Jay Carney, Senior Pastor of Life at Tupelo Church, joins Taylor Tutor and Judd Wilson to explore servant leadership, the importance of adding value to people, and the impact leaders can make by empowering others. Drawing from his experience in construction, ministry, and the John Maxwell Leadership Foundation, Jay shares why leadership is ultimately about people and how serving others can strengthen teams, organizations, and communities.
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[00:00:00] Taylor Tutor: Welcome to IgniteCast, where ideas spark action. Brought to you by the Community Development Foundation, your chamber of commerce and economic development engine for Tupelo and Lee County. Thank you to our presenting sponsor, iHeartMedia, for powering this season of IgniteCast. I'm Taylor.
[00:00:35] Judd Wilson: I'm Judd.
[00:00:36] Taylor Tutor: And welcome to IgniteCast.
[00:00:41] Judd Wilson: Taylor, IgniteCast is here.
[00:00:44] Taylor Tutor: It’s here.
[00:00:49] Judd Wilson: We know who the speakers are. We had our little bonus episode where we got to talk a little bit about the speakers, and Ignite coming up on January the 21st, 2027. It's right around the [00:01:00] corner.
[00:01:00] Taylor Tutor: It'll be here before we know it. Time flies.
[00:01:02] Taylor Tutor: When you're having fun.
[00:01:04] Judd Wilson: Yeah, when you're having fun. Exactly. And this actually starts our ninth season of IgniteCast. Nine. This is season, season 9, episode one, and I could not think of a better guest than to bring in Jay Carney. Jay, welcome.
[00:01:19] Jay Carney: What an honor, Judd. Great to be with you and Taylor today.
[00:01:22] Judd Wilson: Yeah. Look, they're clapping in the studio audience too. That's awesome.
[00:01:27] Taylor Tutor: Jay, I'm so glad you're here. Um, it's our first time to meet you, so I'm very excited about our conversation today. But we wanna get started with, um, one question that we ask all of our guests, and that is, what's the best leadership tip you've ever been given?
[00:01:43] Jay Carney: Most probably everything rises and falls on leadership, and it's all about people. And, uh, that would be some of the best advice I've ever been given concerning leadership, Taylor.
[00:01:55] Taylor Tutor: That is very true. And I think, um, 'cause sometimes hard to [00:02:00] do. It's not easy to always put the people first. Um, it is for me, 'cause I don't think about numbers at all.
[00:02:05] Taylor Tutor: I don't think about money. I don't keep up with that. That's someone else's, um, job. But, um, I think before we go any further on this, we need to tell the people who you are, Jay. You know? Well- Um, why don't you tell us a little bit in, you know, 10 seconds about what you do here in the Tupelo community. It's gonna take more than
[00:02:21] Judd Wilson: 10 seconds.
[00:02:22] Taylor Tutor: No.
[00:02:23] Judd Wilson: Jay's got an awesome background. Tell, go, take it away, Jay.
[00:02:25] Jay Carney: Well, first of all, it's an honor to serve as pastor of Life Church here in Tupelo. We just opened our new campus on 1195 South Gloucester, opened in January, and so it's exciting and an honor to serve the people of northeast Mississippi as senior pastor of Life.
[00:02:41] Taylor Tutor: Awesome. Yes, um, great church. I have a couple friends that go there, and so I think you bring a unique perspective of leadership to this podcast and just our community, and that is, um, about servant leadership. So, um, John Maxwell talks a lot about, um, servant leadership, and I know Judd has [00:03:00] a poster at his desk-
[00:03:01] Taylor Tutor: about servant leadership. So Judd, tell us a little bit about that.
[00:03:05] Judd Wilson: So yeah, so, so Jay, I mean, you didn't say this in your background, but I mean, you actually come from the, the business arena or in construction and, and, and work for many companies that way, but also work for the John Maxwell Foundation as well.
[00:03:20] Judd Wilson: And so, you know, you sorta know about John Maxwell. He talks a lot about servant leadership, and it's really about what you said, it's putting others first, and when others succeed, you succeed. Why is that so important to be a servant leader and seeing others and celebrating their wins?
[00:03:36] Jay Carney: I certainly think that's the true definition of a great leader.
[00:03:40] Jay Carney: Uh, you know, John became a mentor of mine back when I was about 20, 25 years of age, and, you know, he taught me that, you know, people- People of value value people, and then they add value to people. And certainly seeing others succeed and, you know, make a life of significance is very important to me as a [00:04:00] leader.
[00:04:00] Jay Carney: And, uh- Yeah,
[00:04:01] Judd Wilson: yeah. So where, where have you seen that maybe in your business? career or even at church where, where you've seen that, an example of that.
[00:04:10] Jay Carney: Well, I was honored. Uh, I don't come from the religious or faith background as a whole. Uh, I was raised in a construction family, and, uh, started working in construction when I was 12 and worked there for 34 years.
[00:04:23] Judd Wilson: 12.
[00:04:24] Jay Carney: Uh- There were
[00:04:24] Judd Wilson: no labor laws when you
[00:04:25] Jay Carney: went out No child labor laws. Yes. It was a family-owned business,
[00:04:29] Judd Wilson: so. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Dad said, "Hey, I don't care that you're 12. You're working." He
[00:04:33] Jay Carney: said, "Get to work, son." Yes, he
[00:04:34] Judd Wilson: did.
[00:04:35] Jay Carney: Yes. And I worked there for 34 years, but, uh, my dad encouraged me to get an education, but he always told me, he said, "Get an education, get over it, and get to work."
[00:04:45] Jay Carney: And so, uh, I was privileged to work in the construction industry. Realize it's about people and adding value to people. And, uh, my job as a leader in the construction world I felt like was to equip them and to empower them. And, uh, people [00:05:00] appreciate that, especially those that wanna be true leaders. And so was able to do that, uh, working in, uh, construction industry for most of my life and, uh, transitioned out of that and had the opportunity to connect, uh, reconnect with the John Maxwell Leadership Foundation.
[00:05:17] Jay Carney: Uh, back when I was in the construction business in 2011, I was actually a part of the first John Maxwell certified coaching training, uh, that he did. I was a part of that first class, and I did it just to better myself as a leader and add value to the people that I was privileged to serve in the construction business.
[00:05:36] Jay Carney: And, uh, it was amazing that, uh, after I transitioned out of the construction business, got reconnected with John and was able to serve him and Mark Cole at the John Maxwell Leadership Foundation for almost a year before I came to Tupelo. So.
[00:05:50] Judd Wilson: That's awesome. That's awesome. So we will do a little behind the scenes real quick.
[00:05:54] Judd Wilson: Okay. Um, you know, you've heard him talk about John Maxwell. We got John Maxwell, Valerie Burton, [00:06:00] and, um, Mark Cole coming. And Jay, we just wanna thank you because I know you were really helpful in kinda letting us have, you know, kinda being a mediator between the two of those, and now they're here. So thank you for doing that, uh, number one.
[00:06:14] Judd Wilson: But you mentioned Mark. Mark Cole is one of our speakers. Kinda tell us a little bit about his connection back to Tupelo, 'cause I just learned that this morning sitting here talking to you, which
[00:06:26] Taylor Tutor: is a- Oh ...
[00:06:26] Jay Carney: neat little thing. I don't know this either. Yeah. I'm excited. Yes. Uh, Mark Cole and I have been friends for many, many years. And his dad, which was B.S. Cole, who's since passed, but he and I served on the New Beginnings board here in Tupelo, Mississippi. Oh, yeah. And then also Mark's dad served on the Tupelo Children's Mansion board with my father.
[00:06:42] Jay Carney: But a little history is Mark's grandfather on his mother's side was a guy by the name of T.C. Montgomery, and he was the founder of Tupelo Children's Mansion. Oh. TCM TCM
[00:06:58] Taylor Tutor: TCM
[00:06:59] Jay Carney: And so Mark [00:07:00] Cole has a lot of history in Tupelo- Yeah ... on his mother's side, and also his father's side. Mark's a great guy. I'm so excited about Mark and Valerie and John coming in January of 2027.
[00:07:11] Jay Carney: It's gonna be awesome for northeast Mississippi to experience a John Maxwell team.
[00:07:15] Judd Wilson: And, and I'm excited that Mark's gonna get to come home.
[00:07:18] Jay Carney: Absolutely. He's looking forward to
[00:07:23] Judd Wilson: it. Yeah, I bet he is. He's so excited. Aw. I
[00:07:24] Taylor Tutor: bet he is. I bet he is. Well- That makes me even more excited.
[00:07:25] Judd Wilson: Isn't it, isn't it neat to kind of f- hear that inside stuff?
[00:07:28] Judd Wilson: Thank you for sharing that, Jay.
[00:07:30] Taylor Tutor: Yes. Another thing we like to do, um, on the podcast is listen to clips. We usually do from past Ignite's, but this year, or this season, we wanna do, um, clips from our speakers. So we're gonna listen to something that John Maxwell has to say about servant leadership.
[00:07:44] John Maxwell: When I started leadership, it was kind of like top-down.
[00:07:46] John Maxwell: You got a person at the head, and everything flows down to the rest of the people. And then, then maybe we ought to bring some people to help that leader as a worker team. And, and then it evolved to, well, maybe we need a leadership team, more than just one leader to have, uh, [00:08:00] different gifts and, and different abilities and different strengths to, to complement one another.
[00:08:05] John Maxwell: But there's one part of leadership that always works, regardless of time, regardless of culture. That's servant leadership. Servant leadership is when I serve you and add value to you to the extent that your success I consider to be my success. That's what servant leadership's all about.
[00:08:24] Taylor Tutor: So you kind of already talked about that earlier, about adding value.
[00:08:25] Taylor Tutor: Value people and add value and all the things. So I got,
[00:08:34] Taylor Tutor: I got that part down.
[00:08:35] Jay Carney: You did well.
[00:08:37] Taylor Tutor: But I, I wanna talk about that a little bit. It's kind of like giving everyone a seat at the table. Why do you think that's important? Why does that work when we value what other people think and say and their opinion?
[00:08:48] Jay Carney: I certainly, uh, would say, Taylor, as I said a while ago, people of value certainly value people and add value to people.
[00:08:56] Jay Carney: Yeah,
[00:08:56] Taylor Tutor: that's it.
[00:08:56] Jay Carney: People appreciate being, uh, appreciated. [00:09:00] Um- Mm-hmm ... and people appreciate being respected. Mm-hmm. And everyone, I think, brings something to the table. Mm. Everyone can teach you something. And so, uh, you know, I tell my son, you know, it may be just opening the door for a lady to walk into a restaurant, but always add value to people.
[00:09:16] Jay Carney: I think we have to be intentional to do that. Mm-hmm. Uh, you know, if you're meeting with someone and, um, you know that they are a book reader, buy 'em a book and give it to 'em when they- Mm-hmm ... when you meet with 'em. It's just about being intentional, thinking ahead, and adding value to them, that hopefully they become more valuable.
[00:09:31] Taylor Tutor: Mm-hmm. That's, that's good.
[00:09:33] Judd Wilson: That's good. And you think about teams, too. Um- Everybody's different. So I know that was probably the case when you were, when you were working with people in the construction industry and now, uh, at Life with the rest of your staff. Not everybody's the same, and, you know, we all have different skills and now all have, you know, kinda different interests and, and, and different things like that.
[00:09:53] Judd Wilson: Why is it important that your team is made up of different people?
[00:09:57] Jay Carney: I think diversity certainly makes you more [00:10:00] well-rounded and able to make a bigger impact. Uh, certainly at our team, you know, we have the goals that are the driven. You know, we have the creatives that bring so much. You have the greens that are the technical, and you certainly have the blues that certainly add the emotion, and they just feel certain things.
[00:10:16] Jay Carney: And having all those people at the table certainly, I think, brings more value to whatever you're trying to accomplish, and it can go from a good idea to a great idea when you got more voices at the table bringing their expertise or their experience.
[00:10:30] Taylor Tutor: Mm-hmm. Everybody brings something different to the
[00:10:33] Jay Carney: table, for sure.
[00:10:34] Jay Carney: Absolutely.
[00:10:34] Judd Wilson: Let me ask you this, too, 'cause tell me about the transition from business to ministry. How, how did, how did, how did that transition happen?
[00:10:44] Jay Carney: You know, um, you know, certainly, um, you know, God allows things to happen to get you where you need to be. And, um, you know, I never really wanted to be in the ministry.
[00:10:54] Jay Carney: I love the ministry. I wanted to be a blessing to the ministry. I wanted to serve the local church. [00:11:00] But I did not want to be involved in full-time ministry. But God began working on my heart, and, uh, the door opened here at Life at Tupelo to say yes to that back in the end of 2016. We moved here January 1st of 2017.
[00:11:14] Jay Carney: But really, whether you're in the secular world or you're in the faith arena, it's really all about people. And I think principles apply whether you're in the business world or in the faith arena. And so, uh, it's been exciting to bring some of the business principles into the faith arena, and certainly bringing some of my past and history of serving in the secular world that, you know, principles work in all arenas.
[00:11:37] Jay Carney: And so, man, it's, it's exciting to, uh, be a part of Northeast Mississippi, and this is a great community that's already doing really well. But we're excited that, uh, we can continue to add value to people that don't have a church, are not connected to a local church. There's 20,000 people that don't go to church anywhere on a Sunday morning in Tupelo.
[00:11:54] Jay Carney: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so even though Tupelo's the buckle on the Bible Belt, we think there's still a great opportunity here to add [00:12:00] value to a lot of people.
[00:12:00] Judd Wilson: Okay. That's great. That's great. You mentioned you got here January 21st, 2016. I think I met you January 22nd maybe. I mean, I'm kind of joking. I don't know if that's the exact date.
[00:12:11] Judd Wilson: But what I do remember, Jay, is, um, you know, you really hit the ground running. I mean, you came over here. I, I met you in the lobby of CDF, and, and just, uh, as a new person coming to town, this is one, it was one of your first stops. So why do you think it's important as leaders to get involved where they are?
[00:12:28] Judd Wilson: I mean, 'cause that's what you did.
[00:12:29] Jay Carney: You know, s- coming from, uh, the secular background, you know, I was involved in economic development in my hometown of Columbia, in Marion County. I was the president of the Marion County Development Partnership. You know, I realized that, you know, you guys, CDF, is certainly a vital aspect to our community.
[00:12:46] Jay Carney: Just wanted to get to know the leaders and the movers and shakers. And so it was a privilege to connect early on with Judd and Dave and just see what you guys are doing and, you know, how can we come alongside and serve the chamber or CDF because [00:13:00] the more we work together, the better community that we can have, and, um, that was just a dream of mine.
[00:13:04] Jay Carney: Thank you guys for welcoming me- Yeah. Yeah ... when I first came. Yeah. Judd's
[00:13:08] Taylor Tutor: pretty good about that. I remember it well.
[00:13:09] Jay Carney: Yeah.
[00:13:09] Taylor Tutor: Judd can make anybody feel welcome.
[00:13:12] Jay Carney: Absolutely.
[00:13:14] Taylor Tutor: One thing you said that I just wanted to point out is, is you didn't, you, you wanted to serve the local church, but maybe not as a full-time pastor.
[00:13:21] Taylor Tutor: Typically, those that don't wanna be in it full-time or don't think that they should be in that are usually the ones that should be.
[00:13:29] Jay Carney: Well, thank you for saying that. I say that about politicians and preachers. That's true. Usually the ones that don't wanna serve make the best ones. That's right.
[00:13:37] Taylor Tutor: Um, but back to John Maxwell and servant leadership. He says that, um, servant leadership, it never, it works regardless of time and culture, and I think that's very important, especially, I, just with CDF and I'm sure at the church too, there's so many different cultures. There's so many different ages. And, um- Trying to [00:14:00] think of, well, the Millennial, Gen Z, what's that called?
[00:14:02] Taylor Tutor: Oh, yeah,
[00:14:02] Judd Wilson: the, the generations.
[00:14:03] Taylor Tutor: Generations. Yes. I couldn't think of the word generations. But working with so many generations, why do you think putting others first is just such a timeless act?
[00:14:13] Jay Carney: I think each generation can serve the other. You know- Mm-hmm ... uh, certainly young people can add a lot of value to our middle-aged and our seniors, but certainly our seniors can add value to our middle-aged and our youngers because they've already walked down that path.
[00:14:26] Jay Carney: Mm-hmm. And so, you know, our desire at Life at Tupelo is actually to be a multi-generational church and a multi-racial church. Mm-hmm. And, uh, I think we can all add value to each other. I did a survey not too long ago of most people that had the opportunity, young people that had a opportunity to have a grandparent, uh, out of all those that had the opportunity, nine out of 10 times, the grandparent was the most influential person- Mm
[00:14:52] Jay Carney: in a grandchild's life. Mm-hmm. And so grandparents can still make a difference. I want them to know that. You can still add value. We need your voice, [00:15:00] and please, you have a place here in Tupelo at Life- Mm-hmm ... and also in Northeast Mississippi.
[00:15:04] Taylor Tutor: Mm-hmm. I would say that my grandfather is the most inf- influential in my life, so that rings true for me.
[00:15:10] Jay Carney: Yes.
[00:15:11] Judd Wilson: So Jay, let me ask you this. As a leader, I mean, and, and as pastor, I mean, you, you gotta always be on. How does Jay Carney unwind? How does he disconnect?
[00:15:23] Jay Carney: Uh, my wife and I enjoy a Sabbath. Uh, we enjoy traveling. Um, I also enjoy a little racquetball, and also- Wow ... pickleball. Okay. And I play golf about every month or two.
[00:15:35] Jay Carney: And so that's when I spend my downtime with my wife, reading, traveling, and also a little sports in there. I, I'm a sports advocate. I enjoy sports and competition.
[00:15:44] Judd Wilson: That's awesome. Yeah. That's awesome. I remember, uh, our church league basketball where I grew up in Pensacola, I think our pastor got a, a few technicals, so- He was very competitive.
[00:15:55] Judd Wilson: I won't ask
[00:15:55] Jay Carney: about the technical. I can relate to that. You know, I believe you, you go on the [00:16:00] court, you give it your all, and you step off, you leave it on the court. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's
[00:16:05] Taylor Tutor: right. Well, Jay, thank you so much for joining us today, and we're so excited for Ignite, and I, I'm sure you've already gotten your ticket.
[00:16:14] Jay Carney: I haven't, but I will shortly. Come on, Jay. I just saw the email this week, so. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough. I've been traveling and just came home last night. I was moving my daughter into Mississippi College, and so, uh-
[00:16:23] Taylor Tutor: Oh, that's exciting. Yeah. Well, we look forward to seeing you again at Ignite, and I'm sure we'll see you around, um, the community as well.
[00:16:29] Taylor Tutor: But for those that have not gotten their ticket yet, you can go to igniteleadership.com. Early bird tickets are on sale until October the 9th, so get that. You will never get a better deal than right now.
[00:16:40] Judd Wilson: That's right. That's right, and we got great speakers coming, as we've already mentioned. And Jay, thank you for that and, and, and helping us through that.
[00:16:46] Jay Carney: Honored to play a part. Thank you, Judd. Thank you, Taylor.
[00:16:48] Judd Wilson: Absolutely. Thank
[00:16:49] Taylor Tutor: you.[00:17:00]
[00:17:01] Taylor Tutor: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of IgniteCast presented by iHeartMedia. For more leadership insights and engaging conversations, be sure to hit subscribe. And if you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love for you to leave a review. And remember, go forth and do good things.
