5/21/25 - 2095: Chasing Roots, Not Fruits

Jim: [00:00:00] You've tuned into iWork4Him, the Voice of collaboration for the Faith and Work Movement.

Martha: And we are your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. And our mission is to inspire every workplace believer to recognize their workplace as their ministry place where they work with God every day. What can that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.

Jim: When Jesus said he came to seek and save that which was lost, we have to ask the questions, what was lost? Who lost it? And where did they lose it? I believe Jesus was talking about all that was lost in the garden the day that Adam and Eve broke God's heart and our planet through a sinful rebellion.

What was lost on that day? Relationship with our Heavenly Father and so much more. Was God's design for business and the marketplace lost on that day too? You bet it was. We've been working to walk with Jesus to redeem business ever since his resurrection. David Schmidt has seen a lot over his years and he saw a need to start a podcast specifically about redeeming business.

David's here today to talk about his journey and what he's [00:01:00] seeing as a business coach. David Schmidt, welcome to iWork4Him.

David Schmidt: Thank you, Jim. Thank you, Martha. Glad to be here.

Jim: So David, we always do this with every story. The first time somebody's ever on our podcast, ask the question, what's your Jesus story?

David Schmidt: How far back do you wanna go? That's the question.

Jim: I wanna know where, when Jesus intersected your life, when did that happen and what was it like?

David Schmidt: Yeah. I was blessed to be brought up in a Christian home and my brother, I was about eight years old when my brother led me to the Lord. He was very concerned about his little brother. He learned about Jesus and he gave his life to the Lord. He's very concerned about his little brother. He talked to me and I actually had my older sister come in and we prayed, accept Jesus as my savior.

Now as an adult looking at eight year old's, like, how much does an 8-year-old understand? I don't know. But I know it was about 15, 16 where I'm like, if I'm Christian, I should probably intentionally, act like it. And so I never went through a rebellious stage and things like that. But I would tell you probably the biggest thing that [00:02:00] changed, propelled me more in my spiritual life was around 25.

I was a pastor at the time. I've done a lot of Bible memory through Bible quizzing and the Awana program and all that growing up. I was challenged to meditate on God's word. And it's like I've read God's word. I memorized God's word. I never really meditated upon it. That changed my life because in Christ are the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

And Jesus said, he who loves me and keeps my commandments, I'll love him and will manifest myself to him. That word for keep is to keep that word before your eyes. And that's, I learned so much and when I do that, whether it's through the Bible, other people's circumstances, whatever, God just keeps bringing these new pieces of wisdom, things to do.

And like, I've seen in my life, everything I've been trained and taught from the church, from my family, doesn't always align up with the Bible. And so as we see what the Bible says, and God says, [00:03:00]we change. And so that's what I want to help people in business do as well to evaluate their business by the Bible. And if God says something about it, let's seek to figure out what God wants and shift accordingly.

Martha: So talk about what you have seen in business then that makes you believe that it needs to be redeemed.

David Schmidt: I just - there's just a lot. My original name for Redeeming Business Today came from Ephesians 5:16, where it says, "redeeming the time for the days are evil." And that's about redeeming your time, but the word redeem means to buy back. And I'm a production guy. And that's what I'm very good at, is using your time wisely and all that stuff.

People are busy, soaked up into the business, doing the business all day long. If you can redeem your time, you can buy the business back from it running you till you start running the business. And that's an overview, nutshell of what that would be like.

Jim: Yeah. But what have you seen? [00:04:00] There's something that had to be that urging, like this podcast has got to start. I'm tired of seeing this over and over again. What was just, gimme one example, something you've seen.

David Schmidt: Okay. Sorry, disappointed. That wasn't it. That wasn't it. I'm on my journey of business. Trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing. I bought into a coaching franchise about three and a half years ago. And I crashed. And I didn't know what I was doing.

And after about a year, I told my coach, I'm more excited about dads and the Bible than I'm about business. I know more about the Bible than I do about business. And so I started a blog about for busy dads who need more time.

And just trying to add value that way. After about a year, I figured that those busy dads probably aren't reading my blog but they would probably listen to a podcast, and so that's why I made the shift from, I'm just trying to get my name out there and try to help people out. I know a lot from the Bible and just trying to put it out there so people can learn.

Jim: A lot of people don't realize, Martha, how much the Bible has to say about [00:05:00] business. And David, that makes so much sense because the Bible is full of great business knowledge.

Martha: So let's talk about then now your job as a coach. How are you helping people to redeem their businesses?

David Schmidt: It starts by helping them in their business, wherever their business is at. But there again, I've told my kids a lot that your success in life is a direct relationship to your relationship with God. And I said that a lot, and then God starts convicting me. And it's if you're saying that about business people, why isn't your coaching practice more biblically centered?

And so that's basically, there again, that's a journey. And what I've been doing lately is instead of saying, Hey, what is your win? When I coach people, instead of saying, what is your win for the week? I would say, how has God blessed you this week?

Trying to change their mindset. Or how has God challenged you this week? And just helping people, I bring into it now, here's your action items. And one of them is pray for your [00:06:00] employees. You gotta pray for them. So just trying to, again, throw the Bible in there to help them see that here's what the Bible says, it aligns perfectly with what you're working on in your business. And so it works good that way.

Jim: I love it. Business isn't just business, it's a kingdom calling. And at the US Christian Chamber of Commerce, which Martha and I are on the board of directors and we're involved as members, the US Christian Chamber of Commerce focuses on uniting Christian business leaders to build with excellence, lead with integrity, and advance God's kingdom in the marketplace. It's how we chamber. And if you're involved in business and you're a believer, you need to get involved with the US Christian Chamber of Commerce online at uschristianchamber.com.

David, you started a podcast last year called Redeeming Business Today, and you've shared a little of the story of where that came from. So you've talked about where the title came from. What kind of people are you interviewing? What are you learning from the people you first start with? What are the people that you're interviewing, [00:07:00] who you talking to?

David Schmidt: Who am I talking to? Back up. It's redeeming business. I want to help people understand that it's not just your work. And it's not just God's work, but it's "both and." George Mueller came up with that thought. That's where I first heard that thought. And it comes from first Corinthians 15:10, which says, Paul says, "by the grace of God, I am what I am. But his grace toward me was not in vain, but I worked more than all of them yet, not I, but the grace of God."

Paul worked hard. Paul worked super hard at his missionary work, but he gave the credit to God. And when I look at business, it's our hard work, good business practices, and it's also God's blessing, our relationship with him. So who do I interview? I interview some people who are just really good at what they do, whether it be marketing or writing or storytelling or whatever area that would help a business owner do better.

And then I also interview people who, [00:08:00] they've lived it. They had a business where God really wasn't the center of their life, and then they went through a tragedy or a change. Now God's running the business and what does their business look like today? Just trying to get people, that story that before and after example of, it's not gonna be the same in your life, but this is one other person's example of that. There you go.

Martha: That's awesome. So as you've done these interviews, is there anything like overarching that you've been learning as you hear other people's stories about what they're experiencing?

David Schmidt: Overarching? No. I do know, I personally have learned a lot and I've grown a lot. Things I haven't been doing. It helps me in my business, things that I've been doing. But yes, I can't tell you just one. I could tell you a bunch, but... (laughing)

Martha: That's okay.

Jim: Give us a couple of those things. 'cause it, there's usually a common theme that starts to develop that you start to hear, and that's the Holy Spirit that's writing that same story in so many people's lives. What are some of the things that you hear business owners [00:09:00] struggling with as they're trying to live out their faith at work?

David Schmidt: I think this thing they struggle with is compromise, usually time-wise. Because they work super hard and they are chasing the money, chasing, trying to get the money instead of trying to... as one, one of my guests said, you are chasing the fruit versus chasing the root. He goes, build on the root, build up the people. Invest in the people and the fruit, the money, the prosperity will come.

Jim: That's what Jesus did, didn't he? Seems like... yeah, he invested in people! Huh. Imagine that - Jesus set a good example for us.

Sarcasm noted for the audience. (laughter)

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Jim: All right. So David, I wanna go off script a little bit 'cause we always send our guests questions we're gonna ask outta respect.

You mentioned something that I didn't know. So how many years were you a pastor of a church? Seven. Okay. And that's, so that's part of your career. Were you a pulpit pastor or were you a executive pastor? What kind of pastor were you?

David Schmidt: Solo pastor of a small church. There's two different churches. One church, I was there for about two and a half years. They had roughly 60 people. The other churched about 40 ish people. Because of the size of my family, sometimes I was 20% of the congregation. But both of them were pretty much like [00:11:00] part-time.

Jim: Sure. So you mentioned that you have an engineering background. Is that what you said? Okay. Yes. And you became a believer young and made a commitment really at 16 to say, Hey, this should start impacting all of me. What did you learn as an engineer? 'cause engineers are about systems. They're about tolerances. They're about making sure that everything that's built is gonna stay built for a very long period of time. When you look at your experience as an engineer, what were some of the things that you really struggled with? And living out your faith as an engineer?

David Schmidt: That's a good question. What am I struggling with? I'm a quality engineer right now. And yeah, people do things that I don't agree with but I have to answer for how they act. I'm not in charge of the finances part of it, but there's some times when I think it's our problem and maybe a little bit of their problem.

[00:12:00] But if it's any, if my people I work with think if it's any part of the customer's problem, we're gonna shove it all on them. Because their view almost is, if we can make them look bad, it makes us look good. It's just - but we are part of the problem too. And so it's that whole back and forth of I try to be open and honest and say, Hey, yeah, you got issues. We got issues, let's work together.

But a lot of times I would rather probably like to work together more, but because of the environment I'm in, I am restrained. And it's more, I don't, it's kinda throwing it back at them.

Jim: So how long have you worked at the place where you're currently working right now?

David Schmidt: Two and a half years.

Jim: So you've had a lot of chance to get to know a lot of people at work in two and a half years. Have you started to see that the relationships that you're building are starting to give you an opportunity, a platform for sharing your faith?

David Schmidt: Some, yes. The tricky part is, and I've always found this [00:13:00] tricky, is people who know about God. They think they're a Christian, but they don't actually act like a Christian, and so they, they're not, you know what I'm saying? It's like there's some people who they follow God wholeheartedly and other people, they go to church, their dad's a pastor, all this stuff, and I find that those are the people who are the hardest to come around, and maybe ask some suggestions for that, other than praying for them .

Jim: That's the biggest suggestion is to start with, praying for those people by name every day. We talked about , on your podcast, David, that we've got this thing called the iWork4Him Nation. If you go on iWork4Him.com/join the nation, it's these steps and we went through with it on your podcast.

But David, it's pray for people by name every day, the ones you interact with, and as you said, you're praying for them in your group. Then you look for ways to serve them over and above what you're required to do. You look for ways to befriend 'em outside of the workplace. Have you ever had your teammates over for dinner yet?

There you go. It's a great way to do that. The conversations around a dinner table are some of those powerful [00:14:00] conversations around the world. That's why coffee became coffee around the globe because the Middle Eastern culture loved to sit down and talk. And that's where coffee came from. The Middle Eastern culture.

Martha: I'm pretty sure that's where potlucks come from in America.

Jim: It could be. And look for ways to pray with people when you notice they're having a rough day. 'cause that's what really opens the doors, is when you see people that are normally one way, and then all of a sudden you notice they're having a tough day.

You get a chance to say what's going on, and you listen and then you ask 'em, can I pray with you about that right now? Never had anybody tell me no. But all along, you've gotta be that person of excellence and I think that's an encouragement for everybody. Engineers aren't known for being loquacious. One of those words pull out of a high school vocabulary class.

Usually you're quiet, you're worried about the formulas, you're worried about making sure that the math all works. And if you're a quality engineer, you're making sure that everything you've designed in the process is gonna provide the product that they expected it to be. So that's the excellence side.

But the people, none of that stuff works without the people. And God loves the people, and [00:15:00]Jesus was so good at focusing on the people. So I'd encourage you to keep doing what you were doing, but just to be more intentional about that prayer. And then having lunch with people that maybe aren't your typical crowd to have lunch with, or maybe that's outta the box for you. As an engineer, do you like to have lunch with other people or do you like to be at your cubicle?

David Schmidt: I usually stay at my cubicle.

Jim: Is there a lunchroom? There you go. See, that's the thing that I think a lot of us miss the opportunity, is to get out there where everybody else is. It may be a little crude, rude, and unacceptable because sometimes the lunchrooms could be that way.

But when you start to hang out with people to find out that you're a real person, and when you could share, man, I've been really struggling with this, but my faith has really taken me through. Those are the kinds of stories that'll just come up naturally as part of the process. I am sure God's planted you right where you're at on purpose for a purpose.

You look like you're wanting to say something.

Martha: No, you know what you are talking about in Redeeming Business Today, I just think that's really a good encouragement for each one of us to look at. Okay, maybe we feel like we haven't [00:16:00] taken that next step and maybe now is a time to say, what can I do to better love on those around me?

And what can I do today that I wasn't doing yesterday? Not this 10 point action plan that's gonna be so overwhelming, but who can I be for the kingdom? And I love having that conversation.

Jim: It is really a lot simpler and everybody listening, just when you pray for people by name every day, your heart starts to change.

You start to see those people the way God sees them. And David, that's the greatest encouragement when you do that praying, it starts to transform who you are as a human being. And I've seen that in my own life as we pray. We live in a small town in southwest Missouri, and we've only been here three years. When you pray for people by name, it starts to transform your heart.

As you look towards your next Redeeming Business Today podcast, how about some advice, how about some advice out there for people that really do wanna redeem their business? Some things that, maybe one thing you've pulled out of your interviews that you've done so far that you'd love to share with everybody on our podcast.

David Schmidt: Not [00:17:00] necessarily out of the podcast, but I've learned, Deuteronomy 17, 14 through 20. It was God's law about the kings. He goes, guys, when you go into the land, you're gonna get a king someday. And it's very interesting. He tells him three things not to do, not to go multiply horses, not to multiply wives, not to multiply silver and gold.

He tells him one thing to do. He says, when you sit upon the throne of your kingdom, you'll write yourself a copy of this law and you're gonna read it every day of your life. And not only read it, you're gonna read it so that you can learn to fear the Lord your God, to keep all the laws and statues to do them, that your heart be not lifted up above your brethren to the end, that you may prolong your days in your kingdom, you and your children in the midst of Israel.

Guy wanted them to write the law. It's basically the book of Deuteronomy. It's not the whole Bible, it's a book of Deuteronomy. They're supposed to personally write it out and read every day of their life [00:18:00] three major things. One, they're gonna learn the fear of the Lord so they can obey all the laws. 'Cause that was their covenant, that was their law book. And three, that your heart's not lifted up above your brethren. And that's one of the things I see with the kings and with business owners. They get, for lack of a better word, proud. Puffed up. Proud, haughty. They think they're better than everybody else.

Their ideas are best. And reading the Bible every day is gonna keep you level. It's gonna keep you in the fear of the Lord, doing what God wants you to do. And if there's things you're not supposed to be doing and change, that's where you're gonna find it.

Jim: Oh, you can get that and a lot more on the Redeeming Business Today Podcast with David Schmidt. We'll have a link to where you can hear more about that. He's on all of the major podcast platforms. David Schmidt, thanks for sharing your life with us today, sharing about your podcast, and for that great advice. Thanks, David.

David Schmidt: Thank you very much.

Jim: You have been listening to iWork4Him with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers. Our [00:19:00] workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him.