From Navy SEAL to Shepherd: Protecting and Leading

SPEAKER 02 : 0:00

It’s Mike Train with Crawford Media Group. I’m joined by Jimmy Graham. Jimmy is a veteran Navy SEAL, former CIA protective officer. And he, most importantly, is the founder of Able Shepherd, who we’ve worked with quite a bit over the years. And Jimmy, it’s kind of sad to have these topics to talk to you about, but necessary. So thanks for joining us. Yeah, thanks for having me. I appreciate you. So, Jimmy, tell us a little bit about Able Shepherd, just so we can bring people up to speed. They haven’t heard you before on our station.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:29

Yeah, absolutely. And I apologize for the background. I won’t call it noise because it’s children playing, which is free children playing. I’m posted up at my kid’s school. But Abel Shepard, in a nutshell, what happens after like with a CIA guy, I’m sorry, a Navy SEAL that becomes a bodyguard overseas as a protective officer for the CIA. Then he gets married and has kids. is that he starts seeing problems with security, so he starts fixing them. And then once I got into that security world and started fixing broken things, I found out that I was led to the Lord by, this is out of order, it can’t be physical, and then not worry about spiritual and mental. So what we do now at the Able Shepherd Institute is spiritual, then mental, then physical. Now people come in for physical security, we quickly tell them there’s two other things that are actually more important. And, you know, when that guy is sold out for Jesus and doesn’t apologize at all, it kind of gets people’s attention. But it takes a while. That’s what we do.

SPEAKER 02 : 1:25

That’s so good. And you you go work with law enforcement schools, including here in Colorado, right?

SPEAKER 01 : 1:32

Yeah, that’s correct. Okay. That’s correct. The law enforcement now comes from all over the country. So they come to get a certificate because most of us think there’s a standard when it comes to protecting our kids. There’s not. So that’s not okay with me. So we created a standard, made it a national standard. Now people come from afar to get that qualification so they can go back and protect their communities.

SPEAKER 02 : 1:53

So it started, I guess, to some extent for us in Colorado with Columbine, and now we just had what happened in Evergreen. What would you say and speak to in terms of those two situations?

SPEAKER 01 : 2:07

I would say that back then we saw a clear and present danger to our nation, to our future, meaning our children, and said this is going to get really, really bad. Like it’s going to keep going and we weren’t wrong. Unfortunately, that is the truth is that we’re mass producing crazy people. And I’m not trying to be insensitive when we’re talking about mental health, but we’re mass producing crazy people. And it’s about time that the people who recognize that stop biting their tongue on that because this is a problem and it’s just bled out over all of us. So what are we going to do about that? So when we talk about good men standing, they jump to some kind of toxic masculinity. I wrote a book that was published in December. It’s on Amazon. It’s called The Return of Man. America’s only hope is in our original hope. And they say men, and I say no, Jesus. So Jesus created men to be a thing, and we’re not being it. And there’s consequences, and we’re seeing them.

SPEAKER 02 : 2:57

Wow. I think some of our men’s ministry guys are talking about that too, Jimmy, is just there’s a void. It’s not talked about often enough, like in the church or training programs or even men’s ministry. It seems like that gets missed a lot.

SPEAKER 01 : 3:10

Yeah, and it’s unfortunate because that should be the strongest ministry in your church. In your church, the problem is that most people don’t realize that the security team is a ministry. And they start off with a police officer or a veteran. And I love both of those communities because I’m very involved with each of those. Those are my brothers. They’re also very wounded communities. So if you’ve got tough guys that cross their arms and stare at people, that’s not a ministry. So they say, who’s running it? And they tell me, and I go, so you started broken. And then you try to create healthy out of that. And that’s how I’d start healthy. So if you get somebody with that good character, that person that would not only die for your kids but live for them, why don’t we put that guy in charge or gal, right? And then let that become a ministry and then say that it is men’s job to be dangerous in a good way but under self-control. Yeah, so good.

SPEAKER 02 : 3:59

We love the security guys at our church. And they’re guys from our church with certain backgrounds. And, man, they’re amazing dudes. They just – Yeah. Tell us about what parents, teachers, even grandparents, because we have grandparents, a lot of them listening as well. What can they do? What do you recommend? Because they feel kind of hopeless sometimes with what’s going on.

SPEAKER 01 : 4:23

Yeah, you know, I would say just what popped in my mind when you asked that was a couple things. I would say, you know, ask wise questions, say true words or be silent and be silent in strength when you’re silent, not silent in weakness like you don’t have an answer. So, you know, I hear people saying things all the time because words matter. And a wise question might be, do you believe that to be true? You know, I was in the chiropractor’s office the other day and some guy was standing there and I was talking to the lady and he piped up and said, yeah, these kids, we should line them up and shoot them. Just about delinquent kids. And I said, or love them. Or raise them. And he goes, well, yeah, yeah, it’s the parents that’s a problem. I go, but you just said shoot them. So, like, do you realize what you just said? You know, like, you can’t be saying stuff like that you don’t believe. Actually, you can. You can do whatever you want. But it’s not healthy to say things that aren’t true. Then also for you to say true words and tell your kids that they’re treasured, that they’re loved, that they’re made in the image of God. Because if they truly believed, if all kids believed that other kids and other human beings are made in the image of God, they wouldn’t shoot them. They wouldn’t rape them. They wouldn’t do these things. So know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And I said this yesterday in an interview, was John 18, 37, when Pontius Pilate was asking Jesus, he says, so you’re a kingdom. And he says, this is the reason I was born, and this is why I came to this earth. Now, this is powerful. This is why the creator of the universe was born and came to this planet. You should pull out a pencil and write this down. He says, to testify to the truth, which means our lives should be a a testimony to the truth. His was, Christ’s was, and they killed him for it. Charlie Kirk’s was, and they killed him for it.

SPEAKER 02 : 5:56

Charlie is very bold about the Lord, and I love, Jimmy, that that’s come out a lot in news stories. NBC guy yesterday, he was talking all about that, had a guest on talking about Charlie’s faith, put Christ first. That would never happen on NBC News ever, generally speaking, if not for Charlie, right?

SPEAKER 01 : 6:19

He cut through barriers. I just saw something. My son is a big cheese fan, Patrick Mahomes. He cut through sports barriers. He cut through Hollywood, Chris Pratt. He cut through all of these barriers that the world sees, and somehow everybody loved Charlie Kirk. And if you ask why was he great, he’d be the first to tell you, because I start with my faith and I don’t compromise it ever.

SPEAKER 02 : 6:39

Yeah. So good. Let’s do this. Let’s tie back into schools. And what you do, your security assessments are free. So I stumbled out of that. But bottom line is they’re for free. I’m sure our listeners could perhaps help with that. Let’s talk about that. Then we need to talk about Charlie some too.

SPEAKER 01 : 7:00

Yeah, there needs to be an honest assessment of what do I really have. So a lot of times when you ask, say there’s a problem with law enforcement, which we see, and it’s not to poke anybody in the eye, it’s just we deserve better. When you see failures like you’ve all day or you name it across the nation, it’s because it was a bad plan. So I think it’s fair to say, can we assess? You ask if somebody, hey, are you good with a gun, for example, they would say, I feel pretty good. And I say, it’s not a feeling, it’s a standard. You should be able to show me. Anywhere I’ve ever trained professionally with the SEAL teams, the CIA, etc., law enforcement, there was always a standard typically on how to shoot. But what about tactics? Tactics just means, and we’re not talking about shooting a gun, we’re talking about not shooting my daughter. We’re talking about entering this school and taking out a shooter. That part needs to be displayed regularly or you’re not going to be successful on test day, like on a shooting day. So this is very, very easy to do, but we ask, say, the chief of police or the sheriff in our community, are you guys good? He says, yeah, because he’s got to say yeah, because if they’re not good, he’s not doing his job. The problem is that you’re asking the person being tested if they would pass, and that’s just not fair, right, to our children. So it’s a very easy fix, but we say this a lot. Show me.

SPEAKER 02 : 8:06

Yeah. When you’re faced with that, right, it’s not just an exercise anymore. Yeah. That’s where it’s not hard.

SPEAKER 01 : 8:14

It’s not complex and it’s not unattainable. It means you’ve got to start somewhere. And that thing is it’s a fill in the blank kind of thing where if you answer honestly, it’s not a number. That’s the free part where people charge tens of thousands of dollars for, say, a church, a humble church to do an assessment. Then they don’t have any money to actually do the thing. That’s not fair. It’s not good.

SPEAKER 02 : 8:32

That’s good. We’re speaking with Jimmy Graham. Jimmy’s a veteran of Navy SEAL, so former Navy SEAL, former CIA protective officer and founder of Able Shepherd. And the key here is we’re talking about Able Shepherd and his work with schools, with law enforcement. And Jimmy, Charlie Kirk, that happened about the time you’re standing in front of security in front of your kid’s school and you learn about Charlie, too. So speak to that for a couple of minutes, too, if you would.

SPEAKER 01 : 9:05

Yeah, when we see some kind of pattern around here in Colorado, it’s unfortunate what’s going on in Colorado, and I’ve got my own opinions on why that is. But when that happens, I go to my kids’ school, and a lot of people should. It doesn’t mean grab your shotgun and run in there unannounced. It means earn a relationship where the teachers and the staff trust you as not being a hothead but as being a capable man. Able means capable. Shepherd just means teacher and leader and protector. That’s what a shepherd is. You were never born to be a sheepdog. And I don’t mean to poke anybody in the eye, but biblically, look it up. Find the verse about sheepdog. I see a lot of sheepdogs saying, if the thing happened, I’d come. I’m like, you never come to anything. So I disagree. You’re not a sheepdog, nor is that a biblical term. But you’re called, 1 Peter 5, 2 to 4, calls you to be a shepherd. Over 100 times in the Bible, it talks about shepherds. Well, what are those lessons? Because I’ve studied them. It means be a teacher and a leader and a protector. Protective from what? I would say destruction. Spiritual, mental, and physical destruction because that’s a man’s job. And when people are reminded of that, all of a sudden it gets exciting and they feel dangerous in a good way. And they’re under self-control. That’s when people start calling you. Your phone rings. Everything from, hey, there’s a suspicious person. Or three in the morning, hey, I’m hanging by a thread and I need a good man.

SPEAKER 02 : 10:17

So good. So good. So what would you, Jimmy, say to people listening to this interview? We’re going to air this a couple times, make sure different people with our stations get to hear it. What’s your message? Where do they start? What do they do? Even how do they get a hold of you so they can get connected with you?

SPEAKER 01 : 10:35

Yeah, so that’s ableshepherd.com, and you can just start there. And then obviously we’re on LinkedIn and Facebook, and it’s, I think, X. So anyways, all of that stuff, where do you start? And I would say the heart within your chest and then workout board, meaning that I told my kids this. In tears, my daughter just started her TPUSA chapter recently. her little girl, her girlfriend, she’s a senior, her girlfriend’s not little, they’re young ladies. They started this chapter. They were excited about, you know, meeting Charlie Kirk and they followed his stuff and bring him to Colorado. They were going to go see him last night, all of these things. And they come out of the school with tears in their eyes, you know, and they’re just, they’re devastated and they want to know why, you know, and I have to, I remind them as I look them in the eyes and I say, you’re the solution to all of this. And it’s not, I don’t flippantly tell you this because you’ve heard this your whole life. Grow up slow, but grow up strong because this world needs you. God doesn’t need you. He could snap his fingers and make all this right. But due to our fall, he loves us enough to actually let us participate, right? So we have to show them that. But when people are scared, they actually listen to that again. You know what I mean? And comfort… Men are kind of just discarded as toxic. When they’re scared, they listen to men. So I’d say start with that heart inside your chest, then go to your kids, then go to your family. And if you punch the ground hard enough, in the name of Jesus Christ, the world’s going to feel it, like Charlie Kirk. Perfect example of a capable shepherd.

SPEAKER 02 : 11:54

Well, it’s Jimmy Graham. He’s the founder of Able Shepherd. Part of this, I don’t know if I can say movement, but I hear other men saying we need to raise up men that are brave enough to step forward and be prepared and really take a lead in security and shepherding our kids, many of the things you talked about. So ableshepherd.com, that’s how people get connected with you, right? Yes, please. Okay. Jimmy, thanks so much. I know it’s a busy week for you with everything that’s happened. Thank you for the time with us. I appreciate it. God bless you guys.