An INNER VIEW with Dr. Debra Dean

An INNER VIEW with Dr. Debra Dean

Do you have trouble setting boundaries and trusting God with your career choices? With decades of experience in corporate America, Dr. Debra Dean is an expert at integrating faith in every aspect of life. In this INNER VIEW, she candidly shares the lessons she’s learned to become a successful leader who influences others for an eternal difference.

Bio – Dr. Debra Dean is a Christian, first and foremost, wife and mother. She is co-founder of His Kingdom Matters, president and CEO of Dean Business Consulting, and adjunct professor at Regent University. Dr. Dean served in corporate America for 25 years. Her most recent position was Director of Business Transformation nested in the Business Intelligence Department.

Dr. Dean is a published author and public speaker. Her TEDx talk Restorative Justice and Disrupt HR presentation Respectful Pluralism: Including Everyone relates to her faith at work passion. Dr. Dean has received numerous awards, including the Colorado Springs Business Journal 2020 Women of Influence Award and the 2020 Global CEO Excellence Award: Most Influential Business Consultancy CEO. She was nominated in 2019 as an operational excellence leader with OPEX Week: Business Transformation World Summit, and in 2018, she won the Outstanding Reviewer Award for Management, Spirituality, and Religion.

Dr. Dean was born and raised in Kentucky, spent nine years in Iowa, and currently resides in Colorado with her husband Steve and their youngest son Gavin. They have six children and four grandchildren. Her mission statement is to “Inspire each person to identify their human potential and pursue authenticity while living a life of eternal focus.”

INNER VIEW
Kathleen Cooke: We all think we are smart until things flop. What has God taught you about trusting Him for the unknown and seeing failures as opportunities for what He desires for us and not what we thought we wanted for ourselves.

Debra Dean: God is teaching me to trust him. It is so easy to get distracted with self-doubt about my ability or calling, but God is teaching me to trust that He has a plan, and I need to follow His plan. When I left corporate in 2018, I thought I was following God, but I got off track and started my business instead of God’s business. The past few years have been lessons of listening, praying, trusting, obeying, surrendering, and being willing to let God provide and guide me. I’m a hard-headed woman, so this is hard. But, when I surrender and trust Him, everything else works out much better. In December 2020, I had a call from a woman that worked with the White House Faith & Opportunities Initiative. We had planned an agenda for the call, but she started crying. I could hear how overwhelmed she was with work and life in her voice. She asked me, “Where are all the Christians?” She was fighting a good fight in D.C., but she felt all alone.

This gave me fuel to move from my business to God’s business and launch His Kingdom Matters in June 2021. Wow! When I trust God, BIG things happen. I did not want people to feel alone or unequipped with fighting the Christian battle in our world today. I have prayed and asked God for wisdom and guidance, and I trust that He divinely pre-plans all the content in the ministry. We start with Bold & Courageous and move into Revival. In retrospect, there is no way I could have come up with this content. It is God. Trusting Him is still a struggle I face daily, but when I trust Him with all aspects of life, He delivers miraculous works.

Kathleen: You have worked in leadership positions in the corporate business world for many years. What are some key things you have learned in your career journey?  (more…)

Global Prayer Event with Lou Engle – Kathleen Cooke Leads Prayer for Arts and Entertainment

Global Prayer Event with Lou Engle – Kathleen Cooke Leads Prayer for Arts and Entertainment

On September 11, 2021, prayer leaders and intercessors from around the world gathered virtually and in Los Angeles at the site of the Azusa Street revival for the “Redigging the Wells of Revival” global prayer event. Hosted by The Potter’s Ministries and with a special invitation to believers worldwide from Lou Engle, co-founder of TheCall and Lou Engle Ministries, the event mobilized Christians to pray for global revival. Prayers during the event were specifically directed towards the seven recognized “mountains of prayer” including Family, Religion, Government, Business, Education, Arts and Entertainment, and Media.

Kathleen Cooke, founder of The Influence Lab and Cooke Media Group, was invited to represent “Arts and Entertainment” as one of seven prayer leaders chosen to “take the mountain” of their area of expertise. The prayers for each mountain were based on Joshua 14:12 where Caleb requested of Joshua to “give me this mountain” which had been promised him.

Kathleen opened her prayer by acknowledging God as the source of all creativity. “We are nothing and cannot attempt to create anything without You,” she declared. “In You we move, and breathe, and have our being.”

“We are nothing and cannot attempt to create anything without You.” – Kathleen Cooke

She also prayed for the global entertainment and arts community to see and hear God, and to take action towards a single purpose, “that we might produce, direct, write, sing, paint, and create all manner of art and media and entertainment so that others might know with clarity and without a doubt, who you are.”

The event included live Zoom prayers from nations around the world, with Guatemala, Germany, the UK, Africa and Jerusalem among those represented. Other prayer leaders taking the stage in the 5-hour prayer event included Stephen Strang, Charisma Magazine; Matthew and Amy Stoehr, The River Family Church: conference hosts Cyril and Jemima Rayan, The Potters Ministries; and Sam Brownback, U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom.

Watch a replay of the prayer event at the Facebook page for Digging the Wells of Revival here.

(Prayer for the 7 mountains begins at 1:54:25 and Kathleen Cooke’s prayer for Arts and Entertainment begins at 1:58:49 in the replay.) 

Support the vision of The Influence Lab!

Founded by media experts Phil and Kathleen Cooke, The Influence Lab focuses on training leaders across the globe to use media effectively to share the gospel, while also creating a pathway for Christian influence in entertainment and media. Your gift helps make participation in global events like the “Digging the Wells of Revival” possible. Give your gift here.