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First Person is produced in cooperation with the Far East Broadcasting Company, who rejoice in the stories of changed lives through the power of Jesus Christ. Learn more at febc.org. Jesus was involved in creation. He created you and I. He understands things about us. And the thought that occurred to me is, might Jesus be leveraging how he designed us in his communication? ♪
We'll learn to lead by asking questions on this edition of First Person. Stay tuned to find out what that means as we talk with Bob Teedy. I'm Wayne Shepherd, and welcome to First Person.
We're here each week with the purpose of talking with people who are following God's call to make a difference in the world. I appreciate that you are listening and hopefully learning from each of our guests as they tell their story. We archive each interview and they're all available at FirstPersonInterview.com to stream anytime. Or please use our free smartphone app to download and listen to programs at your convenience. Check for the free First Person Interview app available for Apple and Android.
Now, let's meet this week's guest. Bob Teedy has been involved in ministry for many years and along the way has learned some valuable lessons about leadership, specifically how asking the right questions leads to great results.
Bob is a longtime friend, and when we talked on the phone recently, I asked him about his record of service with CRU, formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ. Well, this June marks 53 years, only 53 years, Brother Wayne. You're just getting started, aren't you? Oh, you know, when we joined in 1971, Bill and Vinette Bright had only been on staff 20 years. It was...
It was founded in 1951 at UCLA, but since we were 22 at the time, 20 years seemed like an eternity. That's right. And we blew by that so long ago. Yeah. I have a very fond memory, Bob, of being with you when you worked with Josh McDowell and we were doing radio together, of being with Bill Bright and interviewing Dr. Bright at a hotel room. I think it was probably in Dallas. I'm not sure. Yeah.
But I have a picture somewhere of that time together. We've had a lot of great memories. Oh, we have. We have. There were so many great people, but Bill Bright certainly was a great interview, a great time. Always great to spend time with him. Yeah. So where did it start with Crew for you? Were you actually on a campus?
I graduated from high school in 1967. That fall, I entered the University of South Dakota. I joined a fraternity, and about five or six weeks later, coming down on a Monday night for dinner, there was a bunch of fraternity men from Iowa State in our living room. Well, we introduced ourselves, and the dinner bell rang, and we all went in, and our president said,
Gentlemen, you've probably figured out we have some guests here tonight. These are all fraternity men from Iowa State, and they're involved with a student movement called Campus Crusade for Christ, and they're going to be our Monday evening speakers. And every Monday night, we would have a guest speaker at our fraternity. Well, when dinner was over, we all went in the living room. I still could take you to the exact spot on the floor I was sitting.
And three of them shared how they'd come to Christ at Iowa State. The fourth one shared the four spiritual laws. And end it with, if you'd like to pray and invite Jesus into your heart, I'm going to pray a prayer out loud. I invite you to pray along silently. And I remember praying along silently. I had never heard anyone my own age talk about Christ. And the way in which, you know, these were guys that I identified with.
But I just admired their boldness. I could see that they had a quality of life I didn't think I had. And so that was the start. And then, Wayne, just to continue that, that would have been in October. A staff member with Campus Crusade from Iowa State came back on a follow-up trip and somehow got a hold of me and invited me to go to Chicago to attend the Big Ten Christmas Conference.
And so I don't know all the dates of my life, but on December 26, 1967, I got on my first jet plane in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and flew to Chicago. And it was an incredible week. Now, Wayne is a Cowboy fan. The last day of that conference was December 31, 1967.
which is the date of the infamous ice ball, the coldest game in NFL history, Dallas against Green Bay in Green Bay. I think the air temperature, not just, you know, what are they, not the windchill factor, but the air itself was like minus 25 and, uh, watch that on a black and white TV. But that night was the final night of, of the conference and it was new year's Eve. And so the,
The conference dinner went on through midnight, but one of the speakers that night said, many of you come from campuses where we have no staff. We wish we had staff to send to all your campuses, but we don't. We're praying that God will call many of you to lead the movements on your campuses. If you're willing to do that, I'm asking you to stand.
Wayne, I remember standing. I laugh now. I knew so little. I once heard later that the greatest ability any of us have is availability. Well, that was the only ability I had. But when people ask, how was I called to join the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ, I say,
And I don't remember an audible voice, but I take him back to that night. And obviously that night I didn't stand to say, hey, I will do this for the next 53 years. But it was the first step.
And every step since then has happened as a result of the first step of standing that night. Yeah, it's a remarkable story, Bob. It really is. And as I mentioned earlier, I got to know you when you were on staff with Josh McDowell. We'll talk about what you're doing today, but those years with Josh were extra special for me, and I'm sure for you. I mean, you were the man, Josh's right-hand guy. Yeah.
Wayne, together we saw God do so many amazing things. You know, when I think of that time, and Wayne, you'd remember well, we met in Julian, California, where Josh lived at the time. And Josh, this was for the first set of recordings. We would try to record 12, 15 programs over three or four days, a whole quarter's worth.
but we were set to do the very first set. We'd not yet recorded a single program. And Josh had just gotten back from Russia,
And so we're drinking coffee in the little kitchenette. And, of course, we're saying, tell us about the trip. And he starts telling us about the trip. Well, 30, 40 minutes later, I remember saying, Josh, we should have recorded this. And we can talk about that. But he said, well, Bob, I thought this was all going to be about parenting. And I said, well, yes, it is.
And I said, now, I've never produced a radio program before, but I heard something I really loved, and that was on radio, you can try anything once, and if it doesn't work, it'll literally evaporate into thin air. Well, with the Internet, that's no longer true, but in 1990, that was true. That's right. And so we went in, we recorded a bunch of programs related to parenting, but Wayne, one of the programs we recorded,
was about Josh's time in Russia and the meeting he had with a group of Russian Baptist pastors where they asked him, could he please help them provide for them
In Russian, his book, Evidence Demands a Verdict, and More Than a Carpenter. And before Josh had left Wayne, I had sat down because I knew Josh always has a giving heart. I had emptied my wallet, so there was absolutely nothing in my wallet. I handed it to Josh and said,
Josh, if I give you all that I have, how much can I give you? He said, well, you have nothing in here. I said, Josh, that represents our Josh McDowell Ministry accounts right now. I know you're going to go there and you're going to want to give, but you can't give what we don't have. Mm-hmm.
So, Josh is sharing, not on the program, but he shared with us, he's hearing my words as he's hearing this request and thinking, I can't respond with nothing. He thinks, ah, Daddy and I, that's his wife, we'll take out a second mortgage. And he offered them 5,000 copies of each, more than a carpenter in evidence. And when that went through the translator, he saw all these Russian pastors shake their head no.
And, you know, they're all conferring in Russian. Josh is waiting for the interpretation. And when he hears it, they're saying, you just don't understand. We need a minimum, if I remember right, of 50,000 Russian evidence that demands a verdict book and 250,000 more than a carpenter books.
And Josh explained that we're a little ministry. We don't have the resources to do that. But he said, but I'll make this deal with you. If you'll pray and I'll pray, I'll go back to America and I'll share that need and we'll see what God does.
And Wayne, that's the program we recorded. And that launched the funding of the Russian ministry. That program aired the first Saturday of March in 1990.
And we were told when we launched Josh McDowell Radio that, you know, you need to plan on it taking several years before the income will equal the expense. It's not a get-rich-quick scheme. Well, we aired that program, and I was actually in England when it aired, and my assistant called me and said, guess how much has come in? The end result was $20,000 had come in. I mean, it was like 10 times our expenses.
And then, Wayne, I got back to Dallas. Within a few days, I'm flipping channels. This is when you actually had to go up to the TV and flip channels. And I come across a World Vision special on child sponsorship. And I just realized we'd seen this already.
And I'm watching a bit, I'm thinking, ah, I bet they buy airtime wherever they can get it and keep running the same program. And I thought, I wonder if you can do that with radio. Well, we called our radio agency and they said, well, we've never heard of that done, but we don't know of any reason it can't be.
And so they sought some airtime. They found it. Wayne, you know, you were the host of Josh McDowell Radio, but all you had to do was change an opening and a closing. Instead of welcome to Josh McDowell Radio, it was welcome to a Josh McDowell Radio special. Instead of you've been listening to Josh McDowell Radio. Now you're letting out all of our secrets here, Bob. Oh, I am. Those were amazing days. No question about it.
Over the next 10 years, we took something like over 4,000 or 5,000 American volunteers to Russia on short-term missions. And today, there are more Josh McDowell books in Russian than there are in English. And people say, how can that be? Well, it's because money was raised here from generous believers, and there they were passed out for free.
We'll continue talking with Bob Teedy of Crew coming up on this edition of First Person as you stay with us now.
Here's Ed Cannon on the Vision for FEBC's weekly podcast. The primary purpose of Until All Have Heard, of course, is to share the experience that FEBC has because we have staff on the ground in so many oppressive places. But in addition to that, we're trying to speak to you in a way that only the kind of testimonies you'll hear from around the globe can do. Discover how the gospel is making a difference around the world.
Search for Until All Have Heard on your favorite podcast platform or hear it online at febc.org. My guest is Bob Teedy. Bob is on the U.S. leadership development team at Crew. He has a blog, leadingwithquestions.com, and several books that we'll mention and list at firstpersoninterview.com. Firstpersoninterview.com. The books are, for instance, Great Leaders Ask Questions,
339 questions Jesus asked. Now, that's a great question. There's a little book of big leading questions with questions quotes. 260 questions Paul the Apostle of Christ asked. I'm not the brightest guy, Bob, but I'm sensing a theme here that you're writing about. Oh, yes. And of course,
I frequently love to talk, even when I'm talking to secular audiences, I would say, who is one of the greatest communicators ever?
And even a secular audience, somebody will mention Jesus. And I'll say, well, for me, he is the greatest communicator ever. I mean, after all, he started a movement 2,000 years ago that's still signing up recruits today. And even if you're, you know, I'll say to a secular, even if you're not a follower of Christ, wouldn't we all do well to see what we could learn from one of the greatest communicators in history?
And of course, Wayne, Jesus majored in his communication on two things. He told great stories. He asked great questions. Now, on the question side, Wayne, you and I frequently ask questions because we don't know the answer. That's why we're asking. But think about it. Jesus never asked a question because he didn't know the answer. He must have had another reason.
You know, in my introduction, you didn't share that I'm just a farm boy from South Dakota, and I'd say you've got to keep the fruit on a low-hanging branch for me. No, you're much more than that. But one day I had this deep thought, and that was, wouldn't we imagine that the person who can write a complicated computer program with all the code might be the one who would best know how to make full use of that program?
I mean, you and I might use that program. If we sat with the designer, the creator, they might show us a whole bunch of things which I didn't know that was there. Well, at any rate, I was thinking, of course we celebrate Christmas, Jesus coming to earth, but we know the scriptures...
clearly state Jesus has existed forever, and that Jesus was involved in creation. He created you and I. He created people. He designed us. I mean, he understands things about us that no one yet has figured out. And the thought that occurred to me is, might Jesus be leveraging how he designed us in his communication? And what's fascinating, Wayne, when you and I hear a great story,
without writing it down, without saying, man, I need to write this down and memorize it so I could share it later. Stories are just sticky. We hear them, we remember them. Yes, Jesus knew that when he shared the story of the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son that people would leave remembering. Well, of course. But then...
When it related to questions, here was the thought. Jesus obviously wanted to see people changed. He wanted to see you and I changed. Did he know that asking us a question that would allow us to come up with the answer to his question had a greater likelihood to change us than if he said, let me tell you? And it's like, well, of course not.
In asking questions, again, you and I aren't Jesus, but we can benefit from following the communication principles of telling stories. And instead of saying to people, hey, Wayne, let me tell you what you need to do. Hey, Wayne, what do you think here? Has a greater likelihood of actually causing change than...
then let me tell you. So this is how you advise leaders today, is learn how to ask the right kinds of questions in the right way, right? Well, give us some more ideas on how to go about this, Bob. Whenever I speak, I ask the audience, who here would like to learn to lead with questions in 30 seconds? And
Every hand goes up. And then I pick someone from the audience and pull them up. And as they come up, I say, hey, I selected today it's Wayne. I selected Wayne because I think he has a photographic memory. And they always kind of shake their head like, no, I don't. And I say, I really believe you do.
And I'd say, now, we're going to test this, see if it can happen in 30 seconds. I have a second hand on my watch, so I'll keep time. But the clock will start when I say, here's my first favorite question. I'm going to share all four. I'm going to then say, do you have them memorized? And if you say yes, I'm going to say, share them. So, Dwayne, you're my audience today. Okay. All right. So, I'm watching my clock. Here we go. Okay. My first favorite question is, what do you think? Second, what else? Third, why?
What else? Fourth, what else? Wayne, do you have a memorize? Think else, else, and else. Yeah. And now, usually it gets done in around 15 seconds. I say, well, I'm going to have to change this. Who would like to learn to lead with questions in 15 seconds? Then I look at the audience and say, but some of you look a little skeptical, like you can't ask somebody, what do you think? What else? What else? What else? And I say, well, it's never going to be in that rapid fashion, but
But on the first question, you're going to add a subject. Hey, what do you think we ought to do about? What do you think we ought to do to take advantage of this opportunity? There'll be some subject. And when you ask, Wayne, the person you ask will answer. Now, before I fully understood this principle, I asked a question, they answer, I moved on.
I didn't understand that instinctively when we're asked a question, again, we're not thinking this is just instinctive. We roll out kind of a safe answer. We're testing the waters. I see. And so, Wayne, if I ask you a question, you give me that first answer, you're kind of testing the waters. And should I say, well, Wayne, that's stupid. Everyone knows that. You're sorry you answered. Next time I'll get nothing. But when I say, wow, Wayne, that's really good. What else?
You relax and, wow, Bob appreciates this, and I'll get more. And then instead of moving on, when you pause again, I'm likely to grab a pen and say, Wayne, I've got to take notes. This is so good. Please continue. What else? And you'll give me more. And what I discovered, it's actually the third and fourth question that gets to their gold nugget, their very best thought.
Remember, the promise of this was who would like to learn to lead with questions in 30 seconds. Well, if you've been a leader who only leads by telling, just with these four questions in your next meeting with a staff member one-on-one or with your staff around the conference table, whatever the topic is, but just saying, you know, here's the situation. What do you think we ought to do here?
And when they give you that first answer, wow, that's good. Say more. What else? Wow. I'm taking notes now. Please continue. That leader will have moved from being a teller to leading with questions. And
And Wayne, one of the things that continually amazes me about leading with questions is so many of the best questions are so simple. They're not long, complicated, two, three paragraph kind of questions. Thank you. I couldn't do that. Yes, I've learned that as well in radio. Right.
You've shared these principles around the world. Do they work everywhere, Bob? They really do, much to my amazement. I mean, Wayne, when I started, I only thought I was writing and sharing for an American audience.
And then I began to get requests from different parts of the world where somebody who spoke both English but the language of their country was writing and saying, Bob, what do we have to do to get your book in Spanish? What do we have to do to get your books in Portuguese and in Farsi and in Urdu, which is Pakistan, and Albanian and Chinese, both languages.
traditional and simplified. Wayne, every time I'd say, wow, tell me more. I can't name, but it's a closed country, and underground church leadership in that closed country approached me to say, what do we need to do to get your book? And of course, I'm again inquisitive. Why would you want it? And we went ahead and
And they then had me over for a wonderful lunch. And after lunch, he said, I've got to show you something. He has a team back there. And he said, they've never done this before. They've translated other books, but they've never done this before. He said, I didn't ask them to put this together. He said, they've done it in our native language. So I'll have to translate it for you. But
But they were sharing, you know, in our country, we've always thought of questions as being like gotcha kind of things to embarrass somebody. So we don't ask questions. We haven't seen that questions can be used to build relationships and to pull out positive things. This is so helpful. We've been asking more questions right here in our office of each other, understanding that they can have positive results.
Again, I just sat and said, man, praise the Lord. I had no thought of this when I authored it. That's Bob Teedy, and you've been listening to First Person. The books Bob talked about, all about leading with questions, are available as free e-books. You can find them by following the link we'll provide at FirstPersonInterview.com. Take advantage of this great resource by guiding you in asking the right questions. Go to FirstPersonInterview.com.
And join me in thanking the Far East Broadcasting Company for making these first-person interviews possible each week. FEBC has an army of broadcasters and media specialists who are delivering God's message of hope and salvation to millions each day, always in the heart language of the listener. The Far East Broadcasting Company is an amazing ministry, and you can learn more about how to help by visiting febc.org. Look it up today, febc.org.
Now, with thanks to my friend and producer, Joe Carlson, I'm Wayne Shepherd. Join us next time for First Person. First Person.
