Pastors Thriving | Ministry, Leadership, Discipleship, Church Growth, Small Church Strategies · Kevin Elworth-Business & Ministry Coach, Passive Income, Entrepreneur Pastor, Ministry Marketing

90 - The Most Important Element of Discipleship

·24 min·1 clip

Austin invested $6,000 in coaching, then grew a mobile detailing business to $140,000 in annual revenue.

1. Pastors Thriving episode 90 centers on "The Most Important Element of Discipleship" through Kevin's talk about money, parenting, and leadership. 2. Kevin speaks as the host and says he has nearly 20 years of full-time ministry and leadership experience, five kids in his home, and 114 kids at an orphanage in Uganda. 3. The episode asks what pastors are teaching their children and churches about money, because Kevin argues that "most of our learning" passes through fear. 4. Kevin says many people learned money language like "there's a lot of month at the end of the money," and he connects that to scarcity in family life. 5. He uses a Super Bowl party story and a comment about ad spending to show how people label large expenditures as waste. 6. Kevin then brings in Gary Virenuk, describing him as a marketer who argued that a Super Bowl commercial can be the wisest marketing move if a company can afford it. 7. Kevin says that example is not about churches advertising at the Super Bowl, but about changing the listener's perspective on money flow. 8. He states that "cash flow is king," not simply cash, and says money should move, produce value, and return value. 9. Kevin shifts to intentional and unintentional education, saying only a small share of learning comes through intentional settings like school. 10. He argues that the dinner table can become one of the healthiest learning environments in a child's life. 11. Kevin says his family's table is a 10-foot-long, 48-inch-wide, roughly 300-pound table that they built and use every night. 12. He says nothing is off limits at dinner, including money, relationships, sex, and interpersonal connections. 13. Kevin then turns to his son Austin, who started a mobile car detailing business at 15 and a half after watching YouTube videos and testing a waterless wash idea. 14. He describes the early days as a mix of support, driving, and a $10-per-job gas arrangement between father and son. 15. Kevin says Austin later asked to invest in a six-month coaching program costing $6,000 and chose to use money from his custodial investment portfolio. 16. He reports that over the next two years Austin's business grew to more than $140,000 in annual revenue with about $30,000 in expenses. 17. Kevin uses Austin's growth to argue that "the zeros at the end" are possibilities, not barriers. 18. The tone is conversational, anecdotal, and exhortational, with Kevin speaking directly to pastors as "bro" and "pastor" while moving between family stories and ministry application. 19. Listeners interested in pastoral leadership, family money conversations, and practical discipleship will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners looking for a tightly structured teaching outline may skip it.

As heard by us

A pastoral case for treating the dinner table as a serious place of learning.

Kevin starts with Monday-morning pressure for pastors, then settles into a straightforward argument for parenting: the dinner table can be one of a child’s most useful places to learn.

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Why you'd press play

You want a direct pastor-to-pastor take on leadership that does not eat you alive.

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