About - Eating Outside The Fence

Mission

To deliver the best learning environment possible, assisting Christian Leaders in furthering the Kingdom of God!

Hi, my name is Robert Keown (Pronounced Cowan) I would like to share a little bit about myself. My background has primarily been in training and education. I am proud to be a 20 year veteran who served in the Air Force and 13 of those wonderful years I served as a training systems specialist.

I have been working in the Post Secondary Educational environment for the past 25 years, so collectively I have over 38 years experience as a trainer, story teller, content creator, educator, but above all a believer.

I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Resource Management, and a Master of Science degree in Instructional Technology and Distance Education. As you probably can tell by my educational pursuits, my love and interest is in training and educating others.

I have passion for those “light bulb” moments when individuals get it! I love training and learning, and I have pursued these passions my entire career both in and out of the military.

I have been challenging myself to step out and allow God to use my experiences, skills, and knowledge base for His glory. That is why I feel that this type of ministry is needed. The whole premise of Eating Outside the Fence is to encourage, motivate, train, uplift, educate, challenge, and engage Christians and especially those who have been charged with training, teaching, and leading. The goal is to assist them in reviewing where they are in their lives and ask themselves what are they doing to serve at the local church? Are they as active as God has asked them to be? Are they using their gifts and talents as He desires? How can they enhance the learning environments that God has placed them in charge of?

Hebrews 10:24-25 states:

24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching

There are two words in these verses that need to be highlighted. The first is “spur”, and the second is “encouraging”.
We are told to spur one another towards love and good deeds. The word spur when used here actually could be translated as incite. We are to be so involved with each other we should incite others towards love and good deeds! Second, we should be in a constant state of encouraging each other to congregate, to meet together, to come to church, to be a part. That is what training others can do, encourage, spur, incite them to grow and reflect His love as disciples.

Vision

Encourage, motivate, train, uplift, educate, challenge, and engage leaders!

How We Started:

So I am sure many are probably wondering, why the name Eating Outside the Fence? I have asked myself that question several times ever since it was given to me many years ago. As a trainer I have always heard the proverbial “thinking outside the box” cliché and have used it many times myself to explain how to be creative and not follow the norm. So as I was driving home one day in south Georgia I passed by a field where there was a long barbed wire fence corralling the cattle in the field, one particular cow had made its way over to the fence and had its head stuck through the fence and was eating the grass on the outside of the fence. Even though I had seen this many times in my life this particular moment in time it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Why was this cow not happy with the grass that was inside of the fence? Why would it risk injuring itself to get to what seemed to be the same type of grass that was located on the over side of the fence? Was the cow “thinking outside the box”? Why was I even thinking about these types of questions?

That moment in time probably occurred over 20 years ago if not longer and I have been wrestling with how I was supposed to use what I felt at that moment and how was it going to make an impact on my life and the lives of others? Well now I know. God has charged me to step out. He has told me to allow Him to guide me and trust in where he places me. I intend on being who He wants me to be and will be obedient to His call. I pray that as this ministry evolves into whatever He desires, it meets the needs of those I get a chance to cross paths with and has Kingdom impact.