Kraig Bougher of Ignite Christian Business
National Religious Broadcasters Convention 2024
Transcription completed by AI software, please excuse any misspellings or typos present.
Leray Heyne 0:23
Hello, I'm Leray Heyne. And I want to introduce you to the first Christian television network consecrated to tell the world what Jesus is doing the business. You may be thinking to yourself, what in the world are you talking about? Jesus is not involved in business. Business is one of the greatest problems this world has. And I get how that might be your Christian worldview. But for those of us who love the Lord with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength, and who had been called and gifted and sent by Holy Spirit to oversee companies in the public squares of business, we have a different Christian worldview. On Jesus Christ's CEOs TV, you will hear from Jesus' perspective what he is doing in business. You will hear from the perspective of Christian CEOs what Jesus is doing in business. You will learn how Holy Spirit is manifesting Christ in the mortal flesh of the Body of Christ, in business. And for you CEOs, you will be equipped on how to operate an Authentic Kingdom Company consecrated through Jesus Christ through you and your team's participation with God Holy Spirit's governance. Welcome to Jesus Christ's CEOs TV, the first Christian television network consecrated and raised up by God Holy Spirit to tell the world what Jesus is doing in business.
Leray Heyne 1:49
Welcome back to Jesus Christ's CEOs TV. We are here at the National Religious Broadcasters convention and exhibit in Nashville, Tennessee, we are launching our new virtual reality studio that we will be building in Orange County, California. And today we are here looking for stories on to bring to you on what Jesus is doing in business. And so now we're going to bring to you a new friend of mine. Kraig, how are you?
Kraig Bougher 2:17
I'm doing good. It's great to be here.
Leray Heyne 2:19
Yeah, thank you. So tell our audience a little bit about you and your background. And then we'll we'll get into bridging the gap of how Lord is doing work through you.
Kraig Bougher 2:29
Yeah, well was. It was my wife and I own a few business. In fact, we even have a kind of the Redneck me we even have a small cattle business. But we we have a few businesses going and it was we're here, the company that I brought here is Ignite Christian Business. And so earlier, so it's kind of the same passion a little bit about you. But this happened through COVID.
Leray Heyne 2:55
Right.
Kraig Bougher 2:56
And it was, I remember sitting sitting in my room and having the frustration of what what our society what we were going through as a nation. And I just thought here I am a business owner, a Christian, a former Marine, and I just felt I wasn't doing anything I didn't feel I felt that I was watching a game from the sidelines, not in the game. But but nobody put me on the bench except myself. And I said, Well, this is this. This is stupid, what what in the world am I doing here, I built these walls around my my business around my empire, and I wasn't doing anything. And I just I thought there's got to be something more, there's got to be something greater. And again, I'm I love Jesus.
Leray Heyne 3:41
Right.
Kraig Bougher 3:41
But I just felt there's got I've got to do more. And I remember picking up the Word of God. And I said, I'm either gonna believe this, from start to finish and everything in between, or I've just done on this done with it. And it was it was right then in there, I just felt to get the like minded people, those like minded leaders together. So we had a conference, a small conference, small beginnings of Christian business owners and entrepreneurs. And here we are four years later, it says it's really taken off, and we want to make the marketplace the miracle place, right. And we want to see business leaders and those business owners to step up and, and, and be the men and women that God has called them to be. So most of my most of my life, if I felt that I left Jesus at the door right before I walked into a business or an opportunity, I just felt that I love Jesus at the door. And and I remember walking into a business one time later, I'm walking in there and a guy was saying, I overheard a conversation and the guy was talking about his beliefs. And he'd been sitting in a cubicle next to this guy for years. It sounded like right. And the guy looked at him and said, Well, I didn't know I didn't know you were a believer. And to me, I mean, isn't that failure?
Leray Heyne 5:02
Yeah, yeah.
Kraig Bougher 5:03
It's like the fruit should show somewhere somehow.
Leray Heyne 5:07
Yeah.
Kraig Bougher 5:07
And it was at that time I just we stepped up and this whole thing, I didn't know what we were doing. I still don't know what we're doing.
Leray Heyne 5:14
Right.
Kraig Bougher 5:14
But we want to energize. We want to ignite Christian business owners to step up. There's so many. It's our it's so many times, it's our way of thinking, right? And it's that poverty mindset. And to me, it's like, how do we how do we get to that next level? How do we get rid of that? That bad thinking, right, and you read the Word of God, and I know you know it inside and out. But man, look at all the things that he talks about a wealth, and the things that he wants us to be the things that he wants us to be in the kingdom.
Leray Heyne 5:46
Right.
Kraig Bougher 5:46
And I realized that it's all about him. It's all about his kingdom, it always has been right. And it's like, it's no longer Me, me, me.
Leray Heyne 5:54
Right.
Kraig Bougher 5:54
But it's about Jesus. And I want to put him first and everything we do and say,
Leray Heyne 5:58
So do you still have all the other businesses that you were part of?
Kraig Bougher 6:02
We do you do. But But it's, you know, it's funny, because my wife and I, after we set our booth up, and we were in the middle of podcasts, we kind of walked away a little bit, and look back at it. And we both said, this has got to be God, because we don't know what we're doing. But our passion is with Ignite it is and he's not told us to sell, Extreme Recognition, he's not told us to sell that. But I know our passion is with Ignite Christian business and getting those people together and watching what God is doing. It's got to be the same for you. You're so you're seeing lives change. Like, we're, we're in our fourth quarter. And it's like, we've got to do something, we got to get the word out. And I just think we've got an opportunity with the leaders, the business leaders, the business community, I think there's nobody better.
Leray Heyne 6:53
Right. So I just, I kind of want to reframe this a little bit. So you've got this, this, you've got your business going and COVID hits. And you get this massive revelation that just gives you purpose for the fourth quarter. And you said, right? So now you still have this business. Has this revelation and this passion that you're trying to help other people? How is that getting exercised through your own business? How is that becoming the pattern for other businesses to follow?
Kraig Bougher 7:21
And that's Wow, what a great, what a great, what a great question. And it is, it's even the way that we we treat our employees. It's the it's the way that we hire it's it's what we're putting our finances into. It's it's giving, it's it's tithing. And it's, it's doing it doing that business just for the kingdom and, and to be able to I don't know how many times we we see a situation that we want to give into.
Leray Heyne 7:52
Right.
Kraig Bougher 7:53
And I know the Lord knows our heart. And it's not the amount that you give. But I want to do more. Right? And and I know business is away but God has given us such an opportunity to give it has given us such a mindset. He's he's already told us you already have it. It's already there.
Leray Heyne 8:13
Right.
Kraig Bougher 8:13
And it to me it's it's it's it's falling more in love with him right and seeking His will and taking those steps of faith.
Leray Heyne 8:23
But it's good to see you be in that pattern, as Paul said right and follow my pattern. Right. So let's talk a little bit about. I heard a conference I heard podcast
Kraig Bougher 8:33
Yes.
Leray Heyne 8:33
What is Ignite? What's the what's the mission?
Kraig Bougher 8:37
The mission is to make the marketplace the miracle place. We believe that so many things happen when when Christ walked physically walked on this earth. He did it in the marketplace when he when he carried his cross,
Leray Heyne 8:49
Right.
Kraig Bougher 8:49
He carried it right downtown square in the market West. And to me, we should be able to see signs and wonders happen amount of marketplace. And and I think it's time to equip those business owners, those marketplace ministers. How many times have you been in at a conference in a church or? And they said, hey, if you are a minister, please stand up.
Leray Heyne 9:13
Right.
Kraig Bougher 9:14
And I've always, always felt that urge that need to stand up because I think I believe I'm a minister within the marketplace. And I was well in. And yet at this at the same time. It's It's It's energizing those people to step up. And yet we have a conference. We have another conference coming up May 16th and 17th. But it's more than just it's more than just the conferences. And when it first started, we thought maybe it's just a one and done.
Leray Heyne 9:41
Right.
Kraig Bougher 9:41
But here we are. We're going to we've got partnerships that enhance that, that meet every single week in groups of eight or less people effect and I'm telling you, it they are powerful, and it's like having your own board of directors right there that are helping you to achieve your purpose. Because to encourage you to go and it's in, it's more than just your purpose in business, it's your marriage, it's the family, it's all these things. And to have those people on your side especially in the season, that I feel that we are in as a nation and where we're possibly might be going as as as a as a nation, I think we need that that team together out to surrounded us into encourage and lift each other up in the Marine Corps. They, they they they never taught us to to leave our wounded.
Leray Heyne 10:31
Right.
Kraig Bougher 10:31
You always go after them and how many times we as believers we walk right over someone that's a tripped or fallen and is something and it's like, why don't we pick them up?
Leray Heyne 10:42
Right.
Kraig Bougher 10:43
Helped me dust themselves off.
Kraig Bougher 10:44
Yeah.
Leray Heyne 10:45
And get them back on their feet. And I think that's that's part of the heart of Ignite as well.
Leray Heyne 10:49
Yeah. Amen. So how do they find about how did they find out about the podcast? How do they find out about Ignite? How do they find out about the conference?
Kraig Bougher 10:56
Yeah, you can go to ignite-cb.com and everything is right there on the conference on the on the community call. Everything is right there. Ignite-cb.com.
Leray Heyne 11:07
Awesome. Well, thank you for the work that you're doing. And you are what Jesus is doing a business. So thanks for sharing that.
Kraig Bougher 11:13
Oh, thank you for what you're doing.
Leray Heyne 11:14
Yeah. God bless you.
Kraig Bougher 11:15
This is awesome.
Leray Heyne 11:16
Yeah.
Kraig Bougher 11:16
Thanks, buddy.
