Embracing Your Calling: Real Estate as a Ministry

How can real estate can be viewed as a ministry? Garrett emphasizes the importance of understanding one's business as part of a greater mission, integrating faith into daily work, and finding purpose beyond profit. Through personal anecdotes and biblical references, Garrett encourages agents to serve their clients with love and integrity, reflecting Christ's light in their professional lives.

Takeaways

Real estate is not just a business; it's a ministry.
Understanding our mission is crucial for real estate agents.
Integrating faith into daily work can transform client interactions.
Every client interaction is an opportunity to reflect Christ's love.
We should strive to serve others beyond just making a profit.
Prayer and seeking God's guidance are essential in our work.
Building relationships with clients can lead to spiritual conversations.
Our actions can be a witness to our faith.
Finding purpose in serving others can lead to fulfillment.
Real estate agents have a unique opportunity to minister in the marketplace.

Chapters

00:00 Embracing Your Calling in Real Estate
14:39 Integrating Faith into Daily Work
22:47 Finding Purpose Beyond Profit

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Transcript

0:00

What's up, faithful agents? Welcome back to another episode of the Faithful Agent Podcast. It is great to be with you all this week, and we're going to dive into, I think, a really good topic about embracing your calling, how we can view real estate as a ministry. And I'm excited to dive into that topic with you all today. But before I do, let me give you a great dad joke for real estate agents. I was in my room and I saw a group of 10 aunts just running frantically. I felt so bad that I made a small house for them out of a cardboard box. Technically, this makes me their landlord and they are my 10 aunts. Womp womp. I need to find if there's a sound effect in my editing app for a womp womp. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed that joke. And now let's dive into why we're actually here. How do we embrace our calling in real estate as a ministry, viewing that as a ministry. And we've used this many times, right, but in Colossians 3.23, this reference of the passage, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as if working for the Lord, not for human masters. We have this opportunity to serve God through the work that we do as real estate agents, whether we're helping clients find a home or walking them through a sale, whatever it is. And we're going to talk about three main points today. First, that We gotta understand our mission, or excuse me, understand our business as part of a bigger mission. Number two, practical ways we can integrate faith into our daily work. And finally, finding purpose beyond profit, right? Real estate is part of a greater mission. And we are called as real estate agents to not only serve people in helping them buy and sell homes, but to actually understand that the greater calling that we have, is to be gospel witnesses to a dying world. And we just so happen to be in relationship with a lot of people inside the community that need Christ. Right? And we can be that advocate for them to say, I have loved serving you and helping you find this home. Right? Do you guys have a church that you go to? Something as simple as that. Right? Or I'll tell you a quick story before I dive into these three points. I remember early on in my career, I it was probably 2018 maybe, 2016 maybe. I'm showing around. Their names are Tom and Morgan. I'm showing this couple around as they're looking to buy their first house. And I know they're not Christians, right? They've said that before because they know that I am. Anyways, we're looking around this house and there's Morgan, this is years ago, Morgan makes some comment. And then Tom says something like, well, I guess that means God doesn't want us to have this house. And I remember in that moment, the prickling in my spirit to say something. He brought up God, right? I didn't. He brought him up. And I remember that prickling and me purposefully pushing that down because I didn't want to say anything, because I didn't want it to be awkward because whatever reason, right? Maybe I felt like I didn't know what to say. And so I just purposefully closed the door that I think the Lord had opened for me now. praise God there's grace and mercy on our lives, right? Because we're going to do things like that sadly all the time. But I remember that and I remember asking my pastor maybe a week or so later and that I could, I asked him, hey, what would you have done in that scenario? Because I still felt that feeling like I should have said something and it was sticking with me. And he says, you know, that's a great question. He said something as simple as when they said, hey, maybe God doesn't want us to have this house. Maybe something as simple as, hey, you mentioned God, who is that? Right? Just open the door, ask the question. And anyways, there's moments like that for all of us where we're going to have failure moments, right? There's failure points for all of us. And again, thankfully we live by grace. By grace we are saved, right? Not by works. Praise God for that. Because if it was by works, none of us would ever make it. But the reality is, looking at my business so often, my mindset is, how do I become profitable? How do I make a profit? Not how do I make disciples? Now, I don't think there's one or the other. think it should be both. But most of the time it's just about profit and it's not about disciple making. Okay, so we're going to walk through that. How do we embrace this reality that we're in real estate and real estate therefore should be ministry because we're here to minister to people. Our method is through the real estate. business. let's dive into that. So point number one, how do we understand our business as part of a bigger mission? Again, real estate's not just a business, right? It's a way to serve others. We help families find stability. We provide places where people make memories and they can build community, right? It's this beautiful reality of this job. This job is really hard for so many reasons, but that's a beautiful reality of this job. is that we get to provide places where people make memories, where they build community. Maybe they bring kids home for the first time. Matthew 5 16 says, the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven. I want us to think through this right in the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven. When we are serving our clients, when we are interacting with our clients, when we are negotiating for them, when we are advising them on a list price or a marketing effort or whatever it is that we are doing through this, when we're doing paperwork, right? Whatever it is, we have to remember that our light can shine in front of others, that they would see our good deeds. They would see the excellence of our hands and because of that, they would glorify our Father in heaven. Right? What does that practically mean? Let's say you're working with a non-believer and I'll give you an example. Right? So early on in my career again, I feel like an old man saying that I'm only 37, but I've been doing this for 10 years. So early on in my career, probably towards the very beginning, maybe 2015, I started in 2014. I'm sitting down with this husband and wife that was a military that was moving here from, believe Oklahoma, if I, if I remember correctly, Jason and Christina were their names, are their names. And we're there after hours, right? I bring them into the office. We're sitting down in our appointment. I'm relatively new. I think that's pretty clear. I guess I was 28 at the time and I'm sitting there. We're talking about it. Well, maybe halfway through my presentation, Jason just stops me and says, I don't know if he calls me by name, says, Garrett, we've heard this before. Just get to the point, man. And I was taken aback by how rude that was, right? This was a referral from my team leader. I was on a team at the time. And I was taken aback by how rude that is. like, whoa, dude, I'm just trying to help you walk through this process, right? I don't remember what I said, but it's like, of course, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to walk you through the process. And he says, we've done this three times before. We don't need your help. We just need you to open the doors. And I remember... that meeting kind of ended relatively quickly, right? And I didn't feel great about it, but what were we going to do the next day? We were going to go out and look at some houses. So I remember that night thinking, man, what do I really want to do? And in my flesh, my reaction to that was wanting to just tell him off in front of his wife, right? And say, bro, you can't talk to me like that. How dare you speak to me like that, right? How rude is this? Wow. You've done it three times. Congratulations, right? I've done this at that point 50 times. right so congratulations you've done it three times that's what my flesh wanted to say but i knew that i could not win them over by acting that way right now i'm not going to pretend like i'm some super christian and you know matthew she met the chapter five pops in my head says for the same way later light shine before others that they may see my kid my good deeds and glorify my Father in heaven. Certainly that didn't pop into my mind, but I remember thinking through this and thinking, man, I'm a believer and I got a witness. My actions are a witness to the God that I believe in. And so instead of getting frustrated and angry at them, which is what I wanted to do, instead, the next day before we went and looked at houses and we met up, I went and got, I believe it was a hundred dollar gift card to some local restaurant and I got them a card. And I remember writing in the card something to the effect of I know that moving across the country is stressful. There's a lot going on. They had two kids. There's a lot going on. You all often don't have time just to spend, spend just the as husband and wife, something I'm, you know, I'm paraphrasing what I would have said. so I bought you a gift card and I hope in the busyness of the move, you all can take some time to be together. And I remember handing it to him right when we got there. We're getting ready to look at this house and I hand this to him and I just say, I got you guys a card. and, before, before we go look at these houses and they say, well, do you want me to open it? And you know how awkward that is? It's like, yes, because I know that you're going to like it, but also I feel really awkward cause I'm standing right here, but they open it and immediately y'all immediately they read it and the husband, you know, his mood changes and he says, man, I'm so sorry for how I treated you yesterday. shouldn't have said what I said. We really do appreciate you helping us. It's just been a lot going on, right? And immediately it's like he turned from my enemy to my friend. And no, I'm not saying, right, that all of a sudden he recognized, well, I must be a sinner in need of a savior. I'm not saying that, right? What I am saying is this good deed. He looked at me with fondness and... I think that was my light shining. Now again, we've got to actually speak the gospel sometimes too, right? We can't just live it out quote unquote and people will say, well, based on how Garrett's living, I assume that I'm a sinner and that Jesus, who is a part of the Trinity, came to earth as a baby born of a virgin and lived a perfect obedient life and died the death that I should have died taking on my sins and rose again so that I could be in right standing before the Lord. They're not going understand that just by looking at our lives or hearing us talk about things that aren't the gospel, but it's one of the ways that we start to show our light and let it shine in front of men that they say, man, thank you for that. That was really kind of you, right? And it is a representation of the love that Christ has for us. We are showing that to other people. So as we think about How do I let my light shine? That's one of the ways we do that, right? And it leads us to, I'm not advocating that we go around and only ever talk about, hey, I know you want to buy a house, but let's talk about the gospel, right? I know you need to sell your house and you need a price reduction. Let's talk about the gospel. I'm not advocating that, nor do I think that's even what scripture would teach us because we want to be excellent in the work that we do. But here's what I am advocating, that we encourage, that we are encouraged as agents to see every client interaction. as a chance to let the Lord's love and light shine through us. Each conversation and decision that we make can reflect Christ's love. Everything that we do with our clients, and certainly this applies to other agents as well, or if you have a team or whatever, but everything we do with our clients is a chance to reflect the light and love of Christ. And so we need to remember that and hold ourselves accountable. This morning I was having a meeting. and it's someone who's going to join us at this organization called 210 Collective I have at EXP. anyways, that's not important. What is important is we're sitting there having a conversation and she's a believer and she's a property manager. She's to join up with us and a really wonderful woman. And we start talking about the opportunities we could help her. get in front of other Christians, right? Because I'm a, you all have heard me say it before, I'm a huge advocate that if you know a vendor who is a believer and is excellent at what they do, you should give them business, right? You should try to find a way to work with that person. There should be this Christian ecosystem, if you will, within the real estate world. So I'm a huge advocate for that. We're sitting down trying to help her figure out how she could grow her business and what Christian agents we might be able to introduce her to. Anyways, and I'm sitting there and I start thinking about man, here's the reality, right? And I say out loud, I say, you know, I've been really fortunate because of the faithful agent that I've gotten to know so many other Christian agents. And I think that a lot of agents, when they look at me, they think, there's the Christian agent guy, right? But then I said, right after that, said, but that terrifies me because it means they're watching my life closely. And that's scary, right? It's scary when we claim the name of Jesus. It's scary when we put ourselves out there because then they start looking on us with a closer lens to say, I wonder what kind of life he's actually going to live. And truthfully, that kind of freaks me out a little bit. When we are honest with our clients and we are open about, know many of you that will say, I pray with my clients or whether they believe in Jesus or not, I pray for my clients and what an awesome thing. And we let them know that we're praying for them. And I've tried to implement that better in my own business. whatever it is, if they know and you're out there and you're saying, I'm part of this faithful agent community, whatever it is, and they say, okay, what is that? And you're like, it's for Christian agents. Now they know that you claim Christ and they're going to pay attention to how you live, how you act, how you talk, what you do, how you think, right? What your interactions are with them. And so not only is it a chance for us to reflect the love and light of Christ, but it's a responsibility for us when we put ourselves out there to say, Lord, please help me. I'm going to fail. But Lord, please help me in obedience, walk in a manner worthy of what you've called me to. That's hard. That's hard, agents. But that's what we have to strive for. So point number one, we've got to understand that our business is part of a bigger mission. Okay, point number two, what are some practical ways we can integrate faith into our daily work? This is a big... question, and we actually had a call recently about how do we bring our faith into our work, right? That's not an easy question, and I think the question itself can often be confusing. Again, is it, I have to walk around and only talk about the gospel all day every day? No, I don't think that's true, but I think it's asking the question, how do we live out our faith inside of our business, right? Just because we have a business, We shouldn't be able to separate those two things. Right? I shouldn't be able to look, someone should look at me and say, well, there's Garrett the business owner and there's Garrett the follower of Jesus. Those are two separate things, right? They should see me and say, he's living it out inside of his daily life in his business. Just like when people say, well, you should separate your personal beliefs from your political beliefs, for example. And it's like, I can't do that. Right? Cause my personal beliefs, my convictions about who the Lord is informs everything. Right? So as we live out our daily life in business, our faith should come out because it's just part of who we are. So what are some practical ways? Maybe we start the day in prayer, right? Maybe you just start the day with prayer. For me, my actual morning routine is I get up at 6 a.m. I have my quiet time from 6 15 to 7. The first 15 minutes is getting coffee, right, and actually waking up. But from 6 15 to 7, I first listen to one or two worship songs. I then read my Bible. I often use an ESV Journal Bible, which just is each book of the Bible is broken up into an individual little journal. So the left side is the scripture and the right side is blank pages for you to journal and just response to what you're reading and what you're understanding. And I love that the ESV Journal Bible. And then I spend time in prayer right now. Is that every single day of my entire life? Absolutely not. I would say probably 80 % of the time. Right? 80 % of the time, I'm in no way perfect. Please, you all have listened to this enough, you know I'm not. But the reality is starting the day with prayer, right? And asking the Lord, Lord, grant me this day the daily bread and show me the clients that you want me to serve and bring them to me. Maybe it's seeking the Lord's wisdom when you're making decisions, again, stopping to pray or stopping to seek what Scripture might have to say. Maybe it's treating each client with the love that Christ has showed us, going above and beyond, not viewing them simply as a means of a commission, but as a means of living out the great commission, right, and actually serving and loving these people. I think how do we integrate faith into our daily work? think that thought alone is a better way to understand it, is we shouldn't have to integrate faith into our work. They should be inseparable. Our faith should inform the work that we do. Our faith should inform everything we say. And what's the best way to integrate those things? Get in the Word. Be in prayer. Be amongst other believers. Be in church regularly, in fellowship. Get into a small group Bible study. Read... good, theologically rich books so that everything we say and the decisions we make start to look more and more like what a biblical decision would be. It's going and finding a group of advisors that we ask questions of who all know and love Jesus, not a worldly wisdom, but actually understanding and being around people who understand Christ and the truth of His Word and seeking their wisdom, right? How do we practically live these things out? I think for us it is how do we prepare our hearts for the day? How do we push ourselves into a position where What I look like that day is a reflection of Christ. Now, an imperfect reflection, but a reflection of Christ. So when I show up that day, I'm going to look like I'm shining a light for Jesus. Right? Again, what are some practical ways? I think I've heard so many good examples, but for example, I know many agents who when they sit down with their clients, one of the things they say is as they're walking through maybe a buyer presentation, they're going to say at the end, hey, here's one of the things that I do for you. I'm going to pray for you every single day. Right? And if you ever have anything you want me to pray for, cause I'm a Christian, I will happily do that. Please let me know. And they're letting their people know, I'm going to pray for you. Right? How do we live that out in our daily work for me? A lot of times it was asking my clients that question I mentioned earlier is, man, I'm so glad you guys are moving to the area. We are heavy military. Do you all have a church that you attend or a church that you're looking for? Right. And a lot of them will say, well, we don't really go to church and hey, well, I'd love to talk to you about that. Right now, again, I'm in no way perfect, but and it didn't happen every single time. But oftentimes I would just lead with that question. Do guys have a church that you attend? I'd love for you guys to get to know some of the people in my church body and be in that community as well. We'd love for you to come. Actually, some of the people that I asked that of years ago, his name is Ethan and Maria, they've become some of our absolute best friends. And it just started from a question of, you guys have a church? And they ended up coming to our church. we've grown together. It's been an incredible blessing, right? So how do we integrate faith into our daily work? Maybe it's that the tagline of your business, a good friend of mine has a great business, and his tagline is, love God, love people, or I think it's serve God, serve people. He's making it known, right? He's living that out. Maybe it's on your business card you put the faithful agent. Maybe put that logo on there so people ask you about it. On my website for my real estate team, it has a link to the Faithful Agent and there's a landing page where people can see what that is. So I think there's ways for you to put that out there. I think it's ways for us to make it known and stop hiding that we're believers so that when I show up and I talk about Christ or maybe I mentioned Jesus or I talk about Jesus whatever it is, they're not surprised. I often find it funny. or or not funny but if you walk into the walls of the church and someone talks about jesus you should be surprised you're walking into the walls of the church right if i'd make it known to you that i'm a christian and then you start working with me and i say ham praying for you right or how can i support you you should be surprised by that i'm gonna make it known to you and finally last thing i'll say one of the the best ways i think that i've integrated faith into my work which i am so far off of doing this with excellence by no means do I do this with excellence. But I think one of the best ways I've done it is when I have a client who loses somebody. I've had many clients lose parents, right? Whether they're a believer or not, don't care. I buy them a book about grief from Tim Challis, who's a Christian author. I buy them a book about grief and I send it to them. And I send it to them and I say, I'm praying for you. I understand. I lost my mom and I want you to I'm here for you. And it's not just one time. Right? I remember what it's like. People ask you and then as time goes on, they just stop asking. I make a point to consistently ask maybe once a month, how are you doing with the loss of your dad? Right? And it can taper off. don't want to be the one that always brings it up, but showing up and saying, I got you something I think will help. Right? How do we practically become the hands and feet of Jesus? How do we do that? Right? Proverbs three, five through six says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. and all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. How does that apply to integrating faith into our daily work? It's showing up, I think, in the morning and saying, Lord, help me to trust you with all my heart, to not lean on my own failed human wisdom, but to trust in whatever it is you have for me and make my path straight today. How do I integrate faith into my work this day, And he will guide you. He will guide you. Invite him into your work. Trust Him to guide each step and bring clarity to the challenges that you face. Maybe it's pausing to pray over the deal, asking for patience, or trusting in God's timing when things don't go as planned. There are lots of ways for us to do that. It starts with our own personal walk with the Lord. All right, finally, point three. How do we find purpose beyond... profit and this will be the shortest point. But how do we find purpose beyond profit? And we've done podcasts on this before, but first Timothy six, 17 to 19, I'm taking pieces of that says command those who are rich in this present world, not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, but to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share. You know, at the end of the day, right, for all of us as agents, the ultimate reward of our work isn't just financial. It's the impact that we get to have on our clients. It's the relationships that we build. It's the seeds of faith that we can plant along the way, right? At the end of the day, every single house that I will ever sell will crumble to the ground. It just will, right? If this earth lasts that long, it'll just crumble to the ground. But you know what never does? The word of the Lord will remain forever. And so what is my actual hope? What am I? encouraging my clients to rest their hope in. What is it that I am seeking out to understand and elevate? Is it the fact that I can help them buy a home and I'm going to make money? Yeah, those are good things, right? Those are amazing things. Again, let's not say it's one or the other. It's both, right? That's a great thing that we can do. But what about then if I have a client who I love and all I've done is help them get their home? But at the end of their life, they die and they go to hell because that's the reality of someone who isn't known by Christ, who is not saved and confess with their mouth and believe in their heart that Jesus is Lord. That's the reality of their eternal ending, right? It doesn't even end. It's eternal. That's their eternal resting place on not resting place. I'm butchering, but that's the position that they find themselves in. Do they care that they bought the best house in the neighborhood? Or does all that fade away? They won't even have the memory of the best house in the neighborhood. So what are we offering to them? Yes, do a great job. Yes, make a great profit and be great stewards of that money. That's an excellent thing to pursue greater profits, to pursue serving more people so you can have greater profits. But always remember, just like first Timothy says, command those who are rich in this present age. not to be arrogant or put our hope in wealth, but instead be rich in good deeds, be generous and willing to share. There is a much greater purpose than just profit. Now, I would absolutely argue to you that a Christian entrepreneur should be highly profitable as well because they are excellent at what they do to the glory of the Father. At the same time, the great purpose is not just to make money. It is to be a light. right, to be the salt and light to the earth. Our purpose extends beyond a paycheck. It's about serving others. It's about storing up treasures in heaven. And if we can have that perspective, it can shift how we approach our work. It can give us a sense of joy and peace, even in challenging moments. When we are in the middle of a tough negotiation, or when we see other agents crushing it and we're not. When we have a buyer who has been looking for a year and decides to rent, those are frustrating. Don't get me wrong. Those are frustrating moments for us. But if we remember the Lord has placed us here for a greater purpose, it'll change the way we think about those moments. It'll change the way we respond in those moments. What a great witness that is to the clients that the Lord has placed in front of us to serve. All right, so let's talk about the three main points. Let's reiterate these three main points. First, remember that real estate is just part of a greater mission. Second, think about how do you integrate your faith into your daily work and how do do that practically, whether that's praying for five minutes before the day starts, whether that's reading your Bible, whether that's listening to a great podcast that's going to talk about Scripture and the truth. Not this one, but the deeper truths of Scripture. There's a great podcast as a side note called Simply Put. It's like a weekly six-minute podcast where he just explains theological truth in six minutes, right? So maybe it's something like that, whatever it is, getting into fellowship, whatever it is, how do we start integrating our faith into our daily lives in the first place so that it shows up into our daily? So number two, how do we integrate faith into daily work? And finally, we've got to find purpose and fulfillment in serving others beyond just profit. That's the goal. Right? As real estate agents, we've got this incredibly unique opportunity to be both professionals and ministers, quote unquote, in the marketplace. Let's embrace that calling. Let's allow God to work through us in ways we may never see fully or understand fully. Lord, I pray that you will help us in each one listening, view our work as a ministry and invite your blessing into our business as we serve other people. The work you do, my fellow faithful agents, has eternal value. Never forget that. This is where we are. This is our calling. Real estate is our ministry. I love you, faithful agents, and I will see you next week.