Lyle Leads on faith, prayer, and building a business aligned with God’s purpose
What if the biggest shift your business needs isn’t a better marketing strategy, a new system, or another opportunity?
What if it’s simply putting God first?
For many Christian entrepreneurs, faith and business exist side by side. We attend church, read Scripture, pray over important decisions, and ask God to bless our work. But there’s a difference between inviting God into something we’ve already built and allowing Him to direct what we’re building in the first place.
That’s the heart of a recent conversation on the 2000 Cubit Rule Podcast, where Mark Rowan welcomed Lyle Leads, founder of Digital Success Advantage, creator of Christian Business Revolution, and host of the Christian Business Growth Podcast.
After spending 20 years in ministry, Lyle felt God calling him back into the business world. But he wasn’t leaving ministry behind. He was discovering a new expression of it.
Your Business Is a Place of Ministry
During his years working in the church, Lyle began recognizing a gap in how Christians understood their calling.
Churches regularly equip people for ministry within their congregations, but what about the business owner, employee, entrepreneur, or professional spending most of the week in the marketplace?
Lyle believes the distinction between ministry and business often creates an unnecessary division.
Every follower of Jesus has opportunities to represent Him through their daily work. For an entrepreneur, that includes serving customers, caring for employees, building relationships, and making decisions that reflect God’s character.
The question isn’t whether your business can be a ministry.
The question is whether you’re allowing God to work through it.
That shift in perspective changed how Lyle approached business. Instead of focusing exclusively on transactions and results, he began looking at the people behind those transactions.
How could he serve them? What did they need? And how could each interaction become an opportunity to demonstrate the love of Christ?
The Greatest Commandments as a Business Foundation
One of the most interesting parts of the conversation centered on Mark 12:30-31, where Jesus identifies the greatest commandments:
Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Lyle has spent considerable time studying how these instructions apply to entrepreneurship.
Rather than treating them as principles reserved for personal spirituality, he sees them as foundational to how Christians should approach business.
Our hearts represent what drives us. Our souls reflect our inner lives. Our minds shape how we think, imagine, and plan. Our strength carries those convictions into action.
When these areas are centered on God, our outward work can become an expression of our relationship with Him.
Lyle connects these ideas to his ALIGN Growth System, which helps entrepreneurs consider their desires, strengths, and impact through the lens of biblical principles.
It’s a different starting point from conventional business planning.
Instead of beginning with what we want to accomplish and figuring out how God fits into the picture, we begin with Him.
What is He saying? What has He entrusted to us? Who are we called to serve?
From there, we can develop strategies and systems that support the direction He’s given us.
Prayer Is More Than Asking God for Things
Prayer became another central theme of the conversation.
Many Christians are comfortable praying when facing a difficult decision, financial challenge, or unexpected obstacle. But what about the ordinary moments of running a business?
Lyle described prayer as an ongoing conversation with God rather than an occasional activity.
And conversations require listening.
He recalled an experience early in ministry when he was asked to spend 30 minutes in prayer. At first, he struggled to find enough things to say. But after several minutes, something changed.
He stopped concentrating on filling the silence and began listening.
That experience helped reshape his understanding of prayer.
Instead of approaching God with a list of requests, he began creating room to hear what God might be saying.
During the podcast, Mark connected this experience to the heart of the 2000 Cubit Rule, making room for God to move by intentionally seeking His direction rather than simply moving ahead with our own plans.
Sometimes a single word from God can provide more clarity than hours of planning.
And sometimes that word is simply, “Wait.”
When God’s Direction Doesn’t Follow Business Best Practices
As experienced marketers, Mark and Lyle both understand the value of proven strategies.
There are established approaches to building websites, developing marketing campaigns, growing audiences, and launching products. Those tools can produce measurable results.
But what happens when God’s direction doesn’t align with what conventional business wisdom recommends?
Lyle shared his experience of preparing to launch the Christian Business Growth Podcast.
He had the knowledge, equipment, skills, and experience to move forward. From a practical standpoint, there was little reason to delay.
Yet he sensed God telling him to wait.
For someone who naturally moves quickly from idea to execution, waiting wasn’t easy.
But that season became important. Instead of launching another podcast centered primarily on marketing and business development, Lyle began understanding that God wanted him to share the stories of Christians whose lives and businesses had been transformed through faith.
The delay wasn’t wasted time. It helped clarify the assignment.
There’s an important lesson here for Christian entrepreneurs.
Just because you have the ability to do something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s what God is asking you to do right now.
Wisdom includes knowing when to move forward, when to change direction, and when to remain still.
Is Jesus Fully Integrated Into Your Business?
Perhaps the most memorable illustration from the conversation involved a chocolate donut.
Lyle described the difference between a donut covered with chocolate frosting and one made with chocolate throughout.
The first has chocolate on the surface. The second has chocolate integrated into every part.
He used this simple picture to explain how Christians sometimes approach faith.
We add a little Jesus to the surface of our lives. We attend church, pray occasionally, and include a Bible verse in our business messaging.
But Jesus invites us into something much deeper.
He desires a relationship that influences every part of who we are, including how we work, serve, communicate, and make decisions.
Faith isn’t intended to be an additional layer of our business identity.
It’s meant to shape everything beneath the surface.
And that raises some important questions.
Are we building businesses around our own ambitions and asking God to bless them? Or are we allowing our relationship with Him to shape our ambitions in the first place?
Are we chasing every new opportunity because we can? Or are we listening for the opportunities He’s actually calling us to pursue?
Are our customers simply transactions? Or are they people we’ve been given an opportunity to serve?
Start With God, Then Take the Next Step
Throughout the conversation, Lyle returned to the importance of abiding in Christ.
He shared an illustration he calls “headlight faith.”
When driving at night, headlights don’t illuminate the entire journey. They provide enough visibility to keep moving forward.
As the vehicle moves, the light moves with it.
Lyle sees a similar pattern in walking with God.
We often want the complete plan before taking the first step. We want to know how everything will work, when the results will come, and what success will look like.
But God may only reveal enough for the next step.
The invitation is to remain connected to Him, trust His direction, and move forward in obedience.
Lyle closed the conversation with Philippians 3:13-14, reminding listeners to keep pressing toward what God has called them to do.
Our past experiences can teach us, but they shouldn’t prevent us from moving into what God has ahead.
And sometimes moving forward begins by being still enough to listen.
Watch the Conversation With Lyle Leads
If you’ve been wrestling with business direction, struggling to balance faith and work, or wondering whether God is inviting you into something different, this conversation is worth your time.
Mark and Lyle explore the practical realities of following Jesus in business, from prayer and marketing to patience, purpose, and spiritual growth.
Watch this episode of the 2000 Cubit Rule Podcast and consider one question:
Are you making room for God to direct your business, or simply asking Him to bless what you’ve already decided?
Connect With Lyle Leads
Learn more about Lyle’s work and connect with him:
- Lyle Leads: https://lyleleads.com
- Christian Business Revolution: https://christianbusinessrevolution.com
- Christian Business Growth Podcast: https://cbgpodcast.com
What Is God Saying to You, and Through You?
At SheepFeast, we believe meaningful communication begins with listening.
Before we can clearly communicate the message God has entrusted to us, we need to understand what He’s saying.
That’s why we developed the Metamorphoo Method, a five-step process designed to help Christian entrepreneurs, coaches, authors, and speakers clarify their God-given messages and multiply their impact.
Whether you’re starting something new or reconsidering the direction of your existing work, clarity begins with making room for God to speak.
Discover the Metamorphoo Method, download the free guide, and take the next step toward communicating your message with greater clarity and purpose. https://metamorphoomethod.com
Make room for God to move.