In this uplifting episode of Amazing Women & Men of Power: Legends & Icons Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, your host Raven the Talk Show Maven rolls out the red carpet for two powerhouse women of faith and inspiration. 🌟
💫 Rebecca Crews – wife of Hollywood star Terry Crews, but an icon in her own right – joins us to share her incredible journey as a singer, songwriter, actress, fashion designer, entrepreneur, pastor, and founder of LA Life Church. From launching her online ministry Sonic Sundays 🎶✝️ to opening her Pasadena fashion boutique 👗, Rebecca shows us how to live with resilience, creativity, and divine purpose.
🙏 Pastor Kathleen Panning, with 45+ years of experience in ministry and host of the Tilted Halo Podcast, takes us deep into the power of gratitude. She shares personal stories of resilience and how practicing gratitude can shift your mindset, leadership, and life itself. ✨ This episode will inspire you to walk boldly in your purpose, embrace faith in everyday life, and cultivate gratitude no matter what challenges come your way. 🔑 Key Highlights
💫 Rebecca Crews – wife of Hollywood star Terry Crews, but an icon in her own right – joins us to share her incredible journey as a singer, songwriter, actress, fashion designer, entrepreneur, pastor, and founder of LA Life Church. From launching her online ministry Sonic Sundays 🎶✝️ to opening her Pasadena fashion boutique 👗, Rebecca shows us how to live with resilience, creativity, and divine purpose.
🙏 Pastor Kathleen Panning, with 45+ years of experience in ministry and host of the Tilted Halo Podcast, takes us deep into the power of gratitude. She shares personal stories of resilience and how practicing gratitude can shift your mindset, leadership, and life itself. ✨ This episode will inspire you to walk boldly in your purpose, embrace faith in everyday life, and cultivate gratitude no matter what challenges come your way. 🔑 Key Highlights
- Rebecca Crews’ journey from music ministry to pastoring LA Life Church
- The birth of Sonic Sundays and reaching the digital generation 🎶
- How faith fuels family, business, and creativity 💪
- Pastor Kathleen’s personal testimony of overcoming hardship through gratitude
- Why gratitude is the shortcut to happiness and essential for leaders 🙌
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome back to amazing women and men of power, legends
and icons. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I'm your host, Raven
the talk show Maven. And today we are rolling out
the red carpet. Oh yeah, once again in a very
big way. She's not only the wife of one of
Hollywood's biggest actors and TV personalities, the Amazing Terry Crews,
(00:31):
but you know what she is an extraordinary force of talent,
of faith and inspiration in her own right. A powerhouse singer, songwriter, actress,
fashion designer, entrepreneur, proud mom of five, grandmother, and now pastor,
Rebecca Cruz has built an empire of great of grace,
(00:52):
resilience and fierce purpose. From growing up singing in church
in Gary, Indiana, to launching her new crew ministry La
Life Church and her inspiring you to service Sonic Sundays.
She's on a mission, y'all, to guide people into a
life of purpose, peace and fulfillment through Christ. Whether through faith, fashion, family,
(01:16):
or service, Rebecca Cruise shows us that with God, perseverance
and purpose, you really can have life and have it
more abundantly. Oh yes, hey, you know what I like
to say. If you stand and sit down and if
you sit and stand up, because she deserves as standing
ovation virtually. Oh yeah, none other than Rebecca Cruse.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Y'all, hey beary Rebecca, Hi, how are you?
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I am pche king. Thank you so much for being
on the show today.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
It's my pleasure. Thank you, miss Raven. I'm very honored
and thanks for that standing. Oh that was great.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yes, well you deserve it, my goodness, you do so much,
you've want and so many crowns. Rebecca, artist's wife, mother, entrepreneur,
fashion design. But now you stepped into a brand new
calling as a pastor. Can you take us into your
heart and share how God led you to find La
Life Church.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Wow, that's a long story. I've been a pastor's kid
or pastor's grandkid, you know, for a long time. My
grandparents were Methodist pastors their entire life. But became a
pastor oddly because I just felt like God telling me to.
I did the ministry as a teen and all throughout
my adult years, primarily in the music ministry, but I
(02:41):
did things like work with whom I go to jail's
and I did teen events. I did women's ministry, so
I preached in those settings, but I always use myself
as someone who would be more of a conference speaker,
sharing my testimony, things of that caliber, and all of
a sudden, I'm like, God's call me a pastor.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Oh my gosh. It was really kind of harrowing. I
remember thinking, I don't know if that's all I want
to go.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
The process of getting the five oh eight, you know,
set up, and then we started meeting and building in Hollywood,
and we also did online. We had Monday night prayer
on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
And so we're building a church and.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Our hope is to disaffect our community. And what has
happened is we were about to go into live services, right,
so we were going to rent a school auditorium, you know,
get a little band together, a couple of singers, and
we're just going to start having pretty much traditional now
but it was contemporary when I was young style of church.
And then the fires happened and it just felt like, wow,
(03:44):
you know, how do you launch a positive, happy church
in the middle of all this, Because we're all grieving,
you know, and it's week with them, that week, you know,
morn with.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Them that morning we were all morning just sat back
like what do I do?
Speaker 4 (03:57):
You know?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah, and so there was an assistant in the ministry
and said, why don't we just go back to digital,
but we'll pick it up a little, you know, And
that's where Sonic Sunday was born, was through this artful
advice to give us some more contemporary vision of it.
You know, we put music on it, but instead of
a praise band or a.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Choir, we just have a local artist come and sing.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Because our little studio couldn't hold a lot, so we
were like, it's like tidy desk, right, and so we
would have a singer and then we just have a
singer and a message, and we wouldn't maybe incorporate a play,
you know, a little stree note thing. And next thing,
you know, we had The Fool Show and it's a
little over a half hour and you know, it's an
(04:40):
experiment in new culture, in doing church in a new way,
and it's online.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, so to watch it and get to know us as.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
A ministry, get to know me and find out if
they want to, you know, come see us in person
and come have a good time with us.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
In the Lord.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
And so it's a really exciting opportunity to reach people
through the digital media. And I'll confess most people are
sitting on their couches watching church. Authority of churches have
lost membership in terms of in person like the people
are watching online.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yea.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Even big ministries are saying a lot of people aren't
coming in person. So we're doing what we can to
reach people right now through that and our hope is
to have the in person that's our hope still and
then to build community services from there. So I'm excited
about it. We are a little bit of a pause
(05:39):
right now just because finances, you know, it takes time
to build something, and so we're just kind of waiting
to see what will happened with the next semester as
far as God's calling for what this would look like.
We have some projects we're trying to accomplish, and so
we paused for a minute with the tapings. But we
have eight episodes up on YouTube, so you can binge
watch if you want, or you can just takes a
(06:00):
Sunday and watch one and they really just have a
really great time.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Well, it's always a good time when you can binge
watch something that you love. You know, and your story
is just so interesting. How can you say no to God?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Right whoa I tell you, I've been during a long
time and it just just would not let me go,
as they say, you know, like fire set up in
my bone. I was rolling around. The sad point is
that you, mord.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Are you really to do this?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Like I don't want to be a pastor, But you
know what, I've been pastoring people my whole life, you know, yeah,
building without a church, you know. So uh, It's always
been my calling to nurture people in the spirit and
to love them and care for them. And God said,
you know, mama, you know, being a spiritual Mama, Yeah,
(06:56):
to all of those around and just let that part
of you flow and you'll be fine.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Okay, Well, you know what, you're a natural and you're
in your element now. Faith has been a foundation for
you since childhood, growing up Rebecca singing and playing pan
in your church. How has your walk with Christ evolved
over the years through let's say life's highest highs and
(07:21):
its toughest battles.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I would say, you know, faith is the substance of
beings hoped for right, meaning it's a confident expectation that
good will arise from any circumstance that you're facing. And
you know, because The Bible says that hope makes not
a shame. Always have hope in the midst of our trials,
(07:44):
because Jesus has promised us that He can overcome the world,
and so can we. And so with faith you can
basically stand against any mountain. You know, if you're facing
a mountain of debt, you can take your pen and
write those down and get a a good handle on
how you can whittle him down, and also ask God
(08:04):
to help you with that, which is a very practical
thing that God will do for you in terms of
guidance and strategy. And then there are miracles. There are prayers,
you know, pray. I've seen people pray for miraculous exchange
or money to come to help them get out of debt,
and I've watched God do that for them. I've watched
them get a particularly wonderful job that had extra income
(08:27):
to it and they could whittle down the debt. And
so here's an example of using your faith to walk
by faith in something. I don't know if we always
ask God to help us with things like that. You know,
we only think of God as like the heavenly Father
who's kind of surrounding all. But when you walk by faith.
It's to let him go through things with you and
(08:48):
the guide the little things.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I have affairs of life that I think are just
even remotely silly, But oh God help me with that,
you know, what's the right direction? And I find that
I I did it, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
So that's where I.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Want faith to be for people, is to see that
it's not a pine high minded kind of way of
looking at life. It's that christis in our every day.
You know.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
I love what you're saying that because you're basically sharing
with us and showing us that it's not about just
the faith that we believe in, is the faith that
we believe in and carry with us, right.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Yeah, yeah, practicing of Christ, you know, as the young
girl reading that book, practice the presence of Christ.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
My brother lawd he said, you know, since your every day,
you know, talk with.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Him about your problems, talk with him about your joys,
talk with him about any and all things. And I
did that teenager, and still practice that today. You could
hear me muttering in my kitchen, Lord what I do.
You know, it's not our own decisions or use our brain,
but the element of the supernaw in this Christian life.
(10:02):
There's an element of miracle. There's an element of serendigity
where just been thinking about something and wanting it to happen,
and then that door opens through an occasion you didn't
even expect, you know, and I was just thinking about you,
how are you blah blah blah blah, and before you
know it, you're in a conversation with someone who knows
someone that can help you with your problem.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, it's a missing things like that happened, you know.
I'm looking at the clock collar I'm like, oh my goodness,
I wish I had another hour with Rebecca so I
could talk to you about so much. There's so much
to say, because there's so much that you have done,
but I want to I know, you know, we want
to focus on Sonic Sunday because you know, I don't
(10:44):
know about you, Rebecca, but I think this is like
perfect timing right now because of the craziness in the
world and so real quickly we got just a couple
of minutes. You launched recently Sonic Sunday on YouTube, and
it brings a fresh taste of ministry and it really
can uplift people during this dark and uncertain time. That's
(11:10):
what I feel. What do you feel make Sonic Sunday
so special? And you know, what would you like the
audience to know about Sonic Sunday? And we got just
about a couple of minutes, but I'd love to get
your thought on that.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Well.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Sonic Sunday, like I said, was an experiment in removing
the constructive church and thinking how would we do church
in this new era. You know, we put some entertainment
value on it because we wanted it to appeal to
a younger audience, because that was one of my mandates
from the Lord is to you know, get those kids,
(11:44):
go back and teach them kids about faith. This generation
is lost and they need that they need, Yeah, and
go after the younger people. But we just did something fun.
We thought, well, how do we make it fun?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
So we have some like secular versions of Moove.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Operator right, the lady is singing he's the lower then
my Savior, you know. So we use some fun melodies
with contemporary music, focus them towards God. And then we
have a music by local la independent singers and songwriters
and musicians. And so we literally just would go over
the internet and the Instagram and our band sometimes would
(12:20):
use people they know, and we just see people become sing, perform,
and then I preach like for fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I have this like little sermon.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Then and it's about thirty minutes long, you know, so
it's a nice little bite sized version of Jesus.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
You know, it's shortened, uplifting and empowering, all that rolled
into one. And that's really smart of you too, Rebecca,
because young kids, you know, you can only hold their
attention for so long.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, well, the Internet generation, you know, we have the
attention fans. But also it was intentional that it was
not long, because most of us are seeing our spiral
in terms of media and even with the podcasts and
the you know, I went to church where the guy
(13:11):
would preach for two hours, you know what I mean.
For seeing the twenty minute sermon the ten minutes by.
You know, even the bigger ministries are doing the same
thing and so adjusting to the culture, and we feel
like that's fine to do.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
You know, absolutely. I love how you're reaching people right
where they are, and you know, and and you're reaching
the young ones, you know, real quickly. Let's talk about
your creative spirit, because you've also just opened up your
own flagship boutique Understanding Pasadena. How does spash it y interset?
(13:48):
But congratulations on that boutique, girl, I got to stop by, Ah.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
That would be great.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
We opened our store in October of twenty twenty four
because we're for space to find a bigger, better way
for people to really come and try the clothes, you know,
because we're online and you know, we're not a cheap line.
Some of our stuff on the high end and then
some of it's more mid range. But we just knew
people probably want to feel and see the merchandise, you know,
(14:17):
and so like I just went through the process of
hunting and we found a space and we share space
with a hair salon, but we have a very big
part on it, like a back door, so we have
the whole app and so it just looks like two
different distinct buildings almost, And so we have this wonderful space.
My daughter, my baby girl, Terror works there at the
(14:37):
store for me. I have beautiful casts of women that
have helped me raise the line and launch it. I'm
really proud of this product and hope that we can
endure and that we'll be nationwide, will be worldwide. Who
knows you know that we'll have an impact on the world.
Just wanting to bring that cadence of style and culture
(15:00):
and beauty and excellence with a little comfort. We tried
we really really make our folk comfortable. So we have
a comfort mode where we use a little stretch and
all our fabrics and so that's a model we want
to replicate and hope to really grab the attention of
the fashion world.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Oh wow, I'm sure you will. And I want to
remind the listeners, well, actually, I want to invite you
to experience even more of what you're hearing today, what
Rebecca is sharing with you and with the world. Now,
imagine a place where faith meets fresh energy, real talking,
divine inspiration. That's what Sonic Sunday brings you every week,
(15:40):
streaming Sunday's at ten thirty a m. On YouTube from
La Life Church. And don't forget to check out Rebecca's
shop in Pasadena. But for the church, you can visit
the Lalifechurch dot org. That's the La Lifechurch dot org. Rebecca,
my time is the I'm do an end with you today,
(16:02):
but I'm gonna stay plugged into you. And it has
been such a pleasure having you on amazing Women and
men of power, legends and icons yesterday, today and tomorrow
because you certainly are there. You have it, y'all.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
That's Rebecca Cruise.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Y'all.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Oh my god, what an amazing woman she is. You know,
she is just so amazing, And I love the topic
we talked about today because right now the world needs
more healing right and shows like Sonic Sunday it's a
great start, especially for the young one. So be sure
(16:37):
to check her out, Rebecca Cruz And you know what,
we'll be back right after this commercial break. Welcome back
to the Amazing Women and Men of Power. I'm your host,
(17:01):
Raven the talk show. Maven. If you just are tuning in,
we finished an amazing interview and you're going to have
to go back and listen to it. But now I've
got someone that's very close to my heart I want
to introduce you to. Her name is Pastor Kathleen Panning
and she's been a Lutheran pastor for forty five years
(17:22):
and has served in a variety of para settings as
an interim chaplain and a large retirement community. She's a
producer of the Ministries from the Heart TV channel on
Roku and Amazon, fireTV, and host of Tilted Halo Podcasts,
a podcast everybody's talking about that you got to tune into.
(17:42):
She's also a certified Positive Prime professional. Her passion is
working with women of faith in leadership and talking about
the power of gratitude, which is our topic we're going
to be discussing today. Oh my god, because there's so
much power in gratitude. Welcome to the show, Pastor Kathleen Penny,
(18:06):
thank you, Thank you very good. Now, this is an
important topic, and the reason I love it is because
I think so many people are so stuck in the
moment of where they are now, you know, whether it's
good or bad, They're just stuck in that moment and
they kind of forget the gratitude part. So can you
(18:29):
share a personal experience we're expressing gratitude significantly impacted either
or yourself along your leadership journey, or one of your
people that you mentor.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
Well, actually I'll do a very personal story, Raven, because
I was in the second parish where I was an
associate pastor a large congregation five full time pastors. The
longtime serving senior pastor had retired and there was a
new senior pastor on the staff. And after about six
(19:04):
eight months, he came to me on a Friday afternoon
and asked me to come to his office and he
said he was going to allow me to choose, and
my options were to either resign or be fired. Yeah,
that was not a choice that I was anticipated or wanting,
(19:26):
and it really rattled everything in my life. I felt
totally devastated, depressed, and really thought I wasn't cut out
for ministry anymore. A friend handed me a book probably
about a month after I left, and that she had
(19:47):
found in the public library, and she said I had
to read that book, and looking at the title of it,
I would have thought if anybody else had given it
to me that it was a cruel joke, because the
title is Happiness Is a Choice, and the author is
Barry Neil Kaufman. And I did not feel the least
(20:08):
bit happy at that point in time, and I didn't
think I had a choice to be happy, because this was,
you know, about thirty plus years ago. And I started
reading the book and it's six what he calls shortcuts
to Happiness, and number five is about gratitude, and he
(20:31):
calls it the shortest and sweetest shortcut to happiness. And
I looked at that and I thought, oh, yeah, right,
what in the world do I have to be grateful for.
I don't have a job. I don't have any prospects
for a job because my denomination does not allow me
to go out and say, here's my resume, hire me
(20:52):
type of thing. There's a different structure for that. And
I didn't even know if I was fit for ministry anymore,
or what the world I would do. So I didn't know, what,
you know, what in the world do I have to
be grateful for. It took me a couple of days
probably to find one thing. Wow, one thing, and it
(21:19):
became you know that my parents and other family were
supportive of me. And then I found a second one.
I had enough savings that I wasn't going to be
losing my car or where I was living those kinds
of things. And I realized the more I looked, the
more I found that's the power of gratitude. And it
(21:42):
started me on this journey of the power of gratitude.
And it helped. I mean, it didn't miraculously get me
a position or anything like that, but it started to
change the way I saw myself and the way I
saw my situation and much more of a positive place.
(22:05):
Help get me out of depression, help get me over
some of the anger I felt this situation, and helped
keep me moving again in life. So that is at
the very root of it. The power of gratitude, that
(22:27):
that just you basically said it all.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
I mean, there's so much power and gratitude even the
word when you say gratitude. I don't know about you,
but I feel uplifted. You know, it's such a word
that just just gives you hope, gives you inspiration, and
you know it's showing our way of thinking, you know,
(22:54):
the believer, you know, thinking of our God or you
know your God. It's like you not taking it for granted.
And I think we all take so much a life
for granted. I know I have a habit of waking
up in the morning, as I come on to cut
on my computer and start my day, I always say
thank you God for waking me up today. You know,
(23:17):
you know it's important. Thank you for my legs to walk,
my mouth, to talk, my breath, to breathe. These are
things that can be quickly taken away, you know, oh
totally and then the other thing is, especially when you're
in the entrepreneur world or you're working in corporate and stuff,
it's such a hustle and bustle life in itself is
(23:42):
if we want our dreams, we want to reach our dreams.
But sometimes we wonder why aren't I reaching the dreams?
And what I found and I love to hear your
opinion on this is that sometimes you're not Sometimes it
could be that you're not showing an enough gratitude.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Yeah, that is a good point, you know. Gratitude is,
like you say, it's a way of seeing all of
life and seeing the giftedness in it. And one of
the greatest obstacles I've learned about two gratitude is thinking
we deserve something, thinking that we've earned it, entitled that
(24:27):
we're entitled to it. And when we get in that space,
it's hard to see opportunities. It's hard to see the
people who have helped us along the way and the
situations that have helped us along the way, and then
it's hard to be a person who can help other people. Yeah,
(24:52):
So when we can't see the giftedness of life and
what other people bring into our lives, that's good it's
hard to be there for others in that way too.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Absolutely, let me ask you this, in your opinion, why
is gratitude and essential an essential trait for effective leadership?
Speaker 4 (25:18):
I was thinking about that, Raven. You know, I kind
of think about leaders in maybe three different buckets. There
are the people who, instead of leading, they push. They,
you know, are the ones who are there with all
of the well, you didn't do it this way, therefore
(25:39):
you got to do it this way. It's more fear based.
If you don't do it, you're out type of thing.
There's others who are And I was thinking of Louis,
the fourteenth king of France. He was known as the
son King, and you know, the son King is somebody
who was all about giving life. Life revolved around him,
(26:02):
and you know, he was the center of everything, and
he was the one who built Versailles and all of that,
and that's a very self centered type of leadership. And
then they're the ones who are the ones with the gratitude,
who see life as a gift and give it back.
(26:26):
Those are the ones who, if you look through history,
are the greatest leaders. They are the ones who are
the ones telling people, mentoring people, helping people grow themselves
instead of saying, you know, I got it all figured
out and you know I'm the one. You got to
(26:48):
come up to my level or you know, if you
don't do it my way, you know.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
See the highway. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
Absolutely, they are the ones that nurture. They are the
ones that enlarge leadership, they enlarge life, they enlarge community.
So to me, that's the essential thing for leadership and
for a really effective and great leader in that sense.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Yeah, and we all really want to be an effective,
great leader. So this is such an important subject. What
advice Pastor Kathleen, would you give to emerging leaders about
cultivating a culture of gratitude within our teams?
Speaker 4 (27:37):
Start with yourself, Ah, start with yourself to be one
who engenders it in others. Start by engendering it in
yourself and then expressing it in appropriate ways for a
person to hear and listen. That will help other people
(28:00):
leading by the example and then will help other people
feel appreciated. And you can then help other people learn
to express that gratitude towards each other too. That will
grow a team.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yes, yes, I love that. And you know, it's all
about how we make people feel, you know, That's what
makes the difference, That's what pushes people forward through their breakthroughs,
is how they feel. Can you get us out, get
them out of the funk bearing now? Can you get
them out of their heads and back into their heart?
(28:35):
Can you get them moving forward? There was a quote
I can't remember who said it that I ran across
years ago when I first started my entrepreneurship, and it said,
leader one, leader of many. If you can't lead one,
you can't lead any So you got to be the leader,
like you said within yes, yes, yes, Are there any
(28:58):
special habits that you found overtined you practice to maintain
a mindset of gratitude in your leadership role that you
passed on to others to do as well.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
First thing is to find reasons for gratitude in my
life every single day, and some people do it first
thing in the morning. I sometimes do it as I'm
going off to sleep, to find at least ten things
that I'm grateful for in the day, a minimum of ten.
(29:35):
And there was a time when I struggled, like I said,
to find one. And there have been other times when
life was difficult and it was like I kept a
gratitude journal at times and listed them. Then I at
least include them in my prayers now as those ten
things for finding reasons to be grateful and noticing the
(29:58):
small things. You doesn't have to be big things, and
then that is.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
So we're always waiting for the big one, even celebrating
and really feeling the gratitude of the small things. And
you have to do that to get to the big things.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
So you're hearing a bird sing, yeah, flower, ye seeing
a special flower. I was someplace this morning and I
saw three pennies left in the ladies room, and I
took each one of those pennies and gave it to
(30:38):
one of the women I encountered at an appointment and
just said a penny for your presence today. And you know,
it's those little things that we can do, ye, And
that's really important help me keeping gratitude.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
You're absolutely right, and we don't want to wait until
we miss something and go back, and we want to
stay in gratitude all the time. I know when my
mother got sick and she went from looking like Lena
Horn and shopping and buying beautiful clothes to having to
spend the last her last six years in a wheelchair,
(31:18):
seeing such a vibrant woman, you know, being in that situation,
you know, and seeing her how she really got innovative
with her situation, you know, so that she can reach
and still keep her independence, right, yeah, keep the power
within her. It made me and she also wore caffeter,
(31:39):
so she needed help and just going to the restaurom
with just something for granted. And the reason I'm bringing
all this up to you and to the audience, Kathleen,
is because sometimes it takes something like that for us
to be brought back and like, whoa, I didn't realize
how important it is to be walking, how important it
(32:01):
is to do a simple thing as to go to
the restroom. I mean, you know, it took my mother
struggling with that type of stuff, and now I find
myself every time we go to the store. My husband's
like looking around, where am I? If I see somebody
in a wheelchair, I want to open up the door.
I want to do these things, you know. So I
guess I'm saying to everyone, don't just pay attention to yourself.
(32:24):
Pay attention to your loved ones and people around you,
you know, and then look at yourself and say, oh wow,
I've been taking this for granted, and it helped the
persons that's less And that's a way of showing gratitude
because it's all about when you agree, pastor Kathleen us
passing it on as we learn lessons in life, It's
(32:46):
about passing it on for sure.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Yeah, most assuredly. And that's part of being a great leader.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Let me ask you this, what role does gratitude play
and building trust and loyalty? I think we talked about
within your teams, but what about within your relationships? And
I'm talking about family relationships, husband, wife, partner, even in
(33:18):
the relationships of a business partner. What role of gratitude
does that play withn't there?
Speaker 4 (33:23):
It can play a huge role. I mean so often
in relationships like with a partner, in a sposal relationship,
whatever you know, we can tend to see, well, it's unequal,
I do more of this kind of thing and whatever.
But to look at what the other person is doing
(33:44):
and see the gifts that they bring and the things
that they do small things, big things, and to express
that appreciation that will build a relationship. And there are
studies that show that couples that express gratitude are much
(34:04):
happier in their relationship. And if that's true in our home,
it's going to be true in the business world too. Yeah,
you know, in any way we do that. And you know,
instead of finding the things that are wrong that somebody doesn't.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Easy to do right, easy to find their own.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
And our culture and our world almost demands that we
do that. So it takes practice to look for and
focus on the good things and to express that to
one another and at home as well as at work
(34:45):
and in our business relationships.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Yeah, absolutely, and our teams and everything. So oh speak
of how does gratitude and influence help the overall morale
and the productivity, Well, I would think that would push it. Yeah,
bring people together.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
It will, it will having more gratitude in a team.
There are people who've done studies and I would recommend
to people the work of doctor Robert Emmons E M
M O N S from UC Davis on some of this.
He is the father of the science of gratitude. Often
(35:28):
he has done studies that show that when gratitude is
expressed in a business, you have greater productivity, People are
more creative, people stay longer, you don't have to replace
people in a work environment as much because they're dissatisfied
(35:50):
and want to leave. So there's so many different benefits
and that translates financially. You know, the productivity of what
they're willing to do, the number of hours they're willing
to put in on a project, all of those things.
It's much better when they feel that what they're doing
(36:11):
is appreciated and that they're contributing something valuable.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Absolutely, why this has been amazing. I wish we had
more time. Where can people find out more and you'll
be able to reach out to you? Pastor Kathleen, Well,
I have a website.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
It's Kathleen my first name, and that's what.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
They are.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
A A T h L e E N because there's
more than one way to spell Kathleen A which is
my middle initial, and then my last name, which is
like panning for gold ps and Peter A n N
I n G dot com. That's my website. They can
hear me on the Tilted Halo on any major podcast platform,
(36:58):
So those are two best ways to find.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Me, Absolutely, and don't forget to check out her TV
channel too.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
True Yes from the Heart Cool and Amazon for your.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
TV Absolutely and Heart Radio you can catch her there too,
and our power me Up, Ready to Talk twenty four
to seven. She's everywhere, okay, getting omni presents everywhere, just
like you should be. We certainly hope you enjoyed our
show today. Oh my goodness, it's been amazing when be
sure to share it with a friend, and if it
(37:31):
feels right to you, leave us a five star review
and a comment on this particular show. We had two
amazing guests, and any show that you care to listen to,
I'm Raven Blair Glover, Raven the Talk Show, Maven. That
beautiful lady there she is, Pastor Kathleen Panning. Don't forget
to share, all right? Everyone? That is a rap amazing
(37:54):
women and men of power, legends and icons yesterday, today,
and tomorrow. We'll see you next time.
Welcome back to amazing women and men of power, legends
and icons. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I'm your host, Raven
the talk show Maven. And today we are rolling out
the red carpet. Oh yeah, once again in a very
big way. She's not only the wife of one of
Hollywood's biggest actors and TV personalities, the Amazing Terry Crews,
(00:31):
but you know what she is an extraordinary force of talent,
of faith and inspiration in her own right. A powerhouse singer, songwriter, actress,
fashion designer, entrepreneur, proud mom of five, grandmother, and now pastor,
Rebecca Cruz has built an empire of great of grace,
(00:52):
resilience and fierce purpose. From growing up singing in church
in Gary, Indiana, to launching her new crew ministry La
Life Church and her inspiring you to service Sonic Sundays.
She's on a mission, y'all, to guide people into a
life of purpose, peace and fulfillment through Christ. Whether through faith, fashion, family,
(01:16):
or service, Rebecca Cruise shows us that with God, perseverance
and purpose, you really can have life and have it
more abundantly. Oh yes, hey, you know what I like
to say. If you stand and sit down and if
you sit and stand up, because she deserves as standing
ovation virtually. Oh yeah, none other than Rebecca Cruse.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Y'all, hey beary Rebecca, Hi, how are you?
Speaker 1 (01:45):
I am pche king. Thank you so much for being
on the show today.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
It's my pleasure. Thank you, miss Raven. I'm very honored
and thanks for that standing. Oh that was great.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yes, well you deserve it, my goodness, you do so much,
you've want and so many crowns. Rebecca, artist's wife, mother, entrepreneur,
fashion design. But now you stepped into a brand new
calling as a pastor. Can you take us into your
heart and share how God led you to find La
Life Church.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Wow, that's a long story. I've been a pastor's kid
or pastor's grandkid, you know, for a long time. My
grandparents were Methodist pastors their entire life. But became a
pastor oddly because I just felt like God telling me to.
I did the ministry as a teen and all throughout
my adult years, primarily in the music ministry, but I
(02:41):
did things like work with whom I go to jail's
and I did teen events. I did women's ministry, so
I preached in those settings, but I always use myself
as someone who would be more of a conference speaker,
sharing my testimony, things of that caliber, and all of
a sudden, I'm like, God's call me a pastor.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Oh my gosh. It was really kind of harrowing. I
remember thinking, I don't know if that's all I want
to go.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
The process of getting the five oh eight, you know,
set up, and then we started meeting and building in Hollywood,
and we also did online. We had Monday night prayer
on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
And so we're building a church and.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Our hope is to disaffect our community. And what has
happened is we were about to go into live services, right,
so we were going to rent a school auditorium, you know,
get a little band together, a couple of singers, and
we're just going to start having pretty much traditional now
but it was contemporary when I was young style of church.
And then the fires happened and it just felt like, wow,
(03:44):
you know, how do you launch a positive, happy church
in the middle of all this, Because we're all grieving,
you know, and it's week with them, that week, you know,
morn with.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Them that morning we were all morning just sat back
like what do I do?
Speaker 4 (03:57):
You know?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Yeah, and so there was an assistant in the ministry
and said, why don't we just go back to digital,
but we'll pick it up a little, you know, And
that's where Sonic Sunday was born, was through this artful
advice to give us some more contemporary vision of it.
You know, we put music on it, but instead of
a praise band or a.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Choir, we just have a local artist come and sing.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Because our little studio couldn't hold a lot, so we
were like, it's like tidy desk, right, and so we
would have a singer and then we just have a
singer and a message, and we wouldn't maybe incorporate a play,
you know, a little stree note thing. And next thing,
you know, we had The Fool Show and it's a
little over a half hour and you know, it's an
(04:40):
experiment in new culture, in doing church in a new way,
and it's online.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, so to watch it and get to know us as.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
A ministry, get to know me and find out if
they want to, you know, come see us in person
and come have a good time with us.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
In the Lord.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
And so it's a really exciting opportunity to reach people
through the digital media. And I'll confess most people are
sitting on their couches watching church. Authority of churches have
lost membership in terms of in person like the people
are watching online.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yea.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Even big ministries are saying a lot of people aren't
coming in person. So we're doing what we can to
reach people right now through that and our hope is
to have the in person that's our hope still and
then to build community services from there. So I'm excited
about it. We are a little bit of a pause
(05:39):
right now just because finances, you know, it takes time
to build something, and so we're just kind of waiting
to see what will happened with the next semester as
far as God's calling for what this would look like.
We have some projects we're trying to accomplish, and so
we paused for a minute with the tapings. But we
have eight episodes up on YouTube, so you can binge
watch if you want, or you can just takes a
(06:00):
Sunday and watch one and they really just have a
really great time.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Well, it's always a good time when you can binge
watch something that you love. You know, and your story
is just so interesting. How can you say no to God?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Right whoa I tell you, I've been during a long
time and it just just would not let me go,
as they say, you know, like fire set up in
my bone. I was rolling around. The sad point is
that you, mord.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Are you really to do this?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Like I don't want to be a pastor, But you
know what, I've been pastoring people my whole life, you know, yeah,
building without a church, you know. So uh, It's always
been my calling to nurture people in the spirit and
to love them and care for them. And God said,
you know, mama, you know, being a spiritual Mama, Yeah,
(06:56):
to all of those around and just let that part
of you flow and you'll be fine.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Okay, Well, you know what, you're a natural and you're
in your element now. Faith has been a foundation for
you since childhood, growing up Rebecca singing and playing pan
in your church. How has your walk with Christ evolved
over the years through let's say life's highest highs and
(07:21):
its toughest battles.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I would say, you know, faith is the substance of
beings hoped for right, meaning it's a confident expectation that
good will arise from any circumstance that you're facing. And
you know, because The Bible says that hope makes not
a shame. Always have hope in the midst of our trials,
(07:44):
because Jesus has promised us that He can overcome the world,
and so can we. And so with faith you can
basically stand against any mountain. You know, if you're facing
a mountain of debt, you can take your pen and
write those down and get a a good handle on
how you can whittle him down, and also ask God
(08:04):
to help you with that, which is a very practical
thing that God will do for you in terms of
guidance and strategy. And then there are miracles. There are prayers,
you know, pray. I've seen people pray for miraculous exchange
or money to come to help them get out of debt,
and I've watched God do that for them. I've watched
them get a particularly wonderful job that had extra income
(08:27):
to it and they could whittle down the debt. And
so here's an example of using your faith to walk
by faith in something. I don't know if we always
ask God to help us with things like that. You know,
we only think of God as like the heavenly Father
who's kind of surrounding all. But when you walk by faith.
It's to let him go through things with you and
(08:48):
the guide the little things.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
I have affairs of life that I think are just
even remotely silly, But oh God help me with that,
you know, what's the right direction? And I find that
I I did it, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
So that's where I.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Want faith to be for people, is to see that
it's not a pine high minded kind of way of
looking at life. It's that christis in our every day.
You know.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
I love what you're saying that because you're basically sharing
with us and showing us that it's not about just
the faith that we believe in, is the faith that
we believe in and carry with us, right.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Yeah, yeah, practicing of Christ, you know, as the young
girl reading that book, practice the presence of Christ.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
My brother lawd he said, you know, since your every day,
you know, talk with.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Him about your problems, talk with him about your joys,
talk with him about any and all things. And I
did that teenager, and still practice that today. You could
hear me muttering in my kitchen, Lord what I do.
You know, it's not our own decisions or use our brain,
but the element of the supernaw in this Christian life.
(10:02):
There's an element of miracle. There's an element of serendigity
where just been thinking about something and wanting it to happen,
and then that door opens through an occasion you didn't
even expect, you know, and I was just thinking about you,
how are you blah blah blah blah, and before you
know it, you're in a conversation with someone who knows
someone that can help you with your problem.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, it's a missing things like that happened, you know.
I'm looking at the clock collar I'm like, oh my goodness,
I wish I had another hour with Rebecca so I
could talk to you about so much. There's so much
to say, because there's so much that you have done,
but I want to I know, you know, we want
to focus on Sonic Sunday because you know, I don't
(10:44):
know about you, Rebecca, but I think this is like
perfect timing right now because of the craziness in the
world and so real quickly we got just a couple
of minutes. You launched recently Sonic Sunday on YouTube, and
it brings a fresh taste of ministry and it really
can uplift people during this dark and uncertain time. That's
(11:10):
what I feel. What do you feel make Sonic Sunday
so special? And you know, what would you like the
audience to know about Sonic Sunday? And we got just
about a couple of minutes, but I'd love to get
your thought on that.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Well.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Sonic Sunday, like I said, was an experiment in removing
the constructive church and thinking how would we do church
in this new era. You know, we put some entertainment
value on it because we wanted it to appeal to
a younger audience, because that was one of my mandates
from the Lord is to you know, get those kids,
(11:44):
go back and teach them kids about faith. This generation
is lost and they need that they need, Yeah, and
go after the younger people. But we just did something fun.
We thought, well, how do we make it fun?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
So we have some like secular versions of Moove.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Operator right, the lady is singing he's the lower then
my Savior, you know. So we use some fun melodies
with contemporary music, focus them towards God. And then we
have a music by local la independent singers and songwriters
and musicians. And so we literally just would go over
the internet and the Instagram and our band sometimes would
(12:20):
use people they know, and we just see people become sing, perform,
and then I preach like for fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I have this like little sermon.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Then and it's about thirty minutes long, you know, so
it's a nice little bite sized version of Jesus.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
You know, it's shortened, uplifting and empowering, all that rolled
into one. And that's really smart of you too, Rebecca,
because young kids, you know, you can only hold their
attention for so long.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, well, the Internet generation, you know, we have the
attention fans. But also it was intentional that it was
not long, because most of us are seeing our spiral
in terms of media and even with the podcasts and
the you know, I went to church where the guy
(13:11):
would preach for two hours, you know what I mean.
For seeing the twenty minute sermon the ten minutes by.
You know, even the bigger ministries are doing the same
thing and so adjusting to the culture, and we feel
like that's fine to do.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
You know, absolutely. I love how you're reaching people right
where they are, and you know, and and you're reaching
the young ones, you know, real quickly. Let's talk about
your creative spirit, because you've also just opened up your
own flagship boutique Understanding Pasadena. How does spash it y interset?
(13:48):
But congratulations on that boutique, girl, I got to stop by, Ah.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
That would be great.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
We opened our store in October of twenty twenty four
because we're for space to find a bigger, better way
for people to really come and try the clothes, you know,
because we're online and you know, we're not a cheap line.
Some of our stuff on the high end and then
some of it's more mid range. But we just knew
people probably want to feel and see the merchandise, you know,
(14:17):
and so like I just went through the process of
hunting and we found a space and we share space
with a hair salon, but we have a very big
part on it, like a back door, so we have
the whole app and so it just looks like two
different distinct buildings almost, And so we have this wonderful space.
My daughter, my baby girl, Terror works there at the
(14:37):
store for me. I have beautiful casts of women that
have helped me raise the line and launch it. I'm
really proud of this product and hope that we can
endure and that we'll be nationwide, will be worldwide. Who
knows you know that we'll have an impact on the world.
Just wanting to bring that cadence of style and culture
(15:00):
and beauty and excellence with a little comfort. We tried
we really really make our folk comfortable. So we have
a comfort mode where we use a little stretch and
all our fabrics and so that's a model we want
to replicate and hope to really grab the attention of
the fashion world.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Oh wow, I'm sure you will. And I want to
remind the listeners, well, actually, I want to invite you
to experience even more of what you're hearing today, what
Rebecca is sharing with you and with the world. Now,
imagine a place where faith meets fresh energy, real talking,
divine inspiration. That's what Sonic Sunday brings you every week,
(15:40):
streaming Sunday's at ten thirty a m. On YouTube from
La Life Church. And don't forget to check out Rebecca's
shop in Pasadena. But for the church, you can visit
the Lalifechurch dot org. That's the La Lifechurch dot org. Rebecca,
my time is the I'm do an end with you today,
(16:02):
but I'm gonna stay plugged into you. And it has
been such a pleasure having you on amazing Women and
men of power, legends and icons yesterday, today and tomorrow
because you certainly are there. You have it, y'all.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
That's Rebecca Cruise.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Y'all.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Oh my god, what an amazing woman she is. You know,
she is just so amazing, And I love the topic
we talked about today because right now the world needs
more healing right and shows like Sonic Sunday it's a
great start, especially for the young one. So be sure
(16:37):
to check her out, Rebecca Cruz And you know what,
we'll be back right after this commercial break. Welcome back
to the Amazing Women and Men of Power. I'm your host,
(17:01):
Raven the talk show. Maven. If you just are tuning in,
we finished an amazing interview and you're going to have
to go back and listen to it. But now I've
got someone that's very close to my heart I want
to introduce you to. Her name is Pastor Kathleen Panning
and she's been a Lutheran pastor for forty five years
(17:22):
and has served in a variety of para settings as
an interim chaplain and a large retirement community. She's a
producer of the Ministries from the Heart TV channel on
Roku and Amazon, fireTV, and host of Tilted Halo Podcasts,
a podcast everybody's talking about that you got to tune into.
(17:42):
She's also a certified Positive Prime professional. Her passion is
working with women of faith in leadership and talking about
the power of gratitude, which is our topic we're going
to be discussing today. Oh my god, because there's so
much power in gratitude. Welcome to the show, Pastor Kathleen Penny,
(18:06):
thank you, Thank you very good. Now, this is an
important topic, and the reason I love it is because
I think so many people are so stuck in the
moment of where they are now, you know, whether it's
good or bad, They're just stuck in that moment and
they kind of forget the gratitude part. So can you
(18:29):
share a personal experience we're expressing gratitude significantly impacted either
or yourself along your leadership journey, or one of your
people that you mentor.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
Well, actually I'll do a very personal story, Raven, because
I was in the second parish where I was an
associate pastor a large congregation five full time pastors. The
longtime serving senior pastor had retired and there was a
new senior pastor on the staff. And after about six
(19:04):
eight months, he came to me on a Friday afternoon
and asked me to come to his office and he
said he was going to allow me to choose, and
my options were to either resign or be fired. Yeah,
that was not a choice that I was anticipated or wanting,
(19:26):
and it really rattled everything in my life. I felt
totally devastated, depressed, and really thought I wasn't cut out
for ministry anymore. A friend handed me a book probably
about a month after I left, and that she had
(19:47):
found in the public library, and she said I had
to read that book, and looking at the title of it,
I would have thought if anybody else had given it
to me that it was a cruel joke, because the
title is Happiness Is a Choice, and the author is
Barry Neil Kaufman. And I did not feel the least
(20:08):
bit happy at that point in time, and I didn't
think I had a choice to be happy, because this was,
you know, about thirty plus years ago. And I started
reading the book and it's six what he calls shortcuts
to Happiness, and number five is about gratitude, and he
(20:31):
calls it the shortest and sweetest shortcut to happiness. And
I looked at that and I thought, oh, yeah, right,
what in the world do I have to be grateful for.
I don't have a job. I don't have any prospects
for a job because my denomination does not allow me
to go out and say, here's my resume, hire me
(20:52):
type of thing. There's a different structure for that. And
I didn't even know if I was fit for ministry anymore,
or what the world I would do. So I didn't know, what,
you know, what in the world do I have to
be grateful for. It took me a couple of days
probably to find one thing. Wow, one thing, and it
(21:19):
became you know that my parents and other family were
supportive of me. And then I found a second one.
I had enough savings that I wasn't going to be
losing my car or where I was living those kinds
of things. And I realized the more I looked, the
more I found that's the power of gratitude. And it
(21:42):
started me on this journey of the power of gratitude.
And it helped. I mean, it didn't miraculously get me
a position or anything like that, but it started to
change the way I saw myself and the way I
saw my situation and much more of a positive place.
(22:05):
Help get me out of depression, help get me over
some of the anger I felt this situation, and helped
keep me moving again in life. So that is at
the very root of it. The power of gratitude, that
(22:27):
that just you basically said it all.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
I mean, there's so much power and gratitude even the
word when you say gratitude. I don't know about you,
but I feel uplifted. You know, it's such a word
that just just gives you hope, gives you inspiration, and
you know it's showing our way of thinking, you know,
(22:54):
the believer, you know, thinking of our God or you
know your God. It's like you not taking it for granted.
And I think we all take so much a life
for granted. I know I have a habit of waking
up in the morning, as I come on to cut
on my computer and start my day, I always say
thank you God for waking me up today. You know,
(23:17):
you know it's important. Thank you for my legs to walk,
my mouth, to talk, my breath, to breathe. These are
things that can be quickly taken away, you know, oh
totally and then the other thing is, especially when you're
in the entrepreneur world or you're working in corporate and stuff,
it's such a hustle and bustle life in itself is
(23:42):
if we want our dreams, we want to reach our dreams.
But sometimes we wonder why aren't I reaching the dreams?
And what I found and I love to hear your
opinion on this is that sometimes you're not Sometimes it
could be that you're not showing an enough gratitude.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Yeah, that is a good point, you know. Gratitude is,
like you say, it's a way of seeing all of
life and seeing the giftedness in it. And one of
the greatest obstacles I've learned about two gratitude is thinking
we deserve something, thinking that we've earned it, entitled that
(24:27):
we're entitled to it. And when we get in that space,
it's hard to see opportunities. It's hard to see the
people who have helped us along the way and the
situations that have helped us along the way, and then
it's hard to be a person who can help other people. Yeah,
(24:52):
So when we can't see the giftedness of life and
what other people bring into our lives, that's good it's
hard to be there for others in that way too.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Absolutely, let me ask you this, in your opinion, why
is gratitude and essential an essential trait for effective leadership?
Speaker 4 (25:18):
I was thinking about that, Raven. You know, I kind
of think about leaders in maybe three different buckets. There
are the people who, instead of leading, they push. They,
you know, are the ones who are there with all
of the well, you didn't do it this way, therefore
(25:39):
you got to do it this way. It's more fear based.
If you don't do it, you're out type of thing.
There's others who are And I was thinking of Louis,
the fourteenth king of France. He was known as the
son King, and you know, the son King is somebody
who was all about giving life. Life revolved around him,
(26:02):
and you know, he was the center of everything, and
he was the one who built Versailles and all of that,
and that's a very self centered type of leadership. And
then they're the ones who are the ones with the gratitude,
who see life as a gift and give it back.
(26:26):
Those are the ones who, if you look through history,
are the greatest leaders. They are the ones who are
the ones telling people, mentoring people, helping people grow themselves
instead of saying, you know, I got it all figured
out and you know I'm the one. You got to
(26:48):
come up to my level or you know, if you
don't do it my way, you know.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
See the highway. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
Absolutely, they are the ones that nurture. They are the
ones that enlarge leadership, they enlarge life, they enlarge community.
So to me, that's the essential thing for leadership and
for a really effective and great leader in that sense.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Yeah, and we all really want to be an effective,
great leader. So this is such an important subject. What
advice Pastor Kathleen, would you give to emerging leaders about
cultivating a culture of gratitude within our teams?
Speaker 4 (27:37):
Start with yourself, Ah, start with yourself to be one
who engenders it in others. Start by engendering it in
yourself and then expressing it in appropriate ways for a
person to hear and listen. That will help other people
(28:00):
leading by the example and then will help other people
feel appreciated. And you can then help other people learn
to express that gratitude towards each other too. That will
grow a team.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yes, yes, I love that. And you know, it's all
about how we make people feel, you know, That's what
makes the difference, That's what pushes people forward through their breakthroughs,
is how they feel. Can you get us out, get
them out of the funk bearing now? Can you get
them out of their heads and back into their heart?
(28:35):
Can you get them moving forward? There was a quote
I can't remember who said it that I ran across
years ago when I first started my entrepreneurship, and it said,
leader one, leader of many. If you can't lead one,
you can't lead any So you got to be the leader,
like you said within yes, yes, yes, Are there any
(28:58):
special habits that you found overtined you practice to maintain
a mindset of gratitude in your leadership role that you
passed on to others to do as well.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
First thing is to find reasons for gratitude in my
life every single day, and some people do it first
thing in the morning. I sometimes do it as I'm
going off to sleep, to find at least ten things
that I'm grateful for in the day, a minimum of ten.
(29:35):
And there was a time when I struggled, like I said,
to find one. And there have been other times when
life was difficult and it was like I kept a
gratitude journal at times and listed them. Then I at
least include them in my prayers now as those ten
things for finding reasons to be grateful and noticing the
(29:58):
small things. You doesn't have to be big things, and
then that is.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
So we're always waiting for the big one, even celebrating
and really feeling the gratitude of the small things. And
you have to do that to get to the big things.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
So you're hearing a bird sing, yeah, flower, ye seeing
a special flower. I was someplace this morning and I
saw three pennies left in the ladies room, and I
took each one of those pennies and gave it to
(30:38):
one of the women I encountered at an appointment and
just said a penny for your presence today. And you know,
it's those little things that we can do, ye, And
that's really important help me keeping gratitude.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
You're absolutely right, and we don't want to wait until
we miss something and go back, and we want to
stay in gratitude all the time. I know when my
mother got sick and she went from looking like Lena
Horn and shopping and buying beautiful clothes to having to
spend the last her last six years in a wheelchair,
(31:18):
seeing such a vibrant woman, you know, being in that situation,
you know, and seeing her how she really got innovative
with her situation, you know, so that she can reach
and still keep her independence, right, yeah, keep the power
within her. It made me and she also wore caffeter,
(31:39):
so she needed help and just going to the restaurom
with just something for granted. And the reason I'm bringing
all this up to you and to the audience, Kathleen,
is because sometimes it takes something like that for us
to be brought back and like, whoa, I didn't realize
how important it is to be walking, how important it
(32:01):
is to do a simple thing as to go to
the restroom. I mean, you know, it took my mother
struggling with that type of stuff, and now I find
myself every time we go to the store. My husband's
like looking around, where am I? If I see somebody
in a wheelchair, I want to open up the door.
I want to do these things, you know. So I
guess I'm saying to everyone, don't just pay attention to yourself.
(32:24):
Pay attention to your loved ones and people around you,
you know, and then look at yourself and say, oh wow,
I've been taking this for granted, and it helped the
persons that's less And that's a way of showing gratitude
because it's all about when you agree, pastor Kathleen us
passing it on as we learn lessons in life, It's
(32:46):
about passing it on for sure.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Yeah, most assuredly. And that's part of being a great leader.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Let me ask you this, what role does gratitude play
and building trust and loyalty? I think we talked about
within your teams, but what about within your relationships? And
I'm talking about family relationships, husband, wife, partner, even in
(33:18):
the relationships of a business partner. What role of gratitude
does that play withn't there?
Speaker 4 (33:23):
It can play a huge role. I mean so often
in relationships like with a partner, in a sposal relationship,
whatever you know, we can tend to see, well, it's unequal,
I do more of this kind of thing and whatever.
But to look at what the other person is doing
(33:44):
and see the gifts that they bring and the things
that they do small things, big things, and to express
that appreciation that will build a relationship. And there are
studies that show that couples that express gratitude are much
(34:04):
happier in their relationship. And if that's true in our home,
it's going to be true in the business world too. Yeah,
you know, in any way we do that. And you know,
instead of finding the things that are wrong that somebody doesn't.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Easy to do right, easy to find their own.
Speaker 4 (34:24):
And our culture and our world almost demands that we
do that. So it takes practice to look for and
focus on the good things and to express that to
one another and at home as well as at work
(34:45):
and in our business relationships.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Yeah, absolutely, and our teams and everything. So oh speak
of how does gratitude and influence help the overall morale
and the productivity, Well, I would think that would push it. Yeah,
bring people together.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
It will, it will having more gratitude in a team.
There are people who've done studies and I would recommend
to people the work of doctor Robert Emmons E M
M O N S from UC Davis on some of this.
He is the father of the science of gratitude. Often
(35:28):
he has done studies that show that when gratitude is
expressed in a business, you have greater productivity, People are
more creative, people stay longer, you don't have to replace
people in a work environment as much because they're dissatisfied
(35:50):
and want to leave. So there's so many different benefits
and that translates financially. You know, the productivity of what
they're willing to do, the number of hours they're willing
to put in on a project, all of those things.
It's much better when they feel that what they're doing
(36:11):
is appreciated and that they're contributing something valuable.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Absolutely, why this has been amazing. I wish we had
more time. Where can people find out more and you'll
be able to reach out to you? Pastor Kathleen, Well,
I have a website.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
It's Kathleen my first name, and that's what.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
They are.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
A A T h L e E N because there's
more than one way to spell Kathleen A which is
my middle initial, and then my last name, which is
like panning for gold ps and Peter A n N
I n G dot com. That's my website. They can
hear me on the Tilted Halo on any major podcast platform,
(36:58):
So those are two best ways to find.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Me, Absolutely, and don't forget to check out her TV
channel too.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
True Yes from the Heart Cool and Amazon for your.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
TV Absolutely and Heart Radio you can catch her there too,
and our power me Up, Ready to Talk twenty four
to seven. She's everywhere, okay, getting omni presents everywhere, just
like you should be. We certainly hope you enjoyed our
show today. Oh my goodness, it's been amazing when be
sure to share it with a friend, and if it
(37:31):
feels right to you, leave us a five star review
and a comment on this particular show. We had two
amazing guests, and any show that you care to listen to,
I'm Raven Blair Glover, Raven the Talk Show, Maven. That
beautiful lady there she is, Pastor Kathleen Panning. Don't forget
to share, all right? Everyone? That is a rap amazing
(37:54):
women and men of power, legends and icons yesterday, today,
and tomorrow. We'll see you next time.
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