Steve Hess
I started my career in counseling 30 years ago. After sitting in a chair listening to, challenging, and problem solving with my clients for 10 years, I felt restless. There was a pull towards an adventure, something competitive, outdoors, physical and fun - it was my lifelong passion for tennis! I spent the next 20 years building Gladiator Tennis, a league that started with 34 players in 2007 and grew into one of the largest flex leagues in the country. Today, more than 15,000 people have participated in the league.
My adventure is not over. I am entering a “4th Soil Life”, a way of living that attempts to reclaim what many of us are losing in 21st century American culture - contact with the outdoors, physical strength, truly healthy food, deep restorative sleep, connection with our neighbors, purpose & passion in our work. Most importantly, a deep and strong center for love with friends, family, and Creator. We have all been pressured and pulled into a hurried, driven, and anxious existence, trying to do it all on our own. Forces driving our culture in this direction are responsible. Don’t you want to rebel? 4th Soil Community will be a counter cultural group of people who want to reclaim the life giving habits and routines we used to take for granted that allow for a powerful, joyful, peaceful, and connected life.
Counseling & Coaching: As a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor in Illinois and Florida, and as an experienced entrepreneur, I bring my expertise and experience into the counseling and coaching process. God has created you with a purpose. Together we can discover how to identify and break free from habits and patterns that are holding you back so you can move forward into the fruitful life that God has created you for.
In Jesus’ Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13), a farmer scatters seed that lands on four different types of soil—each representing a different condition of the human heart and a different response to God’s voice. Only the fourth soil, the good soil, has the space, depth, and health needed for roots to grow strong and for fruit to multiply thirty, sixty, or one hundred times what was planted. This is the picture Jesus gives us of a thriving life: when the heart is open, uncluttered, and well‑nourished, God’s word takes root and produces extraordinary fruit.
4th Soil is about intentionally cultivating that kind of heart. Fruitfulness requires space—room for roots to go deep, room for God’s voice to be heard, room for growth to happen. It also requires removing the weeds that crowd out that space and choke the fruit before it can mature. The conditions below help you prepare your inner “soil” for the thriving life God designed you for. Category A focuses on creating space for essential nutrients that strengthen your soil; Category B focuses on replacing the weeds that steal space, drain energy, and suffocate growth.
🌿 Category A: Create Space for Essential “Soil” Nutrients
Rest & restorative sleep — Space for renewal so your roots grow deeper.
Physical strength & fitness — Space to build the energy needed for a fruitful life.
Deep relationships — Space for connection that stabilizes and strengthens your heart.
Connection with God — Space to listen, receive, enjoy, and overflow.
Time in nature — Space for clarity, peace, and grounding.
🌾 Category B: Replace Weeds That Crowd Out Space and Choke Fruit
Shift from global noise to local community — Remove the weeds of anxiety‑producing media; plant the nutrient of real relationships.
Purposeful work — Replace the weeds of stress and slavery with meaningful, life‑giving work.
Financial freedom — Clear the weeds of financial pressure so your life has room to follow God’s plan.
Gut‑healthy nutrition — Remove the weeds of depletion; nourish your body for sustained fruitfulness.
Measured digital use — Pull the weeds of mindless scrolling; create space for what truly matters.2027 Youtube Channel: In 2027, we will be launching a Youtube channel that will include interviews of people who are moving in the direction of a “4th Soil Life”, man-on-the-street encounters with surviving & thriving people, and sit downs with experts in the fields of nutrition, fitness, spiritual growth, sleep health, and career coaching.
4th Soil community - Coming in 2027:
Weekend Retreats: We are aiming to create screen free retreat weekends that are spiritually centered. A mountain hiking retreat and beach/tennis retreat are among ideas that will be launched in the near future.
What is 4th Soil?
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Reach out now if you would like more information or to schedule a free 15 minute consultation.