and developers may never meet the people their work reaches, yet their gifts can still advance the Kingdom.

That makes marketing ministry in Mike’s eyes: “I raise awareness or I raise money… What I really think I raise up are disciples discipling others.”

His ideal client is a faith-led organization willing to pursue meaningful growth, wrestle with hard problems, and build for long-term impact.

Big Dream

Mike dreams of Fervor becoming the Christian nonprofit world’s version of a focused McKinsey, Deloitte, or Accenture: the place leaders bring difficult growth problems and find smart people ready to strategize and execute.

A second dream is emerging alongside his wife: helping couples develop healthier marriage communication. Mike doesn’t yet know its final shape, but the calling is “bubbling.”

Collaborate

Connect with Mike, explore Fervor, or find his book Marketing with Fervor:

• https://mikefarag.com/

• https://createfervor.com/

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikefarag

AI Impact Partner

Joshua Aguirre @ Cressio (cressio.com) has become our first Kingdom Superpowers & Connections sponsor. Cressio builds AI-powered infrastructure with a specific emphasis on Empowering the Underprivileged. Joshua is an expert in empowering Kingdom initiatives with AI. Connect with Joshua on LinkedIn to learn more about how he can help your cause, the way he’s helping us to grow at Kingdom Superpowers & Connections. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshaguirre/

Join the Community

Discover your own Kingdom Superpowers and find others committed to using theirs for God’s purposes.

• Subscribe at https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/subscribe,

• Join the paid community at https://connections.kingdomsuperpowers.com

• Take the superpower survey at https://learnyoursuperpower.com

.

Affirmations

Were you inspired? Don’t keep it to yourself. Connect on LinkedIn and give a shout of encouragement.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikefarag

I use AI in the production/refinement of some written content. See my boundaries for ethical AI usage in the content I create: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/ai-policy

Hero Profile

Guest Name: Chris Gifford
Company: Thread Pull
Title: Founder, Video Strategist & Men’s Coach
Industry: Video Production / Business & Personal Coaching

Power Words: Stubborn. Unflinching. Tender. Challenging. Relentless. Hopeful.

Three Main Takeaways

1. Your breakthrough is hiding in your blind spot. Chris built his entire coaching practice around one conviction: people can’t see the thing that’s holding them back, which is exactly why they need someone willing to ask about it. The question nobody wants to ask is usually the one that matters most.

2. Real help disables; it does not enable. Chris draws a hard line between comfort and contribution. He doesn’t rescue people from the cost of their own growth — he asks them to bring something to the table, because a man who hasn’t paid a price isn’t ready to receive what’s being offered.

3. Clarity in communication starts with clarity of identity. Long before Chris picks up a camera, he’s helping a business or a person answer a much older question: who are you, really? Everything else; the video, the brand, the pitch; is downstream of that.

Journey

Chris spent twenty-five years building Thread Pull around a single idea: clear communication starts with clear identity. But his own clarity came at a cost. A first marriage that ended in child protective services stepping in, paired with a DUI, forced a reckoning he couldn’t outrun. Writing his upcoming book became part of the healing. Listening to an AI voiceover of his own words, he realized he was more whole than he believed. A season spent sitting with the book The Sacred Pace taught him to open his hands instead of gripping his own plans. Two weeks before this conversation, a blunt challenge from a fellow consultant cracked open what had been numb for years, pushing Chris to fully step into coaching men out of isolation and into brotherhood; the same road he had walked himself.

Calling & Ideal Client

Chris works primarily with men: entrepreneurs, husbands, and fathers who look like they have it together but are quietly carrying shame, isolation, and depression. He can spot them by the way they avoid eye contact. What he offers isn’t a pep talk; it’s a refusal to look away. He asks the questions they’ve been avoiding, holds the silence until the truth surfaces, and then walks with them toward brotherhood instead of leaving them exposed.

Big Dream

Chris envisions a hundred-plus-acre retreat property with tiny homes, built for one-on-one healing experiences, marriage intensives, and family encounters with God. Alongside that, he wants to produce original content. He wants feature films, TV shows, and training resources that speaks directly to men, marriages, and families instead of treating faith as a Sunday-only topic. Underneath both is the same mission: helping men move from fragmentation to wholeness, and then equipping them to do the same for someone else.

Collaborate

Website: https://wearethreadpull.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thegiffchris/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearethreadpull/

Upcoming Book: Brothers in the Storm: Serve to Heal, releasing late August!

AI Impact Partner

Joshua Agurre @ Cressio (https://cressio.com) has become our first Kingdom Superpowers & Connections sponsor. Cressio builds AI-powered infrastructure with a specific emphasis on Empowering the Underprivileged. Joshua is an expert in empowering Kingdom initiatives with AI. Connect with Joshua on LinkedIn to learn more about how he can help your cause, the way he’s helping us to grow at Kingdom Superpowers & Connections. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshaguirre/

Join the Community

• Subscribe: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/subscribe

• Paid Community: https://connections.kingdomsuperpowers.com

• Survey: assessment.superpowerquest.com

Affirmation

Were you inspired? Don’t keep it to yourself. Connect on LinkedIn and give a shout of encouragement. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thegiffchris/

*I use AI in the production/refinement of some written content. See my boundaries for ethical AI usage in the content I create: ttps://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/ai-policy

Hero Profile

Guest: Jeffrey Hawthorne
Company: Workplace Resource
Title: Market Vice President (Colorado Springs)
Industry: Commercial Interiors

Power Words: Servant-hearted • Intentional • Trustworthy • Galvanizer • Empowering

Three Main Takeaways

• Service is more than good customer care. It is a Kingdom posture that places another person’s needs ahead of personal gain, even in the competitive world of sales.

• Great leadership creates environments where people discover their value, contribute their gifts, and become the best version of themselves.

• Curiosity unlocks growth. By replacing certainty with humble questions, leaders create room for stronger relationships, wiser decisions, and deeper Kingdom influence.

Journey

Jeffrey’s story begins in a home where service was modeled daily. Raised as the oldest of nine children, he watched his parents consistently choose generosity, integrity, and hospitality over comfort or financial security. His father, who adopted him as his own son, demonstrated unwavering character by honoring commitments even when it cost him personally. Those early lessons shaped Jeffrey’s understanding that leadership is ultimately about serving others.

Over the years, God wove together seemingly unrelated experiences, from construction sites to worship ministry, nonprofit facilities leadership, and now commercial workplace strategy. Looking back, Jeffrey sees a consistent thread: creating environments where people flourish. Whether leading worship, managing facilities, or helping organizations design workplaces, his calling has remained remarkably consistent. He believes environments are not simply physical spaces. They become catalysts that unlock collaboration, creativity, trust, and potential.

Calling & Ideal Client

Jeffrey serves organizations that want more than beautiful offices. He partners with leaders who desire workplaces where employees collaborate well, feel valued, and accomplish meaningful work together.

His deeper calling extends beyond furniture and floorplans. He equips teams, develops leaders, and builds cultures where every role contributes to a greater mission. He also carries a growing passion for mentoring men toward authentic vulnerability, stronger relationships, and Christ-centered leadership.

Big Dream

Jeffrey dreams of building one of the most service-oriented sales organizations in his industry, where sales and operations function as one unified team focused on customer success rather than individual achievement.

Personally, he hopes to invest in men who lead with authenticity while raising four children who become faithful Kingdom leaders.

Collaborate

• Website: https://www.wrcolo.com

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-hawthorne-31320050/

Join the Community

Discover your Kingdom Superpower and connect with other purpose-driven leaders.

• Subscribe: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/subscribe

• Join the Paid Community: https://connections.kingdomsuperpowers.com

• Take the Superpower Survey: https://learnyoursuperpower.com

Affirmations

Were you inspired? Don’t keep it to yourself. Connect with Jeffrey on LinkedIn and give him a shout of encouragement.

Connect on LinkedIn

I use AI in the production/refinement of some written content. See my boundaries for ethical AI usage in the content I create: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/ai-policy

“Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire.”

—Saint Catherine of Siena

I started Kingdom Superpowers to set the world in fire with other believers who are living out who they were meant to be.

Before I started Kingdom Superpowers & Connections over a year ago, I did a massive survey of Christian professionals, to see what they wanted. I published the results here:

Faith + Work Survey Results

Foundational Insights

The insights I received provided strong backbone for how I think about this movement. Here are a few data points.

Conclusions

Christians in the workplace are hungry for authentic connection with other believers.

• Lack of community is our biggest challenge when it comes to integrating faith and work.

• We are longing for more Kingdom-Centered connections to help us on our vocational journey.

By The Numbers

Since the foundation of Kingdom Superpowers (podcast/newsletter) and Kingdom Connections (monthly meeting):

• I’ve interviewed 58 generous, growth-minded Christians who are using their Superpowers to change the world.

• We have 77 members who are registered on the monthly meeting invite. We typically have 15-25 people on the monthly call.

• I’ve published 7 collaboration profiles to facilitate collaboration among the group members.

• I’ve facilitated over 52 high impact connections behind the scenes.

Movement Updates

• Momentum. We currently have 77 Kingdom Connections members on the calendar invite, and about 15-25 show up for any given meeting, and I can see this growing to 100-150 people on the invite and 25-50 showing up at the weekly meeting.

• Vaughan Moore. Because of the momentum, and the desire to keep growing, Vaughan has stepped up to help me with the Meeting Manager role for Kingdom Superpowers & Connections. He’s been instrumental in helping identify the operational gaps in the movement, bringing clarity to the mission and independently moving key initiatives forward. He is helping as an interim meeting manager, providing tactical and organizational assistance. You can check out more about Vaughan here. He’s also been hired by H.B. Pasley, another great catalyst who you may have met at KC. You can learn more about H.B. here.

  

• Joshua & Cressio. Joshua Aguirre and Cressio have become our first Kingdom Connections sponsor, building AI-powered infrastructure that will help the movement scale and serve people more effectively. I was blown away by our first meeting, which revolutionized my understanding of what AI can do, when wielded by someone with both technical and business expertise. Learn more about Joshua Aguirre here, and more about Cressio here.

Crucial Concepts for This Movement

• Vision. One exercise from H3 Leadership (by Brad Lomenick) helped clarify what has been in my heart for years: I imagine a world in which all people experience the joy and effectiveness of serving others in alignment with their unique identity, design, and calling.

• Identity → Design → Calling → Assignment. I’m becoming increasingly convinced that transformation begins by understanding who God made us to be before focusing on what we’re supposed to do. Saint Catherine of Siena: “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”

  

• The Four C’s. I’m seeing four essential gifts emerge within this community: Care (creating safety), Clarity (bringing discernment), Challenge (calling people forward), and Connection (multiplying impact through relationships).

• Fearfully & Wonderfully Made. Scripture reminds us that we’re God’s workmanship, intentionally designed for good works prepared in advance. a huge part of this movement is helping one another discover and live into that design.

• The Invitation. If someone comes to mind who embodies deep faith, genuine generosity, a growth mindset, and distinctive God-given gifts, I’d love an introduction. Those are the kinds of people we’re hoping to gather into this movement.

[Poem: Above] I recorded this poem several years ago — shout out to Drew Bartels for the freestyle piano that he threw down. A reminder of the constant journey to set our hearts aflame and live a life of blazing brilliance!

[Below: Here are some reflections in the same spirit as the poem.]

What if You Became Who God Meant You To Be?

This quote by St. Catherine of Siena, a 14th century Italian theologian and mystic, is moving me right now:

“Be Who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire.”

I had never heard of St. Catherine, before I recently found her quoted in Brad Lomenick’s book H3 Leadership. It’s firing me up!

This is how I have been called to set the world on fire:

I feel the most alive when I am calling forth the beauty and excellence of God’s design in the human in front of me.

Inviting people into transformation. Inviting people to know that they are utterly loved, intentionally designed, and that they have beautiful work to do.

What Names Are You Still Carrying?

Most people either don’t know this about themselves, can’t name it, or they feel hindered and trapped in circumstances that restrict them.

We are buried under the burden of names that God never called us. Names that maybe our family of origin gave us, or names that negative circumstances or traumas bestowed upon us.

For 48 years I carried the names of Coward and Failure and Fraud, deep in my soul, so deep I didn’t even know they were there.

People called me those things. I called myself those things. The enemy called me those things.

I accepted them as part of my identity. Nothing hinders the calling of God more.

We can live our whole lives with names like this all tangled up and knotted into our identity, so close, that we can’t even see that they are names. They just feel like realities. Things that were always true. Things beneath words, and the realm of instinct.

I want everyone to be free of false identities, false names. So we can actually be who God made us to be, pure and unrefined. Unedited.

You could set the world on fire.

What If Your Calling Is Like A Magnifying Glass?

But picture your life as a magnifying glass, held up to the sun. I remember the awe that I experienced as a kid, when I use the magnifying glass to burn stuff in my yard. I was burning everything. Wood, ants, whatever I could. But I had to angle the magnifying glass just right.

The beam of light wouldn’t burn until it got super tight and focused. Then things would start to blacken and and the smoke would curl up into the air.

I think this is what your Calling is like.

I believe it takes an investment of time, reflection and prayer to focus the beam of your calling to the point where it starts to burn through all the nonsense and distractions.

Most of us are just so busy. We have so many commitments and distractions.

And so we neglect apply our energies to understanding perhaps the most important thing about our life: Who am I? How am I built? What is my work?

I want you to know these things, to such a degree of clarity, that you are able to burn through distractions and obstacles.

I want to help you leverage the full weight of the Image of God inside of you to impact the world around you.

That’s the clarified calling that I have discovered through the same process of focusing. It’s what I will be doing until the day that I die.

What Questions Are Worth Building Your Life Around?

Here’s a map for you to begin work if this resonates with your soul.

These are the questions you need to answer. Answer as specifically as you can, and then refined over time.

Identity. Who am I beneath all appearances? What is the deepest and truest fact about me? (Hint: It has to do with love.)

Design. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. How specifically have I been formed? What is my bent? Strengths and weaknesses? Passions and experiences?

Calling. What am I here to do? What is the groan of my heart? What do I want to see more of in the world?

What If You Decided The Adventure Was Worth It?

I know wading into these questions can feel overwhelming. You might be afraid the answers aren’t there, or that you will end up disappointed and discouraged.

But when you accept defeat without trying, then you will have a smaller life.

If you can find the will to struggle, and the power to fail and rise again, you will have an adventure.

You might even set the world on fire.

Call of the Wild

Take the next step of your journey to set the world on fire.

• Pray and journal about the three aspects of identity: Identity, Design, and Calling. Have a conversation with God, take notes.

• Ask God to show you if there are names that you have accepted that are names that God never called you.

• Read the book Living Fearless by Jamie Winship -- it does a great job of walking you through some of these questions.

• Take the Superpower Quest Assessment to get a detailed map of your design strengths and weaknesses at assessment.superpowerquest.com.

Take your one next step!

Hero Profile

Guest: Aaron Havens
Company: Growth Instigators; Sky Commercial Cleaning
Title: Founder, Coach, Entrepreneur
Industry: Leadership Development, Business Coaching, Commercial Services

Core Drive: Progress

Power Words: Courageous, Encouraging, Disciplined, Insightful, Catalytic

Three Main Takeaways

1. Clarity changes everything. Aaron’s journey began with a simple question: “What are two words that describe me?” The answer became his life mission: Growth Instigator.

2. Growth requires healthy discomfort. Real transformation often comes through hard conversations, accountability, and the willingness to face challenges rather than avoid them.

3. Great leaders develop people, not dependence. Whether leading businesses, coaching entrepreneurs, or raising children, Aaron believes growth happens when people are empowered to learn, struggle, and succeed on their own.

Journey

Aaron Havens spent more than twenty-five years as a pastor before stepping fully into entrepreneurship and coaching. Along the way, he helped scale organizations, led teams across multiple countries, and developed a deep passion for helping people discover their potential.

One pivotal moment happened in an unexpected place: an airport bathroom. A business card labeled simply “Private Investigator” challenged Aaron to ask what two words defined his own life. After months of reflection, conversations, and self-discovery, the answer emerged: Growth Instigator.

That clarity became both his mission and his company name.

Aaron’s path has also included lessons in emotional maturity, leadership, and self-awareness. Through parenting, business ownership, coaching, and personal growth, he learned that true leadership is not about controlling outcomes. It is about helping others become who God created them to be.

Today, Aaron lives out his calling by helping leaders grow personally and professionally while continually pursuing a life fully aligned with purpose, relationships, and Kingdom impact.

Calling & Ideal Client

Aaron serves business owners, executives, entrepreneurs, and organizational leaders who are hungry for growth and willing to embrace accountability.

Through coaching, leadership development, mastermind groups, and peer communities like the Prez Club, he helps leaders gain clarity, make better decisions, build healthier organizations, and step confidently into their calling.

His passion is simple: instigating growth in people, places, and organizations.

Big Dream

Aaron’s dream is to:

• Instigate growth in people, organizations, and communities.

• Help leaders embrace their God-given greatness.

• Live life to the fullest alongside family, friends, and fellow builders while creating lasting Kingdom impact.

Collaborate

Website: https://growthinstigators.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronhavens

Growth Instigators Hotline Podcast:

Aaron regularly coaches entrepreneurs and business leaders through Growth Instigators and facilitates leadership communities designed to accelerate both personal and professional growth.

Join the Community

Discover your Kingdom Superpower and connect with other purpose-driven leaders.

• Subscribe: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/subscribe

• Join the Paid Community: https://connections.kingdomsuperpowers.com

• Join the Free Slack Community: https://kingdomslack.com

• Take the Superpower Survey: https://learnyoursuperpower.com

Affirmations

Were you inspired? Don’t keep it to yourself. Give an affirmation in the Kingdom Slack Channel. It matters when you take the time. It can be as simple as just tagging the person and adding three adjectives that describe them. Or saying something that encouraged or inspired you.

• Already a Slack Member? https://affirmations.kingdomsuperpowers.com

• Not a Slack Member? https://kingdomslack.com

I use AI in the production/refinement of some written content. See my boundaries for ethical AI usage in the content I create: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/ai-policy

Nathan LaGrange
Executive Director, Oasis Rest International
Industry: Leadership Care & Christian Ministry

Core Drive: Harmony

Power Words: Restorative, Compassionate, Courageous, Reflective, Joyful

Three Main Takeaways

• God’s kindness often reaches people long before they recognize Him.

• Rest is not weakness. It is a Kingdom strategy for healing, clarity, and renewed vision.

• Leaders thrive when they move from performance into authentic community, vulnerability, and sustainable rhythms with God.

Journey

Nathan LaGrange’s story begins far from ministry platforms and leadership retreats. Raised in a faith tradition without a personal relationship with Jesus, he openly describes his younger years as chaotic, self-centered, and spiritually lost. Then God intervened through what Nathan jokingly calls “a smoking hot blonde” who would eventually become his wife of 30 years. What first started with a bold college kiss became the beginning of a radically transformed life.

After encountering Jesus at a small Christian concert during college, Nathan’s life took a dramatic turn. He immersed himself in Scripture, ministry, worship leadership, and eventually pastoral work. Alongside his wife Trisha, he helped plant churches, mentor young adults, write worship music, and build vibrant community. Yet some of the deepest transformation came through hardship.

During a season filled with church planting pressures, international adoption, and the sudden loss of Trisha’s parents, Nathan and his family experienced profound grief and exhaustion. In that valley, a new question emerged: Where do leaders go when they are broken?

That question became the seed for his call to join Oasis Rest International. Today, Nathan leads a global ministry serving pastors, missionaries, and Christian leaders through spaces of rest, safety, hospitality, and spiritual renewal.

Calling & Ideal Client

Nathan serves pastors, global workers, nonprofit leaders, and Christian executives who are weary, overwhelmed, spiritually exhausted, or quietly carrying burdens they feel unable to share elsewhere. Through Oasis Rest International, leaders are welcomed into safe environments where they can slow down, reconnect with God, process pain, and rediscover joy.

Nathan describes rest as a “sacred contradiction” in a culture obsessed with speed and performance. His mission is not simply helping leaders take vacations. It is helping them recover wholeness, hear God clearly again, and reawaken Kingdom dreams on the other side of rest.

One of the most moving moments from the interview came when Nathan described asking a weary ministry leader how she imagined Jesus opening the door to her. She answered, “Disappointed.” Nathan gently contrasted that with how his family welcomed her into their home: “With champagne.” That picture beautifully captures the heart of Oasis Rest.

Big Dream

• Create a global movement of healthy, rested Christian leaders.

• Help pastors and missionaries rediscover sustainable rhythms with God.

• Build environments where leaders can dream again instead of merely survive.

COLLABORATE

Website: https://oasisrest.org

Locations Worldwide: https://oasisrest.org/locations

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanelagrange/

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Discover your God-given design and connect with other Kingdom-minded leaders who are building lives of impact, purpose, and transformation.

Subscribe: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/subscribe

Join the Paid Community: https://connections.kingdomsuperpowers.com

Join the Free Slack Community: https://kingdomslack.com

Take the Superpower Survey: https://learnyoursuperpower.com

AFFIRMATIONS

Were you inspired? Don’t keep it to yourself. Give an affirmation in the Kingdom Slack Channel. It matters when you take the time. It can be as simple as just tagging the person and adding three adjectives that describe them. Or saying something that encouraged or inspired you.

Give Affirmations

Join Now

*I use AI in the production/refinement of written content. See my boundaries for ethical AI usage in the content I create: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/ai-policy

H.B. Pasley
Brand & Business Growth Advisor
Growth Advocate / Pasley Commercial Interiors
Industry: Commercial Interior Design, Branding, Business Coaching

Core Drive: Progress

Power Words: Insightful, Relational, Courageous, Creative, Encouraging

Three Main Takeaways

• Fear loses power when it is named honestly and processed in trusted community.

• Branding is far more than logos and colors. It is anything that helps people trust you faster.

• God sometimes reshapes pioneers by teaching them the joy of supporting and championing others instead of always leading the charge.

Journey

H.B. Pasley’s story is one of transformation through experience, failure, faith, and persistence. Growing up in Alabama, he discovered early that fear could quietly control a person’s life. As a child, he failed beginner swimming lessons multiple times because he was terrified of jumping off the diving board. Years later, that same experience became a gift. As a swimming instructor, he could recognize fear in other children before panic fully surfaced, helping them overcome obstacles because he had walked through them himself.

That pattern followed him into adulthood. H.B. spent decades pioneering creative ministry work, mentoring leaders, musicians, and visionaries. Then, at age 52, a major season of his life unexpectedly closed. Without a clear plan for what came next, he entered years of uncertainty that forced him to rediscover identity outside of performance, achievement, and leadership titles.

What emerged was a deeper understanding of intimacy with God and a new passion for helping others thrive. Today, through Pasley Commercial Interiors, H.B. combines branding strategy, coaching, storytelling, and commercial design into a unique Kingdom-centered approach that helps business owners communicate trust, clarity, and purpose. His greatest joy now comes from helping pioneers overcome fear and watching others succeed.

Calling & Ideal Client

H.B. serves pioneers, business owners, and professional service leaders who know they are called to something greater but feel stuck at a plateau. He especially loves working with people who deliver wisdom, guidance, and transformation rather than simply selling products.

His approach to branding is deeply relational. He defines branding as “anything that helps your ideal client trust you faster.” That includes messaging, storytelling, customer experience, team culture, interior environments, and even how people talk about your business after they leave.

He is especially passionate about helping businesses with physical spaces align their environments with their mission and helping professional service leaders communicate their value with authenticity and confidence.

Big Dream

• To become a master at helping businesses build trust-centered brands that truly reflect who they are.

• To make high-level branding support more accessible through collaborative partnership models instead of overwhelming one-time costs.

• To continue investing in and championing the success of his wife, sons, and other Kingdom pioneers.

Collaborate

• Website: https://www.growthadvocate.com/

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hb-pasley/

If you are a visionary leader, professional service provider, hospitality entrepreneur, or business owner needing clarity around branding, storytelling, customer trust, or interior experience, H.B. is building solutions designed to help pioneers move forward with confidence.

Join the Community

Kingdom Superpowers exists to help people discover how God uniquely designed them and how their gifts can advance His Kingdom in everyday life and business.

• Subscribe to the newsletter: Kingdom Superpowers Newsletter

• Join the paid community: Kingdom Connections Community

• Join the free Slack community: Kingdom Slack

• Take the Kingdom Superpowers survey: Learn Your Superpower Survey

Affirmations

Were you inspired? Don’t keep it to yourself. Give an affirmation in the Kingdom Slack Channel. It matters when you take the time. It can be as simple as just tagging the person and adding three adjectives that describe them. Or saying something that encouraged or inspired you.

• Already a Slack Member? Affirmations Channel

• Not a Slack Member? Kingdom Slack

I use AI in the production/refinement of some written content. See my boundaries for ethical AI usage in the content I create: https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/ai-policy

1. Community Updates:

• Collaboration. Charles Shivers (Transformational Coach) and myself have created a 6-week paid transformational cohort that is kicking off in June called “Courageous Connections.”

• Milestone. This is meeting #10! We’ve almost hit a year!

2. Crucial Question for the Meeting:

3. Hot Seats:

We don’t always get to everyone, so Hot Seats get priority and a longer time to share. This is a time to:

1. Share a dream, goal, or vision.

2. Seek advice, encouragement, or connections.

3. Workshop a problem or challenge.

Feedback

Quick ask: If you’ve experienced real impact from Kingdom Connections, please take the feedback survey at feedback.kingdomsuperpowers.com.

Preparation/Expectations

• No prep required. There are some things you can prepare, but there is no burden of preparation.

• No expectations. We all have a lot going on. I never want this to feel like a burden.

• Come as You Are. I invited you for a reason; because you are faithful, generous, growth-minded. Come if and when you can, even if it’s once a year!

Get Your Collaboration Profile

• I am creating concise snapshots to grease the wheels of collaboration in this community. collaboration.kingdomsuperpowers.com

• To be a candidate, just take my 5-minute Superpower Quest survey, and then send me an email with any other personality assessment results you have.

See Collab Profiles

What We’re Building

Kingdom Connections is more than a monthly meetup. It’s a movement fueled by:

• Monthly gatherings full of energy and vision

• A Kingdom Slack channel for conversation and collaboration

• Kingdom Heroes Interviews with believers who lead with excellence in faith and work

• Collaboration Profiles that showcase concise snapshots of amazing people in and around this community, to grease the wheels of collaboration!

• A Dreams Library where we speak out what God has placed in us and help each other see it through.

• Growth Groups (smaller circles where big transformation happens; still in formation)

The Four Pillars

Our foundation is simple and strong:

• Encouragement

• Advice

• Connection

• * Collaboration

This group is set up to produce collaboration, which is connection in action. It’s when we join forces in tangible ways to create impact together. (help someone find a job, do a joint venture, hire a provider, make an introduction, co-referral, and more)

Agenda

• Introduction and purpose statement. Why are we here? Where are we going?

• Community Updates. Wins since last time?

• Deep Question. Intro this week’s Deep Question.

• Connection Fest. 3-5 minutes per person, your name, passion, answer to Deep Question. Hot Seats go first.

Get Connected Now / Next Steps

• Join the Slack channel before the meeting: kingdomslack.com

• Add it to your calendar: calendar.kingdomsuperpowers.com, or email me at johnny@superpowerquest.com, or message me on LinkedIn.

• Introduce me to a friend who should be in the group.

• Paid Membership. If you are getting strong value, want to support the movement, and you have the ability, and a 10/10 inclination, consider becoming a paid member ($30-$37 / month). Optional -- I’d rather have you than your money. https://kingdomsuperpowers.substack.com/p/kingdom-connections