Being Called For The Impossible

Let me get straight to the point.

I am not a visionary. I am a worker bee. I love lists and tasks and I love to complete a job. I don’t usually have innovative ideas or creative ones either. I am not mad about this, it is just who God created me to be. I am comfortable being a Number 2 in a company, being a Number 1 requires skills that I do not naturally have. How about you?

Do you find yourself in a position that you are not qualified to be in?

Six and a half years ago, the Lord led Martha and I into what we thought was a Radio Ministry called iWork4Him. God was really clear to me when this started. I was given two commands.

1. Think Big, Really Big. This is bigger than you can imagine.

2. Don’t reproduce the wheel. You are not to create something that someone else has already created.

So out of these two commands, we have walked with the Lord these last 6 ½ years. My BIG thinking went from thinking of iWork4Him being on 500 to 1000 stations to realizing that God wants us to be obedient in creating a 24/7/365 (366 next year) media network that will collate and collaborate within the Faith and Work movement. The Lord’s big thinking that He has laid on my Heart is an organization that brings all the voices of the faith and work movement into one place so that any Christ Follower in their work, can know EXACTLY where to go to be trained on how to live out their faith in their work. I tell you honestly that THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE. But…IT IS GOD POSSIBLE.

God created the heavens and the Earth from nothing – Impossible. Noah built an Ark – Impossible. Abraham fathered a nation – Impossible. Joshua conquered the territory for Israel – Impossible. Daniel hung out with hungry lions – Impossible. Jesus – God in the flesh – came to Earth to live and die and rise from the dead - Impossible. We serve a God of the Impossible.

Will iWork4Him become a Nationwide 24/7/365 network feeding the 50+ Million Christians in the workplace with the encouragement they need to live out their faith in their work in front of a lost and hopeless world? It’s impossible. But in God and with God all things are possible - Matt 19:26 -

if He is in the center of it. So, we walk faithfully one step at a time. Want to join us in the impossible?

https://www.iwork4him.com/5050challenge

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!

"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.

Workmatters in Arkansas

NW Arkansas was beautiful and the people we met all over town were so nice. This whole week we listened to interviews with people from everywhere in the organizational chart, but the very top.

You see NW Arkansas is really on the map because it is home to Walmart, Tyson Foods and JB Hunt Transportation. All three companies had founders that loved Jesus and treated their employees well. So well, that people flocked from all over the country to be a part of their culture. Today, the communities of Rogers, Fayetteville and Bentonville Arkansas all reflect this attitude. Three families loved on their people and their customers and it has transformed a section of our country...literally. This community is being blessed by the choices of thousands who let their faith shine in all they do.

What's happening in NW Arkansas can happen all over the country. Jesus followers can help transform all 19,384 incorporated communities in America through their actions and attitudes. It's happening in NW Arkansas and it can happen in your city, will you let it?

This week's interviews were brought to you in partnership with Workmatters.

Matthew 5:16 -

In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

PS! It’s Not too late to “Be The Gift” Donate now by click this sentence :)

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!

This Movement is Sweeping the Nation

On the road again from Fl to IL and then Texas by weeks end. We made a pit stop at the Faith@Work Summit in Chicago this week. Chicago's own radio hosts Bob Lambert and Jennifer Villarreal joined us on the air Thursday. Their show: Faith Marketplace is the only other radio program we have found talking about faith and work!

As you hear the show with Bob and Jennifer, I think you'll be amazed like we were, that God had laid on their hearts the exact same mission that He had laid on our hearts, at exactly the same time. God is using Bob and Jennifer to focus on His movements in the workplaces of Chicago. Every Saturday they interview guests to share their workplace testimony.

My takeaway from the show?

There is a huge movement of God happening all over the country, and we are just one cog in a wheel that Holy Spirit is powering to mobilize an army of believers in the workplaces of the United States. He is moving and our part is sharing this movement with the world. If God can use us then He can use anyone.

Are you available to be used in your work?

Join the iWork4Him Nation and commit your workplace to Him each and every day.

Matthew 9:37 New Living Translation (NLT)

37 He said to his disciples, "The harvest is great, but the workers are few.

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!

God's Movement in the Music City - and Around the Nation

The week on iWork4Him we have been highlighting several shows we recorded in Nashville TN in coordination with Lipscomb University's Center for Business as Mission. I would encourage you to go out to the podcasts in order to hear the hearts of: a commercial builder, a physical trainer, an IT guy and a member of the collective.

What Martha and I saw and experienced in Nashville was not unusual but it was amazing. We saw a University striving to equip their students with the knowledge that their work matters to God. We saw the Local C12 Chairs Dewey Greene and Duane Murray reach out within their community and allow us to capture and share stories.

We experienced the Kingdom at work in the marketplace of Nashville Tennessee and it was awe inspiring.

As we travel the US - 27 states this year so far and 50,000 combined miles - we have been first hand witnesses of the amazing power of God, being unleashed in the marketplace in EVERY community we enter. God is working coast to coast to mobilize His followers to recognize their workplace as their mission field and equip them to bring the Gospel to work.

Lives are being transformed and industries are being reformed.

It is an honor to watch God at work. He loves to work. I love working alongside Him each day.

Do you?

2 Timothy 2:15 New Living Translation (NLT)

15 Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.

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!

Mountain Dew and "On-Location" Shows

I think I am addicted. (And I’m not talking about Mountain Dew. I am definitely addicted to Mountain Dew. It is cool and refreshing and it has real fruit flavoring so it has to be healthy…but I digress). I have realized, now that we have been off the road for 9 days, that I am addicted to doing live on location radio shows.

Martha and I have had the privilege of interviewing people in 26 states this year. 26! This week we got to focus on our home state of Florida. I am actually comfortable saying that…Florida has become home.  Wednesday's show featured live, on location interviews with Lew Frye and many of his members of Integrity Business Referrals in Lakeland, Florida. It was so refreshing to see and hear the stories of how God is working in the lives of local folks living out their faith in their work.  

If you missed the show here is the link to check out it. 

Remember you can always listen  to the podcast of the shows on www.iWork4Him.com and we stream off of our website 6 times a day so you can hear the show when it is convenient. 

Next week…look for the show where we talk with Jay DePalmo with Mardel about an online resource for Christian Retail.

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!

Be a Workplace Missionary

Martha and I have been traveling the last 5 weeks. We have met with Christ Followers and interviewed them from Atlanta, Cincinnati, Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, Arizona, and Florida.  We are weary from the travel. No, it’s not because I am old but it was because it was over 7000 miles! 

Here’s my point.

God is moving in amazing ways in workplaces all over this great country.   We have talked with people of all walks of life and God is awakening His Church to the idea of WHOLE LIFE Discipleship.  Christ-followers are living out our faith wherever they go – especially to work. When we realize that 85% of the U.S. population doesn’t go to church on a regular basis – we have to find a way to introduce them to Jesus. Let’s do it in our workplaces. 

The Workplace is the greatest mission field of the world. Do you accept the calling on you to bring Jesus to work with you?  I hereby commission you as a missionary to the lost in your workplace.

Do you feel compelled to Join the Nation? – www.iWork4Him.com – Click on the iWork4Him Nation Flag. Commit to being an agent of change in your workplace.

About the Author, Jim Brangenberg

Jim's Mission: To transform Christian-run businesses through mentoring Christian Business Owners (CBOs) by incorporating the servant leadership of Jesus Christ in their businesses, their home life and their walk with Christ.