Shepherding the Flock through Business

Alumni board member David Resseguie ’07 was a senior at Moody when Dr. Chuck Swindoll spoke in chapel and changed the course of Dave’s life.

“If you can see yourself doing anything other than full-time vocational ministry,” Dr. Swindoll said, “don’t go into vocational ministry yet.”

Dave, a Youth Ministry major, looked at Chris Rappazini ’07 and Mark Pospisil ’07, his two best friends sitting next to him. “Guys, he’s preaching to me,” he said. “I love God, I love people. But I really feel like I should go into the business world.”

In his final semester, he was invited to a stewardship dinner at Moody, where he met a couple connected with a Christian-focused wealth management company. Dave resonated with their spiritual gifts as encouragers and generous givers. He asked about job opportunities with them but was counseled to get experience first. How would he gain business experience with a youth ministry degree?

Searching for career purpose

Dave approached Sean Pickett ’07, interning as a financial representative with Northwestern Mutual in Chicago. Dave was hired, working in financial services. But after a year he felt God was leading him to leave that career and use his Moody training in a church. He interviewed in two churches for youth ministry and worship pastor positions.

“I ended up not getting the jobs,” Dave says. “When I look back, I feel like it was God making sure I was fully surrendered to doing whatever He wanted me to do.”

In June 2008 he met Gennifer at the wedding of Josh Wallace ’07—and moved to South Florida in 2009 to pursue her. He took a job at a Northwestern Mutual office and married Gennifer in 2010, still leaving the door open to becoming a pastor. In 2011 Dave began a “side hustle,” coaching financial advisors around the “soft skills of selling, such as how to communicate with people and ask great questions, and how to listen and shepherd people through a sales process.”

Taking a leap of faith

In 2015, he switched to a MassMutual firm in Miami. But when his local office was acquired by a larger organization in 2017, “my position was eliminated,” he says.

He went home to Gennifer. “I think I want to go run my company,” he told her. “I just don’t know if we have enough to be able to do it.”

With no guaranteed revenue coming in, starting a business was scary, he admits. But as the couple prayed, they believed God would provide. “You’ve always wanted to go run your own company,” Gennifer said. “I believe in you. I think we should go for it.”

Working out of a coffee shop, Dave started the Resseguie Group. “The very first day that I reached out to prospective clients for business, God provided 90 percent of our monthly income needed to pay bills!” he says.

Today, Dave engages in sales training, motivational speaking, and 1-1 business coaching. “I really view our business as ministry and as fundraising.”

Business as ministry

Dave says his pastoral training was useful for learning public speaking, facilitating meaningful group discussions, and shepherding a person’s heart.

Dave was a resident assistant (RA) on “Kulby 9” at Moody when Aaron Damiani ’01, who was resident director, took his RAs on a scavenger hunt that ended in a wooded area of a state park. “He hand-carved a staff for each of the RAs and commissioned each of us to shepherd the flock of God,” Dave says.

Since then Dave has made his mission in life to be led by the Great Shepherd. Second, he shepherds his wife, Gennifer, and their three children. Third, he shepherds the flock of God in financial planning.

Instead of CEO (chief executive officer), he calls himself the chief shepherd. “I do that because it causes people to ask questions, like, What do you mean by that?” he says. “I know Jesus is the Chief Shepherd. But because my mission is to shepherd and my title is chief shepherd, people are curious.”

Case in point: He was recently interviewed for a podcast by the CEO of a large planning firm. The CEO’s first question was loaded. “Dave, on your website, you said your mission statement could be summarized in one Greek word. Tell me about that.”

Dave was straightforward. “I was able to tell him that our mission is poimaino (poy-mah’-ee-no), ‘to shepherd,’” he said. That was my entry point to talk directly about Christ.”

The CEO’s response? “Love that.”

Business as fundraising

When Christians ask Dave for one-on-one coaching, he works with them on one condition: 100 percent of what they pay his company goes to a Christian nonprofit organization. “That’s one way I use the business to help raise money for Moody,” he says. “It’s a big commitment of mine to give to Moody.”

After Dr. Mark Jobe ’84 MA ’98 became Moody’s president, Dave visited Chicago to introduce himself. “I’m not your typical alum,” Dave said, describing his business.

Dr. Jobe smiled. “I love that. I love that you’re using your Moody degree in the marketplace.”

Dr. Jobe’s response reinforced Dave’s desire to serve God well through business. “I have really loved Dr. Jobe and the leadership talking about equipping people to live on mission regardless of where we get our paycheck,” he says.