Go Into Ministry, The Ministry of Business!

We all want to make a Kingdom impact; we all want to transform the world for Christ. And here’s the thing: God has placed you right where you are to do exactly that! iWork4Him: Change the Way You Think About Your Faith at Work is today’s guide for the everyday believer. Filled with real-life stories, practical tools and resources, and biblical encouragement designed to help you engage in your Kingdom calling NOW! 

In Chapter 18 of iWork4Him, author, producer, and speaker Rich Marshall writes about a conversation he had over 25 years ago with a man named Dennis who was looking to sell his business to go into full-time ministry. Dennis sought out Rich, a local pastor at the time, to encourage him in his decision to leave the marketplace and go into ministry. But what happened next was surprising to both men. In Rich’s words,  

Imagine my surprise when the Lord spoke clearly in my mind, “Tell Dennis not to sell his business, but rather to begin to see his business as a ministry”’ [So], I did, in fact, tell him to go into ministry, the ministry of business!

So many Christ-followers are asking the same question as Dennis today: should I leave the marketplace and go into full-time ministry? The answer may be yes for some, but for most of us, the answer is ‘go into ministry, the ministry of business!’

Because here’s the thing, you may be the only Jesus that your coworkers, bosses, or clients ever meet. That makes the workplace one of the largest mission fields in the world! And as Jesus said in Matthew 9:27, “There are many people to harvest but only a few workers to help harvest them.”

Your workplace is a field ripe for harvest! So, what are you waiting for?!

To hear more incredible stories like Rich’s and gain practical tips on sharing your faith at work, pick up a copy of iWork4Him: Change the Way You Think About Your Faith at Work. Oh, and don’t forget that you can read the first chapter for FREE by clicking HERE.

 Jim

This blog was originally written for and posted on the Christian Leadership Alliance website. You can find the original over here!

About the Author, Jim Brangenberg

Jim's Mission: We are called to be examples of Christ to those around us. With that in mind, Jim is passionate about helping Christ followers connect their faith to their work!

Control Freak Much?

I don't know about you, but I am a control freak. It comes out when I drive, when I start a project, when I am in a meeting, when I am on a plane. Okay, it comes out everywhere. Oh Lord, help me!  Anyway, as a control freak, I have wrestled with God for control SOOO many times in my life. Stop laughing. You are probably a control freak too!

But how does being a control freak impact your work? How does it impact your faith?

Sue Wilson wrote a chapter in our recently released book entitled sheWorks4Him: Embrace your calling as a Christian Woman at Work. Her chapter was titled "Who's in control here?". In it, Sue talks about her struggle with God over control, trust, and submission in her personal life and her professional one. She describes the impact of fighting God for control of her life and her work and subsequently the process of Him bringing her back to himself. You'll have to read the chapter to get the whole picture, but I promise, it's worth it.

Do you have control issues? Where do they show their ugly faces in your life? Does it come out in your relationships or your attitude towards others? Or maybe it comes out in your work?

Wherever it shows itself, being a control freak is NOT a fruit of the Spirit. In fact, it's precisely the opposite! To truly live in the Spirit, we have to give up control. So, what does that look like as a follower of Jesus? Well, it can look like going places you don't want to go because God directed you there, doing things you don't want to do because God asked you to do them, hanging out with people you don't want to hang out with because God put them in your life for you to learn to love those that aren't easy to love and aren't like you.

I don't know exactly what giving up control looks like for you, but I do know that when we insist on being in control, God will not force himself on us. Instead, he wants us to step aside so that The Way, Truth, and Life can step in and lead the way. Examine your own life today. Are you holding onto your plans for the future, or are you living into God's calling, God's purpose, and God's will for your life? Let go of your control freak today and watch Him work in your life as He worked in Sue's life! To read the rest of Sue's story and other inspirational stories of faith, pick up a copy of sheWorks4Him. Oh, and guess what? The first chapter is FREE! CLICK HERE to download it today! 

Jim 

About the Author, Jim Brangenberg

Jim's Mission: We are called to be examples of Christ to those around us. With that in mind, Jim is passionate about helping Christ followers connect their faith to their work!

What does obedience look like in your life?

It’s an exciting week here at iWork4Him! On April 15th of 2021, iWork4Him celebrates 8 years as a media ministry focused on the intersection of faith and work. We have interviewed over 3000 people on over 1800 shows resulting in thousands of hours of video/audio available to a nation of workplace believers hungry for encouragement and resources to help them live out their faith at work. But it might not have happened if Martha and I weren’t obedient to the call of God on our lives…Read on.

On February 19th, 2013, I was speaking before a small crowd on five ways to incorporate your faith in your work (now the iWork4Him Nation Covenant). After finishing, I sat down next to the only person in the group I didn’t know, a woman named Deborah Roseman who owned a Christian talk radio station in St. Pete, FL. She said to me, “You should talk about that ‘faith and work’ on the radio.” I immediately dismissed her and told her she was crazy. Deborah responded that she was serious. I was flattered and told her if she was serious, I would send her an executive summary I had been working on for the last several years about the intersection of faith and work.

Well, I sent the executive summary, and within an hour, Deborah called to arrange a lunch with Martha and me. We were told that our show was needed but would cost $200 an hour to be on the air. I immediately shut down and thought, How ridiculous! I can hear my voice for free; I don’t have to pay $200 to listen to myself.

As we were walking out of lunch, I told Martha that this was a stupid idea, but despite the high production cost, I thought it was an answer to our prayers. You see, we had been praying that we would have a job that would lead to significance, not just a pursuit of success. We wanted a job where God would get all the credit because our success simply could not be attributed to our natural gifts, talents, and abilities. I had also prayed just 90 days earlier - on November 20th, 2012 - for a way to challenge thousands of people to live out their faith in their work. This radio gig seemed like an answer to all of these prayers, BUT it was shaped totally different than we expected. I’m a public speaker and love to be in front of crowds; radio was not a talent I possessed. I told Martha, “This is nuts, and it doesn’t make sense, but I believe we have to say yes, because it is an answer to prayer.”

We went on air on April 15th, 2013, and 8 years later, God has shown Himself in so many ways. What would have happened if we had just said no? I’m glad I don’t have to find out!

What is God asking you to do today that totally doesn’t make sense? Try being blindly obedient and see the miracles of His ways. For more of our story, get ready for our book “iWork4Him” to be released on 6/15/21.

Jim

About the Author, Jim Brangenberg

Jim's Mission: We are called to be examples of Christ to those around us. With that in mind, Jim is passionate about helping Christ followers connect their faith to their work!

Words To Understand: Part 2

Pastor and Minister

Last week we talked about the word Pastor and the fact that you do not have to quit your job in order to be one. You can do a Romans 12:2 paradigm shift and be a pastor right there in your workplace and your neighborhood, even your small group. Pastor isn’t about a title, it is about a calling and an attitude. You are surrounded by people who need to be led to Jesus, so Pastor them.

Now for the rest of you who think:

“It would be so fulfilling to quit my job and do ministry all day long.”

STOP! The enemy has done such a great job of pigeonholing Christians into a building with which ministry is being done. ENOUGH of this stupid thinking. The enemy cordoned us off in a building while he was out deceiving the masses who don’t want to enter that meeting place.

Have you ever considered that the Body of Christ is spread out all over the world, in every imaginable workplace SO THAT MINISTRY can be done there? You are a minister of Jesus to the masses that you work with. You are there in your workplace or retirement place to teach the lost to be found. You are there to minister to the least of these. You are there to set the captives free. IF YOU LEAVE YOUR WORKPLACE who will take your place and do the ministry that YOU WERE REALLY CALLED to?

You are in ministry. You have been since the day Jesus found you. All around you are hurting and lost people. They don’t know your “church” pastor, they know you. They trust you. They need you. PLEASE DON’T QUIT.

For daily challenges like this, tune into iWork4Him

About the Author, Jim Brangenberg

Jim's Mission: We are called to be examples of Christ to those around us. With that in mind, Jim is passionate about helping Christ followers connect their faith to their work!

"Here I Am, Send Me!"

Let me tell you a story of two young teenagers.

Forty years ago, their lives intersected at a youth conference in San Diego, Ca. After a week of talent competition and nightly rallies, the closing session was on Friday night July 13, 1979. The speaker challenged the teens to commit to full time Christian ministry for their lives. These 2 teens both made that commitment on the same night - declaring:

"Here I am, send me." Isaiah 6:8

Three years later these 2 teens, Jim and I, would finally meet each other, become best friends and get married. We both believed that our commitment in 1979 meant we were to be full-time pastors or missionaries. God kept us from attending seminary but we struggled with how we would fulfill our commitment while we worked our "secular" jobs.

Fast forward a few decades and we slowly started to understand that our work was our ministry and our mission field. What a liberating way to live! To know that God had gifted us as entrepreneurs to be missionaries right where we conducted business every day.

It's been 40 years since the day we committed ourselves to full time ministry, if only we understood that all 40 years we have been serving in ministry (at work). Now, Jim and I have the pleasure of helping our radio and podcast listeners understand what we really committed to 40 years ago - living in full time ministry every day. We don't live with regret, but we do live more intentionally - understanding that "our workplace is our mission field, and in that mission field we may be the only Jesus our co-workers and employees ever see."

I'm grateful to have been challenged as a teen to make a commitment, and hope that you too will commit to "Here I am, send me (to my workplace each day)". You might consider joining the iWork4Him Nation as a great first step towards this commitment.

Happy 40 years of ministry together!

About the Author, Martha Brangenberg

Born into an entrepreneurial family, Martha has been involved in small business her entire life. Gifted with an attention to detail and a sweet sensitive spirit, Martha is a servant leader with a deep faith in Jesus.

Please Stop Using This Word

"Jim, you're not cut out to be a pastor. You could never handle having 400 bosses. It's ok, you can be a lay minister. The church needs lots of volunteers."

Oh, my church pastor missed a huge opportunity to send me in the right direction there on that day.

Read on.

On July 13, 1979 I committed my life to full-time Christian Ministry, so did Martha on that very same day (3 years before we met). Now, naturally, I thought that meant that I would be working within a 4-walls church because that is what I grew up hearing.

When I finished college, Martha and I settled in a little town called Lakeville, MN. We joined a local church and we immediately got involved in the youth ministry as volunteers. After Martha finished college, I enrolled in Seminary to get my master's degree so Martha and I could fulfill my commitment to the Lord. My church pastor found out and he spoke those words above to me. I unenrolled in seminary and resolved to be just a lay minister.

UGH! The lies spoken into me that day crippled my attitude towards my work for 16 more years. If only there had been a different approach. Maybe I wasn't cut out to be a church pastor, but I could have been encouraged to be a pastor in my workplace.

What if I had been commissioned to see my work as my mission field and my place of ministry?

I could have grasped my daily work as a high calling on MY life and that I should take it very seriously.

The very term "LAY" minister implies that there are two tiers in ministry. Those who get paid to do minister, and then everyone else: the Lay ministers. This word derives negative feelings in me about a two tiered system of importance in the kingdom. IT IS A WORD I WILL NOT USE ANY MORE. What about you? Would you stop using it too? We need to let everyone know that your work in your office/field/parking lot/warehouse/ hospital - all of that is ministry.

You are not a second tier citizen in the Kingdom because you don't get paid by a 4-walls church organization.

Please encourage your pastors to recognize the hurt and harm that this word causes. It also causes a bunch of confusion, which is why I wrote last week's blog that you can read HERE.

So please STOP using the term "Lay Minister" and START recognizing that you are a minister in your work, which is your mission field. You have been assigned there by God and its not by chance.

I'm grateful to now understand that I am a minister in my work and you are too!

Col 3:23 23 -

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters

Jim

About the Author, Jim Brangenberg

Jim's Mission: We are called to be examples of Christ to those around us. With that in mind, Jim is passionate about helping Christ followers connect their faith to their work!

Something That Really Irks Me

I’ve got something on my mind. Something that really irks me.

Sometimes “Christians “quit a perfectly good job, so that they can go and do full-time ministry work. It’s crazy. Where did we get the idea that we HAVE to quit our job in order to be in ministry? I almost did it several times early in my career. Now, of course some are truly called to preach and teach, but most are called to create, design, manage, organize, and so on.

There is good news. Keep reading…

Let’s shift the paradigm of our thinking within the world of Christianity. Part of being a Jesus follower means living in the world but not being of the world any longer. Our thinking should be different than the worlds thinking.

The world says = ministry is done in the “church building”

Jesus says = ministry is everywhere – to GO

You do not need to quit a perfectly good job that uses your skills, pays the bills, and fills a need. You do need to make a change in your thinking - to recognize that your workplace is your place of ministry. It is full of people who don’t know Jesus because they will won’t go to church to hear about Him. If you quit your job you will be alienated from the very people who actually need to meet Jesus. Your workplace is full of people who need to meet Jesus and you have been placed there on purpose so they can see you live out your faith in Christ.

If you ever really want to know the solution to the problems in the United States of America, look in the mirror. You, as a Jesus follower, are the solution that God brings to earth each and every day. Jesus living through you, powered by the Holy Spirit, is the plan to transform our world. Don’t quit your job just quit your wrong thinking. I REPEAT “DON’T QUIT YOUR JOB! Thanks, I feel better now 😊

Proverbs 8:12 -

For I am Wisdom, and I am shrewd and intelligent. I have at my disposal living understanding to devise a plan for your life.

About the Author, Jim Brangenberg

Jim's Mission: We are called to be examples of Christ to those around us. With that in mind, Jim is passionate about helping Christ followers connect their faith to their work!

Hurricane Jesus

It’s not just the heat. It’s the heat and the humidity combined that generate weather power: hot water fuels a hurricane and low pressure increases the devastation.

I love the weather. I love watching the weather. I love watching people try to predict the weather. I love trying to predict it myself. I love the power of a good storm.   Growing up in MN, I loved watching intense thunderstorms and loved loved loved watching intense blizzards that brought thundersnow.  Now that we have lived in Florida for 15 years, I have learned about a whole new pattern of weather and how hot water affects it. 

You see, the hotter the Gulf of Mexico, the more intense the hurricanes can be when they form in the fall. The summer of 2005 the water in the shallows of the Gulf was 95 degrees and the deep water was almost 90.  Those high water temperatures combined with week frontal boundaries created a petri dish for growing powerful hurricanes like Katrina and Rita.  The devastation leveled by those two storms is still being felt today all over the northern Gulf seacoast.   

Just as the right combination of water temperature and wind create a powerful hurricane, the right combination of obedience and Holy Spirit Power combine to devastate the enemy’s stronghold in our workplaces and our neighborhoods.

There is power in the name of Jesus.

Most of you have sung that song, but do we really believe it.  The same Holy Spirit who came and wreaked havoc on the day of Pentecost almost 2000 years ago, is just as powerful today.  Let’s pray for the powerful combination of obedience and Holy Spirit to have victory over the enemy.  You will be used to leave a lasting impact on the lives of those you work with.  It’s the iWork4Him way.

About the Author, Jim Brangenberg

Jim's Mission: We are called to be examples of Christ to those around us. With that in mind, Jim is passionate about helping Christ followers connect their faith to their work!