I'm Tim Schmoyer. I believe how we lead at home, at work, and in our cities is training for something bigger than we realize. Elder My City is where I explore what that means for us as men.
Most Christian men I know are good men. They work hard. They love their families. They go to church.
But somewhere along the way, the vision got small. We started optimizing for comfort instead of faithfulness. We measure success the way the world does (income, freedom, retirement) and stick a Bible verse on it.
Meanwhile, our kids are watching how we spend our energy. Our wives can tell when we've checked out. Our cities are missing the men who were supposed to be leading them.
God designed you to multiply, not coast. Every responsibility He's given you right now is an opportunity to be trained for more.
Scripture shows a progression most men have never considered. It starts with your household, expands to your city, and it leads something incredible in the future.
A man must first learn to lead his own household with grace, with wisdom, and with skin in the game. This isn't a lesser calling. It's where everything starts.
The man who leads his home faithfully earns the trust to lead more broadly with experience, wisdom, and steady judgment.
God rewards faithful stewardship with greater responsibility. It culminates with ruling in His Kingdom, but starts with what He's already put in your hands.
Before the master in Luke 19 left, he gave his servants resources and one instruction: "Engage in business until I come back." Not "keep your head down." Not "play it safe." Engage!
God is calling us into a posture that's active. We're to be faithfully engaged in every arena He's placed us: our home, our city, and our business.
is where it starts. When you navigate conflict with your wife, you're building the patience and humility to lead well. When you teach your kids to think about money, character, or faith, you're developing shepherding instincts that extend far beyond your home.
is where stewardship gets tested. Building a team teaches you to lead with trust. Creating systems teaches you to delegate. Making hard financial decisions develops the judgment an elder needs. And structuring your work so it serves your family instead of consuming it proves you can handle more.
is where it expands. You're not a spectator. You lead as someone who's engaged. You meet with the church, are present in your neighborhood and in the lives of other men. That's the proving ground for broader responsibility.
These aren't separate areas of our life. They're all the same track to becoming the kind of man who can be entrusted with more because he was faithful with what he had.
I spent nearly two decades helping YouTube creators grow their audiences. I built a company called Video Creators, worked with brands like Disney, Warner Brothers, and HBO, and sold the business to vidIQ in 2022.
My wife and I had seven children in eight years. We homeschool them all and try to lead a healthy home together.
And throughout all of it, I was wrestling with this question: What is all of this actually for?
The answer led me to the conviction that the daily work of leading a family, building a business, and engaging your city isn't just life: it's preparation for what's to come. I'm not writing as someone who's figured it out because I haven't. I'm just a dad who's still in the middle of it.
Read my full story →Elder My City is for men who believe God made them for more than a comfortable life. It's for men who want to grow in wisdom as husbands, fathers, and leaders.
I also do 1:1 business coaching for a small number of mission-driven creators who want help building a business that funds their calling without consuming their family. Learn more about business coaching →